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35+ Blogging Mistakes Every Newbie Blogger Should Avoid

Blogging mistakes Every Newbie Blogger Should Avoid

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How To Become a Millionaire as a Blogger

Introduction.

There are over 600 million blogs in the US alone and over 2 Billion Blogs worldwide; the sad truth remains that only 5% of these blogs are successful when generating passive income.

I did not state these facts to mock other blogs not doing well; all I am trying to prove is that so many people go into blogging blank and without a strategy, hence the reason for many failing blogs.

So many blogs are written and updated daily to make worthy information readily available. It is the responsibility of the search engine portal to organise this information as much as possible.

You need to be more than just a writer to succeed massively as a blogger; most people who follow blogging are not writers; they are strategic, which has led to their success as Bloggers.

As new bloggers, we often fall into the Waterloo of blogging errors; a few and the most important will be highlighted in the sections below.

Hey there, dear reader! We hope you’re enjoying the content on our blog. Did you know we have a treasure trove of other insightful articles waiting for you?

Check out the link to the articles below to learn how to be productive and scale your blogging business.

Here are a few blogging mistakes to avoid.

As they say, “Every expert once was an amateur”. There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes, though, but you can build a better blog as soon as you can if you can avoid a few deadly blogging mistakes that you will discover in this article.

1. Not Thinking About How To Monetize Your Blog Early.

If you choose to become a hobby blogger with no intention of making money in the near future, properly planning a monetisation technique for your blog would be a bad idea for you as a blogger, and you might get burned out in the process and not find blogging interesting at all.

There are various monetisation platforms and strategies available to you as a blogger, and some of them are.

1. Contextual Advertising (Google Adsense, Media.net).

2. Sales of Products.

3. E-book publishing.

4. Affiliate Marketing.

Here is an article I wrote on how you can start making money as a blogger

2. Forgetting to Track Your Progress.

One way to track your progress as a blogger is through analytical tools, and the most popular of them is the Google Analytics Tools by Google which provides you with valuable insights into your blog’s growth.

Failure to properly use these tools would guarantee your loss as a blogger.

3. Missing Best SEO Practices.

Do you know that 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine? Therefore, search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a core way to generate traffic to your blog.

Here is an article I wrote on search engine optimisation.

There are billions of search queries being made every second and not fully understanding proper SEO practices puts your blog at a considerable loss.

Without using SEO best practices and structuring your content to be easily digestible by search engines, you risk missing out on a massive opportunity for traffic.

Below are outlined SEO practices you should take note of.

  • Conducting innovative keyword research before writing.
  • Creating attention-grabbing blog post headlines.
  • Use internal and external links throughout your content.
  • Writing a compelling meta description.
  • Optimising your page URL

If you already have a website and you need to check if your website is optimised correctly, here is an article I recommend you read to get started.

Also, for more clarification, I think you should check out an article written by John Lincoln of Ignite Visibility, a digital marketing agency based in the USA on how long it takes to achieve results with SEO.

4. Writing and Publishing Inconsistently.

Every blogger should take note of planning content with a time frame and calendar. You are building a business, and you should make sure you dedicate the necessary time to grooming.

To rank better on the search engine, it is highly advised you publish your first 50 posts in the first two months after creating your blog, and you should also plan on improving each post to attract more blog visitors.

Choosing Topics That Readers Aren’t Interested In. Before starting as a blogger, you should pick a niche that readers are interested in and make sure you do proper research so that you don’t get jammed along the way.

Here is an article I recommend you read to help you get started with how you can write articles.

5. Selecting a Bad Hosting Company.

A good hosting provider is as vital to your blog as oxygen is to the human body, so you cannot take the hosting of your blog lightly. If you are on WordPress and using the free version, your blog is hosted there by default.

But if you want to grow your blog and keep it professional, you will have to shift to a better hosting provider like Namecheap.

When searching for the right hosting company to power your blog, here are the factors you should consider: Speed, Features, Security and Support

You don’t want to set up a blog and experience crashes whenever visitors are trooping into your website.

To avoid this, I recommend you purchase your web host and the domain name from a reliable company, one of which I suggest is Namecheap. You can click the link below to get a Namecheap account set up.

Read this article to get a complete list of reliable web hosting companies that I recommend.

6. Ignoring List Building.

List building simply means collecting a list of email subscribers for your blog. Do You know that 3 billion people will use emails by 2020?

Even though social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram are top-rated, according to a survey, it has been discovered that Millennials use their emails more than other generations.

These lists can be used as leverage to send out your promotional packages, new blog content, etc.

Forgetting to include a list-building strategy in your blogging campaign is a mistake every blogger should avoid.

If you’re just starting your email list and keeping your blog on a tight budget, I suggest using a free plan on MailChimp.

It’s free for up to 2,000 subscribers, and there is a free WordPress plugin that can help you collect these emails automatically.

Should read my article on email marketing to help grasp better the use of email.

Having used GetResponse, I must tell you that it is a fantastic company constantly innovating and building great products that take care of all email marketing hassles.

I recommend reading this article below to learn more about how you can benefit from this fantastic product and scale your email marketing campaigns to success.

7. Giving Up Early.

In reality, most new blogs will take 3 to 6 months of consistent effort before getting a meaningful amount of readers and generating significant revenue, which can be attributed to SEO reasons.

In the first six months of your blog, Google sees you as new, so you don’t expect to get massive traffic from the search engine, so don’t be discouraged quickly. Wait patiently. In no time, and with the right content and best SEO practices, your blog will be out of the matrix.

8. You Chose The Wrong Blog Engine (WEEX, WEEBLY).

As a beginner, you want a blogging platform that is easy to set up, has a low learning curve and does not require any coding skills. You also need to think about what kind of blog you want to create, now and in the future.

As your blog grows, you may want to change the look of your site and add more features for your growing audience. That means it’s essential to choose a flexible blogging platform with room to grow.

Starting with the wrong platform can make it very difficult to switch later on. To Blog successfully, you should use WordPress because of the complete tools available at your disposal.

9. Choosing the Wrong WordPress Theme.

Some WordPress themes are minimal and make it challenging to customise your blog — and others will make you reduce your blog load speed which will, in turn, damage your website’s SEO.

While you can always change your theme when using WordPress, it takes some planning and work.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on this blog on the best blogging themes to choose as a newbie; click the link below to get started.

10. Creating a Blog Solely For Music/ Video.

Creating a blog with the sole aim of distributing copyrighted music and videos is a terrible idea and an inferior way to make an impression as a blogger. Instead, distributed music and videos should be designed and hosted on their respective platforms.

Online video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo should be held responsible for your videos. Music distribution platforms like Soundcloud, AUdio Mack, and Deezer should do the heavy lifting of hosting sounds. A blog is meant to be an information spot.

11. Showing too many Stats/Visitor Locations.

Newbie bloggers often like to display the relevance of their blogs by adding a stats widget alongside their Blog design.

This might look good to you, but you tend to displease your audience; who cares about where your visitors are coming from? That should be known to you.

12. Your Blog has Too Many Moving Parts.

Having a complex blog design can also lead to your website being slowed down, and this can cause a higher bounce rate causing the search engine to rank you very low. To solve this, make sure you use a perfect WordPress theme.

Read this article to get started with choosing a WordPress theme.

13. Your Blog has a Busy Background.

A blog design with a busy background can increase your bounce rate and send visitors off your website.

Your blog should be kept as simple as possible. No useless pop-ups, No useless Survey forms and the like should interrupt your readers when they are reading your website; make sure to keep it stupid and simple (KISS).

14. You included Too many Ads.

Young bloggers want to spin off money as quickly as possible in the early days of blogging which makes them subscribe to as many advertising providers as possible.

Heavy monetisation can also increase your blog bounce rate because it uses Javascript to work effectively, which sends off your users.

Make sure you are not subscribed to too many advertising networks because it can slow the speed of your website and discredit you as a blogger. Google Adsense is the best pick for me if you intend to choose a legitimate advertising company to help you grow.

Read this article to learn about other legitimate advertising partners that you should partner with.

15. A Well Defined Niche is Missing From Your Blog.

Blogging too broad can make it difficult for search engines like Google to establish your presence on the SERP. So no matter how much you like writing random stuff, you have to find a dedicated niche for your blog. A place is a specialised area in writing around which your entire blog is centred.

I insist that you spend a reasonable amount of time looking for a niche that suits your writing. Make sure your niche selection is based on two primary factors knowledge and interest. The Downside of blogging solely around a place is that you get to run out of blog ideas; I recommend you start concentrating on a particular niche and later switch over to another slot when you see traffic coming to your blog.

I wrote a comprehensive article on this blog on how to choose a profitable blog niche; click the link below to get started.

16. You Don’t Understand The Google EAT Algorithm.

EAT stands for Expertise., Authority and Trustworthiness. To make things a bit easier for EAT is a Google algorithm update created to allow content creators and Bloggers to prove their niche credibility to Google. Unfortunately, most bloggers don’t even know about EAT.

Essentially, E-A-T is one way Google tries to guarantee that it returns accurate, truthful, helpful information to searchers from a credible author.

The internet is a free space, and anyone can create a website and publish whatever they want. You don’t have to have a degree in medicine to start a medical information website or be a financial expert to start giving our finance-based information.

This, however, presents a problem for people seeking out information via Google. People make critical decisions based on what they learn from search results. So, Google endeavours that those decisions based on the most trustworthy information possible.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on this blog to help you understand the Google EAT algorithm and how it affects you as a blogger; click the link below to get started.

17. You Are Wasting Time Guest Posting For Other Websites.

35+ Blogging Mistakes Every Newbie Blogger Should Avoid

I don’t care how other blogging experts feel, Content is king, and that is not going away anytime soon. Google will reward blogs with the best content and follow the best SEO practices.

Guest posting provides content to a blog with higher authority and traffic than you to gain backlinks which will pose your blog as trustworthy and boost your blog traffic.

Many top bloggers recommend building backlinks via guest posting. Still, Google has continuously warned against schemes that involve exchanging links for-profit or non-profit as it might identify those links as fraudulent and trying to deceive its algorithm. Here is a link to help you understand better.

Many good writers keep adding value to numerous other websites but never their own in the quest for recognition and gaining backlinks.

Remember, no matter how much content you create for any other website, you will never see your blog grow because of it. Hence, channel your energy into writing for your blog.

18. You Tend To Link Your Blog’s Growth To Followership on Social Media.

A substantial social media following will not translate into organic blog growth and readership. As a new blogger, I used to invest the majority of my time across social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter and the likes; in the end, it was all just a waste of time.

If you seek to grow as a blogger, you need to concentrate your time on optimising your blog for search engines such as Google. However, as I stated earlier, having huge followership across all social media platforms will not necessarily translate into traffic.

Social media platforms like Facebook have decided to reduce the reach of your post as much as possible, causing you to subscribe to paid advertising, and the truth is that you can’t find serious-minded people looking out on social media.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to help you get started with SEO; click the link below to get started.

19. Not Updating Previous Blog Posts.

Blogging does not necessarily mean you have to add new blog posts all the time. Like I always say, it is not about quantity but quality; most times, if all you can write is 50 blog posts on a topic you are strong at, it is more than enough to make you rank on Google.

No matter how many new posts you create, always keep checking on your previous posts. Do it at least once every three months; I recommend once a year if you are too tight on schedule.

Updating your blog post regularly gives Google a hint that your content is fresh, making Google recrawl your content all over again, making it appear new that way, your blog post gets to rank on Google.

One way to update your content is not by adding a single line of new content but by adding a whole new paragraph.

20. You are trying To Be a Perfect Blogger.

The most successful bloggers are not the perfect ones; all you need do is focus on what makes your blog unique by writing content and following relevant SEO strategies that will help your blog succeed.

If you happen to be a perfectionist, there is a high possibility that you will end up disrupting your blog because you always feel that you are not perfect. This might lead you to tweak unnecessary stuff, install unnecessary plugins and compare yourself with already established bloggers.

When starting as a blogger, I worried about everything that did not matter, including my Blog design template, my domain name and trying to install the best plugin that suited my blog. But, in the long run, it was making me counterproductive.

As a perfectionist, you will waste so much time perfecting everything that you miss scaling your blog.

Avoid focusing on having everything perfect. Instead, you should hustle, get your blogs out often, excel at being a content creator, and learn about SEO. Perfection is the end of profitability.

21. You have not configured your Blog to use the Google search console Tool.

Google Search Console is a free tool that helps users measure their site’s traffic, see keyword performance, fix issues, and receive messages from Google about their website.

It provides insight into how a website ranks on Google and ways to make adjustments to the site in the Google index. (Unlike Google Analytics, though, Search Console only provides info on traffic from the Google search.

Google Search Console helps index your blog posts and pages on Google; not having a Google search console configured with your website can make you blind to your blog search engine presence.

Every blogger who wants to level their presence on Google should learn how to use the Google search console tool.

22. You Are Neglecting Organic Traffic Completely.

To sustain your online presence as a blogger, you need to optimise your blog for massive organic traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Organic traffic has to be high on your blog to send targeted traffic that will drive income to your blog.

So if you have not begun to take Google seriously, grab it now. By ignoring Google completely and focusing only on social media, you are destroying the chances of your blog growing higher, faster, and swifter.

If you don’t understand SEO, I wrote a comprehensive guide on this blog to help you optimise your blog for search engines, click the link below to get started.

23. Taking Too Long To Switch To Professional Blogging.

There are millions of Bloggers around our planet who, despite being good writers, never see success in blogging; like I always say, being a good writer does not make you successful as a blogger. As far as I am concerned, the most successful bloggers do not even connect with writing as a profession; they just understand SEO, develop a content strategy, and understand web monetisation.

To begin cashing out as a blogger, you need to switch to professional blogging, which involves putting all the requirements mentioned above together.

As a Blogger who wants to enter the game and see success, you will have to enter professional blogging and learn it well. But, then, it will work in your favour, and success will be at your doorstep.

24. Social Media Approval Is More Important To You Than Publishing New Blogs.

I will repeat this, and I will keep saying, “Stay away from social media if you want to succeed as a blogger”. Your best bet as a successful blogger is search engine optimization.

Now, this is both scary and sad. People who seek validation on social media for their pictures and videos lose big time. This exact time could have been spent creating content that your readers would consume.

Stop wasting time seeking more likes and followers. Instead, spend more time optimising your blog for targeted search engine traffic.

25. Quality Backlinks Are Absent On Your Blog.

Backlinks are links from one website to a page on another website. Google and other major search engines view backlinks as “votes” for a specific page.

Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to have high organic search engine rankings, leading to an increased traffic inflow.
Backlinks tell Google that your content is valuable, credible and valuable”.

Many people pay websites to receive backlinks from them; some of these acts include getting these links on Fiverr or even guest posting on other websites. Try to desist from this practice as much as possible because it is not allowed by Google.

Create excellent content that gets mentioned on the internet, and your blog will automatically win good backlinks.

If you don’t know how to write content that wins backlinks, I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to start writing content that ranks on Google; click the link below to get started.

26. Dependant Blindly On Keyword Tools For Creating Content.

A keyword research tool helps you find topic ideas that people search for on search engines like Google, Bing, Amazon, etc.

This helps you locate content ideas that your customers are looking for. You can then plan your content strategy to cover those topics in your blog posts and landing pages.

Keyword research tools also help you see both seed keywords and long-tail keywords where your competitors are ranking at the top. You can then improve your content to target those keywords and steal their traffic.

One major downside of keyword research tools is their accuracy; trusting these keyword research tools keeps you at risk because you will not get the best out of them.

27. Lacking Patience Is Why Your Blog Isn’t Growing Fast Enough.

The ability to endure difficult circumstances is called patience. However, when starting as a blogger, there comes a time when all seems not to be working; you won’t get to see the traffic that you so desire; all you know about SEO will not work then.

The only antidote needed to combat these trying times as a blogger is to be patient. I see so many bloggers give up after one year of blogging; If I must tell you the truth, you are giving up too early.

An average niche blog takes from 12- 14 months before it begins to see a significant spike in traffic, and when it comes, that settles it for life; it now depends on you to start seeing the brighter side of things before you decide to quit.

This blog took close to 3 years before I began seeing significant traffic; if I can wait that long, I don’t see any reason you won’t.

Remember, success requires patience. And patience does not just simply wait. It implies using your time constructively and making your way close to success.

28. Ignoring Social Media Platforms That Will Help You Grow.

I know I said quite a few things about some social media platforms; all I can say is instead of wasting time on social media platforms that are not working in your blog’s favour, do your research on media that will help you scale your blog.

I highly recommend that you start spending more time on Quora, Reddit, Pinterest and Flipboard.

These platforms mentioned above have been created to help boost your content marketing strategy; you don’t necessarily have to spend too much time trying to use these platforms; all you need is just to add links from your blog to their platform, and settle it.

29. Too Early With Sending Emails To Your Blogs UserBase.

An email list is simply a list of emails your website has collected. This mailing list is used to send out emails.

In other words, you can use your email list to send out new blog posts and business announcements and sell your products or services.

So, many business owners and bloggers just starting don’t realise how important an email list is, but as your blog grows, it determines how well your blog will continue to succeed.

The power of email lists is in the numbers. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing sees a 4300% average return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the US.

An email subscription is essential for any blog. You must work hard on building your email list. However, you will waste too much time there and get disappointed by commencing early.

When building your blog for the first time, you will likely get a few subscribers into your email list, which is not applicable. Therefore, I advise you to earn around 10K subscribers and start your email campaigns actively.

If you have no idea how email marketing works, I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to get started with email marketing; click the link below to get started.

30. Not Learning Google Analytics At All.

Google Analytics is a highly specialised tool that tracks the total traffic received on your blog in a second-to-second manner.

However, not understanding how Google Analytics works can keep you in the dark as a blogger; you do not understand how, where and when the traffic on your website comes from.

Understanding Google Analytics helps you understand user behaviour on your blog, enabling you to make an informed decision on how to grow your blog, which will help you create better content.

31. Creating Short Non-Engaging Blog Posts.

To rank on Google, you need a blog post count of not less than 1500 + words. Yet, I see so many bloggers who write three lines of text and call it a blog post most times; I just laugh my way out of such a clueless blog because it shows that such a blogger has no understanding of such a topic.

You are not permitted to be lazy as a Blogger who intends to drive traffic. Hence, stop creating short posts for your blog, especially if you are a Niche Blogger.

The minimum word length for every blog published on your website should be at least 1500+ words. Anything less than that is just a farce.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to write blog posts that rank on Googe; click the link below to get started.

32. Listening To False Blogging Advice.

To become a successful blogger, you need to surround yourself with successful bloggers; the world is full of people who quit immediately after failing.

You don’t want those people giving you some advice on how to run a blog because such pieces of advice will be wrong.

Also, do not ruin your blog just because a person you know provides opinionated advice and you listen.

At least do your research before trusting somebody else. You can look up the internet for trustworthy digital influencers with experience to guide you.

I had that issue when I started this blog; all I ever saw was you needed Google Adsense to make money; not until I went online, read some resources, and discovered that some bloggers do well without Google Adsense all depends on how well you understand monetisation.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on making money on this blog; click the link below.

33. You Get Distracted As A Blogger Often.

You need undivided attention to get positive results as a blogger; getting distracted easily and not being able to concentrate on your writing for an extended period is a problem.

To do the best keyword research, write the best content and even optimise your website for search engine traffic, you need undivided attention without any apology.

I recommend you write out what you intend to achieve from your blog and pursue it with clarity in mind; you should avoid getting distracted until you see positive results.

34. Blogging Never Interested You In The First Place.

The worst thing that can ever happen to you as a blogger is if you were never interested in the first place. I try as much as possible to advise as many as I can that they need to be interested in the whole journey even before starting.

There are times when you will almost give up, but knowing that you are committed to adding value, keeps you going all the way.

Do not waste your time pursuing something that doesn’t interest you. Remember — “Whatever you do, pursue it with your heart; Not piece by piece, not part by part.”

Hey there, dear reader! We hope you’re enjoying the content on our blog. Did you know we have a treasure trove of other insightful articles waiting for you?

Check out the link to the articles below to learn how to be productive and scale your blogging business.

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Written by Udemezue John

Hello, I'm Udemezue John, a web developer and digital marketer with a passion for financial literacy.

I have always been drawn to the intersection of technology and business, and I believe that the internet offers endless opportunities for entrepreneurs and individuals alike to improve their financial well-being.

You can connect with me on Twitter Twitter.com/_udemezue

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