5 Blogging Mistakes All Beginners Make
Most people have a perception that there’s not much to blogging. You simply write what interests you and subsequently publish it for others to read.
Contrary to popular belief, successful blogging usually requires a set of rules to be respected and it’s these rules that differentiate rookies from professionals.
Every beginner blogger has made mistakes that gradually led to less traction and attention. And while mistakes like these can be a valuable learning experience, there’s only so much you can figure out on your own, especially today when people just don’t have the time to experiment with their blogs.
We’ll highlight some of the most common rookie mistakes regarding blogging and what you can do to fix them.
Writing Too Many Articles in the Beginning
One of the most common issues revolves around being full of ideas, so it’s only natural to write one article every day, right?
Wrong.
You won’t have that much to write about once the starting period’s over, and by then you’ve set up a schedule that you can no longer keep up with.
Sure, you can publish your articles unpredictably, but just ask yourself: would you constantly check whether your favorite TV show has aired if you had no idea when it’s airing?
This is why it’s recommended that you publish realistically at a pace that you’ll manage to fulfill. Most bloggers don’t publish more than 2-3 articles per week, so if you don’t have a starting point – let this be it.
And try to never, ever, publish more than one article per day. Just let it breathe (unless, of course, you’re into publishing news or other time-sensitive content).
Being Unaware of Who Your Audience Is
This mistake isn’t necessarily exclusive to beginners. In fact, plenty of bloggers have absolutely no idea who they’re writing for.
The main problem is not focusing on a narrow niche that they’re specialized in, which makes it difficult to figure out who’s reading your blog.
Additionally, most people don’t use surveys to actually ask their audience who they are and what they like. Sources like Google Forms and Survey Monkey can greatly assist you with this.
Your Blog Isn’t User-Friendly Enough
The best way to make sure your visitors leave the blog early is to have something wrong with it, whether it’s too slow or they feel overwhlmed while navigating it. Here are a few ways to make sure your website is user-friendly:
- Navigation – almost every blog reader out there wants to browse as easily as possible. This means having a noticeable navigation panel – preferably toward the top of the page – that won’t disappear as you scroll.
- Speed – Most people leave the page on any website if it won’t load in under 3 seconds. You can use this Google tool to figure out why your speed is lackluster.
- Bad usage of whitespace – This one’s extremely important, as whitespace decides if an article is readable or not. Every creative agency would also recommend you to break the paragraphs with an occasional image as well.
Not Being Proactive About Promoting Your Blog
While it’s clear that high-quality content is the most important asset of a blog, there’s not much use if no one even knows it exists.
Rookie bloggers are usually shy about their articles and opt not to share it on social networks, or rather – they won’t share it enough.
At the very least, you’ll want to email your blog subscribers whenever an article goes live.
If linking to another blog, you can contact said blog owner and ask to share the article; they’re usually happy to spread the word as it promotes their blog as well.
You can even use Facebook Ads for advertising purposes once your financial situation allows.
Too Many Popups
It’s true that popups are generally better than banners when it comes to yielding clicks. But too much of a good thing can sometimes be a bad thing, you know? Remember user experience (UX) is highly important.
Even more important is to keep them relevant to the content, otherwise your overall conversion rate (and reader loyalty) will suffer in the long-run.
Bottom Line
The sooner you get good at blogging the more hyped you’ll be to continue doing it. Avoiding these mistakes won’t only save time, but you’ll also spend/use fewer resources while trying to figure out what works.
Always try to focus on a niche and write about it, as focusing on too many things might cost you the trust of potentially targeted readers.
Damage to reputation isn’t something that can easily be fixed, so do your best to avoid these traps and you’ll be just fine.
Elvis Michael
12/13/2017 @ 13:30 PM
Thanks, Helen 🙂
It’s hiiiiiiighly important to spend more time promoting than creating new content. It’s much easier to publish something new because we feel more in control.
Having “to deal” with others and building connections and interacting is a bit overwhelming for many new bloggers, but it HAS to be done.
Elvis
missjackie1989
12/13/2017 @ 17:04 PM
Thanks for the valuable information Helen. I am starting a blog soon, and I was wondering how often should I post and I have been trying to figure out my audience. Now I have some good ideas on what not to do.
Ryan Biddulph
12/16/2017 @ 21:40 PM
Hi Helen,
Bingo. On every one.
Usability is a huge issue. I see it as being a big problem for struggling bloggers, as I have a tough time getting around blogs these days. I make my blog as easy to navigate as possible. Simple, clean design, no clutter, links at the top of the blog, some sidebar elements. A few calls to action here and there, and just plain, good old fashioned, clear content that solves blogging problems.
I also try to see my blog through the eyes of a 5 year old; anybody with a basic knowledge of being online – and yep, many 5 year olds have that these days – needs to be able to click links and simply get where they want to be, based on my blog design. So far, so good.
I’d also add that the biggest error I see that newbies make; chasing dollars. So many bloggers are in the game mainly to get money, and to get it fast. They fail to realize that getting money requires you to practice and learn the skill of blogging, daily, over the next 2-3 years, minimum, to become a full time blogger. Developing this skill gets easier over time but is usually highly uncomfortable in the beginning. Not hard per se; hard is trying to do something insanely tough in the physical spectrum, like asking a 90 pound person with pencil stick arms to bench press 350 pounds. Impossible.
But as a blogger, clicking a button and speaking into a camera during a Facebook Live broadcast is physically easy to do, but highly uncomfortable for most human beings. Not like benching 350 pounds though. If however you do these freeing things daily, even if you feel uncomfortable, over time, blogging gets easier and easier and the traffic and cash will flow in.
Ryan
Richard Witt
12/17/2017 @ 09:35 AM
Oh yes, I see these mistakes all the time. In particular, the pop up is so annoying. I see so many new bloggers w/ a pop up that comes up within 1st 5 seconds…or even 30 seconds. Why on earth would I sign up for their email list then? It’s so dumb and so annoying. And, writing daily is insane. I go for quality over quantity – just 1 per week.
Shivam Sahu
12/26/2017 @ 03:33 AM
Hi Helen,
Great list. I’d like to add one! ‘You write in block paragraphs and don’t reformat your post to emphasise certain messages’.
It’s true that people reading a post/article will skip through to find key messages. Why not make their life easier (and allow them to read efficiently) by making words bold, italic, using bullet points, increasing text font, in order to allow key points to emerge.
Shadab Alam
12/26/2017 @ 10:24 AM
Hi, Helen.
Bang on information on each and every aspect. These are the majority of mistake beginners always do. The next one from my point of view is SEO. Along with everything we as bloggers should start investing our time & money creating SEO friendly content, Site etc.
Even investing few bucks on Facebook Ads can help. I made mistake when I was hoping I will attain Facebook presence without investing. I was wrong there.
As you concluded “if you target everyone, you will end up targeting no one”.
Cheers for your informative post.
Vivek
12/29/2017 @ 08:25 AM
Nice Article on Blogging Tips Helen
Keep on and specially keep motivating and inspiring us…..
JD Aadam
12/30/2017 @ 03:13 AM
Thank You, Helen,
Also, another mistake or false hope that is being fed into newbies minds due to recent evolution in SEO is “You just have to create high-quality in-depth content”.
Never! Yes, you must create quality contents that readers would love to share, But even if you have written the best piece of content. You must go out and promote that as well.
Or having a strategy on how you are going to promote even before you start writing can do wonders for you as well.
Thanks.
Donna Merrill
12/31/2017 @ 08:56 AM
Hi Helen,
It’s great to read your post. I was busy with my projects, that’s the reason I was inactive a bit, specially reading & commenting was completely off.
But Anyways, Thanks for the interesting & informative read. Keep up the good work and enjoy the holidays.
A Very Happy New Year Helen! Cheers
~ Donna
Susan Velez
01/04/2018 @ 07:59 AM
Hi Helen,
Great tips and I think that most new bloggers make a lot of these mistakes. I know that I made pretty much all of them with my very first blog.
I’ve never tried writing content everyday, but I did sit in front of my computer doing nothing but writing content.
You’re right, promotion is huge for every new blogger. You have to let other people know about your blog and how it can help them. If you’ve taken the time to publish amazing helpful content, you’ll start getting shares.
This will make your blog promotion a little bit easier. It’s nice when people start sharing your content. But you still need to get out there and promote your content via comments, guest posts, and other methods.
Thanks for sharing these tips with us. Blogging is a lot more than just publishing amazing content on your blog.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan
Nazim
03/20/2018 @ 05:33 AM
Hey Helen,
You really revealed great mistakes by the new bloggers.
I think newbie do most of the mistakes. And we all were the newbies and we learn from our mistakes.
Appreciate your work.
Nirodha Abayalath
04/18/2018 @ 05:00 AM
Hey Helen,
As a beginner, I just wanna say Thank You for sharing this informative content with us.
My goal is to publish one article per week. What do you think? Isn’t that enough for a beginner?
Thanks again.
Best,
Nirodha