8 Blogging Mistakes You Must Avoid
When you are first starting out with blogging, there are some common blogging mistakes that you may make. I have compiled all of them here, so you can learn about the most common mistakes that new bloggers make. This list will help you to avoid making these kinds of blogging mistakes.
Below mentioned are 8 Blogging Mistakes that you must avoid at all costs:
1.?Forgetting about your target audience
This is one of the most common blogging mistakes that new bloggers make while starting out. People who have just started blogging tend to write more for the search engines rather than their audience. While it is good to optimize your blog posts for the search engines, it is not a good practice to write purely for the search engines.?
You should cater to the needs and wants of your target audience. You should write your content in such a way that solves the problems of your target audience and address their pain-points. Therefore it is important that you must clearly define your target audience and create content that holds value to them.
Most new bloggers also tend to deviate from their niche and try to write about what is trending. It is advised to not deviate from your niche as it will only confuse your audience as well as the search engines. Hence, it is important to decide a particular niche before you decide to start a blog.
2.?Neglecting online promotion and content distribution
You are writing great and valuable content, you are solving problems through your content, and you are optimizing your content for the search engines.?
But if you are not reaching out to people by online promotions and content distribution strategies, then all of your efforts will go waste and you will not get any returns. Therefore, it is important to not only write quality content but also to promote your content online and devise a distribution strategy to reach out to your target audience.
To become a successful blogger, you not only need to become a good writer but also a good marketer. You will need to market your own content. Ask your friends and family to read your blogs and to share it with their friends and family. You can promote your content through social media and through online blogger support platforms.
3.?Not creating a mailing list
Most bloggers, who are looking for ways to monetize their blog, must create a mailing list from day one. One of the most profitable strategies that can help you with monetization is by creating an email marketing campaign.?
Some bloggers believe that you first need to create a strong influence and reputation before they can start collecting emails from their audience. However this is not true, you can invite people to subscribe to your mailing list from the very first day.
You can do so by adding a subscribe button to your website.?
You can also keep your audience engaged by creating a regular schedule for your newsletters. You may also offer some exclusive content in your emails as a way to motivate visitors to subscribe. For example, you may provide the content in an easily downloadable pdf format.?
4.?Blogging without any goal or strategy
Have you heard that popular quote “ If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail”.?
Similarly, if you are blogging without any goals or strategy in mind, your blog is definitely going to fail. Not having a clear strategy in mind for your blog is one the most common blogging mistakes.
Writing is a creative process, and it needs a certain level of freedom to be able to write effectively. However, you need to have a specific purpose in mind while creating your blog.?
Before you begin blogging, setting up a strategy with concrete goals is very important.?
You must clearly define a voice for your blog posts, structure your approach and make your content in a way that is truly relevant as well as beneficial to your audience.
It will create a sense of discipline and regularity in you and will take you one step forward to your ultimate goals from blogging. Creating a strategy in advance will help you achieve your desired results from your blogging efforts.
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5.?Being afraid of criticism
Fear of criticism can hold back a lot of bloggers from succeeding. The idea of being criticized publicly can run chills down the spine for some people. No one wants to get humiliated publicly, right?
If you are someone who’s new to blogging, then get ready to accept criticism throughout your blogging journey. There will always be people at some point who will not like your content. There are going to be negative and hateful comments. People will try to put you down by their mean comments. At that time, you must believe in your content and focus yourself on the positives.
However, not all criticism is to make you feel bad about yourself or your content. Some people will criticize your content because they have trust in your ability and they know that you can do better. So you need to learn to accept healthy criticism and push yourselves to do better. Healthy criticism will help you become a better version of yourself. So listen carefully to the feedback you are receiving from your blog. Ignore the trolls (or haters), just ignore these comments, don’t take them personally, and do not feed their hate. If you reply to them, there are going to be more negative comments.
6.?Choosing a free blog
As you might have seen already, there are many opportunities and many free platforms to start a blog. People who are only starting a blog, have the option to either choose free versions or a self-hosted blogging platform. It is true that starting a blog this way is much easier and convenient, and free. You can easily have your blog up and running within few minutes. It is a very straight-forward process.
But keep in mind that free blogging platforms come with a lot of limitations. There are limited design templates, lesser freedom over your blog and very limited opportunities for blog monetization. And if you are serious about blogging, these are some important factors that you may want to consider before starting a blog.
Make sure that you do not choose a platform that will limit your success or prevent from your blog from growing. Therefore if you have monetization goals in your mind, then you must go for a self-hosted blogging platform.
7.?Not investing in your blog
Many bloggers make the mistake of not investing anything in their blog except their time. Most bloggers have the thinking that until they start seeing any profit from their blog, they are reluctant to invest something into it. Many new bloggers think that their money will go waste and therefore they choose to limit their budget and spend only on what is the necessary. They mostly use free tools instead of paid alternatives. This limits their possibilities to build a successful blog.
If you are serious about blogging and want to grow your business through blogging, then I would recommend getting a hosting from the very beginning. There are a lot of features that you will find in paid version which you will not find in a free version. There is higher freedom and flexibility in a paid version. You can customize your blogs as per your wish.?
Bonus? There are a number of monetization options available in a paid version which is not available in free versions.
Also Read: How to?Start a WordPress Blog?in Easy Steps?
8.?Forgetting about the importance of interlinking
Interlinking is the process of making links within your blog. Creating an interlink will connect two pages of the same blog. Interlinks are different from inbound links, also referred to as backlinks. Backlinks come from external resources. However, interlinks originate from within your blog and take the visitors to other related pieces of content on your blog.?
There are two principal reasons as to why should you include interlinking in your blogging strategy.?
Try to create an interlink for each new blog post to one (or several) older ones.?
You may also use a sidebar menu that features the latest or the most popular articles. You could also use the feature “related posts” which would show the related articles at the end of each article.
Also Read:?10?Do’s and Don’ts of Successful Blogging?You Need to Know
Conclusion?
It is important to be aware of these common blogging mistakes that most new bloggers make, especially when they are starting out. It will help you to save your time, energy and effort that may go waste if you make these mistakes. Making these blogging mistakes can harm your blog performance and prevent you from succeeding as a blogger.?
Once these blogging mistakes are identified, it becomes very easy to rectify them and avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Ultimately, blogging does not show results overnight. It takes time, effort, and patience. If you have these three, you can make a successful career in blogging.