Blogging today is not restricted to being a personal journal or a place to vent out. It has an identity of its own! It is seen more as a business or a powerful marketing tool. It is something like an edu-tainment tool, where the audience can learn while being engaged.
Your reasons to start a blog could be anything, but not starting a blog without enough thought or plan, is going to fall flat real soon. I am listing out seven mistakes that I believe almost all newbies make and which should be avoided to help you kick-start a successful blogging venture
Starting out and staying on free blogsite
This is one of the most common mistakes. You start a blog on a free platform, but out of fear of doing something wrong or not knowing who to ask for help, continue on the free platform. Any blogger worth his salt should buy a domain name and self-host his blog. Self-hosting a blog is comparatively easy and with all things decided doesn’t take more than half a day.
Not spending time on editing
Once you create a blog and write your first post, there is this urge to hit publish and make the thoughts public. I know I did that when starting out! Put thought into the kind of content that you wish to write. Gather related content, images and sources if required. Write your post and then take a break. Go back to the article and read it through. I am sure you will find quite a few errors. Editing your article is important before you hit publish.
Pro tip – It is a good idea to have a bank of titles that you wish to write before you start writing the first post. This way, you will have enough content that will help you stay on schedule.
Not marketing your content
You have written a well-researched article, added attention grabbing images, mentioned the necessary sources and then hit publish. You eagerly await your audience, however they never come! As a new blogger, we assume once we write content, the audience will come automatically; however that is not true. Every article needs to be marketed well to get audience to your site. Only once you become an authority in your field can you expect people to come searching for you.
Not knowing your audience
As a new blogger, you wish to write about anything and everything under the sun. You might have an opinion about everything, but that need not be on your blog. Consider your blog as your business and brand from day one. Create well researched and detailed articles about certain niche that you wish to focus on.
Not building relations with your readers
Once you start getting readers, it is important to nurture them and create relations. If someone has come to your blog and written a comment, thank them for it. Go to their blog and see if it is in your niche. If you like something there, do write a meaningful comment. Such efforts will help you build a tribe of your own, that will help you grow in your blogging journey.
Wasting time on things that don’t matter
Once you have created a blog, many will have a lot of suggestions. The continuous information, asking you to do a lot more than blogging can be overwhelming and scary. While having great images, being on top of technical information like SEO, link building, SEM etc. is really good, however if you are a mom blogger talking about crafts, you should focus on creating really useful content. You can take help of automated tools or freelancers to get high quality content, instead of wasting time learning something and then trying to master it, while ignoring your core function of blogging.
Trying to do it all at once
It is easy to get carried away by the blog success of your favorite blog personality, however always remember ‘Rome was not built in a day’ Trying to churn out content while trying to master Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat and what not will only result in half-baked strategies with no real output. Focus on your audience. Be where they are and focus on one or two mediums at a time.
You can connect with Neha on:
Can you spot the mistakes that you might be making? These tips are really going to be handy for me, the next time I write. Than you so much Neha!
I have also written a post on Neha’s blog, please click here to read it.
Great tips, I want to add one more here, wanting to monetize immediately and expecting groundbreaking results.
Nice and useful post , connecting with Readers & bloggers in the same niche is too important for a successful blogging journey 🙂
Very important points. Have actually been guilty of quite a few of these back when I began… That was a long time ago, of course 🙂
Great tips, Neha. This is very useful for those starting out on their blogging journeys.
This is the kind of advise I wish would have got when I began. Blogging is fun, satisfying & quite fulfilling. However, bad days or duress is never far of things don’t go as per planning. Wonderful tips by Neha.
Writing well researched content articles and as per niche is very important. Agreed social media and connection with the readers is so very important.
Thank you so much this is really very helpful!
These are really important points to keep in mind. Making a relationship with your readers is one of the best advice that helps all the bloggers.
Rome was not built in a day .My favourite part of this post.Slow and steady
These are definitely great tips for beginners. I am sure many would benefit from this. Thanks for putting up this info in a blog 🙂
These are some great tips from Neha. I agree with her that once you write you have to market it well to get the audience.
Wow. Some. Cool tips here. Content is important but marketing I guess even more so. I agree with self hosted website that was a mistake I made as well when I started
Aap sabko kitni mehnat karni padti hai aur kitna dhyan rakhna hota hai tab ja kar ek blog post karty hain 😍😍 hats off 👍👍
Thank you for hosting me zainab! Hope your readers find it helpful
good tips! very valid for a newbie as well as someone who has been around.
Great tips for newbies! Anyways, thanks for sharing this amazing post. It really is helpful especially for those who are just starting up with this blogging business. Cheers!
great tips. will keep in mind while posting new post.