Almost every blog is started with the utmost care and research. The new bloggers leave no stone unturned to make their blogs popular and impress their audience.
However, like every commoner, they get caught in the excitement of launching something new and rush towards their target so hard that they end up making terrible mistakes.
Their nurture their posts for hours, feed it with all the facts and analysis but still miss a few opportunities that can benefit them.
However, they cannot be held responsible for making some silly and some serious mistakes.
Like every other profession, blogging also includes lots of learning, and one has to go through this process of learning new things and unlearning the things that aren’t taking us forward.
Blogging is a long process and a journey that helps you set your feet at the right place.
No matter how capable you are, newbies screw up things easily when it comes to their blog. Every new blogger makes a couple of mistakes in their first year of the blog and misses endless opportunities.
Sometimes the mistakes are so general that they can be easily understood and rectified. On the other hand, sometimes it is the experience that teaches you. In both cases, you need some expert advice to move with your career successfully.
We all make mistakes, we improve, we keep going, and we succeed.
The above quote sums it up. In this blog post, we will be discussing 13 common blogging mistakes that every new blogger makes and find a solution to that mistake.
Mistake #1: Not focusing on keyword research
Right keyword research is the backbone of creating quality content. It is a surefire way to establish a successful blog and increase the overall search traffic to your website.
Most of the new bloggers only scratch the surface while searching for the right keywords and fail to find the appropriate one. Think of this way, if you are not targeting the right keywords, how visitors will reach your content?
Only better keywords can help you drive traffic towards your blog.
Solution
These critical solutions will help you in finding the right keywords to target.
Tip #1: Make use of long-tail keywords
First of all, make sure to focus on 2-3 long-tail keywords. Also, it is essential to see that the monthly search volume of the targeted keyword should be less than 2000.
Selecting the less competitive keywords will not only help you in getting higher ranks, but it will help you in getting faster results as well.
Tip #2: Make use of keyword research tools
Make it a habit to use keyword research tools like SEMrush and KwFinder. Both of these tools offer free five searches per day. Learn using these tools and find the best suitable keywords for your blogs.
Even the trial versions of these tools provide you access to the best keyword list. You can further buy them if you find the results satisfactory.
Tip #3: Make use of competitors keywords
Using keywords similar to your competitors can help you in increasing the traffic of your blog.
Mistake #2: Not making enough investment
This is one of the most common blogging mistakes most of the blogger makes.
Blogging is not just a hobby. It is a business, an occupation from which you earn.
Many startups fail to recognize this fact. You cannot make or increase your income without making investments in the business.
Many startups fail to recognize this fact.
You cannot make or increase your income without making investments in the business.
This particular business never asks you to invest thousands of dollars but, you definitely need to spend a certain sum of money in a reliable web hosting service, sound design, and right tools to start a profitable blog.
If blogging is something you are serious about and want to earn money from it, you should invest money wisely in the right tools.
Solution
I would suggest you investing money in the right places to earn a generous profit. Here are some examples:
- Tools, plugins, and themes: Your blog is like your virtual office. Branding it with a premium theme makes it beautiful, easy to convert, and boosts its credibility.
Investing an optimum amount of money in blog maintenance will make your visitors stay at your page.
It will let them know that you are trying to mark a permanent position for yourself and not running anywhere.
Moreover, there are premium tools like Tailwind that improves the visibility of your blog on platforms like Pinterest and increase your ROI. But, as mentioned earlier, you need to make a minimal first-hand investment to avail the tools.
- Invest in tools like SEMrush: I have a good experience of using SEMrush. The tool helps me in finding real, profitable keywords that can be easily ranked without putting backlinks.
There are SEMrush tutorial guides that can help you in targeting untapped keywords and spying upon the keywords that your competitors are using.
- Hosting: It is common for new bloggers to go for free or cheap hosting solutions which can create trouble later. Hosting plays a vital role when it comes to overall speed and rankings of your blog. Investing in reliable hosting services like Bluehost and inmotion can be really beneficial.
Update: Bluehost is providing a special discount! You can now set up your blog for as low as $3.95/month; You also get a FREE Domain name!
You can even invest in hosting that can provide free SSL, security, and backups.
- Outsourcing: Blogging is a time-consuming task. There are content creation, SEO, and multiple other tasks. If you are unable to spend so much time on blogging, you can consider outsourcing a few tasks that will help you earn in the long term.
Mistake #3: Not building your email list
Every beginner guide focuses on building email lists, but beginners usually skip this step, thinking they don’t need these lists with very little blog traffic.
Eventually, as the time pass, they realize the importance of subscriber list.
Solution
A subscriber list helps you realize who you are, who owns you, and who you own. It allows you to connect and reach out to your subscribers when you want, and vice versa.
Benefits of having an email list:
- If you have an email list, you can send periodic emails and also send a notification each time you publish a post. It helps in increasing the traffic to your blog.
- Newsletters invite people on your blog or website. They see your stuff, buy it, and allows you to recommend your exclusive deals. It helps in increasing your sales.
- It increases your trust value.
These two powerful tips will help you in boosting your email list quickly:
- Use this tool CovertKit to make an email list. It helps you to segment customers based on their interests.
- You can start an incentive scheme for your customers. A freebie will motivate them to subscribe to your email list. You can opt for ebooks to create and boost your lists.
- Use opt-in forms to get more subscribers. Put these opt-ins in your sidebar, landing page, about us page and pop-ups. I use Thrive leads to collect the leads.
Mistake #4: Not writing engaging content
No matter how much money you put in it, you cannot run your blog successfully without creating engaging content.
Content is the King.
by Bill Gates
Solution
Along with backlinks and Rankbrain, Google announced content as one of the top 3 ranking factors. If you are also struggling to increase the traffic of your blog, try implementing these content writing tips.
- Focus on writing specific SEO optimized content: Your content should be long and detailed enough to perform well in Google search results. In-depth articles attract your viewers and outrank the existing content.
- Create the right content for the right audience: Defining your blog niche helps you targeting your audience. Moreover, it will help you create user-targeted content and share links accordingly.
- No grammatical errors in your content: The free Grammarly extension is the best way to produce error-proof content.
Mistake #5: Not having a blog monetization strategy
Are you also struggling to make money out of your blog like many other beginners? It indicates that you lack a proper monetization plan.
Despite trying hard, it is almost impossible to achieve relevant results without having a proper monetization strategy.
A blog can be a money-generating funnel; you need to focus on sales. This is a simple strategy of turning your visitors into email subscribers and buyers.
Solution
A useful plugin called Thrive Ultimatum can be a worthy investment into your monetization strategy. The plugin highlights your affiliate products to your visitors and increases sales.
You can generate countdown timers with the help of this plugin (like the offer expires in 7 days). This kind of hype inspires your customers to buy the products before the offer expires. The plugin multiplies your income many folds this way.
Email lists move hand-in-hand with monetizing your blog. These lists are a great way of promoting your products and spreading awareness about your services.
Moreover, it is not advisable to depend on just one or two strategies like Adsense, selling banners or affiliate marketing, etc. You will end up losing interest in blogging if you fail to make money through these strategies.
Like they advise not to put all your eggs in a single basket, you should not rely on one strategy at a time. Focus on multiple approaches, who knows which one is going to work for you.
Mistake #6: Not networking enough
When you are online, connections are everything. It is impossible to create a profitable blog or business without having relationships with other bloggers and your community.
Networking is marketing. Marketing yourself, your uniqueness, what you stand for.
Solution
All professional bloggers spend a fair share of their time in building a loyal community. It is this loyal community that helps them to build a website worth million dollars.
Instead of pleasing Google, you should focus on creating fans for your blog. Chasing your target will help you rise in the eyes of Google as well.
Mistake #7: Not focusing on backlinks
You can get a lot of traffic from the search engine if your blog shows up when they search but for that, you need to build quality backlinks to your blog.
No matter how much quality content you create, it is of no use unless it reached your audience. Moreover, it won’t get ranked it Google on its own.
Solution
I have enlisted a few effective link building strategies to boost your content in search engine rankings.
- Create engaging content that naturally attracts lots of links. Writing content with in-depth research increases your chances of attaching more links from other blogs.
- Linking to other bloggers can also be a great opportunity. But, whenever you connect them to make sure to inform them beforehand.
If your content is informative enough, they will also start doing the same later or sooner.
- Guest posting is another effective way of link building. Writing for the top blogs of the industry will help you in boosting the overall authority of your domain and backlinks.
Mistake #8: Checking stats of your website frequently
Beginners keep on checking the stats of your website every single minute. They get so engrossed in the process that they don’t realize how useless it is.
Solution
Instead of checking the stats, the primary focus of a beginner should lie upon building his blog and increasing the traffic.
The below-gives tips will help you in increasing the traffic of your blog:
- Titles hold great importance. Try to create viral, catchy, and compelling headlines that inspire people to visit your blog.
- On-page optimization is of utmost importance. Try to learn this art properly.
- Give priority to keyword optimization. It is a must to focus on the right keywords to increase traffic to your blog.
Mistakes #9: Not writing for other blogs
The new bloggers often make this mistake of writing content for their blog only. They don’t realize how writing content for other blogs can help them reach a wider audience.
Solution
Blogging is all about increasing exposure to your blog and reaching a broader customer base. Writing content for other blogs will help you in both ways. Guest posts are a great way of bringing traffic to your own website.
Make it a routine of writing one post each week for the more prominent blogs of your niche and use it for building links. Within a few months, you will realize how much exposure you are getting and how much traffic you are getting from these backlinks.
Make sure to write up to the mark to increase the authority of your website.
Mistake #10: Not leveraging social media
Social media is the latest platform for generating traffic. It proves to be the most important medium for those who are struggling to boost their traffic.
Solution
Connecting or reaching out to your influencers on social media helps you leverage your social media traffic. Try writing stuff related to some tips, and you are all set to go viral with the thing.
Consider using funny images, memes, infographics, etc. to make an impression on your audience and attract them. The general posts are probably the best way to reach your social media audience. It gives a boost to your backlinks and provides you outstanding shares.
Mistake #11: Take time to edit your post
Most of the beginners take sufficient time to write their post but do not spend enough time in editing. They live in the illusion that they are great writers, and their write-ups do not need any editing.
However, it needs and maybe a lot.
Solution
Even the most experienced writers need to edit their work. First drafts can be great, but they are always shapeless.
One needs to shape them to make their stories flawless. Proofreading is a must. It may take some time, but the final outcome will be worth admiration.
Mistake #12: Consistency is the key
Creating excellent posts generate traffic on your website. Your subscribers wait for your posts, and you get leads and conversions. However, consistency is the key. Y
You cannot post five blog post this week and one in the next. It will confuse your subscribers.
There should be a commitment to publish regularly to reap the best results in the form of traffic and leads.
Solution
Plan your posts ahead of time, and your posting schedules should be fixed in advance. You can use tools like Google editorials or Google calendars to schedule your posts in advance.
Takeaways
If you are a new blogger and making any of the above mistakes, there is nothing to be ashamed. You don’t even need to get worried about that. It is common, and it happens.
Focus on identifying your mistake and rectifying it. Move a step ahead to boost your traffic and sales.
Let me know in the comment section below about the biggest mistake you have made as a beginner blogger.
