Blog Tips

5 Major Blog Mistakes That You Should Avoid

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Blog Mistakes? We all make mistakes in life. However, along the way we learn, we correct our mistakes and we improve. Mistakes are one of the best lessons for us to be successful.

Looking back to when I was a new blogger, I did a lot of mistakes. At that time I didn’t know much about building a blog and was quite lost when I started. But thanks to all the information that was easily found on other blogs, I was able to fix all my blog mistakes and continue blogging until today.

5 Major Blog Mistakes That You Should Avoid

What Are The Blog Mistakes That You Should Avoid?

Here are my lists of the 5 major blog mistakes that I have made in the past. I wished I avoided them from day one. But then if I did, I won’t be able to share this article with you today.

Blog Mistake 1 – Not Self Hosted

I started blogging on a free service website. I believe this is the most common mistake that most bloggers do. In the beginning, it was just for fun but along the way especially when I plan to monetize, that’s when I realized I made a mistake.

Blogging on a free service site has very limited features. First of all, you don’t have full control of your site. It is so difficult to optimize your blog for SEO. There is no way you can install plugins and the most difficult part is to create a brand for yourself.

Today I have no regrets for having a self hosted blog (2 to be honest). You have to spend some money to be self hosted, but in return you get more than what you have spend when you start monetizing your blog.

Blog Mistake 2 – Zero Content Plan

To be honest I still make this mistake sometimes. Creating informative content is never easy. You need to do some research before you start typing. In fact, it takes a couple of hours to publish a good and complete article.

Planning your content in advance makes so much difference. You are more prepared when you sit and write your post. I have noticed that when I try to blog without planning in advance, I tend to spend long hours in front of the computer. And usually, I end up only drafting the post because I am not satisfied with it.

Now I plan my content one month in advance. This gives me enough of time to do some research, prepare the pins and enjoy typing the post instead of getting stress when I suddenly get an idea block.

Blog Mistake 3 – Not Using Social Media

Social Media is a great way to build blog traffic especially at the beginning of your blogging journey. Traffic is one of the hardest thing to build at the beginning of your blogging journey. With just a few posts, search engine will not take your blog seriously. There will be days when you will have zero page views because your posts (no matter how good it may be) will be like a needle in a haystack.

You need to promote your content to bring in the traffic. Social media is the easiest way to get your content out there. By sharing your content to social media frequently, you are increasing the chances for more people to see your post.

When I first started blogging some few years back, I didn’t share much of my post to social media. My page views were very low and that got me frustrated. But when I build karenmonica.com, even with only one post at that time, I was already able to bring in the traffic by just sharing my post to social media. Google didn’t even recognise my blog yet at that time, but my audience did. Social Media is a great help if you use it the right way.

Blog Mistake 4 – Never Optimize

It takes some time to rank on Google but that is not a reason for you to ignore Search Engine Optimization (SEO) from the very beginning. I am not a SEO expert but trust me when I say that every blogger must at least learn the basics of SEO.

Start optimizing your posts from day one. Well if you haven’t, then you can always start today. You will not see results tomorrow but after some time, you will be glad that you had spent some time to optimize your blog.

I did mention that Social Media is the easiest way to get traffic but organic traffic (traffic from search engines) are the best traffic. If you have high-rank pages, then you can expect a much more consistent daily flow of traffic from search engines. SEO is a long term investment for your blog. It may be difficult to learn to optimize at the beginning but all your efforts will pay off.

Blog Mistake 5 – Not Monetizing Your Blog

Why do something just for fun when you can earn something from it instead? Blogging may be just a part of your hobby. It was mine too at the beginning. But then one day I read a post about some bloggers that were blogging as a source of income.

Blogging will not turn you into a millionaire overnight. It takes hard work, tears and sweat to start earning from your blog. But when you do start earning (even just a few cents at the beginning) it will motivate you to continue to build your blog.

Try not to believe all those wonderful stories of overnight achievement. NO, monetizing your blog is not as easy as how some successful bloggers say. But YES, everyone can monetize their blog even from day one. And YES, blogging can become a full-time career as long as you are ready to put in the effort.

Pin Image 5 Major Blog Mistakes That You Should Avoid

These are the 5 Major Blog Mistakes That I should have avoided at the beginning. What are your blog mistakes and how did you fix it? Do share your views on this topic in the comment section below. I would love to hear what you have to say.

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44 Comments

  1. You couldn’t be more right with these mistakes! Thankfully I do them all and have been doing them all the entire time I have been blogging. I think the most important thing is having a theme for your blog, so you know what you need to stay focused on. If you don’t have a focus, you will constantly have no idea what to write about, which will then turn into you not wanting to write because it’s a “chore” to come up with a topic.

    1. karenmonica says:

      Good for you that you have been doing it the entire time. Yes having a niche or theme for your blog is important and that is part of branding your blog too.

  2. Thank you! I needed this. I never have a content plan and just wing it most of the time. I am also horrible at being consistent at social media. SEO is another area I struggle at. Thank you for a reminder to try harder in these areas.

    1. karenmonica says:

      I am sure you will find a way to fix all that. If you need any help just let me know ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. This is great advice for those just starting a blog… I’m still guilty of number 2 though – I don’t really plan my content in advance I prefer to just go with it!

    1. karenmonica says:

      Spontaneous content is great too as long as you always have an idea on what to share ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. I think the biggest one here that I did was not having a plan for monetizing my blog. I have been doing websites and design for almost 15 years now, so self-hosted was something I knew I needed from the start for sure!

    1. karenmonica says:

      15 years? Wow, that’s a long time. I am sure you are a pro by now ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. Aww, sounds as if you had a rough go of at it first, for sure! So glad you have gotten past these hurdles now. I was so scared when I first started my blog, I read *everything* I could find on “how to” so was able to avoid some of these pitfalls, but (again) fear held me back from capitalizing on social media traffic for the first several years my blog was live…

    1. karenmonica says:

      Unfortunately yes, fear does usually hold us back. I am sure you know a lot about blogging since you did a lot of research and actually that’s a great way.

  6. Bree says:

    This is a great article. I have been working on my SEO since in the beginning i did not really know much about it!

    1. karenmonica says:

      I am sure by now you know a lot about SEO ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. I completely agree with these items and how people should avoid making these mistakes when blogging.

    1. karenmonica says:

      But sometimes mistakes like this helps you to improve too ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. Awesome article. There’s a lot of learnings when doing a blog. This is great especially for new bloggers.

    1. karenmonica says:

      Thank you Jen ๐Ÿ™‚

  9. Neyl says:

    Thanks for letting us know all these. It is a really huge information and helpful too. I will surely share this with others. Thanks!

    1. karenmonica says:

      Thank you Neyl ๐Ÿ™‚

  10. Philomath says:

    This true, Iโ€™ve had the free hosted plan for a while and it was a struggle to be in control of everything. Then, I decided to change it and get myself an hosted domain.

    1. karenmonica says:

      I am sure you are glad you change ๐Ÿ™‚

  11. These are some really great tips! There’s definitely more to blogging that just having a functioning website. This is really valuable information for anyone getting started.

    1. karenmonica says:

      Oh yes, there is so much to learn from blogging besides just sharing your content ๐Ÿ™‚

  12. Marjie Mare says:

    I am still debating on truly monetizing my blog. I use it as my creative outlet, my escape time and way to connect with others. I am nervous if I start monetizing it, that I will lose the fun.

    1. karenmonica says:

      Only start to monetize when you really wished to earn something from your blog. Otherwise, just do what you love ๐Ÿ™‚

  13. Courtney says:

    Itโ€™s always crazy to me when I see someone start anything without social media. Social media is huge for success

    1. karenmonica says:

      But unfortunately, there are some that don’t really like sharing too much on social media ๐Ÿ™‚

  14. I saw myself few years back on reading this. I agree on most of the raised points. But I am yet to discover more on some.

    1. karenmonica says:

      I am sure soon you will discover more. Learning and growing take time. I am still learning more too ๐Ÿ™‚

  15. Anagha says:

    These are the core tips. Yes, many beginners still miss out these important points. I follow all of them.

    1. karenmonica says:

      Good that you follow them all ๐Ÿ™‚

  16. I can see why it would be a mistake not to at least think about making money on your blog at some point. Have a good idea of what it would take so you don’t have to do so much work to change things over once you do decide to make money with it.

    1. karenmonica says:

      Yes, it is better to plan earlier rather than try to change everything later which will have its side effects to one’s blog.

  17. It is hard right now for Search Engine Optimization because there is so much information out there for that. Also, I try to use SiteGround and they recommend me to buy their premium SEO plugin so they can create more SEO chances for me. I don’t know if that is an investment.

    1. karenmonica says:

      A SEO plugin is usually a good investment. But make sure to always check the statistics of your site to make sure it was worth the investment.

  18. I agree and am doing one of these as we speak. I am serious about blogging and want to be successful with it but don’t have the money right now to be self hosted but the site I use I can be self hosted when I have the funds.

    1. karenmonica says:

      Don’t worry Cassandra it is still possible to monetize your blog on a free site. Then only when you have extra funds, move it to a self-hosted site.

  19. so afraid to read this as might be guilty of my misjudgment. but as i read from start to bottom, i couldnt agree with all your pointers.

    1. karenmonica says:

      I am glad you did read it until the bottom and I am sure you are on the right track too ๐Ÿ™‚

  20. Kristine Nicole Alessandra says:

    I still have to do that SEO thing. I am technologically challenged when it comes to SEO techniques. I will try to learn more about it, but for now, I am focusing to producing high quality content.

    1. karenmonica says:

      As long as you are producing high-quality content, you are already doing great.

  21. Arun Dahiya says:

    Thank you so much. I am new to blogging. And this was so helpful. I learnt a lot. I am going to apply all these tips.

    1. karenmonica says:

      You are welcome Arun and I am glad to hear that I could help ๐Ÿ™‚

  22. I’m guilty of forgetting about social media. At the moment, it is such an important part of blogging and I hope to get serious with it, once again.

    1. karenmonica says:

      You are already doing great Dalene ๐Ÿ™‚

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