Guest post by Annabel Candy from Get In the Hot Spot
Like a lot of people I set up my blog as an experiment. I wanted to raise my profile as a writer and build up a blog which publishers would see as a useful marketing tool.
Realising how important it was to commit to blogging I vowed to blog for a year and, because I work best with a goal in mind, I set myself the challenge of getting 1000 subscribers after a year blogging with my deadline the end of March 2010.
I picked 1000 subscribers as my goal because I read somewhere that this is the amount of subscribers a writer needs on their blog to get publishers interested. I know 1000 doesn’t sound like a lot when you look at Problogger’s RSS count, but I thought it was a number that was both achievable and challenging.
The point of an experiment is to find out what works and what doesn’t and from that point of view my experiment has been a successful one.
I started blogging in about March 2009 and there are a lot of mistakes I made during my first year of blogging that I’ll do differently next time I set up a blog.
My Classic Blogging Mistakes
1. I changed my topic after 4 months
1. I changed my topic after 4 months
Although I spent a lot of time thinking about what to write about in my blog I still got it wrong. In the beginning I focused on writing a blog for people who want to move overseas but I soon ran out of steam. It was a subject I knew a lot about and loved but after about 4 months it just didn’t interest me enough to keep me writing about it three times a week.
In the end my blog topic really chose itself broadening naturally to self improvement with the focus on helping people live their dream. Since many people have the same dream of travel and writing as me I had a good angle and since I’ve been interested in travel, writing and self improvement for as long as I can remember it wasn’t something I’d ever lose interest in or run out of things to write about.
As you can see from my Feedburner stats even after about 6 months of blogging in August 2009 I’d only got about 43 subscribers.
It was depressing but I’d made a promise to stick with blogging so I persevered. I even wrote a guest post for Problogger called Getting Over The Blogger’s 6 Month Itch telling other bloggers why they needed to stick with it too.
2. I only got my own domain name after 6 months of blogging
Because my blog was an experiment I didn’t buy my own domain name or host the blog myself, it was just hosted by WordPress.
In August 2009 I got my own domain name and started hosting my blog there. That month I doubled my subscribers from 37 on August 1st to 83 on August 30th. Maybe readers started taking my blog more seriously now I was.
3. I never invested in graphic design
My husband and I threw together the look and feel of it based around the invitation for a leaving party we had in 2007. We’re now working with a graphic designer to get a professional look for the blog. It will be interesting to see if that helps convert more subscribers but I’ll never know how many potential readers and subscribers I’ve lost this year by not investing in graphic design at the beginning.
4. I used Feedburner for my email newsletters
There were two main problems with using Feedburner for email subscriptions. First it sent an email every time I posted which was overkill when I was posting three times a week. Secondly the emails were unbranded and ugly.
This February I switched to a different way of managing my email subscribers. If you look at the Feedburner graph that’s when there’s a drop off in subscribers because the email subscribers were being recorded on MailChimp. It lets me send out branded emails and is free if you have less than 500 email subscribers. I have a feeling choosing MailChimp could have been another mistake as all the professionals recommend Aweber so once again my penny pinching could have cost me subscribers but at least my email newsletters only gets sent when I want them to, not every time my blog is updated. I can always switch to Aweber but if that happens I’ll probably waste a of time changing over.
So How Did I Get 1000 Subscribers?
Well, actually I’ve only got 923 so far (575 by RSS feed and 358 by email) at the time of writing I still have 16 days until my self-imposed deadline. I’m fairly confident I’ll make it to 1000 and if I don’t I believe in rounding up so anything over 950 will do the job.
Here’s how I did it:
- I kept going for the whole year even when it looked as if I’d never make it.
- I wrote guest posts.
- Even when my guest posts were rejected by my blogging heros I wrote more posts and tried again until they accepted one. I finally succeeded in November 2009 with guest posts on Problogger and Zen Habits. If you look at the graph again you can see a huge jump in subscribers from 117 on November 1st to 478 at the end of the month because of that.
- I kept learning about blogging and improving my writing and my blog layout but although my subscribers rose over the next 3 months progress was slow.
- I started posting once a week instead of three times a week on my own blog so I had more time to write guest posts for other blogs because that proved the best way for me to find new readers.
- In March 2010 with my deadline looming I went all out and had guest posts on five major blogs including Problogger, Zen Habits and Write to Done.
- I believed in myself and ignored people who said it was a waste of time.
- I worked hard and kept my goal in mind.
- Once I did set my blog topic I focused on it 100%.
- I wrote my heart out and really helped people by giving them the most useful information I had on how to make their dream come true.
If I can do it anyone can. I own a business, work from home, have three young kids and run a busy household but in 12 months I still managed to set up a blog I’m proud of.
Over the next year I’ll be continuing the process of improving my blog by setting up the new design, adding incentives for subscribers, possibly offering a free e-book, writing more guest posts, working on my search engine optimisation and setting myself a new goal.
In March 2011 I’d like to have 5000 subscribers. But I worry it’s too low. Over the last year I’ve increased my subscribers 1000 times so if I do that again next year I should be aiming for 10 million subscribers but that ridiculous. Somehow I need to work out how many subscribers I should aim for after two years of blogging and then get on to it.
My ultimate goal is to make money from my blog. I have a few ideas on how to do it but there’s still lots of work to be done, experiments to be made and challenges to overcome. I’m looking forward to it.
What have your worst blogging mistakes been and how do you measure your blog’s success?
Further Reading: Check out ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging.
For information and inspiration to help you live your dream read Annabel Candy’s self improvement blog, Get In the Hot Spot. Please subscribe to the RSS feed or choose email updates to stay posted on the latest articles.
It was a year for me as well on March 17. I’ve definitely made lots of mistakes, I made the mistake of starting two blogs. Luckily one of them was my passion, so while the one sat stagnant I was able to continue to blog – but it’s the guest posts that worked wonders for me. A single guest post landed me a new, higher ranking blog. You’ll have to visit my blog and read the “about me” page for more details on this. The owner just passed a great blog that already had tons of great content. Ever since I’ve been writing for this blog, I’ve been able to increase the ranking even more and I’m up to almost 3000 subscribers.
Congrats on your first year of blogging! :)
Thanks for sharing your insights – it is very helpful to see what works for others and also to learn from their mistakes. Changing your topic was a bold move and it seems to have paid off. I too am guilty of sticking with a project long after I should have let it go (or changed course.)
Annabel,
Thanks for the encouragement to us “newbie” bloggers. I’ve been reading ProBlogger for almost three years now, and deciding to take the plunge into blogging has been a goal of mine almost the entire time.
I absolutely agree with your point of setting a goal and sticking with it. For two years I’ve been determined to begin blogging, but I never set a specific deadline to make the plunge; instead I kept putting it off another day, week, month…I think you know what I mean. So this last week I sucked-it-up and started typing.
Anyway, the advice from Darren, yourself, and all the other guest bloggers on this site is simply awesome. Annabel, keep up the hard work and I’m sure the success will come.
Mark
This is something that we can use and run with. Thanks so much for sharing this with the rest of us.
You have a lot of valuable lessons we can apply today!
Chat with you later…
Thanks! Very useful post!
I’ve done the first mistake, and it really influenced my blog’s progress.
Your story is similar to mine, In first year of my blogging I did many experiment and finally I sticked with a final niche. According to you feed subscribers is directly proportional to blog design, but I am not very much agree with you. I think blog content plays an important role, but yes at some extent blog design matters. Getting links from quality websites is always good for any new blog. I am agree with your guest posting methodology.
its nice to hear of your success. hopefull i can reach my goal too.
There is nothing wrong with MailChimp. It’s just as good as Aweber. Aweber has just been around longer, but in my opinion that free trial MailChimp offers is worth making the choice for new bloggers.
Annabel,
I had a few blogs before my current one and I made pretty much all the same mistakes you did. I didn’t know enough to really get where I wanted to go. Here’s a few mistakes that I see people make that should be avoided
1) I used Blogger: No disrespect to those of you who might, but I could never achieve that much growth with blogger as a platform. It’s really limited in what it can do and you just don’t get the same level of professionalism.
2) Guest Posting: If you guys haven’t heard of Henri Juntilla at Wakeup Cloud, check out his post on he he grew to 1000 subscribers in 100 days. That’s an amazing story and guest posting played a large part in it. People don’t guest post early enough and often enough. ?In fact I think the key is guest posting more than you write on your own blog.
3) Checking Stats Regularly: This is really a waste of time IMO until you’ve been around for at least 4 months. As a market researcher, I’m very aware of sample sizes. If you are checking you analytics in week 1, your sample size is way too small to provide any valuable insights.
4) Not focusing enough on relationships: Relationships are essential to growing in the blogosphere. They will make all the difference in how fast you can grow and how many people will accept guest posts from you.
5) Finding a Mentor: While you might be able to find all the information to start your blog for free, I highly recommend a mentor. Get your hands on a copy of Darren’s 31 days to build a better blog book or find somebody like Yaro Starak and join his program. A mentor will give you a huge leg up.
Those are my additions to everything you’ve mentioned here. Congrats on hitting 1000 Subscribers :)
I really enjoyed this post as I am a beginner blogger. I began blogging about the same time but never really organized my blog. I was writing this and that with no particular schedule.
I had been following Darren on Twitter since I first joined. He offered his 31 Days to a Better Blog Challenge last April. I subscribed but never really applied anything.
Recently, I began developing my site on WordPress and it created a fire within me to write more specifically and in more of a niche. I am rereading all the posts that Darren wrote last April and applying them to my blog.
I look forward to my mistakes and whatever it is I learn from blogging. It’s nice to know that after a year of dedication it can be well worth the persistence.
I used to run a personal, non-commercial blog for 5 or 6 years and realized after all this years that the only thing I actually did was ranting and griping about this and that. It was then that I realized that I had not only chosen the wrong topic to write about, but also that I was really unhappy in my life and had to change something about it. And that is what I did. I gave up blogging for some time and am back again now. :)
It’s so frustrating Annabel – your mistakes were pretty much the same ones I made and almost every blogger makes the same ones.
As someone who helps new and learning bloggers, I could cry sometimes when I see the same pattern over and over again. Still, I suppose it’s a living!
Basically, what you are saying Annabel, is that to grow your subscribers, the shortest way is to get exposure; the exposure that you worked at was to be published on top notch blogs.
… and of course, you also say that to be in the game, you have to be in the game…
Great!
Congratulation on your perseverance.
Fred
Keep up the good work.
Really inspiring article!
My biggest mistake of blogging is choose to broad topic which make It is hard to focus — and after sharpen the topic, my blog become better now.
Great post! Way to stick with it and after clicking on over to your site, it seems that you have already surpassed your goal?
On a side note: I am not sure if it is my horrible Explorer browser, but a mojority of the text is enormous. Looks ok in my reader though. Thanks again!
Hoping you hit the 10 million subscribers :)
I’ve been blogging since Oct 2008, but my domain turns 1 year old on Sunday.
By the way, IE 7 (the mandated browser on my work computer) is displaying your article in really large text. Maybe it’s missing a closing header tag in the HTML (at the end of “My Classic Blogging Mistakes”? Other browser are rendering it just fine, though. Imagine that, a Microsoft product with a problem :)
Hi Annabel,
That’s a good one. Very clear and achievable goals. Good work. Congratulations. BTW did who is your 1000th subscriber?
Annabel
Everyone seems to make the same mistakes in the beginning as so may are chasing readers. The first 3 months are great as you are just so greateful to have readers that the numbers do not matter that much – and then around month 7 the numbers start to matter. A great article gives a spike in readership,subscriptions, etc. and we all want more and more.
Writing, maintaining, etc a blog is not always easy. We look at the most popular bloggers in each of their respective niches and they have been doing it for a very long time. It takes time to build the readership as one great article or even 2 great articles a week does not tell you audience that you will consistently give them something that is useful, thought provoking or just fun and lighthearted. There are so many blogs out there that asking yourself why should they read and subscribe to mine? Give them something to walk away with and put to good use – even if that good use is a thought for a new article of their own.
Go get those last 16!
@SuzanneVara
I’m really impressed you stuck with it. I was starting to guess you were an entrepreneur half way though the post then you confirmed that at the end.
Great job.
Loved the post. For the record, MailChimp is awesome and in many ways, I think it is better than aWeber and a lot easier to use. Just wanted to throw that out there. MailChimp is a viable option and many huge bloggers and sites use them.
Thanks for the inspiration, it is hard when first starting a blog, I am going through that right now. There are many opportunities to quit or give up, but I am glad to hear that you persevered. It inspires me to do the same.
Excellent post. I haven’t made a mistake with my current blog, as I never planned on monetizing or growing it. Its too broad and too personal. I am considering trying a niche blog and monetizing it and so forth.
Through personal blogging I have learned somethings that will help keep me from making some major mistakes… the biggest one being NOT self hosting. The cost to me is minimal as I have a “friend” deal on some great hosting :) What scares me is that I am no expert on anything in my humble opinion. Hopefully I will think up a topic that I feel confident I can blog about regularly…one I do, I will be referring back to this and other problogger posts to keep from hindering myself with too many mistakes :)
Thanks for sharing your success story! Best of luck on the 10 million or however many subscribers you set for your next goal.
My mistake was in not hiring someone to do the basic blog set up for me. I stressed a lot over widgets and plug-ins when I could have been writing more content and enjoying myself more. Success for my blog is hearing that I’ve helped a reader in some way.
Wow! Thanks for sharing. I’ve been seeing the guest posting advice all over the place and have yet to take it up, but you’ve convinced me that it’s the right way to go. This is great advice.
Cheers,
Tia
Thanks Annabel,
I’m pleased for you. I’m soooo guilty of the same thing as you. I chop and change all the time.
I’ve decided that the best way to go is to use feedburner AND aweber. Can’t hurt as long as it doesn’t take over your page. I would recommend trying aweber though. It is great..! :)
Hi,
Thanx for the great tips. I’m just starting a blog myself so this is inspiring for me.
And congratulations! I just noticed the 1014 subscribers on your blog.
Widska
Thank you for the excellent post, Annabel. Very inspiring … it has taught me a lot. May you reach all the goals that you set for yourself.
Really a nice idea mam.. i thought guest post is waste of time.. but u proved that is a way for earning new readers..
#5 is an excellent tip….
Good to see a success story up on Problogger. It is always inspiring for the new guns to aim for something high in the world of Blogging.
Annabel, what a great inspirational post. I strive to blog and to get more subscribers, but it hasn’t been my main focus. Thanks for sharing the ups and downs of blogging. I think everyone that starts blogging is sorta unaware of the “Big Bad Scary” Blogosphere. It can seem overwhelming at first. Thankfully, there are a ton of people giving good advice.
Happy Blogging!
Thank you for sharing your ups and downs over the past year of blogging. Your post is inspirational to me as I have just established a blog and am only beginning the process. I didn’t realize that Feedburner was generating a newsletter everytime a post is made. That’s something to consider for later when I have subscribers (someday I hope!).
Great post Annabel!
The sticking with it seems to be the hardest part for many…I’ve seen this with a couple of friends who have hopped from idea to idea to new project etc., had they just STUCK with something they’d be ten times further along than they are now.
For me one of my biggest mistakes was simply fear…fear of not being ‘expert’ enough to write about certain things (in a VERY broad niche).
Getting over that was by far the biggest challenge I faced!
Looking forward to the new design.
I like this line here:
“I believed in myself and ignored people who said it was a waste of time.”
That’s a good attitude.
Thanks Annabel for sharing your mistakes so that we can learn from them. I’m new to blogging and know that I will make mistakes, but want to minimize them. :-)
Thank you. I think you’ve solved two problems for me in one go with the idea of guest posting. My blog is comic based (and daily, so I can empathise with yourself and most of those commenting on ‘sticking with it’, 107 consecutive days and counting!) but I have wanted to write actual posts on some of the topics covered in the comics but I’ve felt it would (a) ‘taint’ the daily comic theme of the blog, and (b) be unfair to subscribers who were really only interested in the comic.
Guest posting on other sites would give me this option and a bit of exposure at the same time. Why I didn’t think of this myself I’ll never know. :)
I started a blog in February of 2007 about entrepreneurship, and like your first topic I just lost steam after about 4 months. I knew a lot about entrepreneurship but it wasn’t a topic that could blog about 3-5 times weekly before I ran out of steam.
Unlike you, I just stopped blogging all together on that blog. I actually swapped niches to personal development but I ended up losing focus and stopped all together. Had I been consistent and held on to my niche, I would be doing really well right about now.
So, in October of 2009 I started another blog, which is the blog I have right now, and I’ve been pretty consistent.
I’ve been writing on average 5-6 times a week. I wrote 2 guest posts. One has been published and the other hasn’t been published yet but will be published next week, or so I understand.
I just recently started marketing my blog heavily through blog commenting, and participation in forums. I will continue to send guest posts to major influential blogs in my niche and I will start devising a plan to write an ebook as an incentive.
Thanks for sharing, this is very inspiring!!
Thank-you for the post. I would love to read more posts by other bloggers sharing their start up experiences.
Without posts like this it is hard to judge your growth or lack of growth when starting out.
Wow – I had no idea guest blogging made such a difference! Thanks for the tips. I’ll definitely be adding this into future plans.
As for the blogging mistakes, I’m still brand new & learning. The mistakes haven’t revealed themselves to me yet :)
I think the biggest mistake that bloggers make is thinking that if they follow all the “rules” and don’t make any of the mistakes on “the lists” then they’ll be more successful than those who HAVE made the mistakes. I think that in reality, success in blogging takes a TON of work. It’s a TON of time. If you aren’t willing to put your own work and time into it, you won’t get success out of it. You can follow the rules and be just right. If YOU aren’t present, none of that will matter. No amount of “doing it right” will get you anywhere if you don’t inject YOURSELF into what you do. Just my view on it.
It should make you happy to find that your blog and you became more popular after you wrote a guest blog post rather than becoming more popular when someone else wrote a guest post on your blog.
Thank you. Hearing about your experience is so helpful. And knowing about the six month hump helps too. I’ve only been blogging for a few months and I’m already re-evaluating whether I have the right focus. Guess it’s good to do early on!
Thanks again.
Wonderful post. Very heart-felt and personal. Thank you for sharing all of this. Hmmm. I think not so much a mistake but a regret, I started out on Blogspot, which is a very limiting platform and with the platform being so limiting, I did not even think beyond the “4 walls” of what was possible and it wasn’t until I moved to WordPress and to Thesis that I really started to both enjoy and love blogging AND see that it can add value to my beloved readers and even those one time visitors. Choose your platform the first day!
Thanks a lot with the post, i will use it as a manual to get more subscriber. Currently i only have about 30 subscriber, i want to be 1000 just like u.
I haven’t used any feedburner subscriber in my blog. i just have 5 followers. Realizing that you have 134k followers, i think you did great man!
man, i am using FeedBurner for a year and got hundreds of subscribers,
is there another good free email subscription instead of it?
Thank you! This post was wonderfully enlightening for me. I created Wellness Billionaire’s Blog 120 days ago and have been able to create 250 new visitors per day on a good run and Alexa puts me in the top 2% of sites. It hasn’t been easy. I am trying to not only increase that visitor daily total but get it to be more consistent. I’ve had several guest authors, done quite a bit of social bookmarking on other sites like Twitter and Facebook, and have done a ton of article linking. I am now going to apply many of the tips you have suggested here.
I hope i can reach my goal too, good luck ;)
Thanks for a very useful post. I believe one of the most useful things one can do is to focus on adding value by writing quality content. The rest, given time, will take care of itself.
Warm wishes,
Mia Rose
I have just started blogging . This article provided me a nice set of conditions that can ruin my labor on my blog , and has crucially worked for me .
i must say you for this a hearty THANKS.