“What’s the most common mistake made by new bloggers? How can we avoid it?“ – asked on Twitter by @alisonkerr.
Here are a few quick mistakes that I see new bloggers making (some of which mistakes I made myself). They’re listed in no particular order and I’d love for you to continue the list in comments below:
- Giving up too early – blogs take time to take off
- Putting off starting a blog – waiting until everything is just right before launching can mean you never do it
- Echoing what everyone else is talking about – say something unique and share your opinion
- Not blogging on your own domain – I know some swear by using hosted blogs but if you want ultimate control of your blog it is best to do it on your own domain and hosting.
- Irregular Posting – you don’t have to post every day but try to establish a regular rhythm of posting
- Being too apologetic – ‘sorry I haven’t written for a while’ can end up being the most common type of post on a blog – yes apologize if you’ve messed up but don’t be too hard on yourself – keep investing your time into building your blog up rather than highlighting it’s problems.
- Focusing more upon Quick Traffic than Loyal Readers – there’s nothing wrong with a big rush of traffic from social media or another blog – but just as important as that is building reader loyalty. Sometimes growing one reader at a time is more fruitful than getting spikes of traffic that never returns.
- Clutter – too many buttons, widgets, navigation elements
- Great Posts but Terrible Titles – don’t short change yourself by investing hours into writing great content only to slap a mediocre headline/title onto it.
- Not Defining a Topic – the most successful blogs have a well defined topic/niche (or they target a certain demographic)
- Choosing a Topic you have no Interest in – for your blog to be successful you’ll need to blog regularly on your topic for years – if you want to sustain it choose something you have an interest in or love for or you’ll run out of steam.
- Too many Ads – I don’t have a problem with ads on a blog from Day #1 but when they overpower the content and push it down the page too far they hurt your chances of building a loyal readership.
- Being too Insular/Expecting Readers to come to You – many bloggers starting out fail to realize that the more you put yourself out there and interact with other bloggers the more chance you have of being read.
- Blogging about Making Money Blogging (as a first blog) – I’ve lost count of how many bloggers I’ve seen start blogs on the topic of blogging for money when they’ve never made money blogging. Start with something you know.
- Not Being Useful – blogs that meet needs and solve problems are blogs that people will keep coming back to and which they’ll spread news of to their network.
- Writing for Search Engines Before Humans – you can always tell when a blogger discovers Search Engine Optimization for the first time. Suddenly titles don’t make sense, keywords appear in posts for no real reason, links to other pages on the blog that are irrelevant to the post keep being used. Learn SEO – but keep your readers as your #1 priority.
- Becoming a Stats-a-holic – the lure of checking your stats is understandable and common to new (and older) bloggers – but it can become an unhealthy obsession that leads to distraction and depression.
- Link Baiting with Personal Attack – taking pot shots at other bloggers might get you some quick traffic – but hate breeds hate and the type of readers you attract and the culture it’ll breed on your blog could come back to bite you. Plus you’ll get a reputation that you might not want to live with.
- Not Knowing Why You’re Blogging – while most of us don’t really know what we’re doing at the start – the faster you can work out what the purpose of your blog is the sooner you’ll start moving toward achieving that purpose.
- Not Selling Yourself – one thing I don’t think many bloggers get is the power of blogs to sell yourself as a blogger. There’s nothing wrong with monetizing a blog with ads – but maybe a better long term strategy is to use a blog to advertise who you are and what you can offer readers.
- Thinking You Have to Know it All – one of the best things about blogs is that they’re a great medium for involving your readers in the process of learning. Leave space for others to interact, share what they know and contribute.
There’s A LOT more to be said on this topic – what mistakes do you see new (and older) bloggers making?
All very good. I particularly agree with “Great Posts but Terrible Titles” because when I search a blog, the title is what I skim to see if it is something I want to read about. Some writers put vague titles on which do not reflect the content of their post. Another irritating thing is bloggers who do not pay attention to grammar or punctuation. I am not talking about an error now and then, but those who abbreviate words like sum1 instead of someone, or the letter u for you. At first I thought it was kids or teenagers doing this, but found out older people were as well.
This was great. I think I’m going to save the article and forward it to anyone who asks me for general advice about starting a blog. These tips should help folks avoid some of the pitfalls of other less-fortunate bloggers
I know I fall into these mistakes very often. It’s easy to fall into the trap of following others and essentially saying the same thing as every other blog on the subject.
Poor spelling and grammar are big ones for me. Nothing reduces credibility more. I’m also a fan of clutter-free.
I love this post, a list post no-less and I guess we have all made mistakes but it was quite a relief to see some I hadn’t even though of!
Over the past 9 months of blogging I’ve probably done most if not all of those mistakes, but happy to say I have learnt from them and haven’t done any of those in the past 3 months or so. The biggest mistake of them all though is giving up too early, however it’s better to give up blogging on a topic you’re not interested in early than wasting your time on it and feeling like it’s a drag. Get out of it if you hate it and start blogging on a topic you enjoy. OR try to somehow gradually change the topic of your blog, hoping that your readers will stay on board with you.
The fastest way I get turned off from a blog is when the author attacks his readers that post comments. I don’t know if this is just something that I am seeing, but the Blogger says something provocative and controversial to get people to comment, and then they beat them up when they state their disagreement.
Take a breath, get up and walk around, and see is other readers will go to bat for you. But if it is just you arguing with everyone, I won’t be back.
I think the biggest mistake people make is letting “experts” tell them what is right and what is wrong for their blog. A blog is what you want to make of it, not what someone tells you it should be.
I could see myself in quite a few of these blogging mistakes:
Irregular Posting – I will have a period when I write several posts, but then go a week or 2 without posting anything at all. I must adhere to my editorial calendar.
Great Posts but Terrible Titles: I need to work harder on coming up with better titles and meta tags.
Not Selling Yourself: The more I blog, meet other bloggers and interact with my reader, the I am gaining confidence in my abilities and thinking of ways to make that pay off.
One other that I am guilty of: Doubting myself, and therefore not marketing myself and my blogs enough. I had 2 blogs for more than 4 months before I even told any of my friends to take a look at them. I guess its like the Nike ad says– JUST DO IT!
Thanks Darren for the reminders!
LOL, love #14, since I started a blog about making money online… but then I have done that since 1997. I think it is most important to establish a niche audience. Once you have that, you have income.
Thank you for the advice. I have learned most of these over time, and by reading other blogs, but it never hurts to be reminded.
I think another one could be not having a good “about me” page!
While 16 is true it’s also a mistake commonly made by bloggers NOT to use any SEO, especially keywords. So they wonder how they get no traffic. It’s a fine balance to walk though.
Another mistake may be giving into fear. I’m sure we all know that at times it can be quite scary to open up to the whole word. Whether you write about gadgets, politics or romance. Usually keeping up to date with other blogs should alleviate that.
Great list! I got a chuckle about the stat-a-holic ~ it’s easy to fall pray to that trap!
Nice article! :)
i usually publish daily but for the past month i’ve been having a hard time keeping a post per day, so i wrote something in my blog to say that ‘ill be back next week…i don’t know if its right or wrong but i have a jury at the end of the year and i won’t have time for the blog everyday…is it right or wrong to tell the people that you’ll be back next week?
once i’m in vacation i’ll be free so i’ll be able to post maybe more than once a day…i don’t give up, even if i don’t have as many visitors than other blogs, i don’t care, i write for them even if they are 5, 10..or 50 a day i try to keep a good quality content also.
i just realize it may not make sense what i wrote earlier. The end of the year is actually the end of the year in college, wich is next week. Sorry if i was confusing ;)
yes some good pointers for someone new, like myself, to the world of blogging. I think the common mistake as you correctly point out is that most people try it for a while, maybe as a part-time hobby to get a bit of extra revenue through adsense et al. realize it won’t make them a millionaire and give up. Although, ive just started, I can see the potential if you’re prepared to stick at it. So my advice keep blogging, all the best folks.
http://seomarketingandmakingmoneyblog.com/
Thanks Darren, I am going to pin this List of 21 Blogging Evils up on the wall (figuratively speaking) and this should help in maintaining a good blog.
Thanks for the great post. I am guilty of giving up too early in the past!
Although my only blog is for family and friends only, I do read a lot of public blogs. What makes me ‘drop’ reading a blog is an author who never, or very seldom, responds to comments by his/her readers. I think this is rude and thoughtless, and I’m not willing to spend my time reading a blog if the author isn’t willing to answer legitimate questions readers might have. Sure, it takes time to read and respond to your readers, but IMHO, if you want a successful blog, then you must do this. I’ve also seen some blogs where the author started out responding to comments, and then, as the blog became more successful, stopped responding at all. This sends the message that this person suddenly believes he/she is ‘better’ than his/her readers, and no longer needs to expend any effort into keeping his/her readership. Really, this is my ‘pet peeve’ on blogs. I have probably dropped at least 2 dozen blogs this year alone for this reason/
I’m constantly tweaking my blog to make it better. Great tips you have here will bookmark it.
Not starting soon enough…I can’t figure out why I wrote for a year but didn’t post…Thanks! I’ll be mindful of the other pitfalls.
That’s 21 loaded tips for everyone! Thank you very much Darren. Following your blog is really the best thing I must have done online.
I did start on blogger, but I don’t regret it because it was an easy way to start blogging and I used that time (6 months) to prove to myself that I could do this. I know I’m making other mistakes now, but I don’t even recognize them yet. Probably because I’m not ready or capable of changing them yet. But I’ll get there. Great list!
I am guilty of # 1..lol. Also I need to stop going back and forth from blogger and WP. Yes I wnt back to blogger and lost people who have viewed my blog. I know dumb move, someday I’ll learn.
Darren, thank you very much for this post. I launched my new blog, IT Thought Of The Day and am guilty of mistake 1,2, 3, 5, 8, and 10. I appreciate you going out of the way to reassure me that I am not alone. You have motivated me to keep on going even though my readership is so low.
I am also thankful for your 31 Days program. I am trying to complete one of your days per week and am up to #4 now. Your selfless dedication to helping the community is much appreciated.
I am going to keep on Blogging!
@Scott_Coughlin and @ITThought
And while of course that’s true, there are things the pioneers have established that it would do any newbie well to follow.
Alright Darren. I am so guilty of #2 especially. I know and struggle with this constantly. Afraid and a fear of messing it up so much. I believe I’d be so embarrassed. I’m detail oriented, tech challenged so learning is also at the forefront, attitude is that all ducks must be in a row, and on and on. So with that being said, and because you have referred to it as a mistake, I will take your advice and take steps immediately to remedy this. Appreciate your words of wisdom Darren.
Wonderful tips! Number 4 is very important and I’m glad that I bought my domain early on (about a month into blogging).
I also completely agree with 8 and 12 about clutter and ads. I admit that I was guilty of this at first since I was so excited about putting everything on my blog. Then I realized that it was really distracting and that it is the content that brings (and keeps) readers. I know, content is king, I should have known that, but part of blogging is learning as you go.
Thanks for this list!
I really liked this posting. It gave me a lot to check on my blogs. I am guilty of sometimes being a stats-a-holic, like you wrote about. I’m glad I’m not the only one with this problem! I find many useful subjects to read about on your blog. Keep it up – I enjoy it a lot.
Darren,
Awesome post. I’ve been blogging for about 2 years now and just started my second blog, which I’m very excited about. Knowing what the mistakes are…and making sure I don’t make them (or at least not beating myself up when I do!) is a great reference to have in my arsenal. Looking forward to seeing more!
the one thing I can identify myself on the above list is my blog not on own domain its on blogspot.May be in the future I consider buying domain.
Darren,
Nice list of points. They make sense.
I will add 22. Being a Christian blogger who is not a “big name”
:)
Mark
Here’s one big mistake I see a lot of new bloggers make that relates to #3:
Copying content directly from one blog and posting it on yours.
I also really like #11, blogging about something you like and have interest in.
When I was at Blog World Expo last year, I asked many of the bloggers there why it’s important to do what you love & the answer was unanimous: if you don’t love what you’re writing about, you won’t hang in there.
Great post! Thanks for the reminders and info!
#19 – Not knowing why you are blogging.
Just read article on copyblogger in which a pro-blogger offer 20-30 free 30 minutes phone consultation for anyone who leave a comment. Read most of the comment there (280 of them), most of them concern blogger identity. People don’t know who they are and why they are blogging. It’s hard to target particular niche or audience if you don’t even know who you are. I was in that situation. Things are a bit clear to me now. Hoping other will find their true identity and interest soon.
#12 Too many ads. Just notice something, most professional blogger never used adsense. They are kind of distracted. I have no add (for now). Visitors have nothing to do but to read the content if that’s what they are looking for.Have thought about Adsense, but it seems not a good idea.
Lots of good advice here. I teach people how to write practical online content, and when it comes to blogs, the hardest thing is to get people to begin. For my participants who have been blogging for a while, it’s often difficult to get them to get into “reader’s mind.” This is a big issue and I think fundamental to success. So common to hear people say “I want my blog to be for everyone!” Big, big mistake. The exponential thing is just such new territory, most people continue to think they should be reaching a very wide audience. But the more you limit your audience, the more it opens up. That’s tricky to understand as a beginner. Good writing, all.
Suzanna Stinnett
Thanks Darren for another great reading! My mistake is not to take blogging seriously, I work as a designer, but I love writing, I write in Spanish, my mother tongue, but I should start writing in English right now, so I can reach a broader audience and write frequently!
My blogs are using blogspot. I think I am going to change to my own domain. :)
Amen to #14. If its one thing that annoys the heck out of me, it is a new blogger who is blogging about MMO issues. Please be more creative!
One thing I would add to this list, is for “new bloggers buying overpriced blogging or internet marketing products over $50 or more a month”. There are too many great and FREE resources (like ProBlogger, SEOMoz & more) to be paying for overpriced products to promote your blog. Use your money to hire a web designer for your own unique look, hire writers to grow your content, get an accountant to keep track of your financials and so much more. Grow your business!
After six months of blogging in promoting and growing your blog (from learning from great and FREE resources of course) if you are still stuck in the mud, then go buy those overprice products…if you must. Had to be said! Had too!
Hi Darren
I have asked you a question yesterday.You haven’t replied yet.I know you’re busy but please respond
regards
salman
http://www.tips4blogging.co.cc for blogging tips
I had been proud of myself of making a good start. But reading this post has given me another thought that blogging is about telling ‘who i am’ not matter whatever topic i will write about. thanks Darren. excellent tips
I recently started blogging and i can say that i truly did my due diligence in order to keep from making mistakes. I still feel at times that i could do a better job with marketing/self promotion however, at this juncture my primary focus is on content.
This isn’t a “mistake” but more of an often overlooked reason to check your stats. We love the plugin statpress with all it’s details and quick overviews. A good use of checking stats is to see what post strike a “nerve” (really peak your traffic level), and follow up on the subject.
Not every post will get tons of visitors, but when your stats reveal that “Ah Ha!” moment, be sure to work another “angle” (for lack of a better way of putting it) and talk about it again. People were obviously interested, so follow up. More research, different approach, additional info, more resources, etc.
Definitely host your own blog.
Definitely have a primary “theme” you revolve around.
Definitely do not write about making money if you can’t or never have… it shows.
While our primary blog is not so much a niche as an umbrella (internet marketing ways and means), once in a while I will include the odd this and that. Strangely enough, it’s fairly easy to take that thing of interest you really want to talk about and put it in perspective to your overall theme. You just have to think it through.
Also, there’s no reason not to start another blog where variety can be the spice of life. Leaving you with your true calling, and using the other in a mixed bag format.
Too funny though, I read #1 as Getting up too early and thinking, “What?” (Of course it is “giving up”). Ah but it’s late here and I really didn’t intend to spend this much time in one place, but I’m enjoying myself.
Personal name branding should always take the front seat, backed by real facts that you do know of what you speak. And yes, while it’s so easy to believe (or want to believe) that money just falls from the sky blogging, the truth is dedication, persistence, hard work, tons of thought and effort are involved in launching and sustaining anything one does online.
Too many people just are not willing to put in the time (guess all those glitzy sales letters have them believing they are “entitled”).
The only one I think I’d add to your list is find a theme that allows you to tweak it easily (stylesheet). I’ve seen some blogs that are just enormous blocks of text with no paragraph breaks, no white space, poor grammar, misspellings, etc. Those I run from, reading online should not be a chore.
Well enough of my rambling, good pointers all around :)
I would add that we newer bloggers need to educate ourselves continually by reading blogs such as this one. For instance, 31DBBB was invaluable. Never be too proud to learn from the pros.
Not advertising my personality is definitely something I need to work on. I’ve read it a few places and definitely working toward getting better at it…not that I make money blogging, but any blog needs a personality behind it. Thanks for reminding me again :)
Nice post
Wow. You had me at “Warning:” ;) This was a list of my habits. It’s like you’re in my head! I have no real focus on what I’m blogging about but thanks to you and your 31 day course (I’m on day 5) I’ve been blogging every day for 9 days. It’s good just to watch myself commit to something. Blogging is just an easy and fun thing to commit to. I think it destresses the writer, too. If any lost writers can identify a theme on my BLOG, please let me know (even one comment would be nice) and I’ll do the same for you. Thanks.
Thanks for pointing out blogging mistakes. Nothing beats quality content and simple execution.
Hi Darren,
Well, I started on the wrong foot – signed up with blogger in December 2008. I’m happy to report, however, that I have got my own domain now and moved to a self-hosted WP blog just the other day. Yes, I feel like a proper blogger now. Wohoo!
That is one mistake out of the way for me now, right?
Will just have to be watchful lest I trip on the other 20 blogging mistakes. But I’m good and can’t be any happier. “,)
jan
I agree with those who have mentioned bad spelling and grammar. If it happens once in a while it’s OK, but when it’s a regular thing then some visitors will be turned off and probably never return.
If you are new to blogging, it is better to ask for tips from experts. This will make you a better blogger.