This post was written by Deb
5 Mistakes New Bloggers Should Avoid
In the three years I’ve been blogging I’ve seen other bloggers come and go. I’d say about seventy five percent of the bloggers I’ve seen start out have disappeared when things didn’t work out. The ones who took the time to do it right are the bloggers who have been around for a long time. The ones who didn’t last all seem to make the same mistakes. In case you’re just starting out in this business here are a few common mistakes newbie bloggers should avoid.
1. Thinking Blogging Will Make You Rich Right Away
Though certain bloggers do make six figures a year, this isn’t the norm. Sure, they got lucky, but they also took the time to do things right. It can take years to earn decent coin from a blog. Many wannabe bloggers enter into this thinking it’s going to make them rich right away. That’s rarely, if ever, the case. Many bloggers are lucky if they earn $25 or $35 a month for their personal blogs. The ones who earn hundreds, and even thousands a month are the ones who have been doing this the longest.
2. Not Doing Enough Research
This goes hand in hand with item number one. Know why the top bloggers are the top bloggers? They took the time to learn about blogging. They researched the best ways to bring in traffic, to bring in revenue, and to cultivate a community. They didn’t just open up a Blogger account, throw on some Adsense and say, "OK, I’m now a blogger."
3. Choosing an Over-Saturated Niche
Blogs about blogging, making money online, writing, food, celebrities and working from home are a dime a dozen nowadays, yet every day more and more crop up. If you’re going to choose one of these over-saturated niche’s be sure you offer something different. If you’re just rehashing what the other blogs are saying, there’s really no reason for anyone to visit you.
4. Choosing A Niche You Know Nothing About
A couple of years ago, soon after people started thinking there was something to this blogging, a fellow work at home mom decided she was going to start a blog. She researched and found out the word "mesothelioma" offered the highest paying Adsense payout of all the keywords. Did she know anything about Mesothelioma? No. Did she and her blog make a lot of money? No. Did it last? No. Because she didn’t have a clue she only wrote two posts and left it at that. If you can’t write your passion or write what you know, it’ll quickly become apparent.
5. Not Doing Enough to Promote Your Blog
It’s not enough to create a blog and post to it, how will others know it exists without shameless self-promotion? Bloggers in all stages of their careers can’t be shy about getting out and promoting their blogs. There are so many ways to do this without being spammy. Visit forums, participate in Twitter, become a part of another blogger’s community. Soon, traffic will be flowing. To just think people are going to show up is a big mistake.
Whether you blog for someone else or blog for yourself, it’s easy to make make some common mistakes. Do take the time to research blogging and learn the best ways to bring in traffic. Find out what folks in your niche want to know about and learn ways to promote community. To not take the time to cultivate your blog is a big mistake.
What are some other mistakes you can think of that new bloggers make?
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9 Responses to “5 Mistakes New Bloggers Should Avoid”
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[...] at Network Blogging Tips has listed the top five new blogger mistakes, and how to avoid them. Here’s my favorite: “…Know why the top bloggers are the [...]
I’d add:
6. Not Being Yourself
Even though I blogged for years under an anonymous shroud, I’ve always tried to be myself in tone and style. It never fails to surprise me when I come across a new member of the online world who is struggling so hard not to be who they are. Often they have something interesting to say, but it gets lost in the filter.
Great post, Deb!
Heavy-handed SEO built for search engines and not readers. Poor writing skills that don’t deliver a message properly. Mixed fonts, too much formatting and poorly broken up paragraphs. A butt-ugly design. A lack of participation in other communities followed by whining that the blog only has ten subscribers, all family. Lack of features that increase user-friendliness. Nothing new to say. Nothing interesting to say. Nothing entertaining to say. Rehashed content. Worse, scraped content.
Need I go on?
Great list! #1 is especially relevant right now. People look at Darren Rowse and think that they can make a lot of money as well. But they don’t stop to think about how much work he put in before he started making a great deal of money.
Not writing their passion. It’s difficult to write regularly on something you could care less about. My passion and career is writing so I fall into those overbooked areas on blogging, but I think if you find a particular angle it helps.
Great list, and #5 especially rings true. I stumble upon great blogs sometimes that have awesome content, but barely any readers because nobody knows about them and their names aren’t known in the circles of this niche. Promoting is definitely a must for longevity!
Homemaker Barbi
Great tips Deb. I have just returned to blogging again and these will help me to stay on the right track.
I’m constantly amazed at how many bloggers:
1. Fail to proofread their articles before hitting the publish button. It doesn’t take that long to check for spelling and grammar errors. And if you forget to do this, readers won’t think you forgot to check. They’ll think you don’t know how to write.
2. Don’t write original content. If all you’re doing is paraphrasing articles you’ve read on Engadget without adding any context, insight, or analysis, then why should people read your blog instead of Engadget.
2a. Decide that blogging means copying and pasting articles from other sites in their entirety.
2b. Fail to give credit to their sources.
On a lighter note: Brad I hear what you say about spelling and grammar. English is my second language and I do struggle to get my tenses correct and then spelling and grammar. Man this is hard word but I always try my best.