Blogging Mistakes to Avoid at all Costs

They say that experience is the best teacher… and I certainly agree!

From the looks of it, blogging seems simple enough, right? You buy a domain, hosting, install Wordpress and you’re pretty much all set and ready to start posting on your favorite topics or subjects, and dive right into the world of blogging.

Or are you?

The truth is that there are a lot of potential pitfalls associated with blogging, which should be avoided at all costs! Many beginner and newbie bloggers tend to make these mistakes without actually realizing what they’re doing.

Building a successful blog from the ground-up is tough work! Building a loyal and dedicated readership is tougher, and actually making money from your blogging efforts is perhaps the toughest of them all!

However many bloggers have built extremely successful blogs themselves, and so can you! Here is a list of blogging mistakes/pitfalls to avoid:

Not being original/copying stuff from other sources

Not only is writing original an essential part of being a good blogger and having a good blog, it is also a strict requirement from an SEO perspective as well. Unique content is a prerequisite, as far as blogging goes. No one wants to read rehashed or copied content, because there are tons of other better blogs out there who have better posts on the same thing, and people have probably read about it there as well. Why would they then come to your blog to read the same thing? Avoid putting up copied or borrowed material on your blog, as doing so will land you in trouble with Google, and you’ll struggle to build a reader-base this way as well.  

Not choosing a specific niche

This is one of the biggest mistakes beginner bloggers tend to make. If you’re planning on running the blog alone, and producing the content yourself, make sure the niche that you choose is specific, focused and one that you will be able to write about. Choose too big a niche, and you’ll struggle to cover all topics and create content for it. Narrow down your area of interest to something specific, something that you’ll easily be able to produce content on.

Not knowing WHO you’re writing for

One of the first rules of being successful at what you do is to know who falls in your target market (or in business terms, ‘target demographic’ is). Without knowing this vital piece of information, you cannot expect to be able to bring in targeted traffic, or the readers who might be interested in what you’re writing about. Ask yourself this: who are your writing for? Who are the people who might be interested in what you’re writing about? It also helps if you choose a specific niche (refer to the previous point), as it helps you with determining who your audience is.

Picking the wrong niche

This is perhaps as bad as not choosing a specific niche. Before choosing a topic, it is essential to determine whether it’s the right one for you or not. In order to choose the ‘right’ topic, you need to have a substantial amount of knowledge in that area, and a drive to write about it as well. Conversely, don’t avoid topics simply because they’re too competitive. There’s a lot of competition because there are a lot of people interested in reading about those topics. What you could do, in order to be successful in a competitive niche, is find a unique selling proposition and try standing out from the crowd. Which brings us to…

Not having a Unique Selling Proposition

It is essential to have a USP – a unique selling proposition – that sets you apart from the rest of the pack. Something that defines you, becomes your strength and identity. Something that fascinates potential readers and attracts readers from your niche. If you continue to do what a million-and-one other bloggers in your niche are already doing, how will you ever be able to build a loyal readership and make a name for yourself on the blogosphere?

Not thinking about the layout and design of your blog

Looks matter! The sheer number of websites on the internet that have bad website designs never ceases to amaze me! If you want to build a readership, attract viewers and be taken seriously, you need to have your website designed in a certain way, so that it looks professional. Too many websites litter their pages with ads, use over-the-top color combinations, and tacky and unprofessional design elements. It is therefore essential to choose a design that reflects the kind of blog that you have, as well as its content in a proper and appropriate manner.

Not working on list-building

List-building is an essential and important part of your blogging responsibilities – well, it should be. It is one of the biggest and best sources of traffic – targeted traffic rather – for a large majority of blogs on the internet. Many bloggers make the mistake of not spending enough time and energy into collecting their readers’ emails. It is vital to build a list of subscribers, and send them an email every time a new post goes up on your website, or you want to get in touch with them in order to make an announcement, for instance. Trust me on this, with the passage of time, your email list will become a very big and an extremely precious marketing asset for you!

Poorly-written content

Apart from blogs with bad designs, I’ve also come across many blog posts that are, to put it simply, poorly-written. Content, as you may very well know, is the cornerstone of any good blog, and it is therefore very important to adhere to certain content-writing ‘best-practices’, in order to ensure that actual human being read it! These best-practices include breaking content down into digestible paragraphs, using proper headers (H1, 2, 3, etc) and titles, using numbered or bulleted lists wherever applicable, giving preference to quality over quantity (which essentially refers to writing short but writing well), and keeping your language simple, in order to appeal to as many people in your niche as possible.

Not encouraging comments

Think of comments as the lifeline of any active blog. Ideally, you want to make your blog as interactive as possible, and promote comments and feedback on your blog. Comments are great because the provide you with valuable feedback, intel on what your readers think about your content or want from your blog, and they take the conversation ahead. Readers often tend to add stuff which you might have missed out on in your post. I recommend asking people for their comments and feedback at the end of your posts, and making it as easy and simple to post comments as possible. At the end of the day, you want a blog that encourages readers to post their comments.