20 Common Mistakes Made By New Bloggers

With a new blog starting every half second and with more than 175 million blogs on the Internet (is anyone still keeping track?) sometimes for a new blogger, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd.

It’s easy to feel like a little fish in a big pond until you start seeing people other than your Mom and your sister leaving comments and subscribing to your RSS feed. There are some things you can do; however, to accelerate your blogging learning curve.

I never had a blog before I started writing for Bit Rebels and Ink Rebels, so I was very fortunate to learn these things right from the beginning by watching @Minervity and @mistygirlph, but many people have to learn these things on their own, and those are the people I’m hoping to help with this post.

Of course, as usual, everything I’ve written is just my opinion. Blogging is very personal, an art form really, and you can only take someone else’s advice to a certain extent. At some point, you have to express your own creative license. There is no right or wrong way to blog, this is just a list of common mistakes that I see people make which could be affecting why they aren’t experiencing the success they seek.

1. Not owning your own domain

If you want to have complete control over your blog, it is very important to own your own domain and get your own hosting. Many people won’t take a hosted blog seriously because xxxxx.blogspot.com just doesn’t look very good. Also, the search engines love real URLs. In my opinion, this is very important.

2. Not including an author bio, picture and easy to use comment section

An author’s bio adds credibility to your blog. I’m not saying you have to have a whole “about” page, although that is nice, I’m just saying to give your readers a couple of sentences explaining who you are and what you are all about. It only takes a few minutes to put it together. A picture of you (preferably a head shot) ties it all together with a personal touch. It shows you are a real person. An easy to use comment section is also important because you don’t want your readers to think it is a hassle to leave a comment. If you make them register and go through all kinds of red tape to leave a simple comment, they just won’t do it.

3. Having a hard to find RSS button and social media buttons, or using only text links for these instead of using pretty buttons

There are so many places you can go online to get free buttons or you can design your own. Here are links to examples to each: Free RSS buttons, Free Twitter icons, How To Create A Set Of Stylish Social Bookmarking Buttons

4. Not using permalinks for your posts

In case you don’t know what a permalink is, it’s the link to the actual page for a specific post. How many times have you clicked on a link for a post, but it just takes you to the home page and then you have to find that particular post? That happens to me a lot. Again, you don’t want to inconvenience your readers, use permalinks so your readers don’t have to do all that work. You can learn more about permalinks here: http://www.bloggingbasics101.com

5. Not learning basic HTML

I didn’t learn any basic HTML until I had been writing on Bit Rebels for several months. Wow did it ever make a difference when I started putting effort into the formatting. You really only have to learn a few tags to make a huge difference. You can read about this all day long on the internet. Here are three resources for you that might be helpful: HTML Tag Quick Reference Guide, HTML Basic, HTML Color Codes

6. Broken or meaningless links

Please be sure to double check all your links before publishing your article. It looks sloppy when links are unnecessarily broken. Also, be sure to let people know what the link is for in your post. There is nothing worse than taking the time to click on a link that goes to something irrelevant that we don’t want to see. Again, this is an inconvenience to your readers, and you don’t want to set that precedence.

7. Choosing a poorly designed blog or not using strong graphics

The way your blog looks is one of the most important aspects of your blog. People will not read content on a blog that is not visually appealing. Don’t mistake this as it having to be fancy, some of my favorite blogs use minimal design, but they are clean and sharp and very nice to look at.

8. Stealing blog content

This is a sensitive subject because I know many times it happens by accident. The truth is, we all get some of our blogging ideas from somewhere else on the Internet. The thing that sometimes new bloggers do not understand is that it is not okay to copy and paste the article into their own blog even if they put a little link at the bottom. It’s fine to take the idea and put your own spin on it; we all do that, but don’t just copy and paste it. I wrote this article a while back: How To: Be Active On Twitter Without Getting Burned Out and it has been copied so many times by people that change the title slightly but copy and paste the article. That is called stealing.

9. Not posting articles consistently

Our articles on Bit Rebels are updated every four hours; our articles on this blog are updated every three days. Of course, the more frequently you update your blog the better; however, it is more important to just be consistent and update as often as you say you will. Keep your commitment on this or you will lose readers. You can learn tips about how to be a more consistent blogger by reading this article: Learn How To Blog Like A Pro

10. Not commenting and reciprocating on other blogs

Many times new bloggers do not realize this, but when you give more than you get, you end up reaching your goals much faster. Giving back to the blogging community is very important. Leaving insightful comments and opinions will invite people to do the same for you, plus, by leaving a link to your own blog along with each comment, you’ll also attract more visitors.

11. No personality in the writing

New bloggers are often so afraid of getting a negative comment that they won’t show any personality in their writing. First of all, negative comments are not bad. You can read more about that here: 5 Reasons To Smile When You Get A Negative Blog Comment Secondly, if you want to shine brightly in that crowd of millions of blogs, then you have to stand for something! It’s okay to show some personality, don’t be afraid, your readers might love you or hate you, but either way, it’s all good!

12. Blogging with conditions

This mistake is heart breaking to me really. So many new bloggers say something like this to themselves, “I will do this for two months, and if I don’t see any results, I will quit.” If you have that attitude, you will surely be setting yourself up for failure. Blog for the joy of writing. If you don’t like writing, it will show in your posts, so don’t blog. It’s that simple. I love writing and if I could, I would spend every day all day writing even if I never made a dime. You don’t have to love writing as much as I do, but don’t hate it. If you do, find something else to fill that time.

13. Comparing yourself to others

Nothing can be more discouraging to a new blogger than comparing their number of pageviews, RTs, etc… to another blogger. Don’t do that. Just set your own personal goals and stretch yourself with each post. Swim in your own lane. Don’t look to the side, just look straight ahead and keep moving forward.

14. Over self promotion on social media

Twitter is a great place to share links to your blog, but be careful not to become one of those people that everyone avoids because they never engage or share any information other than their posts. Social media is a place to be social and make friends, don’t forget that critical element.

15. Not responding to readers comments

When I first started blogging, I was afraid to respond to reader comments. It sounds silly now, and I have no idea why I felt that way, but wow, what a mistake. Respond to your readers. Nowadays, I have complete conversations in the comments on blogs almost daily. It is a wonderful way to get to know your readers and make new friends. Also, they will enjoy coming back to your blog knowing you care enough to read their comments and respond. Many bloggers do not do that, so you’ll definitely set yourself apart from the crowd.

16. Apologizing

I always see new bloggers apologizing in their posts and I never see seasoned bloggers do it. Quite frankly, it’s annoying to go to a post and read three paragraphs about why you are sorry for not writing more frequently. Don’t do it because that stays out there on the Internet forever to annoy anyone that stumbles across it. There is no need to ever apologize and if you feel the need to give more because you’ve been away, then write a spectacular post, but don’t say you are sorry.

17. Choosing a domain name that is long or hard to spell

Now that we‘ve established the importance of having your own domain, be sure to choose one that isn’t too long or hard to spell. I have a friend with a domain name with the word “privileges” in it. He learned this the hard way because nobody seems to know how to spell that word. Make it super simple if you can, it’s the best way to go.

18. Writing posts that are too long

There is nothing wrong with long posts if you break it up so that your readers can scan it. This is called “making your content accessible.” If you just write pure text in long blocks, you’ll lose a lot of readers because they will get bored. So, it isn’t so much the length of the entire post, it’s more the length of each section or paragraph. Bullet points and headlines within the post are good because it breaks up the length. This rule does not apply if it’s an in depth tutorial or something that should be long.

19. Choosing a background that is annoying, makes text difficult to read or plays music

You may not care if you get a lot of visitors and in that case, blast music if that makes you happy; however, if you care about attracting visitors, then don’t do it. You will inevitably have a different taste in music than your readers and it could keep them from ever coming back.

20. Being a know-it-all or being grumpy

Humility goes a long way in life, and it goes a long way in blogging. Be humble. Admit when you are wrong and eat a slice of humble pie every now and then. It will show you are human and your readers will love you more. You become a real person when you show some love and humility. Also, please don’t be grumpy. You will only attract grumpy readers, and you certainly don’t want that.

I hope this post has helped some new bloggers with their technique. I am always available to answer any questions you might have. You can contact me anytime on Twitter at @adamsconsulting or you can email me at diana@bitrebels.com. I wish you the best and happy blogging!
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