In my first year of blogging, I think I made every mistake a blogger could make! Today I’m thankful for the valuable lessons I learned as a direct result of those mistakes. I once heard a saying while at a business conference that success is simply failure turned inside out.
As a matter of fact, when I wrote that post I was thinking about all the things I learned in my first year of blogging. Most of which was a result of what I learned from the mistakes I made. My many errors were the result of a lack of knowledge and experience. To become a good blogger I needed to practice. Overtime I learned more and became a better blogger and writer.
The most affluent bloggers I know describe failure as the springboard that helped launch their blogs to success.
The message being we don’t need to fear failure. These common mistakes once recognized and corrected help us to become better bloggers!
Many bloggers unintentionally made a few or all of these mistakes that caused some to abandon their blogs. Most of them quit before their breakthrough. If you avoid making these mistakes you’ll have a blog that grows and is guaranteed to last.
1. Blog about too many different topics.
If you speak about too many vastly different subjects you won’t have a target audience and worse your blog might fail. At best you’ll get a small amount of blog traffic. Narrowing down to a niche topic area of interest will attract a specific audience. If you blog about a particular topic you’re interested in you’ll be able to write about it for a long time.
Many bloggers don’t know why they blog. Do you know why you blog? If not, I recommend reading this post; 9 Answers to “Why Do You Blog?” to help you discover the answer to your why.
2. Impatience in the process of growing a blog.
We all like to see the results of our efforts materialize quickly. Blogging with the expectation of quick success is usually met with disappointment. Blog growth takes time.
Successful bloggers all had to develop patience and persistence while learning from blogging mistakes. In their process of growing their blogs, they learned to enjoy the journey. If you stay with it and don’t quit you will make progress. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results!
When we let go of unrealistic expectations, we begin to blog just because we love blogging. You can then blog freely and connect consistently with our readers and other bloggers. I once had a wise teacher promise me that effort always produces the desired results in due time.
3. Failure to keep goals realistic and reachable.
There are steps to take that will launch you toward the completion of your blogging goals efficiently. Here are a few;
Avoid overloading your daily agenda of things to do. I use a six most important things to do list for daily blogging tasks. Until I complete those 6 tasks, I try not to move on to anything else.
Try to keep your blogging goals realistic and reachable by taking small steps to achieve them. I’ve heard it said that when you chase too many rabbits, you won’t catch either one. Chasing too many goals at once usually works out the same way, resulting in achieving much less.
4. No consistent blog post routine.
If your readers notice you’ve not been publishing fresh content in a long time they’ll think you abandoned your blog. Most will not come back.
Having quality content written on your blog consistent with your blogging topics and posted on a regular routine is key. Quality and regularity are more important than post quantity on an irregular publishing basis.
5. Poor blog design, difficult to navigate, and not enough buttons or links.
First impressions count! A blog that is poorly designed will drive away your audience. If the purpose/message of your blog is not defined right away, is difficult to navigate with not enough buttons or click links then visitors will leave.
Use a simple start blog design and layout you can build on over time. Less is more here when starting out.
Making your blog easy to navigate and fully responsive to view on all devices, such as cell phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops, is important.
Your visitors will love buttons and links to click that take them where they want to go on your blog. Links should be added to all pages and blog post content.
6. Attempting to do it all alone.
All of us need support no matter what we are doing. From friends, family, and colleagues. There are many bloggers and writers you can connect with. Where do you find them? In communities. Facebook groups and their blogs are good places to start. You’ll be amazed at how beneficial online communities are to your life as a blogger.
Every successful blogger started just like the rest of us. They too had to learn the tools of the blogging trade to grow their blogs. What these affluent bloggers now know took time, commitment, and tons of perseverance to get there. Each one learned from other successful bloggers and most had a blog mentor to help guide them in the right direction. None of them achieved their blogging goals alone.
7. Failing to expand the reach of a larger audience.
Guest posting is a great way to expand your reach to a larger audience. Publishing on a variety of platforms is a sure way to expand your reach to a larger audience of readers. If you do this, you’ll get known for what you do and over time, people trust you and regard you as an expert in your field. You’ll also gain a higher volume of blog traffic.
8. Not building an email list of subscribers is a blogging mistake.
Not building an email list of subscribers is the best way to cause a blog to fail. If you haven’t already established an email list-building strategy, I’d encourage you to do this as soon as possible.
One option is to sign up for Mail Chimp is free up to 2,500 subscribers. This can be a great great starting place for those seeking to keep costs low or free. Constant Contact ,Aweber,and Convertkit are also great choices. All helping you to accomplish your email list building goals.
9. Trying to earn an income as a blogger too soon leads to many blogging mistakes.
I’m often asked by beginner bloggers if they can earn money blogging. The answer is yes. You can, over time, earn a lucrative income as a blogger. Your blog will not generate much of an income for you in the beginning.
Affiliate earnings are a great way to start. The problem is people try to do this too soon. Try waiting to monetize your blog in the beginning. Let your readers get to know you and trust you first. Give yourself time to gain some social proof.
10. Neglecting Comments
People who take the time to read your blog post and comment on it deserve a response from you. Over time, as your blog grows, so will your number of comments. It can become difficult to keep up with all of them. While you don’t need to answer all comments it is important to respond to many of them.
By replying to comments regularly, you show your readers that you care and appreciate them. Routine comment responding is such a big natural growth technique in blogging that not doing it can be one of those silent but huge blogging mistakes!
11. Expect more than they give.
An integral part of growing a successful blog is to give your readers more than you get from them. Show your readers it is all about them and not you. A loyal audience develops over time.
Being a giver is a magnetic quality that all successful bloggers demonstrate to their followers. Give whatever you have to offer on your blog for free when starting out. A free eBook or an email course is a wonderful place to start.
12. Weak social media integration and Networking.
Networking is an important part of successful blogging and worthwhile in helping you to promote your blog. Many bloggers don’t know how to optimize the use of social media or begin networking in a way that helps their blog growth.
This results failing to adequately promote your blog and having a weak social media online presence. Social media is all about connecting with others. Not showing up regularly on these powerful platforms disconnects you from your audience.
Integrating your blog with social media outlets helps you to achieve blogging success. Facebook and Twitter are great places to start. You’ll be able to personally connect with your existing readers. A consistent routine of social media interactions helps to establish a new audience, all pointing back to your blog.
Conclusion
When everything indicates you should give up is just when you need to step away but come back to it. You can revisit your blogging and writing goals with a clearer focus.
What blogging mistakes have you made and what did you do to correct them?
How did your blogging mistakes help you grow as a blogger?
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
I prepared to write a guest post to publish on another blog a few moments ago.
However, the blogger seems to have written off the blog. I write and publish one guest post for the blogger infrequently. But the blogger who owns the blog:
never engages on social media
never checks in to scan comments
never seems to do anything related to the blog
I still happily publish the odd guest post for the blogger and their community, but if they care little about the blog, I will guest blog infrequently for the community.
Before typing one word for the blogger, I logged out of that blog, logged in to Cori’s blog, and wrote this guest post. She tirelessly promotes my work. Cori engages me on Twitter. She also promotes one eBook of mine at the end of every guest post I submit. Why in the heck would I NOT guest blog for Cori?
Joy Healey displays the same appreciative, engaging perspective any time I guest post on her blog. She even drops the guest post links into a group who promotes each post freely on Twitter.
Cori and Joy are guest blogging priorities because each warm blogger engages me and works with me for us to spread the word.
Sazzadul Bari has tirelessly engaged me for the years I have guest-posted on his blog. I happily wrote and published 281 guest posts on Blog CD.
I have written and published 48 guest posts on Blogging Front because Apurva Vishwakarma engages me freely and promotes each blog post.
Sazzadul and Apurva appreciate me! I appreciate them! I freely help active bloggers who engage me, for all of us to succeed.
I go to where I am loved. In simple terms; guest blogging for live, active, engaging bloggers is the easiest way to co-create success for everyone involved. But guest blogging for bloggers asleep at the cyber wheel wastes your time. Guest blogging for bloggers who largely write off their blogs seems silly. Why should you care about their blog if they do not care about their blog?
I happily pick up the blogging slack to publish a high volume of genuinely helpful content for bloggers who promote the content and engage me across social channels. I love lending a helping blogging hand for folks who want to succeed.
But if I reach the point where readers believe I am the blogger who owns the domain, I simply know; it may be time to move on because guest blogging works best as a joint venture and quite poorly as a solo venture.
Where do you guest blog? Why do you guest blog on specific blogs?
I once stopped guest blogging for a 2 million-member community because fundamental differences goaded me to part ways. I saw things differently than their editors. But I also suspected that the site owners slowly but steadily cared less and less about the blog.
Observing the blog’s Facebook Page along with other onsite clues, including non-existent engagement and questionable ad placement notified me; guest blogging there no longer seemed to be a match for me.
I do promote old guest posts from that blog and from any blog whose owners seem less than active, but I rarely if ever guest post where the owner has little or any interest in the blog.
Guest blogging works best as a team effort between 2 bloggers intent on co-creating success for one another. Two bloggers promoting guest posts for their tribes amplify each other’s success. Guest post for live blogging bodies. Guest post for engaging bloggers who actively work their blogs. Let go all other bloggers.
Even though I appreciate having admin rights on some blogs whose owners see blogging as a purely passive exploit I see the power in people, not in guest blogging for a passive blogger with a lukewarm or non-engaging community.
Guest post for live bodies. Remove the featured image.
Do you want to start a blog but don’t know how or where to begin? The first baby steps are always the most difficult. The good news is starting a blog has never been easier! In this post, I offer several simple steps to help you begin your blogging journey!
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
I see one tough trend among bloggers these days.
Unfortunately, the trend has been going strong for years.
Facebook crashed a few moments ago. Bloggers complained or simply noted the site being down. Some bloggers invited blogging buddies to connect on new social media websites. Others railed against Facebook. Some sat patiently, waiting out the outage.
But I guarantee a tiny percentage of these bloggers:
wrote and published a post on their blog today
read comments on their blog today
replied to comments on their blog today
improved the user experience on their blog today
While bloggers scramble to connect on new sites or bemoan not being able to connect on Facebook, they are not spending time and energy connecting on their blog. Ummmmmm…..you are a blogger, right? Bloggers blog. Bloggers spend most time writing and publishing blog posts and guest posts. Or bloggers spend most time writing and publishing blog posts and genuine blog comments.
I find it odd how most bloggers spend most time connecting through social media but have no time to blog. I also find it odd how these folks call themselves bloggers when they are amateur social media connectors for all the time spent on social versus their blog. I am a blogger. I spend many hours daily on Blogging From Paradise and other blogs in my niche. Since I am a blogger I spend only a few minutes connecting on social media.
Bloggers spend most time and energy connecting on blogs.
Bloggers struggle, fail and quit by spending most time and energy connecting on social media. Since where your attention and energy goes, grows, giving your focus to social allows your social followings to grow. But growing a large, loyal social following matters little if you spend little time creating and connecting on your blog because people will know you as a social media guy or gal versus being a blogging guy or gal.
Scrap social media for a bit.
Connect on your blog. Spend 30-60 minutes daily rendering some helpful service through your blog before doing anything else. Bloggers create a non-posturing crutch related to social media. Most believe you need social media to connect with readers. But social media is one way to connect with readers, not THE way. Genuine blog commenting connects you with readers. Guest blogging connects you with readers. SEO-optimizing blog posts connects you with readers. Publishing helpful content on your blog connects you with readers.
Why would you spend hours connecting on websites
you do not own?
Spend most time and energy connecting through your blog because you own your blog and set the rules. Frame social media as a secondary or even tertiary connecting medium behind your blog and email list. Never wait around to work because Facebook crashes. Stop migrating to new networks for connecting. Connect through your blog. Connect through a genuine blog commenting campaign.
Donna Merrill would still be connected with her tribe if social media disappeared overnight because her 1000’s of blog comments, 100’s of blog posts and loyal email list exist completely independent of social media. Facebook vanishing does not erase her 1000’s of genuine blog comments. Twitter disappearing does not erase 54,000 backlinks pointing to Blogging From Paradise. Donna and I spent years creating and connecting through online real estate we and our blogging buddies own. Our work vanishes only if our blogs vanish or if all of our buddies’ blogs vanish.
Connect primarily on your blog. Use social media sparingly. Build a rock solid foundation for your blogging business by spending most time creating and connecting on cyber real estate that you own.
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Do you seem to slam into the same blogging problems again and again?
One confusing aspect of blogging failure eludes you.
First off, lighten up! Bloggers tend to beat themselves up for struggling and not pinpointing the cause of failure. But why would you waste energy in self-loathing when finding the solution to your blogging ills seems like the best use of your time, talents and skills?
The confusion: bloggers fail again and again because bloggers do not face fears in mind fueling failure.
Bury fear. Failure continues. Duck fear. Failure repeats. Be aversive. Blogging failure seems as predictable as the movie Groundhog Day, greeting your depressed blogging eyes again, and again and again.
But cutting through confusing failure with the clarity of facing fear instantly changes your blogging strategy.
Bloggers cannot get over what remains within.
Working 18 hour days for 7 days weekly stretching 6 months does not dissolve the fear in your mind. Observe bloggers who work long and hard for years yet fail. The fear in mind induces self-sabotage and failure no matter how much the blogger works.
Bloggers who face, feel and release fears in mind proceed from a success conscious mindset. Success-focused bloggers think, feel and act successfully to succeed. As within, so without, the talisman of wisdom states. Go within. Observe your mind as it is. Change your outer experience.
Face fears now. Dissolve the fuel for your blogging failures. Position yourself to succeed.
For example, imagine setting an intent to be in a billion places online. Even if the premise sounds completely unrealistic, observe how most bloggers who cling to similar lofty intents, behave. Most write and publish a few blog posts and guest posts then quit on fulfilling the intent.
Fear in the mind of most bloggers holds then back from being in 1 billion places online. Being in 1 billion places online is not impossible but attempting to do so with fear in mind is impossible because fear anchors you, holds you back and prevents you from being the person who appears to be everywhere.
However, gradually facing, feeling and releasing fears slowly but surely goads you to think, feel and act like a billion-place blogger. Perhaps you write and publish 1 blog post today and 3 guest posts today. Maybe you follow a similar strategy tomorrow. At the end of one month, 30 blog posts and 90 guest posts with your name attached pop up online.
A growing legion of bloggers promote each post, mushrooming your presence. After one month you show up in 5,000 places online. Digging deeper into fears in mind allows you to appear in 15,000 places online over your first 2 months.
Blogging struggles are in mind. Blogging success is in mind.
Everything is in your mind. Even the actions you take or do not take are in your mind because humans act based solely on their mindset. Someone appears to inspire you but you mentally chose to be receptive to their inspiration, first.
Truthfully, understanding this confusing but powerful blogging truth feels overwhelming at first because you observe your limitless potential on journeying deeper within your mind. I set a billion-places-online intent a while back. Slowly but surely the intent is manifesting as true.
52,000 backlinks point to Blogging From Paradise based on one web service. But I appear in far more places. Why? I gradually, patiently and persistently delve deeper into my mind to face my fears. Ferreting out fears allows me to be the blogger who appears in more spots. Note; appearing in more spots is not really for me but rather to be truly helpful for you. Intent counts!
Face fears in your mind. Clear the source of continued blogging failure. Free yourself to succeed.
He published a comment on Blogging From Paradise a few moments ago explaining how 50,000 monthly visitors who bounce from your blog within 30 seconds doesn’t mean anything because they do not talk about your brand.
Ego makes blogging tough because it seeks:
big numbers
vanity metrics
meaningless markers of alleged growth
untargeted alleged success
50,000 monthly blog visitors sounds impressive but numbers cannot do anything. Imagine 50,000 humans walking past a brick and mortar store, spanning one month. Perhaps 50,000 humans stop for 30 seconds to do some window shopping. But every single person moves on without:
buying anything
noting the store name
referring the store to a friend
browsing around the store for a potential future purchase, based on their keen interest in what the store offers
The store owner’s ego celebrates such a fabulous milestone; 50,000 humans forming such massive store foot traffic sounds inspired! But actual intelligence knows 50,000 untargeted humans with zero interest in your store do not increase:
referrals
significant foot traffic
business
brand awareness
Brand-wise and business-wise, 50,000 untargeted, disinterested people who visit your blog equates to zero humans visiting your blog because casual traffic does not build business. But 1, 5 or 10 highly targeted people who visit your blog daily do everything for your business because the 30, to 150, to 300 highly targeted people who visit your blog monthly:
become brand advocates
promote your blog tirelessly
buy your eBooks, courses, audio books and paperbacks
hire you
comment genuinely on your blog
lower your bounce rate
increase time spent on site
improve your Google ranking by boosting critical SEO factors
Tap into your limitless, clear-thinking, powerful intelligence. Think this through! I learned this lesson of hyper targeting readers versus chasing worthless metrics the hard way. Big numbers are as useless as zero if none of the people seem interested in your blog topic, brand or business.
Stop chasing big metrics. Publish highly-targeted, helpful content designed to solve one specific problem originating in a single niche. Stick to that niche. Give readers a chance to see you as the authority in that niche. Become a niche authority. Intelligently draw a highly-targeted collection of human beings to you who love your blog content, want your insights, buy your stuff, hire you and promote you.
Think targeting over chasing big numbers.
Targeting readers grows your quality traffic, brand advocate base and business. Big numbers do nothing.
One of my harshest blogging lessons consisted of spending years working hard to attain big numbers but struggling blogging-wise because few to none of those human beings seemed interested in my blog, brand and premium offerings. The ego imagined some lofty number of blog visitors as being the answer to blogging struggles but numbers cannot:
promote you
endorse you
buy your offerings
hire you
Feeling the sting of failure and being fed up with working like a blogging beast alerted me to using the power of intelligence to think through my blogging campaign. I slowly but surely began to target my readership by writing and publishing blogging tips themed posts on Blogging From Paradise.
I also began guest blogging mainly on respected blogs from the blogging tips niche. Thinking through my blogging campaign to laser target a few highly interested, loyal readers changed my blogging trajectory. People who loved my content and business offerings began to follow my blog.
A small group of loyal people do the work of a disinterested, largely unengaged, 50,000 subscriber email list.
Bloggers often scramble to gain 30 to 50 email subscribers daily but struggle because the numbers 30 or 50 cannot do anything. Hyper targeting your blogging campaign to attract a few highly-engaged, loyal humans does everything for your blogging campaign because these folks promote you, endorse you, hire you, buy your offerings and grow your business.
Plus, hyper targeted readers add a strong passive element to your blogging business. My loyal, targeted blogging readership promotes me around the clock whether I am online or offline. You cannot beat that!
