Starting a blog tips – Blogging attracts many people on a daily basis and continues to be popular with every passing day. Being so cheap to start, many of the beginners tend to get confused and carried away by established blogs online.
Due to the monthly blog income reports mostly. So you find that almost 90% of the new bloggers start with totally wrong expectations in their minds.
This leads to them making mistakes with their blogs and eventually it gets so hard for them to keep up. They obviously quit. In this post we will discuss starting a blog tips mainly blogging mistakes I see new bloggers make and hopefully you will learn from them if you are a new blogger.
Starting a Blog Tips 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid
1. Not choosing the perfect niche
When you are new in blogging, you won’t find a class in your school to teach you the basics of blogging or what to do to get started the right way. So you end up learning from other bloggers, YouTube channels, online forums etc.
As you would expect, people will always advocate for what worked for them regardless of whether it fits your level of skills and knowledge or not.
You end up consuming endless advice from different people which helps you with nothing but leave you confused. The popular advice you will get is that you should go for a niche that is trending as it will gain more traffic which means more money for you.
On that note, learn how to increase traffic to your blog for free with these tips on this post.
Be it you monetize with affiliate marketing or display ad networks, it all boils down to your web traffic. Even being considered for sponsored posts, brands will want to know that the partnership is viable by checking your traffic as well. More on how bloggers make money.
So people end up letting go what they are interested in and go with the trending without thinking of what happens when the trend is over. Obviously trends are seasonal and with time, they will come to an end just like in fashion.
The designs you loved last year aren’t the ones you want to wear today. So the thing that motivated you to start the blog will be gone, the traffic and all the benefits promised by random online sources for that matter.
To escape this trap, go for a self-evaluation first. Look within yourself and see what your biggest interests and abilities are. Be honest with yourself. It is only from knowing where you are that you can know where to go next.
So take for example if you have interest in hairdressing, the next step is to ask yourself how you can help other people with your knowledge and skills in hairdressing.
If you can answer those questions honestly enough, then my friend you just got yourself the perfect niche. For you.
2. Not choosing a proper domain
A domain name plays a very big part in growing your authority online. Whenever a person comes across your domain name, they need to get a perfect impression of what type of content they are going to find on your blog.
You need to choose a domain name that fits your type of content. Also, you need to consider the domain extension as well.
If you are not targeting your local area or country alone, you need a high quality domain extension like a .com which is the most popular and best in almost every case.
It will not only give your blog a professional taste, but also will make people take you seriously as compared to using a free domain.
Take the hairdresser example, a good domain name would be something like “coolhairstyles.com” just something that is related to the main terms which are hard dressing. Another great way is to use your name along with the hairstyles.
Your creativity helps a lot at this stage. How to purchase domain name for website.
3. Not doing keyword research
Assuming you have already decided on what your niche is and chosen your blog domain name, now you need to create content. You do not want to just write aimlessly. Since your blog is new, you want people to discover and know about it.
And the only way to do that is sharing your content when you publish.
This could be on your social media accounts or just with your friends. To get good consistent organic traffic coming to your blog, you will need to do seo (search engine optimization). Learn what seo is in detail.
This is by optimizing your blog content for search engines using relevant keywords such that when people look for hairdressing information on Google, your blog comes up.
It is basically looking for what people are searching related to hairdressing for example, and then creating content around those phrases. The phrases are what we term as keywords.
If you do not start doing keyword research from the start, you will be missing out on so much since you will be relying on your social media accounts alone for traffic which isn’t that great as compared to seo.
With seo you get free, quality, organic and consistent traffic from search engines like Google and Bing. 22 content marketing types to gain traffic.
4. Blogging inconsistently
Almost every area of our lives depends on consistency. Showing up every day without failing even when it feels hard to. You do not go to the gym today and do every exercise and go for a month without another workout.
It is better to do at least one exercise every week than all exercises in one day and go missing. The same also applies in blogging. You have to develop a schedule you are comfortable with and stick to it no matter what.
It does not have to be so hard or make you be so harsh on yourself either. All you have to do is find what you are comfortable with and go with that. If you are able to produce only one blog article per week, that is fine. Do that and stick to it.
If you can do more, it is also fine. Remember, consistency is the key. There are times when you feel so motivated to write more. Instead of publishing all the articles today, schedule them instead for the coming weeks.
That will save you a lot and give you more time to come up with fresh ideas for new posts without rushing. Whatever you decide on and are comfortable with, stick with it and try to be as consistent as you can.
5. Giving up too soon
Just like in any other type of business, you have to give your business time to grow. At least let your target customers notice it and also, to attract new ones in the process. This also applies to blogging.
It is hard in a way since the society kind of teaches you to be more accountable to your boss and not yourself. People really do make a living out of blogging but it takes efforts. As cheap as it is, your efforts play a big part.
Else everybody would be doing it and living their best life away from a regular 9-5 job. The thing with new bloggers is they start their blog and after posting their first few blog posts and seeing no traffic, they lose hope.
As an entrepreneur, you need to stop thinking like an employee who expects the paycheck every month and start looking at it from a different angle.
There are months when even the established bloggers experience lower revenue than others. But they keep going. That’s what a business owner does. If your business does not take off in the first year do you just give up? Of course not!
You look for what is lacking and improve on that. And with time, it starts to bear fruits and grows even bigger. So do not be the type of person who gives up just after publishing ten blog posts.
Keep learning and sharpening your blogging skills as you work on your blog. It is something you are starting and nobody expects you to be an expert in it so be gentle on yourself my dear. Observing best blogging practices will save you so much.
Conclusion
I believe you found the post useful and learnt something on “Starting a Blog Tips” and the common mistakes to avoid. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment and let’s help new bloggers out there struggling to find their way.
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Hey, I’m Frank! A Digital Entrepreneurship enthusiast. I help people understand the fundamentals of digital entrepreneurship. I created this site originally to hone my web design skills, motivate & inspire people who also love to dream big! Read more...
good work
Thank you so much Shiran. Really appreciate it.
Good
Thank you Tharusha.