Blogging Mistakes You Need To Avoid

Some things are big no’s in the blogging world. These things can totally stunt your blog growth or make blogging harder. If you’re making any of these blogging mistakes or big blogging no’s, you definitely want to stop asap!

So how many of these common blogging mistakes are you making?

Blogging Mistakes You Need To Avoid Making

This post may contain affiliate links. You can read more about affiliates in my disclaimer.

Thinking You’ll Get Rich Overnight

Putting this as number one, since it’s one of the biggest blogging mistakes almost every blogger makes at some point.

It’s true that you can make money blogging, and it’s true that you could potentially make a lot of money blogging, like a full-time living from your blog. But nine times out of ten, it doesn’t happen overnight. For many, making money blogging can take weeks, months, or even years to happen!

That doesn’t mean you should give up on your dream of having a successful money-making blog. It can and it will happen! But it’s important to understand that it will take a lot of time, effort, and work to make consistent money with your blog. The bloggers you see that hit it big only a couple of days or weeks into their blogging journey are the rare, and very very lucky, ones.

In order to make money with your blog you’ll have to experiment with different strategies, get out of your comfort zone, and become truly confident in your work. At the beginning you’ll be working non-stop, and at times it might all feel pointless. But don’t give up! Consistency and quality content will get you there.

Have no idea where to start when it comes to making money blogging? Here are some ways you can make money with your blog!

Not having a self-hosted site

If your blog isn’t self-hosted, you’re making one of the biggest blogging mistakes. This is especially true if you hope to make money, start a business, or look more professional.

You hear it all the time, “go self-hosted with your blog”!, and I’m going to tell you also that you absolutely should!

When your site is self-hosted, (yourdomain.com instead of yourdomain.wordpress.com), you will be able to do so much more with it! You’ll have more freedom, you will be able to make money by placing ads, selling services, and joining affiliate programs. And most importantly, you’ll actually own your site!

There are so many hosting providers to choose from, but I always recommend Siteground to everyone! I’ve been using Siteground for both of my sites and I have nothing but good things to say about them. It’s really easy to use, I’ve dealt with no website downtime, and both of my websites run fast. They also offer site transfers, so moving from a hosted site to self-hosted is super easy! Plus their chat support system is amazing. (So amazing in fact, when I accidentally messed up my entire site, like blank screen of death showing up, they were able to fix it for me within minutes!).

Having a site that doesn’t function properly

There’s nothing worse than clicking on a link that sounds interesting but ending up on a site that takes forever to load, has a confusing layout, or is written in a font that is too light or too small to read.

In fact, having a site that doesn’t function properly is one of the worst blogging mistakes you can make because readers won’t stick around long enough to actually see the great content you create! There are a few major things to pay attention to when it comes to having a blog that functions properly.

First, make sure your theme is easy to navigate. You want to have a menu at the top of your site so readers can easily explore your blog or find what they’re looking for. A side-bar menu is also great to have. Readers that use mobile devices may not see your side bar menu, but it is beneficial to those reading your blog on a desktop.

Your blog should also have an easy to read font. Avoid super light, tiny, or hard to read fonts. Your background should be light too, to help avoid eye strain.

If you’re looking for a good blog theme, check out some of these on Etsy or some of these from StudioPress!

Another important thing to consider when making sure your blog is functioning properly is the load speed. Nobody wants to wait around for your site to load. This not only means no one will see the content you worked hard on, but it might also hurt your bounce rate.

To make sure your site speed is good update any plugins when necessary, and get rid of any you don’t need or use. Unused plugins take up space and slow your site down. A couple of other things that effect your site speed include redirects, image size, and ads. Limit your redirects, make sure your images are the correct size, and make sure you’re not overloading your site with ads!

If you want to test your site speed, check out this tool!

Not being organized

Being disorganized is a big blogging don’t!

Now, you definitely don’t need to have color-coded notes or a thesaurus-sized planner with tabs on every little detail, but you still want to keep things organized. Running a blog requires a lot of work, and you want to be able to keep track of what needs to get done and when. In fact, being organized will make blogging so much easier!

It’s important to have a blog posting schedule, whatever it may be. You can choose to upload new blog posts once a week, once a month, etc. It’s good to have a blog posting schedule for your own sake, but it doesn’t need to be set in stone. It will be a lot easier to stay consistent when you have a good posting schedule for yourself.

You should also plan out your content in advance, that way you have plenty of time to post high quality content consistently. Some bloggers choose to plan content months in advance, but you can also plan and create content weekly. Do whatever works best for you!

Setting goals is another great way to stay organized and run a successful blog. When you write down your goals, and break them down, you have a much higher chance of getting things done and accomplishing your dreams.

And if you’re planning to, or already do, make money with your blog, it’s a good idea to stay organized with all money-related information. You want to keep track of your blogging income and income sources, your blogging expenses, and your monetization methods. Plus any useful tax information and invoices.

If you’re looking for the best way to plan out your blog content and keep track of all important things, check out the Blogging Babes Printable Blogging Workbook + Planner! This printable workbook and planner comes with 50+ pages to help you stay on top of important deadlines and events, plan out high quality content, and do keyword research for search engine optimized posts. Plus extra blogging resources and tips so you can truly take your blog to the next level!

Not Paying Attention To Your Audience

This is one of the biggest blogging mistakes I’m sometimes shocked to see bloggers making. Not paying attention to your audience is not only rude, but it can also hurt your blog a lot.

Your audience are the people who read and engage with your content. And in a way, they should also help you determine what kind of content to create. And no, that doesn’t mean don’t post for yourself and become a total sell-out and only post content that’s going to boost traffic and sales for you. That would be another blogging mistake, and take all of the passion out of creating content.

But if you want your blog to grow, and you want to make money with it as well, paying attention to what kind of content your audience enjoys is one thing that will help. Pay attention to what things interest your readers by looking at your most popular posts. Engage with your readers on social media to find out what they want to know more about. And if the things they’re interested in match what you’re passionate about, create that content!

And another thing, don’t ignore them. If someone goes out of their way to leave you a comment on one of your blog posts, respond! Spend a little time every day engaging with your readers and followers on social media. A loyal and engaging audience is better than a big one.

Not learning SEO

I see it over and over again. Bloggers spending hours and hours promoting their posts on social media, but flat out ignoring SEO. And they’re potentially missing out on thousands of organic blog views.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is when you write content that will show up when someone searches for something specific on Google or any other search engine. And it’s one of the best ways to drive consistent traffic to your blog.

SEO is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your blog for a number of reasons. SEO brings you organic traffic, meaning someone was searching for something specific and found your post.

It’s a good idea to implement SEO strategies for your blog because SEO can help bring you consistent traffic. Although it can sometimes take a little time to see the results of SEO, once your posts are ranking you could possibly reap in the benefits of it for years. This means less time promoting, and more time gaining traffic and making money.

For some, SEO can be a little tricky, and time consuming, to learn. But it’s still important to spend some time learning it since it’s so beneficial to all bloggers! Luckily, there are so many resources out there to help make learning SEO a lot easier! Moz has a ton of free information on SEO and it’s one of my favorite places to learn more about it!

Not legally protecting your site

Whether you’re blogging for money or blogging for fun, you want to make sure your site is legally protected. That means having a disclaimer, privacy policy, and terms and condition page. These three pages protect you and your website from potential lawsuits, and you’re required to have them if you want to make money from your blog.

When it comes to legal pages, it’s best to have them written up by a lawyer. This insures you’re actually legally protected. If you try writing legal pages yourself, you may accidentally leave something important out, or you may not word it correctly, and you might end up leaving your site vulnerable to lawsuits. Also, you should never copy and paste someone else’s legal pages. If their pages were written up by a lawyer, you can get in a lot of trouble for copying them.

The absolute best thing to do, and what I recommend to everyone, is to purchase these legal page templates from Amira at A Self Guru. She’s a lawyer and a blogger, and she created these legal pages for anyone to use on their site. The coolest thing about them is that you pay one time for the legal pages, and you have access to them for life. Which means if you decide to start a new blog, you can use them there too! She also always updates them when necessary and you get access to all of the updates.

Not Including Images In Your Posts

Images are a really important part of all blog posts. They help break content up, give readers a visual guide, and make your site look better. Plus, coming to a site that’s all words and not a single image or graphic isn’t ideal for everyone, especially if you’re talking about a place, product, or thing. People want to see what you’re talking about, so show them!

You don’t have to include 20+ photos in each blog post, but at least one or two should be included. If you’re reviewing something, you may want to include more photos, since people want to see if the product or place is worth it or not. And remember, the photos you include in your posts should always be related to the post content.

It’s also a great idea to include pinnable images in your posts. Pinnable images are images that are designed to be shared on Pinterest. These are usually vertical images that are 1000 x 1500 pixels. Including a couple of these increases your chances of having your post shared to Pinterest by readers!

If photography is hard for you, or you don’t have the right supplies, you can always use stock images! And if you’re looking to create and design graphics or logos, use Canva!

Not Having An Email List

Emails sound like old news, but there’s so much potential in a good email list!

Unlike social media, getting someone to sign up to your email list is much more personal, most people will only sign up if they’re genuinely interested in your content. This means that your email subscribers are more likely to click links within your emails, check out your latest posts, or buy your products!

Having an email list is also a great way for people who don’t use social media to find your blog and keep up to date with it. Often times if someone comes across your post on Pinterest or through a search engine the only way they can continue to be updated on your posts is to subscribe to your email list. Not having an email list is one of the biggest blogging mistakes because you could be loosing out on potential returning readers.

My favorite email marketing platform to use is Mailerlite. Their system is super easy to use, you have the option to customize your emails and subscribe forms so they go with your brand, and they’re free up to your first 1,000 subscribers!

As far as what to send out in your emails, that depends mostly on what your niche is. A few basic ideas include links to your recent, or greatest, blog posts, exclusive content, or fun freebies! You can also use your email list to run surveys to get a good idea of what your readers are looking for.

But bottom line, don’t sleep on the email list!

Comparing Your Blogging Journey To Others

Some bloggers hit it big overnight, others take years to grow. Some bloggers make money from their blog right away, others take a while to monetize. But you can’t compare your blogging journey to anyone else’s.

Everyone does things at their own pace and in their own way. Every blogger has different goals for their blog, different passions, and different ideas. And that’s the coolest thing about blogging!

So don’t waste your time wondering why another blogger is scoring deals left and right, while you’re just getting started. Quit comparing your content to others. And if you find yourself getting discouraged by another blogger’s success, stop, and remember that your time will come as well!

Focus on growing your blog, creating high quality content, and enjoying all of the up’s and down’s of your blogging journey.

You got this!

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Read More:

Ways To Make Money With Your Blog

7 Things You Need To Start A Money Making Blog