Anyone can start a blog, but only some will grow their blog into a successful and profitable business.
Although there are often things that are out of our control with blogging, there are definitely a lot of ways to set your blog up for success.
Mistakes You Shouldn’t Be Making as a Blogger
Here is a list of common mistakes that you don’t want to make as a blogger if you’re hoping to turn your blog into an unbelievably passive income stream.
1. Not using Pinterest
Pinterest is the single most useful traffic generating tool out there and you should be using it to your advantage. It’s responsible for 95% of my site traffic on my mom blog.
Unlike Google which is a text-based search engine, Pinterest is a visual search engine. Therefore if you have great graphic design skills (or are willing to learn), you can do really well on Pinterest.
If you know that your audience may hang out on Pinterest, get on there and start pinning as soon as possible! You will be shocked how quickly your traffic can take off if you’re following the best tips and advice.
Here is a great tutorial on how to get started if you’re new to Pinterest.
2. Focusing on the wrong things or too many things
You’ll need to hone in on the ultimate purpose of your blog, how you expect to grow it, and where exactly your audience hangs out.
You might just be spending your time in the wrong places and that’s why your traffic isn’t increasing. For example, if you only have 400 followers on Instagram, it won’t benefit you to constantly be posting and spending precious time on Instagram for the little traffic it may bring you.
There are millions of people on Google and Pinterest that can see your content without being your ‘follower’ so you may want to focus your effort more on SEO for that reason.
Also, spreading yourself to thin because you’re trying to do too many things can be detrimental instead of beneficial.
If you spent 20 hours a week getting yourself on Pinterest by pinning, following similar bloggers, curating boards, optimizing your profile, etc. you could get yourself set up for a great future with Pinterest.
However, if you spent 5 hours on Instagram, 5 Hours on Facebook, 5 hours writing blog posts, and 5 hours creating printable lead magnets, you won’t see as much of an increase in any one area.
Therefore, it’s best to focus all your energy on one or 2 specific areas and really grow that to the max. Maybe pick one social media platform and of course writing blog posts.
3. Not putting in enough effort
Blogging is hard work. The good news is that it really is only tough in the beginning. Once you’ve learned how to blog and figured out all the little nuances, you should be smooth sailing after that.
However, you have to put in an enormous amount of effort if you want to be successful. Don’t think that you can just buy a website domain and write a couple posts and people will come flooding into your blog.
Blog success is directly correlated to how much time and dedication you are putting into it.
Therefore, get motivated and spend your time researching, writing, editing, promoting, and designing to produce the best content and get it in front of the eyes of millions.
4. Not giving yourself enough credit
Blogging is probably so much more work than you expected before you started, right? To most, blogging may seem like you just type out your thoughts on a website and watch the traffic roll in.
It’s definitely not that simple and actually quite complex. Now that you’ve been learning all the skills that a blogger needs to possess, you’ve probably seen yourself grow so much as a writer, designer, and entrepreneur.
Think about all the hard work you have already put in and be so proud of how far you come.
You have probably learned technical concepts and design skills that you never thought you would learn.
You’ve been committed to growing a blog or business for some time now and put in hours upon hours of time and effort into it.
You should really be so impressed with all of your hard work and effort. The sooner you start recognizing how amazing your work is and having the confidence to show it off, you will find more success.
That leads me to the next mistake…
5. Giving up too quickly
Every blogger goes through highs and lows at some point.
One week I’ll be super motivated and get a few posts published, emails sent out, and designs created. Then I’ll go 2 weeks where I’m disinterested and feeling defeated.
It’s just the nature of working for yourself and relying on something that you can’t completely control to earn an income.
No one is telling you exactly what to do and how to do it.
It can be overwhelming at times and you may get bored or discouraged, but DON’T GIVE UP.
Blogging can be a bit of a rollercoaster, but you WILL be successful if you stay at it for some time.
You’re not going to see overnight success, but the longer your blog is established, the more opportunity you will have to see it’s true potential.
Don’t lose confidence in yourself. You have what it takes to make a full-time income blogging.
6. Not thinking about your audience
If you want readers to come to your site, stick around, and even come back again, you need to give them what they want. They’ve stumbled upon your page looking for the answer to their question or a solution to their problem.
They want to know how to solve their issue fast.
Your job is to know who your readers are, what they want to hear and how to best get their question answered.
If you’re focusing your blog solely on yourself, you’re going to have a hard time gaining loyal followers. Blogging for profit is not just based solely on writing about yourself and personal experiences.
You want to always relate all of your stories back to how it can help your reader.
7. Not doing enough research and education
If you’re completely new to this online business/digital/technology world that is blogging (like I was), you’re going to need to do A LOT of learning.
Blogging can be like learning a new language for some that aren’t super computer savvy.
The good news is that most of the information you will need to learn can be found for free on the internet, you just need to do a lot of digging.
Don’t expect to learn everything you need to know in one afternoon or by watching one YouTube video. You will constantly run into areas that you need to improve your skills so you should always be learning.
Aside from learning about how to blog, you’ll need to do research on your blog post topics too.
Unless you have vast professional knowledge in the topic you’re blogging about, you probably want to give your audience some factual information, as well as answers and solutions that worked for others.
It may not be enough to just share your own opinions and experiences, but do some research do you can add more relevant information to your posts.
8. Dwelling on things that are out of your control
There are plenty of things in the blogging world that are out of our control. For example, Google or Pinterest changing their algorithms and seasonal or holiday dips in traffic.
Since you can’t control these things, focus your energy on the things that you CAN control. That being putting out quality blog posts, promoting your site on social media platforms, adding in SEO where you can, etc.
The sooner you stop feeling bad about the changes that you don’t have control over, the sooner you’ll experience the confidence to build your blog into a successful business.
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I hope you’re avoiding these mistakes as a new blogger so you can watch your blog turn into a success. Write in the comments below if you have any questions about your blogging journey!
