The 5 Mistakes I Made as a New Blogger

So you want to break into the blogging world? Well there is a lot to learn, but this post will teach you about the mistakes I made as a new blogger, so you can avoid making these same mistakes. It will make your transition into the blogging world a lot smoother.

I DIDN’T KNOW MY WHY AND MY WHO

One of the biggest mistakes I made as a new blogger is not knowing why I was creating a blog in the first place. I didn’t have an objective or a goal when it came to blogging. I just wrote anything hoping that people would discover my blog. I had no clear strategy to getting more viewers. Knowing your “why” for creating a blog is important because you will create content more aligned with that goal.

I also didn’t know who my blog was going to cater to. I knew it was going to be for women, but that was it. I had not established a target audience and it showed in my writing. Having a target audience helps you to create blog posts that would cater specifically to them instead of creating general posts.

I DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SEO

Search engine optimization who? I had no idea what that was and when I did try to learn it, I was just utterly confused. I ended up ditching learning about SEO and just decided to wing it. That was a very bad idea and I recommend you master SEO before you type any kind of content. When my “Brand Ambassador Scams” post went viral, I realized it was a result of SEO. I had written a blog post following the guidelines of SEO without realizing it. I realized then, how powerful SEO was and started studying it like I had a big exam the next month. The Yahoo Style Guide is a great book that breaks down SEO in a way that it has never been broken down before. I not only learned what SEO was, but they gave actual examples using blog posts.

Implementing SEO has drastically improved my viewership on my other posts. I now see a huge difference in the amount of people who view my posts, unlike before where I would barely get any views. Who knew that something as simple as SEO could be so powerful.

I TRIED TO BE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE

Blogging is hard and I still think that after doing it for so many years. When I decided to start blogging, I didn’t know where to begin. I had no idea what content to write and what value I could bring to others. I started looking at what other bloggers were doing and tried to emulate that. That was a big fail because I wasn’t being true to myself and I was not using my own voice. Well I am glad to say that I have found my voice and doing so has garnered me the actual response I wanted. You are doing a disservice to yourself when you try to be like others. Just be yourself and work on showing you amazing personality through your writing. You might not get the traffic you want immediately, but you will eventually.

BEING INCONSISTENT

I would blog every day for a week or so and then you wouldn’t hear from me for about a month. It was horrible and it wasn’t showing that I was taking my blog very seriously. I can now say that I am a lot more organized with my posts. Before I post, I now keep a calendar and a planner. I write down the type of posts I will be writing and when they will be published. I also have a months worth of blog posts ready to be published. I used to just write my posts on the spot and then publish them, but now I have a more organized schedule that allows me to be consistent with my posts every single week. Now, if I have a day when I just don’t feel like writing or I just can’t seem to get the words out, I can take a day or two and it doesn’t hurt the consistency of my blog.

NOT PROMOTING MY BLOG CONTENT

This is a huge mistake for any new blogger out there. You need to promote the hell out of your content. Promote it on every social media platform you utilize. Tell your friends and family. Learn how to promote your content and create a schedule of the days you will focus just on promotion. One of the best places to promote your blog content is through Pinterest. Pin your own content to your board and join Pinterest group boards. Add a link to your blog in your YouTube description or create an Instagram story letting your followers know that you have published a new blog post. There are so many ways to promote your content and it doesn’t take long to do it. While SEO is amazing, using it along with promotion will bring so many views to your blog.