If you think you have done everything to turn your blog into a money-minting machine, but revenue is not forthcoming, subtle blogging mistakes could be the disease.
It is true that blogging is a long-term business that requires patience and persistent publishing before you start earning.
But if you don’t realize common blogging mistakes early and avoid them, you could waste a lot of time and resources.
In this article, I will show some possible mistakes derailing your blog from growing and reaching its full potential.
So, without unnecessary delays, let’s get into it:
1- Using Free Hosting Platform
You have probably heard of the expression “free things are expensive.” This is not some marketing gimmick to encourage you to buy expensive stuff. It is a fact.
As a beginner blogger with a limited budget, you may want free hosting platforms to save on capital investment. However, if you consider blogging a business, you must invest some money into it. It is how business work.
Why is using free hosting platforms a mistake that can derail your blogging business?
- Reliability: free hosting websites have more downtime than you would want for your website. They are not reliable. One day you may wake up and find that your website has disappeared into thin air. What a tragedy that could be; all your hard work gone in smoke.
- Performance: Free hosting platforms are often slow, thus affecting user experience. You see, Google uses site speed to rank sites, and if yours competes with a tortoise, how can it compete?
- Security: Threats for cyber attacks necessitate that you guarantee security for your site visitors. Most users will not click on unsecured sites, even if your content is top-notch.
- Privacy: Free hosting platform providers can allow their employees to access, configure, or delete your files without your authorization.
I could talk about the dangers of free hosting platforms all day long, but that is a topic for a future blog. Let’s move on to the second blogging mistake.
If you wonder which website hosting suits you best, I suggest you read this article about Siteground and Bluehost, the two most popular website hosting companies in the blogging community.
2- Your writing is academic
This was one of my mistakes when I ventured into blogging. I had skills and experience writing academic papers, a thesis, and term papers.
So, I thought I could transfer that skill into blogging. I was wrong!
No one enjoys reading term papers…unless you are a student studying for exams. Furthermore, people will not read your blog one by word.
So, to keep your readers interested, you should write in a style that encourages effortless reading.
The secret?
- Make your blogs personable. Write as you talk; be conversational.
- If your readers find your writing approachable, they will likely enjoy reading it. Your audiences are excited when they know they are not doing business with robots but with real people.
- So, be you when writing. Throw in some contractions and eliminate the jargon. Talk like a real person. People want to hear the real you.
3- Thinking Too Much Of Yourself
I am not being harsh here; I have been there too. When you start blogging, you may think too much of yourself.
Most beginners think their audiences are inherently interested in their interests and stories; however, that is seldom the case.
Your audience only cares about what you can teach them.
So, focus on teaching or informing your readers in simple and clear words. However, this doesn’t mean you should not show your personality in your blogs.
It is essential that you infuse your personality into your work and make it feel comfortable with you. Some writers are jocular, others are good with vivid descriptions, and others are good with pop culture references.
How you manifest your personality and keep readers interested in your writing is up to you.
4- Failure To Incorporate Keywords In Your Blog Post
Before you begin writing, ask yourself: Why and for whom am I writing this article? Who is my target audience, and how will they find my article?
Statistics show that there are 600 million blogs online and 7.5 million blogs being published daily across all platforms.
That is a turn of content! So, if you want your article to count, readers should find it. And the only way they’ll find it is through keyword searches.
I am not encouraging keyword stuffing; Google frowns at this practice. You should, by all means, focus on the reader and topics you are passionate about, but also, please search engines with suitable keywords.
Use words your target audience will likely type in the search tab. The more people find your blog, the higher the chances you will rank and make money.
5- Failure To Create a Blog Monetization Strategy
I want to believe that you work hard on your blog to make money. If that is the case, then you need a monetization strategy.
Most new bloggers write articles and post on their sites with the hope that it will miraculously generate traffic, and boom!…they become millionaires.
I am not saying that blogging cannot make you a millionaire; I know many rich bloggers. But if you want to achieve that level of success, you should have a monetization strategy.
So, how do you want to make money with your blog?
If you know the answer to this question beforehand, the chances are you will achieve your objective.
Unfortunately, some writers make the mistake of not knowing how their blog will generate income.
Here are some suggestions:
- Affiliate marketing
- Sell advertisement space
- Selling ebooks
- Selling online courses
- Email marketing
- Secure sponsorship
Of course, you should first post several high-quality contents to attract audiences and business.
6- Wrong Or Broad Topic Choice
This was also one of my mistakes when I started blogging. I chose broad topics that did not narrow down to my target audience.
If you don’t choose a specific topic, it will be challenging to address them adequately. For instance, consider these topics:
- How to make money online
- Best business practices
- Best business idea
You will agree that these topics are broad with lots of information, making it challenging to cut through the noise and give your real audience value.
It is easy to become fluffy and boring with such topics. On the other hand, narrowing down allows you to target specific customers and address their needs.
If you are stuck on how to come up with suitable topics, you can check out Hubspot’s Blog Idea Generator.
But what is the wrong blogging topic?
Several things make a bog topic wrong. Consider some signs that your topic is not ideal.
- The topic is too competitive: With stiff competition, you will unlikely rank because your competitors have more authority. Consider search results for the topic “how to write a blog post.”
You can see the top four competitors for this broad topic are the big fish in the industry, like masterclass.com, Wix.com, huspot.com, and wordstream.com. These sites have high authority.
- Mismatched audience: A wrong topic could also attract the wrong audience who do not know your products.
- Your content is time-sensitive: Content should continue to drive traffic to your site years after its publication. Unless you publish on a news site, your articles should offer timeless information.
If you are interested in exploring various blog niche ideas, I encourage you to read this article about the best niche for blogging, including diverse examples.
7- Shallow research
Let me address a common blogging mistake I see with many new bloggers. Rewriting, content spinning, or what my friends call researched articles.
It is the plague of our generation.
What am I talking about?
You have a topic to write about, and you open the first four articles on Google’s first page and then rewrite relevant portions of these blogs.
The result?
Unnatural articles that do not resonate with readers. You may include all the relevant keywords to please Google gods, but what about addressing your audience’s pain points?
Sometimes ranking articles do not address your topic title. So, if you rehash them in your blog, it contributes to reader frustration and lowers your site’s traffic in the long run.
Therefore, make it a habit to dig deep into research before you start writing. Understand what your readers need and publish valuable information.
Note: Write for your readers, not you or search engines. It is not enough that your topic interests you and is optimized. The audience should love it!
8- Failure To Use Provide Statistical Evidence To Back Your Claim
Let’s assume you read a blog post on why businesses should leverage Instagram in their marketing strategy. Which of these assertions is more convincing?
“Nowadays, more people are using Instagram than other social media sites.”
“Instagram’s user base is growing at an exponential rate than most social media sites. eMarketer projects that monthly Instagram users in 2022 will increase by over 70 million, proving to be a gold mine for businesses.”
Of course, the second one. And it is not hard to see why. Arguments or assertions backed with evidence are more compelling.
As a blogger and a marketer, you want your audience to trust your content. You also want them to take action, and text supported by data catches your readers’ attention more than fluffy arguments.
Data also help you put a solid argument and conclude with an actionable takeaway for your audience.
So, where can you find compelling data to include in your blog? Here are a few places:
9- Not Building Backlinks
If you have researched how blogging is in your learning curve before you can start, you may have come across the term backlinking.
So, what are backlinks?
Backlinko provides a beautiful definition of backlinks and their value as follows:
It is clear from this definition why it is costly to ignore backlinking when building your blogging business.
If you fail to build backlinks, you risk your chances of ranking on Google and generating organic traffic.
But how can you build backlinks?
- Referral backlinks: Use Google Analytics or MonesterInsights to know which sites have linked back to your site and create similar content for backlinking opportunities.
- Form a partnership with your outbound links: If you have linked to a high authority website and your site increases its traffic, you can send them an email for a partnership.
- Conduct an industry case study: If you have money, you can invest in a unique industry case study that others can refer to.
- Spy on your competition: you can ethically spy on your competitors using tools like SEMrush to see where they get their backlinks and which keywords they use.
- Guest posting: This strategy could also provide you with valuable backlinks. You can link back to your site whenever you guest post on another site.
10- Plagiarism
I probably first came across this word in high school, and the teachers could give us punishment for copying another student’s work.
So, if plagiarism didn’t succeed in high school and college, it will only harm your blogs.
Unfortunately, many wannabes professional bloggers think they can defeat the system and get away with copy-pasting techniques.
Even if you beat plagiarism tools like Copyscape, your readers will likely know when you have copied your content from somewhere else. This point reinforces the need to avoid rewriting or rehashing other writers’ articles.
Trying to avoid plagiarism using AI writing tools will sound off.
Furthermore, you could be penalized if Google catches you stealing content from other sites. Your organic traffic could be adversely affected, thus impeding your business growth.
How do you avoid plagiarism?
- Be knowledgeable about the topic you want to write on through deep research. When you understand your topic of discussion, you can create valuable original content not found anywhere on the internet.
- If you refer to other people’s work in your post, you can learn how to cite them professionally.
11- Not Sharing Your Post On Social Media Platforms
I know I have alluded to the value of consistent content creation to be recognized by your potential audience. However, you also need to share your posts on your social media pages equally.
Whenever you post a blog on your website, ensure you share it on social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Last year, 90% of bloggers leveraged social media to promote their blogs, while 62% turned to SEO and email marketing.
Therefore, don’t make the mistake many new bloggers make of ignoring social media. Social media has over 3.6 billion users and does not show signs of slowing down.
You can use these platforms to promote your post, reach the masses, and draw traffic to your website.
Final Thoughts
Hey, don’t beat yourself up if you find that you have made most of these mistakes in your blogging journey. It is a learning process in which you intend to achieve success.
As you learn new tricks for creating high-quality content that converts, you will see that your efforts were not in vain. Ensure that your grammar, blog title, and body is up to par with professional standards and meet the need of your target audience.
I hope this list has provided you with valuable insight into common blogging mistakes to avoid. Are there other common mistakes you have seen bloggers make?
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