Beginner Blogging Mistakes: What Not To Do When Starting A Blog

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Blogging is among the most profitable money-making ways today, however, it’s also very easy to screw up. The truth is, most of the bloggers earn little to nothing, simply because they’re making those mistakes that could be completely avoided only if they studied this article.

In this post, you’re going to read about these beginner blogging mistakes that could totally destroy your chances of earning income with your blog.

You’ll also learn some excellent techniques you can use to improve traffic, increase conversions, and also your profits.

Remember that these strategies can be used on any blogging site, but if your blog is in the wrong niche, your results won't be of the same quality as you might hope. We’ll talk more about selecting the right niche later.

Don’t just skim through this report please and not take action on it. The mistakes below could actually destroy the chances of earning money. It’s pretty that serious!

Now, let’s jump right in.

Choosing the incorrect niche

With regard to blogging, it’s important to find the right niche from the very beginning. It’s a waste of money and time if you plan to make money with your blog and then you select a niche that isn’t profitable.

Though there’s no exact solution to be 100% sure, you can find many ways to determine which niches are likely to be lucrative.

Choosing the incorrect niche for your blog

Competition is good, believe it or not. It means that the niche is viable. Heavy competition might be considered a bad thing, however, you shouldn’t be worried about a significant amount of it.

About monetization – You should discover whether you can find lots of products available to promote. In case you can’t find any, it most likely means that the niche just isn't lucrative. (Believe me, if a niche can earn a profit remotely, someone is already working on that.) And don’t think please you are able to monetize any niche market with things like AdSense, because you would need a massive amount of traffic to make that possible.

Commercial Intent – It’s a fancy term to refer to if individuals in this niche would buy anything. If it is something like humorous videos, you won't make any money with it. It might still be possible by having an extremely massive amount of traffic, but difficult all around.

Your business doesn’t need to be in a product-centric niche like men’s shoes, however, you have to stay in a niche where people are proven to buy materials, like weight loss or golf.

In case your site doesn’t follow this checklist, it’s not likely you're going to make as much money you hope. It’s probably possible, however, your chances will definitely be reduced.

Whenever choosing a niche, be cautious to pick one where you are able to get significant traffic (adequate traffic, adequate competition) as well as one that also is likely to be lucrative.

All in all, as an affiliate marketer, you’ll want something to promote.

Giving up too early

Maybe the most popular mistake apart from choosing the incorrect niche is just giving up too early. Practically, any blog could possibly become really lucrative if given sufficient time, but most people give up long before that time.

An average business usually takes between one and four years to become lucrative, however, the average person tends to quit on a blog after a few months if it does not start earning profits instantly. How come this?

Giving up blogging too early

For example, people usually believe blogging is a “get rich quick” strategy. It is not. It requires hard work, time, and dedication. It’s not effortless, not fast and magical.

Blogging may possibly take anywhere between six months and four years to really explode. It takes a long time to begin generating adequate traffic from the major search engines, plus it takes a while to create a fan base as well as an email list.

In case you reach the one-year mark and you’re not seeing any significant earnings, you should probably re-analyze your data to see if you picked an incorrect niche or you did something wrong. But don’t quit too early or you won't ever learn what could have been.

Running your blog without promotions

A long time ago, when you conducted some keyword research and published some keyword-rich content, it was pretty much possible to rely on sitting back and making some money by having a blog.

However, Google’s algorithms have changed. The goal was to fight spammers who flooded the web with poor content meant to get people to click ads. This has made it more difficult to gain exposure. So It usually takes considerably longer to generate traffic, since the spammers messed it up for everyone.

Running your blog without promotions

(This is exactly the main reason I don’t recommend spammy moneymaking techniques. They might work for a while, however, they turn into screwing over genuine marketers and will sooner or later stop working for the spammers, too.)

Today, it is definitely crucial to take some actions and begin marketing your blog. You won't be getting traffic to your blog nowadays without various promotional methods, at least not for a few months.

Get off your butt and start doing promotions. Don’t spam, but simply get your website link out there in front of your audience who will likely be interested in it.

Autoblogging with no extra value

Well, autoblogging was a smart way of earning money. You could even outrank the owner for his own keywords just by simply obtaining a larger amount of backlinks to your site than he had.

Those times are long gone.

Yes, autoblogging might still be working for some, however, the odds are significantly diminished. The big G slaps the crap out of duplicate content nowadays, particularly if you don't add any value to it. You can provide value to your content by adding your own thoughts to the post.

Every time, find the new article pulled in by your autoblog and edit it, adding some new info.

Just make sure to differentiate your content from the owner’s by utilizing a different font and color, etc.

You don’t want people to believe the original writer wrote your content, since (a) you want them to think you know what you’re talking about and (b) you don’t want the original writer upset if he disagrees with something you created.

Not building an email list

It has been stated over and over for as long as the web has been around, however, many people still don’t understand it.

The money is in the list.

building an email list

Repeat it, make it your own personal mantra. If you really wish to be successful online, you should absolutely grow an e-mail list.

A subscriber list is just a precious property that can't be taken away from you. Search engine algorithm changes won’t impact it. Changes at different social media sites won’t affect it. It will carry on making you money every time you send an email for a really long time to come.

It's stated, generally, each subscriber may be worth $1 each month. Various niches have different numbers, as will different individual lists. But this is a great general estimate.

Therefore, think about that. 100 subscribers mean about $100 per month. 1,000 subscribers will mean another $1,000 per month in your pocket. 100,000… wow! You get the idea. Grow a list now!

Relying on AdSense

Alright, AdSense could still be a good option if it’s used to complement the amount of money you make from other sources like selling your products or affiliate items. However, the times of earning a comfortable living off AdSense alone came to an end.

Is it still possible? Perhaps. Is it likely? Not a chance.

Google_Adsense

Keep in mind this: The reason folks advertise via AdWords (thus producing the ads that pay you through AdSense) is basically that they're earning money with their products. Why would you settle for a couple of cents when you could make the big bucks like they are?

In case you haven't created your own products, you can market other people’s products as an affiliate while making a lot more cash than relying on a few cents sometimes from AdSense.

If anything, simply use AdSense as a side income. Don't count on it for your primary money source!

Creating low-quality content

Even if you do everything else right, creating low-quality content will ruin your chances of getting significant traffic and generating a decent income.

Below are a few reasons why exceptional content is simply a must:

  • Your content won’t go viral if it isn’t excellent.
  • Your bounce rate (the number of users who suddenly leave your page without reading your content) is going to be high, which will keep you from ranking high in Google.
  • You won't be a trusted source in your niche.
  • Others won’t click on your ads, since they won’t be there a long time and they won’t trust your brand.
  • People won’t return to your website.

Today, making money is far more complicated, and creating great content is a must.

Pro tip: To make content creation easier, I use the best article rewriter and spinner. Check out these tools. Some of them are really good. I personally prefer ChimRewriter.

Not connecting with your audience

Blogging is a lot more than just publishing content. It is also about connecting with your target audience on a personal level. If you neglect to do it, you will realize that your articles aren't shared that much and your readers don't return to your site.

connecting with your audience

When you check out a popular blog you might be wondering, “What’s so awesome regarding this blog?” Perhaps it drives a large amount of traffic and you simply can’t find out the reason. The answer is normally engagement.

Typically, the most profitable blogs aren’t those that just throw out some 600-word articles and waiting for wonders.

They are also reacting to comments, inspire others to share their thoughts, and get in touch with their fans. They are the ones who connect to their target market, and let their audience to get in touch with them on a personal level.

To actually take advantage of this, allow your characteristics to shine on your blog. Post a photo of yourself as well as make your About page sparkle along with your unique personality. Infuse your brand into every blog post!

Keyword stuffing

You might be still planning to stuff your keywords into your content as often as possible so that you achieve a certain keyword density?

No, no. That was the 1990's.

Keyword stuffing hasn’t worked in a really long time, and Google might even penalize you for that.

It is not required anymore, anyway. Google has improved a lot, and you don’t even have to focus on specific keywords in the same way.

Google can actually determine synonyms with really good accuracy, therefore if you create an article titled How to Tie a Tie, they are able to determine that a search term for How To Tie A Necktie possibly means the same. Therefore you don’t need to stuff all keyword variations into your article.

As long as you’re applying the standard lingo and you produce an excellent article on a particular topic, you’ll be all good.

Basically, keyword research isn’t as important anymore as it was once. Search engines became a lot more advanced now.

Low-quality and not relevant backlinks

It's also another outdated and old strategy. You'll probably be penalized the same way as in the previous case.

low quality backlinks

Indeed, you need backlinks. They are able to still help you. However, they have to be natural links from high-quality sites. Google can identify backlink spamming a mile away now, and they're going to slap the crap out of you for it.

This is what you should NOT do:

  • making a lot of poor quality pages on Tumblr, Blogger, HubPages, and others simply to link back to your website
  • Purchasing links to your website
  • Submitting your site to low-quality link directories

Instead, you should do the following:

  • Publish great content people would love to link to
  • Inspire people to share your content on social media
  • Guest post on well-known blogs and link back to your pages

One more tip: before publishing, don't forget to proofread your posts with grammar checker tools like Grammarly. Alternatively, Prowritingaid is a similar great tool. I'm using both.

Beginner blogging mistakes: conclusion

Keep in mind, it’s never late to begin blogging. But the best time to do it is NOW. 

Each day you wait is possibly a few prospects you lose forever. Those visitors may never cross your way on the internet again.

Isn’t it better to get those folks on your email list while you have actually the chance?

If you avoid the mistakes listed in this article, you’ll definitely find a ton of success with your blog.

All the best!

About the author 

Peter Keszegh

Most people write this part in the third person but I won't. You're at the right place if you want to start or grow your online business. When I'm not busy scaling up my own or other people' businesses, you'll find me trying out new things and discovering new places. Connect with me on Facebook, just let me know how I can help.

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