Starting your blog is very bittersweet. You’re so excited to get started, get some viewers, and start making money. But you’re so frustrated when you run into technical issues that you can’t figure out, and you’re searching on google and youtube trying to get an answer. It’s also really annoying when you spend a ton of time on something that you realized you didn’t need to do. There are so many highs and lows. And as a favor to you, my lovely readers, I’m going to walk you through my some of my royal screw-ups, in hopes that I can save you the time (and money) that I’ve wasted since starting my blogging journey, and you won’t have to suffer from these mistakes that new bloggers make!
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Not having a place to subscribe when you first launch
You NEED a place to subscribe. Subscribers are so valuable, especially the loyal ones who will read every post that comes out, open all of your emails, etc. You don’t want to miss out on even one of those. So make sure you have an email marketing platform set up. I started with Mailchimp, which was a great starting point. It was free, and it did what I needed it to. As I really got into blogging, I switched to ConvertKit, and it’s flippin’ amazing!
ConvertKit is one of my blogging essentials! It makes it soo much easier to customize things. I also really like that the price depends on number of subscribers, because subscribers reflect your income, in a sense. If you have under 1000 subscribers, you pay less than if you have more. And as your subscribers and your income grows you are more okay with paying more for an email service provider. This is one of the biggest mistakes that new bloggers make!
Waiting to launch until the “right time”
Yes, there are a few things you should do before you launch, but you shouldn’t be worried about waiting until it’s perfect, because it will never be perfect. I’m going to tell you a secret… I change things on my blog constantly! There is always going to be something you can improve on. You’ll make a bunch of pins, and then realize they’re not the optimal size or format. You’ll create a brand/overall look for your instagram, and realize you want something different. You will ALWAYS be upgrading and changing things. So just go for it! You won’t be getting a whole lot of views right at first, so you can work on improvements while you’re growing your audience.
Having someone help you with everything
Now, don’t get me wrong… having someone who is more experienced with technical things is awesome. My sister does web development, so if I ever needed help figuring something out, I’d ask her. Which was great, but I didn’t actually learn how to fix things, so the next time I would need help again. If you’re going to get help from someone, make sure you’re watching them so you can do it the next time something goes wrong. No one wants to have to keep asking someone for help for the same things!
Not having a “system”
You need some sort of system to keep you organized, to make sure you’re getting the absolute most out of your time for your blog. You need to put a plan in place to make sure you’re publishing posts often enough, creating graphics and opt-ins, posting to social medias at the right time, and all of the other many things that bloggers have to do. The more specific the plan, the easier it is to make sure everything is getting done. Many people have certain days they use for writing, specific days they publish posts, days they send out emails, times of day they post to social medias, etc. Try different techniques to see what works best for your blog.
Not tracking your progress
First, install google analytics! You won’t regret it. This way you can track your monthly pageviews, sessions, bounce rate, which posts are performing the best, and so much more! I also like to track my social media progress. I keep a running spreadsheet in google docs that has my monthly goals for subscribers, followers on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, etc. At the end of each month I put in my totals so I can see if I hit my goal, and then I set new goals for the next month. Setting goals is a great way to keep up your motivation. Nothing feels better than hitting (or exceeding) your goals!
Not adding keywords in the right places
Keywords are one of the most important things you need to include in every blog post. Make sure to add single keywords such as “blog,” “wordpress,” etc… and also a few long tail keywords such as “how to start a blog,” or “mistakes bloggers make.” Place your keywords in the “tags” section of your blog, along with the alt tags in each photo uploaded into the post. You can also make sure the title of the image is a keyword, instead of “img4592.”
Don’t forget to include a description for each photo that has keywords within it. When an image is shared to social media, such as Pinterest, that description will be the one that the platform uses to determine what the pin, or image, is about. You also want keywords throughout your blog post, in your headings, and in your blog post title!
Improper formatting
You want to make sure your blog posts are formatted so readers can read them easily. Most people skim through a post, they don’t often take the time to read each and every word. So make sure your post has headings that stick out, maybe in a bigger/bolder font, and don’t make each section too long. Often times readers just read the headings. Also, make sure your words that contain hyperlinks stand out from the rest of the text with a different color, italic font, etc.
Not having social share/follow buttons
All it takes is one person to share something for your blog post to go viral, so you can’t afford to miss out on even one share or follow. Make sure you have a plug-in installed that will add social follow/share buttons to your blog. I use a plug-in called Social Media Feather, but there are so many out there to choose from!
Not choosing a theme that is mobile friendly
For a lot of bloggers, the majority of readers are coming through a mobile device, and no one is going to sit there and read a blog post if they have to scroll back and for every five seconds. So frustrating. So just make sure the theme is compatible.
Trying to do too many blogging courses at once
The best tactic when it comes to courses is to read it, learn it, and apply it. Then move onto the next. There are some courses I have purchased and not even read until later when I mistakenly came across them. It’s hard to do so many things at once. Focus on one thing at a time, whether it be affiliates, SEO, email marketing, etc. Don’t burn yourself out and get discouraged.
I hope this list can help you to avoid making these same mistakes that new bloggers make! Make sure to subscribe to keep getting more awesome blogging info to help you along your blogging journey!
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Kayla is the content creator over at motviationformom.com. She is a wife and mother who loves to share all of the tips, tricks, and life lessons that she has learned over the years with all of her readers. Her primary focus is on children’s education, motherhood, and healthy family relationships!
Great read! Agreed about having a mail list ??
Thank you! Yes it’s definitely one of the most common mistakes, but it’s sooo important!
This is so helpful! I’m new to blogging and I really need to have a system and track my progress. Thank you for sharing this! 🙂
Ofcourse! And congrats on the new blog! It’s definitely a lot of work, and all TOTALLY worth it. (:
Great tips. I am so bad about the email thing, though. I still just use feedburner. I should work on that today….
HA! That’s me everyday.. “I should really do this today…” But yes, email is SOO important.
Hi McKayla! I can totally relate to all of these… I’ve been blogging for 2 years and I still don’t have much of a plan. Definitely something I need to work on. Thanks for sharing this.
It’s so hard! Even when you get one in place, it always has to be reworked depending on where you’re at on your blogging journey. It’s a never ending battle! I think everyone can always be working on their strategy (;
This is so true. It took a long time to get all this. I went back a redid a lot of posts. It was horrible.
I feel like it’s a never-ending task! You always learn something new and have to go back and fix things.
Wow! It’s as if you wrote this post for me! So many useful tips I didn’t know for my blog! Definitely going to change the title of my pictures so key words come up more in google searches! Thank you!
Of course! Yeah that’s one thing I didn’t know about either! I probably still have some old ones I need to update!
I do the majority of the work on my blog. My husband designed my logo for me.
That’s cool! I use to struggle a lot with technical difficulties, that’s when I had to reach out for help.
This is so helpful! Keywords are something I still have to remember to pay attention to!!
It’s an art that I’m still trying to master! HA!
This is great information for all bloggers, thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you found it helpful! Thanks so much for reading!
This is such great advice for those that are just starting out. There were not very many of these posts out there when I first started!
Yes, I’m hoping it helps people to avoid making the same mistakes I did! This post would have saved me a lot of time, that’s for sure!
These are really helpful tips! I am definitely guilty of doing too many blogging courses at once.
Same! I’m terrible at it! I still have some I haven’t even gone through. One day I’ll learn!
I am new at this and still trying to wrap my head around everything. This was really helpful!
I’m so glad you found it helpful! Blogging is so much work, but totally worth it!
These are really great tips even for someone that has alreday started, thank you for sharing xx
I’m glad you think so! I definitely would’ve loved to have this post a year ago. Thanks for reading!
I love these tips, it’s always nice to learn something more about blogging
Totally agree! There’s so much out there to learn about blogging, you can never know too much!
Guess I’m guilty of a couple of these. I have not added an email service yet, since I can’t quite decide how I want to handle that aspect of my blog. This was all great info. Thanks!
It’s tricky, that’s for sure! Email service is nice so that the people who really like your content have a way of staying up to date with your blog!
I definitely have made some of these mistakes. I don’t know about courses, but trying to do all the blogging checklist of things at once. Also, I totally am out to sea, what is “launching”? Is it simply letting the first post go into the the Internet sphere of possible readers? I always wondering this because I just started my blog from the first post. Oh well.
Hey Rose! Yes, launching is publishing your first post for the world to see, although some people consider it a launch when they first share their blog with friends, and on social media, but that’s usually around the same time as publishing your first article(s).
Oh my gosh, this is so helpful. My blog is pretty new and I didn’t even think about keywords or anything like that. I’m planning on going back now and tagging every blog entry I posted with keywords. Thanks!
I’m so glad you caught it early on! If there was one piece of advice I’d have for a new blogger it’s to learn more about SEO, master it! In my eyes, it’s the most important factor, and the hardest concept to grasp!
One mistake I also did was trying to take too many courses all at the same time. I couldn’t agree more with your suggestion of taking one, mastering it, then moving on to another course. Great post packed with so many great tips!
It’s a common problem with new bloggers I’ve noticed! We just get so excited to learn, but then we overdo it. eCourses often take longer than we expect!
I love this. I never even thought about the “right time” to launch. I launched a day after deciding I wanted to blog and never turned back. I’m only 2 months in, but doing a great job in my eyes!
That’s awesome! I WISH I would’ve done that! You go, girl!
you brought up some excellent points!
Thank you, so glad you found it useful!
These are such great points and so true! I find that one of the biggest myths in blogging is reading all the success stories that thinking that blogging is an overnight thing or something you can do as a hobby. Well, you can blog as a hobby but you won’t get to where the bigger bloggers are. It really takes time and a great strategy. Great post!
I couldn’t agree more! It’s very discouraging to a new blogger who thinks that they’re going to be making thousands in a month because that’s what they read from other bloggers who make it sound like it’s easy. If you want an easy way to make money fast, blogging is not the answer! ha!
I’ve kept a monthly spreadsheet tracking my progress since the very beginning. I’m glad I did because it helps to see the progress I’m making!
That’s a great idea! I like to take screenshots of stats, and keep an ongoing chart of my followers and views, and such! (:
I know e-mail is important, but I keep postponing… horrible, haha. Also, blogging is quite different here in The Netherlands, so if I start it up I have to focus more on my English speaking readers. Which means up my game! I agree with all of ’em, some mistakes I still make though!
It can be hard to master! That’s way cool that you’re int he Netherlands! English is a really hard language to learn though, so I give you some serious props!
Great list! I didn’t know what I was doing with my email list in the beginning either .I totally agree in taking a course then moving on. In the beginning, I tried to do it all at once and it was just unsustainable!
Yes! That was one of my main problems! I’m still slightly guilty of this when I see something I just cannot pass up! HA
I’m totally burning myself out by trying to focus on too many things at once! Thanks for the advice 🙂
It can be hard to balance it all, just get yourself a schedule going, it will help a lot!