Becoming a professional is the dream of many new bloggers.
There are some steps and suggestions that you can follow that may help you reach the success online.
Of course during the life of your blog, you can learn a lot from your experience, but there are also things that you could understand today, in order to avoid making certain mistakes.
But can you recognize these errors?
I propose you a list of eleven points. Be sure to read it with attention.
1. Copy Other Bloggers
During your career as a writer, most of all at beginning, taking inspiration from other bloggers is inevitable.
After all, you are eager to check popular blogs and wonder how you may become one of them.
However, your blog should soon make its own personality, that is yours.
You must be original and spontaneous.
Also, as you will invest passion and efforts in your blog and its content, you may want to know how to protect your content from copies and plagiarisms.
Of course, you know that Google (with its latest algorithm updates) penalize badly who just copy and paste other content in their sites.
So just do not do it!
2. Do Not Create Quality Content
Your visitors want just one thing from your blog: high quality content.
They are there just for that.
So if you want to become a good blogger, you have to give them what they want.
Of course, writing interesting posts requires strong efforts, but you will get paid later on when you are going to receive many visits and comments.
If you want to write high quality articles, be sure to follow these basic rules:
- create something original;
- write correctly in your language;
- balance text and images;
- optimize the content in SEO terms;
- before publishing the post, read it again. And again (Also use Grammarly to proofreading and checking any spelling mistakes)
3. Go Off-Topic
A blog is an online journal that talks about a specific topic. Just one, or a few others related to that one.
See, for example, “making money online” niche, and related marketing methods, or “blogging”, and related SEO and Wordpress guides.
Of course you should insert in your articles some of your personal experience (and this helps a lot in building trust with your readers), but do not go too much out of topic, stay focused and related to what you are writing about.
If you disobey this rule and begins to talk about anything, you risk confusing your users.
And remember, your RSS and email subscribers want to receive updates about the topic of your blog, not anything else.
4. Give Random Titles to Posts
Your post titles should always be relevant to the subject they treat.
In addition, each title must be catchy: you have to convince your visitor to read your articles.
The same can be said for the opening sentence of each of your post.
Then keep in mind that the post title is in H1. And the use of other H2, H3 (and so on) tags is a very important factor for placement in Google SERPs.
Therefore, optimizes well your titles and learn some SEO tips to improve your blog.
5. Put Advertising Everywhere
Making money with a blog is legitimate, if you are passionate about your topic and if you write quality content.
However, you should avoid filling your blog with too many advertising. The visitors are on your site for your content, not just for your advertising.
In addition, with the latest Panda updates of January 2012, Google penalize heavily blogs built only to make money with banner ads and text ads.
Specifically Big G suggests NOT to put advertising “above the fold”. All the efforts made from Google with the updates on how to rank the web, are in order to enhance the visitor experience with internet.
The reason is simple : Google does not want to suggest a URL at the top of the SERPs to an user (after he make a research), which may be, after visiting that site, remain not satisfied and may want to change the Search Engine in order to find better solutions.
So do not be greedy and be careful not to overload your site with too many banners and ads.
6. Do Not Know Anything About SEO
Any blogger should know some basics of SEO.
Because without it, the search engine positioning of your site will be left to chance.
You should understand, for instance, about on-page and off-page rules.
What should you do while creating your content? For example, decide in advance what will be your keywords, optimizing your writing for them, also in your titles, text and images.
Of course, there is so much more to know about SEO, but understanding the basics is important to start ranking well in SERPs.
7. Be Discontinuous in Your Publication
For a blogger, consistency is very important. If you have decided to post twice a week, you have to respect the days in which you will publish your new posts.
You do not want to be one of those who, for some reason, write and publish 10 articles in very short time and then nothing for a couple of weeks. Then again 5 posts, then silence for 3 weeks.
You need to think about your time and your weekly activities, then decide your publishing time and stick with it.
The lack of consistency is a serious mistake:
– first, because who is not constant, fails to retain the readers;
– second, because the number of visits you may receive is directly proportional to the number of posts you have written.
8. Ignore Spelling, Grammar and Syntax
Your online authority depends on what you write, but also how you write it.
Making mistakes in spelling or grammar may destroy the confidence of your readers. Therefore, Google pays attention to how your content is written.
So be sure to use a simple style and easy words to understand.
Pay attention to not make errors in spelling, grammar and syntax. The quality of your content can not afford it.
A logic tip is to read again and again your article, before publishing it.
9. Create an “About Me” Page Not Clear
It seems strange, but many bloggers create an “About” page, where you do not understand what they do in life or because they opened their blog.
The page of your presentation is very important: write and explain clearly who you are and what you do.
Including a picture of yourself is also important, as your readers want to see how you look like.
You may also want to make a video with your presentation.
I use the “Comment Redirect by Yoast” plugin: it redirects the commenters who just made their first comment to a page of your choice.
I have chosen to redirect to my “Thank You” page.
On this page, you could ask the commenters to subscribe via RSS Feeds or via email, follow you on social media networks and a lot more!
10. Not Reply to Comments
It is a mistake not responding to the comments of your posts.
This is true both in case of appreciation that in case of negative criticism.
Try to build a community: answer to comments, but also ask for more. And do not be afraid to make questions to your commenters, as you can receive some good information from them.
I use the ReplyMe (included in the CommentLuv premium) plugin: it sends automatically an email to the author when someone replies to his comment.
11. Do Not Monitor the Statistics of Your Blog
If you do not closely monitor the statistics of your blog, how do you figure out what works and what does not?
A blogger makes careful use of all the statistical analysis tool available, such as Google Analytics or Google Webmaster Tools.
Any other mistake that you experienced and you want to share?
Please let me know in the comments, thanks!
Great tips, and I will be certainly using them going forward. I am learning every day and with effective and informative posts like this it only stands to help me on my journey, thanks Erik
Woody
Hi Erik,
You have mentioned all the valid points which we have to take care of if we want to success in our blogging career, creating unique content in our own style without any grammatical are spelling errors will increase our brand reputation.
Filling up with a lot of ads on our blog may discomfort our readers to roam around on all our posts, replying to every comment build relationship with our readers who has taken time to share their opinion about our topic, I think we should avoid all these mistakes to become successful.
Hey Erik,
Good post here.
I had to laugh at one point you raised regards to the about page. I recently did over my whole about page because the one I had before was just full of information that didn’t mean anything. No direction. No meaning.
For any new bloggers reading this, your about page is super key. Also, I started using that comment by yoast and it’s brought me a few signups so far too. So I’m happy about that.
– Andrew
Becoming a professional blogger demands commitment to excellence. Yes, this is desirable in the posts, comments, contents and brands shared. There are many mistakes that can hinder the success of any blog. I concur with the 11 shared in this post.
Every blogger should avoid mistakes that embraces poor contents, lack of SEO, hard selling, poor grammar and poor interactions or engagements.
In addition, poor planning and evaluation of the performance of blog for a period is a mistake that easily brings a blog to doom!
I have shared the above comment in kingged.com where this post was found.
Hi Erik,
Great tips. Earlier I committed the 7th mistake. Due to lack of time and hectic schedule I missed consistency. Now I’m very much focused. I appreciate your concern towards fellow bloggers. This article is very helpful to the newbies as well as experienced. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Incredible tips not to make mistakes .I try to avoid mistakes like these. But being a beginner some mistakes are unknown. Only experts can see them happening .I gained enough knowledge here. Thanks !
Hi Erik,
Those are great tips.
Getting inspiration from other bloggers and create you own inspired content with iit is perfect, but copying or stealing, it’s another story.
I think that not answering to comments is kind of rude and shows that we don’t appreciate the comment. I know at times being as busy as we are it can be difficult, but we must try to do our best in this regard..
Great tips and have a wonderful day.
HI Erik
I simply love your first point. We should learn from different bloggers. But, we must not copy them. In this process, we lose our originality. In the long term, it has very deadly effects also.
Sometimes, I pull off from a site after getting different popups. The first priority should be to understand the need of the readers without disturbing their reading experiences. What is the use of the useful content, when the reader is getting pissed off with pop ups.
After reading your points, I am definitely going to fill the missing links. Thanks for providing a wonderful post.
Erik: Thanks for this important lesson. Could you list some bloggers that have learned from their 11 mistakes? 😉
Thanks Eric,
Every one of those is very valid and I am sure most will have experienced them all at some point.
In my experience the biggest takeaway from your list for all bloggers, new and old, is:-
Number 10. Not Reply to Comments
Take a trawl through and past pages 2, 3, 4, 5 and beyond of Google and the further away you get the less interaction bloggers seem to have. You will also notice that page rank is none existent. They throw up post after post with little or no commenting happening. No interaction whatsoever. This is due to a number of factors but I think that the main one is a lack of understanding of what a comments section does for your blog or website.
Engagement and interaction with your visitors and subscribers creates a community. It also creates a very visual benefit and triggers an instant attraction to actually want to take a further look at what else you have to offer. No comments or few comments, particularly in an older post, is a turn off.
Comments also go some-way in ‘updating’ your site with ‘fresh content’ on a daily basis, which as we all know is important and your visitors or subscribers are effectively doing your job for you. Attract some good posts and you may also get some keyword rich content and content that is shared more readily. Stop hiding under a bushel.
Another issue is how some bloggers/webmasters place restrictions on how/where to actually post. They introduce too many barriers for interaction by forcing potential commenters to sign in with obscure accounts. No! Make it easier before the moment has gone. If I have something worthwhile to add to your blog or website I don’t particularly want to jump through hoops to do so by leaving the page I am on to sign up for an obscure account. Make it easier for people to comment, allow them to comment, interact with that comment and you will get more comments. The cycle repeats itself.
That is my experience. What is yours?
This is a nice list Erik! Most list out there mostly focus on measurable stuff like SEO, CRO, etc. but your’s even included syntax, spelling, and grammar – things that I always keep an eye on when writing for our blog. Shared this goodie to our followers.
Hi Eric,
Very creative and thoughtful article, I must say. According to me, the biggest mistake that a blogger makes is not understanding the audience. Every blog has a different kind of audience that wants different things from the blogger. So if the bloggers cannot understand their audience, this is the biggest mistake they are making.
Every blogging success is highly connected with the satisfaction of its readers and audience. If their requirements are fulfilled, they will fulfill yours. This is true that high quality contents are important, but obviously not on a topic your audience is not interested in.
I have many bloggers find topics and start writing without enough research on what their audience may be looking for. These days it’s not very important to update your blog with regular contents. Once it used to work, but not now. What’s important is to understand the audience now.
However, all the points you mentioned are worth mentioning. This article would surely help new bloggers. Just shared it on Twitter and hope you get good response on this.
Have a good day ahead and of course, keep up the good work.
Tamal
Hello Erik!
Nice topic!
Creating high quality content means creating value to keep your audience engaged. Its purpose is to magnetize and keep customers by constantly creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. Therefore, content shouldn’t be underestimated.
I couldn’t agree more with these 11 mistakes that a good blogger should avoid.
Hi,
It is a perfect post for me.To able a perfect blogger we should take some methods.In this post you share 11 mistakes that we should avoid..I like all the points.I will avide these all 11 mistakes but firstly I avoid some mistakes like Be discontinuous in your publication,Do not know anything about SEO,Give random titles to posts.I hope it will be proof good for me and my blg.
Mistakes are the most ignored thing that everyone don’t want to talk about those, but mistakes are the great lesson learnt that you have to consider about those that we did wrong.
You know..? Without my mistakes, I believe that I will never feel like success with blogging like this.
Well, copy from other is the most silly mistake that nobody do it. However, it is the first mistake that I learnt from blogging. You know, bro..? When I started my first blog. I know nothing about blogging and writing, especially English is the big problem for none native and newbie blogger like me.
I feel like suck with writing and I don’t what to write for my blog. I decided to copy other article and republished those on my blog. I got damn because I know that it is the massive blogging mistake, and then I deleted my blog.
I did the mistake a gain by blogging with isolate, I struggle to compete with other bloggers alone without building the community and authority for my business.
I am down again, I quite blogging almost 2 years and then I start it again. It is the really time for start my first business blogging.
You know..? At the beginning of 2013, I have made my first thousand dollar online from blogging. I learnt about what should I do with blogging.
Anyway, thanks for sharing additional 11 mistakes. I hope everyone will learnt from these all above and never do it.
I do everything you suggest except learn from Google Analytics. I don’t understand how to interpret what it says so I never look at it. Someone sent me an article to help explain it which said to look at triangles, there were triangles in the screenshot of the article. There were no triangles at my Google Analytics. I am on WordPress.com. I installed Google Analytics. What do I do?
Janice
When I visit a blog and there are advertisements everywhere then I immediately close the website. I am not against using ads but they should be placed strategically and not in a way that the content becomes invisible. So new bloggers should keep this thing in mind and about copying the content, you shouldn’t just copy and paste the article but you should try looking at it and make a more compelling copy with facts and figures and proper resources so that it gets more attention from other bloggers.
What do you say?
I would suggest, we should avoid any thing which is un natural and non practical in blogging and seo both. In this way we will get regular success. Thanks for it.
Hi Eric,
Absolutely awesome post. Very comprehensive checklist of things we all should not be doing.
Some are simple enhancements and others require a lot more work. I am going to keep using this guide until I get these points done.
Thanks so much.
Copying other bloggers ideas is very bad idea and may lead to nothing so we must produce unique idea and post them on our blogs.
Thanks
When it comes to blogging, it appears people like myself who are termed as newbie bloggers have a long way to go. From what I have read right now, it seems I’m not doing soo many things right which of course it will be prudent and in my own interest to rectify those.
Thanks and please do have a great day.
Hi Erik,
Your posts helps me to become a good blogger.
These are small things which we ignore while posting any article on our blog but it have great impact .
Writing easy to understand content is very important.
Always keep in mind we write for readers .
Thanks for sharing this points with me. I will improve myself as a blogger
Indeed you are right about each and every point shared above, I guess I agreed with all of the points listed above.
I have visited some blog in morning, the blog was full of ads though the articles very informative and it was hard to read an article as the ads very disturbing so we must avoid using lot of ads.
Thanks
Many newbies make the mistake of copying other bloggers… It’s ok to have a blogger you look up to, the one that influenced and inspired you to start your own blog, but copying is just wrong!
Kind regards.
Anja
Thanks for this awesome article..
For me starting with blogspot platform was a biggest mistake if the blogger are serious about blogging and want to make money from it.
Cheers,
Skytech
Yes Erik, I also do some of the mistakes you mentioned here. Any how thanks for shooting it and let me try to avoid thus mistakes.
Hi Erik,
All are key points for us, One of the basic need of blogger to follow rules and get useful or go to the upward direction of websites.
If our blog is not the regular update, so it’s a negative effect of that websites, so keep trying to daily update.
Thanks for shared remarkable points and used to that point in my blog. Thumb’s up.. 🙂
Thanks Erik,
Thanks for sharing these blogging mistakes, rather by making these one can ruin ones blogging career. All the mentioned tips and points are very well explained. Thanks again.
Hi, Eric! Thanks a lot for this guide! If you interested in this theme maybe you’ll be liked the similar article about The major rules of journalistic writing at my blog on Edusson. I hope it’ll be useful 🙂
Best of luck!
Great article! Thanx for sharing! I will try to avoid such mistakes.
And good luck!
Hello Great Post Indeed about Mistakes, bloggers make these days.
Personally, when I started my career in blogging, I was not sure, for whom I am writing for and what I need to provide to attract readers.
Also, i was focused on writing for search engines as I wanted my posts to rank, but actually it was a big mistake from my side.
As, I have learned over the past few months, we just need to cover the topic by maintaining quality and rest will be ok itself..
But I sadly believe, many still not aware of this fact, they are still making tons of mistakes in blogging.
So, they need to start reading more to get more knowledge and then proceed in blogging the right way.
So, brilliantly described points.
Keep up the good work.
wow I think every new blogger read this article before writing anything on their blog.
The copy content point is the most common mistake done by the new bloggers.
Thanks for sharing a true post ERIC!
Gaurav Vashisht
Great Post Erik,
I have two questions for you –
1. Can you share some blog posts from where I can get inspiration and create wonderful articles?
2. Do you know less advertising campaigns that can be purchased by beginners in online marketing business?
Andrew
These all very helpful and unique tips that every blogger should use and implement. Thanks
Nice work if you are the beginner then implement these step to skyrocket your blog…
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