Everyone makes mistakes.

If you don’t make any mistakes, you are not trying anything. So making mistakes is a good sign. It shows that you are trying to do something.

When it comes to blogging, the rule is the same. You will make mistakes. All of the Pro Bloggers made mistakes. But they fixed it up before it’s too late.

If you are a newbie to blogging, there is a chance that you are making some mistakes. And it’s totally OK. To help you with this, I am going to share some common blogging mistakes done by beginners and the solutions.

Let’s start.

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1. Starting A Free Blog

Unless you start blogging for fun, you shouldn’t use free blog platforms like Blogspot or free web hosting services like 000webhost.com

You might have a plan in your mind that you will switch to paid web hosting once you make some money. But it could be too late. I made the same mistake. Here’s my story.

I created my first site on Weebly.com. It was making some money from referral programs. On a beautiful morning, I found that Weebly has deleted my site because of some TOS issues. Then I decided to go with WordPress.com. And I had the same fate.

I never tried free hosting services. But I read some horror stories of free hosting. That’s why I don’t recommend free web hosts.

Fix it: Invest some money to create a self-hosted WordPress blog. If you are on a budget, buy domain and web hosting from Namecheap. It will cost you less than $20 for the first year. But if you want to invest more money, I’d recommend you to go with HostGator. I started my blogging journey with HostGator 1 Cent Hosting.

2. Not Choosing A Good Domain Name

Choosing A Good Domain Name is very crucial to your blogging success. If you look at popular blogs’ domain names, you will notice that most of them have good domain names.

Because of the unavailability of desired domain names, newbie bloggers make some mistakes in choosing the domain name. Here are some common mistakes.

• Selecting the wrong TLD extension.
• Choosing a lengthy domain name.
• Choosing a domain name that is difficult to spell and remember.
• Using hyphens on the domain.
• Violating copyrights.

Fix It: Choose a short and easy to spell domain name. I’ve written a detailed guide to choosing a good domain name. Read the post. It will help you to select the right domain name.

3. Choosing A Wrong Niche

To get success in blogging, you need to choose a topic that you are passionate about or have knowledge of it. But a lot of beginner bloggers chose the niche based on profitability.

There’s nothing wrong with choosing a profitable niche. But if you don’t have enough knowledge or you are not passionate about that niche, you will end up failing. And it can be harmful too.

Let’s say someone is starting a blog on health niche just because it’s profitable but s/he doesn’t have much knowledge on health. Even if s/he makes some money, s/he may mislead people by providing wrong information.

Blogging is not about making money only. It’s about helping readers to solve their problems. It’s about inspiring others to do something. It’s about making the world a better place.

So don’t choose a wrong niche.

Fix It: Choose a niche that you are passionate about. And at the same time, make sure that it’s profitable and it has an audience. For more information, you can also read my post on how to choose what to blog about.

4. Covering So Many Topics On A Single Blog

Your blog is not a newspaper that tries to cover everything under the sun.

I know there are blogs like Huffington Post that got success by covering so many topics on a single blog. But these are now big publications.

When you start a single author blog, you should stick with a niche. Try to cover a single topic deeply rather than covering several topics lightly.

Fix It: There’s nothing wrong with writing about so many topics. Your blog can be the next HuffingtonPost. But when you start, you should start with a niche and expand slowly.

5. Not Being Real

I’ve seen a lot of newbie bloggers tried imitating Pro Bloggers and failed miserably. It’s not wrong to follow them. But it doesn’t look real when you try to make yourself look expert on something that you are not.

You should not write a post on making money online when you haven’t made any penny yet. You don’t need to write about pro blogging when you are just a newbie blogger. You don’t need to write a review of iPhone X when you haven’t even seen it in real.

You can’t fake who you are.

Fix it: Problogger Darren Rowse said, “Many bloggers fail to realize that what they know and consider ‘BASIC’ is actually ‘ADVANCED’ to many of their readers.” So start with basic posts and write advanced posts when you become an expert.

6. Not Having A Good Looking Design

The first impression matters a lot. If you fail to impress your first-time visitors, they will not come back again.

New bloggers tend to use lots of widgets and colors on the blog. Sometimes these things make the blog annoying.

You need to have a good looking design to impress your reader.

Fix It: If possible, invest some money on a premium theme. I use and recommend Thrive Themes. If you are on a budget, use a good looking free WordPress theme. I’d recommend GeneratePress.

7. Not Giving Enough Time For Content Creation

Content is the king. You need to have a good amount of quality contents to attract visitors to your blog.

When I started blogging, I was so busy with changing themes, colors, and widgets of the blog that I failed to create enough contents for the blog. If you are a new blogger, don’t do this mistake like me.

You should spend 80% of your time on creating contents and promoting them.

Fix It: Make a list of blog posts that you will be writing on the month. This will help you to track your content creation performance.

8. Publishing Copy Paste Content

Copying others blog posts is a common mistake made by newbie bloggers. It may be an honest mistake that you like the post, and you copy paste it on your blog. But it’s a violation of copyright.

The main problem is, Google hates it. You cannot get a good rank with a copy paste post. Even if you get the rank accidentally, the original writer can appeal to Google to remove the copied content.

So stay away from copying others post.

Fix It: Don’t research while writing the blog post. It will make it tough for you to come up with your own words. Do all the research before start writing the post. And use a duplicate content checker tool.

9. Not Consistent With Publishing Blog Posts

You published 5 posts in a single week. Then there is no post for the next 3 weeks. This is call inconsistency.

You need to be consistent in publishing blog posts to engage your readers. If you can’t publish 3 or 4 posts in a week, at least, publish once in a week.

However, it’s not a good idea to publish blog post daily if it’s a single author blog. It will hamper the quality of the blog posts.

Fix It: If you write 5 – 6 blog posts every week, don’t publish all of them in the same week. Schedule a few posts for next week.

10. Not Promoting Blog Posts

No Traffic = No Income.

When you start a new blog, only your family and friends are aware of it. But they are not enough to make your blog successful. You need to reach more people.

Most of the newbie bloggers wait for Google to send traffic. But it takes time to get rank on Google and get traffic.

You need to promote your blog extensively to generate traffic on it.

Fix it: Promote your posts on Social Media sites. If you want others to promote your posts, use JustRetweet. Comments on others blog. Join Quora and forums related to your niche. And promote your posts there.

11. Not Using Proper SEO Techniques

SEO is a double-edged sword.

If you can do it in a proper way, you will get a massive amount of traffic from Google. But if you do it wrong, Google will penalize you.

So you need to be very careful while doing SEO for your blog. Especially, the Off-Page SEO. Many bloggers get penalized because of using wrong Off-Page SEO techniques.

One of the common Off-Page SEO mistakes is buying backlinks from sites like Fiverr. It can be very harmful for the blog.

Fix It: When you start a blog, give more attention to On-Page SEO. And at the same time, start learning about Off-Page SEO techniques.

12. Not Having A Monetization Plan

Most of the new bloggers start blogging with a hope of making money out of it. I know a lot of them are very passionate about what they are doing. But being passionate is not enough. You need to monetize it to keep going with your passion.

When it comes to monetizing a blog, the very first thing you need to understand that how the money will come.

• Is it from Advertisements?
• Is it from Affiliate Marketing?
• Is it from Sponsored Posts & Partnerships?
• Is it from Selling Products/Services?
• Is it from Freelancing?

If you can’t figure out your monetization plan, it will be tough for you to get success in blogging.

Fix It: Make a monetization plan for you. Here’s how to make it.

• If you want to make money from advertisements, you need to generate a good amount of traffic and place ads on your blog.
• In the case of affiliate marketing, you have to join relevant affiliate programs and add affiliate links on your blog.
• In the case of sponsored posts & partnerships, you will have to contact product/service owners.
• To make money by selling products/services, you have to launch the product/service and offer it on your blog.
• To make money from freelancing, you need to contact potential clients.

13. Making Money Is The Only Purpose

Blogging is not about making money only. If making money is your only purpose, do something else.

Many Pro Bloggers wasn’t aware that they would be marking money from blogging. But they made it happen because of their passion.

If you start blogging only for making money, you won’t be able to choose the niche that you are passionate about. You will end up choosing a wrong “profitable” niche.

Another thing I’ve noticed that newbie bloggers add too many Ads on a single page to make money from the blog. It will hamper the user experience. And the blog will eventually fail.

I am not telling that you shouldn’t make money from your blog. But don’t make it the sole purpose.

Fix It: Never choose a niche because someone tells you that it’s profitable. And don’t take too much stress to make your blog to make it profitable.

14. Not Building An Email List

This is the mistake that most of the Pro Bloggers did. I also did the same mistake.

More than 80% of your new visitors will never come back to your blog. The best way to keep them as a loyal reader is to collect their emails.

And you should do it from the very first day of your blogging.

Fix It: Join an email marketing platform like MailChimp or GetResponse. Create a freebie like an ebook or a short course. Ask your readers to sign up to get the freebie.

15. Not Investing Money In Essential Tool

A few years back, it was easy to make money from a free Blogspot blog. But things have changed a lot.

Now you should treat your blog as a business. And if you want to make money out of it, you need to invest money in it.

I am not telling you to invest a lot of money, but spending money on some essential tools.

Fix It: Invest some money on a domain name, web hosting, and a premium WordPress Theme. Here’s my suggestion. Buy a domain name from Namecheap, host it on HostGator, and buy a premium WordPress theme from Thrive Themes.

16. Not Changing Niche

I started my blogging career with “Technology” niche; later I move to “Internet Marketing & Blogging” Niche. I get more success in the second niche.

If you are losing interest in your first niche or you are not making money, you can consider changing your niche. You don’t have to stick with your initial niche all the time.

Fix It: Try to understand what mistakes you have done with your first niche. Take those mistakes as learning and make sure you are not going to do the same mistakes in your next niche.

17. Not Treating Your Blog As A Business

A blog is no less than a business. If you start a blog to make money online, you should treat it like a business. If you don’t do it, here are the things will happen.

• You will not take blogging seriously.
• You will not make strategies to make your blog successful.
• You will not have a monetization plan.
• You will not invest money in it.
• You will not have a vision and goal.

And all of these will eventually lead you to the failure.

Fix It: Treat it like a business. Take it as a serious business. Invest money and time on it. And follow the successful bloggers in your niche. And success will come.

Conclusion

Making mistakes is the part of your blogging journey. This is how we learn and grow.

If you are doing any of the above mistakes, fix it as soon as possible. Don’t make that mistakes to be the big one.

And feel free to share your mistakes with us via comment.

However, if you’ve found the post useful, please share it with your blogger friends.