Ten Mistakes that new bloggers make and how to correct them.

Last Updated on January 6, 2021 by scottkandh

In this post, I’m reviewing the mistakes that new bloggers are prone to make.  You put all that time and effort into your blog so don’t stop now.  Please review your blog to ensure that it not making these mistakes, I’d highly suggest that you take efforts to make these corrections if they apply. 

1.   Protect your Blog’s Security

I’ve been blogging for 6 months and during that time my blog has had at least 92 attempts to hack my account.  I was fortunate enough that when I took the 30-Day Blog Challenge that one of the first things that was suggested was to load a free plug-in called Akismet that would prevent my blog’s security.  One of the best moves you can make for your blog is to protect it from hackers.

Another good thing to do while we’re on the subject of security is to periodically make a backup of your website.

A free plug-in is available called UpdraftPlus which simplifies backups and restoration. It is the world’s highest ranking and most popular scheduled backup plugin, with over three million currently active installs. Backup your files and database backups into the cloud and restore with a single click!

2.   Don’t use free website service domains.

To make your blog stand out from all of the other blogs, you’ll want to invest a couple of extra dollars into using a self -hosted website.  What you don’t want to use is free domain services like WordPress.com, GoDaddy.com, or Wix.com.  What a self-hosted website entails is that you are allowed to determine how your blog is ran.  You’ll be able to take care of blogging routine tasks like:

• Installing plug-ins
• Monetize your site with affiliate links
• Use paid themes if you’d like, and
• Brand your blog.

If you’ve already started your website, it’s not too late to transfer your blog to a self-hosted site.  It’s a little bit of work, but in the end, you’ll be glad that you made that extra move.  Sites like Bluehost and SiteGround will help you in the transferring process. 

3.   Not using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in their blog

You need to keep this in the back of your mind when it comes to SEO.  It can take three or four months for your SEO to kick-in.  Therefore, it’s important early in the game for you to get a good handle on SEO.  It takes some time to get use of all the things that are necessary, and I’ve made it easy for you in one of my SEO posts called SEO Checklist items for WordPress Blogs. 

Along the same line, if you’ve already got your blog going, check out this post:  How to look at the Effectiveness of your SEO – to see if your SEO is being effective and what can be improved for your blog. 

4.   No use of branding and using a free Theme

There are two things that you need to do on your website:
1) Brand it and 2) Don’t use Free Themes

1. Branding

For months I struggled with how to put “good” colors on my blog, so I rebranded my website and gave it a major overhaul.  The color palette can be used throughout your website on posts and pages to keep consistency. This blog post:  Making a color palette to make your blog distinguishable – outlines the steps to brand your website. Once you’ve made a color palette, you’ll need to locate a theme that closely resembles your brand colors and then start structuring your website. 

2. Free Themes

Currently, I’m using the HighEnd Theme which is good but doesn’t offer particularly good customer support.  However, the beauty of the theme is what keeps me using it.  Don’t use free themes.  Spend a little bit more of your money to invest in a theme that has that you can personalize with colors and images.

Note:  If you are just beginning to build your 1^st Blog I encourage you to partake in a 30-day Blog Challenge.  In this post, I’ve developed a bunch of information that highlights most of the things that you should know as a new blogger about blogging. 

5.   Get help and invest in your business

Being a blogger requires a lot of effort.  As the CEO you’ll be doing so many things as an online creator or writing exclusively for your blog.  If you are taking your blogging seriously and want to stand apart from the crowd of other blogs, it will require that you don’t rely on using all free utilities for your blog.  Once in a while you’ll need to spend that extra amount of money to make your distinguishable. 

Investing in your business, your blog means that you take it seriously.  Over time, these little investments that you make to make your blog stand apart will get noticed. 

As a few examples, one of your best investments could be:

• Your domain (i.e. Siteground over Bluehost).     Or
• Yoast Premium SEO over a free version of SEO.
• Using a professionally designed blog theme that ranges from about $59 – $99.00 based on the one that you select.

Personally, I took the initiative to exercise all of these examples mentioned above.  And I’ve received lots of praise on my website.  And I hope the praise comes your way too once you spend a little more money investing in your blogging rather than relying solely on all free plug-ins / widgets.  I was trying to do that when I first started blogging, but realistically it comes down to you get what you pay for.  If you don’t pay for anything your website will show that down the road. 

6.   Start monetizing right away!

I’m a fine-one to talk on this one.  I’ve made hardly a penny from my affiliate links. 

What’s an Affiliate Link?  When someone goes to the site and they click on it from your site, you’ll receive a small sales commission. 

From the research I’ve read it seems that the magic number for most blogs to start making money is a year or so.  All I can suggest at this point, is don’t give up, never surrender.  Continue to refine your monetizing your blog with affiliate links, sell your online digital products, or actually physically merchandise and you’ll prevail. 

One suggestion that I can give you that I need to heed my own advice is to make a cheat sheet for yourself of all of your Affiliate links, the affiliate pictures, verbiage and all so that you can easily copy and paste into WordPress.  And don’t forget to have an Affiliate Marketing  disclaimer. 

7.   Use Social Media to grow your Traffic!

There are a number of tools that will help grow traffic for your block.  As a blogger, I would highly encourage you to master one social media that you have an interest and become the master of that program be it Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.

One of my favorite plug-ins to see how well my social media is faring is Social Warfare.

If you don’t know how to use Pinterest, this post:  Top 10 Questions everyone working with Pinterest should know how to answer  – will help you with the basics of Pinterest. 

8.   Not growing Blog Subscribers and an Email List

This is one fundamental thing that you need to do as a blogger.  Grow your e-mail list and grow your blogs subscribers. 

One of the best programs that you can use for this endeavor is to use the program ConvertKit. 

It’s useful for making landing pages and sending e-mails to your subscribers. 

From the get go, start growing your email list right from the very beginning.  Personally I don’t like to bombard my subscribers with e-mails; however, it’s advisable from time to time to drop them a line because they are viable to your success to buy what you’re offering on your website. 

9.  Create a Blog Content Plan

When I first started blogging, I have to admit that I didn’t have a plan.  Whatever came to mind was written down and I tried to post the information once it was ready.  It wasn’t much into my blogging journey that I realized that your blogging posts should relate to one another.  Hence, by planning your blog post articles ahead of time you’ll create a streamlined structure of your website that will be easy to follow. 

Below is a link to my Pinterest Board: Blog Content – 34 pins to plan content for your blog.

The easier you can make your website to navigate for your users, the better.  Your task on the website is to cohesively bring everything together so that they can quickly find the information that they are looking for and to ensure that you provide quality content pertinent to your niche. 

10.  Setting the wrong Permalink Structure

From what I’ve read the most prevalent thing is that once you’ve defined your Permalink structure is to leave it alone.  Let me rephrase the importance of that once again! 

A permalink is the web address (URL) used to link to your content.
The URL to each post should be permanent and never change.