Do you know almost 95-96% blogs shut down during their early days between six months and one year? Those who survive this period almost 90% do not have any backlink nor receive Search traffic from search engines. Do you fear that your blog is running like that way? Don’t worry here we will discuss the top 10 blogging mistakes to avoid and by avoiding these blogging mistakes you can be a successful blogger. Stay tuned.
Blogging Mistake #1. Wrong selection of Niche
In a nutshell, you are going to share your knowledge through the blog post which will help the people to solve any problem or to simply get information about anything. In order to get succeeded in blogging your article or content should be very beneficial to the readers so that they can get satisfied with your articles. As a blogger, you should focus on your articles to make them attractive by giving insights, data relevant to your niche. Now to create useful content you must have enough knowledge and interest in the articles you write.
You may choose that field in which you feel interested and have likings. You should select your interest and think carefully about what you can write about that field. It is seen that bloggers choose the field of health for writing in their blogs just because someone else is making so and is quite successful. So many bloggers select the wrong field to write even though the respective blogger has expertise in Investment and Personal finance niche. In this way, your articles are of inferior quality and cannot attract backlinks. Then owing to this your website does not get any search traffic. Eventually, within 6 months you get demotivated and then give up.
Solution
Get started in that niche where you have an interest and expertise. Needless to say, every niche has a monetization technique. By making use of the monetization technique, you can also make money with traffic of 100 visitors a day.
Here are the famous niches to start your blog,
- Entertainment,
- Cricket,
- Jobs Portals,
- Personal Finance,
- Health & Fitness,
- Parenting,
- Food,
- Travel,
- Product Reviews,
- Politics,
- News Portals,
- Internet Marketing,
- Tech,
- Education,
- Fashion & Beauty,
- Home Decor,
- Pet Care,
- Photography,
And counting…….
Blogging Mistake #2. Get started on free platforms like Blogger, WordPress, Wix
Have you got any search results when you search in any search engine like this?
- http://capitalante.blogspot.com
- http://capitalante.wordpress.com
- http://capitalante.wixpost.com
I am sure you have not got any search results like this. Apart from that free blogging platform has the following drawbacks.
- Free blogging platforms i.e. WordPress or Blogger domain will be added onto you as mentioned above.
- Limited customization options i.e. download new plugins, update site’s appearance and capabilities are not available in comparison to self-hosted blogs.
- Limited advertising options in free blogs.
- When you are getting started in Blogger or WordPress platform it is the harsh truth that these platforms own your content. In other words, you have no copyright of the content that you have written. This reason is enough to avoid these free platforms.
- Finally, there is an inherent risk that these blogging platforms can delete your blog in an instant without any notice if they found that you have violated the terms of service agreement.
Solution
If you are a serious blogger then you should start on self-hosted platforms such as Bluehost/SiteGround which offers
- Fast page loading and fantastic uptimes
- Officially WordPress integration
- Limitless monetization options
- Plenty of apps and e-commerce plugin support
- 24*7 Customer and technical support.
In addition to this, you are now the owner of your blog and the content written is now your copyright. The copyright can be defined as people are required to get your permission to use your content unless properly link back to your content or images.
Blogging Mistake #3. Don’t Make any keyword Research
This is a dangerous blunder and every novice blogger should avoid it. Suppose you are in investment and personal finance niche. You are writing in such topics that you think are worth writing but your target audience is not interested at all. Many professional bloggers have admitted that they have failed in their very first blog owing to the lack of proper keyword research.
Solution
In order to get a targeted audience for your website through search engine i.e. Google, keyword research is as important as oxygen for living. Keyword research helps you to find various phrases and terms that your target audience searches through the internet. To cut short, you need to clear that ‘for which word/term you want to rank’ i.e. in the first page of Google. Once you get the ‘target keyword’ you need to optimize images, prepare a content strategy to draw quality traffic to your blog from search engines.
There are two types of keywords namely,
- Short-Tail Keywords can be defined as popular keywords that contain 3 words or less such as ‘Make Money Blogging’ or ‘WordPress Themes’.
- Long-Tail Keywords can be defined as such keywords which contain 4 words or more such as ‘Best Landing Page WordPress Themes’.
By making use of Keyword research you are able to,
- Which topics of your niche audience search about,
- Find low competitive best keywords in accordance with your niche,
- The average monthly search, CPC, Competition, etc. of any specific keyword,
- You will have a clear idea about the profitable keywords which have high search volume and low competition which will boost your affiliate earning.
You need to make proper keyword research by making use of Long Tail Pro and Buzzsumo.
Why Long Tail Pro?
If you have started a micro-niche blog, find profitable keywords that can easily rank, have high CPC of various competitive keywords and boost your affiliate earning, you can make use of Long Tail Pro. This tool is quite handy for,
- Suggest related keywords i.e. 400 related keywords of your target keyword,
- The difficulty level between 0 and 100 of any keyword,
- By making use of the ‘competitor analysis’ feature, you can overview whether you can rank for any keyword.
Why Buzzsumo?
Statistics show that there are millions of blog posts published every day. So how will you research/ write and promote content to attract backlinks, social share? Buzzsumo is one of the few tools which can help you to do all. Buzzsumo helps a blogger by following ways,
- Buzzsumo gives you an overview of your target keyword in respect of engagements, social shares i.e. how much shares a blog post gets through all popular social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
- Buzzsumo gives an overview of your competitor’s content strategy i.e. what type of content goes viral and gets social shares.
- By making use of Buzzsumo, you can analyze the Competitor URL i.e. the backlinks, Referring Domains, Referring IPs, Domain authority, Page authority, etc.
Blogging Mistake #4. Never try to build backlinks nor e-mail outreach
The majority of Novice bloggers have a common misconception that after creating an excellent blog post [contain insights and infographic] and after submitting in Google search console Google will index the blog and the blog post will appear on the first page of the Google search results. This is the biggest blunder a blogger makes.
Why?
According to Google’s Penguin algorithm the search engine index, there are 200 ranking factors to rank any blog post or any website. The most crucial factor among the top 200 ranking factors is that Backlinks pointed towards any website or blog.
Solution
You need to promote your blog by making use of Quora by answering various questions and link your articles, Reddit communities, Facebook groups, etc.
Yes, I admit that building a high-quality Backlink from an authoritative website is a herculean task. But you can build Backlinks by make use of Guest blogging in your industry blogs. Let’s make it clear with the help of the following example.
Once I had e-mailed to one of the famous bloggers in our niche of investment for a guest post. In order to they publish your blog post, you need to concentrate on content which is top-notch and then send these blog posts to famous bloggers in your niche. The reply of that e-mail is like this,
Once the Guest post was published in that blog a link directed to my blog was pointed from the author box.
I have created a blog post on financial planning and sent an outreach e-mail to one of the famous bloggers in my niche.
And the reply of the e-mail outreach campaign is like,
Apart from e-mail outreach and guest post, how to acquire high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites by making use of Semrush?
After creating your profile free of cost, you can get the overview of any specific domain,
- The Backlinks pointing to the domain either Dofollow or Nofollow,
- Overview of Referring Domains and referring IPs,
- Overview of top organic keywords i.e. which keyword ranks in which position in search engines,
- The search volume, CPC, of various keywords.
Now, Spy on Competitors to find out why they are in the first page of Google Search results
According to Google’s Penguin algorithm the search engine index, there are 200 ranking factors to rank any blog post or any website. The most crucial factor among the top 200 ranking factors is that Backlinks pointed towards any website or blog.
Now after you have done proper keyword research and on-page SEO, now you need to analyse the following factors of your competitors,
- Number of Referring Domains,
- Number of Referring IPs,
- Page Authority,
- Domain Authority,
- High-quality backlinks pointing toward that specific blog/domain etc.
Now once you have got all the statistics mentioned above by making use of SEMRush, you should analyse why they are outrank.
What is Skyscraper Strategy?
If you find that the number of referring domains is the main issue then you can make use of ‘Skyscraper Strategy’ to build high-quality links.
You can make use of ‘Skyscraper Strategy’ to build high-quality links in three steps,
- Step 1 – Find link-worthy content that has acquired a lot of high-quality backlinks from authoritative domains.
- Step 2 – Make an updated version of that link-worthy content by quoting more examples, case studies, videos, infographics in respect of your competitors.
- Step 3 – By making use of SEMRush, export all of the links pointing to your competitor’s content. After that, you email the site owners who have already linked out to your competitor’s content.
Blogging Mistake #5. Ignore Search Engine Optimization of Blog Posts
Many novice bloggers ignore search engine optimization of blog posts owing to the perception that once they have submitted the blog post on Google search console they have done their part. In order to succeed in blogging, you need to be well aware of Search Engine Optimization.
Solution
If you give at least one hour a day within 6 months you will be aware of most of the common Search Engine Optimization techniques.
Blogging Mistake #6. Inconsistent in blog posting Schedule
Many successful bloggers namely Brian Dean of Backlinko or Neil Patel of Neilpatel.com have admitted that they have lost significant blog traffic due to the inconsistency in the blog posting schedule. Since there are various blogs in your niche your audience will lose interest in your blog and they will redirect to other quality blogs in your niche.
Solution
Many successful bloggers such as Basavraj Tanogatti of BasuNivesh, India’s leading personal finance blog, have admitted that he is consistent in the blog post schedule. He continuously delivers 2 quality blog posts once in a week for the 6 long years. To become successful you need not to deliver blog post once in a day, rather you should concentrate on such blog posts which solve someone’s problem.
Blogging Mistake #7. No clarity of who the target audience is
Many novice bloggers do not have a clear idea who the target audience is. They do not analyze the lifestyle, attitudes, values, income groups, etc. before starting their content. Let’s make it clear with the help of the following example.
Suppose, you are in the Car-review niche. Without knowing the income level, passion, real disposable income of your website visitors you offer blog posts like the review of luxury cars like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, etc. But your target audience wants to buy cars which are available within the price range between Rs. 4 Lakh and Rs. 10 Lakh. So, eventually, you will fail in your blogging career.
Solution
You need to clarify the target audience on the basis of income group, passion, lifestyle. You need to write content which covers the cars like Maruti Suzuki, Renault which are likely to be bought by your target audience and you will make affiliate income by promoting these cars.
Just take an example of this website or blog which you are reading now. With the decreasing interest rate in India, people are in search of alternate investment options other than bank fixed deposits or monthly recurring scheme. In order to educate the people, we have started this website. Here we write about various investment options in India namely the Stock market, Mutual funds, Debentures, Bonds, etc. With the growing economy of India, people now have more disposable income and want to invest money. So, our target audience is those people who want to invest in various asset classes. Like us, you can also clear your target audience and write a blog post in that specific topic.
Blogging Mistake #8. Not having a monetization Plan
Every novice blogger wishes to make money from the 1st day of blogging. In order to make money, they create rubbish blog posts which do not add any value to the website visitors and after publishing crap content they apply for several ads networks. In order to make money via blogging novice bloggers place several ads in a single blog post which negatively has an impact on user experience.
This is the biggest blunder any individual blogger makes. There are around millions of blogs and it is sure they are not making $100 dollars a day. Usually, novice bloggers are influenced by various bloggers who claim to earn a thousand dollars of money in a month. Yes, there are several bloggers who make it but not all. You need to create a specific monetization plan to make money since there are various options available.
Solution
You need to prepare a monetization plan which determines the success of your blog in the long fun. You need to create such content which enables affiliate marketing, links to various companies which offer several products or services under your niche. Let’s make it clear with the help of the following example,
I am well aware of my interest that are investment, insurance, business ideas, personal finance, etc. So, whenever I create any blog post regarding Insurance I contact various insurance companies and let them know that we want to mention their brand names hoping that they will give payment for promoting their company. In this way, I prepare a content monetization strategy from the first day.
Blogging Mistake #9. Only talking to your products or services
I used to see that various novice bloggers talked about themselves i.e. either their product or services which they sold in their blogs. This is also a big blunder a novice blogger makes. The people who search Google and come to your page are not interested in what you sell. They are interested in whether you can solve their problems by making use of your blog post. If your content does not engage i.e. fail to solve their problem they readily click on the back button and go elsewhere, because Google has offered 10 results on the very same topic in its first page.
Solution
First, you need to research in which topic your target audience is searching in Google. There are various tools that offer search volume of various keywords, difficulty level, etc. After proper research, you should write the content in such a manner that can engage a reader and solve his problem too. You can offer various services or products which can help to solve his problem.
If you are running an e-commerce website write the review of the various products of your niche and offer the product to your consumers. Then you will earn a satisfactory amount via affiliate marketing. You can sell your products also, but one condition to be fulfilled is that the problem of the readers of your blog must be solved.
Blogging Mistake #10. Giving Up too early
There are full of videos in YouTube by various bloggers who claim that they are making $500 a day via blogging only via Adsense. Overall they make $10k in a single month. These individual bloggers claim that they have done this magic just within 6 months. Owing to this many novice bloggers want faster results. But friends let me tell you that it takes several years to build money from blogging. Whether you know or not, several famous bloggers such as Brain Dean of Backlinko.com, Neil Patel of Neilpatel.com have admitted that they started their blogs since 2009 and they have been making money since the past few years.
Solution
The first thing you need to know is that castles are not built in one day. Yes, even a $100 per day is possible but it requires a herculean task. In order to make money, you need to know the following points.
- Create content that can generate income through affiliate marketing.
- How to create SEO optimized content that will rank in Google’s first-page search results.
- What to do to build the trust of your target audience with the help of useful content.
From the above discussion, it is clear that Blogging is like Marathon [42.2 km] not the 100m sprint. But novice bloggers quit just within 1 year. Instead of QUITTING from blogging you need to consider the following points,
- If you are not getting search engine traffic, find ways to build Backlinks from the authority blogs. This will help to increase your search engine traffic.
- If you get satisfactory traffic from search engines just say more than 10,000 a month, optimize the blog posts i.e. content which does not attract traffic from search engines.
- If you cannot make money via affiliate marketing, find other ways to make money but don’t QUIT.
Finally prepare yourself for the long run, because it takes time. Blogging is like a Marathon of 42.2 km. not the 100m sprint. But if you are trying to make $100 per day within one year, you will definitely fail.
- Read also: Top 20 ‘Legit Proven’ ways to Make Money Blogging
- Read also: Top 75+ Blogging Tools and Resources
Hope this article will help you to avoid blogging mistakes from the very first day. If you have any questions regarding blogging mistakes to avoid feel free to comment so that we can have a discussion. If you have found this post helpful feel free to share it with your loved ones.