Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make
I’ve started to notice the same mistakes recurring by new bloggers. Infact, most of these mistakes are applicable to everyone who starts a website for the first time. Unfortunately, there is a learning curve with this kind of thing and the majority of new bloggers will only learn from making these mistakes. Very few will realise that they are actually making mistakes until further down the line.
I have decided to list what i consider to be the top 10 mistakes that new bloggers make. I’m sure many of you reading this have made some of these mistakes but this is nothing to be ashamed about, i myself made some of these mistakes when i first started in web development. As as i said, with a lot of these mistakes you only seem to learn about it by making the mistake yourself.
Anyways, enough rabbling, heres my list of the top 10 mistakes new bloggers make in no particular order. Enjoy 
- Repeating what other bloggers are saying – I believe that if you have something to say about a subject you should write about it on your blog however i’ve noticed a lot of new bloggers do nothing but just echo and repeat what other bloggers in their genre have said. It’s good to give your opinion on a subject but if you only post about topics which began on other blogs your blog is never gonna be successful.
- No Opinion / Scared to rock the boat – A lot of bloggers are scared to go against the crowd and take a stance that is against what everyone is saying. If you disagree about something then say so in your posts
- Link Trains – Bottom line, there is no quick and easy way to get traffic to your site other than writing good articles on a consistant basis. If a traffic scheme seems sounds to good to be true it most probably is.
- Spamming other blogs with comments – So many new bloggers think that it’s a good idea to cheat their way onto the top commentators list of a blog by posting lots of small and pointless comments just to get their number of comments up on the blog. This won’t make you too popular with the author of the blog and may even discourage others from reading your blog. For someone to want to visit your blog from a comment you need to write something worth reading! A good comment is an indication of a good author.
- Spending more time commentating that writing posts – If your launching a new blog, spending some time commentating on other blogs is a great way to bring your site to the attention of people. However, readers need a reason to come back to your site ie. you need to keep writing good content. I see so many bloggers who are spending more time commentating on other peoples blogs than writing on their own one!
- Promoting their blog before its ready – This is a very common mistake which i see time and time again. I really don’t believe that a new blogger should do any major promoting until the blog is about 2 months old. You clearly still need to do some promoting at the start but more time should spent on writing posts. It’s like advertising a new shop before its got any stock in to sell!
- Blogging about too many subjects – The top blogs on the net are all focused on one topic of genre. So many new bloggers are blogging about a very wide range of subjects. For example, ive read blogs that post about blogging, music, their pet dog, movies, computer games, their favourite sports team etc. It’s hard to buld a steady readership with categories and posts so random.
- Erratic posting frequency – It’s very important to update your blog on a regular and consistent basis. Posting like crazy for a while and then not posting for a week is a sure way to lose you readers.
- Trying to make money instead of just concentrating on running a good blog – Too many bloggers are putting all their efforts into making money instead of trying to write good posts and develop a good blog. Dont worry about the money aspect at the start of a blogs life, if you build a successful blog the money will come with it in time.
- Expecting to have a successful blog within 3 months – It takes time, a lot of time, to build a successul blog. I’ve noticed a lot of new bloggers lose interest in writing after a few months. The time it takes for a blog to be successul isn’t always the same but if you continue to update it and work hard on the blog it will do well. It’s a hard long slog but it’s worth it. Don’t kid yourself that you can get to the top so quickly – Rome wasn’t built in a day
if you know of any more please feel free to comment or post them on your own blog
thanks,
Kevin
Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes ClubPosted on June 30th, 2007 and filed under Blogging
Do not forget to subscribe to our RSS feed for updates
53 Responses to “Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make”
Author comments are in a darker gray color for you to easily identify the posts author in the comments
Trackbacks
-
[...] Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make [...]
-
[...] Blogging Tips shares 10 mistakes that many new bloggers make [...]
-
[...] wrote a decent article about top 10 mistakes new bloggers make… read [...]
-
[...] Blogging Tips shares 10 mistakes that many new bloggers make [...]
-
[...] Blogging Tips shares 10 mistakes that many new bloggers make [...]
-
[...] Did you just start blogging and are wondering how to get more readers? I get asked about this a lot so I thought I’d share some advice that I sent to my friend Wendy, who just started a blog about homeschooling called, Playing Hooky (where this photo is from). Please feel free to add your own tips in the comments. Read more
-
10 10 Mistakes New Bloggers Make
Kevin from Blogging Tips lists 10 mistakes new bloggers make. Here are his, mine will follow….
-
[...] Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make [...]
-
[...] new bloggers make Kevin from http://www.bloggingtips.com/2007/06/30/top-10-mistakes-new-bloggers-make/ has posted a list of mistakes a new blogger could make. My advice, follow sound tips and learn from [...]
-
[...] the very top of the list is the ‘Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make‘ post with 135 incoming links. Since the June 2007 competition post cannot be considered a [...]
-
[...] En mängd tips ger också Blogging Tips genom att berätta om misstagen: Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make. [...]
-
[...] touched upon this subject a little in my ‘Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make‘ post in June and in my ‘John Chow‘ post yesterday . Specifically I spoke about [...]
-
[...] Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make: Make sure you don’t make these mistakes. Even I find myself guilty of some of these mistakes. [...]
-
[...] se cometem com o primeiro blog. Há alguns dias, o blog Blogging Tips publicou uma lista similar: Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make (Top 10 Erros Que Blogueiros Novatos Cometem), e achei que valia à pena acrescentar alguns itens [...]
-
[...] se cometem com o primeiro blog. Há alguns dias, o blog Blogging Tips publicou uma lista similar: Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make (Top 10 Erros Que Blogueiros Novatos Cometem), e achei que valia à pena acrescentar alguns itens [...]
Comments are closed.
Comments are closed since this post is older than 30 days. However, you can continue this discussion in our popular Blogging Forums
Sponsors
Blogging Tips Newsletter
Sign up to the Blogging Tips Newsletter for Free today and get a free ebook!
Nice post,
I have to say my very first blog i could of checkboxed these all. Hopefully now im doing alright and avoiding these mistakes.
Kevin!
I disagree when u say ‘I really don
#11 – Not reading Blogging Tips
#12 – Thinking link exchanges create traffic
#13 – Believing you’ll get $7 per Adsense click
#14 – blogspot.com
#15 Thinking you’ll earn like John Chow or Darren from the first month
yeah fresh content is almost as important if not more important than accurate/interesting content
Hi Kevin, I really liked this article, so I like to translate it to portuguese, for people who doesn
“Repeating what other bloggers are saying”
I tried to avoid this
but sometimes I want to blog about it so much, so tempting lol
“Spamming other blogs with comments”
sometimes I just want to say thanks for good content, because I have nothing better to say (and lacking of english writing skill)
I must try to stop myself from posting spam-like comments.
“Blogging about too many subjects”
I will do it anyway! blogging is my hobby, I’ll blog about anything I’m passionate with.
“Promoting their blog before its ready”
uhh I already put url in my comments on various blog.
is this count?
“Erratic posting frequency”
I know I will make this mistake!
most bloggers just want to make cash and complete ignore to keep the quality of blog.
i will blacklist the blogs that add more than 3 adsense codes in a single page.
sound so fermiliar… i use to do half of it myself.
Using proper capitalization.
Kevin, “i” (sic) think you could benefit from this one.
Very nice points. My blog is brand new (less than 90 days old) and it’s already getting lots of love
. How? Because of some of the things I did that you have pointed out. For example my focus is to get readers first. If you take a look at my site you won’t see any ads or anything that would make my site look bad. Getting loyal readers is the most important thing when starting a new blog.
Yes I agree with all these points. And I think that I have been guilty of them at times. The hard thing for me is posting frequency, I still am a bit erratic at times. Although I go through some spurts of great creativity and post regularly. Lately I have been very busy and haven’t been online as much as usual so the posting frequency has diminished.
I think that sometimes I have posted for the sake of posting. Not good either. It leads to quite inane posts that really take away from the focus of the site.
I would add the fact that many blogs are loaded with lots of plugins and clutter that take away from the site. Keep it simple. That’s the beauty of blogging. Design is important but the central truth of web publishing has always been content. So I would advise new blogging to not get too caught up with including the latest plugin gadget to your site. Choose carefully to ensure that they add to what you are trying to communicate.
Nowadays I am a bit more relaxed about it all. I really love blogging and believe that it is the way to communicate. I don’t think I will make much money from it. I am happy to be proven wrong. But perhaps I can contribute to the blogging world and the particular niche(s) that I love.
New blogger thinks, Sitting at home and writing something interesting and publishing it
I am a fairly new blogger, probably about 3 months and I am finding it extremely hard to get readership to my blog.
I started out just writing for money but I didn’t make any, now I am writing what I am passionate about and I hope that people will eventually read it.
I am starting to get really frustrated with blogging but I don’t want to give up….what do I do?
Some parts, I agree with you, Kevin. But
Are you mention “New bloggers” or “new bloggers who are trying to be pro Blogger” ?. I think you should mention clearly.
You mentioned..
7. “Blogging about too many subjects” -> that shows blog owner’s interested and what he knows well on these subjects. And those, they like to share what they know and they know the power of sharing.
8. “Erratic posting frequency” -> we’re not living on blogging. We’ve our own job and most of us, our mainstream income is not from blogging, those comes from our professional job. most of time are busy for office works and family life. How come can post frequently ? If you’re pro blogger, you can do. Because you’re living on that.
————
I wanna add two parts
1. Hot linking …
not only new bloggers but also geek blogger, they hot link to image and software product file. I wonder for geek blogger.
Why they don’t point to download landing page for software product (Amit Agarwal (labnol) direct hot link to Microsoft Live Writer.exe file in his post)
why they don’t save image file in their own server ? , (saving in your own can boost up blog loading).
2. Image Sharing …
some bloggers, they forgot to put credit to original source of images which they use in their posts.
and also why don’t they reduce image resolution for their readers. Reducing image size can safe for bandwidth usage and for your readers who have low connection.
————————
I did some mistakes which you mentioned here. Anyway, thanks for your sharing, Kevin.
Best wishes,
Myo Kyaw Htun
Wow!
Very interesting post. I’m a new blogger too, but by reading your post I understand and know my mistake. As my site is about recipe, before I tried to make lots of topics randomly and don’t what to write, now i think i just focus only one topic which is recipe…
Thank you….
Alex,
I think this is an excellent list of “mistakes” beginning bloggers. Make I suppose you could also add “mistakes” or errors related to layout or ad placement. But those become more specific . . . and those aren’t as important as what you stated.
Sometimes I’m too corporate instead of sharing my opinion. You’re right, I need to let my opinion and style show through more.
Gulity as accused, for at least 4 out of the 10 mistakes on your list
I agree with most, but:
“Blogging about too many subjects”
Conforming to a niche works for some things, but for personal non-business bloggers who are inquisitive and interested in more than one thing, a bit of diversity is not necessarily bad … as long as its interesting and well written.
“Erratic posting frequency”
What about hobby bloggers who have a day job and a life, and variations in both free time and inspiration? Consistently regular posting is not realistic for them. I suscribe to a few bloggers who may post many times in a few days then nothing for a few weeks, but as long as I enjoy what they write I’ll keep reading. It’s not an issue if you use a feed reader like Google Reader – if someone posts, it will show up, if they don’t, it won’t.
A possible extra blogging mistake:
* Failing to use thumbnail images
People with slow connections or restricted download limits can find it annoying when bloggers post full sized images instead of thumbnails, especially if there are many in a post. I unsubscribed from John Chow for this reason – he did frequent reviews of Vancouver restaurants which included half a dozen or more large photos of his dinner, which took ages to download. Believe it or not, many internet users actually live outside North America, and don’t all have super fast unlimited connections!
I have to say that since my blog is only one month old and not having had any experince with it before I am guilty of most of these.
I however am in the process of trying to correct my mistakes. Not just because of your post but because I have read similar posts on many other blogs I have read since starting mine.
This is a great guideline for me though!
Thank you
Great post. Unique content is something I value. That COULD be unique perspectives on stories of the day, but even better is covering things that are valuable but not covered well.
“Expecting to have a successful blog within 3 months”
Oh well, I really didn’t expect it but it happend anyway.
I am a moderator over at http://www.TheRichBoy.com/forums(a support forum for purchasers of the e-book) and have noticed the same thing. Many people purchase the book and really think they are going to be making 5-6 thousand dollars per month in a month.
traffic takes time, writing good content takes time. finding a format and layout for your blog takes trial and error. nothing happens overnight.
On the content front I find that I am not only writing new posts but constantly updating the older ones to make them better, update links, ideas or other content. this builds the overall quality of content over time.
I just found this blog via problogger and really like the posts I am reading. I have added it to my google homepage and will come back often. thanks for the great article.
Thanks for this post, I really needed to read it today. I spent two years writing on my AOL blog before deciding that I might really want to do something with blogging. In March of this year I bought my domain name and started “doing it right”.
I was feeling a bit lost and down today, because I want my blog to be a huge success and all your comments put it in perspective.
Even though I have a technical background, I have to say I have made some of these mistakes myself in the past. Now that I have corrected many of them, I am trying to have patience that what I am dreaming will come true.
Again, thanks for some great advise here. BTW, I found you through Problogger.
Sincerely,
Catherine, the redhead
After reading your top 10 mistake, I think i had make two mistake as below:
* promoting the blog before ready.
* try to make money on blog.
My blog started on beggining of April, now is begining of July. So I need another _????_ months to be one of the best Forex Blog?
sorry for the delay in replying to this guys – i just arrived home yesterday
Amit – thats a fair point. The number of posts the blog has is a factor however i believe for the majority of blogs 2-3 months is about right. I mean, you could post 50 times in a week if you wanted to but in general most new blogs average a post a day at the start or even less.
Chris – you bring up a good point. I’ve seen a lot of blogs adding plugins that just dont compliment the site.
Myo Kyaw Htun – putting your mark on original pics is advised but i wouldnt go as fair as saying its a terrible mistake…though its something id encourage
LintCollector – i know most bloggers have full time jobs but i still believe that erratic posting frequency is applicable to them. I mean, it doesnt look good to see 4 posts in 3 days and then no posts for 2 weeks regardless of the bloggers situation.
thanks to everyone for the comments
Hi Kevin,
…i think my post average is 30 times a week..if 50 times…i had visit a lot of blog ..but look like less then me..
Thanks your email. You had reply me with these: “”you could post 50 times in a week if you wanted to but in general most new blogs average a post a day at the start or even less”".
Please visit my blog
any ideal to make my blog reach to 1000 viewer perday?
Fresh Content is the main Thing
Very concise list, Kevin! It’s a shame that the only way to learn these (being so early in the realm of blogging) is to make the mistakes! Hopefully this will keep others from making them (it’s too late for some of them for me!).
So how many posts do you think a blog should have before it’s ready to be promoted?
Susan Payton
http://www.eggmarketingblog.com
Egg Marketing’s Small Business Marketing Blog
I don’t beieve you have to have a certain number of posts. The main thing to remember is that it isn’t worth promoting your blog extensively if your blog doesn’t have the a lot of content as yet.
11. Not paying attention to the dot-com boom of the early 00’s and expecting “blogging” to be a legitmate source of revenue even though it’s quickly becoming increasingly overpopulated and less credible just like personal websites/startups were the first time around.
Nice tips! I’ve talked to several other beginning bloggers who all get frustrated at the fact that their blogs are not taking off and earning huge money from ads and affiliate links. They’ve only been blogging for a couple of months! I just tell them to keep at it and write good content… the rest will follow.
I’ve literally just launched my new blog site in the last few days, so thanks for the advice and pointers.
Reading back through these comments…
Wallace: why do you blacklist sites that have 3 ads up? Have you even considered the look of the site, the navigation, the content? There are plenty of good sites that are very readable and have ads thrown in.
Ryan Mac: what are you doing to promote our blog?
Kumiko: LOL! I like your #11-#14, ESPECIALLY Blogspot. I hate that with a passion! I think some link trains do create traffic though, as long as you are included in the first generation, you are near the top (top 3), and you have decent content on your site.
A lot of these posts have people afraid f placing ads on their site, saying they are thinking about the reader. Phooey. Is the reader thinking about you? Most likely they are using you for info, extracting what they can and half don’t leave a comment to thank you. Quit acting like little punks! Put your ad code up and make some money! Make your site pleasant and have good content, and you don’t have to worry about it! I have ads on my site and I’m PROUD of it! In AdSense I trust!
Finally (wow there is an end!), blogging on different subjects, I believe Kevin was meaning to stay true to your theme. if you blog about washing cars, why are you talking about the Mars Rover? Is there any correlation? Will Martian dirt help you to get a better shine, or is it more effective in removing paint? Keep it on topic, or be creative in branching out!
I don’t want to be mean, but you left out one more mistake both new and experienced bloggers make – typos and spelling mistakes, which I noticed your post seems to be full of. It makes a post look amateurish and more difficult to take seriously. I proof and edit several times before posting. I also don’t think it’s a bad thing to write on several subjects as long you’re knowledgeable and have something pertinent to say. I think it’s a good thing to appeal to a wide variety of readers.
There is some good advice there Kev. Although im new to blogging, i have been designing websites for over 10 years, so when i started my blog 4/5 months ago, i knew from previous experience in designing websites not to make these same mistakes. Thus far, its paid of very well.
Great post Kev. Ill speak to you on MSN sometime this week hopefully, and we can finalize this guest-blogging thing we were talking about.
I’d like to thumbs up your list above, and reiterate what has been said about bloggin gon what you like. If you enjoy what you do, then things like blogging frequency, focus, and relevance all take care of themselves! Ta.
“Erratic posting frequency – It’s very important to update your blog on a regular and consistent basis. Posting like crazy for a while and then not posting for a week is a sure way to lose you readers.”
I can’t say enough about this. It is the most difficult part and the most rewarding, in both site satisfaction and search engine rankings.