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Irrespective of the nature of the business, the initiation phase is difficult in every industry. Similarly, with blogging, you cannot begin with a careless attitude. Even if you are doing it just out of passion and not for a living there is a right way of doing things. For people who are endeavoring on this journey for a living, you need to be perfect, mate.
You would not get a paycheck just for sitting in front of the computer and typing a few words out of nowhere. Keeping that in mind, below, I have rounded a list of mistakes that newbie bloggers make and you should not.
#1 You cover broad topics
When we kick-start our journey as bloggers, we want to reach as much audience as we can, and in that process, pick topics that are very broad. There are so many details and nuances involved in such topics that it’s almost impossible to cover it in one piece of content. There’s a whole ocean of matter that must be written under the topic you have chosen, which can be really overwhelming in the beginning.
For instance, a topic like, “How to make money on the internet?” caters to people ranging from ages 10 to 70, because practically everyone wants to make money. In replacement, how about you pick a topic that is far more specific like, “How to make money blogging online?” This targets a smaller audience, gives you good content to write and helps leads convert to customers.
#2 Your writing style is not interesting
Simply put, you are too stiff! There is a difference between writing for a term paper or exam, and writing for a blog. Obviously, maintaining an interesting writing style comes for the latter.
People read blogs for education with entertainment and that definitely does not come with term paper writing style. The thing is, very few people stick to your article until the last word, but if you want this number to multiply – adopt an effortless writing style!
#3 Your posts have plagiarized content
Let me tell you something, straight of: In the world of writing, plagiarism isn’t just a mistake, it’s a CRIME. (Quite, literally!) Apart from blackening your reputation, it can also lead to penalties with Google.
Let alone copy-paste, even rewriting from someone else’s content piece wouldn’t push you long in the game. Also, it’s just time when your readers identify that all the content that you have been posting is not your own – and trust me, you will put a screeching halt to your blogging career even before starting it.
#4 You don’t support your statements with data
Using flowery and fluffy words to an extent is fine, but if you fail to add stats supporting these statements – why will the audience believe you? Readers love stats as they bring a sense of truth, honesty, and belief with them.
For instance, consider you have been writing a blog post on Instagram Marketing, and you write, “Instagram is growing at a much larger rate than other social networking sites, in terms of audience,” or, you write, “Instagram has been growing at a rate of 15.1%, whereas other social networking sites grow at 3.1% only.” You tell me, which out of the two was more convincing? Obviously the second one, right?
Confused about where to start? Here’s a guide to writing a data-driven post by Neil Patel!
#5 You stop once you are done writing the Blog
You just wrote a piece of content (read it as an amazing piece of content) and now it’s all set to post, right? WRONG! It still needs editing. No matter how fluid your blog sounds, or how good it feels in the head, you cannot jump over the most essential parts of blogging: editing and proofreading.
#6 Not archiving your articles
New bloggers tend to believe that all their articles, blogs are safe once they are posted online. In fact, now it is exposed to more threats. Since you are just starting and your website is in the establishment phase, it is more probable to virus attacks due to lack of security.
Exactly why it is extremely important to archive your articles and preserve your online heritage. Don’t worry you don’t have to do it manually. There are a lot of automated tools available on the internet to serve your purpose. For instance, Stillio: this tool generates automated screenshots of the given link to the blog and saves it in the desired location. Know more about it here.
Real winners are those who see and learn from other people’s mistakes, rather than committing on their own. But remember, you are a human and to err is human nature. Don’t fret, just rectify and learn!