Everyone starts the same way. You sit and begin writing about that topic that you’ve been thinking about since you started to take your dream of creating a blog seriously. Once you’re done with the draft you scan through and decide it’s ready to go. So, hit “Publish” and start texting people about it.
Because, after all, isn’t starting a blog easy? Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be about? Writing, publishing and making millions from it?
But then a few weeks – maybe even months – in, you realize how deceptive the notion was.
Getting readers becomes your new nightmare.
No matter how hard you think putting up your blog is, you haven’t seen the real test until you try to get readers.
Experienced bloggers know that to get people reading your blog is hard. Beginners know it’s nowhere close to fun.
And the hardest thing? You can’t tell what you’re doing wrong. You just got here.
But before you start feeling like you need to quit and go find a “real job”, look at the following mistakes that most bloggers make during the first few months in the business and try not to make them when you launch your own blog:
- Thinking Your Life’s Interesting… Then Talking About It
Most new bloggers fall for this one.
And it makes sense to think it’d work. Experienced content marketers have already shown that it works and given us a print to follow. So, why not follow their footsteps?
However, the truth is, your story might not be that interesting. This isn’t to say you don’t have a story. Of course you do. But how good is it and how many people would actually be interested in hearing about it?
Or maybe you have a great story that involves how to live long and healthy, life after death, making millions, or any of the other topics that people like to read about. But can you tell it?
Storytelling is an art that takes years of practice to master. Therefore, as a new blogger, it’s probably best to not depend on your life story to get your blog from the last page of Google. If you have to, tell it at a later stage when your blog is well established and you have a loyal following.
- Thinking the World Revolves Around SEO
If not stories, then what will get your blog on the map?
Ah! SEO, of course.
So, you go online and find a ton of expert-recommended tools that you can use to find what keywords readers are using, write them down and feed every blog post you write with a fair share of those magic words. You get the keyword density on the posts right and you don’t forget the headlines too. You publish and trust Google’s Penguin algorithm to do the rest.
The result?
You get good ranking for a few terms that don’t really matter but for the really competitive ones, you still remain on page 11, where no one gets.
The reason?
You took the wrong path around SEO. No one can truly claim to know how Google’s algorithms work but SEO experts will tell you that it definitely doesn’t begin and end with keywords. It’s even more about getting quality links to your site.
All in all, as a beginner, SEO shouldn’t be among your biggest worries. Concentrate on building relationships with your niche authorities instead and get quality links from them. That will get you noticed and ranked higher.
- Thinking Valuable Content is All It Takes
You might have the best intentions with your blog. You plan on creating high quality content for your audience. And that’s your strategy for success – concentrate on delivering value.
But while it’s a really noble strategy, it might not work.
Why?
Because it’s not all it takes to succeed. Yes, you should write nothing short of insightful content. The audience must be helped and you have to be patient for results.
But when it’s the only thing on your to-do list, you end up with the greatest blog no one ever visited.
Since having the greatest content on the web that doesn’t have an audience won’t help, you have to focus also on getting readership for your content.
The same goes for publishing every day and thinking it will help you. While it works for established bloggers with thousands of daily visitors, the math doesn’t work for you.
- Spending too Much Time Redesigning Your Blog
While it matters, you shouldn’t spend too much time trying to get your blog design “right”. All that matters for a new blog is that visitors can navigate easily and read the content on the page.
The site design really matters when you’re ready to get email subscribers – this won’t matter until later. Not launching your blog just because you want to get a custom design is just a dilatory excuse. Get a ready-built premium design, launch the blog, start building an audience you can convert and then worry about the design.
Final Word
You might be wondering, “So what am I supposed to do?”
Well, the answer is simple: Listen to your readers. Stop writing what you think you should be writing and start focusing on what the reader wants to hear. Do some research on your niche. Visit other established bloggers’ blogs and look at how they address common issues. Look at what their readers are saying in the comments. Then go back and build a better blog.
Have you launched your blog yet? Which of these mistakes did you make? What other dumb mistakes do new bloggers make? Let’s talk in the comments.
image: shutterstock
