Blogging can be a great way to make money online reliably and consistently.

However, most people who try blogging fail. About 50% of blogs will make less than $100 a month and many don’t make any money at all. Yet some bloggers regularly make 5k, 10k, or 20k a month after only 3 or 4 years of blogging.

What are the successful bloggers doing differently?

What successful bloggers are doing is not rocket science. They are simply smarter at avoiding many of the basic mistakes that rookie bloggers make.

In this article, I will explore 25 common blogging mistakes that most beginners make (with 75+ examples and reasons for these mistakes). I will also go through practical strategies to fix them.

Some of the areas that I will highlight include:

• How to resolve technical issues with your blog and save thousands of dollars.
• How to write content that will leave your visitors wanting  more.
• How to write articles that will rank in Google and other search engines.
• How to hack your habits and mindset to make blogging easy.
• Tricks to avoid getting frustrated and quitting on your blog.

If you are new to blogging or you are thinking of starting a blog, this article will hopefully save you a lot of time, money, and frustration. By avoiding these mistakes early on, you will give your blog the best chance of making decent money.

1. Failing to Get Started

Many people who dream of starting a blog do not get past the first step of starting a blog.

This is unfortunate because blogging requires time to do well. The sooner you get started, the sooner you make mistakes and get started on the right path.

If you had begun your blog three years ago, by now, your blog could be making a healthy side income or even a full-time income, provided you have been doing things the right way.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. –  H. Jackson Brown Jr., Entrepreneur Quotes

You cannot wait for the perfect time to start a blog. There will always be something to hold you back whether it is time, money, or energy.

To beat the inertia of starting, take the first small step, for example, by getting your blog up and running (getting hosting, installing a theme, e.t.c). You then write one short terrible post and then another. The main thing is to keep the momentum of working every day on your blog.

Mistakes that lead to procrastination in blogging

If you find yourself unable to start your blog, the following things could be holding you back.

#1. Fear of failure

The fear that your blog will fail can discourage you even before you begin. However, the consequences of failing in blogging are minimal. Why?

• A blog is cheap to start and run. You can start a blog for $5 a month or less.
• You can do blogging part-time so you don’t have to risk quitting your job.
• You can write on topics you enjoy. If you spend a lot of time on your passion, you might as well try to make some money out of it. Even if you fail to make money, you will have had a blast doing it.

#2. Getting Overwhelmed

It can be intimidating to start a blog especially if you don’t have technical skills. While starting a blog used to be quite technical in the past, today you don’t need any technical or design skills to start a blog.

We now have many tools and services that make the process smooth and seamless.

#3. Perfectionism

While it is important to do the best work that you are capable of, the reality is that it will not be perfect.

The great thing about blogging is that you can always come back and correct your errors even after you have published your posts. Don’t get bogged down with little details that will not move the needle in your blogging.

One effective way to beat perfectionism is to focus on providing value. You can find many blogs that are successful despite having flaws and this is because they provide good value to their visitors.

2. Using the Wrong Blogging Platform

Starting your blog on the wrong blogging platform can lead to problems later on, especially if you wish to make money from your blog.

Disadvantages of popular blogging platforms

Many platforms, especially the free blogging platforms, are not suitable for building a blog optimized for making money. There is a variety of reasons for this.

• They have many restrictions.
• They don’t perform well in search engines.
• They are more expensive in the long run
• They have the power to kick you out at any time.
• They can insert display ads without your approval and make money from your site without you seeing a cent.
• They can change policies at any time. You generally lack any ownership or input in decision-making.

Common mistakes when choosing a blogging platform

There are several mistakes beginners make when choosing a blogging platform.

#1. Being lured into expensive plans

Many commercial blogging platforms operate on a freemium model. They will have a free option and a paid plan.

The free plans tend to be very restricted in terms of features and functionality and you have to upgrade to expensive plans if you need more resources.

This will make it difficult for you to scale your blog affordably.

#2. Not reading the user policies

Many of these platforms have restrictions on what you can publish, which plugins you can install, and which monetization methods you can use. You need to read the terms of use carefully so that you know exactly what you are getting.

When you have spent years building your business on a particular platform, getting kicked out can be traumatic.

In an instant, your income evaporates. You may also lose your content, your subscribers, and all the engagement you have built up over the years.

#3. Not checking if you can transfer your data

Some commercial platforms store your data in a way that makes it difficult to move to another platform. You end up getting locked into a platform that is either too expensive or unsuitable for your needs.

The Best Blogging Platform for Making Money

If you want to make money from your blog, you need to self-host your blog on WordPress(WordPress.org). It is the most popular blogging platform powering over 40% of all websites in the world ^[1] (Blogging Statistics). It has many advantages such as:

• It is free and open-source. You do not need to pay anything for it and no one can kick you out of WordPress.
• It has thousands of themes and plugins that you can use to turn your blog into whatever you want (e-commerce store, membership site, course platform, etc.).
• It does not lock you in. You can easily transfer your content to any other platform

Check out my article on starting a blog . It will take you step-by-step through the process of starting a blog on WordPress. It is easy to follow along even if you have never created a blog before.

3. Choosing a Bad Web Hosting Company

Getting good hosting, especially when starting out, can be a real pain. A bad web hosting company can frustrate you to the point of quitting blogging altogether.

While there are plenty of great web hosting companies; the bad ones tend to have huge marketing budgets and you will see them being recommended everywhere.

The disadvantages of choosing a bad web hosting company

Bad web hosting companies try to maximize profits by squeezing as many customers as possible onto their servers. This can affect your blog in several ways including:

• Your blog will keep going down even if your traffic is fairly small. This is because the resources allocated to your blog are inadequate.
• Your blog will load slowly. When you have inadequate resources allocated, your blog will load very slowly and many of your visitors will bounce off before reading your content.
• You run a high risk of getting hacked. When too many customers share one server, if one customer is hacked, the other customers on the server can also get affected.
• You run the risk of losing all your data. When the server is hacked or becomes corrupted, all the data in that server will be lost. Some companies promise to keep off-server backups but hardly do so.
• You risk losing traffic from Google. If your blog loading speed is too slow or you have some security issues, Google will stop sending visitors to your site, which can lead to a big drop in your income.

Common mistakes when choosing a web hosting company

To avoid falling prey to such companies, ensure that you do not make the following mistakes when choosing a web hosting company.

#1. Failing to read user reviews

When choosing a web hosting company, do not rely only on the technical specifications that the companies provide. Similarly, take reviews and recommendations from influencers with a pinch of salt.

The best strategy is to compare reviews from verified users of the web hosting service from sites such as Trustpilot.com.

#2. Failing to check the limitations of the hosting package

Many packages, especially the cheaper shared hosting, have many limitations. If a company is shady, they will try and hide these limitations and you only discover them once you are signed up.

Ensure that you read their terms of service document to discover these limitations.

#3. Failing to match the hosting package to your needs

When choosing a web hosting package, you need to match your package to your needs. For example, when you are starting out, you can use cheap shared hosting.

However, as your traffic increases, you need to upgrade to a more powerful hosting package managed WordPress hosting (on Kinsta) or cloud hosting (on Cloudways),

The Best Web Hosting Company for Beginners

If you are a beginner blogger, check out ChemiCloud. They offer a good set of features for first-time bloggers that make it easy to start a blog. They also provide great discounts (check for a discount).

See my guide on how to start a WordPress blog on Chemicloud.

4. Failing to Have Your Own Domain Name

When you sign up for free blogging platforms, you do not get your own domain name; instead, you get a domain name belonging to the platform.

For example, if you are on Google’s Blogger platform, you will get a domain name like indiebounty.blogspot.com. However, you need to have your own domain name like indiebounty.com.

The benefits of having your own domain name

There are many reasons why you should have your own domain name but the most important are:

• Branding. Why spend years building someone else’s brand and domain authority while you could be building your own?
• SEO boost. A custom domain name enables search engines to crawl and index your blog better which can translate to higher rankings.
• You can get a custom email. Getting a custom email with your domain extension, for example, yourname@yourdomain.com, not only looks professional but may prevent your emails from going to the spam folder. If you have a domain name, you can use a service like Zoho to get an affordable custom email.

Getting a domain name is cheap. It costs around $10 or less a year. You can get it from a domain name registrar like Namesilo. If you go with a web hosting company like ChemiCloud, you get it for free.

If you plan to buy several domain names, it is cheaper and more convenient to buy from a domain registrar. If you need only one domain, it might be easier to get it from the hosting company.

Common mistakes when choosing a domain name

A poor domain name can hold you back so it is important to choose your domain name well. Some of the basic mistakes when choosing a domain name include:

#1. Violating trademark

If your blog’s name is too similar to a trademarked brand name, the owner of the trademark could sue you and prevent you from using that name.

Some people use names similar to known brands to try to piggyback on their success but this is risky. You should not waste years building a brand only to give it up.

#2. Being pigeonholed into a niche

If you have a blog domain name like bestcottonsocks.com, it will limit you to talking about cotton socks.

What happens if you run out of things to write about cotton socks and you want to explore opportunities beyond cotton socks?

Choose a blog name that will serve you now and in the future.

#3. Choosing a spammy looking domain name

If you have a domain name like creditcard123x.com, it may not inspire a lot of confidence in your site or your services. Your domain name needs to look professional.

#4. Choosing a name that is not brandable

Choose a name that is short, descriptive and easy to remember. Popular names, especially the short-descriptive ones, may have already been taken (Check for availability). If that is the case, simply choose another one.

Avoid the temptation of going for domains that are too long or have hyphens, numbers and special characters.

5. Having a Poorly Designed Blog

A bad blog design is not only an assault on the eyes, but it also affects how your visitors interact with your site.

94% of website visitors use design to create a first impression of the sites they visit (Blogging Statistics)

A bad blog design will wipe out any advantages you gain by having great content. Creating great content is hard work and you do not want to sabotage all that effort with a badly designed blog.

The disadvantages of having a poorly designed blog

A bad blog design can have several crucial disadvantages such as:

• It can make it hard for your visitors to find information in your blog.
• It can cheapen your brand. Humans are visual creatures and many people will judge your blog by how it looks.
• It can lead to lower conversions for products you sell or promote.
• It can reduce the amount of traffic you get from Google because Google can tell when your visitors are not having a good user experience.

Common blog design mistakes

Some of the common web design mistakes many beginner bloggers make when starting their blog include:

#1. Having a blog that is not mobile-friendly

Over 55% of people now access the internet using their mobile phones ^[2] (Blogging Statistics).

With that in mind, Google has announced that it will be switching to mobile-first indexing. ^[3]  This means that how your blog looks on mobile will be more important than how it looks on a desktop computer when it comes to ranking on Google.

#2. Having a poor choice of color schemes

Poor color choice will not only make your blog look outdated but can be painful to look at.

Some of the design mistakes you should avoid when choosing colors are:

• Choosing colors that are highly contrasting when placed next to each other, for example, having orange letters on a green background.
• Having textured backgrounds.
• Having fonts with muted colors.

#3. Having a blog that is not user-friendly

Google recently announced that user experience is soon going to be a ranking factor ^[4] and if your blog is frustrating to use, you could see your rankings drop.

Some of the mistakes that lead to a bad user experience include:

• Having slow-loading pages.
• Having too many intrusive popups
• Having too many ads that slow down your site. Instead of using AdSense, you can use a premium ad network like Ezoic that optimizes ads for speed (and you make more money too).

How to solve blog design issues

Most design issues can be solved by having a modern, light-weight WordPress theme.

There are many good WordPress themes that you can get for free, however, if you want customer support and additional customization features, you should go with a paid theme.

The Best WordPress theme for beginner bloggers

A good WordPress theme for beginners is Kadence. It is one of the top free themes on the WordPress repository with over 100,000 installations. They also have a feature-packed premium theme (check out Kadence Pro here).

Kadence is fast, easy to use, and has several beautifully designed templates. If you are interested in the pro version, they have an attractive lifetime offer.

6. Having a Slow-Loading Blog

If you have a slow-loading blog, the majority of your visitors will probably leave before reading anything on your blog.

About 53% of the visitors to your blog will leave if your blog if it takes longer than three seconds to load. The probability of bounce increases 106% as page load time goes from 1 second to 6 seconds (Blogging Statistics).

Half of your visitors bouncing off means that half of your potential revenue is also gone.

A high bounce rate will also send a signal to Google that there is something wrong with your blog and your rankings may drop, further reducing your income.

Google is now emphasizing page-loading speeds on mobile as a ranking factor and you need to check that your core web vitals are good ^[5].

Common mistakes that lead to a slow-loading website

Here are some common mistakes that will slow down your blog.

#1. Failing to use a speed optimization plugin

WordPress optimization plugins can greatly increase your blog speed, especially if you want to solve a host of issues at once. They work by:

• Caching your pages by creating static HTML files and making them easily available to your visitors.
• Minifying Javascript and CSS files to make them smaller.
• Lazy loading elements on your blog when they are needed.

One of the most popular and effective optimization plugins is WP Rocket. It is affordable and easy to use. Check it out here. If you don’t have the budget for a paid plugin, you can use the free version of WP Optimize.

#2. Having large unoptimized images

Large unoptimized images are probably one of the biggest reasons for low page-loading speeds. Having a large image in a blog post will make your page size huge.

For optimal performance, Google recommends having a webpage that is around 500kb in size (Blogging Statistics).

You can reduce the size of your images by:

• Compressing the image using a plugin like Shortpixel. Shortpixel will reduce your images automatically without slowing down your site. It is also free if do not have many images to optimize. Check out Shortpixel here. Another free alternative to Shortpixel, especially if you are using WP Rocket, is Imagify.
• Using the appropriate image formats. Some image formats like JPEG are lighter than PNG but come at the expense of quality. To have high-quality but light images, you can convert your images to webP format using Imagify or Shortpixel.

#3. Having a bloated, poorly coded theme

A bloated and poorly coded theme will slow down your site incredibly. Two major mistakes bloggers make when it comes to themes are:

• Choosing a theme with many features that they don’t need. For example, there is no need to have a theme with an e-commerce option if you have no interest in creating an online store. More features mean that more code will be loaded.
• Having a complicated design. The more complicated a design, the more resources will be needed and the more the chance for things to go wrong.

To create a blog that is optimized to make money, choose a fast and lightweight theme like Kadence.

If you have sorted these three major issues but your blog is still slow, it could be that your web hosting package is not adequate for your needs or you have a bad web hosting company.

Change to a more reliable web hosting company (like ChemiCloud) or increase the resources available for your blog.

7. Having a Blog the Can Be Easily Hacked

Hackers love new blogs because they present an easy target for them. Many new bloggers do not understand the need to protect their blogs or do not know how to do it.

It is staggering how many blogs are hacked. According to some estimates, over 30,000 blogs are hacked every day ^[6] (Blogging Statistics).

Many of these blogs are hacked because they are not secured or they are incorrectly secured.

Costly consequences of your blog being hacked

The disadvantages of getting hacked are numerous and costly. For example:

• You have to pay people to fix your hacked site. It costs roughly $200 or more to fix a site (check Astra security emergency hack repair).
• You can lose your Google rankings leading to a long-term drop in website traffic.
• If you had not backed up your content, you can lose years of data and you have to start creating content from scratch.
• Your brand can lose value, especially if the hackers use it to defraud others.

Common website security mistakes

Given the damage that hacking can do to your blog and your business, you need to avoid the following common mistakes that could lead to your blog getting hacked.

#1. Having a weak password

A weak password when combined with a user name that is easy to guess (such as Admin) will leave you vulnerable to hacking.

You are in even bigger danger if you use the same password across several sites because once one of your sites gets compromised, all your sites can be hacked.

If you are having trouble coming up with strong passwords, you can use an affordable password manager like 1password.

#2. Failing to have regular backups

Do not risk losing years of work by failing to have backups of your blog. A good hosting company will do backups for free but it is also good to have your own backups (ChemiCloud has free daily and weekly offsite backups).

If you are on a WordPress site, you can use backup plugins to make your own backups. When choosing a backup plugin, ensure:

• It can do offsite backups preferably on the cloud. Backups stored on the server will be of no use if the server is hacked.
• It can automate backups.
• It can restore your blog in one click.

You can use a plugin like WPVivid to do your backups (they have a free version and a paid version). If you have several domains you want to back-up, check out their paid version.

#3. Not having a security plugin

Generally, you can get by with a free security plugin like All in One WP security. However, sometimes you may need to invest in a good quality paid security plugin. For example if:

• You rely on your blog fully for your income.
• Your blog is crucial for your business.
• Your blog contains collects private user data.

A good premium security plugin to use is Astra security. They will:

• Clean up your site in 6- 12 hours if you get hacked.
• They will block bots that steal content from your blog.
• They will limit login attempts from bots that attempt to guess your passwords.
• Provide 24/7 support in case you get into problems.

8. Having Poor Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies

Failure to get visitors is a major reason why many blogs fail. You may have the best content in the world but if people don’t know about it, then you will have wasted your efforts.

So how do you get people, beyond your friends and family, to read your posts?

How to get visitors to your blog

One of the best techniques to get visitors to your blog is to target traffic from Google.

There are roughly 3.5 billion searches done on Google every day (Blogging Statistics). Therefore, if you want visitors to come to your blog, you simply target some of these searches.

The tactics that people use to get traffic from Google and search engines are collectively called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques.

Common SEO strategies

There are many SEO tactics you can use to get traffic from Google. For example:

• Conduct keyword research to align the content you write to what people are searching for.
• Write good quality content that addresses people’s needs and search intent.
• Ensure that your blog is secure and free of malware.
• Enhance the user experience by ensuring your blog loads fast and is mobile-friendly.
• Make your posts easy to read by having good formatting and grammar.
• Link to more helpful content within your blog and other related blogs.

Unfortunately, many beginner bloggers either neglect to use SEO strategies or use them incorrectly.

Common Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Mistakes

Watch out for the following common mistakes when using SEO strategies.

#1. Writing fluffy content

In-depth content that provides lots of value is great for your visitors and great for SEO.

However, writing good long-form content can be quite challenging and it is easy to get it wrong. Watch out for the following mistakes:

• Writing irrelevant content that does not match the searcher’s intent. Straying off-topic is easy, especially with long posts.
• Writing content that adds little additional value, for example, by dwelling too long on what is obvious or common knowledge.
• Wordiness. When you use more words than is necessary to pass the message, you can end up confusing the reader. Use a tool like Grammarly to check that you are not using any unnecessary words.

#2. Using clickbait headlines

Writing the right kind of headline can be great for conversion and SEO.

As a beginner blogger, it is tempting to use clickbait to attract visitors but this will do more harm than good.

Clickbait is bad for SEO because it leads to high bounce rates. This sends a signal to Google that your content is not good.

Clickbait can also give your visitors the impression that you are not trustworthy.

How do you identify clickbait headlines?

• Misleading claims that have no chance of being true. �?How to lose weight: no diet, exercise, surgery, or pills’.
• The promise of a shocking or unbelievable story. �?A man found his dog in the bathtub, what happened next will shock you’.
• Exaggerated claims. �?Make a million dollars a day using this simple secret.’

#3. Linking out to the wrong sites

When you write an article, you should make a point of linking out the sources that you used in writing your article.

This shows your visitors that you took the time to research your article. It also provides a source in case your visitors need further information.

Linking out to authoritative sources can also send a signal to Google that you are a trusted source of information.

However, if you link to untrustworthy sources, you may seem untrustworthy. Some of the mistakes to avoid include:

• Linking to untrustworthy sites that have wrong information or where your visitors can get exploited
• Linking to sites that are irrelevant to your visitors

You need to be diligent in vetting the sources of your information.

 

Note: If you are new to SEO, pay attention to the next two mistakes (having a poor keyword strategy and using black-hat SEO tactics). Getting this wrong can limit your ability to get traffic from Google.

9. Having a Poor Keyword Strategy

If you want to get traffic from Google, you need a strategy to target some of the 3.5 billion searches in Google. A good keyword strategy will help you do this.

Keywords are those words that people use when searching in Google. For example, when looking for an antivirus for their computer, a person may type �?best antivirus’ into Google.

When you know how many people are searching for a particular keyword, you can estimate how much traffic you are likely to get if you target that keyword.

You can use a keyword tool to find out which keywords and questions people are using to do their Google searches. A good keyword tool can help you to find out:

• How many people are searching for a particular keyword every month
• How difficult it is to rank for that keyword
• What keywords your competitors are ranking for

Some of the popular keyword tools include Semrush (great but expensive) or Keysearch (an affordable option).

Many beginner bloggers are not aware that you can target certain keywords to get Google traffic. This simple knowledge can help give you an advantage over your competitors.

Common keyword research mistakes

When doing keyword research, you need to watch out for some mistakes that can sink your keywords research efforts. These include:

#1. Going after competitive keywords

Keywords that have high volume or high buyer intent can be lucrative and highly competitive. They attract some of the biggest companies and brands that employ the best content writers and SEO specialists.

If you are a beginner blogger, you might find it difficult to compete against these big players. The best strategy as a new blogger is to target low competition keywords until your blog has enough domain authority and you have enough skill to target higher competition keywords.

You can tell if a keyword is competitive by looking at the keyword difficulty. Most good keyword tools will show you a keyword difficulty score.

#2. Ignoring search intent

Search intent is the purpose behind a user’s search. For example, if someone types a keyword like �?red shoes’ into Google, what do they want? They may want:

• To buy a red shoe
• See nice pictures of red shoes
• See how to paint a red shoe

Let Google show you the searcher’s intent. The results that Google features in the top 10 will show you what the majority of visitors want when they type in a particular keyword.

For example, if e-commerce stores dominate the results, then you know people want to buy red shoes.

#3. Going after zero-click searches

Zero click searches are those searches for which Google gives answers at the top of the SERPs. ^[7]

For example, if you type �?how many calories does an egg have’ you will see a snippet by Google that will give you the answer. (see my article on Future of Blogging for more on zero-click searches).

When you target a keyword that leads to a zero-click, many of the visitors that search for that keyword will probably not click over to your post because they already have the answer they need from Google.

Some of the topics that have high zero-click searches include keywords that deal with time, weather, or conversions.

10. Using Black Hat SEO Practices

Back in the day, Google’s algorithms were not as sophisticated as they are today. You could easily trick Google into ranking your blog using black hat SEO tactics.

Black hat SEO tactics are practices that seek to increase your page ranking in a search result by using methods that are against the search engine’s terms of service.

The term �?black hat’ references the bad cowboys in old western movies.

Search engines like Google don’t like it when you use these shady tactics to try and manipulate your rankings.

If Google finds out that you are using such tactics, it can penalize you by dropping you down the rankings or even completely de-index your blog.

Given that Google is the biggest referrer of traffic to websites (accounting for around 66% of visitors, Blogging Statistics), getting de-indexed by Google could mean the end of your blog.

The disadvantages of black hat SEO tactics

While it is still possible to game the system by tricking Google, you need to consider drawbacks such as:

• Many of the tactics are outdated and don’t work as well as they used to. Google’s AI is getting better at sniffing out such tactics. With every new algorithm update, Google will keep getting better.
• They are bad for long-term profits. While you may benefit in the short-term, Google will eventually catch-up with you and you could lose most if not all of your rankings from one algorithm update.
• You can spend a lot of money and fruitless effort trying to fix a black hat site.
• It stops you from learning the skills needed to drive genuine traffic and conversions

The best strategy is to provide valuable content and learn effective SEO strategies. There are many legitimate (white-hat) SEO tactics that you can use to generate traffic for your blog without resorting to sketchy practices.

Black hat SEO practices to avoid

Some of the outdated black-hat SEO practices you should avoid include:

#1. Keyword stuffing

Avoid repeating your focus keyword so many times that it makes your content unreadable. Remember that you are writing for people and not search engines. Focus on a topic rather than a keyword.

#2. Buying spammy links

SEO companies that offer link-building services either operate or get links from link farms. Link farms are services that operate a large number of websites that provide links to other websites.

Google can detect if your links are coming from a link farm, especially if the link farm is popular and your site is brand new.

Google can choose whether to disregard the links or penalize you for those links. Either way, it is not great since these link-building services can be quite expensive.

#3. Creating Private Blog Networks (PBNs)

This tactic involves creating several smaller blogs in your niche and having them link back to your main blog (i.e. you create your own network of blogs). The problem is that the smaller blogs (usually from Web 2.0 sites) tend to be of low value and are created with the sole purpose of providing links.

Google will penalize the whole network if it discovers this manipulation.

11. Failing to Build an Email List

Building an email list has many important benefits and if done well, it can be a game-changer in how you do blogging.

Most blogging relationships tend to be transactional; people come to your blog, get what they want, and leave.  Building an email list turns random visitors into a community.

Only 32% of your blog visitors will be returning visitors (Blogging Statistics).

The benefits of building an email list

Building an email list has numerous benefits such as:

• It will help you retain more of your visitors. The majority of your visitors will leave your blog never to return. By signing them up to your email list, you create a channel for further engagement with them.
• You are not reliant on traffic from gatekeepers like Google, Facebook, or all other sources of traffic that you cannot control. Even if Google cuts off your traffic, you can still make a living from your email list if it is large enough.
• You can tap from the collective wisdom of your community. Most of your best ideas will probably come from the members of your community.

How to build an email list

You can quickly build an email list using an email marketing service. Choose one that is beginner-friendly such as Systeme.io. It is free and easy to use for beginners.

Common mistakes when building an email list

When starting an email list, you need to avoid some of the common mistakes that many beginners make including:

#1. Not providing value to your email list subscribers

If people feel like they are not getting value from you, they will unsubscribe from your email list.

Think of ways that you can provide the best content for people on your list so that you can create a relationship with them and turn them into great supporters.

For example, you can provide exclusive content, tips, or advice that you normally don’t share with your general audience.

#2. Spamming your email list with offers

Many people are reluctant to join email lists because they don’t want to be bombarded with numerous offers to buy stuff.  Provide value to your list before pitching a product or service.

Spamming your audience will make them stop trusting you. It is also against the law. They could end up complaining to your email list provider who might cancel your account.

Ensure that you are familiar with the various laws and regulations that govern email marketing (such as the CAN-SPAM act) ^[8].

#3. Ignoring or failing to understand your audience needs

If you are going to pitch stuff to people in your email list, ensure that it is something that will benefit them and is in line with what they are trying to accomplish.

Match your products and services to your audience’s needs.

If you have done a good job of providing free valuable information, your visitors will be much more receptive to buying what you sell or recommend.

12. Producing Low-Quality Content

When starting out, it is tempting to measure your success by how many blog posts you put out. However, blogging is not about putting out vast quantities of low-quality posts. That just contributes to content spam.

Over 86 million blog posts are published monthly with an average of 2.8 million blog posts produced daily on WordPress.com (Blogging Statistics)

Given the high amounts of content produced every day, you need to stand out by becoming a source of high-quality helpful content that genuinely solves people’s problems.

The benefits of having good quality content

There are many benefits to this approach including:

• Higher conversion. It is better to have a lower number of visitors who buy than many visitors who don’t.
• Repeat visitors. Great content means that people will be more willing to come back to your blog and read your other posts. A loyal audience can help you build a strong blogging business.
• Good for SEO. Google can tell how your visitors are interacting with your blog. If people are spending a lot of time reading your posts and clicking on other related posts, it sends a signal to Google that people are getting value from your content.

Common mistakes that lead to poor quality blog content

Watch out for the following mistakes when producing content:

#1. Prioritizing quantity over quality

Producing great content is time-consuming and difficult so when you rush to produce a lot of content, quality is bound to suffer. When you prioritize quantity over quality:

• Your content will contain many factual errors.
• You will be unable to cover the subject adequately.
• You will have a lot of outdated content.

It pays to spend more time making your blog post useful, especially if you are in a competitive niche or a YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niche.

#2. Not having original content

People are more likely to read and share your content if you produce something new and original.

If all you are doing is repeating the same 10 tips that everyone else is writing, what incentive do people have to read?

In all your posts, aim to provide new information or present an angle that has not been explored before.

Avoid copying other people’s content or using spun content. If someone has a better blog post on what you are planning to write, writing an inferior version of that post is a waste of your time.

#3. Having grammatical mistakes

Grammatical mistakes can make your blog posts seem unprofessional and untrustworthy. They can also detract from the message you are trying to pass.

Three-quarters (74%) of web users pay attention to the quality of spelling and grammar on company websites (Blogging Statistics).

Use a tool like Grammarly to identify and correct grammatical errors. You can get by with the free version of Grammarly but if you want to unlock its more powerful features, then you need to go with the paid version.

13. Having Poorly Formatted Blog Posts

The majority of people who come to your blog will not read your post. Here are some sobering statistics (see Blogging Statistics for more):

73% of visitors to your blog post will skim through the post and 55% will read the blog post for 15 seconds or less.

If the majority of people don’t read and engage with your post, then you cannot sell or recommend products and services to them.

Why your visitors won’t read your posts

Every day, people are bombarded with huge amounts of information online. For many, looking for information online is like taking a drink from a fire hose.

According to the former Google CEO, Erich Schmidt, every two days, we create as much information as has been created since the dawn of civilization to 2003. ^[11]

To deal with this, people use strategies like skimming to determine whether your content has the information that they need. This is good news for you.

If you format your posts to ensure that your visitors can quickly find what they need, then they will stick around and read the rest of your content.

Common blog formatting mistakes

If you want to increase the chance of people reading your posts, you need to avoid making the following formatting mistakes.

#1. Having walls of text

People want to read blog content in sizeable chunks. This means that you need to break your content into manageable sections. This is especially important if the majority of your visitors are accessing your blog on mobile.

You can break your text using:

• Headings and subheadings.
• Images, tables, and figures.
• Bullet-points or numbered lists.
• Blockquotes.

#2. Making mistakes with your fonts

You need to ensure your fonts look good including on mobile.

Avoid the following font mistakes in your blog.

• Fonts that are too small or too large.
• Font types that are hard to read.
• Font types that look unprofessional or inappropriate for your purposes (for example flowery fonts on a business website).
• Font colors that clash with the background.

#3. Making mistakes with your paragraphs

How your paragraphs look can encourage or discourage your visitors from reading any further.

Some of the paragraph mistakes you need to avoid include:

• Paragraphs that are too long including sentences that are too long.
• Line spacing that is too big or too small.
• Poor paragraph alignment.

14. Getting Into a Blogging Niche That Is Unsuitable for You

Making money by blogging is difficult and when you choose a niche that does not match your interests and strengths, it can become even more difficult.

If you get into a particular niche solely because you think you will make good money, you are likely to give up quickly if you don’t start seeing results. However, if you get into a niche because you are passionate about the niche, you are more likely to stick through the challenges until you see success.

Choosing a blogging niche is a bit like choosing an exercise plan. Running may be the most effective way to lose weight, but what good is it if you hate running?

If you enjoy dancing or hiking, you may lose more weight that way rather than forcing yourself to run.

Common mistakes in choosing a suitable blogging niche

Before you get into a niche, it is important to conduct a personal assessment to find out if that niche is suitable for you.

To find the best blogging niche for your personality, you need to avoid the following mistakes.

#1. Choosing a niche that you have little or no interest in

If you have no interest in your niche, you will find it hard to keep going. You can tell if you have sufficient interest in a niche by asking yourself the following questions.

• Will you find it difficult to read and research the topics in your niche?
• Is this something that you can see yourself doing day after day for several years?
• Is there something else you would rather be doing?

Creating memorable in-depth content only comes if you can fully immerse yourself in your niche.

#2. Choosing a niche that does not take advantage of your strengths

You are the most critical factor to the success of your blog so you need to take advantage of all your strengths and advantages. Ask yourself:

• What skills do you have?
• What knowledge have you accumulated or are willing to acquire?
• What kind of experience or qualifications do you have in the niche?
• What personality traits can you leverage?

It is important to build your blog on a foundation of strength rather than a foundation of weakness.

#3. Choosing a niche that is not in line with your values

Your blog needs to be in line with your values.  A niche may be profitable but if you have to battle your conscience every day, your brain will sabotage the whole thing. Ask yourself:

• Are you comfortable pitching the products and services in that niche? Would you recommend them to your friends and family?
• Would you be ashamed to share your blog with people you respect?
• Would you feel proud of your work?

15. Choosing an Unprofitable Blogging Niche

All niches can make money as long as the topics in that niche can attract an audience.

However, some niches are more difficult to monetize, especially for beginners. By changing your niche, you could double or triple the amount of money you make for the same amount of effort.

Quick ways to find profitable blogging niches

You can determine if a niche is profitable or not by looking at:

• Income reports. Some bloggers write reports where they explain how much they earned each month and how they did it (see examples of income reports here)
• Blog marketplaces. You can estimate the profitability of a blog by looking at how much they are selling for on sites like Motion Invest, Flippa, or Empire Flippers.
• Availability of products on e-commerce sites like Amazon. Usually, if products are available in your niche, you can make money from affiliate marketing.

Common newbie mistakes in choosing a profitable blogging niche

Some common mistakes amateur bloggers make when choosing a niche include:

#1. Getting into a niche that has limited ways to make money

You want to be in a niche where you can make money in a variety of ways and not just rely on display ads. Income from display ads is usually low and therefore requires that you have a good amount of traffic.

Explore niches where you can make money even with a low number of visitors. You want to be in niches where you can make money from:

• Affiliate marketing.
• Selling your own products and services.
• Creating paid membership groups.

#2. Getting into a niche that is too competitive

Niches that are good for making money also tend to be the most competitive. Niches like wealth, relationships, health, fitness, and finance have always made money and will probably always make money.

If you are in a very competitive niche, you may find yourself competing against brands and companies with huge budgets for content and SEO. You will have to work harder to find success although the rewards are bigger.

If you want quick wins, look for a niche that is less competitive but still earns a decent income.

#3. Getting into YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niches

YMYL niches are niches or topics that have significant impacts on people’s lives, for example, health, medical, money, or investing.

These niches tend to have many scammers who take advantage of people’s desperation.

Google is getting stricter on which kinds of blogs they rank in the top 10 in these niches. If you are an amateur blogger, it might be easier to go for a niche with less regulation and scrutiny.

16. Writing Very Few Blog Posts

How many blog posts you have on your blog can play a big role in how much income you can make from blogging.

How many posts do you need to make money with your blog?

How many blog posts you need to write depends on your goals. For example, if you have a goal to earn $1,000 a month, this is how you can calculate how many posts you need:

Assuming you can get $25 for every 1,000 visitors that come to your site (RPM), then you need 45,000 visitors every month. Assuming each blog post brings an average of 300 visitors every month, then you need to write 150 blog posts.

If you write one blog post a week, it will take you three years to get 150 blog posts.

The relationship between how many posts you write and how much you earn is not always linear. You could make more money with fewer blog posts or less money with more blog posts.

Many factors can determine how much you can earn from your blog.

If you want to increase how much money you make from blogging, you can:

• Write faster. You need to accumulate a large number of well optimized posts.
• Increase the number of visitors. You can do this by getting good at SEO.
• Increase your RPM. Look for higher paying affiliate programs or ad networks.

Common blogging productivity mistakes

Creating content can be expensive and time-consuming so you need to avoid mistakes that can make the task more difficult. Here are some of the mistakes you should avoid:

#1. Lacking a blogging schedule

You need to turn writing into a habit by writing every day. Aim to write for at least 1 or 2 hours every day. Choose the time when you feel most productive or when there is little distraction.

Turning writing into a habit is great because you no longer have to rely on motivation to get yourself to write. You also increase your chance of generating ideas by just sitting down to write.

#2. Writing slowly

When you first begin blogging, your writing will probably be slow and cumbersome. However, with enough practice, your writing will get faster over time.  Some of the things you can do to write faster include:

• Take advantage of content writing tools such as Jasper.ai to generate your first drafts.
• Training yourself to type faster. There are many online tools you can use for this.
• Avoid distractions when working (such as meetings or surfing the internet).
• Get help. You can team up with friends and write content together. You can also outsource work to sites like Fiverr.

#3. Running out of ideas for blog posts

Pro bloggers have several strategies they use to ensure they don’t run out of things to write.

Some of the strategies you can use to avoid running out of blogging ideas include:

• Using keyword tools like Semrush or Keysearch to find out which topics people are searching for or which topics your competitors are ranking for.
• Noting down ideas immediately you get them.
• Reading widely within your niche to identify gaps in knowledge

17. Failing to Use Data in Making Decisions

Success in blogging boils down to implementing strategies that work.

Finding what works, however, relies on testing different approaches and tracking the results. Testing requires a reliable way to collect and analyze data.

One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions- Grace Murray Hopper

The disadvantages of not having a data-driven blogging approach

If you don’t have a data-driven approach in your blogging, you may have the following challenges:

• You become afraid of trying new approaches and therefore miss new opportunities.
• You are stuck with strategies that no longer work. The blogging world changes constantly. What was good advice five years ago might be terrible advice today.
• You become too reliant on guesswork and opinion from �?experts’. Experts are simply people who keep learning and testing. If they become lazy in their learning and testing, things change and their advice becomes meaningless.

Common mistakes when implementing a data-driven blogging approach

Watch out for the following missed opportunities when implementing a data-driven approach.

#1. Failing to use data to increase the number of visitors

Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console will help you collect data on your visitors that can help you make correct decisions. For example,

• How many people visit your blog?
• Where do they come from?
• How much time do they spend on your blog?

Google Analytics and Google Search Console are free tools from Google.

#2. Failing to use data to increase your profits

You can carry out simple fun tests to identify potentially profitable strategies.

• How many people are clicking on your affiliate links? Which affiliate offer attracts more clicks than others? You can use a tool like Thirsty Affiliates for this.
• Which areas in your blog attract the most attention from your visitors? You can use a   heat-map tool like Inspectlet, which can record actual videos of people using your site.
• Which offers attract the most people to join your email list? You can use a tool like Mailoptin to test offers.

#3. Failing to use data to identify new opportunities to rank on Google

Keyword tools like Keysearch can help you identify low-competition keywords and questions that you can use to write new blog posts. Keyword tools have other advantages such as:

• Spy on your competitor’s keywords.
• Track the performance of your keywords in the search results.
• You can use them to identify keyword trends.

18. Giving Up On Your Blog Too Soon

Many beginner bloggers give up on their blogs at the point where their blogs are about to take off. This poor timing is a result of not taking time to understand how long it takes to succeed in blogging.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. – Elbert Hubbard, Entrepreneur Quotes

Success in blogging, like everything else in life, takes time. You may need to put in years of consistent action before you get the kind of success you desire.

If you look at my list of blogger income reports, many bloggers start to make good money around 3-4 years after starting their blog.

Avoid short-term thinking. Bloggers who grind through the initial challenges of blogging end up successful, either making full-time incomes or significant side incomes.

Common mistakes that lead bloggers to quit blogging too soon

If you are tempted to quit blogging, you may be making the following mistakes.

#1. Having unrealistic expectations

If you come into blogging with unrealistic expectations, you run the risk of getting discouraged when you don’t see the kind of success you expected. You may start to believe that you don’t have what it takes to succeed in blogging.

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years. – Bill Gates, Entrepreneur Quotes

Some of the common unrealistic expectations are:

• You will make money in no time
• You will make money with only a few posts
• Readers will love what you write
• Blogging will always be fun
• You don’t need to invest time and money in your blog

The reality is that with more time, better knowledge, and more effort, most people can succeed in blogging.

#2. Failing to remind yourself of your why

When you encounter challenges in blogging, you need to remind yourself of why you got into blogging in the first place.

Make a list of the reasons why you got into blogging and come back to them whenever you need some motivation.

If you are struggling to find reasons to re-ignite your passion for blogging, check out the following post for inspiration:

• How to change your life through blogging

#3. Not fully understanding the drawbacks of blogging

Full-time blogging comes with some challenges and these challenges often come as a shock to many new bloggers.

I have written an article that explains some of the things you should consider before you get into full-time blogging here.

If you are mentally prepared to face these challenges, you are less likely to quit when you encounter them.

19. Making Mistakes When Monetizing Your Blog

If you are struggling to make money from your blog, you could be making several mistakes in the way you monetize your blog.

Many of these mistakes are easy to fix if you develop the proper mindset and do your research well. If you want to avoid these mistakes, you need to:

• Create a plan on how you will monetize your blog early on
• Educate yourself on the various blog monetization methods as well as their pros and cons.
• Continually test various monetization methods, offers, and price points

Common blog monetization mistakes

The most common monetization mistakes that most beginners make include:

#1. Guilt about making money from your visitors

If you are not willing to receive compensation for the value you provide, you will not be able to leverage many of the win-win opportunities available.

Eventually, you will shut down your blog or cut down the amount of time you spend on it. This is a loss for both you and your audience.

Here are some self-sabotaging self-thoughts that will keep you from monetizing your blog:

• You are not qualified enough to offer valuable products and services. Everyone suffers from this imposter syndrome at some point. Put what you have out there and your audience will decide whether it is valuable or not.
• You don’t want to annoy or inconvenience your visitors. Many people will be willing to support you in your ventures as long as they are getting good value from you. For example, if you have a reasonable number of ads on your blog, people will keep reading on despite the minor annoyance.

#2. Engaging in unprofitable relationships and ventures

With blogging, you have a lot of control over how you monetize your blog so there is no need to stick with unprofitable opportunities. For example:

• You can increase your ad revenue by shifting from Adsense to a premium ad network like Ezoic.
• You can shift from an affiliate program with low commissions and conversions to one with higher commissions.
• You can raise the prices of your products and services. Test various price points to see what people are willing to pay.

#3. Over-monetization

While making money from a blog is important, you can go too far in trying to make a buck. Avoid these over-monetization mistakes.

• Putting too many ads and popups on your blog so that it is virtually unusable. Trying to maximize ad revenue at the cost of user experience will only limit the amount of money you can make from your site.
• Being too salesy, for example, by sending too many promotional emails to people in your email list. Eventually, people will get fatigued and quit your list or tune out.
• Promoting irrelevant products and services with the sole aim of getting high commissions. You need to align your promotions to the needs and wants of your audience.

20. Failing to Provide Value

If you want to have success with your blog, you have to be obsessive about providing value to your audience.

We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. It takes time to bring value to the marketplace, but we get paid for the value, not for the time. – Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur Quotes

The benefits of providing value with your blog

Providing value comes with many benefits including:

• You get more readers with less effort because your current readers will share your content.
• You can sell higher-priced products and services because your audience trusts you to do what is good for them.
• You get avenues for collaboration that will further grow your blog.

Common mistakes that lead to failure in creating and communicating value

Certain barriers will stop you from providing genuine value to your audience.

#1. A get-rich-quick mentality

Making money from blogging requires a simple mindset shift from �?How can I make the most money from blogging?’ to �?How can I provide the most value with my blog?’

In the long term, the person who provides the most value ends up making the most money. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

If you solely focus on what will bring you the most money as soon as possible, you may get tempted to exploit your audience. For lasting success, pursue win-win opportunities.

#2. Failing to understand the needs of your target audience

In blogging, it is easy to fall into the trap of focusing on your needs and wants. Success, however, requires that you serve the needs of your audience first.

You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar, Entrepreneur Quotes

To serve your audience better, you need to understand them first. Ask:

• Who is your target audience?
• What problems do they have and what solutions can you provide?
• What information do they want?
• What products and services can help them?

Your potential audience will stay away if you make no effort to understand them or if you decide to prioritize your needs over their needs.

#3. Failing to understand that value is relative to what is available

The value of anything goes up and down depending on its availability or scarcity. Before you get into a niche, check around to see what is available. You should ask yourself;

• Why would someone read your content instead of what is already available?
• What do you do better than the others?
• What additional benefits will you provide?
• What advantage do you have in solving a problem?

Ideally, you want to provide the most value compared to anyone else around. You also need to be unique and stand out in the way you approach things.

21. Working on Multiple Projects at the Same Time

Many amateur bloggers find themselves overworked and overwhelmed because of doing too many things at the same time.

Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time. – Gary Keller, Entrepreneur Quotes

As a new blogger, you may be eager to try out the many ideas and concepts you keep coming across. However, this �?shiny object syndrome’ will only lead to a lack of progress.

To remain sane, you have to focus on only a few important things.

Common productivity mistakes that lead to a lack of focus

If you have been working hard but feel like you have not made any meaningful progress, check to find if you have been making the following mistakes:

#1. Not having concrete goals

If you don’t have concrete goals, you will find yourself undertaking activities that will distract you from working on what is useful.

Make a list of goals you want to achieve from your blogging and write down the steps and activities needed to accomplish those goals.

If your goal is to make $3,000 a month from blogging, the steps will be:

• Bring in 100,000 visitors to your blog every month.
• Get monetization opportunities that earn $30 per 1,000 visitors.

These two activities could be further broken down into additional measurable steps.

#2. Working on unnecessary activities

The Pareto rule states that 20% of your actions will result in 80% of your results. If you focus on the 20% of actions that bring in the results, you can avoid many other unnecessary activities.

Once you have the list of activities needed to accomplish your goals from the step above, you need to do testing to determine which are the most effective.

Everything else is noise. You need to cut off ineffective activities and prioritize what will contribute the best to your goals.

#3. Failing to automate, delegate or outsource

If you try to do everything yourself, you will be overworked and overwhelmed. This will lead you to be less effective.

• Offload unimportant and repetitive work to other people or software. For example, If you do not like graphic design or you are not good at it, you can hire a designer on Fiverr starting at five dollars.
• Automate many of the non-crucial tasks. For example, you can use email marketing software like Systeme.io to automate sending emails to your list.

22. Writing Bad Headlines

Copywriters have long realized the immense importance of having great headlines. Many of them spend as much time on their headlines as they spend on their copy.

You need your blog title to grab your visitors’ attention and entice them to read the rest of your article.

Benefits of having well-optimized blog titles

Many benefits come with having great headlines.

• More people will share your article on social media or other networks. Most people share articles based on the headline even if they don’t read the content (Blogging Statistics).
• More people will read your article if you do a good job of capturing their attention
• You will get SEO benefits. If you get a higher click-through rate on the Google results page, you will keep moving up the search rankings.
• You will get higher conversions for your products and services
• You will decrease your bounce rate because more people will click on other related articles in your blog.

You can get better at writing great headlines by studying successful copywriters or taking copy writing courses.

Alternatively, you can use a tool like Jasper.ai that uses artificial intelligence to generate titles using scripts from successful headlines.

Common headline mistakes you must avoid

A bad headline can make you look untrustworthy or tacky. Common mistakes in writing blog headlines include:

#1. Failing to understand what the audience wants

Get into the mind of your audience. To do this, you need to understand your niche and the needs of the people in that niche. This will help you predict their needs and problems.

Your headline should demonstrate that you have the answer to what they are looking for.

For example, if you know that people in your audience want to lose belly fat without doing many complicated exercises, you can have a headline like:

�?Two simple exercises to lose belly fat fast.’

#2. Having boring headlines

You can spice up your headlines by taking the contrarian view or by arousing our desire for new information. For example:

�?Why Schools Kill Creativity.’

However, you should stay away from clickbait. Your title should not be misleading or too sensationalized. Back up your hype or your claims in your article.

#3. Not optimizing your headlines for SEO

If you want to get traffic from Google, your headlines should include keywords or phrases that users are searching for on Google.

For example, if your keyword is �?self-propelled lawn mowers’ you can have a title like:

�?The 10 best self-propelled lawn mowers of 2021.’

The title includes the target keyword but also has the year as an additional keyword.

Although Google is getting better at identifying what your content is about using other ways, trying to be too clever with your headlines may end up costing you traffic.

23. Failing to Invest In Self-Education

When blogging for the first time, as with anything else in life, you are likely to fail because you have no clue about what you are doing.

However, you can short-cut your way to success by tapping into the knowledge and experience of those who have gone before you. Why re-invent the wheel when others have already figured out what you are struggling with?

Therefore, the best investment you can make is to learn how to do things the right way. With the right knowledge, you can make almost anything work.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. – Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur Quotes

If you avoid repeating other people’s mistakes, you can gain a significant head start over your competition.

The benefits of investing in self-education for bloggers

There are several advantages to self-learning including:

• You can choose what to learn.
• You can gain expert knowledge cheaply.
• You can go at your own pace.
• You can choose learning materials that suit you.

Common self-education mistakes

Here are the common mistakes that can hamstring your ability to leverage self-learning successfully.

#1. Failing to take advantage of free and affordable resources

Learning doesn’t have to be expensive. We have many cheap and free resources from experts (books, blogs, YouTube) that you can use to learn any skill you need.

You can also take advantage of course platforms like Skillshare, which give you access to thousands of courses for a monthly fee (much like a Netflix for courses).

#2. Failing to create time for learning

If you do not set aside time for learning, you will find yourself wasting time on things that will not help you move forward in your life.

The average American, for example, watches almost four hours of TV a day ^[9] (Blogging Statistics).

Watching TV does not put money in your pocket. If you are struggling to make money in your life, set aside an hour or two every day to learn a skill that can make you money. One year of doing this will turn you into a moneymaking machine.

#3. Failing to apply what you learn

Any knowledge you acquire but don’t apply will soon be forgotten. Think of all the things you learned in high school, how much do you still remember?

Ensure that any knowledge you learn can help you improve your life either by putting money in your pocket, getting you a job, making you healthier, or improving your relationships.

You cannot achieve the benefits of learning if you don’t put into practice what you learn.

24. Failing to Use Blogging Tools

One great advantage of blogging is there is a wide variety of tools that make it easy to automate or solve many problems that you are likely to encounter

There are many reasons that many bloggers give for not using these tools:

• The tools are unnecessary.
• They don’t have money to buy the tools.
• The tools are difficult to use and they don’t have time to learn how to use them.

However, as you will see, it all depends on the perspective you decide to take.

Common mistakes to avoid when choosing blogging tools

Your attitude towards tools can lead you to lose out on many of their benefits.Avoid the following mistakes when getting blogging tools.

#1. Thinking that tools are a waste of money

Thinking that tools are a waste of money could hold back your blog. Tools are investments that will reap rewards for your blogging business. Some of the benefits that you can get from using blogging tools include:

• Tools help you make better decisions. For example, keyword tools like Semrush or Keysearch will help you avoid wasting time writing content that has no chance of ranking.
• Tools save you time. For example, an email marketing tool like Systeme.io can help you create automated sales systems for your blog that will help free up your time to do other tasks.
• Tools save you money. For example, a tool like Grammarly will catch your grammatical errors without you having to spend time and money on proofreaders and copy editors.

Nonetheless, you should consider the return on investment (ROI) of a tool before you commit to a purchase.

#2. Thinking that blogging tools are expensive

Many of the frequently recommended tools tend to be expensive which might give the impression that blogging tools are expensive.

However, you can find many free or relatively inexpensive resources, you just need to do a bit of digging to find them.

When choosing a blogging tool, you need to be clear about what you want the tool to do. Choose a tool based on your needs.

If a cheap tool does not have the features you need, then buying it just because it is cheap will not help you.

Similarly, if you go with an expensive tool because you think it is better, you may end up paying for features that you don’t need or features that you will find difficult to use.

#3. Thinking that blogging tools are difficult to use

While it is true that some advanced tools can be difficult and confusing to use, most tools are beginner-friendly. You need to choose a tool that you can use comfortably to sort out your needs.

You can check if a tool is appropriate for you by:

• Taking advantage of the tool’s trial period. Many companies will allow you to use their tools for free for a limited time.
• Checking out tutorials online (other blogs or YouTube)
• Taking courses that show you how to use the tool. Check out if there is a course available for that particular tool. You can check on course platforms like Skillshare which has thousands of affordable courses.

25. Failing to build Expertise, Authority, and Trust

When building your blogging business, it is important to show yourself to be a trustworthy expert who is well regarded in your niche or industry.

Google has an acronym for this: E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) ^[10].

E-A-T has three components:

• Expertise. Are you an expert in what you are writing?
• Authoritativeness. Do others in your niche or industry consider you an expert in what you are writing about?
• Trustworthiness. Are you a reliable source of information? If you are a business blog, do you have great products and services?

Building E-A-T is especially important if you are in a competitive niche or if you are in a YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niche.

YMYL niches such as those touching on medical issues, law procedures or investing, have a higher threshold for quality because they can significant long-term effects on other people’s lives.

The benefits of building expertise, authority, and trust

Building E-A-T has many advantages including:

• Getting traffic. If Google regards you as a trustworthy source of information, it will send more traffic your way.
• Higher conversions. If people trust you, they will be willing to buy what you sell or promote.
• Opportunities for collaboration. When people see you as an authority in a particular niche or industry, they will want to work with you and this can open unseen opportunities for growth.

Common mistakes that will reduce your blog’s E-A-T score

Some of the common mistakes that reduce your blog’s E-A-T score include:

#1. Having poorly researched content

If your information is wrong, it could signal that you have no clue about what you are writing.

You need to demonstrate that you have carried out in-depth research and used authoritative sources of information by linking out to credible sources of information.

#2. Being untrustworthy

Do not engage in activities that aim to defraud your visitors. If you consistently scam people through your blog, your bad reputation will eventually lead to the collapse of your blogging business.

Short-term profit-taking will blind you to the long-term opportunities of building an audience that trusts and loves you.

#3. Failing to have a good �?about’ page

Your about page (profile page) is where you can sell yourself and show why you are qualified to give the information. This is especially important if you are in a YMYL niche.

You can link out to your LinkedIn profile or your CV. If you have authored peer-reviewed articles, you can link to them.

You can list any credentials, awards, or recognition that you have received in your industry.

Final Thoughts

It may seem like there is so much to do and learn to be successful in blogging but you don’t need to do everything at once. Take things step-by-step and make frequent but consistent improvements on your blog.

Embrace failure because you are more likely to fail than to succeed. Once you acquire the necessary skills and knowledge, the journey will be much easier.

In this article, my aim was to provide you with a general overview of what you need to take your blogging to the next level.