Are You Making These Blogging Mistakes?
Table of Contents
Confessions Of A Pro-Blogger
These days I get a lot of credit for being a Top Blogger – but it was not always this way. Indeed it is perfectly safe to say that just about every mistake I am about to reveal in this post has been made by yours truly – and then some.
Lets take the Summer of 2006 when I started my first Blog and had the ‘bright” idea of creating my own blogging software. (Big Mistake) I mean what was I thinking! Fortunately WordPress cured me of that mistake.
Oh, and there has been many more mistakes, perhaps the biggest of which is that I am not always as FOCUSED as I should be.
The longer I am online and the more time I am in business the more I also realize that MINDSET is everything – it is so easy to get distracted in business, or be ‘busy’ doing things that don’t really get us closer to our goals.
A simple question I use when planning my day and my priorities is:
Does This Get Me Closer To My Objectives?
As bloggers we must ask ourselves this on a constant basis. I am not pretending that I am always as focused as I should be – far from it, but by asking that question, most days I end up getting a lot more done and being more productive compared to other bloggers, even if I work less hours than other bloggers who are ‘busy’.
So what are these mistakes?
Well, there is something for everyone here and I have broke them down as follows
>>>> Start Up Mistakes
>>>> Technical Mistakes
>>>> Blog Post Mistakes
>>>> Blog Promotion Mistakes
>>>> It’s All In The Mind (Mindset Mistakes)
And once you have read this post you can for alternative inspiration, head over at my other website, WebDesignDev.com and check out this list with a Naughty Title 20 Ways To Make Your Website Crap! It was a very popular post when we did it and has some valuable lessons.
Enjoy the post, let me have have your comments as always.
Michael
PS: What mistakes have you made? Let us all know in the comments.
Going With A FREE Blog Host – Going with a free blog host is sometimes good, but if you want your blog to be successful and fully customizable, then you really need to host your WordPress blog yourself. Grab HostGator and use their one click installer to get WordPress online in less than 30 seconds. Remember to use our coupon code to get your first month hosting for 1cent (coupon: Retireat21).
Not Thinking Ahead – You need to think ahead when blogging. Every day is a new day. Every hour is a new hour. What happens now might not be the same 2 months down the line. Thinking and planning ahead leads to success.
Choosing the Wrong blogging platform – Make sure you choose the right blog platform when you start out blogging. My recommendation would be WordPress because it has so many Plugins and is so flexible. You don’t want to get a year down the line and end up having to transfer all your posts, content etc over to another platform.
Your Domain Extension – Two big mistakes when it comes to domains, firstly in my opinion your domain should be a Dot Com. Try and avoid .Net, and .Org and Country Domains such as .co.uk (unless you only want to focus on one country) The other mistake people make is having a really long web address e.g lookatmeandmyverylongdomainname.com or worse still a domain name that doesn’t make sense and isn’t memorable.
Blogging About What – So often I come across blogs that I have no idea what they are about, they will have one post about cooking then the next about installing Windows 7. Don’t try to everything to all people – Make it clear who you are and what you offer and be the BEST at it!
Copy Cat Bloggers – Creating a blog with the intention just to copy someone else’s idea almost always does not work. So I see examples almost every day of people who copy my blog after reading through my eCourse because I share lots of insider information etc. The thing is, most of these sites fail simply because it is not something the owner knows much about, can’t provide value on and really aren’t that passionate about. If you are going to COPY – at least make it BETTER!
Don’t blog for money, blog because you want to provide value, then the money will come
Not Using Threaded Comments – A lot of bloggers do not use threaded comments. This is a mistake because it doesn’t encourage community with in a blog. Enabling threaded comments on a blog encourages conversation and builds a community around your blog. Remember to put a max limit on how deep the thread can go. Usually 5 is a good number.
They Disable Comments – If you disable comments, tt is like buying a brand new car and purposefully not putting any fuel in it. You need to let your blog readers express their opinions about your blog and your content on posts. Plus, comments build a community and can drive more traffic from search engines to your site. Do you really want to be throwing all that away?
Displaying Low Stat Counts – A lot of new bloggers show there Feedburner and Twitter following when it’s very low. Unfortunately this often makes people think you provide little value. Its like saying to all your readers that your blog isn’t popular. I would start displaying your RSS reader count at around 500 – 1000, and your Twitter followers count at about 1500 – 2000.
Tags – So many bloggers don’t use tags in their blog posts. It brings me 90% of my search engine traffic, SO DO IT! Remember to choose the tags you use wisely. Think about what people would type into search engines.
Using Your Blog Real Estate Wisely – I personally don’t have adverts on IncomeDiary because I would prefer to use the areas for more important things such as encouraging people to subscribe to my blog and finding out more about me. But if you were to put ads on, just remember to use the space wisely. Don’t put like 50px padding on each advert. Pixels are $$$s people!
Blogging Consistency – When blogging, there’s no point in writing a really good post, and then leaving it for a month. If you want your blog to be separated from the millions of other blogs and have a name for itself, you will need to blog frequently, with equal time gaps between each post.
Repeating what other bloggers are saying – So often I see a post on SmashingMagazine, then around a day later 10 other blogs have the same subject line. If you want your blog to shine and succeed, try to be unique with your post ideas and content. Yes its OK to grab inspiration every now and then from other blogs, but don’t just copy them straight out.
Apologizing for not writing for a while – It’s so annoying when people don’t write on their blog for a short period of time, and then the first paragraph of their latest post they are apologizing for not writing for a while. Personally I think, “Sorry mate, didn’t even realize you were gone.”
Blogging about too many subjects – If you cant count the subjects you blog about on two hands then there’s no point in blogging. Try to make your categories all fairly similar.
Writing about something you know nothing about – Here’s something I’m sure most of you have seen. People blogging about blogging when they never have had a blog before. This is really annoying, because most of the time they are wrong, and also they are rookies at it too. You think, do they actually know what they are talking about? Sometimes its fun to leave comments though.
Post Titles – Vital for search engines and to encourage people to look at the post. When writing a post, the title needs to interest people so they click your link in their RSS reader, on Twitter or in your emails. Also, search engines rank WordPress blog’s very well but if your title is something people aren’t searching for then there is no point using it.
Take Your Time – So many people just rush their posts, I will put my hand up and say I was guilty of this myself and still do slip up today. It’s so important to check your post over and over again to make sure it’s perfect because if you do slip up on your description, your research, your spelling, all these things can affect the success of a post.
Replying to Comments – Something I never use to do till Yan Susanto told me how important it is. Replying to your comments is great because you get a second chance to provide more value to readers and to encourage conversation and loyalty.
Writing For People, Not Google – It’s often quite hard to get a balance between the two but at the end of the day, you should be providing value to your readers and if you only write with Google in mind, then you can’t provide the value necessary.
Commenting (Spamming) on blog posts – So many people comment blog posts for the soul reason to get traffic and search engine rankings. Google loves organic links but Google is not stupid either – and they have ways and means to SPOT people who are deliberately spamming other sites in order to gain links or “authority”. As for the traffic side of it, I have got some traffic in past from very big blogs if I was the first to comment, but really your best spending your time on something else.
Spamming comments with your link – This is annoying for all the blog owners of the blogs you comment at. Plus, it can make your blog look like spam, and you really don’t want that if you are trying to succeed. If you are going to leave your link at another persons blog, at least try and blend it in, and don’t just copy and paste the EXACT same comment onto other blog posts.
Social Bookmarking – Yes it can bring great traffic depending on which site you use but on a whole, it’s something you don’t need to get involved with yourself. The only way you can get real traffic from sites like Digg is to get power users to submit for you, they usually will find you, don’t both wasting time submitting yourself to all the different sites, 99.9% of the time I have done it, I have received no decent amount of traffic.
Expecting Too Much, Too Soon – Progress doesn’t just happen overnight, like many people think it does. 800 People start an online business every day, and 90% of them will fail. You may have heard stories about overnight success, but that’s like one in a million. Be patient, and if you have the formula correct, success will grow.
Constantly checking stats – Although checking stats is vital and something I highly recommend, doing it more than once a day is too often. Concentration is really important in work and if you’re constantly looking at your stats, you won’t be focused!
Confronting People Who Wrong You – This is quite a big issue for me, I have had freelancers rip me off online (designers, programmers, hosts etc) and take my money and run! As a Blogger, your first thought may be to humiliate them or bad mouth them in a blog post. Please don’t bother. I believe in Karma and what goes around, comes around. Sure they may rip me off and cost me money, but really they will waste me even more money if I waste time thinking about it, getting upset about. These things happen in business – get over it. Of course this does not make it right that people do this and for you perhaps the right thing is to take action against these people – but my personal experience sadly has been that it wastes even more time (money). I am reminded of one developer who scammed me once — and I did mention it online, he even had the cheek about 18 months later to get his Lawyer to contact me and get the ‘offending post’ removed. The thing is that for all those Freelancers who ripped me off I have had many more Good Guys who have done a great job and went on to become good friends.
Taking things personally – Whatever you do with your blog, you will always have someone say something negative about you, don’t worry about it! Trust me, whenever we do our top lists, we always get people leaving negative comments saying why isn’t this person here, or why is he / she on here! Don’t take personal offense. If everyone was perfect and agreed with the same thing it would be so boring!
Having a big Ego – Although ego can be good, it doesn’t look good if you have one and you really don’t deserve it. It is good to know you are good, even the best, but be humble about it. If you really are good I believe people will know that — even without you having to point that out 
Finally on Mindset, I am reminded of another quote that I read recently that is somewhat related: What You Focus On, Expands or put another way:
What You Focus On Is What You Get
Bonus:
For alternative inspiration, head over at my other website, WebDesignDev.com and check out this list with a Naughty Title 20 Ways To Make Your Website Crap!
About Michael Dunlop
I'm Michael, I created this site back in 2009 and since then it's received over a million visitors from all around the world. We offer tutorials and inspiration for online entrepreneurs wanting to achieve more.
97 comments so far… Leave a reply
Scott
I think... uh... I think I need to change some of my blogging habits. Thanks for pointing these out.
Scott
Nice post by the way, keep up the helpful advice :D
Kima
Extremely nice writeup. I could relate to so many insightful points from your post. Definitely worth bookmarking.
Heather
I'm glad I read this before I started blogging - very useful :)
izzat aziz
Some of the mistake apply to me but I think I have pretty much clear idea to do that, it maybe mistake but sometime people simply doesn't care for example dot com, dot com era is almost over it exhausted with good name, what else left? .net,.ag and other weird extension but i think it doesn't effect anything.. i agree with you with almost all the point, like showing stat.. if you have what 10 - 30 feed subscriber it better if you hide for awhile because instead of promoting in make your feed less popular, i try to reply all comment, but sometime the comment have nothing to reply with.. so i just read and try to find other comment that do have material. one more time good post, love it so much.. :)
Michael Dunlop
Hello, I would have to disagree with the .Com comment ~ not all the good domains are taken, you just have to be more creative today and I do feel a .net or .co.uk affects your chances at being a success, one reason being that people will just presume it is a .Com and then find someone else's website. Michael
izzat aziz
i know what you mean.. that why i currently in planning to buy izzataziz.com,izzataziz.org,izzataziz.my.. :) but problogger using .net though.
Lauren
Superb advice! If all blogger's tried to abide by these sort of blogging principles, well... the "blogsphere" would be a much better place. I have felt the same and handle my copycats the same way. For the most part, I do absolutely nothing at all. And even me and my little blog, has been ripped off and does get ripped off A LOT> Be it content, design, graphics, I see something used in an unauthorized fashion (to say the least) on a regular basis but I have found that the best action is no action in repsonse. And spam comments. Spam comments are so insulting. I mean, don't people even have enough time or brain power to at least SKIM through a post so that when they comment their intentions are not so obvious? I mean, really, what kind of content does one have to offer if they must to resort to those sort of tactics anyways? Just pathetic to me... but that's an entirely different can of worms. Anyways, great post start to finish. Have a super day.
Edward Palomo
this is a really good post. my feed subscribers are still few so i won't be posting my feedburner count until it goes 500...
Johnluffa
Umm...I read somewhere the minimum was 200. I guess the overall benchmark has changed.
Michael Dunlop
Hey Guys, It really depends on your niche and your own standards, I have 1000's and I still don't show mine, yet ;-) Michael
Anant Kataria
Nice post. Not just this one, but I seem to like most of you posts.
Johnluffa
Thanks for sharing some of your mistakes - I have been a guilty of many of them too. In fact, I was on a verge of thrashing my current web-hosting company in a blog post. But thanks to this post, I will hold off that temptation.
Johnluffa
Yep, not cross-checking my comment for typos is another blogging mistake :)
Lara Jane
Fantastic article. Thanks! xx
Muzi Mohale
Interesting input Michael, I see a Smashing Magazine layout in your presentation today. I can identify with some of the mistakes on the list, blogging really requires dedication for it to yield any positive results. We tend to assume 'auto pilot' just happens, yet it can only work if you have systems in place.
Rob
Interesting article Michael. However, I think in order to become the "Top blogger" you need to have made those mistakes. People become a better blogger by learning from their mistakes, and that's exactly what you've done. Great post Michael.
Andrew @ webuildyourblog.com
Brilliant article! Mistakes are great if you admit they are mistakes and don't repeat them. Biggest mistakes I've made is started too many blogs in niches I knew very little about...just because I thought they were 'hot' topics and would many me some income. They didn't! Not too costly (i.e. actual money) a mistake but a lot of time and effort was lost. So I no longer do that! Andrew
Alexandre Tavares Sergio
I really have to say that Michael has his point. Blogging is hard enough if you take it as a professional. Besides his reason, I have to say that I keep my blog running with my personal tool for now (and only in portuguese, people, sry), and I am not thinking to change to a CMS. I am a developer and the best way I have to show what I say/write is making my blog as an example.
Brian J Cody, author
It is so true that you should blog about what your are knowledgeable about and are passionate about. By providing quality content and showing your passion about that content. Your online multiple income stream will follow.
Suta
wow! this one is too good a post to read. I have to reread it again and again to fully understand and remember for my own blog, now or later.
Ed
Whoo thank you. On my blog i was listing all my subs and twitter count and it was low. going to delete
David Shaw
I think I need to start tagging more on my blog! Many Thanks, will retweet!
TidyMom
GREAT post!! some I do, some I NEED to do! I have a question....I've been debating over a domain - the one I REALLY want is not available (and not being used) - so I can go .net or hyphenate.com which do you think is better?
v-render
very nice detailed article. I have started just bloging on my website. and its while i haven't wrote any post .. for sure will not apologize now .. thanks for very informative post. thank you.
Mohsen
Many thanks, learned a lot with this excellent post. I need to memorize your tips.
poch
One of the best pieces. Bravo. And this relates to the guest-post I wrote titled 'Starting a Blog the Right Way'. If you think I'm not using IncomeDiary to promote my site, you can see my post at Million Clues and I would be grateful for your correction of mistakes if any.
website protection
Good thing is i ran onto basic tutorial about those mistakes and although only first few were mentioned in it it helped me to avoid them.Those that were not mentioned there are ones am doing atm mostly the those about social bookmarking.Digg didn't got me any traffic at all as some other too Wish i got this article ways sooner :S but its never late to start correcting your mistakes
Jared
So many great points here! I tried to think of something more useful to add with this comment, but couldn't lol. I think you pretty much summed it all up quite nicely.
Monique Schlosser
Michael I love what you wrote here. You can tell by your writing that you truly care about people. I have learnt so much from this blog and I will do my best to implement every point you have written about here.
Tammy
Wow so much great info! Thanks so much :)
Ed Young
Michael: Thanks for taking time to post this. I am new to blogging and want to learn to do it right, so better to learn from your mistakes than make them myself.
Thanh Lu
these are good reminders!
Tim
Michael: thanks for this post! In the past I've been told that some of my posts are really good and some wish I posted more often. This was before I decided to be a "real" blogger. Wasn't sure how to say that. Anyway, thanks again Tim
David Stillwagon
It seems that I have made quite a few mistakes (if not all of them) thanks for providing the remedies
Ms. Freeman
WOW your tags are phrases if not complete sentences. I was always under the impression that tags were one word only. Is it the norm now to have such long tags?
designvore
Interesting advice. I totally agree about the usual mistake of using a free blog host. In fact, I think most people do that because they want to start a blog but don't really know how to do it on their own. Maybe it is just a lack of self-confidence. I would also like to add (after reading some comments) that .com are still reachable. You, of course, need to be creative to find a good one which is still free. I bought my first domain name not so long ago (designvore.com) and I had to be really creative to come with this free name. Maybe it is not a good one and I could have a better one with a .net or .org but I still like it. Saying that, of course my blog (gallery in fact) is really young and I must say that I don't have a lot of traffic but I plan on making it evolve and I think it is a good thing to learn. It is hard to begin a blog when you are unknown but it is really interesting to learn how to produce quality content and seeing if it is working or not.
luke ahearn
Hey Michael, After reading that I just realised that my blog and my articles are a little bit off the mark. LOL. I have never used tags before and didn't really know what they were used for. I will have to make some changes to my website www.youngbusinessnetwork.com.au so that I will be found more when people are searching for me in google. Thanks for the post, it was extremely helpful. Luke
Rand MacIvor
Thank you from a (geezer) newbie! A great lists of guidelines. Thanks! Rand
OneLifeNoFear
Nice article Michael.... I am guilty of a few of those... lesson learned.... Cheers
jan geronimo
I reply to every comment as much as possible. It's a surefire formula to raise the level of readers engagement with your blog. I thought i had it all figured out until I read this in your post: "Replying to your comments is great because you get a second chance to provide more value to readers and to encourage conversation and loyalty." A second chance to provide more value to readers. Outstanding. I wish I had thought of that myself! :)
legitmoney
I have been hesitating to blog for quite sometime due to not knowing exactly what to brand my theme to. So I was excited when Twitter came aboard, which gives the busy and procrastinating writer a great opportunity to begin in small stages. Good stuff .Thanks for the information. Legit Money
Bob
thank you for some good advice
Nikunj Tamboli
I am soon starting my blog that advice will come really handy will make sure i follow every step mention here. Thanks
Janko
Fantastic tips, blogging is far more harder that most of people realize. One of the biggest issues and challenges for me was taking things too personally. It took me a lot of time to start ignoring insults and learn from negative but constructive feedback.
Casey L. Jones
Some really basic advice that many people, myself included, need reminding of now and then. I know I am guilty of at least two "mistakes" if not more. I've recently been away from blogging in a while, well in reality I still am away, due to family illness. So, just as you reminded us not to do, I "appologized" and gave a "rough estimate" of when I'd return to my normal blogging pace. Also, I really need to remember to respond to my commenters more frequently. Does anyone know of a script or plug-in for Wordpress that auto-respond to commenters while their comments are still in moderation queue? Something to say along the lines of "Thanks for the comment, If you haven't already why not subscribe to my RSS feed?" I've seen this on other blogs and was just curious if anyone knew of the method to do this.
Alenchik
Once again you got another excellent post! I'm learning so much from you.. and still having such a hard time that you achieved most of what you have today in the last 7 months... you just show the world that you can do it and so can the rest of us! thank you :)
Viktor Larsson
I just started blogging on WPF and Silverlight and found some of these tips helpful. The line between letting people know of your blog and being obnoxious is often a fine one. It would've been nice with some pointers on how to advertise your blog in a relevant way. Tags is a great tool but it's not as proactive as I might want it to be.
Learn Creative Visualization
I do get some traffic from real comments I post from blogs I really visit frequently like yours. And YES Wordpress is amazing. GREAT POST as usual
Derrick
Your tips are so valuable.I have learned a lot from this post.I like how you explained the mindset mistakes.
Louis_Dea
Thanks Michael for the post. Always really interesting !
Teen Blogger
Great List. Lots of newbie bloggers do make the mistake of putting the rss count in the beginning with only 10 subscribers or so. I also think that you should start displaying when the rss count hits around a few hundred. Blogging is not easy and takes time and hard work to succeed.
Dana
Awesome post! Once my new website is launched I'll be starting to blog and will take into account all of your advice. Thanks for sharing.
Bradley Will
Tremendous tips Michael. I am amazed at the quality of content you put out. Just shared it with my network.
Lex Garey
This is an amazing set of guidelines. They're simple, yet to the point. I think that while everyone does need to make their own mistakes, there are some that can be avoided all together. Mistakes are still rather plentiful these days.
Ruth - Web Career Girl
This is a fantastic post. I have learnt so much since I started blogging a year ago - but have so much to learn. I like what you said about people who do you wrong. It's so hard to deal with, but the truth is that there are just some people like that online and in other businesses. I am also learning to focus, and I believe the more you're in the business the more you just learn to focus and be productive. It is falling into place for me thankfully.
The comments are closed.