Five Mistakes This Blogger Made

Blogging as a novice is hard work, your right at the bottom and whats facing you is a long time consuming climb to the top. However saying that it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s impossible, here I’m going to layout some simple points that can get you on the right track to a successful blog.

BlogMeFamous is my second web development and promotions blog but one i am more excited about because i now know what not do to…

What not to do when starting your first blog;

1.

• Do not start blogging to make money

Now I’m not saying that new blogs will not make any money i’m simply saying that if the only thing on your mind is making money then you are going to sacrifice time that could be spent into building content on searching for the latest monetizing techniques. Don’t try to start near the end and give yourself time to enjoy the journey from a new blog to a hopefully successful one.

How can you avoid this?

• Blog about a niche you know and love

First there must come content, content is easy to create if you are blogging in a niche that you know about and more importantly one inwhich you like. There’s nothing worse than blogging about a topic you have no enthusiasm for, so sit down and ask yourself a question, do i see myself still writing on a blog about X in three or even six months time? - if the answers no then reconsider your blog topics.

2.

• Do not monetize your website to soon

While this point can be tied into my first mistake listed the two are different, The first mistake i ever made when i started blogging was a mindset and with that came the monetizing of the blog to early. It was in my mind to make money so i filled the blog with adverts to emulate todays top bloggers sites as i foolishly thought, to be a success in the blogging world i need to setup a blog exactly how the A- Listers had done.

When is the right time to monetize your website?

• Monetize when you have a loyal userbase and a steady flow of traffic

Perhaps your blogging for a hobby and you have no desire to make money from your blog, thats great but if you do plan on creating a successful money making blog then ideally you should wait until you have a steady flow of visitors - 300-500 uniques a day and a loyal subscription base. This means that people are already visiting your site for the content and will continue to do so even if you have adverts and when a new visitor comes to your blog they will simply join the crowd as a blog with activity is an even more attractive read.

3.

• Avoid guest blogging until you have content

Alright it sounds like a simple enough mistake ‘Not To Do’ but when i first started out blogging i was so convinced that i had to get the visitors first, i am not 100% sure on why but i think it had something to do with the thought of creating content and how, if i already had the visitors my content would be read by more people. Well i managed to get a spot on one of the latest blogs heading to the top, harpzon and although the visitor numbers coming from Harpzon where not as high as i expected, the visitors just didn’t stay.

When is the right time to guest blog?

• Make sure you have content and a small community

Guestblogging is a rewarding way to gain respect and visitors, it’s a great way to entice people to your blog but there are some guidelines to follow so if your considering guestblogging i urge you to take a look at my Guidelines for a Novice Blogger post as it explains certain aspects in more detail. At least have a subscription base and at least twenty posts before jumping into guest blogging.

4.

• Do not publish six blog posts in one day

The excitement of starting a new blog can be encouraging but stop and think about your content. Posting six articles a day is alright if you can continue to keep the quality up and frequency consistent as users will begin to expect the near impossible from you and your blog.

How many articles should i publish?

• An amount that you feel comfortable with creating not only today but tomorrow

To achieve this set out a maximum post frequency and stick by it. At the moment I’ve agreed not to post more than three articles a day and trying to at least get one out per day. What this means is that any additional content created is scheduled for the next day leaving your blog to continuously have great content without you struggling to post more than what you can comfortably create. Remember a blog is a subscription service it’s meant to be read daily don’t try and make it into a content website that never get’s updated.

5.

• Try not to focus on Search Engine Optimization alone

SEO is important but it’s important not to make it your only focus, doing so will degrade content and leave your blog without the stabilizers it needs to get going. Remember to write for your visitors and not the search engines. Focusing to much on SEO is like to harm the quality of the content that you write.

When should i focus on SEO?

• The first thing to do is establish a blog

SEO should always be in your mind but once your blog is growing with a steady userbase then it is time to start implementing techniques to receive higher search engine rankings.

This post is based upon my person experience with one of my first blogs, if you enjoyed this post why not subscribe to my rss feeds

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