10 Common mistakes bloggers make & how to avoid them

So many blogs are launched  on a daily basis, but only few make it to their cherished goal for which they were started. Most of them die a premature death. To ensure a successful blog requires professional discipline from you as a blogger. The following are some of the most common blogging mistakes that you should avoid.

Blogging mistakes

Thinking that blogging will make some quick money 

Most new bloggers start with a false notion that blogging will enable them make quick money, on the contrary blogging requires time and persistent efforts to yield results. It takes focused efforts to make your blog known and popular.  Therefore it takes time and continuous dedication to start making money on your blog.

Not choosing a single Niche

Before you even start a blog, you need to decide on a single niche, which you want to blog about. Failing to do so, is perhaps one of the biggest mistake made by bloggers. Don’t choose multiple niches. Your audience/readers should be clear about what they get from your blog. It should be a niche that you are passionate about. Also having a single niche, is good for search engines as it helps search engines to position your blog hence directing visitors to your site looking for topics about the niche you are writing about.

Not writing quality content 

The content you write should not be copied, it should be original. You should start by researching the topic before you actually begin to write the content on the blog. This enables you to write unique content that is useful to your readers. Your content should have value and easy to read. Quality content is the main influencing factor for your visitors.

Writing just for Search Engines

Over stuffing your content with keywords to rank high on the search engine results page can spoil the flow and relevancy of the content. Though your content can rank high on the search engines, but it may be of no value to the visitors as they simply fail to understand what the content delivers to them. Make a compromise, whereby your content is liked by both your readers and the search engines.

Not writing regularly 

Starting a blog is one thing, and maintaining it through frequent writing of posts is another. Choose a frequency say weekly or monthly and stick to it. If you don’t write regular content on your blog, then you tend to lose visitors and this can affect your search engine rankings too. A blog with no fresh content becomes stagnant and is equivalent to a dead blog. Blogging on a regular basis is vital element for a successful blog. This helps to keep a regular flow of traffic of visitors to your blog. 10 Common blogging mistakes

Not promoting your content

 If you just write and do nothing, then no one will visit your blog. You need to use social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to get vital source of traffic to your blog. You also need to use Content promotional Communities  like Quibb, Feedly, Quora to drive more traffic to your blog.

You can also read: Social Media Marketing Mistakes

Not building a relationship with other bloggers 

Your fellow bloggers especially in the same niche with whom you have a good relationship can comment on your posts, write about your posts, providing quality back links which is good for SEO and they can also share your posts on social media hence enabling your posts to reach wider audience.

Not replying to Comments on your blog

 By not replying to comments, you tend to discourage your readers from further commenting. Some may stop visiting your blog altogether. Reply to the comments on your blog to ensure your blog remains popular with your audience.

Related: 9 Creative Marketing Strategies you can’t live without as a Blogger

No Optimization of On- Page SEO

On-Page SEO involves tasks like proper headings, title tags, font size of the content, proper formatting of the points in your content, setting up image size etc. On-page SEO helps your content rank high in SERPs and thereby stand a better chance to gain a lot of traffic to your blog.

No link building 

Link building is an important factor in the overall SEO. The more backlinks you have on your post, the greater the preference you get in search engine results hence more traffic to your blog. If you don’t do link building then, you are losing out traffic to your site.

You can also read: Top 10 Influencer Networks to work with in 2023

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Author: John Mulindi

John writes on a variety of topics. He blogs on topics ranging from social media marketing (SMM), search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), email marketing, business, personal finance tech, entrepreneurship to personal development. In free time he likes watching football, reading, listening to music and taking nature walks.

289 thoughts on “10 Common mistakes bloggers make & how to avoid them”

  1. Thank you from your SSPS Team and Esme for sharing your various links with us at #268 SSPS Linky. I am busy designing and creating an access database of IG and FB links and handles as you share your links with SSPS.
    If you have an account please let me know your IG and FB information then I can add and easily tag you when you’re in the top 5 and I promote your post. Feel free to email me at esme@esmesalon.com or in the comments

  2. Another great article, John! The niche thing is my kryptonite. I know the value of niche-ing down, but dang it’s hard to leave all those pretty subject laying behind on the table. 🙂 I ended up with the “lifestyle” niche and am still working on it. Your list is excellent and should be a guideline for any blogger looking for success.

  3. I made the mistake of not marketing enough for my brand so I decided to make more time for that

  4. Hi! Thanks for the post! As a book blogger I tend to write a 500ish word review and include the goodreads book summary. Do you think this counts as too much copying? Thanks again!

  5. We’ll see if this publishes. WordPress blogs have a tendency not to allow me to comment! I’m not sure why, given that I try to be generally polite.
    The way my brain is wired, I would never be able to have just one blog. I have bipolar disorder, which means that I tend to have tons of ideas that feel the need to be expressed, obsessive compulsive disorder, which means that among other things I have an obsessive need to categorize everything, and adult ADD, which adds to the chaos created by the bipolar disorder.
    I have multiple side blogs that I don’t much care about promoting because they are mostly there to help me categorize the things I write. I have three that I actively want to promote. I am disabled, on Medicaid, and have a limited amount of money. So I need to find ways to promote my blogs which involve little or no cost.
    I think that participating in blog hops such as the one I found this blog through (Inspire Me Monday) is a great way of finding other bloggers and building a network. It has to be a good fit, though. I’ve found some blog hops where I tried really hard to make it work when the truth was, I had very little in common with the other participants. It’s a waste of time to try and make that sort of situation work. There are plenty of blog hops out there!

  6. This is such a helpful list for new bloggers to keep handy as they are launching and growing their blog.

  7. I have managed to bumble along and achieve most of these. I focus on trying to write engagingly and present my view of whatever I’m presenting entertainingly with great photos. Not everyone is interested in the same things as me but if they should end up on a post they will hopefully enjoy it.

  8. This is a great list of common blogging mistakes. The point of “Writing just for Search Engines” is so important from my perspective. I enjoy reading and taking in new information, except for when I come across articles that’s wayyy to long with repetitive information. Thanks for this list 🙂

  9. This is so true. I have been trying to help some friends to try this kind of activity but most of them quit after not seeing any result after a couple of weeks. Despite trying to explain that we need to continue learning and working on it, i could not control them. The guides you provided herein are very informative.

  10. Wow…read this and had an impossible time finding where to comment. Studying up as much as i can and have seen this list. I love to write and enjoy it —-so when it’s no longer fun, i’ll No longer do it. You seem to have a good handle on this, judging by the number of comments i had to scroll past…best wishes to you on ongoing success!

    1. Hey, thanks for the positive feedback. Different people have different motivations: some blog to make money while others just to share their stories or life experiences, whatever your goal maybe you need to make it enjoyable.

  11. Great article especially the point about writing only for search engines. We tend to get caught up!

    1. Hi Rosalinda, just keep writing! Most of these things you learn on the way. I never knew anything about SEO before I started blogging. I learned about it, when I started visiting other blogs.

  12. Thank you for those great tips! I am a fairly new blogger so they’re helpful!

    Visiting from Thoughtful Thursdays today!

    You’re very welcome to drop by for a cup of inspiration!
    Jennifer

  13. Definitely not engaging with other bloggers is one of the biggest mistakes. Having a relationship with other bloggers can bring support and collaboration opportunities. Sadly, many bloggers think they don’t need others to succeed, but that’s all wrong.
    Greetings from the Inspire Me Monday linky!

    1. Greetings, thanks for visiting again, yes I have found building relationship with other bloggers to be of great help especially when it comes to supporting each other in blog promotion and engagement.

  14. You highlighted the most important blogging mistakes. It’s interesting to see that despite being covered in hundreds of thousands of blogs, people still need to be reminded of them.

    Thank you for the info!

  15. I used to blog by the mentality that “if you build it, they will come,” but that is so not true! Promotion and relationships is key to building your blog!

  16. Great tips! These are some of the things I try to avoid by just making more time to work on blogging related activities outside of my full-time job. I’m still new to blogging but I’m definitely gaining insight from posts like yours to help me along the way.

  17. Hi John. You’ve really shared some good tips to help bloggers avoid making the most common mistakes. I wish I’d come across this information when I first started as I made quite a few of these errors in the past. Thanks for sharing!

  18. Whoa – lots of good tips! At first I published about 3 posts per week but after about two months I realized that was too many considering I also have a full time job other than blogging. I also still wonder if I’ve narrowed my niche enough, but I love to write about all things that bring me joy! Back links is the area I’d like to focus on. Do you have any tips for growing back links for a positive lifestyle blog?

  19. Fantastic article, I definitely need to make more connections with other bloggers. One other area I am lacking in is writing regularly, this is mainly because I find it hard to write great content quickly. I am working on it but it’s still a struggle.

  20. I love this. so helpful. I have been working on my blog for over a month and it is def a learning process. I am always happy to find helpful hints and tips. I started posting 2x per week which has been helping. Thanks.

  21. hmmm wondering if replying to comments is a plug in? I replied to one and it was a friend and asked if it let her know and she said no, it only let her know I liked it…

  22. Nice article 🙂 I think ‘just writing for search engines’ really resonates with us. Google is becoming ever better at working out what best answers users queries. Ultimately, users are humans, therefore the best answers are written for humans, so write for humans!

  23. Love these tips–I find writing regularly with good quality content is the key. I didn’t get into blogging for quick overnight success but have been very pleasantly surprised at how my little blog has grown in a short period of time. I write regularly, which can be a challenge, but it does keep your readers engaged and coming back. Thanks for sharing!

  24. Selecting a niche is a good idea and one I recommend to all. My niche is beer and adult beverages in general. I’m not fond of lifestyle and other blogging sites because they try to cover too much ground.

  25. These all points are extremely important. Also, we need to schedule our plans weekly for social media marketing. As you mentioned On-Page SEO is also very important and should be implemented right from the start. Thanks for the article.

  26. Great idea about building relationship with other bloggers. I did a couple of mistakes mentioned here. If only I read this sooner. Thanks for sharing.

  27. Such a great article! I find that the biggest challenge for me is being consistent blogging and yes you are right your audience appreciates the consistency. I have found that writing everyday out of habit makes it easier to be consistent on the blog!

  28. I think it’s great you started with that it’s not a quick money making scheme! People often seem to think that, but it really takes a lot of work to build a great blog and income. However, I do believe that once you get started, the possibilities are endless. That’s why I love doing it!

    1. Yes, when starting you need to focus on content and your audience. After building the foundation, with reliable readers, then you can think of monetizing it. Not the other way round. With a good traffic, you have a range of ways to make money as discussed in this article.

  29. You don’t want to starve your readers especially when you are providing great value, right? I believe in writing regularly too. Thanks! Great post!

  30. When I started blogging, I just wanted to be able to write. But like you said, you can’t just write.No one will read it unless you push it out through social media. So I’ve had my blog and social channels for 3.5 months. I just 1k on IG but still don’t have the traffic I want on my site. I need to focus on backlinKS and. SEO.

  31. Hey, thanks for this great post! I remember reading it when I was contemplating starting a blog. Now that I almost a month into blogging reading it again changes my perspective a lot! I’m doing all of the things on the list except probably choosing a single niche. I thought I had an idea of what I wanted to do (Lifestyle/Travel) But I feel like I write about different things a lot. I feel like I have a lot on my mind to write about. Do you have any advice on how to hone in on a just one niche?

    1. You can Pick a given niche but handle different topics on the same niche. This makes it easy for your audience, the search engines especially if you want your site to be an authority in a given niche. This is also good in case you want to monetize your site with Google adsense.

  32. I may or may not be guilty of some of these. I am using the excuse I only launched 1 week ago… I will get better!

  33. I have multiple niches but don’t want to change it. I know it’s hard to have multiple niches but I do tend to link them together and build a relationship with the niches so I feel it can work.

    My tagline is: book reviews from a disabled student; letting my audience what they’re in for.

    I post regularly though. I did have 1 week of not posting because of returning to uni, and once I returned, I cut up on missed posts and then changed my blog schedule to better fit my uni life.

    Really good advice.

    would love a visit to my blog at Little Sea Bear

  34. I am also quite new in the blogging world. I am not focusing on making millions but I hope that I am earning a little bit to cover my expenses one day. Your tips have really helped me. I want to have a deeper look into the forums now. Thanks so much for sharing.

  35. Good summary! I am not entirely sure about single niche. I think topics can be close to each other. I cover Expat life in Finland and traveling Finland….
    What do you think?

    1. Yes, you can cover many topics but if you want to have an authority site, then you will need to narrow down to a given topic, otherwise thanks for your comments.

  36. Writing regularly is a must. I am trying to keep up with my content and sharing every monday. hopefully soon I will be able to share content two times a week. thanks for the advice!

  37. This is great advice! I hope to build a business, but I know this takes time after I build content and a community. Love that you pointed out to find a niche, I have a very difficult time reading & following blogs without a focus theme.

    1. Hi, thanks for your insightful comments. It is always good to choose few blogs in your niche that can help you develop into a professional blogger.

  38. Really good to know the mistakes people make when they start blogging. I probably still do one or two but I’m learning and hopefully don’t do anymore than that. Great post, really helpful.

  39. I agree with you there. I’m amazed at how some bloggers cram everything they can think of in their blog. You can’t write about fashion, pets and SEO at the same time! Pick one!

  40. I think the imperative point is joining forces with other bloggers in your niche because you share tips, experience and also lead warm traffic to each other. Facebook groups have really helped me a lot and I will continue to use them.

    Wonderful post, John!

    1. Hi Owen, I really appreciate your insights on this topic. Facebook groups especially in the same niche if used well can drive a sizable traffic to any given site.

  41. So many good reminders! My to-do list just got even longer! And you are so right about the easy money fast…doesn’t exist haha! My blog started as a journal of our trips for my friends and family, but I am SLOWLY learning how to monetize it. Slowly but surely I will break even, and then will actually make some real money….some day!

    1. Hi April, thanks for your comments. A blogger should first focus on creating good content to attract traffic. With reliable readers coming over and over again, he/she can easily monetize the blog.

  42. I’m a new blogger and I absolutely loved reading this post! It gave me affirmation that I am on the right track in some areas and also gave me suggestions of how I can improve in other areas.

  43. Whenever I watch videos on YouTube about how to build websites or blog, a few of the users would ask common questions like can they make money from it or how they can monetize it. It’s important to let them know that building a blog is easy but to maintain it, let alone to make money from it is very difficult. I always tell them that you want your blog to be known for its content and not by how many ads you have.

    No 5 is something I always struggle with. There are times where I didn’t post for months due to other commitment. And, when I’m free I used to post 2 or 3 times a week…very diligent eh 😀 If I have to suggest one thing, that would be to write a few posts before you create your blog. That way you always have posts ready to be published and at the same time can do research for other future posts.

    As for no 7, I commented on a few blogs that have the same niche as I am. What happen after that leads to no 8, which is quite frustrating. I know they are quite a popular blog, but to me if you have time to create a new post every week why don’t spend some times replying to your comments. At least, show some appreciation for those who takes the time to read and comment on your blog.

    1. Hi Meina, thanks for your insights on the same topic. Blogging is all about Preparation, Consistency and Patience. If you prepare your blog posts well in advance before you publish them with good research, you will produce quality content. Consistency keeps your audience coming over and over again. When you reply to their comments, they feel that the author is also someone who is caring, not just any other person just interested in having them as readers. If you have patience, you will know that money will come with time.

  44. Glad to see not only you providing great tips, but also using them as well! Thanks!

  45. Being a blogger requires lot of patience, it is not a get rich quick scheme. The most important reason why bloggers fail is trying to do too many experiments with their blog initially. Sticking to a fixed set of rules may help gather more attention from readers.

    1. Hi Carrie, blogging on a regular basis keeps your readers coming over and over again that is the reason blog sites have more traffic than static sites.

  46. Bookmarked already! Lots of great points for a new blogger like me! Okay, I’ll follow all your advices. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Yes, connecting with other bloggers is important if you want to succeed as a blogger. Thanks for commenting on Business and Life Blog.

  47. i am so guilty of half of the things in the article. I am so in rush to monitize my blog and who does want anyway. But on the brighter side i am trying to follow the blogging SEO rules. I have pinned the post and will refer it all the time i make a new blog post. Cheers

    1. Hi, becoming a successful blogger is a long learning process. Work on it one day at time, and with time you will become a professional blogger.

  48. Yep. I totally did nearly all these mistakes for the first couple months. Now, I’m just trying to think up of what niche I can get into instead of just broad advice about everything life may through your way… Thanks for the post!

    1. Hi, thanks for your comments. Narrowing down to one niche makes it easy for your audience to find your articles on a given niche and is also good for search engines.

  49. I admit #1 &2 were my downfall. I started a blogging a few months ago and literally wasted countless hours on end for 2 months straight months only to think of money and my blogs were all over the place. Constantly worried about visitors, not getting feedback, and the worst money. I’ve shyed away from the money aspect because of the constant feedback and number of visitors on a daily basis. Thank you for this I hope new bloggers see this and don’t make the mistake I have made. Good article.

    1. Hi, thanks for your comments. The first few months of blogging should be wholly be dedicated to developing the blog. With a good blog, with great content, you will attract audience and money will follow. Build a blog, promote it, get traffic, then monetize. That should be the procedure. Not the other way around.

    1. Hi, thanks for commenting on Business and Life Blog. Picking a single Niche has many Advantages as compared to handling multiple niches. You can have a given niche but handle different topics under the same.

  50. Thank you for these great tips, writing regularly and having great content is key to not only keep your readers wanting more but also teaching them something in return. Great post.

    1. Hi Joan, thanks for your comments. Yes, writing quality posts on a regular basis keeps your blog live. This maintains the blog’s traffic.

  51. Very helpful! I just started my blog a few months ago. I am currently working on 6, 7, and 10! This is very clear and concise. A good read. Thanks!

    1. Hi Brittany, you don’t need to work on all of the above, just start somewhere, and with time everything will work out as you discover more and more information with regard to blogging world.

  52. This is incredibly helpful for a relatively novice blogger like myself. I started my site in November and I’m always trying to learn more about making my site better… this is truly helpful 🙂 thank you!

    1. Thanks for your comments. Am not an expert either.I started my site last year in December, but I keep on learning new things everyday.

    1. Hi Daniela, thanks for your comments. With time, as you keep on blogging, you learn more tips, and these transforms you to a professional blogger.

  53. I have a question! Is self hosting a better option or having a business plan on WordPress? Apart from the money or expense involved in maintaining the both. My question pertains specifically getting blog traffic only. Will having a WordPress business plan or self hosting drive more traffic?

    1. Hi, it depends, normally it is recommended that when you are starting blogging you go for a free hosting service like WordPress, then after developing your blog ( Enough Posts & Reliable audience), then you can invest money in a self hosting plan. But if you are serious & really want to make money using a Blog then self hosting plan is the best way to go, because you will be free to advertise whatever you want on the blog compared to free hosting that has limitations. Having said that, I don’t think traffic has anything to with the hosting plan you choose to pick. There are many blogs out there which are free hosted and have bigger traffic than self hosted blogs. Traffic depends on many factors like SEO of your blog, whether you promote your content say in social media, the quality of the content you have on the blog etc.

  54. Hello John,

    I have seen a lot of bloggers make mistakes 1 and 8. They think that they will make fast money and I have seen lots of bloggers not respond to their comments. I always respond to mine because I really enjoy getting them. Plus, I think it is rude not to. Thanks for sharing this with us!

    1. Hello Maketta, thanks for your comments. Making money on a blog requires time, and persistence. If you ask seasoned bloggers they will tell you the same. I too enjoy replying to comments, since it keeps me engaged with my audience.

  55. As a new blogger I really don’t want to let my blog for. Thank you for sharing this list as I will use it to check myself periodically.

    1. Hi Toni, thanks for commenting on Business and Life Blog. People say that it is good to learn from mistakes, but if you know them in advance, you can avoid them.

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