7 Mistakes You Might be Making as a New Blogger

Hey Pals!! Hope you’re doing great! Today, I’ll be sharing 7 Mistakes that I think you might be making as a new blogger.

The urge to write this post has been growing at a rapid speed so here I am, writing it instead of doing Constructor Programs in Java. Oh, fun times. Gonna fail on Sunday Test, but there are more important things to worry about now, aren’t there 🙂? Let’s get started then!

Note: This might be a long post, and if you want to skim read (though I would appreciate it if you don’t do that, the full post might help you 😗), I’ve highlighted the important points from each section. Also, this is a discussion post, so feel free to share your views in the comments.

Disclaimer: I am, in no way, insulting any blogger out there. I am not an expert in blogging. What follows are personal opinions and thoughts and I do not mean to hurt anybody.

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1: You post too much random stuff

Posting very random stuff like weekly check-ins, quotes, monthly life goals, reviews of every book you’ve read, telling the readers every little detail about why you were not active the WHOLE DAY (omg, what a big deal 😱), and other similar stuff like that, is not a good way to start a blog and expect people to follow. When you are new and not many people follow you or know you for that matter, there’s a high chance nobody would read such a post just because they wouldn’t care. Always start big, so it leaves an impression on the reader. That’s not to say you shouldn’t post quotes and the like at all, but make sure that you don’t post them so much that your blog gets overcrowded by them otherwise you will be just another blogger out there, instead of being a blogger people read blogs by.

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2: You’re not confident

I don’t know why many people ignore this point but I believe that this one is very essential.

You may have the most beautiful site with the perfect theme but honestly, it will still only be worth it as long you are confident with your posts. Don’t be too scared in posting whatever you want, don’t say you agree with something if you don’t, and most importantly, be proud of your own opinions. Make sure you don’t appear self-doubtful or indecisive through your words. For instance, hosting a contest and not even having a name for it or using too many phrases depicting how you think you are doing an awful job writing your post will turn off your readers. If you don’t love your post, how can you expect others to?

Writing without confidence strips away the power of holding the readers’ attention. If you write like that, your words are merely words and they are just out there to be seen, not read. This may not seem like a big point but believe me, you can have the trashy default theme but I would still follow you if you write with passion.

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3: You’re not responding to comments in the right way

If you get a comment on your post, and you have the time to respond to it when you see it, do it. Don’t just like the comment and never respond, or respond after so long that I don’t even remember commenting in the first place anymore. Nobody likes a person with an attitude. If you’re not responding well to comments, you will find that not many people would interact with you, some might even unfollow you. So, never ignore a comment.

Not to mention, please respond genuinely to comments. Do not try to sound too happy or too sweet, it will do nothing but piss off the readers. I’ve seen people responding to a simple “nice poem” with a 100-word comment in which they go on to praise the person on what a great soul they are and how they will make a change in the world blah blah blah…STOP! Who are you trying to fool? It’s the 21st century, everybody knows the difference between genuine praise and buttering.

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4: You either post too less or too much

Both can be very annoying, both to the readers and gradually, to you. So, you’ve just started blogging and you are filled with ideas. On your second day, you have already managed to write 12 posts! So, what do you do? You post them every day. Wrong! This is the greatest factor that will affect your consistency.

This is wrong because a) You are new to blogging and not many people follow you right now, so you’re just letting all your good ideas go to waste, b) In the excitement to publish your post, you’ve made tons of errors, that only annoy the readers, and c) There will come a point when you would be too demotivated or busy to write anything. In such a case, having a draft ready at hand is an amazing way to stay consistent. But you’ve already posted all your drafts, so you will eventually have nothing to post.

Posting too less is just as bad. Why have a blog when you’re not giving your readers enough content to read? In my opinion, have a schedule, or at least know how many times you want to post per week. I love 3 times a week, even though I post only twice because I won’t be able to keep up with 3. You can even post daily if you want to, just make sure you have enough posts saved for later.

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5: The title of your post is not appealing

Yeah, I know the GIF should say No. 5 but let’s ignore that

This is a very important point, you need to have a good title, one that makes the readers stop and open your post. The worst kind of title in my opinion will have the word “random” or any of its synonyms in it. Nobody wants to read something random, especially not when their Reader is filled with posts that sound way cooler. Even if your post does have some random stuff in it, then also never title it that way.

Hugh @ Hugh’s Views and News did an amazing post on how to title a good blog post. Check it out to get some good ideas.

There are many great ways to title a post. Just make sure it’s not like every other title out there, make sure it stands out. Make sure your title is centred around a specific topic instead of being very random. For example- a post titled- 7 Reasons Why I Love Marvel would be way better than one titled- My Love for Marvel. Prefer- 5 Amazing Books I Read This Month over Books I Read This Month. You can yourself judge which sounds more specific.

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6: Your site is not properly organized

WordPress provides you with tons of features to enhance your site, and you need to make sure you’re making good use of all of them. Watch some YouTube tutorials to learn how to set up a site, what theme to choose, how to customize the theme as per your need, how to create a pingback, etc, It’s a very tiring job, believe me. I wish I had done that earlier in blogging but I had no idea then. So, I don’t want you to make the same mistake. Do not hesitate to reach out to people if you need help.

Another thing that I find essential is using lots of headings, images and graphics in your posts. Oh, and also, separators! I LOVE SEPARATORS 😍. I follow every blogger who uses them 😍. Yes, that sounds crazy, but it’s true 😍. The reason behind this is people like to have the information provided to them in small amounts. Imagine if I hadn’t divided this post by using headings and instead written it in three long, boring paragraphs, would you still have read it? Hell no. Using images, GIFs and graphics is also a great way to beautify your post and make it look more lively. But don’t use them too much either or people would be annoyed at the lack of originality.

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7: You run for followers

This is the most common thing every blogger would advise you about. But it’s also really necessary. Never run for followers. If you’ve even got 1 person who reads your posts, then be happy about that. When I was new, I set a goal to reach 100 followers. And believe me, once I did, I was so content that I never set another goal. If you’re not content with the number of people who read your posts, you’re never gonna find joy in writing. So, set a goal for yourself, and when you do achieve it, be content with it. Don’t compare yourself with others.

What you should do is explore as much of the community as possible. Search for topics that interest you and follow people whose posts you like. Do comment genuine stuff on their posts. A simple “nice post” is not enough. Never say- “Lovely post, do follow my blog too.” Instead, say- “Oh same, even I think infinity war was way better than endgame, haha. I did a similar post too, do check it out if you want.” Never beg people to follow you. It will never get you any followers. It’ll only get you fake ones who couldn’t care less about anything you write.

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I’m gonna be very honest, the list just goes on 😂. There are so many more points I want to cover but the post will be too long then. So I’m stopping here. Do reach out to me if you have any doubts, questions or suggestions. Once again, I hope I did not sound too extreme as that was not the intention at all.

Also, just remember, don’t give up on blogging. Success can’t come in a day, or a week, or a month even. Keep up your consistency, have fun with blogging and don’t give up, and one day, you’ll be a successful blogger, just you wait.

That’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know what is something you wish you had known as a new blogger? And also lemme know if this post helped you in some way, it’ll make my day 😃.  Stay tuned for more fun posts.

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