Top 10 Mistakes Made By New And Prospective Bloggers

Instead of giving a long explanation of this post, lets jump right into the list.

1) Failure To Use Paragraphs

Too many new bloggers refuse to use paragraphs. I don’t know if it is because their Enter/Return key is broken, but it is one of the most annoying things ever. I mean, for cripes sake, how hard is it to push the Enter key two times?

By using paragraphs you can make your posts much more organized, and your readers can keep their sanity as well.

2) Umm, How Come It Isn’t Ranked?

Another huge problem that bloggers may hit is the fact that their site is ranked super low, or isn’t ranked at all, in the search engines. So many people think that Google magically knows whether or not a site is good, but it just doesn’t work that way. By default, Google (and the other search engines) view new sites as being nothings, not somethings. It normally takes months of hard work to get any good rankings at all.

3) So, I Need A Dedicated Server

Chances are you don’t. The vast majority (99%+) of blogs can run perfectly fine on shared hosting. In fact, as of this writing, this blog is on a shared server. The only time shared hosting can be problematic is if you get front paged on Digg or some other huge site, or if someone else on the server does. Although all web hosts oversell (give you more than they can), the vast majority of hosts run their shared servers without any problems.

4) I Need To Host My Blog

Yet another mistake is assuming that you need to pay for a web host, domain, and all that good stuff. There are tons free blog hosts out there, like WordPress and Blogger. A lot of people run huge blogs on free services, Digital Inspiration is a perfect example.

The only reason you might want to host your own blog is if you want more control. Other than that, free blogs are fine for most people.

5) I Can’t Do SEO

Search engine optimization is much easier than most people think. As long as you do the basics, like using good titles for your posts and using the same keywords/phrases throughout your post, you should be fine.

6) I Don’t Understand All Those Laws

I’m one of those people that believe every blogger (even the people who run personal blogs) should understand the basic laws. The Copyright and trademark laws are vitally important, and are the greatest threat if not understood correctly. You should also understand basic things like slander.

You don’t have to be a lawyer to know that if you lie about someone and hurt their reputation, you can be held liable, and if you copy someone’s work illegally, you can get in huge trouble.

7) Improper Grammar

Grammar is one of those “iffy” areas. Some people think that good grammar means a good blog, while other people (like me) tend to think grammar isn’t that important. Readers don’t really care about grammar, although if it is really bad it can have a negative effect on your readership level.

I think the actual structure of your blog post affects everything more than your grammar.

8 ) Refusal To Use Spell Check

Spelling on the other hand… Well, that is a bit different. Nobody likes reading blog posts that are nothing but “Ne 1 Likez To Redz My Blogz Man!!11!! Thatz Sooo Coolio!”

Just don’t do that, it makes you look foolish. Don’t believe me? Try it and see how low your traffic levels can go.

9) To Become A Professional Blogger, I Should Write About Professional Blogging

This is probably one of the more annoying things. People see how successful professional blogging blogs are, so they try to mimic them. Don’t do that. For starters, you have to have experience to write about something like that.

Pick a topic that you know, like animal care, piano playing, computer repair, etc, and write about that. This is how the professional bloggers got to where they are today.

Don’t write about something that you have no clue about.

For example, this blog is about helping webmasters. I know SEO pretty well (I have done so many experiments with it, it isn’t even funny), and I kind of know how to write good blogs. I say “kind of” because I am by no means an expert in the blogging field. And, I also know how to program, which is why over the next year or so I will hopefully be releasing a bunch of scripts and programs.

One of my other blogs is about tech news, again it is something I am passionate about. Then I run a computer question/answer blog, which I haven’t updated in forever. And then my last blog is a newer one, which is about my personal beliefs about religion, culture, etc.

You will probably never see me blogging about digital cameras, celebrities, or anything like that. Why? Because I know nothing about such topics.

10) Gimme Money!

And the tenth biggest mistake made by new bloggers is quick monetization. Too many bloggers start blogs to make money. Don’t do this, it is by far the biggest mistake you can make!

I don’t know about you, but I think its pretty embarrassing to humanity to see a blog pop up with two stolen (or at least nearly plagiarized) articles and a few adsense ads. Even worse than that is a new blogger who starts a “professional blogging” blog.

Always remember, blogging isn’t about money, it is about entertainment and passion. If you think it is a get rich quick scheme then you are obviously in the wrong field.

The people pull in $40+ thousand a month are not doing so just because of their blogs, many of them own hundreds of sites, or they own one gigantic site that has a blog and forums, and gets a bajillion visitors a month. Lets not forget, they use many monetization techniques.

For most web sites, $1 a day is a success.

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