11 big mistakes new bloggers make & how to avoid them

When you’re new to blogging there’s a whole lot to do to get your blog visible.

And if you’re trying to make money with your blog, you’ll want to be focusing your attention on only the things that are going to get you actual results.

So this post is going to share with you the really common mistakes new bloggers make, and how you can avoid them!

Many of these are mistakes that I myself made back in the early days of blogging.

It’s important that if you do make any of these mistakes, or already have, it’s not the end of your blogging career! Mistakes are made to teach us lessons for how to move forward.

But I’m hoping that by sharing these little false turns you may make in your blogging career, that you can get to where you want to be much faster!

Before we get started, if you haven’t yet started your blog here’s my ultimate guide to setting up a blog for money-making success.

Here are the mistakes you need to avoid as a new blogger.

This post contains affiliate links.

Mistakes new bloggers make

1. Not going self-hosted immediately

You can start a blog on wordpress.com for a fraction of the cost of going self-hosted.

So many bloggers who are just dipping their toe in the blogging waters opt for the cheap option first to see how it goes.

But it’s really important that if you want your website to become a money-making venture, you need to go self-hosted from day one.

Having a website that is self-hosted means you get more control over the design of your site. You can monetise it with ads and you will find it easier to sell any products you might have from your own site.

My websites were hosted at Siteground when I started out. It’s a great service and the technical support was brilliant, but I’ve since moved on to Lyrical Host as my site was getting more traffic.

I also thoroughly recommend Lyrical Host and if you use my code MTAM10 you get 10% off your order!

2. Not picking a niche

Choosing a niche can be one of the most challenging early decisions you need to make in blogging, along with choosing a blog name!

A niche is important because it will help you to build a loyal audience faster. If it’s clear what type of help your website offers, it will also help you to rank on Google faster, bringing in more web traffic.

For some people the niche might be obvious, for example if you’re a total pro at baking bread or doing crafts.

However if you’re anything like me, picking a clear niche can be really difficult. I suggest choosing a broad topic you love and then focusing down on three or four sub-topics.

As time goes on, it may became clear what specific type of content subject matter your audience responds to best and this could be where you focus more of your energy going forward.

3. Not paying attention to site speed

I didn’t pay enough attention to the speed of my blog from the start and I think this did ultimately cost me.

Your website needs to be optimised for speed. When I talk about site speed, I’m referring to how long it takes your website to load for new visitors.

Think about when you click on a site that’s slow, and how annoying it is when the images won’t load or the page is a blank. Even 10 seconds is forever for impatient web surfers.

Google also prefers your website to be optimised for speed.

There are tons of things you can do to ensure your site speed is healthy. These include:

Reducing the number of unnecessary plugins on your site.
Getting a blog theme that’s optimised for speed.
Compressing image file sizes.

4. Writing for themselves not the audience

Being passionate about your blog is really important. Your interest, as well as your expertise, in the subjects you are writing about needs to shine through.

But you’re writing content for your audience, not for yourself, if you want to make money.

When deciding what blog posts to write, think about your ideal reader. Who are they? What are they like? What do they need help with? What do they want to learn about?

Avoid making your blog about you. Instead make it about helping the audience in the unique way that you can.

5. Ignoring good SEO practices

Many bloggers get started with their blog focusing on social media.

This is great, because with social media you can start to see results right away on platforms like Pinterest where a month’s work can yield got results.

But with all the work involved in getting social media platforms going, newbie bloggers often forget about SEO.

It’s so crucial to get SEO right from day one! SEO means Search Engine Optimisation.

By optimising your site, you increase your chances of ranking on Google for your niche. Why do you want Google traffic? Because it can be more consistent than other forms of traffic generation plus Google traffic tends to be more intentional. They will stay on your site longer and click affiliate links or purchase your products.

6. Being inconsistent

Blogging is not something you can do a few hours of work on every couple of months.

There are schedulers, like Tailwind, which can take a lot of the pressure off you when it comes to things like Pinterest.

But you really need to be putting the work in with your blog regularly. That means posting new blog posts, new pins to Pinterest and new photos to Instagram on a regular basis.

Some bloggers thrive on a schedule that sets out exactly how many posts they do on each platform every week.

I prefer not to work to such a strict schedule, because my life at home is pretty busy and some weeks I can do way more work on the blog than in others.

As a general idea for what you should be doing each week, I recommend:

Make 10 new pins
Post at least one new blog post (if your blog is brand new I suggest increasing this to three if you want to grow your blog rapidly)
Post to Instagram
Share to Facebook daily
Share to Twitter daily

7. Over-spending

If your goal is to ultimately make money, then it’s true that you do need to invest some up front in getting your website off the ground.

There are hosting costs, the domain name is an annual fee plus the bills for tools that help such as Tailwind.

And while some costs are well worth it to get your blog growing, some are just an extravagance you cannot afford if you are trying to make this blog a full-time job.

There are literally hundreds of courses and ebooks out there selling you the dream of making it as a blogger.

I’ll be honest, some may help you learn a whole lot but the key to you being a successful blogger is going to be very hard work and determination. No course, however expensive, can teach you shortcuts, or rather even if they teach you great new techniques, you still have to put the work in.

So my point is, it’s certainly a good idea to invest in your blogging education, but don’t do this to the detriment of your bank balance.

When you make some money and you have some to spare, consider investing it in good, popular and well-reviewed courses. Read around and make sure you will be getting your money’s worth.

Try deals like the Genius Bloggers’ Toolkit which offers sales where you get a bundle of ebooks and courses for a fraction of the price.

But in the early weeks, stick to getting a decent amount of great content on your website and good SEO. This will pay off way more than anything else.

8. Not putting yourself out there

Have you ever written something and thought “that’s just not good enough, no one will really like this” even when you’ve spent ages working on it?

We are our own worst critics, but don’t let that stop you from putting your blog out there! Share what you have made with the world, and be proud about it!

If you’ve written a new blog post, don’t just share one pin, and one Facebook post, and then leave it to quietly disappear.

Make new social media posts promoting your evergreen content (the content that offers help all-year-round) frequently.

9. Using ugly pins

Most of us are guilty of doing it in the early days!

While content is the most important thing, you won’t get people clicking on that content unless you make beautiful pins that grab people’s attention!

The best thing about upping your pin design game is that it doesn’t have to cost you a penny!

You can use Canva completely free to design pretty pins that grab people’s attention.

There’s some debate over whether every pin you make should adhere to your branding colours and fonts.

Some people say every pin should clearly be yours, with the same colours and font type you use on your site.

I personally do not agree with this. I think it’s best to play around with pin design. Try different colours and images, try different fonts.

You can see if something works better almost instantly and then make more pins along the lines of that design. Don’t get stuck in a Pinterest rut of churning out nearly identical pins that aren’t getting you anywhere.

There are tons of Pinterest tips over on this post.

10. Spelling and grammatical errors

There’s nothing worse than reading a blog that’s littered with errors. It looks really unprofessional and it’s just annoying as a reader to see it.

We all make mistakes but it’s so important that you get spelling and grammar right for the most part on your blog.

If you’re unsure, you can use free online spell checkers or the spell check in your word processing software.

11. Doubting your own potential

We all have moments where we think what we’re doing just isn’t good enough.

We worry there are hundreds of other people out there doing things way better than we are.

But please do not let yourself be discouraged. On the down days, remind yourself that your blog IS unique because it’s written in your voice.

Take a step away and think about what your next steps should be. Try writing down what your specific goals are, and then writing the steps you will need to take in order to reach those goals.

This can make everything you need to do less daunting.

Self-doubt is totally normal, but remember that if you don’t try at all, you certainly will not succeed.

Put the hours in, and you can make money from your website!