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Listen, blogging mistakes happen so I’m sharing the common blogging mistakes I made and the blogging tips to help you avoid them!
Let’s talk about all the mistakes you can make during the beginning of your blogging journey. Unfortunately, there are quite a few ways you could go wrong but that’s why I’m here!
I live by the quote “You don’t know what you don’t know” and blogging is no exception. There’s no way you’ll be able to have a perfect blogging journey.
However, I hope these blogging tips keep you from making the bigger blogging mistakes!
This post is all about common blogging mistakes.
Blogging Mistakes To Avoid
So let’s just jump in!
Blogging Mistake 1: Spending money on extras
When you start your blog there are definitely certain things you NEED to spend money on. However, what I have learned is that businesses are going to upsell you at every chance.
I mean, they are a business and it is a good business practice. BUT you have to stay strong!
For example, when you get your blogging hosting plan, they are going to offer you security, insurances, this that and the other. While some of this might be worthwhile, it’s also an addition you might not need at this point.
And remember, you want to spend as little as possible in the beginning!
Typically this is when people will fall off the blogging bandwagon the most so you don’t want to make a huge investment you’ll regret.
[READ MORE: How To Start A Blog That Makes Money]
Blogging Mistake 2: Not publishing your blog right away
People always ask if I recommend waiting to publish a blog until a bunch of posts are written. Or if I’d choose to publish my blog right away and post weekly.
For this I will ALWAYS SAY, don’t wait to publish your blog!
You want to publish your blog (and your blog posts) as soon as you’re done with them. Honestly, the chances that people besides your family and best friends are seeing your blog are slim.
So you want to publish as soon as you can so Google can work on ranking your website.
(which is HUGELY important!)
Blogging Mistake 3: Not paying attention to the legal side
This is probably the biggest mistake I made when starting my blog… and it goes back to me not knowing what I didn’t know.
Like not knowing to avoid something because you don’t know about it yet… you know what I mean?
That being said, this is why you need disclosures! Disclosures at the beginning of posts, legal pages on your website, disclaimers, terms of use, the whole nine yards.
Thankfully, I found a lawyer who creates these legal page templates you can buy for you blog to ensure that you’re protected. I snatched those up in a heartbeat and recommend them to everyone!
Here are the exact legal pages I bought to protect my site.
And no, this is not one of those “extra” things I was talking about before. You NEED legal pages and you DON’T want to get into legal trouble because of your blog.
Like, I love my blog but I’m not about to go to jail for it!
Blogging Mistake 4: Using other people’s photos and content
This feels like it should be so obvious but you’d be surprised how many cease and desists I’ve had to send.
Just don’t copy other people’s posts and photos. C’mon.
If we’re being honest, this is a mistake I made. I was using other people’s photos because I didn’t know better but once I found out, I had a lot of work to do.
I had to comb through all my posts, replace the pictures and find new ones, and it was a lot of work.
So save yourself the headache and don’t use photos without permission unless you’ve taken them yourself or they are from a stock website.
If you do get permission from someone to use their photo, make sure to credit them and have their consent in writing (protect yourself!).
Blogging Mistake 5: Not strategizing and understanding your intent
You want to think about why you’re blogging and how you want to make money from your blog.
Are you blogging to just make money? Or an online diary? Do you want to talk about your life? Is your blog supposed to be for your business?
There’s definitely a lot of angles you can take based on what you’re trying to do.
For example, if you’re trying to start a diary blog then I definitely wouldn’t recommend spending a lot of money on it.
However, if you want to start a blog that makes money then there are certain steps you want to take to make money. You want to be legitimate and set yourself up for sucess!
There are a lot of different ways you can go depending on the type of blog you want to have. I think it’s worth your time to research what type of blog you want and how to best strategize for that blog.
Let me try another example —
If you think about my original website By Sophia Lee, that’s about home decor and geared to make money through blog posts and affiliates. Versus my website for our Dailee planners, which doesn’t have blog posts and is trying to make a direct sale.
Hopefully you see the difference between the two but we definitely have a different strategy for each site.
Learn My Exact Blogging Strategies That I Used to Start My 7-Figure Blog
Blogging Mistake 6: Starting too many social media accounts
It is incredibly overwhelming and time consuming to manage so many different content streams. Like, such an intimidating and unnecessary task in the beginning.
Really you only need to focus on your website SEO and Pinterest in the beginning.
When I started my blog, I only had Pinterest for the first three years… like I was anonymous on social media until year three.
And that’s because Pinterest has the best conversion rate. The point of Pinterest is to direct traffic to your website and that’s not really something the other social media platforms do.
(I will say, recently I’ve been implementing TikTok and that’s been going well but I don’t think you need to do that in the beginning)
Blogging Mistake 7: Not saving money for taxes
Lastly, and this is the boring side of business, but don’t forget that when you’re making money you need to pay taxes.
People (hi, I’m people) sometimes forget that their money-making blog is actually a money-making business. And businesses need to pay taxes.
Do NOT spend everything you earn, you will wish you had been saving money for taxes if you spend every cent you make.
Honestly, this is unglamorous yes but not something you want to forget.
Let me help you, trust me on this one!
- Is Blogging Dead: What is the future of blogging?
- The 9 Best Tips for Your First Month of Blogging
- How To Find Your Blog Niche
- 7+ Things To Know About Blogging
This post was all about common blogging mistakes.
© Perfecting Blogging 2024
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