When you are just starting a new blog and trying to grow it but can’t actually figure out what is going wrong after doing all the necessary things?
Your blog is not growing the way you want. I have been there with my first blog. I was so committed to my blog that I invested a lot of time & energy in it and still in the early months could not find out the reason why my blog was not growing the way I wanted.
After experimenting & educating myself I realized that I was making some silly common mistakes that were hurting the growth of my blog immensely.
Over the months I rectified them and saw the ultimate growth on my blog. If you are on the same page as I was before, this post will definitely help you to correct / avoid those mistakes which are unknowingly made.
These are 7 common mistakes that I made as a new blogger & want to help you to avoid these being a newbie blogger.
1. Choosing Facebook in the beginning to grow your blog
The moment I started my blog, I knew I had to create a Facebook group and join several groups in my niche and be active on those.
Let me tell you, joining Facebook groups actually works! but the amount of time that is consumed in promoting your blog on this platform will not only overwhelm you but instead you will realize how much of your precious time you are wasting here instead of creating new content for your blog.
You will notice the traffic outcome to your website is very less, actually too less than you expected. I have been there and experienced it first hand.
What I am trying to tell you here is, instead of spending too much time on Facebook where you are unaware of who your target audience is it’s better to start promoting your blog on search engine sites like Pinterest where people actually come looking for the solutions you provide. Those are your audience!
Though I am active on Facebook, I can’t overlook the growth that I saw after spending more time on Pinterest to build and grow my blog. With the correct Pinterest strategy, you are going to create more long-term growth for your blog here.
2. Waiting for the right moment to hit “Publish”.
I waited (wasted) two months for that perfect moment to hit that publish button for my blog post and I totally regret that decision to this day.
Being a new blogger you want that your blog post to be perfect. Till your blog post isn’t perfect you are not going to take the next step even if it’s just a tiny one because that’s not what you have envisioned. That one imperfection is going to hold you back for a long time and is going to create a hurdle for growing your blog.
Sometimes you just have to take some imperfect actions and move ahead instead of doing nothing. By holding to your perfections, you are not going to grow your blog, you are not going to write the next blog post, you are not going to send that email to your subscribers, you are not going to reach out to the companies that you want to do business with. That imperfection will hold you back and is going to come in the way of your blog success.
Don’t hesitate to make mistakes. Instead of concentrating on being perfect, start working and take action.
You have that typo error in your blog post, you messed up the captions so what? You can always go back and correct it. It’s better to go ahead and publish that blog instead of waiting for the right moment be to perfect. Not only does it hamper the productivity and goals of your blog but it can demotivate you too.
3. Not setting pratical goals
Setting goals every single week is the first step to being a successful blogger. If you are very much serious about growing your blog and making a living out of it, you need to set some goals & strategies which are going to help you grow your blog.
Setting specific, practical and achievable goals will help you grow your blog much faster. than being stagnant.
But the most common mistake that a lot of new bloggers make is that they aim for much bigger goals that aren’t practical & specific.
For example – If your goal is to make a hundred thousand dollars a month or something in that range in just under the first 3 months or so at the beginning of your blogging journey, then aiming too high may actually backfire. A goal like this will not sustain in long run.
The best way to go ahead with setting goals that will help you grow your blogging business is to set short-term practical goals that you can achieve. Let’s say making monthly or quarterly goals that you can easily cross off your list!
This is going to help you feel like you have accomplished something and will motivate you.
When we set long-term goals and can’t actually see the tiniest progress that we might have made, it makes us feel like we are wasting our time & energy. Sometimes you may doubt yourself wondering if this is even worth it or if you’re going to be successful.
So to motivate yourself and grow your blogging business, set short-term goals. Create an action plan with all the steps that you need to implement. This is going to help you to grow your blog in the long run.
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4. Trying to be everywhere
Blogging is exciting! no doubt. But creating a ton of content and trying to reach out to everyone is probably not going to help you grow your blog.
Reaching out to a vast audience is essential but if you are not reaching the right people who may actually be impacted by your content it’s not going to help your blog to grow as you might have envisioned.
Trying to reach everyone out there might seem like we have targeted a larger audience and have more opportunities for people to find our blog but in reality, we make the mistake of not targeting the specific people who are actually going to benefit from your content.
The best solution here is to niche down and get a specific audience that you can target. Figure out the purpose and come up with your “why”?
Figure out for who are you creating your content? who is your target audience? are they school-going kids, stay-at-home moms, college-going girls, or digital entrepreneurs.
Figure out and reach the right people that could really benefit from your content. Come up with your “why” and figure out who you are trying to reach.
5. Don’t just do the bare minimum
Blogging is hard and exciting, agreed? heck ya!!! If you want to see your blog grow, you need to have some plan and strategies even before you publish your first blog post.
Just writing content and publishing on social media is not going to help you in the long run especially when you are just starting out. You have to think of more advanced strategies for how to actually grow your blog.
Start with growing your email list, work with other bloggers in your niche, collaborate with them. Do guest posts with fellow bloggers, join affiliate programs, write affiliate posts, create digital products that will get you paid.
Remember, you have to go with that one extra mile for your blog to succeed. Don’t just do the bare minimum, always thrive to do more out of your blogging business.
6. Compare yourself to other bloggers (experienced)
Raise your hands if you have done this! I totally have!. Comparing ourselves especially when you are just getting started with more qualified bloggers is super unhealthy when you are just trying to grow your blog from zero.
Comparing yourself is not going to get you anywhere, instead, it’s going to hold you back in your mission of being a successful blogger.
Instead, focus on your work. Build your own unique brand and stop comparing yourself to other people. Once you let go of this thinking, you will experience the difference it makes.
7. Checking analytics too often
I remember those days when being a newbie blogger I used to check my google analytics 3-4 times a day just to get disappointed to see that I don’t have enough traffic on my website.
Trust me, it drains your energy. Not only do you waste time constantly keeping an eye on the analytics but with this mistake, you may feel unmotivated and doubt yourself.
Instead of wasting time checking analytics every day, it’s better to educate yourself in the niche that you are into. Try new strategies, plan out your content. Strategize your blog that will help it grow faster.
So these are some of the major blogging mistakes that I made as a newbie blogger & want to help every beginner blogger to avoid them.
I hope this blog post helps you to avoid those common mistakes that I wish someone would have told me at the beginning of my blogging journey.
As always, l would be eager to hear from you if you have ever done these mistakes unknowingly and how did you come up with the right idea & planning?
Comment below, I would love to hear from you 🙂
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