Five Mistakes made by new bloggers

We have all been there - struggling to establish our blogging identity, making mistakes along the way. Wondering, why don’t we have enough readers. Sometimes, it takes years to course correct and re-pivot.

It has happened with me in my own blogging journey. I started out with a blog on marketing, very soon realizing that no matter how much I churned the depths of this ocean of marketing, there was no way I would be able to know / cover / blog about it all.

As a new blogger, you may be often struggling with (well meaning) advice from a hundred different sources, not knowing what to prioritize. But some things ought to be done over others - and that’s setting your blogging goals straight - and avoiding these blogging mistakes.

Mistake #1: Not knowing your blogging niche

I can’t say this enough.

You need to know your blogging niche - what is the area of your area of expertise + interesting for readers + and a space where you can be heard enough.

I started a blog on digital marketing, and I jumped from topic to topic, not providing enough topic depth, and consequently not enough value to any reader.

I flitted from programmatic advertising, to new Twitter features to call-to-actions.

It was exhausting 😔

And then I read the experiences of other bloggers. And read a lot of books. And realized I had to pare down.

I had to find my Ikigai

What is Ikigai?

Hector Garcia, the co-author of Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life says:

Your ikigai is at the intersection of what you are good at and what you love doing 

To read more about Ikigai, you may want to visit this blog post on How to Stay Motivated as a Blogger .

How would this translate to your blog?

You need to identify which area are you really good at,

If you are a beauty blogger, you have to identify your niche. Given the sheer numbers of beauty influencers online, you will struggle to establish your identity if you are too generic. There are way too many established bloggers for you to overtake. However, if you establish a niche, and proceed forward to become the best in that niche, you have a much better chance of shining.

Your niche could be:

Beauty advice for corporate professionals

Beauty advice for women aged over 40

Beauty advice for women with natural products

Mistake #2: Not knowing their target audience 

As a blogger, are you aware of who your target audience is?

Hop on over to this post on identifying your target audience first, if you don't. 

Who are you writing for?

What are their wants, needs, aspirations?

Are you helping them achieve their wants, needs and aspirations somehow?

An important part of your blogging journey is choosing your blog’s target audience.

You cannot be everything for everybody.

You have to have a rock solid reader (or buyer) persona. You need to know the demographic, psychographic, geographic details of your ideal reader. If you have your target audience profile etched out, and the blogging niche narrowed, you will be well on your way to blogging stardom.

For a more detailed understanding of how to identify your blog’s target audience, check out this post.

Mistake #3: Not promoting enough

Are you promoting your existing content enough? Are you sure that you have derived the maximum promotional value?

Promoting your blog posts is also equally important - how can you extract the maximum value out of a blog post if you are not providing it the widest possible visibility?

But how do you promote your blog post? Here, you must employ the tactic of content re-purposing. Need to know what is content re-purposing? No worries - read this detailed post.

You should spend 60-70% of your time writing content and 30-40% of your time in content promotions.

Mistake #4: Not having a consistent blogging schedule

This is the most cardinal sin of blogging - not blogging consistently.

You cannot post one blog in April and the next one in September and expect your readers to be connected with you. Readers like to know what to expect - they appreciate consistency. And hence you should honor your blogging commitment - even if you post once a week, make it consistent.

If you decide to undertake a higher blogging frequency - you have to be consistent.

Mistake #5: Not writing original long form content

Readers constantly seek to reduce cognitive load. If they cannot find all the information that they want in a single place on the first click, they will have to visit another website. And they tend to remember such behaviors.

The last time I visited the website, I had to visit couple of others.

Imagine their delight if they find everything that they need to know in a single website. This experience will be hard to forget - I remember that website being really comprehensive.

For me, this happens with the CoSchedule blog & the Hubspot blog.

Over time, I have come to respect the kind of detailed, comprehensive content they create and I know if I visit a Hubspot / Coschedule blog post, I know it will tell me all that I need to know about that topic.

Super bloggers advise that articles should be alteast 3000 words long - but don’t worry, nobody builds writing muscles overnight. You can start by gradually writing 500 words articles, moving onto 800-1000 words and gradually start working on those comprehensive 5000 words articles.

Hope all these tips help. In the meantime, take heart from the fact that blogging is hard, and it takes time to establish yourself as a blogger. Don't give up.

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