We all make mistakes, that’s just life. But at least, when we make mistakes, we usually learn from them. Since the very first blog was published, bloggers have been making mistakes. But by studying these blogger’s mistakes and the lessons they have learned, we can avoid making the same mistakes ourselves.

So many bloggers have had the same experience: blogs are started with high hopes and then confusion and frustration sets in when the results aren't what they hoped for. A lot of it has to do with these simple but common mistakes.

A successful blogger would tell you that great blogging takes a certain amount of dedication and hard effort to make it work. You have to put effort into a blog to sustain it, especially after the first month or so of completing the design. Many people work so hard during the initial design phase that they get lazy after it is complete. To avoid this happening to your blog, check out these five common mistakes that can ruin a blog.

5 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

Not Engaging/Asking For Comments

Bloggers tend to agonize over the lack of comments they receive on their blog posts. Have you felt frustrated when you hear crickets after publishing a new post? More often than not, the problem is not that people don't read the blog or don't want to leave a comment but the blogger hasn't given the opportunity for readers to comment. Think about when you read a blog post - do you leave a comment if you’re not prompted to? Most likely not.

Simply ask for opinions. People love giving to give their opinions. Ask for reader's experiences, input or help to accomplish something. Ask people to give you their suggestions or recommendations for something related to your post. Asking questions in your blog post will also give you some insight into your readers based on their comments. This allows you to further connect and cater to your blog’s audience.

Additionally, if you are encouraging your audience to leave comments, be sure to acknowledge them! If they asked a question in their comment, be sure to respond as soon as you can. This will show your readers that you care about and engage with your audience. Always respond to your readers comments; thank them for reading and taking the time to comment (even to the critics) and then respond, as appropriate, to their comment. If you ignore your comments, your readers may end up ignoring your blog.

The Girlcrush Collective Facebook Group is a great place to get comments on your blog. When you join the group, we encourage you to introduce yourself and share what you do and link your blog. We have weekly blog post threads where everyone can share their latest or greatest blog post and we comment on each other’s posts! If you have not done so already, you can join the Facebook group here.

Not Hosting On Their Own Domain

You may have seen that there are some blogging platforms that provide you with a quick, free, and easy way to set up a blog, choose a template, and publish a post. And of course that sounds tempting - why would you want to make things harder than they need to be?

This is why: using a blogging service such as wix.com or blogger.com can be risky because you don’t own it. You’ll receive a URL like www.yoururl.blogspot.com. If you purchase your own domain through a service such as GoDaddy or Namecheap, you’ll not only look more professional, you will also have full control.

As you start your blog, think of your blog as a long term marketing communication channel. Starting out with your own domain and blog host will save you time down the line when you inevitably outgrow your blogging service’s URL and decide to switch over to your own domain.

By hosting your blog on your own domain, you control where you want to publish the blog to. Tomorrow, if you outgrow these services, you can easily export your blog to another tool, another host without losing too much established traffic. A domain is also easier for people to remember and easier for you to publicize.

Not publishing often enough

I am sooo guilty of this common blogging mistake: not publishing enough. And worse than not publishing enough is not posting consistently. Whether you decide to publish a new blog post once a day or once a week, it’s important to stay consistent. Creating a content calendar is a good way to keep yourself on track. By planning out and scheduling your content in advance, you’ll be less likely to start forgetting to post or start posting less and less frequently.

Another way to prevent the potential issue of not publishing enough is to batch your content. Content batching is when you take one day out of the week, or one week out of the month, to create a ton of content all at once. This way, you will have content to last you for the next several weeks. It’s also easier (for most people) to do all of your creative work at once when you can get in the zone rather than trying to find time to create new content every single day. And even if you do choose to create content every day, you should always have some backup content for whenever something comes up.

Many people end up quitting blogging because they feel like it's just too much work. Yes, it’s a whole lot of work, but it does not have to be as complicated as it may seem. Maybe you’re not the kind of person who can sit down and write thousands of words all at once - that is okay! Sometimes you may have a paragraph here and there about a topic that just isn't big enough for an article. That is totally fine. You're going to have many more of these impromptu thoughts and ideas - keep random notes in your phone whenever these things pop in your head. Later, you can come back and gather these ideas, compile them into a complete article or even a series.

Additionally, think about everything you have already created - can you repurpose any of it? Have you written articles in the past? How about e-courses, audio recordings, or ebooks? Recycle! Break them up and post them on your blog. I bet you have more content than you’d think!

Not Promoting their blog

This is one I see all the time. Bloggers wondering why no one is reading their blog posts, even though they’ve followed all of the steps - planning, research, writing, editing, designing, optimizing, publishing. Yes, they have done everything right, but the blog post’s process is not over just because you clicked publish!

Search engine optimization does not happen overnight, so unless you’re actively promoting your blog, no one is just going to magically know that it exists. Pinterest is my top recommendation for the promotion of blog posts. Another great place to drive traffic to your blog posts is in Facebook groups (like Girlcrush Collective!). We have put together a list of all of the places that you should be promoting your blog posts after you publish them, see it here.

But it’s also not enough to just promote your new blog post once. Not everyone is going to see everything you post! You need to post about your blog over and over to drive traffic from your social media platforms to your blog. Personally, I use SmarterQueue to plan and schedule my blog content on Facebook and Twitter, and Tailwind to schedule my blog content on Pinterest.

having unrealistic expectations

This one is probably the most common mistake amongst new bloggers. People tend to think that blogging can’t be too hard, just write a post and click publish, right? Omg girl NO! Blogs are so much work. To have a successful blog, you have to learn and educate yourself all about blogs, hosts, domains, seo, social media, etc. and unfortunately, it’s all constantly changing, so you’ll never really stop learning. If you dive into blogging with the expectation of having thousands of viewers overnight, you’re going to be more discouraged and likely to give up.

There are hundreds of thousands of blogs online all writing for the same audience. Patience, consistency, and determination are essential on your part. If you learn as much as you can about blogging, find a unique niche to fill, have optimized titles for your posts, create beautiful graphics, and tirelessly promote your blog, the readership and comments will come.

If you've just entered the world of blogging or if you've been blogging for a short time and find that things are not working out as you expected, it will be worth your while to spend some time understanding the common mistakes that bloggers make, mistakes that make it hard to enjoy what should be an enjoyable, satisfying experience: Blogging!

xx, Katie