The practice of regularly writing text content (stories, news, reviews, etc.) and posting it on a website, has for long been one of the main attractions of the Web. It enables any person with a knack for or a modicum of interest in writing to express all sorts of ideas in written form and make them available online. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people have taken to blogging, and for all sorts of reasons.
For some, it’s just a way of unburdening their mind by expressing themselves and ‘putting it out there’. Others may do it out of professional necessity or because writing lets them share their thoughts about topics they deeply care about. The long and short of it is that blogging appeal to many people. So, if you play your cards right, you can attract and keep a loyal readership/audience in no time at all. In fact, some of the most popular blogs online boast of hundreds of thousands of monthly readers/subscribers.
Unless you’re one of the successful bloggers, it’ll be hard for you to appreciate the thrill, satisfaction, and pride that comes with that accomplishment. Having many people look forward to reading your writings brings you a healthy dose of motivation. But it doesn’t stop there – there’s also the financial gain that comes with it.
Given the many benefits of blogging, it’s hardly surprising that many people would want to give it a shot. If you’re have never been a blogger before, taking the plunge can be quite daunting. The biggest worry all first-timers have is that nobody will want to read their first post, let alone all their subsequent entries. Although the prospect of blogging seems very exciting to them, they aren’t confident they can write in a style that will appeal to their prospective audience. Frankly, it’s such objections and self-doubts that quickly lead to inaction.
So, let’s look into some typical mistakes beginner bloggers make. Hopefully, this information will help you avoid them and achieve blogging success faster.
1. Trying to Write About Things You’re not Really Interested in
One of the wisest things you can do is stick to what you’re genuinely interested in. You won’t be able to build a sizeable following by writing about things you don’t ordinarily read.
Always bear in mind that blogging isn’t a one-time activity. On the contrary, it’s an ongoing endeavor. This means you’ll have to constantly publish new content. Your content should also be original so you can build and retain a large readership base. When you carefully consider these points, you’ll see why focus and passion are crucial for long term success.
Most successful blogs are focused on specific areas or niches, for example:
- Health – children and women’s health, men’s health, elderly care.
- Sports – baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, racing (car, bikes).
- Information technology – cybersecurity, web design and development, programming, consumer electronics,
- Finance – personal finance, investing in stocks, real estate, bonds, cryptocurrencies.
- Education – nursery and elementary school, middle and high school, college and postgraduate education.
Let’s say you have a long-standing interest in education-related topics, such as college admission, how to finance one’s education, student accommodation, or how to buy a cheap essay online from qualified writers. You’d be well-advised to focus on precisely these areas.
Some people argue that by getting out of your comfort zone and writing about topics you previously had no interest in, you get to discover your niche. That’s not a bad idea assuming that you don’t have a set of topic areas you’re genuinely interested in. If after a couple of months and perhaps tens of articles, you don’t see yourself writing for another year or more, you need to step back and do a self-check.
If writing another post feels like a pain you can’t wait to escape, you’re clearly on the wrong path. Although it may sometimes be challenging, writing should be fun and exciting. In fact, you should really look forward to creating your next post. Because if you don’t, something is definitely amiss.
2. Giving Up Too Quickly on Writing
Even after you’ve pinpointed the areas you’re most interested in, that doesn’t mean you’ve reached the promised land. Sure – you’re on the right path. After some months or a fairly significant number of posts, many newbies typically hang up their boots if they don’t get the level of readership they envisaged. Well, if you’ve been oblivious of this truth, accept it now: blogging is never a sprint but a marathon.
There will always be problematic issues to deal with. For example, if you have little or no prior writing experience, you may find it challenging to consistently write high-quality content. That’s not to say you don’t have any interesting content ideas. The problem here lies in expressing the ideas creatively and engaging your readers.
But don’t be too hard on yourself. Many bloggers who eventually found success started out having no clue about what ‘engaging’ or ‘appealing’ style of writing means. They simply kept putting their heart and soul into their content before they gradually figured out what style appealed more to their readers. Directly asking for your readers’ feedback is a good way to find it out.
Even when you’re good at writing, you’ll have to put up with low readership at the beginning. To solve the problem, consider collaborating with established bloggers and publishing some of your write-ups as guest posts. Spread awareness on social media by contributing to discussions and sharing links to relevant content on your blog. Over time, all these strategies will help you grow your blog traffic and increase the number of subscribers.
3. Copyright Infringement
Considering the relatively broad freedom that comes with self-expression online, it’s easy for new bloggers to make the mistake of thinking that everything can be used for their posts. When working on new content for your blog, you should be very careful about using unoriginal photos, videos or audio files. If you have to include any content that isn’t originally yours, you should know the rules for using copyrighted materials. To be able to use them, you should obtain the express permission of the copyright owners.
For instance, you stumble upon a photo online you feel would go well with a particular blog post you’re working on. It’s not okay to simply copy-paste the image into your write-up. Before using it, you should find out if it requires any form of licensing or attribution to the original creator/owner. One way you can avoid the hassles of copyright infringement is to use freely licensed stock photos and videos from sites like Pexels and Pixabay.
The same is true of text content. If you want to use a quote or chunk of text that is sourced from a different site/author, you should enclose it in quotation marks or italicize it and include a link to the original content. Ideally, you should minimize the use of unoriginal text. Keep in mind that simply copying and pasting dilutes the originality/uniqueness of your writing. Even if you feel your readers may not spot plagiarised content, doing so can negatively impact your content rankings in Google search engine results. This further underscores the need for writing original content.
As with many ventures in life, blogging success isn’t really given but earned. It is the result of hard work, perseverance and a certain degree of luck. Also, what works and brings desired results for one person may not for another. However, your journey to achieving success can be much shorter if you try and avoid the above mistakes.
