Professional blogging is a massive industry, and keeps on growing all the time. Whether it’s a burning desire to make money from your passion or the promise of being able to work from your bedroom, there are all manner of reasons why people decide to get into blogging. If you’re a newbie blogger, there’s a fair chance you’re making some common rookie mistakes. Don’t worry, help is at hand! Here are some of the most common mistakes, and how to fix them.
Using the Wrong Platform
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A lot of newbie bloggers start on Google’s platform, Blogger. Since it’s fairly easy to use and absolutely free, this often seems like a no-brainer. While it’s certainly possible to create a successful blog using this basic platform, it can be a little stifling when it comes to making small but necessary tweaks to your content, UX design and so on.
I made this mistake and then switched over to WordPress. Ask anyone who’s been in the business for a few years, and they’ll tell you that WordPress is the platform to go with. This popular platform is good enough for a lot of Fortune 500 companies, so it’s safe to say it’s good enough for your fledgling blog! It gives you complete flexibility. Of course, different bloggers will work better with different platforms, so do your research before jumping in.
Not Having an Opt-In and Lead Magnet
One of the most embarrassing rookie mistakes you can make is going for months on end without making any effort to collect emails, or grow conversions through some other kind of opt-in model. There’s another rookie mistake closely tied in with this: not dangling anything in front of your visitors to incentivise them.
If you’ve taken the initiative to set up an opt-in form on your blog, then great! Now, put yourself in your target audience’s shoes, and ask yourself how compelling the proposition is. Don’t just have a form that’s headed by the title “join my newsletter!”. No one wants to have another newsletter cluttering their inbox!
Instead, focus on giving something of value to your readership in return, like a free eBook or exclusive news about something related to your blog. Doing this right will send your conversion rate through the roof!
Doing it Just for the Money
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I’m not saying that you should abandon your dreams of being a full-time blogger. I hope that everyone can get paid for something they enjoy eventually. However, with professional bloggers becoming more and more numerous, it’s important to make sure you’re not getting caught up in the gold rush and pursuing this project purely for the money you want to make.
Sure, you can make a full-time living from blogging, but if you’re doing it just for the money, it’s a sure-fire way to be disappointed. First of all, it usually takes months if not years of earning peanuts before you can afford to quit your day job. Secondly, if you’re forcing yourself to come up with fresh content just to get paid, the quality of what you’re publishing will inevitably begin to suffer.
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