25 Deadly Blogging Mistakes To Avoid (And How To Fix Them!)

Introduction

I have made quite a few blogging mistakes in the past, but the thing that kept me going was my love for writing and an insatiable appetite to learn how to get better at it from the context of blogging and content writing.

In this blog post, I’m going to share with you some of the deadliest common blogging mistakes you might make as a beginner blogger and how can you avoid them.

If you have already made a few of them, I will show you how you can fix them going forward!

If you’re just starting out in your blogging journey, this blog post will help you in starting on a strong solid foundation and save you from a lot of wasted time, money, hassle & headaches.

My sole objective in writing this comprehensive guide is to help you avoid making these common blogging mistakes whether you’re just getting started or you’re trying to take your blogging to the next level.

Either way, make sure you supplement your reading of this blog post with my ’11-Step Ultimate Guide On How To Write The Perfect Blog Post’

25 Deadly Blogging Mistakes to Avoid (and How to Fix Them!)

1. Not Taking Blogging Seriously

The very first thing you must do when you start blogging is to treat it as a business.

When people start a traditional business, they are willing to put in a lot of time, money, effort and energy into it, but I don’t seem to understand why that changes when it comes to an online business.

An online business might require a lot less amount of time, money, effort and energy but you still have to treat it seriously just like any other traditional business.

Gone are the days when you would write average content and it would still rank high on the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages).

Today, you need to have the best & most relevant content on the topic you’re blogging about and even after that there is no guarantee that it will rank high!

That’s how competitive most markets and niches have become.

So here’s my advice to you…

Power TIP: If you’re thinking of starting an online business, decide from the get-go whether or not you wish to use blogging to complement your online marketing efforts.

If the answer is ‘Yes’, then go all-in on blogging or else, don’t even waste your time on it.

Blogging & Content Marketing takes a lot of effort and time to show any results and if you just want to blog for the sake of blogging, it ain’t going to make much of a difference.

To put it simply, don’t just dabble, either go all-in or don’t even bother!

2. Choosing The Wrong Blogging Platform

One of the biggest & the deadliest blogging mistakes you can make even before you have started on your blogging journey is to choose the wrong blogging platform.

The only Blogging Platform that I wholeheartedly recommend is WordPress.org

Notice, that I mentioned WordPress.org & not WordPress.com & that’s because I want you to use a WordPress Site that is self-hosted on the hosting of your choice.

Granted, self-hosting your website may have a slight learning curve and using the WordPress platform may not be the most exciting thing to do.

But when it comes to functionality, speed & search engine optimisation, no other platform comes even close.

Other blogging platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, Weebly & Medium may entice or allure you by showcasing how simple and elegant it is to design your websites on these platforms but when it comes to site page loading speeds and ranking your content high on Google & SERP’s, they considerably fall short.

These blogging platforms are fun to play & dabble around with, but they’re not a great long-term option if content marketing & blogging is one of your mainstays of online business and marketing.

Ghost, is perhaps the only other platform that I can recommend to you if you want to get into blogging, content writing & marketing.

The main difference between Ghost & WordPress is that, if you wish to customise something on Ghost, you need to have a fair bit of knowledge in coding and programming which is not the case with WordPress.

Summary:

• If blogging is important to you, then stick to WordPress. It might have a slight learning curve, but in the end, it is totally worthwhile.
• If you possess knowledge in coding and programming, then you can also opt for Ghost.

3. Choosing Free/Cheap Hosting

No. Just no.

Don’t get lured by free or cheap shared hosting.

Don’t even think of putting up your blog on a free platform or hosting plan. You’ll regret it later.

When you choose free or cheap hosting, you get exactly what you pay for!

Your website page loading speeds will be very slow. Your site will be unreliable and you’ll face a lot of technical issues.

If you’re just starting out, you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on hosting your website. You can get started with Bluehost.

For as low as $3.95 a month, Bluehost provides great hosting at an extremely affordable price.

I have used them for quite a few of my own websites and I can vouch for their amazing 24/7 online chat & support!

My website, Amit Desai HQ, is hosted on Kinsta.

Kinsta provides Premium WordPress Hosting for online businesses.

Don’t just take my word for it!

Here are a few Screenshots that show my Website Loading Speed. on GTMetrix & Google Page Speed Insights (For Mobile & Desktop).

The GTMetrix Report shows an almost perfect score!

Google Page Speed Insights – For Mobile shows a 90+ score which is really good!

And, the Google Page Speed Insights – For Desktop shows a very high score of 99!

These guys are absolutely amazing when it comes to fast loading website pages, automatic daily backups and 24/7 online chat and support.

What I particularly love about Kinsta is that they even provide a Staging Environment for Site Testing & Development.

Obviously, there’s a lot more to getting great loading speeds than just using a Premium WordPress Host.

But having premium hosting is critical to your website loading speeds!

4. Picking The Wrong Blog Niche

If you’re starting an online business, choosing the right niche is mission-critical especially when it comes to Blogging and Content Marketing.

Your blogging efforts will not reach fruition if you end up picking the wrong niche.

There are primarily 6 Key Parameters you need to keep in mind when choosing your niche.

Make sure you read my Ultimate Guide on these 6 Parameters to ensure that you haven’t chosen the wrong niche to blog on.

5. Not Using A Good Domain Name

Choosing a good domain name goes a long way in quick brand recall & recognition.

There are 3 ways to go about choosing a good domain name:

• If you’re like me & you believe in the power of Personal Branding, then choosing your own personal name as your domain name would be the way to go! An example of a great Personal Brand is Neil Patel.
• On the other hand, if you prefer creating a unique brand name that is memorable and helps in quick brand recall, you can choose this option as well. An example of a unique brand name is Nike.
• The 3rd option is to have a domain name that contains the main keyword in your niche. An example of a great brand that uses this strategy is Social Media Examiner.

The 3rd option used to work great in the past.

These days, most of the great keyword-rich .com domain names have already been taken.

But the good news is, now Google & other search engines have become extremely sophisticated and therefore, even if you do not have a keyword-rich domain name you will still rank high provided you create great content.

It’s a level playing field now.

6. Choosing the Wrong WordPress Theme

Just as important it is to choose a good hosting company, it is equally important to choose a good WordPress Theme for your website and blog.

There are tons of amazing free WordPress Themes & options available but please refrain from using Free WordPress Themes and opt for their Premium Counterparts!

Here are a few pointers you need to keep in mind when choosing a good WordPress Theme:

• Use Clean Coded Premium WordPress Theme
• Opt for Simplicity, Browser, Plugins & Page Builders Compatibility
• It should be Lightweight & have Fast Loading Speeds
• It should be Mobile Responsive & SEO-Friendly
• It should have excellent Ratings and Reviews
• Developers of the WordPress Theme must continually keep making improvements and remove bug fixes if any
• It must also have excellent Documentation and Friendly & Responsive Support

Although there are a lot of great WordPress Theme options, here are the only 3 WordPress Themes I wholeheartedly recommend:

1. Kadence Theme – This is the one I use on my website!
2. Astra Theme
3. GeneratePress Theme

7. Using Poorly Coded Low-Quality Plugins

Plugins add important functionality and features to your website. However, the whole idea is to keep the use of Plugins to a minimum.

Here are a few pointers you need to keep in mind when choosing WordPress Plugins:

• Only use plugins you really need – Remember, less is more!
• Use Clean Coded Premium WordPress Plugins
• It should be Lightweight & not reduce your Website Page Loading Speed by much
• It should have excellent Ratings and Reviews
• Developers of the Plugin must continually keep making improvements and remove bug fixes if any
• It must also have excellent Documentation and Friendly & Responsive Support

Power TIP: Whenever you install a new plugin on your website, make sure you do a Google Page Speed Insights & GTMetrix Speed Test before & after installing the plugin. If there’s a drastic increase in your Website’s Page Loading Speed, try to do away with the plugin or find a better alternative instead.

8. Poor On-Page User Experience

Every page on your website should have a specific objective and it should strive to fulfil that objective in the best possible manner.

Every time you create a brand new page on your website, you always need to keep the User Experience on top of your mind.

A great on-page user experience is one of the key indicators that search engines look out for when it comes to satisfying the searchers intent.

To put it simply, the main goal of your page is to satisfy the intent of the visitor for which they visited your page.

If your web page satisfies the searcher’s intent, your page ranking will get better over time on the SERP’s.

Here Are A Few Tips To Enhance Your On-Page UX:

• Avoid fluff in your writing and get straight to the point
• Don’t have too much clutter in your written content & also the sidebar if you have one
• Use sufficient white space in and around your content
• Avoid unnecessary plugins and scripts running on your page that don’t add much functionality and degrade the user experience
• Use formatting wisely to bring attention to important elements on your page
• Make use of attractive custom-designed branded visual imagery

9. Choosing the Wrong Topics To Blog About

You may have chosen the right blogging niche but sometimes, you may end up choosing the wrong topics to blog about.

When I talk about choosing the wrong topic, here’s what it mostly means:

• The topic or the keyword you’re trying to blog about is way too competitive, or
• The topic or the keyword you’re trying to blog about does not have a great search volume – i.e. not many people are interested in the topic
• The topic is way too broad and general and isn’t really worth blogging about

If you happen to choose the wrong topics to blog about, make sure you have a proper content strategy in place.

If not, create a content calendar and schedule it with content that’s important and relevant to your ideal audience.

One of the biggest mistakes beginner bloggers make is not have an article hit list or a content idea bank to begin with.

Having an article hit list or a content bank of ideas to write about should be the 1st thing on your to-do list if you wish to become a successful blogger.

10. Not Having A Consistent Blogging Schedule

Consistency always beats intensity hands down! Treat blogging as a marathon and not as a sprint.

When you’re just starting your journey as a blogger, you definitely will be having a lot of passion, excitement, enthusiasm and intensity.

But if you truly want to be successful in the game of blogging, you need to be consistent in your blogging efforts.

Make use of a blog planner. It could be physical or even digital. The medium does not matter.

What matters is that you use it.

Intensity will help you get started on a high note but it is the consistency that will keep you there in the long term.

Decide on a blog publishing frequency or schedule and stick to it. For example, if you plan on publishing a blog every single week, stick to it.

If you plan on publishing 2 blog posts every month, then stick to that. Stick to your plan no matter what.

11. Deadly Writing Mistakes

Here are some deadly writing mistakes to avoid when it comes to blogging:

• Not doing proper research before writing on your topic
• Writing without an outline
• Your writing is a brain dump – It is unorganised and doesn’t have a logical flow & structure
• Not Keeping Your Ideal Audience In Mind When Writing (You think of ideas that only interest you)
• Your writing is mostly about you, your company & your products and services
• Not writing in a clear style
• Your writing has a lot of grammatical issues (grammar mistakes)
• You do not commit to the process of writing
• Not writing comprehensive long-form content – Writing Low-Quality Shallow Content
• Writing content that is poorly or incorrectly formatted
• Presenting the reader with nothing but dense text
• Focusing on quantity over quality of your content
• Writing for yourself, not your audience
• Not linking to other relevant & useful content
• You’re not adding enough context
• Copying & Pasting stuff from other people’s website (Plagiarism)
• Using hard to read fonts / having a very small font size which makes the text very small, dense and difficult to read
• Not following Best SEO Practices
• You write purely for SEO
• Not proofreading & editing your blog before publishing
• Not re-purposing your content in an effective manner
• Your content doesn’t tell the reader what to do next – Not having any Call-To-Action (CTA)
• You think you’re done once your writing is completed
• Your content does not help generate leads or help build an e-mail list
• Not taking the time to respond thoughtfully to your blog post comments – Not engaging with your readers enough

12. Creating Content Without A Solid Content Strategy

Writing blog articles without having a solid content strategy and plan in place is a recipe to disaster.

Instead of aimlessly writing on topics that either interest you or your audience can only take you to a certain level.

If you really want to achieve success in blogging, you need to at least have a content plan and strategy mapped and fleshed out for the whole year.

Only when you take the time out to plan your content in advance, will you get a big picture overview of how each of the dots in your business and content marketing connects and makes sense over time.

Here’s My Free Gift To You…

This free checklist will ensure you do not make the same mistakes newbie bloggers make!

13. Not Having An Effective Lead-Generation & Sales Conversion Strategy

Continuing further and adding to the point above, you need to also figure out what is going to be the objective of each content piece that you write.

What is its purpose in your customer’s journey?

Is your blog post aimed at generating leads or converting a warm audience into customers?

Is your blog post aimed for the Top of Funnel(TOFU) Marketing, Middle of Funnel(MOFU) Marketing or Bottom of Funnel(BOFU) Marketing?

When you create a content plan and strategy, you need to assign a well-defined objective for each and every content piece that you are going to publish on your site.

14. Underestimating The Role Of Images, Data & Stats

Having long-form content that is well researched and comprehensive requires the use of great visual imagery, a compilation of data and stats etc.

Just writing long-form content with zero or very little media content can make reading laborious and feel like a chore!

When you add relevant and on point branded images, infographics and multimedia content, your blog article will become a lot richer and pleasing to read.

It gives context to your content. The data and statistics you reference in your writing only solidifies the points you’re putting out.

The idea is not just to research a topic but to make sense from it, contemplate on your findings and base your insight, judgment & opinion on what you make of the research.

Also, when you quote a statistic from a certain piece of content, make sure you share the link to that article as well.

You need to give credit where credit is due.

It not only looks good on your part, but it helps the reader get more validation and also helps the source get discovered for further reading to your audience, which makes it a win-win-win strategy!

15. Not Collaborating/Networking With Other Bloggers In Your Industry

Right from the get-go, try to collaborate and network with other like-minded bloggers in your niche or industry.

Visit their blogs, read their articles, follow them on social media, like & comment on their stuff and try to be of service to your community and industry.

Remember One Thing: Giving always precedes receiving.

Be a giver, a contributor and when you give, don’t just give with an intention to get something back.

16. Not Having An Effective Social Media Strategy

Content Marketing & Blogging is an extremely powerful and effective digital marketing strategy but if you supplement it with an effective Social Media Strategy, it will further compound the positive results you get.

Content Marketing & Social Media should be a part of your overall Integrated Digital Marketing Strategy.

Repurpose your long-form blog content into micro-content that is binge-able and share-worthy.

Make Tweetables, Instagram Posts, Infographic Pins etc, and leverage your already existing content and help more people discover it through various social channels.

Another common blogging mistake that newbie bloggers make is that they do not focus on Pinterest for driving traffic to their websites.

Pinterest is a gold mine of traffic and if you create relevant, quality content, you can get a bucket load of traffic from this beautiful visual search engine and social discovery platform.

17. Over-Promoting / Under-Promoting Your Blog Content

Writing and Publishing your content is mission-critical but you also need to promote your blog content to make it seen and go viral.

You need to strike the right balance between publishing and promoting your content.

Over-Promoting can come across as spammy to your audience and they might simply mute or block you to stop bombarding them with more of your stuff.

On the other hand, if you don’t promote much or under-promote your blog articles, chances are, it might not be seen much by your target audience even though it is awesome!

Here are a few great ways to promote:

• Share it with your email list, i.e. your newsletter subscribers
• Share it on Social Media
• Share it on Groups and Communities that you know would be interested in your topic

18. Not Taking The Time To Guest Post On Other Blogs

I believe that Guest Posting is a highly underrated win-win strategy that can help grow your audience very quickly.

Doing a collaboration with a fellow blogger from your own community can be extremely rewarding.

You can do a guest posting collab with a fellow blogger in your niche and write a great piece of content for them on their blog and tap into the power of their audience & vice-versa.

19. Covering Too Many Topics

Your content marketing has to be extremely focused, specific, narrow & deep.

You need to go micro and write on more niche topics that address a specific need of your audience.

If your content marketing is a lot wider, generic and shallow, your content won’t get the kind of traction and mileage you want it to get.

It won’t resonate with even your target audience much because it is too vague and general.

Have only 3-4 topics on which you write. Make these 3-4 topics your blog category or archive pages & make sure your content is laser-focused and in-depth.

Take a look at my blog. I write on only 3 topics which also happen to be my blog categories:

1. Digital Marketing
2. Blogging & Content Marketing &
3. Social Media Marketing

Why do I write only on these 3 topics?

The only reason for that is because I’m deeply passionate about them and also happen to have a great deal of knowledge and learnings that I can share with my community on these topics.

20. Having A Lot of Stale Content / Not Updating Content

One of the biggest blogging mistakes you may commit is to end up having a lot of stale content on your site.

There’s not wrong with having content that has gone stale. What is wrong is to not update that content with the latest fresh content available.

You need to have at least a yearly Content Audit Plan.

At least once a year, take the time out to go through all of your published content and do a content audit.

Make a list of all the blog posts that are no longer relevant and take the time out to review, review and refresh the content in those posts.

Look, not every content you publish is going to remain evergreen forever.

Heck, sometimes even evergreen content has the likelihood of going stale!

Let me give you an example of that…

Let’s take the topic of Sales Funnels.

You & I both know that Sales Funnels is an evergreen topic because we all will be needing sales funnels not just in the present but also in the future.

ClickFunnels is an extremely popular tool when it comes to creating Sales Funnels.

In the future though, ClickFunnels might get replaced by something totally unique and different that makes the process of creating Sales Funnels a lot more easy and elegant.

So, if we have written content on a specific tool, technique or strategy which works in the present but is no longer effective in the future, we might need to re-write those content pieces with the newer set of tools, techniques & strategies.

21. Not Learning SEO & Technical Aspects of Writing

You will be spending a huge chunk of your time creating content as a blogger.

If you value content marketing, then for you, learning SEO & also the technical aspects of writing a Blog Post is mission-critical.

Not having a fair understanding of SEO and the technical aspects of writing can actually be detrimental to your success as a blogger, writer, researcher and expert.

22. Having Unreasonable/Unrealistic Expectations

Content Marketing & Blogging is rewarding but it takes a lot of time, money and effort on your part.

It’s not going to give you success overnight but if you stick & persist with it you will be rewarded eventually.

What is important for you to know is that you just need to do the work as diligently as possible.

If you think your blog will gather a readership of 1,00,000 people a month within just 3-4 months of blogging, then that is most likely not going to happen.

Do NOT have unreasonable/unrealistic expectations.

Just keep doing the work. Establishing credibility, authority and trust takes time.

There ain’t any shortcuts but if you persist, you will be eventually rewarded.

Play the long game!

23. Not Tracking Or Measuring Your Analytics & Site Traffic

What is not measured and tracked cannot be improved.

“You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure.” – Peter Drucker (Quote)

To put it simply, you can’t know whether or not you are successful unless your success is properly defined, tracked and measured.

That’s why you need to track and measure your Website Analytics and Traffic.

Install Google Analytics Code on your website from Day 1 and establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to track and measure your success.

A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable unit of value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving its key business objectives.

24. Not Learning From Your Past Mistakes

Content Writing is a life-long learning process.

When you start writing every day, your writing will get better and better.

But for it to get better, you need to be open and learn from the mistakes you have made in the past.

Let every content you publish be a learning experience for you. Let every blog post you write teach you something new.

Fully commit to the process of writing and learning.

25. Getting Discouraged & Giving Up Too Easily & Quickly

If you have read this far, you already know that Content Marketing is a long-term strategy.

It will take you at the very least 18-24 months to see some momentum and traction.

I often see a lot of people getting discouraged and giving up too easily & quickly when it comes to blogging.

They might even be consistent for a good part of 1 whole year but then, they give up.

Don’t be one of them.

Play the long game and play full out. Give it your best and don’t worry about the results.

If your content is good, has value, you will have an audience.

Summary & Final Thoughts

So there you have it…these are some of the biggest mistakes beginners make when blogging and how you can avoid them!

The fact that you have read my blog post this far proves to me that you’re serious about blogging.

That’s why I believe in you!

Make sure you make it count. The world needs you, my friend.

Do not disappoint your own self. I know you can do it!

So are you ready to take control of your Content Marketing?

If you’re serious, then make sure you download my FREE PERFECT BLOG POST CREATION CHECKLIST & use it as a template before you publish your articles!

This will ensure you do not commit any of the above-mentioned blogging mistakes.

Related Blog Posts You Will Find Useful:

1. How To Write The Perfect Blog Post [ 11-Step Ultimate Guide ]
2. The Ultimate Guide To Digital Marketing
3. How To Find My Blogging Niche [ How To Choose The Right Niche For Blogging! ]
4. Highly Profitable Blog Niche Ideas!

If you found this blog useful, you might want to save THIS PIN below to your Blogging Tips Pinterest Board & check the post later when new updates are published!

Now that you have a fairly good idea of some of the most common beginner blogging mistakes, I would love to hear your biggest takeaways.

Which mistakes have you committed in the past?

Is there anything I have missed out on?

I would love to hear from you in the comments section below…