The top 5 mistakes I have made in blogging

22 Replies Alan

About a year ago, I started blogging on a niche topic, hoping to earn some income from it just like many other bloggers out there today. However, nothing comes easy and I have been through a lot in that one year period. In this entry, I would like to share the pain when I started out, by telling you the five biggest mistakes I made.

1. Meaningless domain name

I started out by naming my blog and want to find a domain name as close as possible to the name of my blog. On top of that, I have the fear as well to have a long domain name because it is difficult to remember. As a result, I ended up creating a totally meaningless domain name which I still have the regret today. People find it hard to determine the niche of my site just by reading the domain name. The lesson learned here is to have a domain name which can represent your niche as close as possible.

2. No keyword research

Wrong!After I had gained some experience in blogging and internet marketing, I begin to realize the importance of keyword research. It does not only help you to define the objective of your blog, but also identify your competitors. Keyword research can be pretty boring and that is why I made a mistake to skip it first, research later. The lesson which I learned here is to research first, write later.

3. A niche topic without focus

My niche is IT security and I know that I am going to write about security. Why is that not good enough? Because it is too general. During my first month, I had been writing everything about IT security such as news, tips and tricks, reviews, network security, computer security, internet security and many more. Readers that come to my blog can’t see the purpose of the existence of my blog and I think I failed terribly there. The lesson which I learned here is to start a topic in a very focused way, even if the target audience size is small and grow slowly from there.

4. Spamming dofollow backlinks

Everyone here knows the importance of “dofollow” links. In order for anyone of us to rank well in Google and other search engines, you have to build a lot of “dofollow” links. I build plenty of them from “dofollow” forums and none of them give me any boost in SEO. The lesson I learnt here is to spend more time writing quality content, which other bloggers will want to link to.

5. Started out with Blogspot

Have any of you tried migrating your blog from Blogspot to self-hosted WordPress? It is not really difficult but can take a lot of time to amend your previous posts to fit into your WordPress theme properly. If you really want to blog seriously, invest into web hosting and a domain name because they are not really that expensive.

What about your blogging mistakes? Have you done anything which you still regret today?

Categories: Blogging
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Written by Alan
He runs Blogging Fever, a blog that features in blogging tips where he sends weekly newsletter on blogging tips. At the same time, he is also the writer for Open Source Buddy, a Ubuntu Blog where the blog features mainly in the tips and tricks of Ubuntu Operating System.

22 thoughts on “The top 5 mistakes I have made in blogging”

    • Christopher (admin team)

      I know what you mean Peter, sometimes you do feel like you check too often – and that can be disheartening sometimes, as you are willing that spike in traffic to come!

      Checking stats is very important though, as if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to see if you are doing things right!

      Reply
    • Alan Tay@IT Security

      Peter, I guess I should have included that as well and it should not limit to only refreshing statistic. What I am trying to mean here is I think many Adsense publisher spent a lot of their time refreshing the Adsense Home page to see if anyone click their Ads. I used to be one of those zombie….:(

      Reply
      • Christopher (admin team)

        I know what you mean Alan, if you have got visitors/earned money, you will find out at some time, so why bother constantly checking?

        Reply
  2. Chadrack@SEO Tips

    Hi Alan,

    These are really mistakes that many bloggers make when starting out. I happen to have first hand experience of the #1 in your list. It was really frustrating creating content and then discovering that the traffic coming to your blog were not interested in what you are offering. Of course, I dished that domain name and started something else!

    Reply
  3. Dougie@BulldogBackup

    I would definitely agree with the keyword research element of this post. It is really important that you find keywords that you can compete with, especially in the beginning. Spending proper time on keyword analysis will really help you achieve your goals in the long run.

    Reply
  4. Adeline@Pediatric Dentists

    Hi Alan, 3 of my niche blogs is in Blogspot and is about 2 years old now. After learning the limitations of Blogger, I made a decision to transfer to WordPress. But I was worried that I will lost all of my hard earned backlinks. So I didn’t continue the migration. I bought custom domain names for these blogs rather. At present, these blogs are doing well but I am really worried because Google always do some changes. Like the country specific domain extensions that they have rolled in India just last month.

    Reply
    • Christopher (admin team)

      I know what you mean about loosing backlinks Adeline, but the quicker you move, the quicker you can start building links to your new site!

      If you write an article saying that you have moved the blog to its own domain, I am sure that you readers would follow you.

      Thanks for adding your view, welcome to the blog 🙂
      Christopher – Admin Team

      Reply
  5. Jeremy @Catalog Printing Service

    Nice points Allan. When I started blogging, another common mistake is by not implementing “inter-linking” on my posts. This result to less traffic and bounce rate of visitors. If a post is linked to other posts, your reader will have the opportunity to dig dipper in your blog.

    Reply
    • Christopher (admin team)

      Interesting idea Jeremy, make sure you don’t lose old articles into the archives, as they can still be interesting to read.

      Thanks for adding your mistake to the list, welcome to the blog!
      Christopher – Admin Team

      Reply
  6. Dominic@ComputerTooSlow

    Good article Alan. I have experience with #5. I found out the hard way that it is worth the money and time to have your own domain vs a wordpress or blogger domain. I started with wordpress and then later realized it wasn’t ideal.

    Reply
  8. David@theOnlyCog

    Great tips. I also thing people try to fill their blogs with adverts in the hope of gaining some revenue — making money from a blog will take time (if at all possible), so don’t fill your page with paid adverts. Focus on the content — Write sensible, well written material. Once you have an established audience you can consider revenue streams.

    Reply
  9. David@sell used textbooks

    I don’t think I’ve made any blogging “mistakes” … rather, I think the toughest thing for me is to write something at regular intervals. At first, it was easy for me to make a post every few days; now, a month or more can slip by 🙂

    Reply
    • Christopher (admin team)

      I know what you mean David, you can start off with loads of ideas, but then you get bored and stop writing. If you have chosen the right niche, you will have good days and bad days, but ultimately, there should always be something interesting that you could blog about.

      Thanks for the comment David, welcome to the blog 🙂
      Christopher – Admin Team

      Reply

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