Is blogging still a thing? YES! 100 times yes. And if you are an amateur blogger and ready to jump into the next phase, let’s do this together!
THE CONFESSION OF AN AMATEUR BLOGGER
Am I doing this right?
That’s what I told myself over and over again about the thoughts of creating a blog. Like most people, I don’t have any background or proper training in writing, and creating a blog that people actually want to read seems impossible.
Until it wasn’t
What is an amateur blogger?
Amateur blogger is like the noobs in the blogging community.
The beginner blogger with no intention of making money through blogging.
In short, the amateur blogger has these features:
- They blog as a form of hobby
- It is a way of documenting what they doing, and what they are feeling-like an online diary
- They do it for fun
- No technicality or planning in terms of content writing
But every single professional blogger you see out there begins as an amateur blogger and works their way up.
And if you are one of the amateur bloggers but ready to roll up your sleeves and make this your source of income, avoid these mistakes
11 Amateur blogger mistakes & The solutions
1. Using a free domain and free hosting
You own a blog. That’s good.
But
Check your blog. If your blog name has a .blogspot or wordpress.com, then it’s time to change it
Rule number one to make your blogging journey professional, use a good web hosting service. It is like a place where you keep your blog on the internet. (They “host” you).
As an amateur blogger who just begins, I would like to suggest Bluehost
Advantages of Bluehost
- Bluehost is one of the beginner-friendly web hosting services.
- Another advantage is that you can get the domain for free once you register with the
- Cheaper option compare to the rest (only 2.95$/ month)
2. Not learning SEO
My grave mistake, was thinking SEO will limit creativity in my writing.
As if I am Ernest Hemingway or something
I did a silly experiment where I post some of my articles on this blog randomly. Not thinking about the SEO aspect and just writing my heart out.
And for some of the articles, I carefully research the keyword and make them more SEO-friendly.
Guess what happen? The non-SEO optimized articles don’t even get an impression in google’s eyes. So I basically just waste my time and energy writing something that people can’t even access and read it.
Whether we like it or not, in order for people to enjoy our writing and come across our blog by making it optimized in search engines. So learning SEO is essential and key to evolving from amateur to professional blogger.
Of course, SEO is a learning curve that might need some experience and time to learn it. So don’t be too harsh on yourself. You’ll learn over time.
Solution:
Find a low-competition keyword to help your blog rank faster
There are so many tools you can use to find the best keyword related to the niche of your blog
Personally, I use KeySearch. I think the price is reasonable for someone who just starting out with blogging. And it did give a fair amount of information enough for the amateur blogger to start ranking in the google
Other options for finding the keyword are
- Ahref
- Semrush
3. Not posting regularly
Amateur bloggers view this as a hobby. So they just write whenever they got the mood and the time.
They just post when they feel like it.
In google eyes, it will seem like the blog is not very active
Do not do this mistake. The main reason amateur bloggers not posting regularly is they don’t plant their content writing.
I make this mistake
Because of this reason, whenever I want to sit down and write something, I feel great resistance because I need to find the keyword, write the article, post it, finding pictures.. And the list goes on
Solution
The solution for this is to create content planning and batch the work.
Plan for the month or at least the week if the month sounds overwhelming
Batch 1
- Decide on the theme and do the research at one time
- Use google doc and draft the framework of the article
- Write down the H2, H3 subheadings based on the keyword search
Batch 2
- Write down the article. Do not edit and write at the same time.
- Write first, edit later
- Spend 1-2 days writing down 1 article
Batch 3
- Find pictures/ other related info like affiliates related to the article
Batch 4
- Reflect the blog performance on the Google Search Console
*Divide the batch throughout the week (might vary based on whether you are working 9-5 or do full-time blogging)
By batching the works, you avoid task switching. Which will lessen the mental load and you can work more efficiently
4. Ignore internal linking
Building good internal linking provides the map and direction of how the reader navigates your blog.
Find your top-performing post and internally link it with an article related with it
I usually do this manually, but if you want to take one step further and especially if you already have so much content, you can use Link Whisper
5. Produce half-baked content
The intention of writing a blog post should be to help give a solution to your reader
If the post just consists of 500 words of random content that is not even related to the title, then don’t publish it.
Solution
Create engaging content that makes the reader read until the end of the post.
Give them tips, solutions, and ideas to help them with their problem
6. Not promoting the blog
Another amateur mistake is not promoting the blog enough or at all
I faced a similar problem before. I am too embarrassed (for God knows why) to share with my friends and family that I am starting a blog
So I keep my blog hidden as I think my writing is crap. Little that I know, once I start promoting the blog on my social media, most of my friends, family, and students are quite supportive.
They begin to share the info with others and I get so many traffic referrals by social media.
Solution
Promote the blog as much as you can. You can use social media such as Instagram, and TikTok and join the Facebook community with the same niches
You can’t keep being anonymous if you want to make it works.
7. Not analyzing the data
The rookie mistake that amateur blogger did is they don’t analyze the data and just randomly write anything under the sun
Solution
Register your blog to the Google Search Console (GSC). This should be among the earliest step you should do after writing a decent amount of article
Analyze the data in the GSC to find which articles attract many readers and which ones you can improve or even delete from your blog
The data is key
From business to blogging, everything needs data.
And the right intervention could dramatically improve the traffic of your blog
8. Slow loading time due to unnecessary plugins
All plugins seem essential for the blog and we keep adding them not realizing it slowed down the site
The worst experience the reader can get is when the blog loading time is so slow, that they click away.
No matter how good your writing is and how valuable information you have given, the user experience is still equally important
Solution
Keep it minimal with the plugin, maybe just 3-4 depending on the need and importance
9. Blog filled with too many ads
Yes, we want to make money via ads. But when you over-optimize the ads, they can appear too spammy and make the user experience, unpleasant
Sometimes they have the pop-up of the email list and the ads video on the site and everything seems so messy especially when you access it via phone
Solution
Like many things in life, try and keep it minimal
Lurk around any top blogger with high domain authority. Look how the ad placement is done.
10. Not build the email list early
I am guilty of this. But basically, because I don’t have the knowledge and don’t understand how important an email list
Ali Abdal has made this comprehensive video on why an email list is so important
Solution
Once you begin to get decent traffic, start an email list
Use the free and easily accessible email list such as substack
11. Giving up too soon
Blogging is a long game. No matter how well-experienced you are, it will take some time to rank the article in google. It will roughly take around 6 months to start ranking on google (based on the niche and topic of course)
So if you feel like you want a fast result, I am sorry but blogging is not for you
Realizing that blogging will take some time will put lesser pressure on yourself and just keep focusing on producing quality content
Solution
Give yourself 6-12 months, or roughly write a decent number of SEO-optimized articles ( some people say 100 SEO-optimized articles, but I’m not sure where they get the number) before you decide it’s not for you
I am quite sure with a decent number of SEO articles you will see traffic trickling into your blog
There you go, 11 grave mistakes by an amateur blogger that you should avoid. Of course, I consider myself an amateur blogger and hopefully we can work our way up this year!
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