Where did you hope blogging would take you? Glad blogging got me where I am today, with a successful full time business, a bunch of eBooks, a membership website, a blog with hundreds of published articles, two guest appearances on BlogWorld, and a book published on Beginner Blogging.
For other bloggers this could mean that I succeeded. Which is not wrong. But, like any single blogger, I've also had my share of failures.
Today I am going to tell you about my very first blog. He did not take off, but through him I gained a lot of experience. This is how it happened, and what you can learn from my mistakes.
But first, if you've never created a WordPress website or are new to your experience, we suggest you consult our guide on How to install and configure your WordPress blog.
Then back to what we are here for!
When I started blogging ...
Like most beginner bloggers, I had a job when I started blogging. I wasn't really happy with my job, and for a while I thought of ways to make money doing something I loved: writing.
I had the idea of doing " blogging professional And I quickly devoured the BlogPasCher archives. I was fired and the thought of becoming a full time blogger crossed my mind. And immediately, I imagined starting a book business and having a five-figure income.
But I made three big mistakes ...
Mistake # 1: Money mattered most
Instead of think of a topic I could write about in the long term, I chose the one with which I could make money: A healthy diet and weight loss.
This goes back to the end of 2007, when conventional blogging advice was based on choosing a niche. I named my blog "The office regime" and I had focused on writing a healthy lifestyle for office workers. For me it was too small a niche and I started to lose interest after a few months.
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Lesson
Don't just choose a niche for its income potential, choose it mostly for the potential you have. This is your only chance for success in blogging.
You might even rely on a blog title that gives you the motivation to change your perspective, in case you start to lose interest in your original topic.
Error # 2: No real business plan
I wanted so much monetize my blog, but I didn't have a lot of ideas to make it happen. So I signed up on Google AdSense, I posted a huge amount of ads in the sidebar of my blog, and waited for it to start making money… easily. I waited. And I waited.
In the end, it took me eleven months of blogging - and three posts per week before I received my first check from Google. Since this period, I acquired business acumen. Instead of seeing my blog as something that can generate income like magic, I figured out that I needed to use my blog as a marketing tool to support my business.
Lesson
Blogs are a wonderful way to market and grow your business by writing great content that attracts people to your products or services.
Advertising can earn you additional income, and only if you generate thousands of visitors per day. For most of us, it is much easier to build a successful small business than to Create a blog with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Error # 3: No interaction with readers
When I started my blog, I decided to ignore comments. I had seen a few top bloggers get overwhelmed with comments, and I immediately thought I could be like them. Because I was convinced that in a short time I was going generate a ton of traffic and receive hundreds of comments from individuals for each of my articles.
With a little hindsight, I just can not believe it, because I took my head so much! Of course, my blog didn't take off and I lost a potentially very useful resource: Reader comments. Believe it or not, I continued to learn from this mistake years after.
From that moment I realized that I was only making a few cents with Google AdSense (partly because of my niche. Weight loss ads don't pay well, and I hadn't thought about that possibility until I started blogging.). So I have launched an ebook.
It didn't occur to me to ask my readers what they might want to read. I had written an eBook that I thought they needed. Of course, it was a flop, like carrot sticks at a congress of chocolate lovers. I made a few sales, but nothing that I had hoped for (even after breaking the price of 10 € only 4 €).
Lesson
Your readers are the cornerstone of your blog. Cherish their Commentsespecially the first days of blogging. Ask them for their opinion when deciding what kind of content to display, and always take a survey when you are in the process of thinking or creating a product. You may well find that what they want is very different from what you thought they would want!
As you can imagine, during this time I was a bit disappointed with my blog. I was fighting for find ideas for new articles, because I was losing my interest in the subject. I tried to set up an idea for a book, but (without surprise) the publisher was not interested in me, my stats weren't really impressive. And of course, I still couldn't make a lot of money.
The blog was a total failure. Except that the story does not end there. In fact, some really good things had come out of my blog, despite all the mistakes I had made.
# 1: Guest Blogging has opened doors for me
I started making Guest articles (about a month after its launch). Luckily, I managed to post my articles on blogs that paid me for the quality of my content. And about nine months after launching that first blog, I quit my job.
My blog itself wasn't generating any money, but blogging for other people had allowed me to generate regular income.
Go even further by reading our article dedicated to Bloggers: How to use Guest blogging to your advantage?
# 2: freelance blogging led me to the success of my first ebook
I found that people were very interested in the way blogging made me earn money ; So I wrote an ebook about it, and it was successful. From that moment on I started to make a name for myself as someone who has written on other blogs and on writing.
# 3: My eBook led me to my blog
In 2009, I started a new blog. Of course, I made a lot of mistakes with this blog, but I managed to highlight all the things I learned from my first blog which was called " The office regime ", and my second blog (which lasted at most a few months).
I could get readers much faster, in addition, I strengthened ties with them thanks to the publication ofGuest articles and thanks to . Even better, I now write about topics that inspire me. To begin with, I focused on personal development, but writing, blogging and editing immediately caught my attention.
See also: How to choose what to sell and what to offer for free
What I want to remind you
This article has been very beneficial to me, so I wanted to finish with what is important to you. If you can't remember anything else in this article, don't forget this part:
- It's always frustrating when things aren't going as well as we would like.
- If you're struggling to get more than a handful of readers, you might be tempted to give up. Do not do it.
- Even small successes matter. If you only have ten people on your mailing list, or ten subscribers to your blog, that's still ten people benefiting from your content. Imagine sitting with them on a table in a restaurant. You will quickly realize that it is not a small number as such!
And every time you step out of your comfort zone and try something new, write an article about it and you'll be surprised by how successful it will be.
Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb, failed the first time around. Or the tenth time, or even the hundredth time. But he didn't give up. He said to himself: “I haven't failed. I just found 10.000 ways that don't work ”.
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Whether you've been a blogger for a few days or a few years, whether you've had some success or not, if you've made a few mistakes, you've learned a tremendous amount of things.
Share your best blogging experiences with us in the comments, so we can all learn from each other, and celebrate our success together.
Also, don't forget to share this article on social media if you liked it.
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Conclusion
Here ! That's it for this tutorial. We hope this article has helped you get some lessons you can learn from blogging mistakes. You can also see our Ultimate WordPress Security Guide to keep your subscription website secure, and our comparison of the best WordPress page builders to customize the design of your website.
However, you can also consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on WordPress blog creation.
If you have suggestions or remarks, leave them in our section Comments. Do not hesitate to share with your friends on your favorite social networks.
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