10 Blogging Mistakes Beginners Should Avoid in 2024

Creating a successful blog takes time. Sometimes it takes years to create a blog that makes money. When you create a blog, you make a ton of mistakes.

As they say, “every expert was once an amateur”. There's nothing wrong with making mistakes, but you can build a better blog very quickly if you can avoid some common blogging mistakes that you'll learn about on this page.

Contents :

10 Blogging Mistakes for Beginners to Avoid in 2024

1. Not doing keyword research

Do you know why your blog is struggling to get more search traffic, even after posting regularly?

It may be because you are posting articles without doing any keyword research.

Keyword research is simply finding "words" or "keywords" that drive more traffic, leads, and sales to your websites from search engines like Google.

Here are some essential tools you can use for keyword research

• Semrush (this is the same tool we use to find potential keywords for our site, you can literally find every detail of a keyword using Semrush)
• KWFinder (this is a long-tail keyword research tool with a great interface that shows you trends, search volume, CPC, and difficulty level of results)
• Ahrefs (another amazing tool that gives you accurate keyword data)
• Ubersuggest (if you're looking for a free keyword research tool, you should definitely check it out).

When researching keywords, be sure to focus on one thing: long tail keywords.

Long tail keywords usually contain 4 or more words.

For example, “best fitness apps for iPhone” is a 5-word long tail keyword that may rank easier than short tail keywords like “best fitness apps”.

You understood ? Next time, before you post new posts on your blog, make sure you find long tail keywords and use them in your title, meta description, URL, and header tags like than h2, h3 to optimize your content for search results.

If you are using WordPress, install the Rank Math plugin as it is the best plugin to optimize your blog posts for the desired keywords.

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2. Lack of consistency in blog posting schedule

There are so many blogging superstars that have emerged recently and there is one reason that differentiates successful bloggers from unsuccessful ones and that is “consistency”.

Not only in the field of blogging, but in all fields, consistent people will succeed.

That's why you shouldn't focus on the results. Instead, focus on creating a cohesive blogging schedule and stick to it. Even if you only post one article a week, stick with it for a year and it will become routine for you!

Here is the key to creating a good posting frequency on your blog.

Post less often, but keep your content extremely detailed.

Gone are the days when you could post blog posts every day to get more search traffic. Yes, search engines like Google love fresh content, but that doesn't mean you have to post mediocre content every day.

Quality trumps quantity.

It is always better to create one in-depth article than to publish 5 mediocre articles because in the long run, in-depth articles perform better than average blog posts. If you're covering a topic, be sure to include A-Z information about that topic.

If you're writing about a complicated topic, use concrete examples, as they make your content more compelling.

Also, be sure to spend more time engaging with influencers in your field. You can do expert interviews or meetings when you're just starting out, as it helps you build buzz and increase social shares.

A little advice to be consistent is to create an editorial calendar.

You can start by using the Editorial Calendar plugin to organize your blog posting schedule. Not only is it free, but it offers a simple drag-and-drop interface that you can use to plan your content in advance.

3. Don't focus on just one niche

Covering too much is one of the fatal mistakes most newbies make. If you're starting a new blog, you must first establish yourself as an authority to be successful in the long term.

People don't listen to beginners, they listen to experts.

How can you become an expert or go-to person in your industry by covering too many topics?

So don't make this mistake. Be sure to focus on a single niche where you can create exceptional content.

If you're still wondering why you should focus on just one niche instead of covering too many topics, here are some benefits and reasons.

• Less competition (this is the biggest advantage of all, because you can become an expert if you blog on a particular topic for a few years).
• The ability to dominate your niche
• You can become an expert and a thought leader in your niche.
• You can attract a targeted audience and customers to your site.
• Une accrue visibility
• You can easily stand out from the crowd
• And the list is still long

If you're wondering how to use it, here's a solid content marketing strategy you can use focusing on a single niche to dominate in 2024 and beyond.

Create pillar content: Pick a topic and create 10-20 (or more) pillar content around that topic. Pillar content is an in-depth article that literally covers the A-Z information on the topic you're covering.

Pillar content acts as pillars that help you attract links, social shares, comments for your blog in the long run. They also help you establish yourself as an expert in your niche.

Find what works: The best way to create a niche content marketing strategy is to analyze your competition. Find out what works and what doesn't. Learn about their top performing posts and pages to see if you can create similar posts and pages.

You can use competitor research tools like Semrush to easily find your competitors' top performing pages, backlink sources, advertisements, etc.

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4. Prioritize quantity over quality

One of the most common questions beginners ask is, "Do I need to create more blog posts frequently?" or "Should I rarely publish high-quality articles?"

This is an excellent question to ask yourself if you are a beginner.

Backlinko's Brian Dean once said, “Too many pages create too many problems.” It is totally true.

If you prioritize quantity over quality, you will fail miserably.

Whether you know it or not, Brian Dean has barely published 30 blog posts and his blog gets over a million search engine hits every month.

That being said, not creating in-depth articles is one of the biggest mistakes.

Creating long-form content takes a lot of time. You need to devote time to research, writing, editing, promotion, etc…. But it works like a charm in the long run.

So how do you create quality content that outranks your competitors' content?

Here are some proven tips that we use to create high-quality content for our blog that are useful to all bloggers.

• Spend more time researching. Yes, the more time you spend researching the topics you are going to cover, the better the outcome will be.
• When you write, use tools like Google Docs that allow you to back up your data even offline (so if your internet suddenly goes out, you can still back up your writing without any problems).
• Read the articles of your competitors who are already well referenced in the search engines in order to understand how to write your own blog articles.
• Write 1000 words a day. Yes, practice writing every day to create engaging content that ranks well in search engines.
• Once you have finished write a blog post, take the time to read it two or three times. Edit all unwanted words. Keep your paragraphs short so your readers can easily skim through your articles.
• Use proofreading tools like Grammarly as they help you easily create error-free content. After all, no one likes to read a blog post full of grammatical errors, do they?

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5. Not building a blogging community

There are two best ways to build a blogging community that will help you succeed as a blogger in 2024 and beyond.

• Create a Facebook group
• Build an email list

Let's briefly talk about the above two methods.

1. Use Facebook groups to create a community of bloggers

One of the best ways to build a community around a blog is to make smart use of Facebook groups. As soon as you start blogging, it's a good idea to create a Facebook group that mainly covers the topics you blog about.

Be sure to find and connect to other Facebook groups related to the topics you cover. This way, you can engage with other bloggers who can help each other out by sharing, linking, and commenting on their respective blog posts.

2. Use an email list to build a blogging community

An email list is a great way to retain readers of your blog. The advantage of building an email list over social media is that it gives you the best return on investment, since email addresses earn you $40 for every dollar spent.

Once you start building an email list, be sure to offer freebies such as eBooks, giveaways, etc. in order to quickly increase the number of subscribers. Also provide highly educational content in the form of newsletters to your email list instead of sending out sales pitches.

Subscribe to newsletters from top bloggers in your industry and analyze how they send emails (at what intervals) and see how they use their email lists to earn money.

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6. Not having a monetization plan

What is the most important factor that determines the success of your blog in the long run?

If you answered: having the RIGHT monetization strategy, you are absolutely right. Unfortunately, most newbie bloggers don't have a sales funnel or monetization plan.

All they do is create random blog posts and wait for the traffic to increase so they can monetize their traffic sources. It's a bad approach.

If you want to start a blog that makes money, you need to have a monetization plan before you even launch your blog. You need to find and analyze the things that will help you make money in the first year.

Yes, it's really hard to make more money in the first year, but you need to set low goals that are actually achievable. Don't compare your beginning with the end of someone else's chapter, because comparisons don't help you grow!

How do you fix this situation and come up with a foolproof monetization plan to make money from your blogs?

Here are some proven tips for creating a solid monetization strategy for your blogs in 2024 and beyond.

Offer your own services: One of the fastest ways to make money blogging is to start offering your own services. Here are some services you can offer;

• Offer freelance writing services (there are plenty of bloggers and agencies looking for content writers).
• Offer website design services
• Offer SEO-related services
• WordPress services such as installation
• And many more

The key is to create a “services” page and link to it whenever you write new blog posts or guest posts. This way, you can increase exposure to those pages, which increases your sales and leads.

Start selling affiliate products: Affiliate marketing is the best way to earn passive income online. 80% of what we earn is generated from affiliate products. In fact, the majority of professional bloggers use affiliate marketing as their primary monetization funnel.

There is a wide range of affiliate programs that you can promote as a blogger to earn money from the affiliate marketing. Basically, affiliate marketing is all about promoting other people's products and earning a commission every time a sale is made using your referral links.

Sell ​​your own products: There are expert bloggers like Ramit Sethi, Derek Halpern, etc. who make money selling their own products such as online courses. They literally make millions of dollars every year selling online courses.

You too can do the same if you are aiming for the long term. Just be sure to create your content marketing strategy so as to be able sell courses online long-term.

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7. Stop using images from Google

This is one of the costliest mistakes a blogger can make. It's so easy to use images from Google image search. But you should also be aware that using copyrighted images on your blog can get you sued.

If you've used images without internet permission on your blogs, be aware that you're probably violating copyrights and could be sued for it (sooner or later). Even if you use images unknowingly, you can be sued if the images are copyrighted.

Many bloggers think they can use other people's images and give them a link as a thank you. But even this approach is wrong. If you want to use other people's images, be sure to get their permission first and use them.

The best thing to do is stop using Google image search to use images in your blog posts or infographics.

But here it is: you must use at least one image in each of the articles you publish. The best way to use images is to use a few image editing tools to create unique and attractive images for your blog.

Look for photos approved for use.

The best thing to do when using images is to use those that provide you with "royalty free" or "royalty free" images. Here are some places where you can download them for free;

• Unsplash
• StockSnap.io
• Burst
• Pexels

You can download royalty free images from the above platforms and use a few image editing tools to create your own unique and attractive images for your blog posts.

Quick Note: you can also use images licensed under Creative Commons, where you can search for photos that are free to use thanks to Creative Commons. It just means that you have to attribute the photo to its owner and link to their site.

Here are some cool tools you can use to create images;

• Canva
• Photoshop
• Pablo de Buffer

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8. Creating a Free Blog

Are you using a blogspot domain or does your domain end in .WordPress.com? Using free blogs is fun, but they don't help you make money.

We know that most people start blogging to make money in their spare time and there are also people who want to make a living online. If you are looking to make money from blogging, you should definitely avoid free blogging.

Free blogs have a lot of limitations, including

• Free blogs can be deleted at any time (for no reason) while self-hosted blogs give you full control over your site.
• Free blogs have limited space and bandwidth and don't offer a lot of features.
• Whatever you post on your free blogs, you don't own the content, but free blogging platforms do (and they can literally delete your content whenever they want).
• Above all, most free blogs do not allow you to monetize your site.

Even if you are using a self-hosted WordPress site but hosted on a free or cheap and unreliable hosting platform, you should get rid of it as soon as possible.

How to cure it ?

Let's do a simple calculation to find out how much a self-hosted WordPress site costs you in a year.

If you use a reliable yet affordable hosting service like Bluehost, it will cost you just $100 per year.

Bluehost also gives you a free domain, so you don't have to pay for domain registration. Spending $100 a year on a blog is definitely a great investment.

If you are wondering how to start a self-hosted blog on Bluehost, here is a simple tutorial for you.

Step 1: Install a WordPress blog on Bluehost hosting.

Once on Bluehost, click on the “ Get Started Now " to continue.

Hosting with Bluehost will only cost you $3,95 per month

This is what it looks like;

Step 2: Choose a domain name

You should choose a domain name that is easy to remember. Bluehost gives you a free domain name for 1 year (so you don't have to pay $10 or $20 extra for it).

Step 3: Enter your account information and click “next”

Now you need to enter your account information and choose your hosting plan based on your website needs.

Once you are done, you can create a password and complete the checkout process.

You can now login to your Bluehost account to install WordPress using the Quick Install option. Congratulations, you have successfully launched your own self-hosted site on WordPress.

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9. Give up too early

We all want faster results.

But it takes years to build a blog that makes money.

Whether you know it or not, BlogPasCher was launched in 2013 and it's only been 2 or 3 years that we are constantly earning thousands of dollars every month and the income is constantly increasing. We now know what to do and what NOT to do.

• We now know how to create content that generates profits.
• We now know how to create content that attracts more search traffic.
• We now know how to build trust with content!

It all comes with experience. Blogging is therefore a marathon, not a sprint.

Here's what most newbie bloggers do when they don't get the results they expect: they quit!

• If you're not getting the traffic you deserve, wait, but don't give up.
• If you aren't generating any sales from your blog, find ways but don't give up!
• If you're not attracting links, start linking with other people instead of blaming yourself.

If you're prepared for the long haul, you'll eventually be successful in making money from your blog, but if you expect faster results (like earning $10 per month within 000 months of starting your blog) , you will fail!

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10. Not investing money in the development of your blog

Most newbie bloggers don't invest money, whether it's a reliable hosting service, email marketing, or SEO.

They also often look for free gifts;

• Free WordPress Themes
• Free Email Templates
• Free Email Marketing Service Providers
• free SEO tools, etc.

While there's nothing wrong with finding and using the free tools mentioned above, free tools aren't great for several reasons.

Here are some major reasons to avoid free tools;

• If you use something free, you rarely appreciate it (meaning you take your blog seriously to improve it using free tools). If you're paying for something, you'll mostly enjoy it, and you'll find ways to get the most out of paid tools. It's as simple as that.
• Free tools don't give you support, constant updates, detailed information, etc.

So if you really want build a profitable blog, you have to invest money.

So where can you put your money to improve your blog? Here are some places where you can invest money.

Email marketing: Email marketing allows you to make money from your email list. So there's nothing wrong with investing in the right software to manage your email list.

We recommend the following tools for email marketing.

• Get an answer
• MailChimp (free up to 2000 subscribers)
• Convert Kit (ideal for bloggers)

SEO tools: Investing money in buying the right SEO tools can pay off tremendously in the long run. Whether you know it or not, we have been using Semrush for over 3 years now and it has helped us increase our traffic and sales.

If you are wondering what Semrush can do, here are some benefits of using it.

• Search for keywords
• Site audit to find and fix technical and SEO issues on your site
• Keyword Rank Tracking
• Backlink analysis
• Tracking the position of your keywords
• Content creation ideas (using the Keyword Magic tool)
• Competitive analysis
• You can use Semrush to track your keyword rankings on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. You can also find the positioning of your keywords in specific countries and on devices such as desktop computers or mobile phones.
• Semrush regularly updates its databases to provide you with accurate and fresh data.
• PLA (Product Listing Ads): you can find them easily even if your competitors use them.

Browse other blogging resources:

• 11 Powerful Secrets to Boost Your Website Traffic in Less Than 60 Days
• 18 Strategies to Promote Your Blog Posts: Increase Your Traffic
• How to Stay Competitive: The 15 Best Digital Marketing Blogs You Must Follow
• 13 Best SEO Blogs You Can't Miss to Improve Your SEO
• Top 21 Best Blog Submission Sites with +25 Domain Authority (DA).
• 13 Best SEO Blogs You Can't Miss to Improve Your SEO
• 30 Twitter stats, facts and trends for the current year
• 25 Most Important SEO Stats You Should Know 
• 12 Proven Methods to Build High-Quality Backlinks Like a Pro
• 40 Stats and Facts About Content Marketing
• How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
• How to create a strategy for your content marketing
• How to Stay Competitive: The 15 Best Digital Marketing Blogs You Must Follow
• How to write a compelling blog description?

FAQ

Final thoughts

You'll make a ton of mistakes, especially when you're new to blogging. The key here is to make mistakes and learn from them quickly.

As we said above, building a successful blog takes time and by avoiding the most common and deadly mistakes, you can grow your blog much faster.

What mistakes are you making in your blog? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.