Hey newbie blogger.

So you’re probably just starting out in the world of blogging. You consider yourself an amateur at this blogging business but what you’d really like to do is become a master at what you do.

What if you can become a master in a shorter time frame, simply by following the advice of a few expert bloggers, who started at the bottom, just where you are right now?

As you begin blogging, I want you to understand that blogging isn’t just about writing a few posts, sharing it on your social media and that’s it.

If you want to go from the category of amateur bloggers to pro, where you’re seen as an influencer in your niche, where you command the attention of brands who want to work with you, where you can create products and sell them to an engaged audience, then there’s a lot more to do than just writing content.

There’s a massive amount of work that goes into blogging like any other business, and this post is here to break down, all the mistakes you’re making as a newb and providing you with fixes.

Best of all, the advice is given by 34 expert bloggers who have been in the same position as you. 

These are bloggers who have been blogging for more than a year and have been through some of the pitfalls you may be going through and have made some of the mistakes, that you probably have already made.

I asked each of these bloggers to help me with mistakes amateur bloggers make and how to fix it.

Here’s the panel of bloggers and what they said.

Mistakes Amateur Bloggers Make And How To Fix It

1. Overloading With Too Much Blogging Information

Amy Malcom from Your Stay at Home Mom is a stay at home mom for 15 years and has been blogging since 2017.

She uses her blog as a platform to write just about “a little bit of everything”. Amy says when she started blogging, her one mistake was “Overloading myself with blogging information.”

She goes on to say “My advice would be to take it slow and only a few days a week to start to avoid burning out.”

2. Investing Tons of Money In Blogging Courses Without Implementing What They’ve Learnt

Faneisha Alexander from Girl Talk With Fo is on a mission to help women get out of debt, build their bank and create the life that they want.

As a blogger, she has used her platform to reach thousands of women across the globe and shares personal finance tips.

Faneisha says that one of the mistakes amateur bloggers make when they start their blogging journey is they invest “… tons of money in blogging courses without first trying on their own or implementing what they’ve learned.

I’ve talked to several new bloggers who have invested 4-figures in education and have been disappointed by the results.

I have been blogging for over six years and can tell you that one course won’t teach you everything that you need to know. Just start, invest in areas that you need help in, implement what you learn, and let time produce the fruits of your work.”  

McKayla from Motivation For Mom who shares her journey through parenting on her blog, also shares the same sentiments.

She says “I think my biggest mistake was investing into too many courses at once, and not taking time to apply all that I learned from each one. I realised later while going through old courses again, that there’s so much I didn’t remember or apply.

If you take your time through a course and implement the information as you go, you’re much more likely to REALLY learn what you’re trying to master.”

3. Not Willing to Invest in Blogging Education

June Doran is the owner of This Simple Balance, a blog about minimalism and simple living for overwhelmed moms.

The good thing that you will love to know, is that June considers herself one of those smaller bloggers.

She has a passion for helping other new bloggers find their way and that was one of the reasons why I asked for her input, because I know we’ve all been there.

We all started from the bottom and it feels so good when we can now look back and say to you, “hey, don’t make the same mistakes that I made”.

June says “New bloggers are not always willing to invest in blogging education. I feel like I went through college all over again to learn this business, and it took investing in multiple courses.

Some were not worth the money, but others are directly responsible for the part-time income I now earn from my blog. You need to be learning all the time if you want to make money blogging.”

Looking back at what June and Faneisha from Girl Talk With Fo said, one takeaway is, if you are investing in your blogging education, make sure that you are likewise implementing what you are learning – keyword, implementing.

When I invest in any type of course, I always ask myself before I purchase a course, “will this course help me reach my goals?”.

You don’t have to buy every course that is recommended to you my dear friend.

Take a look and see what the course has to offer, what it promises to teach you and only if you feel it will help you achieve what you’d like to achieve, sure, invest.

Then once you invest, make it a priority to implement what you have learnt and stick with it!

4. Having Dates As Part of Your URL Structure

Holly Connors of Simplify Create Inspire is following her childhood passion of writing and making things pretty and helping you on your journey to a simplified life.

She makes a very interesting point and something I learned myself when I started out blogging, so I am glad that she’s sharing it with you.

Holly says “One of the biggest mistakes I made as a new blogger was having dates as part of my URL structure. It meant I couldn’t change the date after a major update or I would end up with broken links.

When I finally got it fixed, my organic search traffic tripled immediately.”

This is so important you guys. It is not best practice to include dates as part of your blog URL when creating a new blog post.

For one, when you do not add a date to your blog URL, it helps to promote relevancy and demonstrate freshness for the user and search engines.

Imagine if your blog URL had a date back in 2015, but your content is evergreen and was still relevant today. Most people when using the search engines, prefer to absorb current content (at least I know I do).

So when your URL shows the date, it can affect whether your content will be preferred amongst other content that appears more current and up to date.

If you do want to include any dates in posts, make sure they are limited to the blog post date.

If you have already included dates in your blog URL, don’t freak out. The first thing you should do is not change the URL without a redirect.

Changing the URL without adding a proper redirect, can break the link, if it is posted elsewhere in your blog. Instead follow this article by Yoast SEO which explains why you should consider changing your permalink structure and how to go about doing it properly.

5. They Wait Too Long Before Starting SEO

Debbie Gartner of The Flooring Girl is a flooring expert who loves transforming her customer’s homes from drab to fab.

Debbie was perfect to seek some advice from, for amateur bloggers and I know her as the blogger who pays the most attention to SEO (search engine optimisation).

I know SEO may be the last thing on your mind as a new blogger but trust me, if you want to get as much traffic from Google and get a better search ranking, you want to listen to Debbie’s advice.

Even as a blogger for more than 16 months, I wished I started using SEO on my blog from day one.

I always told myself, “ahhhhhh my blog posts will show up on Google when they do”, but the minute I realised how much Google traffic I was getting to one of my blog posts because it showed up on the first page of Google, then I started listening.

Here’s what Debbie had to say “Most new bloggers wait too long before starting SEO and they think it’s way more complicated than it really is.

They kind of psych themselves out of it and procrastinate. The problem with this is, their articles are not targeted to solving real problems or questions their target audience has, and they majorly stunt their traffic growth.

I recommend that bloggers start to feel comfortable blogging and then start on SEO by month 3. This way, SEO becomes much more meaningful and easier to implement. And, you have less rework if you only need to go back and edit 3 month’s worth of blog posts. It’s the perfect balance.”

If you think that SEO is hard and you want somewhere to start, I strongly recommend taking The Complete SEO Training Masterclass for beginners.

You will get over six hours of on demand training, plus full lifetime access to the course so you can take your time with it.

6. They Blog about Blogging Instead Of Producing Good Content About Their Original Idea

Amy Brotherman is the owner of My Three Readers, a blog that helps parents learn phonics, strategies to increase their child’s comprehension and reading fluency.

She says, that one of the mistakes amateur bloggers make, is blogging about blogging. She continues “… It’s fun and exciting to learn new things and begin to understand all the ins and outs of this new “blogging” world that you have entered. You begin to learn the lingo and get excited when you start to hit milestones.

But, I would say that until you have had several successful months of meeting your blogging goals, you should focus instead on producing good content about your original idea – the idea you had when you first decided to start a site.”

This is very important.

For example, if you are a blogger that blogs about technology, you may want to divert and start writing content about how to blog.

Whilst blogging about blogging can be profitable, you can make your niche as profitable if you focus on growing your blog the right way. If you want to blog the right way, then my free course, How To Start A Successful Blog, is perfect for you. 

Click Here To Access The How To Start A Successful Blog Course

Amy says “It’s easy to get sidetracked, but instead focus on good content in your chosen niche, learn SEO, and keep learning from the expert bloggers around you.”

If you want to learn SEO from a simple course for beginners, I recommend the Complete SEO Training Masterclass by Robin & Jesper. Over 53 students have already registered and it gives you a simple breakdown of how to get search rankings without all the SEO jargon.

Look, there’s nothing wrong with blogging about blogging because I believe that as a blogger you will be able to inspire your readers to do what you’re doing, but whilst you get your blog up and running, focus on your niche.

After all, there are so many other blogs about blogging. Leave it to them.

You can still monetise your own blog related to your niche, so make that your focus.

7. They Spend Too Much Time On The Design Aspects of Their Blog

Bloggers, here is a piece of advice that is super important.

This is for all of you, who want the perfect blog and delay launching it because it’s not “perfect”.

Drew DuBoff of Drew DuBoff says:

“The biggest mistake that new bloggers make is spending too much time on the design aspects. The quicker you get your blog live, the quicker Google gets to index your content and eventually rank it.

The quicker you get your blog live, the quicker you get to connect with your audience and let them guide you in your future direction.

The quicker you get your blog live, the quicker you get to make money.

I understand the desire to have your blog look pretty, but if you spend too much time designing, you’re ignoring other critical aspects that actually control more of the blogging business, like traffic. You can always pay a web designer a year down the line to code your dream site, but in the beginning, just get a theme and run with it.

I spent the first 3 months learning CSS because I chose a more advanced theme that wasn’t as customisable. I wish I had that time to write content and get traffic. So, whatever you do, stick with a design and worry about the overall aesthetic later!”

8. Many Try To Chase Money Topics That They Have No Knowledge About

One of the questions that is often asked is, should you blog about your passions or blog about a niche that is profitable.

Well David, from Dad Life Lessons answers this very question. David blogs about his life losses, victories and lessons and shares that with dads and dads-to-be.

His thoughts are: “Many try to chase money topics like finances, Seo or even blogging to make money. The problem is, if you have no knowledge and just chase the money you will lose steam to create the content to draw people in. Blog about your passions and figure out how you can make money with that and you won’t lose steam because you will be achieving something you are passionate about. ”

I agree with what he says here.

You have to be really passionate about what you’re doing so it makes sense to you, to keep going with a new blog.

When you are passionate and knowledgeable about a subject, the ability to create content comes naturally. It will not be hard for you to write content, because it’s something that you already know about.

Also for the most part, you need to have that motivation to get up each day and continue doing what you’re doing.

So if there is no passion in what you’re writing about, you can lose focus which can eventually lead to you quitting.

So as David said, “blog about your passions and figure out how you can make money with that”. You may be able to create a course, write an ebook about a challenge that people in your niche have.

Because I bet, if people are searching for it and you know the answer, they will come to you for help and there’s nothing better than being paid for your knowledge.

9. They Add An Archives By Date To Their Sidebar

Here’s an unusual piece of advice that you probably have not seen. But it will help you to understand what is required and not required in a blog.

Niki from Toots Mom Is Tired started her blog to share her experiences as a new mom. She shares parenting tips and mom hacks to other tired moms to save their sanity.  

Niki points out that “One thing that I notice on almost every new blogger’s sidebar is their archives by date. That’s not necessary and no one is going to want to know what you posted in January of 2017.

They are more likely to browse by category or topic. So it’s best to remove the archive by date widget from your sidebar and free up that space for something more important.”

If you follow this advice and remove the archive by date widget, that real estate on the side bar could be filled with ads which help you make money from your blog, you can add a most recent post widget or most popular post widget that takes traffic throughout your blog, which makes navigation more streamlined.

Whenever you’re creating your blog think about the user experience. You want them to have a good one so they can keep coming back to your blog.

10. New Bloggers Learn Everything They Can At Once, Which Leaves Them Feeling Overwhelmed and Frustrated

So with the amount of information there is about blogging, what should you focus on?

I have that answer pop up in my inbox time and time again so I am glad that Nataly of Love and Paper Flowers answered this one.

Love and Paper Flowers was created to empower women to find their own voice to profitable blogging and social media strategies.

She says: “As a new blogger you set out to learn everything you can. But in turn, leaves you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

Instead, focus on a few key areas that are the most important for blog growth and traffic, for instance Pinterest and SEO.

Once you have a good hold of these two blogging processes and you have laid out a strong foundation, continue building by spending time learning about other crucial blog growth components such as affiliate marketing and building your email list.”

So let’s make this simple for you, when blogging the most important things to learn is how to get more people to see your content and if you are blogging for profit, how to grow your blog so you can make more money.

There are many growth and monetisation strategies and Nataly has outlined four – Pinterest, SEO, affiliate marketing and email list building.

I use Pinterest and SEO to grow my blog traffic. Pinterest Traffic Avalanche, a course by Alex Nerney & Lauren McManus helped me grow my blog traffic to over 32k in 4 months.

I also recommend taking the Complete SEO Training Masterclass by Robin & Jesper which is an easy course for beginners to help you get started with SEO.

Other growth strategies that make an impact when done right, include blogger outreach.

There are tons of monetisation strategies but the best ones, other than what Nataly says is ad revenue, your own products/services or sponsorships.

11. They Do Not Have A Time Management Plan In Place

At times, things are going to get tough and this is definitely a mistake amateur bloggers make as they’re just getting started.

Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Emily Parker shares her parenting journey in Journey of Parenthood and says “Create a solid time management plan. Have a realistic work time and then ENJOY life too! It’s easy to get too caught up in blogging and forget to live!”

And she is so right.

As blog entrepreneurs, one of the biggest mistakes we make, is not taking the time to enjoy the journey that you are on. Because it is a journey.

Success takes time, so instead of trying to force it and not live the life that you want, enjoy what you’re doing and take it in stride.

12. Choosing a Domain Name That Is Too Specific

In my recent blog post, Ideas for Blog Names, I wrote about how to come up with a blog name and choose your domain name.

Bryannah Kay of Healthy Little Mama, shares motherhood tips, healthy recipes, fitness, travel, and things to do with your family in her blog.

She says that one of the mistakes amateur bloggers make is “Choosing a domain that is super specific and then later realising that you may have a passion for something else.

Looking back I wish I would have made my blog name, my name. I thought I would love food blogging but I love motherhood and lifestyle. My advice would be to take time at least 2 months to self-reflect and research other blogs to see what you truly want to do. Bonus thought: getting super specific with your domain definitely helps SEO so it could be positive.”

Now even though you may have decided on a blog name, remember that you can always change it later on, if you want to.

The process involves buying a new domain name and redirecting it to your old domain name.

So all’s not lost if you decide to change your name in the future.

13. They Delay Publishing Content

The next mistake amateur bloggers make according to Tuppenny from Tuppenny’s Fire Place, is delaying publishing content.

Tuppenny says “A mistake I made, and I see many others do too, is thinking that whatever content I wrote must be perfect and delayed publishing it until it was.

A year down the line and I know, still, that my posts aren’t perfect but they are ‘good enough’ right now. Solution – write and publish, don’t procrastinate too long. You can (and should) always edit your work at a later date.”

I used to have this same problem when I started blogging.

I always used to think that my content was rubbish. “No one would want to read this”, I said. “Is this even valuable?”, I thought.

Low and behold when I published my content, I received messages and emails from people thanking me for such detailed advice. They even wrote how they loved my blog.

We are sometimes our own worst enemies and I cannot agree with Tuppenny more.

So the next time you write content, publish the darn thing! Don’t wait another second to overthink the process. Because there is someone out there in the world wide web who would think that your content is pure gold!

So just do it.

14. They Do Not Add Google Analytics To Their Blog

Ok bloggers. Remember one thing when you finish building your blog.

Debra Diriwachter of Debra’s World says “Once you make your blog to add the Google analytics first because I did it a year later I didn’t know I’ve learn as i keep blogging. It will be helpful when you start contacting brands and or PR firms.”

As a new blogger, there may be some things you did not know to include during your blog building, and this is one of them.

If you’re not sure what Google Analytics is for, then check out my recent post 6 Google Analytics Metrics Bloggers Need To Care About.

If you want to know what other thing is important to include in your blog when building it, take my free comprehensive course that teaches you how to build a blog successfully. Click the button below.

Click Here To Access The How To Start A Successful Blog Course

15. Participating In Facebook Share Threads

I get so many questions about whether Facebook groups are a good traffic source for your blog.

They are, when the group you’re posting your blog to, is niched.

However, one of the things that I see a lot and very recently too, is bloggers posting on share threads.

But don’t worry if you do follow it.

In fact I used to do it too and this was a hard lesson for me to learn, but I got it.

I would say this mistake can really hurt your progress. Cindy Hemming of Living For The Sunshine says “Getting bogged down in Facebook groups/share threads. This can take up so much of your blogging time and you’re not going to get good return on investment. Set a time limit for yourself and stick to it. Do a few share threads if you like, but make sure they don’t take up the majority of your blogging time.”

Tara Findlay is a WordPress genius, who uses her blog, WP Blogger Assist to help other WordPress bloggers build their website successfully.

Tara says: “My husband and I started our main blog in January 2018. One of mistakes we made early on was wasting time on things that were not productive for our blog.

One such example would be spending time in traffic exchanges or sharing threads. This became like a second full time job. A much better option is to find a supportive blogging group that does not allow the sharing threads…”

I want to add, that unless the Facebook group is niched, share threads really do nothing for your blog and is only hurting it.

When you are growing your blog, you want people to come to it and read it with purpose.

Participating in share threads is only to do one thing, get clicks to your blog and certainly you may get more traffic, but that traffic is likely to only last a day.

Also the people who participate on share threads are unlikely to convert into genuine followers of your blog.

If you want to grow your blog business, you want to reach people who are genuinely interested in what you are writing and sadly, that unlikely happens in a share thread.

Think about it, supposing one day you decide to participate in a share thread. You love gardening but you’re invited to click on a blog about cars.

The only reason that car blog got a visit from you, was because you were part of the thread.

You’re not a fan of cars, so that visit was not meaningful at all. In fact as soon as you land on the blog, you leave.

When you spend so little time on a blog, Google tracks that visit. If they realise that this car blog is getting many people to visit it but they spend very little time, they drive up their bounce rate which only affects the health of a blog.

What is your bounce rate?

Your bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a particular website, who leave the site after viewing only one page.

So getting a large number of visits to your blog, through these share threads may be great. You may have an increase in numbers, but it is not going to be sustainable because the people who visit your blogs from these share threads are not purposeful visitors.

So I encourage you, to not take part in them because you’re not doing yourself or your blog a favour.

If you’re looking for a place to grow your traffic and get real visitors who are looking for your content, then my blog post How To Get 1000 Pageviews To A Brand New Blog will definitely help you.

16. They Write Content That Is Not Relevant To Their Audience

Are you spending time writing content that matters to your audience? You may struggle to know what to write and rather than writing content which helps your audience, you write content that’s not “relevant”.

Here’s what Christiana Acha from Christiana Acha says about this.

One mistake that amateur bloggers make is that they are “Focusing on quantity rather than quality. I have noticed that most new Bloggers are more concerned with churning our content on a regular basis, rather than providing quality, evergreen content that would keep being relevant for a long time.

People are looking for answers to questions and solutions to problems and if you can solve these problems by producing and providing relevant content, you will be far ahead of your competitors with little or no effort!”

Jeff Proctor from Dollar Sprout, which is a blog that helps readers improve their financial lives, also says “The biggest mistake I see new bloggers make is creating content without any clear strategy — they just write about whatever they want. Don’t write content just for the sake of writing content or simply “building your audience”.

Before you write a new post, ask yourself a few questions:

Who is this post meant to help?

What marketing channel am I designing this post for? (search, social, etc)

What outcome do I want from this post? Email opt ins? Affiliate sales? Make clear goals before you get started.

How are my successful competitors covering similar topics?

By being strategic about the content you are creating, you will avoid months (maybe even years) of wasted time!”

So I want you to understand, that blogging is about providing answers to people and doing so strategically.

If you’re having a hard time trying to figure out what people are asking then check out my blog post How To Come Up With Blog Post Ideas.

Want a 90 day blog strategy, then my Ultimate Blogging Strategy Guide will help you.

17. They Do Not Expand Their Niche

So another thing about content creation and the mistakes amateur bloggers make, are they do not expand their niche.

I remember when I first started blogging, I thought I had to write about one subject, network marketing and nothing else.

It took me a long time to add different topics to my blog to grow it. When I did that, I had so much more to talk about and attracted a lot more people.

Christina from Raising Biracial Babies blogs about all aspects of motherhood and even provides tips for working at home and building your own blog as a busy mom.

When it comes to expanding your niche, Christina covers this the best when she says “I think many new bloggers have tunnel vision when it comes to what they want to write about.

They think they should only write about a certain subject or couple of subjects and can’t stray from that. While that can work, it can also be the reason you stay stagnant. If you aren’t seeing the kind of growth you want, you may want to consider branching out to see if there’s another subject that resonates more with your audience.

Don’t be afraid to try new things because it could be what sparks your trajectory to success.”

On the back end of this though, I think it’s also important to mention that you should not go too broad with your blog.

Lili Ugbaja from Finding Balance says “One mistake I see new bloggers make is going too broad with their new blog.

Let’s say you want to talk about Motherhood for example, don’t start a blog that talks about all the aspects of Motherhood immediately.

Choose one aspect, say breastfeeding, or pregnancy and thoroughly cover that topic then from there begin to broaden out into other aspects of your niche.”

18. They Start Their Blogs On An Inadequate Blog Platform

This next piece of advice is so important and it’s a mistake that amateur bloggers make when they’re just getting started.

McKinzie Bean of Moms Make Cents says “One mistake that bloggers make when starting their blog is using the wrong platform.

I made the mistake of starting one of my sites on Squarespace. While it can be a good platform for a basic website or shop for bloggers that plan to scale, it can be very limiting.

After seven years of blogging, I highly recommend going with a self-hosted WordPress site. It is the most customisable and scalable.

Plus, with the advancements with page builders like Elementor, it makes running a WordPress site much more intuitive. If you’ve started on a platform other than WordPress, make the switch as soon as you can. The less content you have, the easier it is to make the transition. Speak with the host you are going to move to, to see what help they can provide to move your site. ”

Hey new blogger, if this is you and you have a blog on a platform other than WordPress, check out my free course How To Start A Successful Blog where you will learn how to start a blog the right way, the best web host to use and the tools you need to put you on the right part to becoming a successful blogger.

Click Here To Access The How To Start A Successful Blog Course

Also if you’re not blogging as a business yet, you may have asked yourself, whether a free or paid blog is suitable for an amateur blogger. Well there are many thoughts on this and I would say to start with a paid platform.

That way if you decide to transition to a professional blogger it will be easier for you and you do not have to start over.

Check out my blog post where I dive into The Best Free and Paid Blog Sites so you can see all the options available to you.

19. They Do Not Connect With Their Audience Through Live Video

As a new blogger don’t think that you can hide behind your computer for the rest of your blogging journey.

Amateur bloggers make this one mistake most times and it can keep back your progress.

As Kathryn Roberts at Quest for $47, a blog that teaches you how to grow your side hustle, says “The biggest mistake I see new bloggers make is to not take advantage of live video soon enough.

When you’re live with your audience, you are able to connect with them on a level that goes far beyond written content, or even perfectly polished video.

You don’t need anything fancy in order to start with video, especially when it’s live. Just click record and go. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it also gives you the opportunity to get more comfortable in front of the camera, which will only help you grow your community even faster.”

20. They Do Not Have a Blog Business Plan

If you want your blog to become a business, one mistake you should avoid making is to go blind and without a blog plan.

Cousett Hoover of  Techie Mamma says “I just jumped in and started. I think if I were to do it again it would have been nice to have a plan and an idea of what I wanted to do.

In one sense it grew organically and I like that but even though I’ve been blogging for over two years I feel like I’m just starting out because I really didn’t try to reach out or promote so my traffic is less than it should be.

Now I write about the right way to start a website and encourage others to not make the same mistake.”

So what exactly is your blog plan?

If you’re looking for a 90 day blog strategy then I urge you to take a peek at my blog post The Ultimate Blog Strategy – 90 Days To Blog Success so you can have an idea of what you need to focus on in the first 90 days of your blog.

If you want to get this strategy dripped out to you by email over 5 days, then click here to get started with my free blog course. 

21. They Do Not Build An Email List From The Start

This was touched on earlier, but I think it deserves a mention by itself and that is email list building.

It is a huge mistake as an amateur blogger if you neglect to build an email list from the very start.

Dale from Blogging Her Way helps female entrepreneurs start money-making blogs and earn more through affiliate marketing and selling digital products.

Dale says “I see so many new bloggers who make the mistake of not starting an email list right away! Your email list is one of your BEST tools for making money as a blogger.

To fix this mistake, just go for it and start a list – even if you don’t feel like you’re ready. Once you have an email list, remember to nurture and engage your subscribers by sending a value-packed newsletter every week.”

If you do not know what an email list is then check out my blog post about starting an email list. This is the one that I urge you not to ignore because I bet some of you, reading this haven’t started an email list and are not bothered to.

But as you become more seasoned with blogging you’d wished you would have started it earlier.

So as Dale says, get started now.

22. They Neglect The Legal Side Of Blogging

I cannot say how important this next piece of advice is for you. As an amateur blogger your concern may only be about getting your blog started, but have you thought about the legal side of blogging.

Amira Irfan is a lawyer and decided to use her skills in the form of blogging to teach other bloggers how to protect their online business legally.

Amira is the owner of A Self Guru and says “One of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is neglecting the legal side of blogging. They fail to make their blog legally compliant and protect themselves from lawsuits.

Treat your blog as a business from day one and make sure to comply with all the blogging laws out there. The easiest way to fix this legal mistake is by having all 3 legal pages (Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms and Conditions) on your blog BEFORE you launch.”

23. They Do Not Think Through the Tax Complications of Making Money Blogging

And talking about the legal side of blogging there is also the tax implications of blogging. These are some of the most important things that you need to think about when you start a blog.

Not just the small stuff.

Kim Cartwright of Simple Blog Taxes says “New bloggers often don’t think through the tax implications of making money blogging.

They either don’t know how to file taxes as a business, they think they don’t need to pay taxes if they aren’t an LLC, they don’t realise that you need to report the ‘free stuff’ as income, etc. This is fixed by taking the time to do some research about small businesses and talking to a tax professional. Fines can add up quick. It is worth it to get professional guidance.”

24. They Feel They Need To Have a Presence On Every Social Media Platform

If you’re trying to grow your blog, as a new blogger you may find yourself tempted to have a social media presence on every platform there is.

It is not necessary. This is one mistake amateur bloggers make, in that they feel they need to show up everywhere and that only causes overwhelm.

Money Bee from the blog The Land Of Milk and Money, helps people at all stages of the path to being financially free, save money better.

On this topic, she says, “Social media is a great place to promote your blog but one big mistake I made when starting out (that I also see others doing now) is spending way too much time on platforms that aren’t actually growing your audience.

It can be tempting to feel like you have to constantly post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest etc. but you’ll likely find in reality that people aren’t clicking through to your site as much as you hope.

And I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that when I post to one of these places, it’s far too easy to find myself wasting time afterwards by checking other people’s posts – which is time that could be spent actually growing my blog!

Instead, I’d recommend focusing on only one or two that actually pay off for you.

For me, that’s Pinterest and sometimes Twitter. You’ll save time by making sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck…and won’t be tempted to accidentally spend hours wandering around the rest of the site!

That said, as an added tip, you should definitely lock in a username on each of the major platforms, just in case you need to use it later.”

I mentioned before, that Pinterest is a great starting point for new bloggers. It is this platform, where I was able to grow my blog to over 32k visitors per month. Today I am up 40k visitors and am now focusing my efforts on Pinterest and SEO to make those number higher.

If you want to learn how to use Pinterest to grow your traffic numbers, I strongly recommend the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course that I used to help me do that.

You may also be interested in getting a better search ranking, to get traffic from Google and the one course I would recommend is the Complete SEO Training Masterclass by Robin & Jesper.

25. They Do Not Diversify Their Traffic Sources

And talking about having a social media presence, tell me, what traffic source do you rely on?

Do you do as above and post on every social media outlet or are you making this big mistake and relying on just one?

If the latter, then I want you stop that right now. I recently saw in a Facebook group where a newbie blogger who was focusing on Pinterest, lamented the fact that he was also getting traffic from Google.

Here’s what he said and my response:

This guy was not clued up on diversifying his traffic. What happens if one platform suddenly changes their algorithm and you are left with no traffic.

This is why it is important to DI-VER-SI-FY.

Sam from Long Distance Things says, a mistake amateur bloggers make is “Focusing on only one source of traffic, in my case this was Pinterest. You must diversify your traffic from other areas (SEO, e-mail marketing and other social media channels). Don’t just think about using Pinterest, start using other methods such as SEO.”

26. They Compare Themselves To Other Blogger Entrepreneurs

When you start blogging, please, I urge you to stop comparing yourself to other bloggers. It definitely is a mistake which is only detrimental to you because then you may be unmotivated instead of focusing on what you can do to move forward in your journey.

Annie Brown of Savvy Honey says “One mistake new bloggers make is getting discouraged when they compare themselves to other bloggers when it comes to income, traffic, and social media.

The thing about this is we all have different paces to which we achieve success. The best way to overcome this is to pay less attention to what everyone else is doing and put all your energy into your own blog.

Just know you may be comparing yourself to other bloggers on an uneven playing field. Have they been blogging for years? Are they a full-time blogger and you are part time?

Are they in a more profitable niche? I could go on and on, but the most important thing is you hustle hard and don’t beat yourself up as to where your blog “should be”. Because where you should be is where you are right now, just keep embracing the journey!”

27. They Mismatch Their Images With Their Content

Here’s a very unique message shared by Robyn O’Brien of Robyn O’Brien Photography when it comes to mistakes amateur bloggers make.

She says: “When you first start out there’s so many “must dos”, but new bloggers don’t take the time to address what they want there viewer to think and feel about their content, and frequently mismatch the connect with the “best image they can find” without looking into what else the image has been associated with.

I love to help them find clarity in what they want to show and double check the image is the best one for them just using Google’s reverse image search. It’s the easiest way to check an image if you’re not using your own. ”  

28. They Do Not Know How To Use On-Page SEO and Header Tags

As an amateur blogger, it’s important that you understand on-page SEO and how to use header tags to get better search rankings.

Header tags are simply emphasised text on a page.

Typically they are larger than normal font and helps a post stand out.

Also be careful of the size of your images. So Ilana Schattauer of Life Well Cruised says “When I first started my blog, I made a mistake many new bloggers make. I wrote posts with little direction and didn’t know why to use the different headers (H2, H3). My photos were too large most of the time as well.

It’s not a difficult fix, but bloggers can now go back to those older posts and fix them up if the content is still overall good and relevant.

Consider purchasing an inexpensive guide to writing with on page SEO in mind to help with this. A tip I learned for photos is to use Canva to create the size you want, such as 600 x 400 for most photos.”

If you want to learn the ins and outs of SEO at a basic level, consider taking the Complete SEO Training Masterclass, that teaches you how to optimise your website so you can get traffic from Google.

29. They Do Not Use Video As Part of Their Marketing Strategy

Previously, Live videos were touched upon.

Now YouTube videos is worth a mention. Patrick Barnett of The Income Spot says “I would say one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is not using video as part of their marketing strategy. It’s an underutilised medium for many bloggers.

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and often you can rank a video within YouTube while you may not have a chance for the same keyword within Google search.

Video helps you reach your audience in a different format since some people like to read while others like to watch video. Video content posted on your blog helps to better engage and build trust within your audience. It can also increase dwell time ( amount of time spent on your site) and generate backlinks both of which are Google ranking factors.

Further, there are numerous statistics that demonstrate that video content generates more social shares and contributes to higher conversion rates as compared to text.”

Wrapping Up

There’s a ton of lessons to be learnt, so if you went through this list and found a mistake you’re currently making, be sure to immediately fix it.

Guys, I really hope this content was valuable and the advice you receive from the bloggers who contributed, has given you some food for thought in relation to your blog.

We’re all in the same boat. We want to be as professional as possible and reap huge results from our efforts.

So this post is meant to guide you so you can run ahead with your blogging business, knowing that you are doing the best for you and your audience.

Tell me the in the comments what’s one thing this post taught you and how you’re gonna fix it.