Blogging is a passion that can be very rewarding but on the other hand is also very frustrating from time to time and all bloggers would agree that its not for everyone. 
As a blogger you do sometimes question whether it is worth it and sometimes it just seems to not be happening… “I can’t think of a new topic so just hang it.. I’m going surfing”.
There are blogs that have become global information hubs for their industry or niche and are generating hundreds of thousands of viewers and there are a select few that generate millions of visitors so getting the basics right can be very rewarding as a blog builds subscribers and traffic and revenue starts to pay the mortgage, a holiday or even a lifestyle.
We all make mistakes with our blogging and I have certainly made quite a few, but if you are not stepping up to the plate to have a swing you are never going to hit a home run or even get to first base. Here are some mistakes that many bloggers have made from time to time that if avoided can minimize some future pain.
1. Not being consistent with writing and posting on your blog – you need to do it regularly whether that be once a week or 2-3 times a week or 5 times a week. It is publishing and just imagine if a weekly newspaper decided not to publish its weekly sunday newspaper. your readers would start not showing up.
2. Not using your own domain name (I know it is easier to use hosted blogging platforms but you do not have control of the domain name, not doing this will cost you money and time in the future if your blog starts to produce serious traffic)
3. Blogging for the wrong reason (blogging requires passion and you will not be able to sustain the effort if you are doing for the wrong reason eg “Just for making money” if you do it for the right reason the abundance and money will follow.
4. Writing poor headlines for your posts (Learn to write great headlines, this is essential to make them click the link as your headline passes them by in Twitter or in the RSS feeder)
5. Procrastinating so just start & Just Ship It – don’t delay, procrastination is deadly as there is no time like now and nothing is achieved by thinking about starting something but never pulling your finger out and getting stuck in. There is a saying “Paralysis by analysis”
6. Not promoting your blog and yourself – I have noticed there are a lot of bloggers that post and forget and that’s exactly what happens their forgotten. If there is one thing you do and that is promote your posts on Twitter and not just once. A great post that has received great comments and traffic should be promoted constantly why should only 1,000 people hear about it, why not 10,000. also don’t forget to also automate the posting of your new blog posts into Facebook and LinkedIn after hitting the publish button.
7. Not implementing a subscribe feature on your blog from day one (both RSS and Email) – As your subscriber base grows alerting them by email or in their RSS feeders that you have just written a great new post is providing a base foundation of readers that visit your blog everyday.
8. Becoming obsessed with your blogs stats – it can become an unhealthy obsession and defocussing – don’t monitor them constantly just get back to reading and writing
9. Not persisting – It takes an incredible amount of dedication and focus and discipline to be successful. Top bloggers have been at it for years and years.
10. Not continuing to invest in their blogging and educate themselves with the latest trends and technologies that will leverage their blog to the next level.
11. Not providing valuable content for your readers that they want to read and helps them solve their problems and provides answers. Finding out what blogs get the best traffic helps you understand what they want to read
12. Not having clarity and focus on who your target audience is. Remember who you are writing for as blogs that write about everything will not attract a tribal following of fans.
So what do you think are some other mistakes that bloggers should avoid? In fact if you add to this list in the comments below I will create a new blog post with more blogging mistakes to be avoided provided by you the readers with links to your blogs.