Wow! You suddenly became a blogger, you can now publish articles and people all around the world will read it. It seems like this is going to be a great career, you seem so elated at beginning something huge and you can’t wait to hit the ‘Publish’ button again. I remember a couple of years ago I had same feelings and I must say it was awesome and still is.

Over time I began to realize there were things I actually did wrongly, it’s never too late to fix though but it will definitely take a lot of hard work to fix. So I intend to save you all the hard works and introduce you to the top 10 mistakes most new bloggers make so you can avoid same mistakes I made some years ago when I started blogging.

If you really want to succeed in blogging, then read this article very carefully. First step to a successful blogging is avoiding mistakes and most times these mistakes are common, so common one may not even notice it. So to avoid such blogging blunders practice the points listed here like it’s the 10 commandments of blogging.

Top 10 Common Mistakes of Bloggers

Mistake 1: Own a TLD (Top Level Domain)

Blogging is a serious career and as such should be treated as one. If you want to succeed as a blogger you definitely have to own a TLD (Top Level Domain) like a .com, .net, .org etc. Comparatively, most successful blogs are on top level domains, I know it’s quite tempting to use a free sub-domain like wordpress.com or blogger.com platform for your blog, but one thing I can tell you is that not only will you not be in total control of your blog; you stand the risk of losing it any time.

Any blog on a sub-domain does not belong to you, for example if you are running a blog on .blogspot.com you could wake up one morning and your blog is gone. Fail one of Google’s TOS and your blog will be deleted even without prior warning. It will be disheartening to lose your blog just like that with no chance of ever regaining it.

Mistake 2: Bad Blog Design and Layout

Over the years I have noticed that most successful blogs have one thing in common – Design and layout. Your blog design and layout affects your visitor’s first impression and this is a very important factor to consider if you want such visitor returning to read more from you always. Avoid cluttered designs with widgets, encourage neat designs with white background and black text color. Make your site navigation easy and simple. If you can’t design a professional blog, hire someone who can to do it for you.

Mistake 3: Search Engine Optimization (SEO Implementation)

After your blog design next is publishing articles. Don’t be too quick to rush into article publication if you have not learnt about Search Engine optimization SEO to know how best to implement it to achieve a great search engine ranking result. It will be a waste of time and resources to write when no one is reading it.

SEO is very important if you are to succeed as a blogger. There are two types of SEO – On Page SEO and Off Page SEO. You need to learn about both so as to understand how to implement it to achieve a good result. I will recommend you read as many articles from my Blogging Tips section. I have extensively written about this area in this blog, so take advantage of them now.

Mistake 4: Writing Techniques

A good blogger should be able to write for humans not robots. You should have a voice in your blog. You need to have a writing technique that is unique to you alone. Some call it writing style, just like you will notice I add personal experiences when I write my articles adding my voice to it, that way I am distinguishing Netmediablog from other Tech blogs out there that sounds like they were written for robots. Interact with your visitors, make use of call-to-action on your blog, ask your visitors to do something, write as if you are directly talking to them, that way you can form a bond between you and your visitors and this alone can bring them back to your blog always. With this you are not far from success.

Mistake 5: Not having a Blogging Schedule

Now you are at the stage of writing, your blog have been designed, you have learnt SEO and implemented them in your articles and yet you do not have blogging schedule. Maintaining a blogging schedule is quite proper, if you decide to publish everyday make sure it happens, if you decide to publish 3 times in a week, stick with it. That way your visitors will understand when you will publish next and be there to read from their favorite blogger.

Mistake 6: Avoid Plagiarized Contents

Most new bloggers fall into this mistake quite often. The copy and paste syndrome have plagued the blogsphere for long and most times you find out new bloggers are always the one’s committing this crime. You have to be creative to come up with your own original ideas, that is the reason why you should blog on areas you are an authority at, that way you will never run out of ideas to blog about.

You will be killing your own blog when you copy contents from other sites and publish n your own site. Search engines like Google are way too smart these days to know who copied and who was copied from. You will be penalized for copying other person’s contents and publishing on your own blog. Desist from it if you are already doing this.

Mistake 7: Submit your Blog to Search Engines

As a new blogger, I advise you submit your blog to search engines so it can be indexed. Indexing your blog will allow search engines determine the content of your blog and rank it. Read ‘How to submit your website to Search Engines’ now for more insight.

Mistake 8: Not adding Social Sharing Buttons on your blog

This is the era of Social media and it has changed the way information is disseminated around the world these days. A friend or family member reads something interesting somewhere and decides to share it so other member of his family or friends can as well read it.  Not adding a social share button on your blog will affect you as search engines consider social signals as ranking factors.

Mistake 9: Not Promoting your Blog

Blog promotion is the serious part when it comes to Off-page SEO. If you write articles and no one reads them will you call yourself a successful blogger? If you want to succeed you must promote your blog and there are so many ways to do this. Commenting on other blogs, commenting on forums, guest posting on other blogs, advertisements, word of mouth, hand bill etc. No matter the method you choose to use, the grand purpose is to promote your blog.

Mistake 10: Not having Patience and Determination

At first it will seem easy, half way down the road you will encounter challenges and at a time you will feel like giving up. Does that sound like you? Lolz… You need a lot of patience and determination if you want to succeed as a blogger. If you are into blogging for the money, then you need to be very patient as the money may not begin to roll in almost immediately. You will have to build a credible online presence for your visitors to trust you.

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There are definitely other common mistakes new bloggers make, please use the comment form below to share such mistakes with me. Blogging is fun but could be challenging at the same time. Avoiding these mistakes and more will definitely help your blog succeed in no time. Remember to subscribe to my RSS feed.