9 Crucial Things You Should Avoid When Starting a Blog

Congratulations! You are finally ready to start a blog. You have been thinking and planning for months and now you are all set to jump into the blogging world. It’s a moment to celebrate, but you probably have an unsettling feeling about where to begin, what to do, and what not to do.

You can find lots of advice about how to set up your first website, but it’s just as important to know what to avoid. Being wise in creating your website will save you hours of trouble down the road. Having said that, here are nine crucial things you should avoid when you start your blog.

Not Picking a Niche

Choosing a niche means deciding on a particular topic or interest in which you have specialized knowledge that you can share with others. A blog is not successful if the niche is too broad, so try to narrow down what areas of a topic you want to focus on.

For example, if you love to cook, your blog should not try to cover every aspect of cooking. Trying to discuss everything about cooking will not only quickly overwhelm you, you will also attract a small audience because no one will know what the point of your website is. By focusing on only a few areas of cooking like slow cooking, baking, and grilling, you will narrow down your target audience and convey your knowledge much more effectively.

Take the time to figure out your niche. It will help you focus the information you are trying to share with your audience so they keep coming back for more.

Writing About Yourself

Many new bloggers tend to write too much about themselves. That can be a turnoff to many readers. While it is a good idea to include anecdotes about yourself, it is never a good idea to make every post all about you.

It is vitally important that you keep your audience’s needs in mind every time you write. Stick to your niche, that focused area of knowledge you possess, and give your audience something valuable to take away with them every time they visit your website.

Always give your audience what they want, not what you want. If you do not know what your audience wants, a simple internet search using keywords from your niche will show you what people are reading. Going back to the cooking example, if you type in “grilling” in the search box you will find pages of websites that talk about grilling. But, which ones are near the top of the list? Are they about a certain kind of food, or a particular style of grilling? Do they focus more on a national culture like Spanish or Asian? Find out what is popular and you will find what people most want to read.

Letting Them Leave

Once a reader finds you, don’t let them move on too soon. Research has shown that the average visitor to a website stays for less than ten seconds unless there is a compelling reason to stay.

Help your audience stay on your website by utilizing pop-ups with exit-intent. These pop-ups are activated by special technology that senses when a computer cursor is motioning toward leaving the website. The intent is to give your visitor a second chance to learn more about you and either make a purchase or subscribe.

Exit-intent pop-ups have proven to be successful in many situations. For example,
WP-Beginner saw a 600% increase in email opt-ins with them.

Writing Too Formally

Having a blog requires knowing how to write in a way that relates to your audience. Accurate spelling and grammar is essential in everything you write, but beyond that, your style should not be too formal or stiff.

Unless you are writing business manuals, keep the style conversational so it’s easier for your audience to read and they can get to know you better. Being personable while sharing your knowledge makes you much more likeable so your audience feels you are “one of them.”

Skipping Editing

Along with correct grammar and spelling in your writing, you were probably told hundreds of times by your childhood teachers to always double check your work. Those teachers were completely right. Nothing will kill your credibility faster than skipping the editing portion of your writing.

Take the time, every single time, to go back through your posts and check for incorrect spelling, bad grammar, and poor sentence structure. One trick is to read the post to yourself out loud. Listen to how your words sound. If they don’t make sense, then it’s time for some rewriting.

Being a Copycat

When a blogger is just getting started, often there is a struggle to find interesting content. Resist the temptation to copy from another website. As a published writer (yes, you are considered officially published), you must abide by the rules against plagiarism and copyright infringement. Be sure to familiarize yourself with those rules. You do not want a lawyer knocking on your door wanting to file a case against you.

Copyright infringement includes any images you use too. Not every image you see is free for you to use on your website. Look for photographers and suppliers that offer their images in the public domain and are free to use. Some suppliers require a subscription or a pay-per-image fee, but there are many others who don’t or they simply ask for a donation.

Inconsistent Posting

If you want to develop your audience properly, publish your posts on a regular schedule. Too many times a new blogger will post only when the mood strikes, which doesn’t help your audience know when you have published new content. Instead, they will keep finding old content and become uninterested in you. Right from the start, establish a weekly schedule and stick to it.

Overlooking SEO

When you do a search on the Internet, the results that pop up are all based on search engine optimization (SEO). Good SEO involves many different elements such as having a meta description and alt text on your images, among others. However, it mainly has to do with using keywords properly, either as single words or as phrases.

Using keywords that help your website get noticed can sometimes be difficult to understand and implement. Thankfully, plugins such as Yoast can take the guesswork out of having good SEO so you can get back to writing great content.

Too Much Clutter

Chances are that you want to put some ads on your website, but it’s important to not overdo it. Despite the adage, sometimes more is not better.

Having too many ads clutters up your pages and distracts your reader from the information you’re trying to give. It can also slow down your reader’s computer since it has so many images to download, including your regular photos. Not to mention that too many ads can get plain annoying.

Find a good balance between content and the number of images. It could mean the difference of whether your reader stays or not.

Blogging doesn’t have to be scary. Knowing what to avoid will have long-lasting benefits in your blogging journey. Just dive in and have fun.