I’ve been publishing blog articles for 9 months now, and I’ve made quite a few mistakes along the way. By giving a little insight into my errors hopefully you can avoid doing the same things yourself. Here I give you the top 7 blog mistakes that I’ve made since October 2006.
Mistake #1 – not using a self-hosted blog
The first mistake I made was to begin blogging using WordPress.com, as opposed to WordPress.org. The former involves hosting your blog on the WordPress website, rather than self-hosting your blog for full control. My first ever blog post was on October 8th 2006, and I’ve kept my WordPress.com blog alive at this address: Web and Graphic Design (please excuse the cringeworthy photo, forced articles and zero interaction).
The problem with hosting a blog through WordPress.com is that you don’t have full control over customisation. WordPress owned and stored my content. I was also showing my blog’s web address as being www.wordpress.davidairey.com rather than www.davidairey.com.
On top of all that, I was using a blog template that thousands of others were using. That’s no way to stand out from the millions of blogs that are online. Since then I’ve launched a new blog design which I’m much happier with.
In Jakob Neilsen’s 2005 article on the top 10 blog mistakes, he had this as number 10:
Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service
Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a naïve beginner who shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Whilst I agree with how it can be a mistake, I disagree that the author shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Some of my favourite blogs are on weblog service sites such as these three on TypePad:
There’s also Lorelle on WordPress.com, who’s a guru on everything WordPress-related.
Douglas Karr of The Marketing Technology Blog has this to add:
I personally like to host my own blog because of the flexibility it provides me in design changes, adding other features, modifying the code myself, etc.
I wouldn’t discourage anyone—even a corporation—from using a hosted solution like Vox, Typepad, Blogger or WordPress just to start out and experiment.
Mistake #2 – expecting people to visit
The blog world is amazing because of the reader interaction. It’s why I continue to publish on a fairly consistent basis. When I first started out I had no idea how to attract new readers, commenters, interaction etc. I had the impression that if I published new content I’d automatically find readers in my niche.
How wrong I was.
Successful blogging involves time, effort, and reaching out to fellow bloggers / publishers / authors (whatever you prefer). In fact, there’s a whole psychology behind blog publishing and I had no idea how it would change my way of thinking. Now if I see or hear something of interest I wonder how it can be incorporated into a blog article.
Mistake #3 – not writing as if I’m talking
My first blog on WordPress.com includes articles that are more like lectures. I don’t want to read, nor write a one-way lecture, and I know that’s not why you visit. I want to become involved in a discussion with you. I want to teach you something you don’t know and to learn those many things you can teach me. At the beginning I was killing the blog conversation, instead of making use of my comment section.
One of the best things about blogs is that they enable conversation between people with shared interests. It’s vital to be involved with relevant blogs in your niche (and don’t neglect those outwith your niche). I regularly visit a host of other blogs and leave comments that add to the conversation. This takes time, obvioulsy, but keeps the interaction flowing. Matthew’s asking if blog comments matter. People appreciate comments on their own blogs… a lot. I certainly do.
You have to find your personal brand and deliver it through your blog. The way you write, the words you use, your tone of voice, how you respond to comments, the design of your blog, the topics you cover… it all shows who you are.
Mistake #4 – changing the location of my blog
When I moved my blog’s location, from davidairey.com/blog to davidairey.com, I knocked my Google Page Rank from 5 to 4. The mistake wasn’t moving, which I’m glad I did. The mistake was not doing it sooner, or not starting out with my blog in the root directory.
Daniel at Daily Blog Tips has this to say on the subject:
Unless your blog is a secondary part of an existing website you should always install Wordpress on the root directory. When I created my first blog I used an automatic Wordpress instalation that my web hosting company offered, but the standard installation was done on “www.domain.com/blog”.
I was not sure how this would affect the blog therefore I decided to leave things as they were. A couple of months later when I started studying SEO I realized that this was a bad move.
When I launched my first website about two years ago, I wanted my portfolio to be its primary purpose, and the blog a secondary aspect. Then last year I found out about blogging. It didn’t take long for me to realise the number of clients I could attract through my blog content first and foremost, and then directing them to my portfolio. It’s the content I publish that attracts visitors before the work in my graphic design portfolio.
Mistake #5 – neglecting my article headlines
Most people new to blog publishing will spend all their time writing the article, and not thinking too much about the headline. Here’s the thing, if your headline doesn’t catch my attention, the chances are I won’t read the article.
This is something Brian Clark, CopyBlogger gives advice on, and Ben’s article on writing eye-popping headines when exhausted is a good read too.
It’s not easy coming up with headline after headline, and the more you practice the easier it becomes. If you’re pushed for time, Lyndon at Cornwall SEO offers a killer headline writing service that’s worth considering.
Mistake #6 – not linking to others as I’d like them to link to me
I still see it every day, people linking to others using the anchor text ‘here’ or ‘click here’. You wouldn’t be linking to people unless you thought they had something worth saying, so give them a link they’ll truly appreciate. I touch upon the subject of using anchor text that your readers will appreciate in this article: graphic design Edinburgh and keyword search ranking.
Andy Beard says it better than I can with his article, linking mistakes frequently encountered on blogs.
Mistake #7 – underestimating the time commitment
When I first started out, I had no idea how much time blog publishing would take. I don’t spend all my time around here. Far from it. A work-life balance is essential and I find myself posting articles less and less at the weekend (and when I do they’re often time-stamped from a week-day).
There are many hats to blogging - something I think many of us don’t appreciate when we take that first step. I wonder how many of us jumped right into the world of blogs without doing much research. I did, and you can see the results through my relatively dead WordPress.com blog mentioned above.
Involvement with blogs is a learning experience and I wouldn’t change the way I set out. Learning from others is the short-cut, but learning from experience engrains those mistakes deeper in the mind.
Other people writing about their blog mistakes
Rob at Yack Yack recently published an article describing five things to avoid when blogging. Marc Andreesson tells us 11 lessons learned about blogging, so far. Engtech reflected on a year of blogging, as did Wendy Piersall.
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