Blogging Mistakes – I Made These 8 So Far!

If you’re really enjoy blogging, then you should get your desired domain name registered from day one. I again made this silly blogging mistake with my photography blog. I started with digital-camera-photography.blogspot.com and then when my blog started gaining some traction, I realized the need of having a domain name of my own. I wanted to have digital-camera- photography.com. But it was too late. Someone else already took that domain name and I had to compromise with digital-camera-photography.org

Mistake 4. Choosing a weak CMS

I made this mistake with both, my photo blog as well as with budding geek. I chose blogger, though I knew that WordPress was far superior to any other blogging platform out there. If you’re earning enough from your blog to cover up the standard hosting charges per month (ummm..may be 7$ per month on an average), then I strongly recommend you to migrate to WordPress. Experience it, feel it. You won’t ever look back.

Mistake 5. Relying too much on guest posts

I’ve realized that relying too much on guest bloggers can make you lazy. You’ll not feel like writing new posts and you’ll eventually lose all of your interest. Friends, frankly this is what has happened to my photo blog. I confess, I’ve not posted anything on it since the last 6 months. Now I’ve lost the momentum and that creative zeal that I once had for my lovely photo blog. And I blame this on my excessive reliance on guest contributors. I’ll be closing down the guest submissions and I’ll build it on my own once again! That’s one of my new year resolutions 🙂

Mistake 6. Overlooking the power of networking

Meeting new people who share common goals and building good relationships with them is the essence of networking. I’m talking about “blogger meets”. I’ve never attended one in my life due to usual lack of time! Personally meeting someone who has a similar bent of mind (or someone who is in the same industry) and exchanging your ideas with him/her is far more effective than tweeting a post to 1000 unknown followers. The person is very much likely to remember you or may even invite you for a guest appearance on his blog. What’s more? If he likes your blog, he may also share it with his own network (and that can be BIG!). This year I’m planning to attend at least 2 to 4 blogger meets! Let me know if you could also join me along 🙂

Mistake 7. Overly focused on SEO

Last year, I was overly focused on SEO rather than investing my creative energy in developing new posts and ideas for my blog. Now I quit. I just can’t keep with those ever-changing, dynamic and intricate ranking factors considered by Google.  I’m not doing any kind of optimization for my blog now. I’ve faith in the quality of my content. I will not build any links now. When my content will be good, people will be automatically linking to my posts. Simple.

Mistake 8. Going forward with no strategy

My blogging journey has made me realize that a proper strategy is very crucial for achieving success with blogging. I confess that I’ve been adding new posts here without any definite schedule. I’m posting this after almost a month 🙁 I’ve never even thought of creating a definite action plan for promoting and taking my blog to the next level. Someone has rightly said – When a person sails on two boats at the same time. he goes no where. This is my situation right now fellas. My MBA course eats most of my time. Thank god, the day of graduation is finally coming nearer and I’m positive for a decent campus placement too. But then, I’m not sure, whether my situation will remain same, become better or worse after I enter the corporate world. Seeing your beloved blog starving of freshness is very painful for a blogging addict. Let’s see where the god will lead me 😉

What’s your confession?

Don’t shy. We all make mistakes. What mistakes did you make during your blogging journey? I look forward to your confessions in the comments below.