A lot of guides on the internet talk about starting a blog, but very few are based solely on an even more important topic, which is what not to do when you launch your very first blog or an ecommerce website, for example. And it is the lack of this must-have knowledge that contributes to the failure of a blog. In this article, I am going to let you know some of the no-nos for a budding blogger.
Life is too short to learn everything by experimenting and making mistakes by yourself. That is why you should read what others have done wrong that made them unsuccessful. It is not only true in blogging but in a number of scenarios, like in our relationships and studies. So, let’s start with the first common mistake you should avoid at any cost.
Not prioritizing value
Usually, many people start a blog or a website to make a living in one way or another, and that is not necessarily a bad thing to do. But, think to yourself: why would anyone visit your blog or website if you are not helping them? Would you visit any random website just because the site has gone live recently?
Now take the opposite case: when a website is helpful, you will not only visit it but return more frequently to see if there are any new helpful articles, products, or resources, and also tell your family, friends, or colleagues. So, it is essential to first provide value to others in order to benefit oneself.
Involvement in unnecessary activities
There is a lot of useful information on the internet, but there are also some mean people out there who spread false facts about blogging, SEO and other related topics. These include believing in things like:
Spamming a community, such as commenting in Facebook groups, will get you more traffic or a higher ranking in search engines.
Buying links will manipulate the ranking of a website.
Involvement in artificial site visits helps
You need to buy expensive software to do SEO.
It is easier to start an online business.
Making use of stolen content
Plagiarism is one of the serious crimes that people commit knowingly or unknowingly when getting started with their websites or blogs. It is the practice of copying and pasting someone else’s articles onto your own website. It seems easy, but you have to pay a hefty price for being demoted by search engines because they are way smarter at detecting fraud than humans.
In fact, it is easier to create content than you think. You simply write about what you know better on any topic that you have experience with or by doing some research, which obviously takes time, but I am confident that you will be writing very good it blog posts or articles using this method because you will know a lot of things that your site visitors are unaware of.
Other common mistakes
In addition to these general malpractices, there are some other donots, such as: not doing enough research before starting out; being impatient or not learning about newer developments in technology, search engine algorithm changes, etc.; monetizing the site too soon or waiting indefinitely for the right time; not having a plan to grow the site and so on.
In fact, there are a lot of factors that have to be taken into consideration before you see any results with your blog or website, some of which are peculiar to your specific circumstances. But the general rules discussed above still hold true.
To learn authentic information, you have to spend your time not on any random site but on reliable sources like Google Search Central, where you can find a lot of resources related to SEO like blogs, documentation, case studies, and more.
