My Top 3 Blogging Mistakes I Made When I Started My Blog

When we are new to blogging it is so easy to make mistakes, and even us seasoned bloggers make mistakes.  Katy has shared with us 3 blogging mistakes she wishes she would have done different and you can learn form her mistakes!

 

This guest post was written Katy Blevins. If you don’t know her, you definitely should. She is a force to be reckoned with (in a good way!)  Her blog is full of useful and fun info for parents and bloggers alike. Check it out!

1. I did not start off with a custom domain URL. I went into my blog as a self-professed commitment-phobe. I wasn’t sure it was going to work, didn’t know if I could keep up with content or regularly posting, and quite frankly, wasn’t sure anyone was going to read it. WORST. MISTAKE. EVER. Blog domains are super cheap. Spending $10 would have been well worth it even if the blog never got off the ground. But I didn’t. Instead, when I was pleasantly surprised, humbled and overwhelmed by the amazing response and support the blog received, I belatedly decided “Sure! I’ll take the leap for a real website domain!” and I traded my .blogspot.com address for a real www.yourdomain.com. AND subsequently lost every comment and +1 on every post that had run pre-new website name. After weeks of effort sharing blog posts, making connections, driving traffic, and great discussion (some posts had over 100 comments!)…and they were gone. Ground zero. I was heartbroken and more than a little deflated over this blogging mistake.

Lesson learned: Suck it up and buy the custom domain URL at the beginning. Commit to doing things right from the start. The best way to claim your blog’s future success is to treat it like it’s already successful.

See all of those sad little zeros where lots of comments used to be???? And how my post with over 600 hits has 0 likes and no comments at all? Insert cry fest HERE.

2. I did not create an organized business Pinterest account. This is another extension of my close-mindedness when I first started out and my mistake in not claiming (at least to myself!) that my blog was going to do well. When I began my blog, I went in to my personal Pinterest account and just added a happy little Chaos & Kiddos board and then added a Small Business board as an afterthought. Almost immediately, I was able to add some key contributors to each of those boards, which resulted in some pretty awesome content and some great activity. Both boards took off and my followers started to grow exponentially. The problem with this was that it became very clear to me very quickly that the boards were getting a bit overwhelming and difficult to navigate. It’s hard to find just the right post among 400 other posts and if you’re a Pinterest user, you know the pictures all start to fuzz together after too much scrolling. It became inefficient and dysfunctional.

Lesson learned: If you plan to store content on a variety of topics and methods, organize your boards accordingly on the front end instead of being forced to reinvent the wheel, repopulate and shift content from one board to others later on. Think about how you would want to find information. Make it easy and clear. A straight shot path straight to you. Chaos means followers click away.

I’m still working to rebuild and reorganize the mess I created for myself! Slowly, but surely, the separate boards are coming together into a more manageable resource for my followers.

3. I did not organize my social media followers. Did you know that you can build private lists in Twitter that can help you sort the people you following according to interest, level of interaction and other parameters that are important to you and only you? Yeah, neither did I. I sure do now! Various social media platforms – Bloglovin’, Facebook, and of course the front runner being Google Plus – give you the tools to organize the people you follow so that you can approach their content and your own in a manner that makes sense to your needs. Guess when I did this little piece of organization? Right when I started out? Nope.

Lesson learned: Make sure you take the time to explore the social media platforms (and any other programs) that you use. Most are capable of so much more than we see at first glance and many are equipped with the tools needed to keep up with a large following. Categorize the people who follow you and whom you follow based on their genres, level of interaction, or any other qualifying feature that helps you view the information you need most, first.

Woot! Woot! See that happy little “Lists” option under Settings?

Ultimately, these three lessons could be applied to any small business marketing and process workflow and are not just for “bloggers.” And I’m still a little tiny peanut in comparison to most bloggers who have been doing this for years and years and have massive followings. I guess that right there is the most important piece of information in this whole post. Sure, I’m small potatoes now, but who knows what the future may bring? I certainly don’t want to make more work for myself later by taking shortcuts and not doing things right now. 

Be sure and ‘pin’ my 3 Blogging Mistakes so you can help other new bloggers!