10 Common New Blogger Mistakes [+ Simple Fixes]

The road to a successful blogging career can be a long and arduous one. If you’re just starting out blogging, then keep in mind that there will be challenges ahead, just as with any endeavor. In this post we will present you with 10 common mistakes that many new bloggers make, and present you with the fixes.

These insights will help you streamline your blogging process and enhance your chances of success.

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1. Not Saving Work (Often)

This can be a game saver in your blogging career. How many of us have been in the situation where we spend hours and hours or even days of time to compose prose or work on some other project, only to soon learn that everything we worked on was deleted accidentally? I can’t think of anything more disheartening and frustrating than losing one’s hard-earned work to a system glitch. You can avoid this by saving your work often. All you have to do is click on that side button. There’s no plug-in for you to download. I personally prefer to save manually, though there is a setting within WordPress that allows you to set how often it saves your writing. The interval between autosaves is 60 seconds by default. You can change this interval in the Autosave Interval field under Settings > Writing. You’ll know that autosave is working if you see the Autosave indicator in the upper-right corner of your Post Edit screen.

2. Not Submitting Posts to Google Index

It is not uncommon for bloggers to write their first posts, wait four months, and then see no results. That is standard. Google is trying to judge your article on whether it’s a good fit for their algorithm and whether it answers the question. However, many beginner bloggers never see their posts on Google because they did not submit them for indexation.

3. Not Using Original Images Whenever Possible

On our own blog, we try to use as many original images as possible. However, this may not always be practical, which is why we also feature a lot of stock images—until we hire our own professional photographer. If you’ve written some articles on your own and an original image can be snapped by either you or someone else, then it’s preferable to use these images. There is a lot of hearsay out there about how Google determines whether an image helps rank an article higher, but it doesn’t hurt to try to use original images. If you’re just starting out, don’t worry too much about using original images. It’s not always possible in the beginning, but with time, try to develop the habit of including photographs that no one other than you or your team took.

4. Not Reaching Out to Other Bloggers

The purpose of developing a network of like-minded bloggers is so that you can work together on projects you deem worthwhile and with the potential for success. There are several ways to reach out to bloggers in your field. One of these is through an influencer network such as Intellifluence. The site has thousands of bloggers and influencers who are looking to collaborate. You don’t need to have a following to sign up, though potential collaborators will see your blogging statistics and other information to help them determine if you’re a good fit. One collaborative project could mean the difference between success and obscurity. Take advantage of these services. You’ll never know who you’ll come across. Just one collaborative effort or contact can change your career for the better.

5. Using Too Many Plug-ins

Speed is an important ranking factor for Google. You should try to avoid any excess plug-ins that will bloat your WordPress installation and cause it to load slower. We try to keep the number of plug-ins to a minimum—no more than 10—though this may not always be possible. Security is paramount, so we use plug-ins like Wordfence and CleanTalk. Look at the plug-ins you’re using and see if you can eliminate a few. Your rankings will thank you for it.

6. Not Checking Spelling and Grammar Before Hitting Post

A mistake here and there isn’t much of a problem in terms of how others view your blog, but if you can eliminate as many errors as possible, this is ideal. We use Grammarly to correct spelling or grammar mistakes. Yes, we have to go outside WordPress for this, but we prefer this over installing a plug-in, which would slow down our website.

7. Not Including Alt Text for Photos

This is more common than you may think, so a quick fix could instantly put you ahead of much of the competition. The purpose of alt text is to tell Google what the photos or other media are about. I’ve personally seen websites, even professional ones, suffer from a lack of alt text on their photos—especially when they have gibberish text or numbers. To determine which media doesn’t have alt text, we use on the plug-in Fix Alt Text.

8. Not Offering Something To Visitors

An opt-in or another gift that you can offer to readers of your blog can help engage them further. What good is it if someone comes to your blog and reads your information, only to leave moments later? Perhaps they found your information useful and are interested in addressing a personal issue related to your content. In that case, not offering something means that you lose that potential client. For example, let’s say your article is about giving yourself a nice facial massage. Perhaps you want to create a video and offer that to anyone who signs up for your list. Or maybe you’re a life coach and would like to offer a helpful checklist to your readers. Whatever you decide to offer, make sure it is relevant. We use a service like GetResponse, which integrates seamlessly into WordPress and allows you to create unlimited forms for visitors to your blog to fill in, so you can then collect them.

9. Ignoring Your Blog Whenever You’re on the Go

Let’s face it. Most of the world has a phone. I don’t know of any blogger who doesn’t have an iPhone or Android. I think bloggers can save a lot of time by switching their work over to a phone. Sure, there are projects that are best handled on a desktop computer, but for other tasks, the phone is more convenient. Find which activities are best handled on your phone versus a desktop, and plan your working days accordingly. You’ll be surprised at how much time you can save by doing certain tasks on your phone instead of a computer. Find what works best for you and how you can best save yourself valuable time by selecting which projects you’ll perform on the phone and those on a computer. Sometimes, the hardest part is getting started. If writer’s block is slowing you down, check out my article on Eliminate Writer’s Block for tips on pushing past those mental roadblocks.

10. Breaking Your Site in the File Editor

OK, maybe this is not as common as believed, but the fact is, this could be a major, even tragic, problem if you accidentally delete or change a file. It’s best to leave such work to professionals. I admit that I had this problem when I first began blogging. I wanted my site to work a bit faster, and then I would read somewhere that all I needed to do was add a bit of code. Much to my heartache, I lost a lot of work and time that I could have best used on other projects. So if there’s just one thing you take away from this blog post as a beginner blogger, it’s to not mess with the file editor. It’s best left to professionals.