So you’ve decided to start a blog. Congratulations, welcome to the digital world of sharing your experiences and expertise with an online audience. It can be daunting to start, but if you avoid these common beginner blogging mistakes then you won’t stumble at the starting post.

Not defining your niche

Common blogging mistake number 1, not defining your niche.  Before you even start setting up a blog, you need to think about what you’re going to focus your efforts on. Do some research, and see what other blogs and websites have already been set up.

If you’re passionate about a subject, then you shouldn’t stop yourself writing. Defining a niche means you can focus your content, and set yourself up as an expert in that specific field.

If you have a lot of ideas, you need to define and refine them. What do we mean by this? You need to nail down any future topics you’ll write about. If your niche is organic gardening, then what aspects of organic gardening motive you? What would have made it easier for you when you started? Take a piece of paper, and let the thoughts flow.

Not creating a schedule

Common blogging mistake number 2. You don’t know when you’ll publish. Creating a schedule for content creation gives you purpose and structure. This applies to both content creation and structured posting.

You should create an editorial calendar, even if it’s an A4 piece of paper with the dates of the week set out. Knowing when you need to publish gives you enough time to before self-edit, and correct any mistakes you might have missed.

When it comes to publishing the content, having a set day each week means your readers know when to check back into your blog.

For example, if you’re creating a “What to do…” post, then publishing every Friday means your readers know that they will have quality content to motivate them over the weekend.

Ignoring the Visuals

Number 3, ignoring the visuals. You’ve spend hours crafting your most inspirational blog post, and you’re ready to hit publish, but there’s something missing isn’t there?

That’s right, you need to include high-quality pictures or infographics. Not everyone enjoys reading articles that are just text (some do, but some don’t); so make sure that you include visuals in your blog post.

Including an image gives your reader a break from a continuous line of text, and makes the post easily memorable when they eventually leave your blog.

Not sharing on social media

Number 4. Not sharing with EVERYONE. So you’ve published your awesome blog post, and you’ve done a little celebration dance because you’re so amazing. But no-one’s reading it? Celebration dance over. Do they even know that you’ve published something?

Not all newbie bloggers have a bank of follows on their blog, so you need to promote your content yourself. Share a link on social media (Twitter/Facebook/Instagram etc), and ask your followers to share the link with theirs.

If you’ve create content that’s useful, informative and highlights your expertise, then your current and future readers will be more inclined to share what you’ve written with their own social media circles.

Thinking everyone’s an expert

Final common blogging mistake, using jargon and specialist language. Newbie bloggers make is thinking their content needs to be technical to gain traction. Yes, you know a lot about your chosen subject, but if everyone else did you wouldn’t need to blog about it would you?

Try to use simple, easily accessible language when you’re writing, and if you do have to use a technical word or phrase, make sure you explain what it actually is.

If people are learning whilst they’re reading what you’re written, then they’ve gained something from the experience. Creating quality content that informs and educates is attractive to readers who want to learn, but haven’t got a clue where to start.

So there we have it, the blogging mistakes that newbie writers make when starting out. Hopefully you’ve found it useful, and if you have then take a look at our guide on How to Boost Your Blog Posts.

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