So you want to be a blogger? Well, let me give you a break from all those rose colored articles that you have been reading that make it seem like blogging is easy. The harsh truth about blogging is that it is anything but easy. Running and creating a blog is actually a pretty complex proposition with lots of moving parts. Here are the Top Five Blogging Mistakes to avoid. 

Blogging Mistake #1 Not thinking its an investment. 

The fact of the matter is that just like any other business. You are going to have to spend money to make money. If you think that you’re going to spend less hundred dollars and then suddenly you’re going to have a platform that’s capable of letting you quit your job, you are just kidding yourself. 

Just some of the things you are going to have to invest in are plugins, software, courses and services that you will need to help make your site grow. Here are some examples of things you should prepare yourself to make investments in.

1.Some sort of caching plugin to help optimize the speed of your website

2. Keyword search service like Keysearch to help find keywords that you can rank for in google.

3. Some sort of photo editing programs such as Photoshop or online editor like Canva 

4. Online courses that cover all the different aspects of blogging like SEO, for example. 

5. Paid social media advertisements. 

Money, however,  is not the only thing you’re going to have to invest in. 

Top Five Blogging Mistakes #2  Time investment

Growing a successful blog or website not only takes money, but it also takes up a considerable amount of your time. Thinking that you can build a successful blog only in your spare time is without question blogging mistake number two. 

The amount of success your blog will have will depend on how much time and effort you put into it. It’s so much more than writing an article once a week. Writing your article and posting it is the fun part. The work comes in when you actively trying to promote it across the various social media platforms like Pinterest.

Then when you writing or promoting your work, you are doing a lot of research by reading or taking courses on how to grow your blog more effectively and efficiently. 

Prepare yourself to spend a couple hours a day at least working on your blog if want to be successful. 

Top Five Blogging Mistakes #3 Bad Hosting 

The next mistake is one people spend 9 months being mad because they selected cheap hosting provider. 

You need to have good hosting if you’re going to try to build a successful website. Your not getting that on 1.99 a month. You need to your site not only be up all the time. You need it to be on the latest hardware. Good hosting companies are always upgrading their equipment.  

More importantly, you need one that has outstanding support when issues arise. Which they almost certainly will. You not getting that at 1.99 either.

I encourage you to do your research and ask around who is a reliable hosting provider. For my money I go with Siteground or Inmotion, You find these are the two most popular hosting companies bloggers recommend. 

For the record, this site is hosted on Inmotion 

Top Five Blogging Mistakes #4 Site speed

Site speed is one of the more common bloggers often overlook. Not only will lose visitors if your site to slow to load (especially on mobile devices ) it has a direct effect on your search engine rankings. It’s one of many factors that search engines use to rank your site. 

From the beginning, you need to optimize your site to load fast. The first step is to choose a good provider like Inmotion. The next part is to have a caching plugin to help get the help you fine tune your sites to load time. 

If you are not technically inclined I would strongly consider just paying someone to help you optimize your site. 

To Test your site speed go here GTMetirx 

Here is the latest speed test for Bloggers Traffic Community  See Results here

Here is our The Worlds Diner on the same server See Results here 

Here is Time to Go Traveling on the same server See Results here

Now the goal is not to try to perfect score (although I admit I do try to) it’s just making sure you’re getting good to excellent results. 

Top Five Blogging Mistakes #5 Giving Up!

I said at the beginning that blogging has lots of moving parts and that was most likely a vast understatement. Even if you do everything (which you won’t) It takes time to build a blog. It’s one brick at a time. Success doesn’t come overnight. It comes very slowly and sometimes you don’t even notice it!  

You’re going to make mistakes. Those mistakes will help you learn! The Bloggers here will help you avoid a lot of those mistakes but you’re still going to make some. You want some proof? My first blog Dreamsinthewind.com is rather embarrassing all the mistakes I made. Here are the pitiful speed test results for this site  Painful to look at for me.

However, the three I listed above (including this site) have all gotten better and better as my skills continue to improve. Persistence is the defining factor in all successful people. Never give up!

Got questions? Come and find me in the community. I am there all the time. 

Keith