My 5 Biggest Blogging Mistakes
This was a topic over at Super Blogging Tips and Courtney Turtle had a post on it where I left a comment. So, I decided to expand on this comment and make it into a post.
Here are my biggest mistakes, so far. These weren’t made with OpTempo but with other blogs.
1. Not Using WordPress.
I first tried using the blogging system built into Tripod. It’s got a few clever AJAXy tricks but ultimately is quite limited and you can’t use PHP to build enhancements. I also tried to write my own “Do-It-Yourself” blog/CMS solution. I’m a programmer by trade so I thought I’d write my own. It’s not a good idea to try to reinvent this wheel.
2. Not Knowing How to Bring in Traffic to a Blog.
I used the same old SEO tactics that I had used for mini-site building. It worked OK to get about 10-50 hits a day but traffic didn’t really take off until I started using social media. Now it’s at 500+ a day on the same site, VB Notebook For .NET. I’m still working on learning this one but I’m seeing improvements.
UPDATE: The “real deal” here is that getting incoming links from social media sites helped boost the search placement of the blogs. See my more recent posts, such as Link Building Tips for Niche Blogs for a more complete rundown of how to do this.
3. Not Starting to Blog Seriously Sooner.
I was out of work last summer and I would have had plenty of time to do what I’m doing now on OpTempo whereas now I’m pressed for time to get everything done. If you have the time available, don’t let it go to waste.
4. Not understanding or using RSS.
I originally didn’t make my RSS feed available due to splog fears. Dumb move, dumb.
5. Not Allowing Comments
I originally didn’t allow comments on VB Notebook for .NET because I figured (a) that people wouldn’t want to comment and (b) I didn’t want to deal with comment spammers. Yes, another dumb move. I now have about the same number of comments as I do posts over there. It’s too bad that many technology bloggers won’t permit comments.
Is there another mistake brewing such as posting too often? We’ll see.
Let me know what you have to say. What were some of your blogging mistakes?
(EDIT: Oops, add #6. I linked to a scrapper site rather than the original site. That’s been corrected now.)
Thanks for sharing your top blogging mistakes! I also didn’t understand or use RSS (or use Wordpress, or even my own domain, for that matter). Great article.
As for the thief that is stealing this article from me and leading others to believe it is theirs… I have to go get their site shut down now. Please excuse me.
Hi Tay,
I’m glad I took the time to proofread, although it was after hitting the publish button. There’s a lot of scrapping and splogging out there today because there are several get-rich-quick ebooks that encourage this behavior. I couldn’t believe this site got scrapped within 24 hours of it going live but I guess it’s all in the keywords.
An excellent addition to Tay’s list. I can’t believe you built your own CMS. I have enough trouble writing with wordpress
Hi Mr. Turtle,
Programmers always think they can write a program better than the other guy.
[…] for blog superstardom, you will inevitable make a wrong turn here or there. OpTempto describes his 5 biggest blogging mistakes. Of the five mistakes described, I am personally guilty of the first one: not using Wordpress right […]
billie joe armstrong kids
Man i just love your blog, keep the cool posts comin..
Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you enjoy it.
Note that your comment got marked by Akismet as spam. You may want to contact them to find out why.
Thanks for your article.
Coincidentally, you have almost the same problems as me when I first started.
2 and 4 are the ones that I tried to run away from and I had a similar comment problem in 5 where I made it so that you had to register to post comments. Guess what, no one joined.
Hi Trevor,
On #2, I discovered that it wasn’t social media itself but building links through social media that turned out to be the trick and what really got things kicked up to a new level on all my sites. That’s why my VBNotebook site is still producing between 500-1000 hits a day even though it hasn’t been updated since November.
LOL Frank - what is it with programmers and reinventing the wheel! I have no such problem with that - my big mistakes are generally starting blogs and then loosing interest - so niche sites are perfect for me Lissie
It always seems that some of the simple mistakes cause the biggest problems. From personal experience I have made plenty of mistakes along the way in establishing my blogs. I actually prefer the trial and error method :), but just like everyone else I have learned to blog better through hard work and gained knowledge. I don’t think that you can over post as long as the information is fresh and interesting if not you will loose readers. Good luck with your blogs.