Crucial Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2019

Writing can easily be anyone’s passion. This is why in most cases, people who love to write resort
to blogging and eventually, are hoping to earn money from it. With millions of ideas and words
running through our minds, we usually end up doing either of these two things – a writing spree
on almost any topic that we can think of or not knowing where to start because of this rush of
ideas that give us the dreaded writer’s block. And with these things, the inevitable happens:
making blogging mistakes that could hurt both profitability and brand image.

Despite this, there is nothing to worry about because as cliché as it may sound, we can always
learn from our mistakes. Moreover, it always helps when you know which precautions you should
take. For this reason, we have decided to come up with a list of crucial blogging mistakes to avoid
in 2019 so you would not have to experience the headaches that they may bring in the future.

1. Settling for Free Hosting

The best things in life are free… but not all the time. Always remember that the content you
create has a corresponding value to it. You may think that at this moment, you are fine with
working on a free domain as long as you are able to express your thoughts and make other
people happy with your blog posts, but reality is that you are facing a huge opportunity cost.
When you settle for free hosting, you risk not being able to monetize your blog (once you
eventually decide to) in the future. Normally, affiliate marketing and ads normally opt for blogs
that have their own domain because this denotes that you already have or have the potential to
establish a solid audience base. Why do we say this? The main reason is audiences tend to trust
the credibility of blogs that have independent domains. In addition, opting for free hosting hurts
your attempt to rank high on Google Search results. Most of the time, it’s the blogs that pay for
hosting enjoying the view from the top search results page.
Finally, getting something for free often means not being able to access the best service. There’s a
high possibility that you will face several technical problems such as bad customer service or a
lagging website speed. You will also have very limited choices when it comes to website plugins
and script codes that you can use to enhance your blog.

2. Low Quality Headlines

There is a reason why writing is not only a skill but an art. Before your audience would even
want to spend their time reading through your blog, they have to feel a sense of attraction to your
headline. Don’t get us wrong. Your headlines do not have to be filled with fancy, flamboyant
words to draw your audience in. And we’re not saying that they have to be ultra-plain either.
Your headlines should be straightforward, yet creative enough to establish a connection between
what you have written and your readers. The more that your headlines openly express added-
value, the higher the chances that audiences will click through them. Your headlines should
clearly portray the purpose of your article or the benefit that your audience can get while
motivating excitement or intrigue.
In addition, your headlines are the front-liners of your blog posts. They will be the ones
appearing on search results lists, subject lines of e-mails, and even tweets! They will be
everywhere. This is why it is important that they establish the quality of your post through how
they are written before you decide to hit “publish”.

3. Not Being “Social” Enough

Whoever thinks that it’s okay to not use social media in any kind of business in this digital age is
going to run into a lot of problems. And your blog should be the last thing influenced by this kind
of mindset. While growing your audience-base and improving your ranking organically are
possibilities, much time is needed in order for you to achieve this. If there’s anything for free that
you should take advantage of and reap maximum benefits, it’s social media.
Quality content alone is not good enough for a blog to be successful. You need to know how to
market it properly. That means you have to be present where most of your target audience will
be and they will definitely be hanging around social media sites. Sharing your content to sites
like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, can help you gain a significant amount of traffic for your blog
all for free. If juggling multiple social media sites become difficult for you to handle, you can
easily use social media management tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer. We once wrote a guide on
tools to create a marketing plan.

4. Disregarding Leads

Another common mistake that bloggers do is that they focus mostly on writing content,
publishing it, and leaving it as is. They usually set aside or, worse, forget to capture leads that
drop by their websites. They concentrate so much on social media marketing for their blogs that
they often forget how important e-mail marketing campaigns are.
It may sound old school but collecting e-mails of your website visitors is still an effective way to
boost your conversions and eventually your return on investment. Neil Patel, one of the top web
influencers that we have today, says that for e-mail content marketing can generate a 38-fold

increase in ROI. This means that for every dollar that you spend, you can earn $38 back. Most
businesses even employ this as part of their business strategy, however, most bloggers still forget
about capturing leads on their websites.
Keep in mind that having a mailing list and regularly sending quality content to your leads can
keep them engaged with your blog. This is also an opportunity for you to easily reach them and
let them quickly discover posts you have freshly published.

5. Being Too Serious and Technical

We all know how serious you are in your respective industries which is why we understand if you
want to get straight to facts and the real deal. However, just because you want to be taken
seriously does not mean that you cannot take a “chill pill” when it comes to your writing.
Remember that you are not writing for academia here, so unless you are writing a white paper
for your product or service, do not make your blog look like a research paper.
Your blog helps you and your business engage with your audience which is why you need to keep
it light while being top quality so they will also enjoy reading what you wrote. Take note, not
everyone has the patience to read through every single word you write on your blog. For this
reason, you need to ensure that you can motivate them to read more by making your posts easy
to read and understand.
The best thing that you can do is write the same way as how you talk. Your audience will feel
that you have exerted effort into putting a more personal touch to your blog and they will
ultimately appreciate this. The more real you are in the eyes of your audience, they will be more
interested to read through your content. Most of all, when they enjoy what they have read, they
are more encouraged to share your content to their network and this will certainly do your blog a
huge favor.

Blog effectively and responsibly.

The blog is what gives a human touch to any kind of website. This is why if you have one, it is
only fitting that you need to always ensure the quality of the content that you publish while
carrying out the right techniques to interact with your audience. Invest in tools that you know
will help you gain more and will maintain the sustainability of your blog. Avoid being too
overwhelming for your audience in aspects like the intensity of technical words that you use in
your content or the frequency of e-mails that you send them.

This 2019, expertise, technique, and authenticity are what you need in order to succeed in the
world of blogging. Take advantage of what delivers you optimal benefits and always keep your
audience in mind when you write. This way, you show greater sincerity in delivering value to
them.