It’s not uncommon to come by people saying “Yeah man! Blogging can make money! Start a blog la, can make money.” and after that they’ll talk about Adsense and whatever else that’s able to help a website owner make some moolah.
Many were inspired by such statements but without proper guidance, they end up making mistakes that hampers their blog’s progress. In this article, I will explore what I think are the 3 common mistakes newbie bloggers make. (Oh hey, it rhymes! La la la la…….. 8) )
The Mistakes
- Posting sub-standard content, in some cases – little to no content at all!
- Ad-splatter across the blog in attempt to rake in $$$
- Unrealistic Expectations
Setting Priorities Straight
As a beginner, you must understand that your priorities should always be CONTENT. CONTENT is THE magnet that draws the crowd, THE glue that keeps the crowd. π Traffic isn’t going to improve unless you have decent content.
What about the money? Oh yes, the people who tell you that blogging could earn money probably forgot to tell you that it’s not as easy as it seems. Either that or they don’t know shit about monetizing a blog.
As newbies, you must realize that splattering as many ads as you can across your blog IS NOT going to be helpful as monetization of a blog depends greatly on traffic. Secondly, by doing so you COULD make the user experience less pleasant. It’s like visiting a restaurant with bad setting, you probably won’t visit it again.
I’m not saying you should not attempt to monetize at all, some ads there and there are fine. Just take note on the “user experience” issue, I’ll elaborate on this in the following section.
Careful and Sparing Ad Placements
Placing ads on a newbie blog is fine, just don’t overdo it.
Always remember that as a blogger, you are a webmaster / web-designer / content-creator. π You must do your part to ensure that your readers have a pleasant experience in your site, especially when you’re a new blog. π
For people like John Chow, they’ve got a bunch of loyal readers that couldn’t be bothered about ad placements even if it was downright irritating.
Trees Don’t Grow Overnight
And neither do blogs! Don’t expect traffic to be pouring in like monsoon rain. Don’t expect to earn hundreds and thousands immediately. Every blog has a start, those who put effort into the blog will get somewhere.
Don’t set unrealistic expectations, heck don’t set expectations at all! Just set a goal and try to achieve it.
What Have We Learned So Far?
- Make good content.
- Place ads sparingly.
- Don’t have expectations but aim for a goal.
I hope you enjoyed this article. You can forward this article to any of your friends who are new to the blogosphere. π
Did I miss out some other newbie mistakes? Let’s talk. π
ROFL I removed all the ads in my blog earlier because they do look ugly xD and slow down my blog’s loading time too.
Anyway, a good read for starters π
I plan to monetize my blog eventually but yeah, I’ll do agree its really annoying to go to some blog and find it full of ads. My first impression is that the blogger is a greedy arse trying to make $ w/o putting in much effort.
fortunately I got some experience on other websites before I started my blog so I didn’t walk into the advertisement trap.
If I happen to visit such a newbie site, I either leave it immediately or I use my AdBlock.
Also, when I start my blog…well, as I revived it with the new design and reworking the idea behind the content, I didn’t have high expectations on traffic. Heh, I dun get much at the moment anyway… My only problem is/was that originally I planned to publish articles every day but then things changed and I wasn’t able to fullfill my plan. I changed the plan now, trying to get one article every two days. Which is way better than an article every month…
oh…and maybe a good thing for newbies is to look at other blogs and become a commenter there to learn how blogging works. Also, it later helps to spread word about your blog…
My blog only has TWO ads, one on the right sidebar and one on my about me page. Don’t think I need to add more. I can spend better time to improve on my content first. Money from ads is not that important to me. But maybe it will in the future.
I don’t have much life to blog about, so I usually blog on what I know and what I think people should know. π
Sometimes I do wonder… why am I not a hot chick. LOL! Coz any hot chick who can blog and post lotsa pics usually gets the traffic. No, seriously… π
Joyce : Yup, the other day I tried Adbrite and woah appeared Indian celebrities, I was like WTH!?!? Tech blog with celebrity deco.
bLuefRoGX : Yes it feels that way.
Marco : Just like me, I’m put off by sites with too many ads.
Dashken : I agree with you about the lady blogger getting more, mentioned it in one of my articles.
Content is the king ~
I’m also annoyed by some people who started to promote their blogs which is full of ads, yet with only a single post π
Persistence is what I commend on new bloggers who failed in their quest of blogging. They started out full of might as you said, expecting returns to come straight in.
With this in mind, when the traffic is starting to grow or when their contents is getting better, they gave up because of the slow progress. This sound rather pitiful but as a blogger myself, this is the key to success for bloggers with persistence. You can make it LESSER BLOGS LESSER COMPETITION, who cares?! π
I wrote a post a short while ago on my 5 biggest blogging mistakes. They were:
1. Not Using WordPress.
2. Not Knowing How to Bring in Traffic to a Blog.
3. Not Starting to Blog Seriously Sooner.
4. Not understanding or using RSS.
5. Not Allowing Comments
@Γ¦β¬ΒΓ¦βΕ – it’s very common nowadays, isn’t it? π
@Wayne – ditto!
@Frank – I define mistakes as things people do wrong, not what people don’t do. regarding your points
1. how on earth does NOT USING WORDPRESS become a mistake? A success of a blog is not about what you use.
2. Not knowing how to bring in traffic is not a mistake. Not everyone blogs for traffic.
3. I disagree, how serious for one to take on blogging is entirely up to individual. Casual blogging is not wrong, people do it for fun!
4. I don’t think the lack of understanding / using of RSS is a mistake either. It’s entirely preferential. A lot of people know RSS but don’t use them, mistake? Nope. Don’t think so. RSS is just a method of getting information to you, not using it is not a mistake.
5. I couldn’t agree that this is a mistake either, if it was a mistake then we might as well make sure WordPress doesn’t have the option to disallow comments. A blog is a blog, it’s entire preferential again if the author doesn’t wish to allow comments. He / she may lose some traffic / readership but if the content is good, I’m sure there are many who would still come back.
Furthermore, not all blog contents require comments. π
Well, if one is blogging casually and not as a profitable or promotional exercise then your points wouldn’t apply either. If one doesn’t care about generating traffic or profit whatever they do that makes them happy is fine. MySpace and Blogger are full of these kind of blogs.
Ahh but my article WAS about blogging in general. These points do hold for good blog foundation, even if the blog was done for casually. Starting off with decent content and comfortable design right from the start sets a good foundation.
@goldielocks
1. Some people want to blog but just don’t have sufficient command of the language to create ‘standard’ posts.
2. I hate splogs too.
3. Agreed. In general my first aim for any website I make is for it to be self-sufficient (i.e. it pays for itself)
1. how on earth does NOT USING WORDPRESS become a mistake? A success of a blog is not about what you use. <– I’ll let the blogger/owner/author define their own success. You can use whatever platform to blog, but then the writer feel that he/she have done/post something which is good defined by him/herself, it pays. Not everyone blogs for money. You can’t say that not using wordpress is a mistakes. If I wants to blog only for my friends to view, I can just use friendster blog function. It’s all goes back to the blogger and it’s targeted audience.
2. Not knowing how to bring in traffic is not a mistake. Not everyone blogs for traffic. <– I have to agree with you on this. Some just blog for their friends to keep an update with them (personal) and some blogs for awareness/campaign. From what I notice, those who have high traffic mostly blog for $$ from the sponsors/ads.
3. I disagree, how serious for one to take on blogging is entirely up to individual. Casual blogging is not wrong, people do it for fun! <- and the blogger him/herself. Some people blogs because of passion, some people do it for fun like goldfries said, and some people do it for $$ (review,etc). You don’t need to blog seriously. Look at kennysia.com for example, does he blog seriously? Certainly not.
4. I donΓ’β¬β’t think the lack of understanding / using of RSS is a mistake either. ItΓ’β¬β’s entirely preferential. A lot of people know RSS but donΓ’β¬β’t use them, mistake? Nope. DonΓ’β¬β’t think so. RSS is just a method of getting information to you, not using it is not a mistake. <- Yeap. Even bookmark is widely used. So does RSS fails? No, it is just another ways for readers to comes to you. If your readers feel that your sites is good and informative for them, they will come regardless how.
5. I couldnΓ’β¬β’t agree that this is a mistake either, if it was a mistake then we might as well make sure WordPress doesnΓ’β¬β’t have the option to disallow comments. A blog is a blog, itΓ’β¬β’s entire preferential again if the author doesnΓ’β¬β’t wish to allow comments. He / she may lose some traffic / readership but if the content is good, IΓ’β¬β’m sure there are many who would still come back. <– Yeap. Comment is not necessary for some sites. Mine particularly π not everytime receive comments, but if I do, I certainly try to reply to them as a gesture of appreciations. And I know that there are some returning readers although my comments are empty. Does no comment makes me down, I say no, as I know people are returning which is good enough for me. At least I managed to share/spread something with them and we learn about something. It’s about sharing/spreading the message and not about commenting.
@bLuefRoGX, let’s look at our country. English is taught even in primary schools. The level of English from primary school and kindergarten is sufficient to write properly.
Another thing to note that who ever said that blog was to be confined to English? You can blog in any language you feel comfortable with. π
And when I said decent content, I’m not referring to perfect English. π You can have perfect English and still have lousy content.
@steve, nice add-ons.
hello goldfries, im not so good in english, however i try to deliver the message as simple as i can..so far so good π
I checked out your blog – what do you mean by “not so good in English?” π
I also like it that your blog has a localized feel when it comes to language. π
Personally, I feel that these 3 mistakes are quite common and every newbie blogger should read up this article by goldfries
I made mistake no. 2 without realizing it, even though I already read this article before. (I used an Adsense WordPress theme called BlueSense made by doshdosh.com)
Did not realize it until a friend commented that my site was too messy due to the ads. I went back to check out this article again, then I realized that I made mistake no. 2 i.e. ad splatter in attempt to rake in $$$
Realizing my error, I quickly changed into another theme. I think the current theme looks and feels better now.
Cheers to goldfries for an excellent article for newbie bloggers!
Thanks. Don’t we all wish we get as many good reading material as possible? π
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
Would you like to discuss?
Nice reading here ^^ At 1st I just blog for fun, influenced by my friends who started blogging π I think my content’s boring/messy at 1st o.O I oni add sidebar ads or a banner ad between posts to keep tidy ^^” hm.. I didn’t advertise my blog, was surprise when my friend said my blog appear in google lol Was kinda blur at that time *swt* google crawls~ π Now not updating as often but I’m happy people still visits ^^
I also often use short forms o.O
Hi Serene! Thanks!
Oh the thing about google is that it can still find your stuff as long as it’s on the web. Try typing your name or something. π
Your blog is still neater than many blogs that I come by before. π Content looks alright for a personal blog. Keep it up!
nice read, thank you for pointing it out π
Glad you liked it!
still, this is a great website to be refer..
Thanks Roy!
hi goldfries..thanks for the tips…..I even don’t have any adds on my blog for the moment being….so at what rate, should I add addsence or anything? 200 visitors perday above? then im far from that…hmm…and about the hot chicks get good traffic…then u will get preverts in ur blog…and that aint something nice…i think getting specific viewers is the best….lets say we make our personal blog, so getting friends togather would be nice…if we do a blog on travel, we target to get an audiance of travel lovers….but how actually do we get targeted audiance? is it the keywords in our metatag or issit the advertising in lets say forums?
1. regarding Adsense, there’s no RIGHT TIME to put it. simply because you could be having even 50 users or less per day but if they’re clickers (people who CLICK) then surely you’ll get some $$$.
My visitors don’t click Adsense much, therefore despite having decent traffic, I’m not getting that much via Adsense. π I’ve known some blogs with lesser traffic but earn more via Adsense.
2. normally just by the content alone will do. if you’re good, the reader will tell his / her friends who are interested in the same topic. π
3. Metatags help in getting your site into search engine results. Advertising in forum is for awareness. Target audience will see it and could end up being your regular follower.