5 Avoidable Mistakes I Made in my First Year Blogging
Usually when you try something for the first time…you kind of suck, and it’s OK to admit that.
That’s how it’s supposed to be! No one starts out knowing how to bake a cake or ride a bike, you have to learn how to do it first. You recognize your mistakes, like not setting a timer or going straight to no training wheels, and you learn from it. Just like anything else, blogging is a skill that gets better with time due to practice.
I first started blogging in 2018 when I was a junior in college. I can definitely say things have change in a matter of almost five years and, thankfully, I’ve updated this post since I first wrote it in 2019 so you don’t have to see my first post which was, and I’m not afraid to say it, bad.
What I have always loved about blogging since the beginning is you can use as many run-on sentences as you want and no one can say a thing about it. All english teachers are shuddering right now.
Trying to Grow too Quickly
When you start your blog, or anything really, all you want to do is grow, you want readers and you want them now! It’s the same with baking a cake or riding a bike. We don’t want to wait for the cake to bake in the oven (and the more you open the oven door to check on it, the longer it takes, its science) and we don’t want to wear a helmet even though we keep falling off our bike because we don’t know how to balance on it yet.
More so now than ever we crave instant validation. We see other people who are currently making money from their blogs, or eating cake, and we want it immediately. But when we desire to grow too quickly, and it’s not time yet, we resort to unproper methods. We don’t take our time to write a well-thought out blog and instead crank out 10 a week thinking that’s the answer. We don’t properly measure the ingredients for the cake and then accidentally put in salt instead of sugar.
When we try to rush results the end product usually doesn’t come out how we intended. And yes, being patient is hard, but taking our time and doing it right is always the way to go.
Thinking Affiliate Links Were the Answer
I found out you could make money from blogging through an affiliate link, so they do work. But what I’ve noticed over the years is they aren’t worth it until you reach a certain point.
And I’m no expert, but in my opinion you shouldn’t be signing up for affiliate links the day you create your blog. Why? Cause you have no readers! Thats why, so there is no one to be clicking on these said links, so therefore, you generate no money from them.
Once your audience is growing, and they trust you, then using affiliate links is a feasible strategy to monetize your blog. Just link any sponsored content, affiliate links can leave a bad taste in the readers mouth. They want to make sure you aren’t just saying you love a product to make money, but because you actually endorse it and use it in your daily life. There are so many people who abuse the system that using affiliate links can turn readers away if you don’t build that trust first.
Some affiliate programs will actually kick you out if you don’t make a certain quota in a certain amount of time.
All this just to say that when you are first starting out, your time is better spent elsewhere than worrying about affiliate links.
Focusing too Much on Numbers
Touching back on the ‘trying to grow too quickly’ mistake, when I first started I was focused on numbers. And yes, numbers are important to measure your growth, but oftentimes we get way to caught up in the vanity metrics. The number of links on a post, views on a video, etc that don’t really tell us how well our content is performing.
Especially in the beginning! It can be so disheartening to see that no one visited your website or liked your post on IG when you see others with thousands of likes and comments, but how can someone who just started a blog be compared to someone who has been blogging for years? It’s a completely unfair comparison!
Which is why I wish I had focused less on numbers and more on building skills, like grammar voice, building an audience, etc and set more realistic goals for where I was at at the time.
Related post: 4 Reasons Why This Growth Strategy is Unattractive
Caring What Other People Think
We all do it…we all fall into that trap of overthinking and caring about what other people think of us and what we do. You know what that is called? Imposter syndrome.
Which is when we don’t think we should be what we are doing, because we aren’t good enough for it. I still feel that way sometimes now but when I first started I was scared to share my blog on my personal social media pages. I thought people would think what I was doing was silly or that I couldn’t do it good enough.
I was concerned with what “people from high school” would think of me and what I was doing with my future. You probably have felt the same way, and it’s a consuming feeling.
What I have realized is that no one cares…no one cares what you are doing with your life in the sense that most people are just trying to live their own lives. As you get older you realize everyone is doing their own thing and that is cool. WHO CARES what people think. Running a blog is hard work and it is something to be proud of. It is hard to let go of these feelings, but you can and you will.
Not Pushing Myself Hard Enough to be Creative
If you have decided to pursue blogging, then by default you are a creative person. It’s just the truth, accept it.
I have always been drawn to writing, photography, dancing, all these creative things. Activities that involve your soul. But when it came to blogging I was reserved. I never liked to be in the spotlight and because of that I never gave 110% because I didn’t want to be noticed. I was content with being ‘average’ for so long in my life.
I am starting to break that barrier, and still am. But for almost the whole first year of my blogging journey that’s how it was. I wrote blog posts and posted them on Instagram but it was all mediocre. I am not mediocre! And neither are you.
If there are ideas in your head, act on them! Carry around your camera and a notebook everywhere you go just in case inspiration strikes. Expect the unexpected and be proud of your work!
All of these blogging mistakes are easily avoidable. If you can relate to any of these, take a step back and reevaluate. There is no race to the top, but while you are on the road, why not make it as enjoyable as possible?