When I started blogging I knew virtually nothing about it. I knew I liked to read sites. Once I had my daughter, reading this sites blogging for beginners in my telephone replaced the books I used to read. My sleep-deprived brain preferred the bite-sized nature of sites.
A couple of months ago I decided I wanted to join in the fun and help people too so I started a site. I read up as far as I could in my limited time about blogging tips for beginners. I learned from all that I read and then I left other new mistakes.
There is a great deal to learn about once you begin a new site, but there are also a great deal of free tools to assist you (including right here on this site!) .
If you haven't started a site yet but you want to I have an easy tutorial here: begin a site in the time necessary to drink a coffee. You can learn a great deal from other people's mistakes. Here are my best blogging tips for novice bloggers based on which I'd have done differently when I knew better at the moment.
Spending too much time on Facebook reciprocation threads
One of those significant blogging tips for beginners relates to finding a balance with social media. If you do not understand as a new blogger, so much of blogging is advertising and receiving your wonderful posts on the market. Unfortunately we're not in the times of the net where you simply write good content, place it, Google finds it quickly, and hoards of individuals come to read your site.
One of the ways bloggers get out the word about new posts they have printed is via Facebook reciprocation threads. These bands are so great! You are able to drop a link into a post and follow the rules of the group but they're usually something similar to you have to share so many other posts once you leave a connection.
It's a way to get your post out there farther and faster and the men and women in the groups I am part of are extremely nice and supportive.
That's all great, but once I started I got waaaaay too into these groups.
I had been spending probably a couple hours per day sharing other people's articles. That is too much and not a fantastic use of the time for a beginner blogger. Pick a couple of threads every day and then focus on other features of your site.
I have heard from many other new bloggers and one of those tips for novice bloggers that they told me is spend more time in your own articles and less time around recip threads.
Maintaining the date in the Permalink settings in WordPress
I could have eliminated the use of an excess plugin and then cut down on some excess work for myself when I'd set up my permalinks right away so they simply have the post name. Many new bloggers do this. The default setting in WordPress contains dates in the url that's attached to a post.
I didn't see that when I was first setting up things and simply accepted that default. After a bit of time I decided that I really didn't need the dates in my permalinks. You can not just change your url's because your older urls are still floating around on the market.
If someone happens to click on an old one you want that user to never get a big old mistake. You need them to be redirected to a (same) post but using the date not in the url. So it's possible to use a plugin to redirect your old permalinks to a new. No biggie but I am a frugal person, even when it comes to how many plugins I want
One of my blogging tips for beginners is before you begin adding posts to your site, change the Permalink settings right away to just the name of your post. This will save you having to get a plugin and do the redirects.
You can open a site here and get a completely free domain name by using this link!
Signing up to be an Amazon affiliate too early... and then doing nothing about it
If you have a very clear vision for your site and understand the types of merchandise on amazon you want to be an affiliate for, then great. Apply to be an amazon affiliate right away once you begin your site, and begin linking off. But you're only given 180 days to make 3 qualified earnings.
I signed up too early, and didn't add any affiliate links to posts before the last month. I left two qualifying earnings after which my 180 days was up...so close! But I had been booted out right away.
They are exact about the dates. So I reapplied and focused on what I wanted to promote -- things I really love and use all of the time anyhow -- and readily made the 3 qualifying earnings within the first month of return in the app.
I had been literal about "keyword"
Okay this one which makes me laugh and might be a little embarrassing for me but I will share it if there is someone else out there who believed the exact same thing. When I was totally new and'd only installed the Yoast SEO plugin, I took the entrance area for"keyword" literally.
Meaning I initially believed that you had to pick only one word for your site post SEO keyword. Not words. Thus"baking" or"photography" I believed were okay, but not"keto chocolate baking" or even"best wildlife photography" because those had multiple words. Quit laughing at me.
Sure that was okay for a couple of posts, but once I had a couple, I started wanting to utilize the same keyword for another post. What to do! So yes I'd find it out after studying more about keywords, and long tail keywords, etc etc but yes initially when I kept hearing about the value of choosing your keyword (singular!!) , I took that to mean one single word.
Don't people mean keywords and you can and ought to be choosing multiple words to enter into your Yoast SEO plugin.
Being a perfectionist about pinning others content
In the beginning I spent waaaay too much time inspecting pins and studying the posts to see whether they tasked with the appearance and tone of my own blog.
That is other people's content remember. Yes Yes, want to opt to pin things which make sense to your brand and your Pinterest boards but keep it reasonable. I became a perfectionist about curating. This wasn't the best use of the time. I must have spent more time for a beginner blogger generating content for my own site.
Last thoughts on blogging tips for beginners
As you can see that there were many mistakes which can be made as a novice blogger. If you're letting fears of not knowing what you are doing stop you, then you want to read this: doubts and fears about blogging...and how to get them over .
I'll admit, it's not fun to make mistakes, especially openly, but putting yourself out there's well worth it if that is something that you have been thinking about doing. Most probably you will make mistakes too, but now maybe not these ones that I gave you a heads-up about here!