The Do’s and Don’ts of Being a New Blogger

Here are the most important do’s and do not’s of being a new blogger today.

The blogging world is full of big and small bloggers alike. For the most part, big bloggers and small bloggers experience two very different realities.

Big bloggers have the luxury of publishing short and sweet content that ranks without a problem.

However, new bloggers must write long content and still have to worry about not getting noticed. It’s a tough game, an uphill battle indeed. But if blogging is so different for new bloggers, how should they approach their writing?

How can they compete with big blogs and websites that dominate the search engines? Well, there are a few ways to do this. It might not be full-proof, but it is possible. You must focus on a few extra things that will help push your blog’s popularity up higher.

Do: Create Killer Content

First, as a new blogger, the most important thing you should be focusing on is creating rich content. Without that, your blog is nothing. I don’t care how good of a marketer you are; if your content sucks, nobody will read it.

Just imagine trying to become a singer and releasing songs that are just horrible. Nobody wants to listen to garbage music, just like how nobody wants to read trash content. By focusing on creating amazing content as a new blogger, you will set that standard for the rest of your work.

Google also really cares about how good the content of a new website is. They want to see long and informative posts coming from you. The search engines favor long blog posts over short ones because longer articles tend to be more detailed.

More detailed articles equate to readers learning more through one blog post. Don’t bother writing a lot of articles if they end up just being rushed and lack quality. Quality over quantity is the key to making content rank high on search engines.

It’s better for a new blogger to write one high-quality post in a week than to publish three mediocre articles a week.

That means, if you focus on quality, your website will start getting traffic. Blog posts need to be highly informative and professionally written.

“Without that, your blog is nothing. I don’t care how good of a marketer you are, if your content sucks, nobody is going to read it”.

Don’t: Try to Learn How Every Social Media Platform Works at Once

As a new blogger, it might seem tempting to try and utilize all social media platforms. However, the reality is that you don’t have to do this, at least not from the start. Social media is not the best way to get traffic.

It’s good for retaining traffic and having a way to communicate with your audience outside of your blog. Plus, when you are just starting as a blogger, learning everything at once can get a bit overwhelming.

If you try to build a following on every platform from the start, you’re going to end up never building one at all. Yet, by focusing on one outlet, you will get the hang of it, and eventually, your followers will grow.

If you feel at home on Twitter, then stick with it. Post on Twitter every day, retweet things, and comment on other people’s posts. Don’t try and learn how Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram work at the same time, it’s just too much.

Don’t: Ignore Improving Your Grammar and Writing Style

New bloggers need to focus on improving their writing skills. Too many grammatical errors and spelling mistakes can discredit your work.

Despite this being so obvious, most new bloggers don’t focus enough on improving their writing.

Before I started my blog, most of the writing I would do was in school. When I started my blog, I had trouble shifting my writing style from academic to conversational.

People on the internet do not like reading content that’s too difficult to understand. As a college student, I would cram different words into my papers that I‘d never use in a real conversation.

That is probably the biggest mistake you can make as a new blogger. Focus more on learning how to write for an online audience rather than whatever style you remember using in school.

Unless, of course, you start publishing academic papers, which is the only excuse to keep writing this way.

You also have to work on grammar and spell-check. Too many times have I let spelling and grammar mistakes slip under my nose and into my writing.

I have seen many other new bloggers do the same thing. You can start improving your grammar by:

• Writing More
• Reading Grammar Books
• Reading More in General
• Studying English In School

That is where college can help you become a better writer. College won’t teach you to write like a blogger. But it still can help you a lot with using proper grammar and syntax.

Don’t: Focus Too Much on How Your Blog Looks

As a new blogger, I have fallen into this trap too many times. I want to save you the pain of endlessly trying to pimp out your website, it’s not worth it.

Nobody cares about what your blog looks like, especially if there is no content on it. As a new blogger, your content is what’s going to make you stand out, not how your blog looks.

I spent hours experimenting with different plugins and themes, trying to make my blog look like I’m some pro coder or something. That was all a complete waste of time; the only thing I ended up doing was make my website slower by adding a ton of unnecessary code.

Pay some money for a simple theme that you think looks good. Simplicity is key. Pick a light theme that doesn’t have a ton of code. Next, make a logo for yourself, and begin writing content. Don’t focus too much on the way your blog looks.

Your theme will do most of the work, and if you’re not happy with it, you can change it.

Do: Focus on Improving Website Speed

Looks aside, there is one technical aspect of your blog that you can’t ignore. Website speed is crucial for a decent user experience.

A slow website can drastically increase bounce rates, even if your content is amazing.

You can check your website speed on Google PageSpeed Insights. Your mobile speed is the most important since mobile searches are dominating the internet right now.

Also, the faster your website is then, the longer people will spend reading your blog. Google recognizes this as a good sign that your content is valuable. That is how website speed correlates with search engine rankings.

As a new blogger, I would recommend installing the plugin Wp-Rocket. This one has helped me tremendously by boosting my mobile speed to a 90 score on Google’s speed test.

Wp-Rocket is about $50 a year, but the price is worth it. You might also want to try downloading Smush, another great plugin that helps with compressing images.

Server speed is also vital. Sometimes cheap shared hosting might be what is causing a slow server response time on your website. You might not have to do this as a new blogger, but as your website grows, it’s a good idea to start looking at updating your hosting plan.

Do: Learn Everything You Can About SEO

Search engine optimization is the most important thing to learn for any blog or website. SEO is so important because it allows you to rank organically for specific keywords.

If you start learning everything you can about SEO from the start, blogging will only get easier as you go. And yes, you can indeed use a platform like Pinterest to rank organically as well. However, Pinterest works better for certain niches over others.

For example, home decor and travel niches have a better chance of getting organic traffic from Pinterest than a personal finance niche.

SEO gives more niches the chance to rank and get organic traffic. There’s also unlimited potential once you do master the search engines and start getting traffic.

One blog post can earn you passive income years. That’s the power of organic SEO traffic.

As a new blogger, start reading books on SEO, reading blog posts, and watching YouTube videos. Of course, you will learn more the longer you blog, but it’s better to absorb as much information as you can in the beginning.

That will avoid any unnecessary mistakes that may delay a blog’s ability to rank.

Do: Start Making Connections with Other Bloggers

Finally, to get your voice heard as a new blogger is going to take some networking. Start commenting on other blogs, post more on social media, and join relevant Reddit groups.

When you start building a network as a blogger, people will be more familiar with you. By reaching out to them through social media, they now know of you. Even if they have never read your blog before.

That will be extremely helpful down the line when you want to guest post and do podcasts that require working with other bloggers.

It can even lead to job offers since one of your posts might grab the attention of someone looking to hire you.

Start making friends with fellow bloggers in your niche. Get involved with the community, and it’ll feel like you belong there, even though your blog isn’t that big.

I know this sounds like being in-grade school again trying to socialize at the lunch table, but this is how it is.

It’s like being the new kid in school and having to be social so the other kids can open up to you.

Conclusion

Being a new blogger means hustling to establish yourself in a niche. It’s important not to focus too much on the technical aesthetics of your website. Yet, you might want to focus on improving your website’s speed as it does affect things like bounce rate.

Also, do not forget to create the best content. People go to blogs so they can soak up helpful and inspirational writing.

If you think that your writing isn’t that great, then try improving it. Read some books on grammar and write every day so that you can find a unique style. Musicians play their instruments every day to get good. As a writer, you must practice every day to get better at it.

Blogging takes a long time to start seeing success. As a new blogger, your chances of seeing that success increase faster if you follow the dos and don’ts.