Amateur Blogs Correct These 10 Mistakes in 2022 [Fix Inside]

Let me first congratulate you on your promotion from a newbie blog to an amateur blog.

Amateur blogs are in a very interesting phase where they are not new to the game but at the same time not experts.

And, hence make common but deadly mistakes.

These mistakes often cost 2-3 years before you realize what went wrong and give up blogging.

Blogging seems like an easier career path. When you start your blogging journey you get to realize that in this profession you are like a one-person army.

You are the content creator, content promoter, graphics designer, marketer and handle social media, search engine optimization, and many more things.

You don’t have to handle all things and could delegate most of the work. But you need to have a working knowledge of all the components that make blogging as it is your business.

To figure out blockages in your blogging growth, I have created a list of 10 deadly mistakes amateur blogs make and included quick fixes to steer your blog in the right direction.

Let’s fix them up:

• [#1] Not getting a Self-Hosted Blog
• [#2] Ignoring Blog Security and Backups
• [#3] Not Optimizing WordPress for Speed
• [#4] No Blog Design and Branding
• [#5] No Blogging Schedule or Editorial Calendar
• [#6] Not Considering Blogging as a Business
• [#7] Not Creating an Email List
• [#8] No Search Engine Optimization Strategy
• [#9] No Promotion and Traffic Generation Plan
• [#10] Using Only Ad Networks for Monetization

1. Not getting a Self-Hosted Blog

A self-hosted WordPress blog is the single biggest factor in your financial liberation.

By staying on free blog hosting like example.wordpress.com, example.wix.com or example.blogspot.com, you are limiting opportunities for growth.

Though amateur blogs on free hosting could connect a custom domain, make money with ads, install a paid template, optimize for SEO [with great difficulty].

But,

The biggest reason for being self-hosted is the total control of your web asset i.e. your blog.

When you have a self-hosted blog, it is not at the mercy of any free blog hosting options, where they could delete or suspend your blog as they deem fit.

There have been many cases where amateur blogs are deleted without providing any reason.

2. Ignoring Blog Security and Backups

135,298 is the number of websites hacked today. [Click here to check the live count]

You should consider taking regular backups and check your blog security.

After all, this is your business and the hard work you put in should be protected and secured.

Even though the blog hosting services like Bluehost and WPEngine provide security and limited backup. You should be able to check blog security and take backups yourself.

3. Not Optimizing WordPress for Speed

Speed optimization for WordPress is directly related to an increase in visitors, leads and conversions. It is one of the factors Google considers when ranking your page in search engine results.

A page load time less than 2 seconds is considered to be good. [Check your blog page load time here]

4. No Blog Design and Branding

Designing your blog with a free theme and a free logo [unacceptable] is not going to help build your brand at all.

Building your brand is going to take time and effort. In order for your audience to remember you for a long time, you need to capture their first view of your blog with great design and logo.

When you think of “McDonald’s” or “Coca-Cola”, whether good or bad, you get a feeling.

The same way your blog brand needs to instill a positive feeling and trust in your audience.

5. No Blogging Schedule or Editorial Calendar

Creating no blogging schedule or not having an editorial calendar made is the most common mistake among amateur blogs.

Amateur bloggers don’t understand but having a blog schedule is part of building value and gaining the trust of their readers.

Once you start publishing posts on a schedule your readers would wait for the next post. And the compound effect of this exercise would shock you in a good way.

6. Not Considering Blogging as a Business

You are not going to cross the growth barrier if you don’t start considering blogging as a business but take it as a hobby.

Like any other business, blogging also requires investment.

But unlike traditional businesses, the entry to blogging is quite cheap.

Amateur Blogs’ Startup Budget:

– Bluehost WordPress Hosting + Free Domain Name [$3.95/month] click here

– GeneratePress Premium Theme [$] click here

– Sucuri Blog Security + Free CDN

– UpdraftPlus Blog Backups

– Email Autoresponder

Fastest Amateur Blogs’ Budget:

– WPEngine Hosting + Free Premium Themes

– Namecheap Domain Name with Free WHOis Protection

– Sucuri Blog Security + Free CDN

– UpdraftPlus Blog Backups

– Email Autoresponder

7. Not Creating an Email List

Not creating an email list from the start is one mistake that is made by almost all amateur blogs.

Email is the best communication medium to engage with your audience.

This is where you can connect with your audience 1-on-1.

Unlike social media followers from Facebook, Instagram, etc, Email is another one of your owned assets [First is your blog].

I use SendFox as my email autoresponder. It has a simple user interface but is full of automation features for content creators. And the best part, they have a lifetime deal going on for 5000 subscribers with unlimited email sends, email segmentation and many more features for $49.

8. No Search Engine Optimization Strategy

Many amateur blogs struggle with SEO because of the vastness of the subject but doing proper SEO could be a boon for them.

SEO or Search engine optimization is the process of ranking your blog post higher in search engines. And hence driving quality traffic to your blog.

Though the efforts you put in today won’t realize in a few days but SEO is long term play and provides quality traffic for years to come.

You cannot afford to ignore SEO as it is going to be the main traffic driver to your blog.

I also didn’t like doing SEO earlier. But when I realized the benefits it offers in growing my business, I started practicing it and have become quite good.

9. No Promotion and Traffic Generation Plan

Even if you have written the best blog post in the world on your chosen topic but if no one could read then you will forever be an amateur blogger.

If you go through a lot of effort to create good content, then do yourself a favor and share it, re-publish it, and pitch it to more places. Good content deserves to be shared with more people and the best way to do that is to share it in more places.

– James Clear

Most amateur blogs don’t have any promotion or traffic generation strategy in place.

As an amateur blogger, you don’t have enough audience to promote your new blog post. Hence, you need to have a promotion plan built.

10. Using Only Ad Networks for Monetization

For amateur blogs, using only ad networks for blog monetization is the biggest factor that caps their blog growth.

2 years ago, my friend, Mike Stanley was struggling to grow his real estate blog. He had tried every possible ad placement but his revenue from Adsense was stuck at $400. He had an email list of 950 people and monthly visitor count was around 120,000.

When he started his blog, he had a dream of earning $10,000/month in passive income and working from anywhere in the world. Which was slowly getting crushed by the reality of low revenue from ads.

All this changed after he watched this video on How to create a Digital Product by Neil Patel:

He created a Digital Information Product for real estate agents on how they can increase their commissions while providing more value to their customers.

The day he launched his product to his email list he received 20 orders with each product priced at $97. He earned $1940 just by sending one email to his list.

By creating own product for his target market, his business soared and broke the shackles of limiting revenue and growth.

Later on, he also created an affiliate program for his product where an affiliate would get 50% of the sale when a referred customer purchases his product. This strategy created more revenue for his business.

And he finally achieved what he dreamt and now works from his home and travels frequently.

You can too create multiple streams of income for your blog or business.

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10 Corrections for Mistakes made by Amateur Blogs

– Get a self-hosted blog at Bluehost or WP Engine

– Invest in your blog’s security and take regular backups

– Take the speed of your blog page load time seriously by investing in good hosting, fast theme, and CDN

– Get best designs for your branding and buy a fast, SEO optimized theme from WPengine or GeneratePress

– Start a blogging schedule to get better organized

– Start considering blogging as your business

– Create an email list asap with ActiveCampaign or SendFox

– Learn and apply SEO for free from Neil Patel, Digital Deepak, Brian Dean, and Ahrefs

– Create a promotion plan for your blog to drive quality traffic and re-publish your content on different communication mediums

– Diversify your blog monetization by creating own product and/or use affiliate marketing

How many mistakes did you correct?

Drop a comment below to let me know right now.