Today I wanted to share 4 mistakes the new bloggers make (I know because I made them, too!)
1). Writing too much in one post. I say this because I have been there, done that! I wrote way too much in the beginning. We were talking about this earlier in the week on our Blogging on the Side Facebook Group (you can join!) and someone asked how many words you should write per post. While I stick with 250-500 (normally), I go over sometimes and that’s ok (better than the 1,000 words that I was writing when I first started blogging)!
2). Sharing your content and nothing else (on social media). If you only share your content (on FB, Pinterest, Twitter) and you don’t share anything else (thoughts, quote, other blogger’s stuff), it just makes you look self-centered. I know. This doesn’t even make sense because its YOUR page, right?
Just put yourself in your readers eyes- they are coming to you for the BEST of whats out there, so give it to them! They will keep coming back to see whats the latest & greatest, you know? Be their source of information. 🙂 Look at the biggest FB pages- they share from everywhere.
Its the truth- when you share, it makes you look… well, generous and helpful.
3). Not giving great guest posts. It is important to offer to guest post early on in your blogging career, because it puts YOUR blog, YOUR name, YOUR links on THEIR page. It lets THEIR readers know what kind of person YOU are. It is a great way to just let others know “Hi! I’m Becky. I blog at Your Modern Family and this is what I am all about…”
4). This one is more personal than really blogging, but I think that it needs to be said.
Telling your friends too much about your blog. I know that when you are in the blogging world, it is on your mind a LOT, but to your friends, it is just a hobby. It would be like if they started playing tennis and talked about it constantly, posted about it on their FB page all of the time, tweeted about it, etc… Chances are that if THEY aren’t bloggers, they just don’t get it. So- tell them about it, invite them to follow you and then don’t talk about it too much (or you will drive them crazy!)
Its like potty training your child– you are involved in it and it is consuming you, but others won’t be nearly as interested in hearing the step-by-step progress. haha! Instead, tell your husband and family all about it, because chances are they will really be interested. Here is advice from my husband (to the husbands of blogging wives…)