9 Mistakes That I Made as a Beginner Blogger – Small Business Blog Ideas

Have you ever made mistakes while learning a new skill or technique or…?

It is highly frustrating, do you agree?

First and foremost, you don’t want to make mistakes. That’s for sure. But it is a part of every learning process, and you must learn to handle errors.

In this blog post, I share with you nine mistakes that I made as a beginner blogger. Just to give you some small business blog ideas and help you avoid common newbie traps.

In this post, I cover

• Mistakes I made as a beginner blogger.
• Things that I did right.

 

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1. Mistakes I made as a Beginner Blogger

Mistake #1: I Tried to Monetize a Non-Profit Niche

When I started my online campaign, I knew very little about blogging or how to earn money online. Luckily, I found the Wealthy Affiliate training platform and began its Getting Started course. In that course, I was suggested to pick a niche that I was passionate about. Well, I am compassionate about human trafficking victims. I work to raise awareness about trafficking in persons, so it was a logical step that I picked “Avoid Trafficking” as my first niche. Only later I learned that it was not a good idea trying to monetize a non-profit niche.

My recommendations

1. Don’t try to monetize a non-profit. I agree with those who say that you can earn a full-time income in every single niche. Still, a non-profit is what its name says. A Non-profit. Don’t try to monetize it.

2. Find a support team. Luckily I was not alone. Other Wealthy Affiliate members gave me the help that I needed and directed me to the right track. If I were alone, I would probably spend months or more going the wrong way.

3. Learn to blog first, and then run a non-profit. I have not given up on the Avoid trafficking campaign, but I want to learn about blogging first. Once I feel comfortable with it, I will start my non-profit campaign too.

Mistake #2: I Spent Too Much Time Trying to Come Out With a Good Niche Idea

After giving up a non-profit niche, I attempted to figure out some other profitable niche to start my online campaign. It was a real pain as I was not particularly passionate about anything outside of non-profit. I have been years in the non-profit world, so I spent weeks coming out with some good niche ideas. Looking back, I see that I lost a lot of time that I could use more efficiently.

That is one of the significant mistakes that newbie makes. They try to find their perfect niche and spend ages to find it. That was just exactly what I did.

My recommendation

1. If you cannot find your dream niche, pick something, and start moving. If you struggle to find your niche, choose something you find at least some way passionate about. Then start moving. It’s completely okay if it’s not your dream niche. This niche is just to learn and practice. If you don’t feel comfortable with it, you can forsake it later. But I can tell you that it’s much better to start learning and practicing right away, even with a non-perfect niche, than spending weeks trying to find a perfect niche and doing nothing.

Once you start moving, your understanding begins to grow. On the way, you learn about building websites, blogging, driving traffic, your customers, etc. New ideas pop up every day, and sooner or later, you’ll find your dream niche too. And this time, you can do it in the right way.

Mistake #3: I Bought Too Many Domain Names

If you had never built a website before or bought a domain name before, you probably make quite a few mistakes before getting things right. I wanted to go to my “avoid trafficking” niche. I bought a domain name, only to learn that it was not wise to monetize non-profit.

Then I tried to find something that was keyword related. Using the Jaaxy Keyword Tool, I did extensive research and came up with honestwaytomakemoneyonline.com and honestwaytoearnmoneyonline.com.

I liked the first one more, yet accidentally I purchased the second one. Even though more skilled marketers suggested me to stay with it, I still went and bought the one that I initially wanted – honestwaytomakemoneyonline.com.

However, soon I felt very uncomfortable with it.

• The domain name was way too long. When introducing my blog to my friends, they were not particularly impressed with my domain name.
• Make Money Online” niche has the highest percentage of scams involved. Most people have had bad experiences with online scams, and I realized that my domain name resembled scams and pushy sales tactics.

So I decided to change my domain name again. This time, I chose egonsarvreviews.com.

My recommendations

1. Practice with a free domain name first. Again, it is for practice purposes only. You learn, and your practice, you get a better picture, and then you go and buy a domain name for your small business. Your initial work is not wasted as it is easy to transfer your website from a free domain name to your domain.

2. Keyword related vs. brandable domain name. Both have their pros and cons. It is said that a brandable domain name is better in the long term. And it’s easier to change (or add) a niche later. If you don’t have any good idea, maybe you want to consider choosing something with your name. It’s your brand that you begin to build up.

3. Ask for help. I struggled to find the right domain name, and my friends from the Wealthy Affiliate made some suggestions, including my current domain name EgonSarvReviews.com. If you have not found any good support team yet, try

 

Mistake #4: My First Website Design was Way Too Amateurish

When I started my online campaign, I visited quite a few websites in my niche and found that many were similar regarding design. I wanted to do something different. Also, I had just learned that handwriting brought more readers’ attention than images, so I decided to draw my pictures.

The problem was that my handwriting was not smooth enough, and I could not draw as well as I would have liked to. I wanted to provide fast & easy solutions to my readers, so I did not wish to use high-end equipment to digitalize my images. The idea was good, but I found my digitalized images pretty amateurish.

I was not happy with it, so I decided to the same thing but using proper fonts and high-quality backgrounds instead.

Mistake #5: I Did Not Give My Eyes a Break

Once you start building your blog, you discover two things:

1. It’s fascinating and exciting. New ideas pop up all the time, and there are so many things that you want to do.
2. You also understand how much hard work it requires to build your blog up and keep it running.

The problem is that you have to do all the work on the computer, and it can become stressful for your eyes. At least, this was my case. Often I found myself working for hours without giving my eyes a break. I knew that I should have taken at least a 5-minute break every working hour. However, the pressure to finish my task or some new idea pushed me to work on, until my eyes started to hurt.

I understood that if I wanted to continue working with my online campaign, I had something to protect my eyes and keep them healthy.

My recommendations

1. If you have to work long hours at the computer, take 5-10 minutes break every working hour.
2. Here you find more useful tips to keep your eyes healthy.

Mistake #6: I Spent Too Much Time Polishing Each Blog Post

When I started blogging, I spent way too much time to prepare and polish each of my blog posts. That is one of the significant mistakes that novice bloggers usually make. They want to make everything perfect, so they keep polishing with no publishing. However, if you listen, skilled bloggers, they tell you that.

However, if you would listen to the skilled bloggers, they tell you that there is no perfect thing. I soon found out that spending too much time on my blog posts did not allow me to publish enough content. One blog post per 2 weeks was not clear enough.

My recommendation:

Make a plan and then stick to it. It can be from 2 to 5 blog posts per week, but then you have to deliver. Also, remember that Google loves quality content, and quality content takes time to write. Don’t try to game search engines by writing tons of crap every day to get a higher ranking. Google is way smarter than you think. Better write two high-quality posts per week than two crap posts per day.

Mistake #7: Poor Time Management

When starting my online campaign, I suddenly found myself to be my own boss. Nobody was telling me how much to work, when to start, when to finish, etc. I could use my time as I wanted.

However, soon I saw that I spent too much time on the wrong things. I always had the temptation to check for emails and news, chat on social media, etc. I had to learn to use my time more efficiently. Stephen Covey has taught that highly productive people live in the second quadrant. It takes time to give up the 3rd and 4th quadrant and move things from 1st into 2nd.

My recommendation

1. Try to live in the 2nd quadrant.
2. Here are some more tips on how to manage your time more efficiently. Good time management is essential when you work from home.

Mistake #8: I Compared Myself With Skilled Marketers

This is my problem. I tend to compare myself with other people. The problem is that not all people are on the same level. Some start at 0, while others already have years of experience. When I joined Wealthy Affiliate and began that Getting Started course, I did not know anything about blogging or online marketing.

However, others joined yet had years or even decades of experience in internet marketing. It’s evident that they had a definite head start. But for me, it was highly frustrating. I thought that the problem was in me. I began to question myself: What’s wrong with me? Why they can accomplish these things and I cannot? … Maybe I should give up all this online stuff?

My recommendation

1. Do not compare yourself with other people, move at your speed, and work as hard as possible; if you move faster than others, great. If slower, it’s also ok. The Important thing is that you keep moving and don’t give up.
2. Learn from those skilled bloggers. It was not a cakewalk for them either. It took them years to get to the place where they are today.

Mistake #9: I Did Not Practice Enough

In my early blogging days, I spent way too much time learning and way too little practicing. However, skilled bloggers’ standard advice is that you should use 20% of your time learning new things and 80% of your time practicing (i.e., building your blog, writing posts, articles, etc.). That is another mistake that most of the newbie tends to make – they feel that they are not ready to write, so they keep learning and never practicing.

My recommendation

Somebody has said that the best way to learn to blog is to blog and read other blogs. Remember the formula: 20% of the time for learning and 80% for practicing.

2. Four Things That I Did Right.

Although I made quite a few mistakes in my early days, I am not frustrated. Do you know why?

1. I was prepared to make mistakes. I allowed myself to make mistakes, so they did not bring me down if these things happened.
2. I can learn from my mistakes.
3. I can help you so that you don’t need to make the same mistakes.

I quickly name these things that I did right.

1. I Researched About Major Mistakes That Newbie Bloggers Tended to Make.

I wanted to understand why so many bloggers failed. Also, who have succeeded and why they have succeeded. I wrote two blog posts about my research on these topics,

• a) 9 Common Mistakes That Kill Majority of Online Campaigns – this explains the significant mistakes that newbie makes.
• b) Get Started – this prepares your mindset before you start your online campaign.

2. I Began to Study Systematically.

It is vital that you study from updated, high-quality materials. There are tons of different online courses and millions of gurus ready to offer their help, but not all are trustworthy. If you have not found any good training platform yet, try a Wealthy Affiliate. It includes FREE Starter Membership, and you have access to its Getting Started course.

3. I Joined a Community of Online Marketers to Getting Help.

Again, Wealthy Affiliate does not provide you only with excellent study courses. It also gives you a fantastic support team. Whenever I have problems or questions, I can tell you I put my question to the Wealthy Affiliate discussion wall or live chat, and the answers are there. Just a few examples here:

4. I Did Not Give Up.

I can tell you, it has been a great temptation and not only once. This internet marketing thing is like riding a roller coaster. One day you make progress, and your feelings are on a high, but the next day, you are nose-diving and feel you are a loser and failure and want to quit… But did you know that 97% of all those who have started online marketing failed?

Well, in fact, they did not fail. They quit. So don’t stop. To start an online small business is not a cakewalk, but you cannot fail if you don’t quit.

Conclusion

If you can avoid those mistakes described above, you are in a much better position than I was. There is yet another mistake that I have discovered newbie marketers make. So you may want to check out.

 

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What About You?

What mistakes have you made when starting your online campaign? Please drop me a comment below.