4 BLOGGING MISTAKES YOU MIGHT BE MAKING
I've been blogging for a while now, actually a long while really, over
three years to be exact.
Honestly I always wish that when I started out, I knew all that I now know about blogging. I probably would have monetised this little space a
long time ago and would also have more page views but we learn something new every day.
I'm no professional and most of what I've learnt as a blogger is from experience, trial and error while others, I read and learnt online. Having been at this for a while, I will say it’s not how long you blog but how well you blog. Now I've seen a lot of posts dishing tips on blogging, some of which have been great while other pointless but my goal in writing this is to share a few blog mistakes I made and link some of the other helpful posts I've read.
I'm no professional and most of what I've learnt as a blogger is from experience, trial and error while others, I read and learnt online. Having been at this for a while, I will say it’s not how long you blog but how well you blog. Now I've seen a lot of posts dishing tips on blogging, some of which have been great while other pointless but my goal in writing this is to share a few blog mistakes I made and link some of the other helpful posts I've read.
1. Large blog pictures
Have you ever
been to a blog which took forever to load, well I've been there and I basically
exit after waiting. As a blogger you don't want to loose your readers so to avoid this, it is important to resize your pictures which will help in reducing the load time of your blog. An ideal blog picture size is under 700 pixels. However your ideal picture size is subject to the width and layout of your blog, find what works for you. Now
I keep my picture size around 1000x 1200 due to social media as facebook
has a way or resizing pictures thereby making it loose quality. Eventually, I’d
like to have two sets of pictures edited, one for blog content and another for
social media.
2. Improperly named images
I see this mistake a lot especially when downloading pictures from other blogs. In fact I was making this same mistake until I learnt better last year. Renaming
your pictures improves your SEO optimisation, which simply means, making it
easier for search engines to find your content which translates to more
traffic. For example if I'm looking for Ankara skirts outfit inspirations, a
picture saved as IMG232 will most likely not pop up. Hence save your photos
according to what you think people might search for.
3. Neglecting Comments and Replies
As bloggers we love comments, it’s that one thing that shows that people
are actually reading and care. Sure there’s the traffic but comments
show real people. However as much as we love comments, most of us either don’t
reply to the comments on our blogs or comment on other blogs. When I started
blogging, I commented on other blogs quite well but failed to reply to comments
on my blog. Eventually the comments declined and I learnt the hard way. So guys reply
to comments, I even sometimes go back to blogs to check if they replied to my
comment. Also be sure to visit the blogs of your commenters and leave proper
comments not spam ones like '' nice stuff" (rolls eyes, then deletes
comment). Leaving comments even helps with traffic and gets other people to
visit your blog.
4. Social media over blog
Social media is important to the success of blogs these days. However some of us have neglected our blogs
while putting all our focus on social media. While this has worked for others,
I find that when it comes to making money from blogging, your actual blog is
needed and even preferred over social media. I mean sure you can get paid for
sponsored posts on social media, Instagram especially. But you can make so much
more from, affiliate links and ad banners among others.
Now I could go on and on but I feel there are quite a few posts by
fellow bloggers which I felt were helpful. So in order not to keep
repeating what’s already been said, please see the links below for some of those
posts.
Cassie Daves Reasons your blog traffic is not growing and So you want to be a blogger?
Kachee Tee's 5 quick ways to improve your blog
Sisiyemmie has a whole section of helpful posts here, check them all out
Cassie Daves Reasons your blog traffic is not growing and So you want to be a blogger?
Kachee Tee's 5 quick ways to improve your blog
Sisiyemmie has a whole section of helpful posts here, check them all out
I hope you found this post helpful and maybe learnt something new or better yet found a link that was helpful.
What mistakes did you make when you started blogging? What tips did you learn along your blog journey? What’s one thing you wish we bloggers did more? What’s one
mistake you've made? What tip would you give?
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I am a victim of some of the points you stated. I need to work on so many things on my blog right now and posts like this are so very much appreciated! Love your content Sarah!
ReplyDeletewww.styledbymilly.com
Yeah I've been there too, I'm glad it was helpful in some way. Thank you for reading and thanks so much Milly, it means a lot, more than you know.
DeleteIf I'm to start writing my mistakes, I will just write a new post here entirely, from loosing my last blog & pageviews and other things
ReplyDeleteI'm glad for this post especially because it reminded me to rename my pictures which I often forget, and replying my comments come naturally to me and it has really helped with the growth of my blog
http://olotufunke.com/
Your first point is something we can all learn from and I'd love to read a post like that one of these days. As for replying to comments, it is always a good idea, I wish I had been more active in that area when I started. It always started with procrastination which led to me not doing it due to the large number of comments. But replying definitely helps build a community, I mean look at Cassie Daves.
Deletei really appreciate this article,i know i fall under the enlisted points but i know this write-up will help and improve my blog.you are an inspiration Sarah.
ReplyDeleteStella, I'm glad this helped and aww thank you so much.
DeleteI thought I was the only one who goes back to check replies to the comment I make on other blogs, I just sincerely love reading feedback. I'm also still learning how to balance social media and the blog cause both need ample attention.
ReplyDeleteToyinwithfashion.com
Right, I love feedback too especially when I take time in writing a proper comment for inspirational posts. And balancing both the blog and social media is always a learning process, I can barely keep up with all the different accounts.
DeleteI am taking note of all these to use when I resume blogging.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah, such a long time. thank you for this post
www.dleonalife.blogspot.com
Oh yay, thought you had stopped blogging for good. I'm glad this helped and looking forward to your return. Its been a long time indeed hun, thank you for reading.
DeleteI think this is really important for all bloggers to read. Just by reading this, I've learnt much more. Hmm I know I made a whole lot of mistakes, but the one that stood out was not properly naming my pictures. I would just post them like that. But as I kept reading and kept researching, I corrected that. I'm always open to reading on how to become a better blogger. I think that's really important. Thanks for sharing Sarah xx
ReplyDelete.
http://lagoscitychic.blogspot.com.ng/2017/04/spring-fashion-trend-gingham.html
We learn from our mistake huh, that was one of mine too, I'll probably go back and work on some of my old posts too. Reading and researching as you said is the only way to learn to be better at this plus experience too. But then we can of course learn from the mistake of others. Thanks for stopping by Mary.
DeleteAm a big time No.2 defaulter, i go ahead and upload photos without renaming. i really appreciate this eye opening post.thanks
ReplyDeleteluchydresshouse.blogspot.com.ng/
I'm really glad the post was beneficial, thanks Oluchi
DeleteI learn't something new from this post, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading
DeleteThis is a very helpful post! I just love how growth is constant and how we learn everyday, if we allow ourselves too. I am not new to blogging, but I started to take it more seriously last year August, hence so many mistakes have been made.
ReplyDeleteNaming images wrongly is where I fall a victim here. Thank you for this!
Oréoluwa’s blog
Right, I'm so thankful for growth too. And I too recently started being more serious in my blog journey. Glad this was helpful. What notable mistake have you made? Lets all learn from each other.
DeleteWelldone Sarah!this post is super helpful and the image naming in particular stood out for me because I thought alternative text was the important one, and I always change this to something relating to post so that it helps with search and all . I was also guilty of the large blog pictures for a long time till some weeks backs .But as they say we learn and get better everyday if we are willing.. this post has opened my eyes to other things I never cared much about...thank you so much
ReplyDeletewww.toyosigregoryjonah.com
Thank you for reading Toyosi. Actually picture naming and ALT texts go hand in hand, to the best of my knowledge that it. And yeah we learn everyday.
DeleteI sure did..Thanks alot very helpful
ReplyDelete