Top 3 Mistakes Amateur Bloggers are Prone to Make

By Sarvesh Shrivastava IN Blogging

To err is human. Everyone makes a lot of mistakes in his lifetime and blogosphere is no exception. Blogging is not an easy task by any means and needs tons of decisions to be taken. While some are right, many of your decisions turn out to be wrong as well. Even though it is said that a person learns from his mistakes, it’s not always the case. Sometimes we have to pay a huge amount to learn from those mistakes, leaving no other way in front of us than repenting on those mistakes.

There are millions of blog of your niche available on the net. If you want to attract the reader, you must stand out from the crowd and for that you should try to avoid the following 3 mistakes that every Amateur blogger makes during the start. Avoiding these mistakes will not only give a better start to your blogging career, but will also help in making your site stand out from the crowd.

What Common mistakes an Amateur Blogger usually makes?

1. Custom Domain Name

Choosing a free domain name (Blogspot.com, WordPress.com) is one of the biggest mistake every blogger makes, when he starts his blogging career With a free domain name you do not get the exposure you deserve. Even though you work hard, you are not considered serious about blogging. So having your own domain name is what I suggest to every newbie blogger as it gives you more control on your website and helps you to establish yourself as a pro blogger. Having a custom domain name helps you to build your blog as a brand which helps in further growth of your blog.

• Read: Why you should have a Custom domain name to your Blog

When you use your own custom domain name, you will not only preserve your brand but there are many other benefits of using custom domain name.

2. Blog Design

What is the very first thing you notice when you visit a website? Of course the first thing everyone notice is the look and feel of the website. Your site’s look plays a vital role in the success of your blog. Remember the proverb,

First impression is the last impression”.

But another mistake a newbie blogger makes is selecting a fancy looking theme for his site, which he might get for free. But he doesn’t understand that these fancy themes fail to provide a professional touch to the site. If the visitor finds your site’s look unprofessional, he will escape your site right away, without even reading the content.

• What should you look at when getting a custom blog design?
• 5 Killer tips to select a Blog theme

So better choose a professional looking theme, which could attract your readers or at least save them from distraction. Never hesitate to go with premium themes and consider it as an investment to your blog.

Also you should avoid changing your site’s theme frequently as this leaves a negative impact on the visitor. Think how you would feel if you are reading the content of a website and when you refresh the page you find that the look of the site has been totally changed. So, better just select one theme and try to stick with it.

Copying Content without even giving the source

When we all start blogging, writing posts seems a tedious task. So we start copying posts from other famous blog of our niche and with a few modifications publish it on our site (That’s what called Plagiarism). This might not be the case with everyone, but a majority of newbie blogger faces this issue. Think how you will feel if someone starts stealing your content without even your permission or siting your site as source?

• What to do when people copy your Blog content?

Plagiarism is something no one likes. Especially Search engines hate it. Doing plagiarism on your blog is like committing SEO suicide.

So, you should always try to write original content because that’s the only way by which you can succeed in not only in Blogging but anywhere in your life. Always if possible, take permission from the author and give proper reference of the source, if you want to quote someone else’s content on your site.

Being an amateur blogger, you should take benefit of the experience of senior bloggers and should try to avoid the mistakes that generally a newbie blogger makes. This will help you to further develop you site in a big brand and establish yourself as a successful blogger.

• Read: 5 mistakes to avoid to become a Successful Blogger
• Got success in Blogging, Now stay successful forever

Is there any other amateurish mistake that you would like to add here in this list? Do let me know via comments.

This is a guest post by Sarvesh of ItsWindows. If you would like to write for ShoutMeLoud, check our Adsense revenue sharing program.