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There are key blogging mistakes I would encourage any new blogger to avoid. As you read from the title I’m going to share my income report but with a bit of a twist, I will share the blogging mistakes I have made and also share how you can avoid them in order to succeed yourself.

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I don’t want this blog post to be extremely negative but I want it to be honest and transparent. I have been blogging for less than a year now and with this in mind, blogging has been an extremely steep learning curve and I love it,  I enjoy learning something new every day and improving my skills and my business. The possibility of income is endless but I have learnt very quickly that hard work is the key to success in this industry of blogging.

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Blogging Mistakes 1: Launching Your Site with no content

The day I decided to start a blog is the same day I went live with nothing on my site. I had no knowledge of how to build a website or how to write a decent blog post or even market my content. But I went ahead, learning as I go along. In the first 6 months, I changed my blog about 8 times and changed my theme twice; this does not give a great impression on visitors to my site.

Tip: My advice will be to study the field you are entering, don’t be deceived by the glitz and glam of seeing superstar bloggers making 100k a month. They have put in a lot of hours and hard work. I am newish and I am spending about 8 hours on average a day on my blogging business without any significant financial reward. But I know it will pay off eventually.

Have your website designed with at least 15 different posts published before you launch your site. This is what most bloggers do. When you see a post on Pinterest saying ‘ I made 2k in my first 3 weeks of blogging’. It is usually a slight lie because they have spent months building their site and knowledge before launching.

Blogging Mistakes 2: Believing blogging is a passive income business

There is an element of truth to the statement BUT it is not the full truth as I mentioned before blogging requires a lot of hours and effort. Yes, you can make money while your sleeping but when you are awake you are working very hard.

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For Example, In order to have your own digital products that sell while you sleep, you have to create them and from my short experience, it takes a lot of hours if you are doing them yourself. It took me over 20hours to create my first e-book.

Tip: Treat your blogging business as you would if you opened a new restaurant. You need to show up and meet the needs of your customers/audiences.

Blogging Mistakes 3: Not treating your blog as a business

You need to treat your blogging business the same way you would if you had a physical business. Blogging has the potential to provide a full-time income and more so study on how to monetize your site. Invest mentally and financially.

Due to the lack of knowledge, I started my blog on wordpress.com which meant that my content didn’t belong to me plus I couldn’t include google ads on my site. BIG MISTAKE. Always go for a self-hosting package. I currently use 1and1.co.uk – They are a UK based hosting and they are cheap ( £4.79p/m). I will consider moving on when my traffic increases, however, it is good to start with. Click this Link to set up your own blog in minutes.

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Secondly, I did not activate my Adsense when my account was approved by Google. I didn’t know what I was doing to spent nearly 5 months on my blog without any ads to generate an income.

Tip: Study how bloggers make money and do the same. Nothing is new under the sun – Just remixed and improved.

Ways to monetize your site:

• Ads
• Digital products – e.g courses, ebooks.
• Sponsored post
• Affiliate Marketing
• Freelance writing

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Blogging Mistakes 4: Buying expensive courses does not guarantee success

Disclaimer: I haven’t bought any courses because I am broke but I have signed up for a lot of free courses and I have read a lot of reviews.

Buying an expensive course does not guarantee success. The main benefit I’ve noticed is that you get into an exclusive group and you build blogging connections which will help your business. But hard work is what differs the superstars making 100k to the struggling blogger. Information is limitless nowadays, so save your money and invest your time in learning.

Tip: Do your research, most of the information being taught on these courses are readily available on the big world-wide-web. The more you know, the more you need to know. If you are investing time in your blogging business. Questions you previously never thought about will because clear as you go along.

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Blogging Mistakes 5: Giving up when you do not see the results you want

Don’t give up when you do not see the results you want. Like every other business under the sun, it requires hard work and it takes time to build up. I sometimes look at my Google Adsense and I lose hope but I look at my stats and see that my page views have gone up by 300% in one month. These little achievements keep me motivated. Keep going and keep on investing in your business. Blogging is all about learning continuously and experimenting until you find what works for you. Invest in learning different marketing strategies, invest in improving your writing skills, invest in building your brand.

Random Thought: The benefit of being a broke blogger is that you have to invest your time to source out information. The information you can later teach someone. As I am learning very quickly, the key to success is to help people solve their problems and the money will follow.

I appreciate the fact that you have read my post up to this stage. If you found it helpful please do share and comment below.