11 Common Blogging Mistakes to AVOID (and How to FIX them)

In this video, we're going to talk about the common blogging mistakes to avoid. This is a super important topic for beginners. But, don't worry, this isn't a lecture - it's more like sharing lessons from a friend. Because, trust me, I’ve made every one of these mistakes myself when I was starting out. When I started my blogging journey, I was full of enthusiasm but I also made a ton of mistakes. And I mean a ton of mistakes! There were moments of frustration, and doubt, and even a few times when

I thought about giving up. But, instead of letting these mistakes stop me, I chose to learn from them. They became valuable lessons that have shaped my blogging journey into a successful one. And now, I want to pass these lessons on to you. Because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes. So let’s dive in. The first common blogging mistake to avoid is not having a niche. Let me take you back to where it all began for me. My sister Marina, my sister-in-law Emma, and I started our blog togethe

r. We were excited, and we had so many ideas! It was a merry mix of humorous posts, lifestyle tips, and educational content. We had a blast writing and sharing, but there was one problem: we didn't have a clear niche. Our blog was like zigzagging between topics. Readers didn't know what to expect from us. One day you're posting a satirical take on landlords, next thing you know it's a beauty tutorial, and a Tinder meme, and then - bam! - you're sharing a step-by-step guide on starting a blog. Yo

u're having fun, but your readers? They're likely scratching their heads trying to keep up. In fact, I remember receiving an email from a reader who had loved our humorous content, but felt alienated when we started posting about meal prep. She said she was confused and couldn’t get whether the tips were serious or whether they were sarcastic. It was a wake-up call. When your audience can't pinpoint what your blog is about, you risk losing them because they may not be interested in every topic y

ou are passionate about. And it's not just about the readers. Search engines were also confused. Because our blog was so scattered, it was hard for Google to understand what our site was really about. When Google couldn't clearly identify the topic of my blog, it became harder for my content to rank well in search results. And then, there's the challenge of social media engagement. To try and tackle this, we divided our website into separate sections, so our visitors could navigate within their

interests without tripping over unrelated posts. Sounds like a great solution, right? But here's the thing - the problem persisted on our social media accounts. So, we thought, 'Hey, why not have different social media profiles for each topic?' Let me tell you - that was a no-go. Most platforms, including WordPress, by default only allow you to connect one account. And let's be honest, we were tired of inventing new ways to beat the system all the time. It wasn't until we sat down and really tho

ught about our focus and our audience that things started to click. So after learning these lessons the hard way, we created separate blogs for each topic, and so for all our educational content about blogging, we started Blogging for New Bloggers which is the blog this YouTube channel stemmed from. By narrowing down our focus and aligning our content, we were able to build a more cohesive blog that resonated with our readers. And you know what? It was like a breath of fresh air. All of a sudden

, my SEO made sense, my social media was streamlined, and my readers knew exactly what to expect from me. Plus, my focused content started to rank on Google within a few days. Yes, we’d publish a blog post and it would be indexed and ranked in the top 10 spots within a week and sometimes even within a day! And so our blogs started to gain traction. I will talk more about this, in one of my next videos on how to pick the perfect niche for your blog so if you need help with this or would you like

more tips to grow your blog, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel. Moving on to the next common blogging mistakes that many new bloggers make and I made myself too is, not starting on self-hosted WordPress. I know that there are plenty of free blogging platforms out there, and it's tempting to choose one of them when you're just starting out. But this is the worst mistake you can make. With free platforms, you don't truly own your blog. These platforms can shut down your blog without notice

if you violate their terms, even accidentally. I've seen this happen, and it's heartbreaking. Plus, many free platforms don't allow you to monetize through ads or affiliate marketing or have lots of restrictions. Free platforms often have limited SEO tools, and you can't install the necessary plugins to optimize your site. This makes it much harder to rank well on Google, which is vital for your blog. With free platforms, customization is limited. You have to choose from a small set of themes an

d you can't modify them extensively which can be super frustrating when you want your blog to stand out and reflect your personality. With free platforms you can also run into Scalability Issues. As your blog grows, you might want to add new features or handle more traffic. Free platforms can be very limiting in this regard. So, if you're serious about blogging, you must be on self-hosted WordPress from the get-go. I learned this the hard way. I initially started my blog on the premium business

plan of Squarespace, and later on migrated to self-hosted WordPress because of the endless limitations of Squarespace even if I wasn’t on a free platform. I was actually on the most expensive plan which was even more expensive than having a self-hosted blog on wordpress. I didn’t have problems with the monetization aspect as you can fully monetize your blog on Squarespace, or at least on the business plan I was on. And I did monetize my blog from the beginning. But I was unable to get most plugi

ns or tools and I had to figure out a way to do what I wanted without that plugin or tool that all the other bloggers on self-hosted WordPress were using. If you’re only starting out now, going with the mainstream option is a safer bet, as most – if not all – advice, posts, and tools around cater for and are targeted to self-hosted WordPress blogs. Trust me, it will save you the headache of trying to figure out how to do things on a different platform or coming up with a turnaround when a featur

e or tool is not available on your platform. Plus, the migration was painful. We had to deal with domain transfer, DNS propagation, content migration, redirection of URLs, website re-development, and many other problems and issues. In the process, we lost most of our comments, some shares, over 5 points in domain authority and page authority, Alexa ranking, lots of traffic and so on. And I must say Squarespace is overall a great platform. A free platform such as WordPress.com com has many more s

ubstantial limitations than Squarespace, so you would be way more likely to want to migrate to self-hosted WordPress at some stage. And trust me, you don’t want to go through the pain of a migration. And the more content you have on your blog, the more problems may arise during a migration. So, regardless of whether you want to monetize your blog straight away or down the track, start with self-hosted WordPress and you won’t have the problem to migrate your website once you have a lot of content

on it. It doesn’t cost much, less than a coffee a month. And I will link to some affordable webhosts in the description down below. Now, let's talk about a mistake that's easy to make but can have long-lasting impacts: not carefully choosing and researching your blog's name. This is another lesson I learned the hard way, and I want to share my story with you. When my blog initially started, it was about relationship advice, lifestyle tips and humorous posts, so I named it 'tinylovebug,' after a

lovebug for the romantic implications, and my dog Tiny (a big American Staffy, for the record). It was cute, it felt right, and I was excited about it. But as an Italian, here's what I didn't know: 'tinylovebug' is an English expression some parents use for their babies. My blog ended up on page 14 of Google, buried behind baby-related websites, Etsy shops and even a German blog with the same name! My blog's name confusion was a stumble, but with careful SEO strategies, I managed to rank number

1 for 'tinylovebug' on Google. Still, I wish I'd done my homework from the start. Don't make the same mistake. Invest the time in choosing and researching your blog's name. It's a foundational aspect of your brand, and getting it right can save you from headaches later on. Especially if you don’t check whether your chosen name isn't already taken or trademarked by someone else. This could lead to legal issues down the line. But bear with me, as we will see why not taking care of the legal side

of your blog is another huge mistake you should absolutely avoid later on in this video. But now, let it sink in. So, just to summarize, when I first started I had no niche, I used the wrong platform and picked the wrong name. But I’m still here making 20 thousand dollars blogging every single month. So, don’t let your mistakes stop you. You can fix them, learn from them and move on. There is hope for everyone, if I made all these big mistakes and I still made it today, you can make it too and a

ctually, if you want to learn more about how to start a blog and make money blogging then make sure you click the link in my description box because I have a free guide that will dive deeper into how to create your own blog and get you started. This guide will walk you through the blueprint I used to start my blog that turned into a multiple six-figure business, and comes with in-depth strategies, assignments, and tons of actionable tips, so you don’t want to miss out. Get it for Free at the lin

k in the description box below. Moving on to the next blogging mistake, waiting Too Long to Publish Your Posts. This one's personal, and I bet many of you can relate. I remember my first post like it was yesterday. I was so nervous, so determined to make it perfect, that I rewrote it not once, not twice, but ten times! But here's what I've learned, and what I want you to understand: Striving for perfection is natural, especially when you're passionate about your work. But it can become a paralyz

ing roadblock. The truth is, no post will ever be perfect. And that's okay. Your blog will evolve as you do, and so will your writing style. It's a journey, not a one-time event. Waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect post, means missing out on valuable learning opportunities. Publishing and interacting with your readers will teach you more than endless editing ever will. If you delay publishing, you'll lose the opportunity to connect with your readers. Trust me, nothing beats the thrill of

seeing comments, likes, and shares on your posts. And without that interaction, it's easy to lose interest and motivation. Plus, SEO Takes Time: This is something many beginners overlook. It takes time to start ranking. The sooner you publish, the sooner search engines can begin indexing your content. If you wait too long, you're just delaying the potential growth of your blog. So, don't let fear or perfectionism hold you back. Done is better than perfect so hit that publish button. The next bl

ogging mistake most beginners make is waiting to monetize your blog. You might think that monetizing too early could turn off your readers, and I used to think the same. Or you might be thinking I should focus on content first, and money later, right?' You need a mindset shift that's vital to make money blogging. Selling doesn't have to be sleazy or pushy. One thing that changed my perspective was realizing that selling is actually a way of serving my audience. If you're promoting products or se

rvices you truly believe in and that genuinely benefit your readers, you’re helping your audience solve a problem or saving them time and all the research to find the perfect tool or product or the waste of time or money in trying the wrong one. Plus, if you introduce monetization strategies like affiliate links, sponsored posts, or ads from the very beginning, your audience will become accustomed to it. It becomes part of your blog's ecosystem. While adding these elements later on might come as

a surprise or even feel unsettling to your audience. And, this is a big one. If you wait to add affiliate links to old posts, it becomes an incredibly time-consuming process. Trust me, I've been there. Going back through old content, updating links, and optimizing for sales is so tedious. So, don’t delay but think about monetization as you create your content. Next blogging mistake, and this one can truly hit home: comparing yourself to other bloggers. This is something that every blogger faces

at some point, including me. And I want to be candid with you here. This is a trap that's so easy to fall into. You scroll through other blogs, see their success, their polished content, and suddenly you feel small, inadequate, maybe even discouraged. I've been there. And hey, it's easy for me to say all this now that I make multiple six figures blogging. But I'm facing the exact same issue with my new YouTube channel. The feelings, the doubts—they're all there. It's incredibly common to see so

meone else's success and feel like you're falling short. But what you're often doing is comparing your step 1 to their step 100. It's like starting a race and looking at someone who's near the finish line. It doesn't make sense, does it? We tend to forget that advanced bloggers often have access to a team, tools, and resources that you might not have as a beginner. I have them now but I didn’t have them when I first started blogging. It's not a fair comparison. Instead, focus on Personal Growth:

Look at how far you've come, the things you've learned, the progress you've made. That's the real measure of success. Not how you stack up against someone else, but how you stack up against your past self and how you've grown and evolved. Instead of comparing, use other successful bloggers as inspiration. The next blogging mistake you should avoid is being on too many platforms all at once. I won’t sugarcoat this. Blogging takes a lot time. There is so much involved than just writing a blog pos

t. Trying to manage multiple platforms can be overwhelming and the quality of your content and engagement may suffer as you struggle to keep up. Every platform requires time and effort to understand, optimize, and engage with. Spreading yourself across too many can lead to a loss of focus on what's most effective for your blog, which leads us to the next mistakes, most new bloggers dilute their efforts on social media instead of using their energy on the two most important things they should be

focusing on. We will see what these two top things are in a second because I want to make clear that managing multiple social media platforms is not only time-consuming but also mentally exhausting. Burnout is a real risk, and it can affect both your well-being and the quality of your work. I have seen so many bloggers quit blogging because of burnout and don’t want the same to happen to you. By being everywhere, you might not be effectively engaging anywhere. Instead of spreading yourself too t

hin, invest your time, money, and energy on a few platforms where your audience is most active and engaged. Assess all platforms and tools available, pick a few that you think would be the most strategic and effective for your blog, and focus on building and growing those first. Once you master those, move on to the next one, and so on and so forth. But don’t make this next mistake which is one of the worst mistakes beginner bloggers can ever make. Not starting SEO early on in your blogging jour

ney. SEO takes time to start showing results. By postponing SEO optimization, you delay the organic growth of traffic to your site, which can slow down the overall momentum and success of your blog. High rankings in search engines help to attract a targeted audience and a huge volume of traffic. Without proper SEO, you miss out on these potential visitors, and this can impact your blog's monetization opportunities and general growth. SEO is a critical aspect of blogging, and most of your competi

tors will be employing it. By not focusing on SEO early on, you really place yourself at a disadvantage. You will soon realize that to make money blogging you need to rank on Google and you need SEO. Going back and optimizing old posts for SEO can be such a time-consuming process. It's much more efficient to incorporate SEO practices as you create content rather than trying to retrofit old posts. And you also start ranking way sooner because SEO takes time. This is one of the two most important

things you need for your blog. SEO. And the other one is an email list. One of the most common mistakes new bloggers make is not starting an email list from the beginning. They say the money is on the list and it’s true. I’m pretty sure that the vast majority of my blogging income comes from my email list. Social media platforms can change their rules, algorithms, Or worse, your account can get shut down for some reason. Trust me, it's happened to people I know, and they lost thousands of follow

ers overnight and nothing to fall on. That's why I'm all about the email list. Your social media platforms? They're like rented apartments, and the landlord can change the rules anytime. But an email list? That's like owning your house. No one can kick you out. It's all yours. Here's the thing, focusing on building your email list isn't just smart; it's essential. It's your safety net. Oh, and here's a little story I've got to share with you about my own adventure with email lists. You see, I st

arted collecting emails from the very beginning, feeling all proud of myself. But then, guess what? I never sent them anything. Yup, I was gathering all these email addresses and just letting them collect virtual dust. Finally, one day, I decided to reach out. So I sent an email, all excited, and you know what happened? Crickets. People were like, "Who's this?" because they didn't recognize me. I had to face the music and realize that I'd messed up big time. In the end, I deleted 2,000 subscribe

rs—yes, 2,000—and started again from scratch. So, take it from me: If you start building an email list, make sure to communicate with them regularly. Don't make the same mistake I did, because rebuilding from ground zero is no fun at all. Start strong, keep it real, and your email list will be the best asset for your blog. The next big mistake I see tons of bloggers make and that I made myself is not setting up everything the right way from the beginning and ready to scale. I’d say to get on top

of this right away. You may not see the need as yet but if you start creating internal documents from inception, it will be a smooth process that will take almost no time. Because, you know, one day, when you’re ready to scale your business, then you will have to have all these documents in place to onboard new team members, your staff, the business manager, so it will be such a headache to try to do them all at once and don’t ask me how I know that! while if you create them as you develop a ta

sk so, for example first time you do a task, then you create a document about the right way to perform this task, then the whole process will be painless. So for example, you should have a document with all the login for all the things you need to access to operate your business so apps, tools, emails, dashboards and so on, then a document with all your blog posts a document with all your affiliate links a document with step-by-step instructions or checklist for each specific task, a sort of SOP

to save you time and make sure you don’t miss anything and which is also ready for when your blog grows and you will want to delegate that task to someone else. These are just examples, but you get the idea. Set your blog as a scalable business from the beginning. And kind of related, another big mistake bloggers make is not taking care of the financial and legal side of their blogs. I didn’t make this mistake myself because I’m a lawyer and it’s actually my mission to make legal education and

legal protection easily accessible for bloggers and online business owners through my training, courses and legal templates. Because I have seen bloggers getting sued because they didn’t have the right legal protection, or getting fined because they didn’t meet some legal requirements, or getting kicked out of affiliate programs or not getting accepted into affiliate programs or ad networks because they didn’t have the proper disclaimers and disclosure in place. Or they get to the end of the fin

ancial year, and they have no money put aside to pay taxes. It can get really ugly. Blogging is not all fun and games. You've got to get serious about the legal side. It's the grown-up part of blogging. It's like an insurance for your blog. The peace of mind is worth every penny. Plus, it will open up more opportunities for you to make money with your blog. So consult with a lawyer if you have the budget, or get my legal bundle value pack to get legally protected in less than 10 minutes. And if

you want to learn more, make sure you watch this video next where I walk you through all the legal pages you must have on your blog or website to make sure you blog legally and protect your content and yourself legally. Thanks for watching this video and I’ll see you in the next one! Ciao e a presto.