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 When you are new to blogging, its easy to make mistakes that illustrate just how new you are. I mean how can you know what you don't already know? The answer is to read all you can and absorb knowledge like a sponge before you start blogging or very soon after you start blogging. To make it easier for you, I've put together a list of things that newbies typically do that shows just how new they are. Don't get upset as you read the list. I think that every blogger has thrown up at least two of these newbie indicators on their blogs at one point or another. Keep an open mind and remember that this whole thing is just about learning what works and what doesn't work. With that said, on to the list we go!
Not having an optimized url for your posts. Instead of this - http://www.yourdomain.com/My-Website-Makes-Money, you have this - http://www.yourdomain.com/?p=66. When you are using WordPress it is very easy to make sure that you have search engine optimized urls. Go into your Administration panel and select the Options tab. From this tab, select Permalinks. Under Common Options, select Custom, specify below. In the box below that option, enter the following - /%postname%/ . This will now allow you to have your post title as the link to the post. If you are a Joomla person, you can do the same. You just turn on search engine friendly urls in the admin area, rename your htaccess.txt file to .htaccess, add an extension like sh404 and you are done. You will have search engine friendly urls that adhere to the same structure as the WordPress urls - except that your urls will have the first letter of each word capitalized. You can look at the url in your address bar to see an example of this. Now that your titles are optimized, you now need to make sure that your titles make sense.
Using meaningless titles for your posts. I think that a lot of newbies do this because they don't realize the significance of a title in the search engine optimization process and in the attention grabbing process. You need to make sure that your titles scream "READ ME!". You need to make sure that your title is keyword rich and you need to make sure that the title is in line with what your blog is about. All of these things will help people find your articles & understand what your articles are about. It will also help your site with your search engine optimization & PageRank because that title will be in your url if you make sure to check out step one.
Not checking the links in your articles. Stopping to make sure that the links you have in your articles go where they are supposed to go is a basic, yet a lot of people are guilty of this one. If you don't have time to do it, then don't include the link. You can't expect people to take you seriously if you have a whole bunch of broken links all over the place.
Switching your theme during peak traffic hours. I know that this makes you look like a newbie, but, I was so guilty of this. Do your site updates at night! It may seem like no one cares, but, you never know. I submitted PureBlogic to a site that required manual reviews of all member sites. I had an upgrade planned well before I did that. At the last minute, I decided to do the update during the day instead of waiting until that night. Guess when the reviewer came to review my site? During the update. It was a review for advertising and you can pretty much guess that I didn't get the opportunity to have that advertiser on PureBlogic. I received my nice little rejection email and even though I tried to invite the advertiser back, the deal was sealed. That's proof that everyone makes mistakes. Don't do this to yourself. Make your updates at night.
Changing the look of your website every few days. People like consistency. They don't like things changing over and over again. The short of it is that it makes you look unprofessional.
Complaining on your site about how you don't have traffic. Stop whining and go get some. There is absolutely no reason not to have traffic if you really want some. There are so many communities to join, groups to join, networks, bookmarking sites - you name it! If you really, really want traffic don't whine about it - go get it! A lot of people are dealt a heavy ego blow when they set their websites up and quickly discover that no one cares. Your website is a diamond among diamonds. You have to promote yourself to make any kind of significant difference in your website traffic. Promotion is queen. Content is king. You need both to be successful.
Not posting consistently. Plan out your articles, write them and then schedule them! It's a no-brainer. If you are using WordPress, all you have to do is edit the timestamp area of the post page. You can set this timestamp to a future date and time. When that time and date roll around, your post will automatically appear like magic. If you are using Joomla, you can do the same thing by changing the create date & start publishing date to the same thing and setting the finishing date to never or the day you want the post to stop showing up. Joomla requires slightly more effort if you are doing it without any extensions, however, it is still very, very simple to do.
If you find additional things you want to write about, you can go ahead and add those new items in. You can schedule them or let them roll out right away. Either way, you still have your regularly scheduled posts.
Having affiliate program banners and links on your site that link to programs of companies that have gone out of business. I can't tell you how many Agloco banners I've seen on people's sites. It shows that they aren't actively monitoring their sites. It makes you look like a newbie.
Constantly referring to big name bloggers on your site. John Chow said this.....and then he said this.... and then he said this. While this may offer John Chow an ego boost, more likely than not, it turns the people who are reading your blog right off. People want real content, not shrines to big name bloggers. If they want to hear someone talk about John Chow in every post, they can go over to John Chow's website and get that straight from him. Make yourself stand out. don't try to ride the arm of other people.
You get the point
Constantly questioning why you are writing the blog in your posts. If you are doing what I call "post whining" (that's my term - I came up with it and don't you steal it!), then you may as well just stop blogging right now. If you can't figure out why you are blogging then no one else is going to be able to figure it out either. Blogs like this are a sure sign that the person is either new or very troubled. Either way, its just not a good sign. Figure out who you are and why you are doing what you do BEFORE you start trying to do it. You are going to need that focus to keep you going.
Constantly writing about how you have nothing to write about. There are so many things going on in this world. Are you seriously trying to tell me that you can't find ANYTHING to write about? If that is what you are saying, you need to open your eyes and stop daydreaming your way through life. There are lots of things going on and lots of things to write about. Politics, plastic surgery, technology, problems in the world, problems in your life - there are so many things to write about! If you can't find anything to say, its a sure sign that you aren't trying. Stop being a whiner and go get yourself some topics. A quick read of Yahoo, or another blog, or the newspaper or any other thing that's readable should give you at least one idea for a post. Life is too big to say you have nothing to write about.
Generating articles that are completely off topic and not related to the topic of your blog. This doesn't mean that you can't blog about different things, but, if your blog is about cakes, write about cakes! I don't want to see how you dissected an engine on your blog when I'm looking for cakes! If your blog is about cakes and engines and everything else, then make it clear to the readers of your blog by putting that in your blog description. That way no one gets confused. Newbies have a real hard time staying on the topic of their blog. If you have real trouble with that, then make sure you call your blog "The Ramblings Of A New Money Maker" or something like that. That way no one will expect that you are going to stay on any particular topic.
Constantly talking about how much money you are making from day to day without a lot of other content. I saw a blog in which the owner kept a running tally of how much they made each day with their blog about making money online.
"Today I made 4 cents with Adsense. I can't even get a cup of coffee with that. Maybe tomorrow will be better. I can't understand why no one is clicking on my ads." Get over it. If you aren't making money on your blog about making money, letting the world know is definitely a newbie move. If you feel like you just HAVE to tell the world how much you have made, don't make it an entire post. Keep a running total in your sidebar or something and have one post about it each month. That way you can tell people how you are rolling in the money without turning people off from reading your blog.
Telling the world that you are clueless about what you are doing online. I have seen several blogs that have a lot of traffic even though they do this. The people acknowledge that they are new. I could tell before I read their acknowledgements when I read their posts. If you are clueless, read the millions of blogs out there and get a clue. Don't write posts about how you don't know anything. Write posts about the things you learn. We have enough people who don't know anything that we have to deal with in this world already.
Having no pillar posts on your blog. I know that even some seasoned people don't do it, but, more do than don't. Pillar posts are posts that you put together that contain a lot of information. For instance, a list about the
things that newbies do. It shows that you actually think about what you are going to write. It also enables people to have something to link to on your website. People love to link to quality lists.
Constantly writing posts that link to other sites and AWAY from your blog without writing any interesting text of your own. Doing this is justridiculous. If you want people to visit your blog and invest in you, you have to< br />give them something to read. Telling them about a great post you read and sending them away is really helpful to the other site, but, it's of little value to you. If you are going to link out, make sure you havestrong anchor text to attract people back to your site. Here is an example of the wrong thing to do.< br />I have seen people, in an effort to get lots of content on their blog, link to other sites in each of their posts. Their posts go something like this.
"I saw this great article about the top 20 things that newbies do. Here is that list. Have a great day!" The person leaves the site and that's it
Speaking of leaving the site, make sure that any link you place on your site opens in another window!!!! I have seen sooo many people do this and I am consistently amazed. When you create a link to another site, make sure that you have that link open in another window instead of going to the other site using the current browser window. If you are using an editor that allows you to insert the links without typing any html, make sure that you select 'Open in new window' for the target. If you are manually adding your links, make sure you create your link to include the target tag <a href=http://whateverTheSite target="blank">Go to this great site </a>. That target tag tells the browser to open another window. You don't want to send people to another site and have your site disappear. Once the user finishes looking at the article on that other site, they can just close that other window and your site is still there looking them in the eye.
Writing the same thing over and over again. Believe it or not, I have seen people who write the same type of post over and over again with only a slight variation in the words. Forinstance , I have seen people who write about how to make money and they obviously don't have a clue. Instead of doing a little research, they do things like this.
Monday - Making money online is not difficult to do. You have to put ads on your site and make sure that you get traffic.
Tuesday - When you want to make money on your site, make sure you get traffic. Traffic will help you make money online.
Wednesday - Putting ads on your site that your traffic will click can make money for you. The ads will help pull traffic in.
Thursday - You can make money with traffic. It is easy if you have the right ads.
Friday - Your site can contain ads. Ads + traffic equals money.
I have said the same thing in five different ways using almost the same words. Aside from being a slightly creative play on words, this is 100% something newbies do because they don't really understand what they are doing.
In today's information rich society, it's absolutely unacceptable to do this. You CAN find quality information everywhere you look. All it takes is a little research and some time.
Having more ads on your site than content. When a person comes to your site, they are looking for something to read. They may be looking for additional things as well, but their primary reason for coming is to see what you have to say. You make yourself look like a newbie when all you have is ads on your site. This tells people that you aren't concerned about writing or content, you just want people to click on the ads. People aren't stupid. They will leave and they won't come back. Content is king. Ads are important, but, the placement has to be sensible or at least palatable.
Having Google Adsense ads all over your site. Not only does this tell people that you are a newbie, it also tells people that you didn't read. You are only supposed to have three Adsense units on your site. Sometimes you can get away with 4, but, 3 is what you are supposed to have. If you have a site with a whole bunch of Adsense ads all over the place, people who are visiting instantly know that you are new. Those that don't know might actually click on the ads, but, remember this. It only takes one person reporting you to Google to end up getting you banned from Adsense. I'm not saying that Adsense is the only way to make money, but, it can be a good way to make money. Getting banned will stop you from having Adsense on ANY of your websites - not just the one you misbehaved on! Don't do this! Keep yourself out of trouble.
Having a categories list on your site that covers everything from apples to zebras. Organize your categories! I don't know why people think that EVERYTHING they write deserves its own category. Who do you think is going to click through 60 categories to find your posts? Newbies do this so often. Why do you think that places like Digg have a set number of categories? It's because everything basically fits into one of them. If your site is about a particular thing, sit down and think of the things that are related to your blog and then create categories from that list. That will also help you generate content because you will have a focused list of categories to use. Don't drive people crazy with a whole lot of categories. People will never click through all of them.
Writing that contains words that most regular people can't understand. A lot of times newbies are so anxious to get their words out that they start writing content that may be filled with words only someone in a particular field would understand. If that is the purpose of the site or blog, then fine, but, if you are writing for the everyday person, make sure you explain the terms you use so regular people visiting your site will understand what you are trying to say.
If you don't, you will have writing with no readers.
Not using spell check. A lot of seasoned bloggers are also guilty of this one. There is, however, an important thing to remember when you write. Sometimes you may have readers that are visually impaired or blind. These people usually have audio systems in place to read the text of your page. If you have a bunch of misspellings that system may not be able to properly process the page. Make it easy on those people and spell check your work. Also, people who don't speak English well or who have English as their second language, may occasionally need to cut your text and paste it into a translator or have your text interpreted by a translation program. If you have a lot of misspellings, your text becomes unreadable to them. Be careful about that. It only takes a few seconds to do and< br />it can eliminate a lot of headaches for other people. Besides all of the things I just mentioned, it makes you look a little uneducated to some people when you are constantly misspelling things. Most people know that spell checkers are easily accessible. Don't leave your readers asking why you didn't use one.
Writing another blog that's just about making money. Newbies seem to think that this is the way to riches. It just isn't. You are putting yourself at the bottom of a mighty long pit. Do something original. Add some value to the pot. There are so many blogs about making money. You have to offer something more valuable than just that. If you do make it solely about making money, make sure that it stands out. I went to a site called Blogger Unleashed. I couldn't take myself away from that site. You know why? The guy who writes the site, Victor, curses a lot. His content is great, don't get me wrong, but I love the way he curses and still communicates his point to his readers. I found myself absolutely captivated by how many times he cursed yet still made his articles so interesting. His blog may be about making money but he truly stands out! His content is excellent and his writing is insanely funny.
Writing posts instead of articles. A lot of newbies just want to write something so they put up anything. The problem is that every communication with the outside world says something about who we are. Make your writing count for something. Make it a quality piece. I'm not saying to analyze it to death before you post it, but if your objective is to write the bare minimum, then you are going to have a hard time. Write quality articles instead of brief posts. I'm not saying you have to write an essay, but, making sure that your writing has good depth and quality is a must. Content is king. Understanding that content is king puts you ahead of a lot of people. Make sure your writing reflects that understanding.
If you are guilty of a few of these things, don't worry. There is still time to save yourself and your readers. Take some time and make changes to your site. It will benefit you and soon you will be able to take your newbie hat off and hand it to the next person in line. Feel free to link & trackback to this article, but don't steal it. Article stealing brings bad karma. Posted by Kila Morton
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