Blogging Mistakes I've Made Throughout the Years

Blogging has been a never ending journey for me.  There has been some good times and some bad times.  I've learned so much and all the great possibilities it could lead me to that I'm always looking forward to see what's next on my journey.

I will say I've hit a lot of bumpy roads and there has been times I just wanted to give up, but I'm glad I didn't.  What had failed me made me more stronger to help continue on my blogging quest.

I'm starting to get a lot of readers that are bloggers themselves and just starting out, so I wanted to share my past failures to help newbies not make the same mistakes as me.  Blogging takes a lot of trial and error but if you keep investing in it, you'll find what's right for you.

Below you'll see some of the mistakes I've made:

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1. Buying Traffic-  This was the most dumbest thing I could have ever done and such a waste of money!  I went on Fiverr in a quest to find ways to build my blog traffic and found a top ranking seller advertising his gig to bring more traffic to blogs for $5.  I paid the guy $5 and instantly seen my traffic sky-rocketed.  What was bad was the traffic was not real humans and only bots.  My bounce out rate went through the roof!  I had to contact the guy to stop sending me fake traffic immediately and I just allowed him to keep the $5.  And did you know having fake traffic bots can penalize your blog by Google?  Thank goodness this didn't happen to me!


2. Buying Fake Facebook Fans-  I wanted my Facebook fanpage to appear to have followers.  Once again, I went to Fiverr and found a seller selling fake Facebook fans and I paid him $5.  I instantly got several hundred fans and then a week later they all disappeared.  Another waste of $5!  It's better for you to build genuine fans and plus real fans will respond to your postings, not fake ones.



3. Not Building a Relationship with My Competitors-  I always had the thought like "why would I visit my competitors blogs?"  I didn't know I should be building a relationship with them.  Like the saying goes "we're all in this together".  Even though my competitors advertises or discuss some of the same stuff I do, we're all unique.  We will all have our chance at stardom if we help one another out.


4. Taking photos from Google Searches- When I first started blogging back in 2008, I wasn't aware that photos through Google searches was not for public use.  That was considered stealing!  If someone found out I took a photo from their website without asking, I could've found myself in a legal suit.  How I get photos now for my blogs is either take a picture myself, use PicMoney, or go to Flickr to find photos I could use for commercial use (you must credit photo).


5. Filling My Blog Up With Banner Ads-  In the beginning of my blogging journey, I would fill my blog up with affiliate banners all over the place.  Flashing banners galore!  My blog screamed SPAM!  I wonder why people would leave my blog so quickly.


6. Allowing Anybody to Be a Guest Blogger-  I always wanted to make sure my blog was fresh with content so I pretty much allowed anyone to guest post on this blog.  I didn't check what the links in the guest post linked back to or see if the post has been written a million times somewhere else.  So guess what had happen to me......Google penalized my blog and my search rankings went down.  I'll never forget that day when I was watching my Google traffic go down to pretty much nothing right before my eyes. 


7. Quality vs. Quantity-  I always wanted to make sure I had content to keep my readers happy and coming back so my blog was filled with different guest post every day.  My blog was turning into a article bank.  Google frowns upon this.  Since I have cut down on my blog posting and write more quality post, my readership has gone up and giving my readers a chance to read and comment.


8. Joining Spammy Website Directories- I was fortunate enough to not have my blog penalized for joining spammy directories.  At the time I didn't know which ones were spam. 


9. Never Interacted on Social Media- I had a little bit of a following on social media but never interacted with my followers.  I would have automated programs post my newest post and just leave as that.  I wouldn't even had to buy followers like I mentioned above if I was interacting with my current followers.  My following would've grew on it's own.


10. Not Sharing Other Bloggers Post- Just like number 3, I wasn't sharing or even commenting on other bloggers post.  I pretty much was in it for myself.  I always thought that I'll just rely on Google traffic.  I really wish I would've networked with other bloggers from the very beginning to build new friends and relationships.


Do you have any failed attempts on your blogging journey?