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[barshakar]

Top 5 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid as a Beginner

Have you just started blogging? Or are you thinking to start a blog as a side hustle? Learn from these blogging mistakes to save your soul from falling apart!

My five-person hostel room was the beginning of my blogging career.

I sat on my bed trying to write my very first piece on “25 Reasons to walk every single day.” I didn’t have a table so I stacked my pillows one above another to make one, put my laptop on it, and began writing. A few moments passed, I couldn’t frame sentences, I couldn’t find the best way to write the introduction, and my friend asked,

“What are you doing, Barsha?”

Even though she could see me struggling, she was curious to learn what’s the possibilities of my trial. I was trying my toes in the blogging world and she was looking at me with fascination.

Nowadays, there are enough stories to convince you

what’s the earning potential of writing

how to generate content ideas

how to outline, write, and publish to be successful

There are many guides that I have written and inspired to write.

But, before all you must know what it takes to blog consistently. What are those blogging mistakes to avoid at any cost as a beginner?

Here I’m explaining what mistakes I did during my 2.5 years of blogging before shutting the blog. And how you can help yourself from falling into the same rabbit hole.

Let’s begin!

5 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid as a Newbie Blogger

Blogging Mistake #1 — Putting too much pressure on yourself for perfection

When I first started my health and wellness blog, I was so stressed about the perfect design of the blog.

After defining a decent design, I was wondering about something minimal. And in this way, I tried several types of themes and their templates.

My first blog design (healthytarika)

Most beginners have the same “perfectionism” problem. But, there is nothing perfect in this world. And while searching for the perfect thing, we lose our most valuable time and even confidence. We try to do everything perfectly from the very beginning. Ultimately, we forget to start the business right away.

Starting is the most important and indeed difficult step we take while launching something new.

And perfectionism is the killer of the motivation for beginning the journey.

If you will think of crossing the road when all the signals are green and there are no vehicles on the road, most probably you will never cross the road.

In a similar way, if you wait for the perfect design, and the perfect technical setup to launch your blog, you are losing the motive behind beginning the blog.

That’s the fear creeping up. Just set up decently, start, and remember things can be changed gradually.

Do you want to start a money-making blog today? Here’s the best resource for you!

Blogging Mistake #2 —Wrong choice of domain name

While creating a new blog, we must be made aware of choosing a blog domain name, which we regret in the future.

I chose a domain name, “healthytarika” — short and sweet, right? Yep, it was short but never sweet.

It had the words “tarika” — a Hindi word that means “ways.” Not memorizable by people outside India, limiting my audience to my country. Discoverable but not better than a well-thought brand name.

A domain name is not just a name, it is your brand you need to build it.Click to Tweet

A few things to keep in mind —

Domain names should be short and easy to memorize.

It may or may not contain the niche you want to work with. Some famous marketing blogs like Crazy Egg and Single Grain don’t have niche keywords. But they are super precise and effortless to remember.

Choosing a domain name in a different language may indicate the region you are targeting or the primary language of your blog. And if you are targeting the US audience, keep it in English.

Blogging Mistake #3 — No regular content uploads

One of the biggest blogging mistakes I made with my first blog was —

I spent too much time with the technical aspects of the blog that I forgot about the heart of the business, i.e., the contents.

A concrete content strategy is a must while you are new to blogging and learning the process.

When I began, I was so excited about the look of the sidebar that I forgot that a blog without blog posts is like a flowering plant without flowers.

No one wants to visit such a blog, isn’t it?

A few steps to overcome the perfectionism paradox —

come up with at least 25-30 content ideas before you start a new blog.

Make a notion database or Google sheet with content ideas from different types and categories.

Make sure to add evergreen content, listicles, how-tos, review articles, roundups, and other content types to add variety and attract special attention.

Besides just thinking about the content, you can also plan the content and start creating one year’s worth in a month.

Content creation is the most important part of any business because people need benefits from it. If you can’t provide the actual benefits, no one will even know that your blog exists.

So, planning and learning how to write web content is a must-do step and must be done long before launching your blog.

In that way, you can save valuable time and effort. And when your blog is ready, some of the content will also be ready for publishing.

Blogging Mistake #4 — Not defining the target reader

In the beginning, deciding your ideal customers and creating a semi-fictional picture of them can help you from losing significant time and money.

Creating a buyer persona that will help you generate more leads for increasing your sales and raising your brand is not that critical.

You should research the market and interview some of your potential customers.

Social media is the best place to begin. Most people are active on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. You need to remain active in those places to understand our active customers and their interests.

Some other platforms include Amazon book reviews, niche forums, online writing communities, Reddit, Quora, and your competitor’s blog post comments.

At first, it seems tedious, but in this digital era, everything is simple. I have created a blog content strategy template and a buyer persona section to structure the process. You can download it here for FREE!

This will not only help you in building a solid content strategy. But we can also understand your targeted group’s pain points. By knowing the topics on which people struggle most, you will remain focused, advance in the specific area, and create your authority.

Blogging Mistake #5 — Starting with a saturated or broad niche

It’s one of the biggest blogging mistakes to avoid at any cost before beginning your first blog. Selecting a niche is the wiser option to save your precious time.

In the beginning, I started with an extensive topic. And for a single-person blog, it’s only possible to cover some ins and outs of health and wellness.

Sometimes people choose a niche they need to gain an idea or interest. And other times, they pick a too-broad topic, and you need to be more balanced to compete against the other niche blogs.

Remember a blog is not just a thing you can start randomly and earn money. At first, it takes a considerable amount of time. You will spend most of your time in your blog writing, editing, or designing. How can you work on a project in which you have little interest?

You might be thinking that I am talking about expertise, but you can start on a profitable and exciting topic to learn about.

For choosing your niche, you can start by

finding broad topics you are interested in, like health, marketing, pets, etc.

After that, search whether or not those topics are profitable. Profitable means people are aware of that topic and want solutions. A quick keyword research with your preferable tool can help you do that!

After refining your interest with the profit, you need to ask yourself “on which topic you are ready to spend most of your time” and then pick a broad one.

Now, you have to find its subtopics. For example, if you have chosen “pets” as your niche, you can note its subtopics, such as cats, dogs, etc. Also, you can specify it by finding various types of cat or dog blogs. If you are interested in writing about dogs, you can choose either dog training, their nutrition, or their behavior.

Pick a specific one and create a basic idea about the content you can make. Later you can expand it to a few more subtopics.

Final Remarks

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. — Albert Einstein

So, never let fear creep in to avoid mistakes. Make mistakes, as these are the circumstances in which you will learn something outrageous.

As a beginner, it’s common to make mistakes, but if you remain consistent and take lessons from them, that can be a cautionary tale for someone else. Further, you can save yourself from the regret of making a mistake by following the industry leaders in that field, as they can guide you through the dos and don’ts.

Wrapping all things up; the five blogging mistakes you must be aware of at the beginning of your blogging career are;

Putting too much pressure on perfection

Not choosing a brandable domain name

Not posting enough content on a regular basis

No defined buyer persona

Choosing a way too broad or saturated niche

Are you ready to get started with your blogging career? Comment down below!

Disclaimer: Some links in this blog may contain affiliate links. That means if you click on the link and purchase the product, I may earn a commission without costing anything extra to you. I ensure the quality of the products and never recommend something that won’t benefit you!

If you like my content and find it useful, buy me tea (it keeps me inspired and contributes to my education)!

[barshakar]

7 Undeniable Reasons Why You Should Write Just After Bed

Do you wonder which is the best time to write and struggle to beat procrastination?

Then hold on. Today I have concrete news that will remove all of your dilemmas and bring you to active mode without thinking much.

You might be heard of the “miracle morning”, but it’s not just a name. There are science and philosophy behind the thinking that morning is the best time to perform something you need to create a habit.

If you are an unbeatable procrastinator, then morning is the best time for you to perform something challenging like writing.

In the book “Eat That Frog, “ the Author Brian Tracy has described that we procrastinate those works that seem difficult for our minds.

And for avoiding procrastination you need a lot of will power which you will get maximum at the start of the day.

Not just this, there are several other reasons which will prove you why morning writing is best. So, let’s understand all of them.

Table of Contents

1. You have high willpower and less external stimuli.

We all know, what is the role of willpower in our life. Creating a new habit requires tons of willpower. Can you generate willpower of your own?

Well, willpower is like the battery on any device. That means it is limited. We all need a good night sleep to charge our battery. And therefore, just after bed, our mind gets its highest potential.

And writing is difficult. No, I’m not telling about myself. Writing is difficult for professional writers as well. That’s not about gaining expertise in writing, but about how much willpower it requires to start a task.

Now you might be thinking, what about our day naps? Are they also work as a charger of our willpower? Fine. That’s a bit true. Whenever we take a nap in the afternoon after heavy energy-draining work, we feel refreshed and charged.

Yah, that time can also be utilized for creative writing, but there are many other points why you should write first after you wake up.

2. It can increase your imagination power.

Yes, writing can improve your power of imagination. Remember, when you were at school, you were told to write an essay or a story to publish in the school newspaper.

How creative you feel at that time. You create a clear picture of your story within your mind. Isn’t it?

Well, if you’ve never participated in those events, you can’t deny your experience on the exam. What about the question you don’t know the exact answer but the story. Don’t you try to force your imagination to write that comprehensive answer?

Writing improves our power of thinking. Indeed you can say writers are the most influential thinkers of the world. This is true. But, here we are talking about writing first thing in the morning. How can writing in the morning can improve our imagination?

According to a study on dreaming and imagination mechanism, our brain collect, process, organize and further create new fragments while sleeping. Some theories also relate the memory consolidation process (transfer of active memory into long-term memory) with sleep.

Writing in the morning means forcing your creative part of the brain to utilize its complete power. Creativity makes us influence our brain for something unique in our way. And that requires a clear imagination.

Utilizing our power of creating, imagining and thinking every morning can take us to the depth of any story. Doing things regularly that means improving it a bit every day.

3. Best time to come up with new ideas.

Do you know writing and editing uses our different parts of brain? And that’s the reason professional writers advise not to edit while writing. Writing uses our creative mind, and editing or proofreading utilizes our analytical brain.

According to neuroscientists researching on a different part of our brain in morning and evening, our ‘diffused’ brain is more active in the morning right after bed. And writing is an activity that is more diffused.

Thus, writing in the morning will help you create more pictures of your story rather than focusing on the perfection in writing.

But, this is not the point here. How writing in the morning will help us in brainstorming fresh ideas?

MRI scans showing brain functionalities in different time frames.

Well, based on the previously discussed research, several MRI scans show that our brain has more functional connectivity in the morning rather than in the evening. And more connectivity means the activation of our creative part. That will ultimately help in constructing unique ideas.

4. Best time to win over your inner critic

When I tried to write in the afternoon or the evening, sometimes it seems impossible. That’s because I’m an expert in procrastinating things. And if writing were a part of my hobby, I would not do it.

However, writing first thing in the morning helps me fight against my evil spirit, which always provokes me for more dopamine rather than performing the essential but difficult tasks.

As procrastination and willpower are the enemies, I put my willpower in front of my habit of remaining within my comfort zone. And guess what, I’m no longer a procrastination campaign for writing.

5. Get a high level of focus.

Sometimes, we love a task, but unable to focus on that for a more extended period. We get motivated and start working on it; however, we found ourselves in web surfing or even scrolling Facebook or Twitter a few later.

Yes, in this case, there is nothing to do with willpower. For intense focus, we must remove things that have a significant role in changing our mood like social media.

But you can have a better concentration on complicated tasks like writing if you do it first in the morning.

According to Cal Newport in his book “Deep Work”, challenging tasks needed a high-level focus, which can be gained by a clean distraction-free environment. And at the early morning, there is less distraction, even inside yourself (inner distraction).

(If you get anxious after waking up and can’t understand what to do, try a few minutes meditation and just after your sessions start writing.)

So, locking yourself within a room in the morning is enough to reach the “flow” or getting onto the writing zone after which you can’t be distracted anymore.

6. It will help you to build a habit.

Did you know, writing comes automatically when you follow a ritual. Even all writer have their specific or unique routines they perform before start writing.

This helps them get directly into the writing zone, and that’s why they don’t need much willpower to start the process.

I’ve learned this from a course “Productivity Hacks for Writers” by Jessica Brody, where she explains productivity habits for writers.

And after that, I also start a few small rituals before writing like doing ten jumping jacks and plugging my headphones with some focusing music.

Most of the writers have their rituals before beginning to put their thoughts on paper, and they often advise to create morning rituals to make writing a habit.

Another vital thing to create writing a habit is timing. No, I’m not telling about the time on the clock. But another clock remains within us that’s known as our biological clock. If you get my point, then experiment it with your pets.

Have you ever noticed, they started begging for food at the same time of the day without even watching the clock? This is due to their biological clock.

So, the point here is creating a morning ritual can help your mind trigger the thoughts of writing, and you can achieve your state of flow quickly.

7. Calm your mind out of the clutter

Alright. In this point, I’m not talking about writing contents, but if writing is your hobby, but still you feel it hard to do every day. You can start journaling.

After waking up, write down your thoughts and your mood. Besides, you can write about five things you are grateful for and five problems you want to solve.

Writing your long term and short term goals in your morning journal help you visualize success and clear your mind.

You can further remove chaos from your mind by writing contents right after bed. Don’t worry these are not useless stuff, but sometimes you will find something recreational you don’t have in any part of the day.

This is because our mind processes thoughts and information during sleep. Thus, after waking up, putting all thoughts onto a paper can help you create a well-structured content.

Final words!

Lastly, if you want to create writing a habit for either improving it or any other reason, you should write consistently and daily. And writing just after bed will help you to do that. Just keep your goal small like writing 500 words or less, as much it’s feeling like climbing a single stair and not an entire mountain.

This way, you will minimize the resistance with your mind and easily focus on the task by beating procrastination.

Now let’s recap, why we should write in the morning.

Challenging tasks require a high amount of willpower, and at the start of the day, you have full of it.

Writing in the morning can improve your imagination power.

Morning is the best time to brainstorm ideas.

You can quickly calm your inner critic.

At early morning there is less distraction, and you can get a high level of concentration.

Writing first thing at the day will help you to build a good habit.

By writing just after rising, you can calm your mind from all the clutters and start your day actively.

Are you still feeling nervous? Let’s follow these steps to make writing habit as smooth as butter.

Think of the most comfortable writing ritual, e.g., drinking coffee or one push-up. Write it down and attach it to your PC or laptop.

Set your mind the night before for writing just after you wake up.

Think of the topic you will write about. Brainstorm ideas, research or take notes one day before to make writing easier.

Wake up, do your ritual, sit down and write. Simple, isn’t it? 

Not only in the morning, but you can also write all around the day by following your ritual.

Do you take steps and start writing? Let me know!

If you found my content useful, buy me a tea (it keeps me motivated to write and contributes to my education)!