My Top 10 Biggest Blogging Mistakes I Made in My First 3 Months Blogging (that I need to fix now)

As a beginner, you're privy to making the same 10 biggest blogging mistakes that I made as a beginner. Do yourself a favor, avoid them at all cost!

To be completely honest with you, I could have gone on forever with this list.

But instead of listing every little minute mistake, I spared myself the embarrassment and you the time by compiling only the 10 biggest mistakes bloggers could make in those first few scary months.

These mistakes not only cost me time, but they also cost me money plus, more importantly, what could have been thousands of loyal blog followers. 

My recommendation to you: learn from these mistakes.

You'll likely make mistakes of your own, but do your blog a favor and learn what you can from me! 

The other alternative is to make all these blogging boo-boos and pay for it later...

I'd advice against that option though, for obvious reasons.​

So, here we go. My top 10 biggest blogging mistakes...

1. I didn’t create a consistent brand image

Sure, my images for my blogs now are eye-catching and attractive, but it didn’t start that way. In fact, if you go to my blog page and scroll down to the beginning, you’ll be able to see just how wacky my images really were.

Actually, scratch that. I’ll embarrass myself and share a picture of the nonsense right here:

Yucky, I know. This lack of branding meant that every time I posted a blog, I needed to jump over to Canva and think of a brand new image design from scratch... EVERY TIME. 

Creating a brand is important for tons of reasons, but it’s also equally as important for your own personal sanity as a blogger. Can you tell I must have been going nuts back in the day?

Creating beautiful images for your site should be as easy as 1-2-3 and shouldn’t take more than a few moments of your time. I wish I had figured this out sooner, since I spent an embarrassing amount of time creating sub-par images and I’m making up for it now.

2. I didn’t work on growing an email list

I started growing my email list only about 6 months into blogging. What a waste of time. When I finally dove into email marketing, my list grew by over 2000 subscribers in just 6 months. Imagine if I had started email marketing from day 1? My list size would have been well over 4000 subscribers just 1 year into blogging. Instead, 1 year into blogging, I had 2000 subscribers. Don't get me wrong, that's great and all... but 2k isn't the same as 4k. 

If I could do it all over again, the very first thing I would do is setup my email list with ConvertKit.

3. I didn't have Pinterest functionality on the site

You know that Pinterest button you see on tons of sites when you hover your cursor over a picture? Yeah, that button makes it super duper simple to pin an image from your site onto Pinterest. Without that button, it's really annoying for anyone to even think about sharing your blog content on a Pinterest board.

Oh, and also that "follow me" on Pinterest widget you see in my sidebar... I didn't have that either. ​Mistake. But obviously I didn't have that widget. Why? Because I didn't even have a Pinterest account...which leads me to number 4....

4. I didn’t have a Pinterest account

Ugh, I’m still hitting myself over this MAJOR BLOGGING MISTAKE. I started my Pinterest account just under 2 months ago and I have about 530 followers and 20% of my blog traffic comes from Pinterest. Can you imagine where I’d be if I started a Pinterest account 8 months ago when I first launched my blog? It pains me to think what a HUGE opportunity I missed out on. At least I got my Pinterest sh*t together eventually (you can read here how I gained 300 followers in my first 3 weeks on Pinterest). 

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6. I didn’t share my blog posts nearly enough (or even at all)

Here’s a quick glimpse into the early days of my blogging routine. I’d write a ridiculous amount of posts (one per day… not kidding) and then I’d pray to the SEO gods that I’d be indexed and miraculously land on the first page of Google.

Ha!

Besides the fact that writing a blog post per day is the FURTHEST thing from sustainable, it also wasn’t realistic. I was spending all of my time writing posts and none of my time promoting them. Of all the blogging mistakes I could have made, this one is by far the worst.

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7. I had an unrealistic blogging schedule

I mentioned earlier that I published one blog everyday for what felt like an eternity. The result? No traction on my blog (I dind’t promote them enough since I didn’t have time) and a very tired and frustrated ME.

Blogger burnout is a very real and dangerous thing, especially for people like me who financially support themselves online through blogging. After the first few months of blogging, I went on a blog writing hiatus. I literally didn’t produce a single word of content (besides my income report) for two months. Every time I thought about writing a blog post I got physically sick at the idea. I over worked myself in the beginning, and it was a HUGE mistake.

I could have avoided all that trouble if I created a blogging schedule that actually was sustainable.

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8. I didn’t find my “tribe” and I wasn’t meeting any new people

In order for you to really find success with your blog, you need to find your “tribe”, the people that want to learn from you. Your tribe is your audience, and without your audience, you don’t have a successful blog. So that’s why my blog was pretty much a flop for the first three months (besides, of course, my family and friend network that totally skewed my Google Analytics stats for a while there).

One day, I suddenly realized the need to find where my audience is hanging out. So I went over to Facebook and started searching bloggers groups. I found a bunch of huge groups, joined them all. All of the sudden,I was interacting with my people. Not only was I learning A TON of information, but I was also engaging directly with thousands of people who fit directly into my target audience. My email list blossomed, and it wasn’t long until I decided I might as well start my very own Facebook group for bloggers, which now has hundreds of members from pretty much any blogging niche you can think of.

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9. I didn’t guest post on targeted websites

When I first started blogging, I took advice to get any link to my site no matter what link it was. So I scoured the web for backlink opportunities in an attempt to increase the credibility of my site. I snatched any opportunity that arose, even if it wasn’t entirely within my niche. That’s a major blogging mistake!

Guest posting is a powerful way to grow your email list and increase your social following. But it’s only beneficial if those websites are within your niche. For the longest time I kept wondering why my email list wasn’t growing and why I wasn’t getting a bunch of traffic from my guest posts. If only could go back in time and shake myself into reason…

10. I compared myself too much to my competition

I really can’t remember where I saw this but I while back I read this really inspiring quote somewhere on the interwebs:

You shouldn’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle or end.

Once I read that, things started to change for me.

I used to spend hours staring at other people’s sites punishing myself for not doing what they’re doing. What resulted was a whole lot of wasted time and a ridiculously low confidence. Not good… not good at all.

​So, tell me... did you make these blogging mistakes? Did you make any other major blogging boo-boos that you wish you could have avoided? Share your thoughts in the comments below!