Hello everyone! Welcome to another article on Victoria's Blogging Tips. First of all, I'd just like to say thank you to those who supported and enjoyed this series. I'm glad that writing articles on blogging can help some of you get better or even inspired to get started on writing a blog.
In this article, let's take a look at some common blogging mistakes that I observed beginners often make.
1. Thinking you are a bad writer
This is probably the most common reasons why some developers don't want to start a blog. They doubt their writing skills.
If you have read my article on Why You Don't Have to be Good at English to Start a Tech Blog, you will know that not all dev-bloggers are that great at English too.
As one of my favourite quote by Zig Zaglar goes,
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."
We are still learning as we write on our blogs. And learning how to explain things in writing is always a lifelong lesson. There's always room for improvement. So don't make the mistake of giving up too early or not even starting just because you think you are a bad writer.
2. Focusing too much on numbers
A few of you have personally reached out to me and asked me how many articles should you publish a week. My answer to that is always...
"It depends."
Because every blog is not the same. Most beginners are concerned with numbers: how many articles to write per week, how many views to get per article, how many hours to spend on each article, etc.
Focusing too much on numbers in the beginning of your writing journey can quickly drain your motivation, especially if the number doesn't meet your expectations. Instead, focus on building good writing habits first and then naturally, you can figure out the numbers.
3. Not really understanding your big WHY
It takes a lot of time and commitment to start a blog. Starting one without really understanding why you want to write can keep you from maintaining your blog in the long run.
After all, having a successful blog may be a rewarding experience but it is definitely not easy and may not be for everyone. So as a beginner, knowing your WHY can achieve 2 things:
- Figure out whether blogging is really for you
- Figure out what you want to achieve through blogging
I absolutely love the way Anita Ihuman summarizes what successful blogging means to her in this article. I agree with her definition and her article really resonates with me. Please check it out!
4. Not being open to constructive feedback
Whether one is a beginner or not, it is always helpful to listen to feedback. Not only will you improve, but you will also be able to find an audience/niche based on the feedback you receive.
If you have not received feedback, it's a good idea to reach out to some amazing bloggers on Hashnode who will be more than happy to share some advice with you.
5. Not Identifying Bottlenecks
This was personally my biggest mistake when I started my blogging journey. Spending too much time brainstorming ideas or editing your drafts or cover images - basically "bottlenecking" the writing process, is a huge mistake.
A typical technical article should take about 2-4 hours on average. If you spent a lot more time, ask yourself:
At which aspect of the article is time most spent? Research? Writing?
For example, when I was starting out, I remembered my bottleneck was editing my drafts. I wrote a lot of drafts, but they never got published because I spent too much time continuously editing them to be "perfect". Once I've identified that this was an issue, I looked for grammar tools to help me speed up this step.
If you can identify which step in the writing process that you spent unnecessarily so much time on, you can make some effort to improve on that. Therefore, becoming more efficient to write and publish articles.
Thanks for reading!
And that's all for now! Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If it is helpful, please like and share it around. Also, feel free to share any blogging mistakes you've made when starting a blog in the comments below. That way, we can learn from each other. Thanks and cheers!