Blogging

7 Bad Mistakes Amateur Bloggers Make

Ouch!

Writing and reading that headline hurts, doesn’t it?

7 Terrible Blogging Mistakes Mom Bloggers Make (And How to Fix Them)

You’re scared you might be making these mistakes with your amateur blog, and you’re wondering why are they so terrible?

If you’re an amateur mom blogger and post after post you have no comments or shares and you know your posts rock, you might be making some terrible blogging mistakes.

When I first started as a amateur blogger over two years ago, I had no idea about WordPress or images or anything about blogging.

In fact, I really didn’t visit blogs when I first started out. But, I did soon after.

Through trial and error, I found the way to blog! I know.

That sounds kind of lame. It’s like saying, I’ve found the way to read a book…yeah, well if your five years old, that’s amazing. But, you’re not five!

Blogging, in fact, is so much more different than books or the newspaper, or your college term papers.

Online content is formatted differently, and there’s more to a blog than the actual blog posts. Because, after all, if no one is reading your posts, you might as well be writing a diary.

Before you get into the nitty gritty of this post, if you’re reading this and don’t have a blog, but want to start one, I have an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog using SiteGround!

So, to get your amateur blog out there and start growing it, here are seven mistakes you’re doing as a mom blogger.

Don’t worry. I’ll also go into how to fix all these blogging blunders too.

Amateur Blogs Make These Top Mistakes

1. No Social Media Presence

Let me ask you this? Do you have a Facebook page?

Twitter profile?

Pinterest account? (well, of course!!)

Okay. But, are these profiles active? Do you engage your target audience? There’s no point in having a social media profile if you’re not going to update it.

I have a confession to make. I recently started an Instagram account, but I’ve neglected it for the past summer. So, even though I’m all preaching about updating your profiles, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t.

When you have an amateur blog, you’re going to want to create social media profiles for your blog.

screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-3-22-08-pm

My other social media profiles are shared with my other blog, Elna Cain. But, I’m still very active on those platforms.

I automate my pins using Tailwind, IFTTT for Twitter and Grum for Instagram. This helps me be on social media without being on it! I can promote my posts every day, which helps me grow my brand and build an audience.

So, what do you do? Do you all of a sudden create a profile on all the platforms? No. But I would start with Facebook and Pinterest at least. Later on, you can sign up to Instagram or some other platform.

Twitter isn’t that necessary, but the one thing I like about Twitter is that you can post multiple times a day and doing that can help bring traffic to your blog.

2. No Consistency

What if you do have a social media presence – are you consistent across all the platforms? Are the same colors on your blog the same on social media?

Is your headshot the same everywhere (including your Gravatar)? One of the EASIEST ways to brand yourself with your amateur blog is to be consistent.

Set your brand colors and stick to it. Use them in your blog images, on your blog and in your social media profile banners.

Set your fonts and use them consistently. For example, I use Montserrat on my blog. I make sure to use it for my content upgrades.

I use Madina for my script font and make sure I use that for all my blog images. I’ve been toying with creating alternate Pinterest images, but I have a template that I use which has the font and colors already there.

screen_shot_2016-10-24_at_3_33_52_pm

When people can recognize your brand, your blog will probably get more traffic and email subscribers – but only if your blog is consistent too.

If you’re blogging about how to train your dog, beauty tips for moms and creating a healthy and happy home, well that’s going to be hard to build a loyal group of followers, since you’re catering to too many people. So, make sure to find your niche and stay in it. 🙂

3. No Headshot

Do you want to build your blog and audience? Well, one of the best ways to do that is to show your face 🙂 People trust what you have to say when they see you.

Just take a look at Laura’s photos on her blog, The Badass Business Mum.

screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-3-46-51-pm

I mean, c’mon! Aren’t they the BEST? They make me think, hey, Laura looks like she’s loving life and looks fun to be around with. Let’s be best buds! (Psst…Laura also has twins!)

This makes me want to get to know her blog and her personality more.

So, having a headshot on amateur blogs can really help new visitors lock onto your blog and want to get to know you more. For Twins Mommy, I recently changed my headshot to reflect more of my personality.

Having a headshot that’s inviting and friendly is exactly what I want for my Twins Mommy. I want new visitors to feel welcomed here! 🙂

What if you don’t have a headshot or don’t feel comfortable showing your mug? Well, you can find other ways to show yourself.

Jacqueline of Mama’s Munchkins uses a profile of her and her child.

screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-4-04-55-pm

Mei Lynn, a work at home mom, uses a drawing of herself (or of a woman). Even though it’s not a picture of her, it’s still friendly.

screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-4-05-49-pm

But, if you feel comfortable showing yourself, I say go for it! Your face is brandable! I mean look at Kate Doster’s landing page. It’s her! She’s using her image as part of her brand.

4. No Promotional Strategy

Is your promotional strategy hoping that your next blog post goes viral on your new amateur blog?

Well, while that CAN happen, it most likely WON’T happen (unless you’re a big site like Scary Mommy). Instead, we mommy bloggers gotta hustle.

We have to promote our blog posts every day, all the time, to bring continual traffic to your site. I know.

It can be exhausting, but there are automation tools that I mentioned like Tailwind that can do it all for you. You just have to set it up.

On Facebook, you have to invest in Facebook groups to grow your blog. One of the first things I did was start joining a lot of Facebook groups for mom blogs and mompreneurs. This grew my engagement almost overnight and helped me increase my website traffic too.

5. No Author on Your Posts

Do your blog posts have “Admin” as the author?

For me, my pet peeve is finishing a post and then not knowing who wrote it. There’s no bio of you, or if there is it just says, “Hi, I’m a fun-loving mom to four boys.”

One thing you can do to make it easy for your visitors to connect with you is to put your name on your blog posts or have an author bio at the end of your posts.

Monica on her blog has an author box under her blog posts. It gives a little bio about who she is and what her blog is about.

screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-4-31-28-pm

At the end of my blog posts, I make sure to put my headshot and a little bio at the end of my blog posts.

Just by having your name or an author box increases visitors to comment on your post. It just makes it much more personal, and visitors can relate to you that way!

6. No Formatting

When you write your blog posts, do you use H2 tags?

Do you use a lot of white space?

How about subheadings?

These little things are what makes a blog post easy to read and helps your reader scan your post, because if you don’t already know, the majority of people scan your post.

I know. It’s a sad thing.

When I found this out, a unicorn died…in my soul.

I’m a freelance writer and get paid to blog so, it’s hard for me to understand why no one is literally reading every word I type.

🙂

I’m over it by now of course, but when I found out it was hard to handle. So, I made sure to format my post to make it easy to read.

I make sure to use subheadings (like I did in this post when I numbered my list). In WordPress, in your new blog, just move your cursor to the T to open up the heading tool.

 

Another way to make it easier to read is to make your paragraphs shorter. Instead of having five sentences in your paragraph, only have two.

Or one.

Just doing these two things can help blog posts make it easier to digest on amateur blogs.

7. No Way to Grow Your Email List

Let me guess:

You’re a new blogger and haven’t been thinking about growing your email list? I know. I was the same when I first started too.

But, that’s a mistake. Most of us want to monetize our blog and the way to do this as a living is to have an email list.

If you want to do all that, then one of the first things to do is set up an email list. And to grow your email list you need a plan.

One way I started to grow my Twins Mommy email list was to create content upgrades (there’s one in this blog post). I also did webinars and finally created a lead magnet.

Oh, and I use Pinterest to grow my list too!

Now I generate email subscribers daily.

Amateur Bloggers Don’t Need to Make These Mistakes Anymore!

I know.

There’s just so much to blogging that it’s overwhelming. It’s okay if you’re making these mistakes. Now you know, and now you can fix them.

Make it a project every week or every month to tackle a mistake.

Now, I want to know, what’s your biggest blogging blunder as a amateur mom blogger? Please pin me!

Leave a Reply

81 Comments

Loved this! Maybe my biggest mistake is not having a small enough niche, I’m still figuring it out.Reply to Gabriela
Hi Grabriela, It’s okay to have a large niche, but speak to one type of avatar then!Reply to Elna
Great post. Thank you for the great tips!Reply to Diana
Hey Elna! These were great tips! Thank you so much for sharing! I appreciate the info as I too am trying to boost traffic on my blog. Thanks again!☺️Reply to Emily
Hi Emily! You’re welcome! Glad you found some blog traffic tips to help you boost your pageviews! It does take a lot of creating and promoting but worth it in the end!Reply to Elna
Thank you so much for this blog post. I did read every word btw lol, but as I a teacher I complete understand that not everything we say or write our readers/students listen or read it!Reply to stephanie
Hey Stephanie, Thanks so much for reading every word 🙂 Means a lot from a freelance writer 🙂 Glad you enjoyed this post on amateur mistakes!Reply to Elna
Email list for starters. And I deliberately don’t use a headshot yet, I keep debating myself on that topic, but I don’t really feel comfortable at the moment. With the email list my worry is that right now, it takes sooooo much effort (and time!) for me to create blog posts. Slowly I managed to be more consistent on social media but I could still do better… and if I add the email list and have to create content for that too – I feel like it’ll be too much! It’s on my list to finally take that step, and also, I want to create some sort of freebie before I have a list, so the pair of them can go out together.Reply to Nikki
Hey Nikki! I know the feeling. I write about email marketing and growing your email list for a lot of my clients and even on this blog but actually doing it – is hard! It’s a lot of work and writing for sure! But, once you commit and stick with it, it does get easier!Reply to Elna
Thanks for including my head shots an example of what new bloggers should do. But confession time, I’m actually making one of the blogging mistakes. I don’t have an author box on my site, even though you tell us exactly how to set one up in Ready Set Blog Traffic??‍♀️Reply to Kate
Hey Kate! You’re welcome! I just updated this post and decided to put your headshot! Ha! author boxes are something I FEEL bloggers should have, but it isn’t set in stone. I personally want to know who is writing this post when I land on it from Pinterest, you know? Yes! get an author box and promote the shiz out of it!Reply to Elna
You’re totally right Elna. It’s on the list…or should I say Trello board. **wink** I was wondering though, did your husband custom code your Ready Set Blog For Traffic banner to show up at the bottom of every post or do you manually add it at the end of every post? Either way it’s such a smart idea!Reply to Kate
Hi Kate! It’s a Thrive Leads form but with no form attached so it acts like a banner rotator! I paste the Thrive shortcode in the post and the design can be changed and split tested without updating every post. And yes he did it pretty smart!Reply to Elna
First, I adore your blog. I have already learned so much! Second, I am making some of these mistakes. The email list is a BIG one. I just don’t know how to get it started. I used to be a full book blogger and then we re-branded, finally realizing that we were a Mom blog (or that’s the way our focus tended to go) the entire time. This is a very helpful post so thank you for sharing it 🙂 Hopefully I can stop making these mistakes so I can start growing my blog even more!Reply to Megan
Hey Megan! I’m glad you took those post to help you change your tactics! Now you know what to do so good luck with growing your blog!Reply to Elna
Hey, Elna! Lovely post. I was wondering- how the heck DO you get an ”author” spot at the bottom of each of your posts? AleeReply to Alee
Hey Alee, That’s a WordPress plugin. Sorry, not sure which one I have. I think it’s like fancy author box?Reply to Elna
This is so great! I’m sharing this! So many bloggers need to read this!Reply to Mihaela
Hi Miheala! You’re welcome 🙂 There’s so much to learn with blogging isn’t there? So happy this post will help you for your blog in 2017!Reply to Elna
I was worried that maybe I was making some huge mistakes! But then I read through and realized that I’m headed in the right direction. 🙂 Thanks Elna.Reply to Sarah
Hey Sarah, That’s great! Good luck in 2017 🙂Reply to Elna
I am new to this and like a sponge absorbing all this great info. I have read many posts like this but you mention some things the others don’t – thank you!Reply to Jeanette
Hey Jeanette! You’re welcome! Yes, for new bloggers it’s hard to find all the information you need to set up your blog right? It’s a lot of trial and error for sure! Thanks for coming over!Reply to Elna
Excellent tips!! Waiting on my new head shots as we speak!Reply to Jennifer
Hey Jennifer! That’s great! Can’t wait to see your Gravatar!Reply to Elna
Oh my goodness, I made so many of these mistakes! Great post. I’m definitely referencing some of these blogs you linked. 🙂 Thank you!Reply to Becky
Hey Becky! Wow! Your site is AMAZING! Love your design. Glad to help you out!Reply to Elna
I really enjoyed this post! Shared it over on twitter so I can come back to it as a reference when I decide to sit down and fix my blog errors. Thank you for sharing these tips!Reply to Courtney
Hey Courtney! I’m so glad this post helped you! There’s so much more to blogging then writing! I had to learn the hard way!Reply to Elna
Hey Elna, I am a new mommy blogger and found this post so helpful. I am going to work on your tips 3,4,5,6,7. Actually need to work on all points. I was actually confused about what to do with my blog. Your post is really helpful for newbie bloggers like me.Reply to Soumya
Hi Soumya! Thanks so much. So happy to hear that you found some great tips to help improve your blog!Reply to Elna
Super helpful article! Love your site and how helpful you are! I’m always learning something new!Reply to jehava
Hey Jehava! Thanks so much. Enjoying your site too mama!Reply to Elna
It is a great post Elna. I’ve already taken care of many details you’re talking about, but there are a few things on my blog I must fix. We can always progress, add and test new things. I think that is the real charm of blogging, you can always create something better. 😉Reply to Marko
Hey Marko, Thanks for the tips. Yes, creating your blog is a fun thing to do eh?Reply to Elna
I have been working more on branding and consistency lately. I just revamped all of my blog images. All of my Pinterest images have the same template and text. I change them up a little with different colors. And, I FINALLY added a lead magnet at the top of my blog. That has gotten me 2-3+ new subscribers a day.Reply to Kecia
Hey Kecia! Yeah I noticed you changed up your blog and images! Nice! And yes, that’s great you have a lead magnet. It also took me forever too!Reply to Elna
Great list to help keep me on track! Loved it 🙂Reply to The
I’m SO inconsistent with my branding because I don’t feel like I’ve settled into the right colors and site design. Someday soon I’ll finally get over it and just stick to something 😉Reply to Chantal
Hey Chantal, I know! I noticed you’ve changed a lot of your branding on your blog, but I think you’re just finding the right visual representation for your biz. I change my freelance writing website every year! Totally different. https://elnacain.com/blog/attract-clients-with-writer-website/Reply to Elna
Thanks Elna! For me it’s not a case of putting my face out there though…it’s just being active that drains me. So, I guess automating posts might be a better option for me. I just need to do a good research on that and give it a try.Reply to Thembi
Hey Thembi! Yes, being active can be draining but that’s what’s great about automating your social media posts. And, if it’s in your budget you can actually hire someone to take care of all your social media marketing!Reply to Elna
You are soo right Elna. Am definitely looking into that right away! Thanks for the advice. Have the best weekend!Reply to Thembi
Awesome! Good luck.Reply to Elna
Great job as always Elna. BUT, #1.No Social Media Presence… That’s a tough one for me. Truth is , I hate Social Media (I know, right?). And, this has affected my love for blogging…a lot! I avoided SM at all costs when I had my blog, which I had mad love for(about moms quitting their jobs to be WAHMs). Although I was doing most of the right things (I know I did)…SM absence affected my blog growth, and I ended up making the hardest decision of taking it down. I tried to go the *fake it till you make it* route but — it almost killed me (i’m an epic introvert, it never works). For now I’m just focusing on my freelance copywriting…but, it’s a career choice; not my passion :-(. So, I’m still trying to find a way around SM so I can go back to blogging, but it’s soo overwhelming. BTW –thanks for the solutions too! Some people like pointing out mistakes but never give solutions.Reply to Thembi
Hey, Thanks for being so honest. I know what you mean. I’m a big introvert too. That’s why I like blogging. I guess I freeze in “real” life when I talk to “real” people. At least here I can self edit A LOT! As for SM, can you not just automate your postings? You don’t have to put your face on social media if that’s an issue. But, do find a creative way however to connect with your audience. I understand it’s so overwhelming. The business side is just as hard I’m learning 🙂Reply to Elna
Elna, you’re amazing! Thank you for sharing this info. I love the way you write. Every time I read one of your posts I find myself laughing at little things you say (“a unicorn died in my soul”).Reply to Amanda
Hey! You READ my post 🙂 I never know if people read word for word or subhead paragraphs. You just put a smile on my face 🙂 I’m more funnier online than in real life, BUT, I am quite funny around people I’m comfortable with and well, my blog is my baby 🙂 Thank you so much for being a loyal follower. It’s people like you that really help me realize that even though the business side of blogging is almost too much for me, I shouldn’t let that stop me from helping other mom bloggers out there!Reply to Elna
I can’t help it! You’re such a good writer ^_^. Thanks for putting yourself out there for us.Reply to Amanda
Thanks so much! That’d make a good testimonial for my freelance writing service 🙂Reply to Elna
Thank you for such great information! I am a newbie blogger and find myself runny in circles without going anywhere a lot of the time! Now I have a plan to inspire me and guide me!Reply to Dawn
Hi Dawn! You’re welcome. There are so many blogging mistakes posts out there but I don’t find them at all useful to me b/c they don’t point out the most important mistakes. They also don’t help you fix them! So glad you found this post helpful!Reply to Elna
Thank you! :):)Reply to suzi
No thank you!Reply to Elna
Again great tips. I confess that im too lazy n make some of these mistakes. Now would try to amend them.Reply to Afaf
Hi Afaf, Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s like me and Photoshop. I know I’m probably doing it wrong, but it works for now!Reply to Elna
Thanks so much! Your advice is so helpful. Your website is a wealth of information:)Reply to Sam
Hey Sam! Thanks so much. Glad you liked this post 🙂Reply to Elna
Thanks for the great tips, Elna. Although I’m not a mommy blogger, I found this helpful and took notes to improve my own blog!Reply to Christine
Hey Christine! That’s great. Yeah, even seasoned bloggers may have these mistakes. No problem though!Reply to Elna
Great post! I’m definitely guilty of a couple there – especially social media! I just signed up for Buffer, and I already have Hootsuite, but ask me if I’m actually USING them? LOL! Thanks for the motivation to get back on it!Reply to Jennifer
Hey Jennifer! The first step is admitting your mistakes eh? Good job! So glad I can help you out. I think I have a post I want to do about Buffer!! Can’t wait.Reply to Elna
Hi Elna!! Thank you for including my pictures on your post! I had fun taking them. Your tips are all true! It’s the promo one I fall down on. I do really well for week or two then fall off the wagon lol! Automation & scheduling definitely helps a lot. Laura xReply to Laura
Hey Laura! You’re welcome! Love your photos. So fun! Ha.. Thanks so much.Reply to Elna
As always great tips that will definitely be helpful and it’s giving me so many good ideas. I’ve had a blog for awhile and just recently I’ve been tweaking my site to make it look good. Once that’s good, I can be consistent in blogging and grow my social media presence, which is what I currently do in my part-time job. I’m only able to put in random hours due to my jobs but I look forward to doing it full time. I’ve been using Buffer in my part-time to post to FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn which has gotten me use to adding posts to my own blog. It’s been very useful and pretty easy to use.Reply to Cat
Hey Cat, Yeah, it’s hard to devote time to your blog when you have a full-time job. And kids are no exception. My twins aren’t in daycare so I have them all day, but my husband and MIL are around and they relieve me for an hour or two every day! Plus they nap. So, I can devote a bit more time. But, yeah there is still NO TIME! That’s great you’re using Buffer. I use Buffer to schedule my FB group posts for my course students and I can do that for free and loop it a bit every 2 weeks or so. It’s nice!Reply to Elna