MISTAKES I MADE BEFORE LAUNCHING MY BLOG

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend and are starting this week on a right note. Today I decided to come on here and share with you some of the things I wish I had done before launching my blog. My blog is just seven months old, so I’m still a newbie and it hasn’t been easy, this blogging gig is not a joke but I’m getting a hang of it and learning something new everyday. Blogging has been such a great journey and I wouldn’t want it to be any other way, I now know why I started blogging and that it was the right decision to make. So now that I’ve finished my speech(clap! clap!), let’s get back to the topic of the mistakes I made before launching my blog.

 

MISTAKES I MADE BEFORE LAUNCHING MY BLOG

1. NOT PLANNING AHEAD.

What I mean here is planning what to do next once I had launched it. I did the whole you must have a few posts before it’s up, check images, SEO and spell checking, all that I wrote in my what you should include in every blog post. But what I didn’t plan for was what to do next, I didn’t think of how I was going to promote my posts, on which platforms I would do that and just how to get my blog out there for others to read, which was a huge mistake that cost me traffic and readers from day one, so note to self, planning is key.

2. JOINING GROUPS LATE

Here is where I really messed up. The mistake was not joining blogger groups before launching, this is so important because you get to learn so much from other bloggers and promote your blog before it’s out which was something I should have done. Groups in Facebook, Pinterest whichever platform you choose are good for promotion and by the time I launched my blog there was nobody to read it and no one even knew it existed. That was a rooky mistake and since then, I have joined groups that offer great help and information.

3. TOO MUCH RESEARCH

When I decided to start a blog, I read every information I found out there about blogging but I guess I missed the memo where okay, you’ve done your research now start publishing. I had 20 posts before launching so I was like you know ” I’m a pro”, But I was too engrossed on finding out more information on blogging that I wasted so much time researching instead of writing/coming up with ideas and that’s where planning comes to play, so nowadays I try to write consistently and learn as I go. I’m not saying researching is bad, just that it can be destructing from the task at hand.

4. NOT ASKING FOR HELP

When I wanted help to figure out all this tech stuff, my mistake was not asking anyone for help and just trying to fix everything by myself which was a pity because people are willing to help and all I needed to do was find a place to do that. I love Facebook blogger groups and if I had joined them before, then everything would have ran so smoothly and it would have saved me so much time. So learn from my mistakes people, don’t be afraid to ask for help you will get the information you need.

5.HESITATING TO LAUNCH

My blog was ready to launch, but I was hesitating and fearing that it wasn’t right or it could look better. That lasted for a month of me saying I was still making it perfect but the thing is I was comparing myself to other bloggers and blogs which was a wrong thing to do, everyone is different and the fear I had was for nothing because once I launched it, I realised that there was nothing to be afraid of.

So there you go, these are the mistakes I made before launching my blog. If you haven’t started a blog yet, here is a simple guide to do just that. Anything you wish you would’ve done differently before starting your blog? Do tell in the comments below.

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140 Comments

  1. good advice. Eventually I want to have a website instead of a free blog, but for now I’m ok where it’s at. I have a goal I would like to reach before I do the whole putting money into something I may not have enough time for. I loved reading your tips and how you learned from them.

  2. I think every blogger can relate to some aspect you’ve listed above. There are so many things I’ve learnt and discovering blogger groups has been great! Keep up the great work!

  3. I am so guilty of number three. Analysis paralysis is so real! My background is in market research so I’m constantly pouring through information out of habit. I’ve gotten much better at this by segmenting my day and using pomodoros throughout those segments. This has dramatically prevented me from researching too much and making sure I don’t take away time from actually implementing the things I need to do for my blog.

  4. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I agree with everything here! I redid my blog a few times as I found better themes, better plugins, etc. and wish I would have taken the time to plan and research that all before I jumped in.

  5. With my blog I just went for it! No posts, no planning, nothing! I WISH I would have written a few posts and joined Facebook groups before launching. My experience has been truly trial and error.

  6. I was pretty green when I launched my blog. I didn’t know that “launching” a blog was an actual thing. I had a website developer set up my site, it went live immediately with nothing on it, and I just began posting from there. I operated under the concept “learn as you go.” 🙂

  7. I can relate with not asking for help. I’ve had headaches trying to figure out how to fix things when I mess up. My site went down for several days because of my mistake. I thought people always ask for a fee. Some people from Facebook groups actually help for free.

  8. I guess #3 is so apt in my case. I have been researching for the past 4 months and have acquired a decent knowledge of SEO. Although I am yet to generate a lot of content, so once I do that, I will just start my site. Thanks for these tips.

  9. Yes, i can really relate to number 2, i understood quite late how important is joining groups! Good tips Good job!

  10. I could relate to every word… as I have also committed all these things. A very helpful post for new bloggers.

  11. Yes, I started blogging, with an actual blog, 2 1/2 years ago I was ion almost 3 months before I learned about groups. However, I had no clue there were so many and only belonged to maybe two and they were EN and mlsp groups because those were was who my blog was through at first. I have come so far since then!

  12. Hello, Joan!

    Things do happen… And what’s best that we come over them no matter later or sooner.

    And glad that you did! 🙂

    I was like the same and I worked mostly on making my content the ‘correct and perfect.’

    And you know nothing can be perfect even though how much your strike against.

    So, I started to keep writing and publish with the little revisions.

    And voila! They are now loved by my readers. 🙂

    So, keep going! 🙂

    ~ Adeel

  13. This is good! I haven’t officially launched my blog yet, just a little mention here and there. I think I will add 1-3 more posts with different main subjects before I choose a big launch, but I just need to do it without hesitation! <3

    1. The launching part is usually the scariest where you keep on second guessing yourself whether you’ve done everything right but all you have to know is once you do it, everything becomes way much easier and that’s when you can start enjoying your blogging journey. Happy launch.

  14. Back in mid-2015 I was a newbie and did not understand the concept of launching a blog. I just started posting live as soon as my blog design was finished. Especially if you know you won’t have readers right away it’s great to get it online ASAP so Google can start indexing the pages and will be able to start the clock on aging your site – the longer you are around the more Google begins to trust you and familiarize itself with your content. So if I were to launch another site, I would do it the exact same way!

    1. That’s great, I ended up with literally no views nobody not knowing I existed but I did learn from it and I’m still proud that I went for it either way.

  15. I probably didn’t plan as well as I should have which left me hesitant not only to launch but also after launching. I joined fb groups but it’s also hard to know which ones.

  16. Thank you for sharing openly. Many of us have made similar mistakes when getting ourselves started.

  17. Great tips! I agree with every point that you mentioned. Although my current blog is new, I am not completely new to blogging. If I didn’t know the things you mentioned in this post, I’d be stressed like crazy. LOL

    1. Thank you so much, it was hard for me when I started and after finding out about groups and how I would have advertised my blog before launching, I really regretted it but now I’m happy that I got to do it the hard way.

  18. Hi Joan, great advice!! And I am sooo guilty of most of these things. To be honest, there’s still a lot of room for improvement here. But that’s OK, your tips will certainly help with that!

  19. We started right around the same time, and I so feel you on all of these! The amount of information out there is overwhelming, sometimes you have to just zoom back in and get back to creating content. Awesome post!

  20. I made all the same mistakes! And I’m with you…facebook blogging groups are key in learning/promoting. I’ve been blogging 10 months and just figured out the whole group thing LOL! Thanks for the great info! It’s so helpful to new bloggers!

  21. Hi,
    Great article. I have published a checklist on what to do after publishing. I’ve never seen a checklist on what not to do before publishing! Great idea! Tweeted!
    Janice

  22. 3 and 5 really got me when I launched my blog. What I found super helpful was having a facebook page before I had my blog. I created my page based on my blog and would get followers to that so when I had my blog up and ready to go I could post it on my facebook page and then I would already have viewers. Great post! Thanks for sharing.

  23. I feel like I can totally relate to what you went through! I just started my blog and feel like I’m constantly learning and figuring out things. What promotional platform would you recommend? I currently use Insta, but am thinking about Pinterest too!

    1. I am pathetic with insta, so I go for Pinterest, Facebook and Stumbleupon but I try to minimise on the last one because it can increase your bounce rate.

  24. Great tips. Perfectionism is a huge thing which sometimes stays in our way. What I´ve learned when I started blogging is “do it” and don´t try to be perfect.

  25. Awesome advice. I’ve been blogging since January, and I was lucky in that I come from a techie background which made that side of things so much faster for me. However, I am only just getting the hang of promotion/marketing. It’s a whole new world I never knew existed – what an eye opener!

  26. Not joining groups is my greatest regret. I had a good deal of content, but no one was seeing it. Joining groups on Facebook helped make all the difference

  27. I am new to blogging too. And I just took the step to start. Along the way I am still learning and seeing what works and what doesn’t. I have tried asking for help from the blog community but unfortunately not everyone is helpful. So I just had to figure it out for myself. Thank you for sharing as it shines some light.

    1. I know what you mean, there some groups where you can ask for help and literally everyone seems to ignore you or if anyone answers, it’s not really what your looking for or it’s an affiliate link to buy something. But there’s still hope for the ones who truly do help,plus you did it by yourself so good on you and be proud.

  28. Hesitating to launch was my biggest roadblock! There is never a perfect time, and I had to tell myself that my blog would be constantly evolving and growing, so just hit publish!

  29. I can relate to all of this. Especially nr. 5. I had my first profile for months before I published that first post terrified.

  30. I went through the same thing, so I feel ya. I’m considering starting another blog, so this is going to help me.

    1. Once you have one, he second is going to be a breeze since we’ve learnt from all the things we did wrong with the first. Good luck on your second one.

  31. As a blogger, I completely relate to this list! Especially with not planning ahead. I feel like when I first hit “publish” that I should have had 10 to 15 posts already written, so that I could focus solely on promo. Even now, I hit a rough patch at work October-November, and I had no posts scheduled! I’m learning from that mistake. Your tips are all great!

  32. we started at the same time! I’m a newbie too in blogging industry but as time goes by and been posting everyday I’m learning a lot and i think my blog has grown a lot too.

  33. These are excellent tips. I’ve been blogging for 2 years and I still need to find someone who can help me with technical tips. I can definitely use the help in that area.

  34. I agree with everything. These truly are some good tips and this article is great for any blogger to read. Great post!

  35. I’m a bit guilty of about half of these, especially the researching and the not asking for help ones because they play hand in hand. I figured I would just research my way out of problems and try to make sure everything is perfect before letting people read it, so I’m still trying to get over this.

  36. So … been there done that 🙂 in general… i really have to start to ask questions … every time i have a problem i am like ..ok… google will help … and yes it helps but for specific things you need to ask someone who can help 🙂

  37. Not planning ahead. Guilty of this one. Wasted so much time with no real plan or direction.

  38. I could definitely relate, We alll do mistakes and blogging is a different zone that we must put so much attention before launching. I have at least ask for some advice before launching cause I know to host your own blog will be expensive. In the end we learn on our mistakes and be became better through learning!

  39. These are definitely mistakes many bloggers make, myself included! I know I want to make some changes now that I wish I thought about when I first started.

  40. These mistakes are relatable amongst all bloggers. I, myself, am currently making these mistakes. Will definitely take these into considerations since I’m still in the process of starting a blog.

  41. This is great for those who are just looking to start their blogs. Thank you for this post, I learned something new today

  42. I have definitely made a few of these mistakes, but I treat this as a learning process. I am learning and growing in this blogging world each and every day! Thank you for sharing your mistakes and how you grew from them.

  43. Yup, I think we’ve all made these mistakes. I know I did. I used to not ask for help, but now I will. I also joined groups super late–I think I had my blog for years before I finally joined blogging groups.

  44. Thanks for sharing your perspective! Your blog is beautiful and we think you’re doing GREAT! Xx

  45. I love it when other bloggers write about things they did that they learned from. Thanks for sharing this. I can relate to a lot of it!

  46. It’s great that you were “goal orientated” before you started your blog and thought about the entire process. I started mine out of passion and only found supporting groups so much later in time.

  47. These are some great helping hits, I have to admit I just launched mine I did nothing and I guess in some ways I regret that but then it wasn’t so much a big thing back then.

  48. Thank you for sharing your experience so others won’t make the same mistakes! My blog which turned into my husband and I’s blog just launched in March and I’ve definitely made it a priority to have enough content so others stay longer!

  49. I am also a rookie blogger. I came through mistakes with no clear idea of seo and the related things. But, gradually came to know them. Sharing mattered most important to me. Loved your article.

  50. These are great tips. Definitely agree with joining groups on FB and Pinterest. Promoting your content well is probably one of the most important things!
    xoxo
    Annie

  51. This is my second blog that i’ve launched and STILL i made mistakes! Some times its the best way to learn what works and what works for you (because it doesn’t always line up)

  52. One of my biggest mistake was not joining FB groups early on too. I didn’t know about them till almost 5 years in. I must have been under a rock.

  53. I think we’ve all made these mistakes at some point in the beginning as bloggers but now we know better and can teach newer bloggers what to avoid 🙂

  54. I asked for help and the person was not at all receptive. It tainted my opinion on asking. Later I learned most bloggers are wonderfully helpful, so I agree…ask for help if you need it!

  55. These are very well said. I was thinking starting a blog was easy until I actually started it. It’s pure work and although it is very rewarding, you definitely have to plan ahead.

  56. I so much love this. Nice post mix. Every blogger needs to know of this and be sure too for the newbies.

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