Quality blogging takes continuous work. Rome wasn’t built in a day and so won’t your blogging expertise become super over night. This text will single out most common blogging mistakes hoping to help you on your future blogging journey.

Don’t get too self-critical, though – these mistakes can really happen to even the most experienced of bloggers out there.

Mistake #1: Hoping for success over night

Blogging isn’t something you can master in a day. Quality blogging really does take research, time and continuous investment in your knowledge. Aside from theoretical knowledge, you need to get practical, too.

The first thing to do is obviously to find a field of interest that motivates you most, something you feel you can excel at. But remember – successful blogging isn’t just about doing what you love. It’s about continuous dedication and patience invested in the whole project.

Mistake #2: Insufficient amount of knowledge

You probably feel like you want to stand out with the blogging topics your blog features, and your impulse is really noble. Yet, don’t work on something you aren’t completely comfortable with. To all of your readers, you will appear unprofessional and semi-dedicated which is the worst rating you may get. Also, use various sources in order to give your readership an out-and-out experience. The audience is tough out there, so when starting a blog or already running one, work on something close to your heart and knowledge levels – it’s the only way to succeed.

Mistake #3: Treating your blog as a virtual diary

Honestly, nobody wants to hear about anyone’s problems. As a writer and a blogger your job is to help, guide and inspire your audience, not to overwhelm them with your personal drama. Drawing on your own experience is good and desirable but only when presented in moderation. If your opinions, attitudes or experience on a certain matter cannot be helpful to your readers, avoid using them.

Mistake #4: Your writing is just too much to handle

You need to make a difference between running a blog and writing a book. Once you turn to writing in hope of getting published your personal ornamental style of writing will surely be very appreciated and acknowledged. Yet, while you are a blogger you need to tone it down a bit. Nobody chases a blog for a linguistically exhausted reading – people would rather dig into something light and easy on the mind.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

– Leonardo da Vinci

You’ll spot a good blogger through the use of his metaphors. Abstract ideas have no place on a blog – rather, they should be toned down and simplified as much as possible. Use simple words and expressions in presenting complex concepts. Instead of going Fitzgerald on your reads, be a Hemingway – simplify the way you write, keeping the reading just as powerful.

Mistake #5: Daily publishing

Feeling guilty over not posting on your blog every single day? Don’t.

Let’s put things this way: do you really believe your followers have the time to read or view things you post on daily basis? Not so much.

Even if you do post daily, there is a pretty big chance they don’t have the time to see it. Plus, being all hectic about posting daily, you’ll neglect the dialogue and comments on your blog which will lead to no good. Don’t overwhelm the readers with your content. Instead, let your blog wisdom sit for a bit. Whoever follows your blog needs to process the content you’ve posted too – and that takes time.

Mistake #6: No properly defined target readership

If there is no properly defined target audience any blog post will become too common and overly universal. Following this pattern, you’ll end up writing for no one and addressing everyone and that’s not something a successful blogger does.

Try visualizing the reader you are writing to instead of addressing the whole crowd. That way you’ll give yourself a chance to get more personal in your advice, more concrete and consequently helpful.

Mistake #7: You no longer care about your topic choices

It is true of any job that enthusiasm wears off in time. Still, being conscious of this fact you need to do your best and prevent it from becoming your trait.

You need to be on top of all the topics you are to present to your followers and you need to keep them upbeat and interesting.

Don’t let your mind wander into unrelated topics. While it may strike your readers as immediately refreshing, it’ll get boring in the long run.

Mistake #8: Your blogs lack a personal touch

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of bloggers write on the same topic as you do. Is there anything that makes you stand out?

Instead of following the herd – find your voice, something that will immediately set you apart from everybody else.

Try finding a different, more appealing angle to an already exhausted topic. Offer interesting insights and solutions. Draw on facts nobody else has ever mentioned before in a particular context. Use your personal experience as a guide through a vague topic. Experiment!

You don’t need to be suggestive in order to be brilliant.

Mistake #9: It takes less than 10 minutes for you to write a post

You may pride on your typing skills, but here’s some news for you – running a blog isn’t about being fast. It’s about being thorough, informative, literate and intriguing.

Instead of spending insufficient time on writing a blog post, put some time and thought into it before publishing. Go through every paragraph twice and don’t let grammar mistakes ruin the whole picture. Illiterate texts appeal to no one and further give away a sense of sloppiness. Avoid lengthy sentences and keep things concise. Use spell-checkers – that’s what they are for!

Mistake #10: SEO influences your style

Writing entirely with SEO in mind, your posts will inevitably lose a personal touch. Don’t let Google rain on your parade – your audience should be your primary concern; text optimization comes after.

Mistake #11: You are limited by the number of words

The number of words per post shouldn’t be determinant of the quality of your blog posts nor it should define a topic you are working on. Don’t limit yourself by previously setting the bar on words too high or too low. Write as long/short as you like, just make sure you don’t lose point.

Mistake #12: You use too much jargon

No matter how fun it may seem, using too much jargon will kill the artistic value of your post. Remember, the crowd reading your posts isn’t the same crowd you hang out with (well, most of them aren’t) so you need to be clear on the message you are trying to convey. You don’t want your reader pausing every other word, trying to figure out what it was that you were trying to say.

Eventually, he/she will give up and stop reading you altogether.

Mistake #13: Conclusions aren’t inspiring

Instead of offering your readers a conclusion, let them get there themselves. Open endings are always more inspiring and uplifting than putting your readers in a box you’ve built for them.

This is especially true for those pointless, cheesy, off topic, universal, leaving-a-bad-taste-in-my-mouth conclusions that manage to kill the previously well written passages in the blog.

If you don’t feel like writing a conclusion today, leave it for tomorrow. It’s okay, nobody will beat you to it. Just remember – the morning is wiser than evening.

Are you tight for time?

Our readers trust us enough to take the time out of their day to read what we’d written for them. Their time isn’t easily earned and is easily lost if not handled well. The competition is huge with so many smart, creative individuals having so much to share. This is why you should value every second of your readers’ time and offer high-quality reading every single time.