Sharon Tseung 0:02
Hey guys, it’s Sharon from digital nomad quest. And in today’s video, we’re going to talk about 10 things you shouldn’t do when you start a blog. Now if you guys are new to this channel, welcome. I’m all about teaching how to build passive income, become financially free and design your best life. So if you guys are interested in that, make sure to smash that subscribe button. So now let’s just get right into it. So I have been blogging for about five years now. It’s been a long time coming. And I have learned a lot of different things from the experience, I have noticed many different mistakes I have made and other bloggers make constantly. And that’s why I wanted to make this video so that you guys can avoid these mistakes. So number one, do not get action paralysis. When you’re starting a blog, if you start worrying about making the perfect blog, if you’re worrying about when to turn it on and get it live in launch. Really don’t worry about that. Just make sure that you actually do it. So a lot of people I’ve met they’re like, I don’t want to launch it yet because I’m nothing on my site right now or like the designs not good enough right now. And in my opinion, it’s all about just starting and then learning along the way. So make sure you don’t get the action problem. Number two, you shouldn’t start a blog in a niche that you’re not passionate about. I have mentioned this before, but honestly, I have started probably 10 to 20 websites to be honest, and a lot of them I’ve just dropped off because I am not interested in a lot of those topics. And that is a problem. If you are not excited about what you’re writing about, you’re definitely going to lose momentum. And you’re not going to keep writing, it’s hard to stay consistent. And especially if you don’t like what you’re talking about, you’re gonna burn out, definitely. So you want to make sure that you find a niche that you actually care about that you can see yourself continuously writing content for. And also a blog is kind of like having a long conversation with people. So if you’re not able to talk about certain topics in a way that you’re genuinely excited about it, people will see it and people know that it’s not something you actually care about. And if that’s the case, they’re not gonna follow along, you’re not gonna have readers constantly checking up on your content and seeing what you’re up to. And that’s really key in order to have a successful blog. Number three, don’t spend too much time perfecting design. So I talked about this sort of in number one But basically a lot of people worry about what the blog looks like, just don’t worry about it because you can change it along the way. When I first started my blog, I use a free theme like it looked pretty crappy. And the more I blogged, the more I decided to upgrade it to what it looks like. Now I’ve had over five different types of designs on the blog, like it has gone through a lot of changes. And that’s what’s gonna happen with your own blog. So you don’t need to worry too much, you can always change the design, just make sure you’re putting out content consistently. Alright, number four, don’t make a free blog actually by hosting and a domain. You know, there are free platforms out there. But honestly, if you have your own domain and hosting, it’s a lot better for you in the long run. You can build a brand around it, you can monetize your site easier, you have more customizable options, so make sure you choose your hosting plan in your domain. I recommend using Hostgator it’s one of the cheapest hosting plans and if you look at my other video I talked about Bluehost vs hostgator. But both are good hosting platforms as you can see on my video, check that video out as well as the link below. If you want to sign up for Hostgator have a code dn que 60. If you want to try that out, or 60% off number five, don’t forget to collect emails from the very beginning. So when I first started out, I didn’t really think about it. But email lists are very crucial to the success of your blog, having a strong email list and engage users is really beneficial because you’re keeping in touch with them. And then you can let them know when you have new products and stuff out there in order to get those sales. But ultimately, it’s another way to have a conversation with the user, not just from the blog post, but also just to keep them updated on a regular basis. So I try to send out weekly emails, as well as I have these automated email sequences if you get some of my free courses and toolkits on my website. My favorite recommendation for email marketing is ConvertKit because it’s super easy to set up your funnels and your sequences and manage your lists as well as segment them out. So I’ll talk a little bit more about ConvertKit in future videos, but if you want to check it out, make sure to check the link below for ConvertKit the number six don’t use platforms like square spacing weights instead, you shouldn’t use WordPress, you’re not going to get the same options as WordPress with those other platforms, you’re going to be able to customize your website so much more if you choose WordPress, WordPress is open source. So it allows developers to create their own plugins onto the platform that you can use yourself. And with WordPress, you know that you’re going to be able to optimize your site the best with SEO. So I use like the Yoast SEO plug in and WordPress is just so much better when it comes to SEO as well. So number seven, don’t forget to invest in your business. So treat your blog as a business because if you just treat it as like a writing hobby, you’re never gonna grow. So you want to make sure you invest in the tools like I mentioned, like ConvertKit or teachable and also invest in courses and stuff like that. So when I first started out, I always just depended on free resources. But ultimately, if you want to exponentially grow your website, you have to, you know, attend conferences, take courses, understand that, like a lot of paid information will guide you step by step,

whereas the free information you’re gonna have to keep searching And then you might not even get exactly the stuff you need. So as long as you are investing in yourself and making sure you are spending money on the right education, you’re going to be able to grow your blog immensely. Number eight, don’t forget to actually keep track of your income and your expenses. So you want to make sure you have a spreadsheet of everything you’re spending as well as what you are making back on, people try to avoid it because they don’t want to deal with the numbers. And they don’t want to deal with the reality of how much they’re spending and how much they’re actually getting back. But honestly, it’s very crucial to like write this stuff out. It’s good for tax purposes. And it’s also good for getting that overall picture of how your blog is doing. Number nine, don’t forget the power of Pinterest and SEO. So these are the two ways that I really advocate to understand in order to grow your blog traffic, both of these methods are good to rank for certain posts. Basically, Pinterest is almost like another version of Google where you can look up different topics and then find search results based on what you’ve searched. So basically, if you can rank well on Pinterest, it’s almost like ranking well on Google. And it’s like, basically the same thing where you want to rank high so that you get those page views. And number 10. Obviously, don’t stop posting, okay? A lot of people make the mistake of just like mass pushing out a bunch of posts because they get excited. And then they burn out. And they don’t want to like touch it for weeks and months. I had that issue a long time ago, where I would be a digital nomad. And then for a while, I wouldn’t post because I wasn’t in the mood. But one of the easiest ways to make sure you’re consistent is you schedule out posts, as well as kind of keep a Google Keep in a Google Sheet tracker of all your to do items. So once you have that, you’re able to kind of make sure that you are keeping yourself in check. And also make sure to check my YouTube video on how to stay consistent with blogging because it has some very helpful tips on how to make sure you’re continuously putting out content. Because if you’re not doing that, Google will see that you’re not like keeping up with your website and it’s going to rank you lower. So you want to make sure that you keep up with your website and you make sure you keep up with valuable content to your users. I’m going to add another button. mistake that a lot of people make. So for number 11, a lot of people write these short like 300 to 500 word posts thinking that those are gonna make it, those are gonna be okay. But as you know, the blogging world is getting more and more saturated. So you want to make sure that your posts stand out, you want to be that comprehensive guide and resource for people so that when people search a topic, they’re gonna see Oh, you have everything they need in one post, I’m gonna read this I’m gonna digest it, I’m gonna share it with people you want that type of feeling when you push out your post, these comprehensive guides are very crucial because you’re going to be able to create something of strong value that people want to share as well as people want to stay on the page longer, which is going to help with their SEO. So I’ll talk more about SEO later. But this is very crucial for you. So if you guys enjoyed this list of actually 11 common mistakes that bloggers make basically things you should not do when you’re starting a blog. So if you guys enjoyed this video, let me know in the comments below what mistakes surprised you and then make sure to subscribe and hit the bell button to be notified of my latest videos. And I’ll see you guys in the Next one

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