Tag: blogging tips

Common Mistakes New Bloggers Make

Q'Zion5 Comments

Hello, everyone! This is Q’Zion, and welcome back to The Joys and Trials of a Christian Teen! Being a part of the blogosphere is like a dream for those of us who love to write, inspire, and create. But when many bloggers make the decision to create a website of their own, there are a few common mistakes that I have noticed being repeated.

So whether you’re a beginner blogger wanting an overview on what to expect or a more experienced content creator needing some blogging advice, these common mistakes to avoid that I have noticed myself and other awesome content creators make is for you!

Not Having a Clear Purpose or Audience

For my fellow teen bloggers, it can be easy to create a blog just for the fun of it! I often see new bloggers post a bunch of random–but really entertaining–posts with little repurposed content or common topics. And while displaying our personalities in what we do and post is important, it’s also crucial that we have an idea of what audience we’d like our blog to reach or resonate with.

E.g. when you choose the name and major topics of your blog, you want to make sure that what you’re posting will appeal to your target audience–whether that be people in a certain age group or with similar interest as you.

Lack of Consistency

Not having a blog post schedule has got to be the largest–and most common–mistake that I’ve seen within the blogging community. At first, some new bloggers will post excellent content every single day . . . and then they’ll disappear for a month. Trust me, I understand that some things come up in our lives, such writer’s block or a lack of motivation, that can make it difficult to keep posting content. But at the same time we have to remember that the only way to get our blog to grow is by being consistent. Posting only two days a week can do wonders for a blog’s traffic–all we have to do is show up and stay committed!

Grammatical and/or Punctuation Errors

Alright, I’ve got to put my hand up on this one. While writing the first draft for a stellar blog post, it can be easy to accidentally miss a letter or type a word twice. You see, the fact that we make simple errors like these is not the mistake; it’s when we make the errors and fail to revise them. Re-reading your blog posts aloud before you introduce them to the public is the best way to avoid grammatical mistakes. You could even read them aloud to a second person to catch errors you may miss and get a second opinion. Either way, revision is one of the keys to making every post the best that it can be.

Not Engaging with their Audience

It’s not uncommon that I’ll see 3-5 comments underneath a blog post . . . and all of them are by fellow bloggers complimenting the writer’s work. Thanks to the wonderful invention of notifications, we get a message every single time someone comments on our posts. And since one of the main goals of most bloggers is to build an audience, its important that we show our appreciation to the supporters that we already have. Not only will your viewers appreciate it, but you could even make a few new friends along the way.

Creating Extremely Short Blog Posts

Another common trend that I’ve seen going on, especially within the last few months, is bloggers making five- to twenty-word posts about five times a day. And all they do is tell their viewers good morning, afternoon, or night.

It’s always nice to greet your viewers before you get into the topic of a blog post, and short posts are acceptable now and again (especially on holidays.) But you want to make sure that you’re not just posting to post–after all, we want our readers to see our effort when they look at our blog. Not a bunch of short spam posts piling up in their email.

Choosing Quantity over Quality

When you create your blog, it’s easy to want to post every single day to get your website out there! But when you’re posting five times a day, it can become a challenge to give every single post your all. Therefore, even if you can only create one post a week on your blog–that one, well-written post is probably much better than five rushed ones.

Not Using Attention-Getting Blog Post Titles

Ahh~titles. They’re the first thing that anyone who stumbles upon one of your posts will see–alongside your images when viewers are browsing WordPress Reader, which are also very important. Therefore, it’s important that you add relevant, fun titles to your posts that get the main topic across and grab your viewers’ attention. There are a lot of great bloggers and posts out there: that’s why we need to use our titles as a strategy for convincing our viewers to click on ours.

So, those were some of the most common mistakes that new bloggers make, and I hope each and every one of you got something positive out of it! Also, I’d like to know, what are some common mistakes that you notice and/or made that I missed here? And if you’d like, is there any advice that you’d like to give to other bloggers to prevent them from making that mistake? Feel free to share your responses to these discussion questions in the comments!

Have a beautiful and blessed day or night, everyone! God bless you all and I’ll see you next time! Peace in! ♡

The Best Advice for ALL BLOGGERS (Wannabes, New, and Veterans)

Q'ZionLeave a comment

While being a blogger is an excellent hobby, skill, and for some, job, it can be a little overwhelming for others. About 8 and 1/2 months ago, I remember being very excited to start my new blog…but also slightly nervous. Monitoring your own blog is like a new adventure that can be a little challenging to start, just because most of us don’t know what outcome to expect.

However, just because it’s a challenge doesn’t mean that it isn’t worthwhile. Here is some of the BEST ADVICE for any blogger, whether you’re contemplating whether you want to be one, you just became a blogger, or you’ve been one for years. I bet that in no time, you’ll be blogging like a pro!

Keep a Positive Mindset — The truth is, we can’t do anything to the best of our ability if our mindsets are not positive. Keep in mind that blogging is a good source of income, but it is also a source for you to improve on your writing, spread the word about a topic that matters to you, inspire others, and simply BE YOU! If we start blogging with a negative perspective, then how can we expect to grow?

Don’t Procrastinate–Do It Right Now– If you know you want to do a blog or that you want to be more active on your blog but you keep putting it aside, let me tell you that procrastination is never going to get anyone anywhere different. Obviously, it can be hard to try something new, but if you feel that it would be beneficial to you, what’s stopping you from doing it? If we procrastinate, we are simply saying in the same spot. And sometimes progress requires us to move.

Think about the Journey and the Destination — You may set a goal that you want to earn 100 followers or make $10 a week from blogging. Small goals like this are a great way to think about your future and the progress that you want to make with your blog. That being said, don’t get too caught up in getting so many followers or so much money from it (unless it’s your job, of course.) Instead, think of the smaller forms of progress that you are making. For example, you may be getting more views or comments then you were 1 year ago–that’s progress!

Even if They Don’t Say Anything, People Are Watching– I think one of the main reasons for inconsistency among bloggers is that they aren’t getting the amount of response from their audience as they would like or anticipated. Gaining an audience who will comment on EVERY post can take time to build. Besides, many times people will just read your posts to see if you will be consistent before following you. Just because they don’t like or comment, doesn’t mean they don’t like your content. We just have to KEEP PRESSING!!!

Be Authentic — In all honesty, the blogs that are written by someone who isn’t trying to be like every other blogger are some of my favorites. When I look for quality content, I want to read about someone who I can relate to, learn from and be inspired by. Those are the blogs that are real, funny, and fun to read. What I’m trying to say is, just be your authentic self in your blog–trust me, it makes a big difference.

Posts where I get to inspire others are the most fun to write. As bloggers, we have more fun when we are writing and posting about what we love. We begin to think more about the meaning behind each post and less about statistics. In everything, just remember to appreciate every victory–both the large and small. Each one will help us reach our final destination.

Thanks so much for reading and I’ll see you next time! God bless y’all! ✨

7 Tips for Blogging Consistently (and Efficiently)

Q'ZionLeave a comment

Hey, y’all! While blogging is a very fun and rewarding way to help others, it can be tough to come up with new content for your viewers. Any good blogger wants their content to inspire and inform others, while giving people someone to relate to. Regardless of how much we blog, we want to make each post a good read, but it might not always easy to constantly come up with new things to post.

If you are struggling with being more consistent on your platform, feel free to look at these tips, stating how YOU can blog both consistently and efficiently.

1.) Do Your Research – A great method if you want to know what’s currently getting a lot of traffic is doing your research. Search for what topics are popular during the current season, month, year, etc. Pay attention to what type of blog you have (fashion, religion, lifestyle, motherhood, etc.) as well as what topics interest you. While paying attention to what people currently like to read is good, I want to stress that this doesn’t limit you from coming up with your own, new ideas. You can start a new trend, too.

2.) Write Everything Down – It’s funny how when we sit down to write something, it can take a few minutes to think about what we want to write. Meanwhile, great ideas can randomly pop into our heads when we’re doing everyday tasks. If you ever get an idea, find one designated space (either virtually or in a journal) to jot down your thoughts. This way, anytime you might get writers block, it will be a source that you may use to break that cycle.

3.) Listen to Your Audience – Unless you’ve just began your blogging journey (which I congratulate you for starting), chances are you’ve already gained an audience. Whether that audience is big or small, its important that we pay attention to which posts our readers seem to enjoy, most of all. What type of content gets the most likes, positive comments, and overall attention? If you know what your viewers like the most, then it will be much easier to find things to write about.

4.) Make Content with Respect to what You are Passionate About – Coming up with blog post ideas can be a lot harder if you aren’t writing about things that you truly take an interest in. A lot of people want to read the blog of someone who is raw, realistic, and is doing what they love–and you can identify whether someone loves what they are writing about by reading their work. As long as you make content about what makes you happy, the right audience will come.

5.) Keep in Mind that Less can be More – A lot of times, we may try to make a post that’s super detailed and long. But in reality, people don’t want to read a 3,000 word blog post–especially not if you are a daily blogger. It’s best to keep your content under 1,500 words per post. This way, you can focus more on the purpose for each post rather then how long it will be. Remember, nobody has to read your posts–it’s part of our jobs as writers to reel our readers in so they’ll want to read them.

6.) Use National Days as Inspiration (especially lifestyle blogs) – Okay. So this is a method that I use all the time. In fact, I think I need to make it a category. There is literally a National Day for everything. I mean, you think it and there will probably be a day for it. The options stretch from Celebration of Life Day, to National Umbrella Day to World Poetry Day to Celebrity Birthdays. I personally use nationaltoday.com to get detailed descriptions on the multiple national days of every single day of the year. It is definitely a great tool for any blogger that struggles with making constant new, yet exciting content.

7.) Organization and Readability is Key – A good blog post should be organized and easy to read. You don’t want your words to be so long that they cause your audience to x-out the page, scratching their heads. We want our point to come across well, and the best way to do that is by making our words easy to understand. Some ways that you can keep good organization in your posts include using bullet points and numbered lists, using correct punctuation, rereading each post and separating your writing into short paragraphs (no more than 150-200 words each.)

Wow! That was a lot to write, but I enjoyed it. Blogging (and writing) are forms of self-expression. As artists, we should use our writing as an outlet to express ourselves and our passions. A great blog comes in many forms, but just remember in all things to make sure that your writing is true to who you are. What is the reason why you started a blog in the first place? If you stay efficiently consistent, I’m sure your blog will be getting a lot more acknowledgement very soon. :))

Have a blessed day, y’all. Peace in! ✨