Blogging Mistake #1 That You Want To Avoid

You have joined the ranks of blogging. and you are very excited about it. But you're having so many problems that you're becoming discouraged. You want so badly to have a successful blogging career. What's wrong?

Are you not getting enough traffic to your blog?

Does no one know you exist?

Maybe you're running out of content to write about.

You're putting a lot of time and energy into blogging but you are not making any money.

I understand. It can make you feel like giving up. But I am telling you, Don't do that just yet. Becoming a blogging sensation doesn't happen overnight. Trust me on this. I am still trying. I don't claim to know everything. I too am still learning. But that's ok. What I have going for me is the fact that I research anything and everything I do not know. I research and learn. I read and take notes. Then because I want to help people who are like me, still in the beginning stages or are still struggling.

I believe that by helping you I am helping myself. It is said that "Practice makes perfect!" This is why I joined Patreon. Not just to make money while building my list but to build an interactive community of people to have some fun with while learning and writing. Don't get me wrong making money with it is still a good part of the reason.

I mean By earning money I can get to the point where I am able to do this full time. I won't have to work a job I am not happy with. I will get to spend all my time writing and having fun with my community of writers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. I will be learning and you will be learning if you come and join me.

But enough of that. This article isn't for me to spend all my time advertising my site. I am here to talk about A major mistake that bloggers make when they first begin blogging. In fact, even I am guilty of making this mistake. But now I have been trying to rectify this situation and try to turn around my blogging and writing career.

What is the mistake? Well read on and I will tell you. There are so many that I have come across. But for those of us on medium or on vocal, this is one of the most important that really apply to us. So let's get started, shall we?

Not creating a content planner.

Without a content planner, we have no direction with our blog. We eventually run out of ideas because we don't plan it all out. It is like a novelist who needs to be a plotter but is a panser. They may have ideas for a while and all is great but then suddenly they began to have trouble coming up with ideas. They ask people "What should I write about?" They feel lost. They don't know in what direction to go.

Now I am not saying all people have to be plotters when it comes to writing their novels. If your a panser then that is ok too. But if you are blogging it is possible you will eventually run out of things to write about. This happens sometimes.

See I once worked in an office. I would come in and have no idea what i should do. I was the only one in the office and it was my first time working in one. Then one day I took a notebook and started writing down everything I did while in the office. there were 4 things I did first every day I got into the office.

I checked the mail.

I checked the phone messages

I checked the email.

Finely, I checked the whiteboard on the wall for messages from my boss.

Once I did these 4 things I just began to do whatever needed doing. Then each time I finished a task, I wrote it in my notebook. One page for each day in the office. This notebook also had the added task of keeping a record of what I did. This way if my boss asked if I did something I told him yes I did it and When I did it.

The point of this is that I have learned that keeping a content calendar has been helping quite a bit. I have been blogging since the middle of October here on medium. I didn't start out with a content calendar. I would just open up a new post and start writing. Then gradually I began to open up a new story whenever I had an idea for an article. I would write a title or what it was to be about. then I would include a few key points I wanted to make in the article.

Then At the beginning of this new year, I bought a 2-year planner. I sat down and wrote down what I wanted to write about each day for the full month of January. Then I plotted out 3 days worth of daily schedules it is a 2 Collum worksheet. On the right collum is the time of day in one-hour increments going down the sheet. Writing it out like a list.

Then on the left side collum, I began to write what I am doing during each of the hours that I am awake. For instance. Get up. drive to work. Write a writing prompt of the day. Edit my writing tip article. And so on. It is like a daily work schedule that you would have working in an office. But it is strictly for writing.

This has helped me tremendously to stay on track. Now I am not perfect at it. I am still working on getting into the habit of using it and writing every day, posting and marketing every day. But I know that if I keep at it, by the end of the year It will be a habit for me. And I will be closer to my goal of quitting my job and traveling more.

There are 6 apps on my phone if I ever have a problem with running out of ideas. What are they? Well here they are:

2 Writing prompt apps for when I want to write a short story (These can be found in the app store by searching "Writing Prompts").

Answer the public (not an app but a web page).

Blog Idea Generator (again not an app but a web page).

Finely, Pinterest. I Create a board for each topic I write about and look through different pins on one of the topics until I come up with an idea on what I could write about.

By using my content planner and my phone apps my goal is to be able to write one article a day minimum throughout the whole year. Can I do it? Yes, yes I can. I just have to stay positive. It's not going to be easy but at least I have the content planner to help keep me on track.

Conclusion:

So as you can see. If you plot out your content planner each month then you to can succeed. It will help to keep you on track and be able to do what you love, writing. Try it for at least the next 6 months and see how much better you do. I am sure you will be better at writing and posting more. You can do it. I know you can. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't. If they do, then prove them wrong.