10 Stupid Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid

Nobody is perfect. Even the best bloggers in the world make small mistakes from time to time. As a blogger, I try everyday to minimize the number of mistakes that I make and learn from those I have made in the past. Unfortunately, some mistakes are harder to get rid of than others. Take typos for instance. Once you start typing a word a certain way (the wrong way), it almost becomes a habit. You may know how to spell the word “their,” but if you type “there” instead enough times, it will be tough to get it out of your system.

With that said, all bloggers should try their best to avoid those simple mistakes. Here are 10 avoidable mistakes that I have seen bloggers make all the time:

1. Typo in headline: this seems to happen all the time. Most content management systems do not come with a spell-checker for the post title section. I have made enough of these mistakes. Unfortunately, I am not the only one doing it. I have seem many “super-bloggers” make the same mistakes. The best way to address is to read your title right before you are ready to publish your story.
2. Typo in first sentence: that’s one of the most frustrating mistakes one can make. You try so hard to keep your copy clean and get the typos out. For some reason, some bloggers have typos in their very first sentence (and in a lot of cases nowhere else).
3. Including broken images: always make sure you have the image you want to link to on a reliable server. It is just ugly to have broken images in a post.
4. Posting under uncategorized category: this one is a biggie. Many new bloggers forget to set up the right categories for their blogs from the get go. There is simply no excuse for having the default “uncategorized” category on your blog.
5. Having the default about me page: this is another one of those problems that many new bloggers struggle with. CMS solutions such as WordPress do come with a default about me page. These pages have a couple of sentences but those are certainly not about you. Change the content before getting your blog live.
6. Not doing your research: this is a big problem if you make it even a couple of times. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if you post a story about something that is actually not true. Doing a careful research for each post will help you lessen the chances of this happening. The more popular your website becomes, the more it will be scrutinized by your visitors for the accuracy of your information.
7. Use admin name as you comment: I am personally guilty of doing this on my other blogs. It only takes a couple of seconds to change the default username on any blog. Unfortunately, some of us forget to do that.
8. Hotlinking to others content: linking to other people’s images is a no-no. You should always try to link to images that are on your server. Stealing bandwidth from others is not going to make you too many friends.
9. Charging for content: I am not suggesting you can’t charge for your awesome content. But don’t expect people to pay to read what you have had for lunch. Charging for your regular content is the best way to start losing your audience.
10. Scheduling your posts way ahead of time: I don’t mind scheduling posts ahead of time. But when you schedule a post 6 months ahead, you better make sure your content is still relevant when your post is published. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to talk about a product 6 months ahead of time only to realize it’s dead when your post is live?

Mistakes happen all the time. For me, it’s all about the learning process. Nobody is perfect. But making the same mistakes over and over again can be frustrating and disappointing.

Have you made any of the above mistakes in the past? Please share your embarrassing blogging mistakes.