Before I started Beauty for Bliss, I had a blog called ‘The Complete Woman’. To be honest, that blog was a complete failure. I did not get far with it and I did almost everything wrong. I started it as a hobby blog to write about issues concerning women (with no specific focus, even though I initially wanted it to be focused on the rights of women).

I was unable to get a few clicks. This post is to tell you the top five reasons why I failed at my first attempt blogging, to prevent you from making the same big mistakes I made which cost me my blog.

Let’s get straight to the reasons.

 

1.  No Real Focus

Your blog must have a focus.

I did not know the future of my previous blog. Till today, I still cannot define the real purpose for which I started that blog. Of course, I started it to write about women’s issues, but to what end? For instance, I started Beauty for Bliss to help women find solutions to self-care challenges, regain confidence and be the best version of themselves.

However, The Complete Woman was vague and getting ideas and inspiration for writing blog posts felt like a chore. I was not driven because my end goal was not clearly defined.

I started the blog because I just wanted to own a blog which would advocate for the welfare of women, with no specific and realistic steps taken.

It is important to either niche down or write about the various things you really care about and add value to people’s lives in that area.

 

2.  Inconsistent Content

My first blog has existed since 2013 but I cannot boast of 20 articles (gosh, this is so embarrassing). Like I said before, writing blog posts felt like a chore and I hardly had enough inspiration to write. Sometimes I just went blank on ideas. I only posted when I felt compelled to, and not because I was excited to do so.

Another reason why I was probably not consistent was that my readership base was very low with little to no clicks.

This was not encouraging enough for me to keep blogging and investing my time in writing blog posts.

Whenever I got inspired to write, I ended up sustaining that inspiration for only a few days. It is not the best way for anybody to run their blog.

You must be consistent with your style, and frequency of publishing posts.

The joy in hitting publish after a well-written post is priceless and you do not want to have an empty and unreliable blog. The few readers you manage to win from the beginning will eventually leave if you are inconsistent, and I know you do not want that.

 

3.  Free Hosting Platform

I know you have probably read about why this is a bad idea repeatedly, and I am here to say it again.

You may be thinking; the blog was meant to be a hobby blog so there’s nothing wrong with it being hosted free on blogger. Well, there may be a bit of truth in that, but I think it was still a bad decision to start off on blogger.

If I was self-hosted, I probably would have taken my blog more seriously and others would also have.

I tried to make it look the best I could, but it could never have looked as good as a self-hosted blog. It was easy to set up, but I missed out on so many functionalities.

On the wheels of this, I encourage you to be self-hosted even if your blog is a small hobby blog (you have so much potential and could take it to the moon someday).

You do not want to lose your blog in case something goes wrong with Google or your free blog host. You could lose your blog overnight. Do not take the risk.

 

 

Related: 5 Things to Do Before Starting a Blog- For Beginners

                  3 Traits You Need to Succeed at Blogging- For Beginners

                  5 Reasons Why I Started a Blog- You Should Too

 

4.  Little Knowledge of Blogging

The blogging space has grown rapidly over time and about five years ago, there was less information on blogging compared to today. Maybe there was, but I just did not search because I did not think that people would spend time teaching other people how to blog.

I thought the only hurdle was to type an article and hit publish.

I did not understand what it meant to have a successful blog by creating problem-solving content and helping others with practical solutions.

I did not also know that anybody could earn an income from blogging (and manage it like a business), and I certainly did not know that blogging had a BRIGHT future.

Even now, as much as I try to learn, I come across new information about blogging from time to time which excites and challenges me. Though some of the information all over the internet about blogging must be taken with a pinch of salt, there is a LOT of credible and genuine information out there, and a lot more to learn than five years ago and beyond.

Who knows, if I had enough information then, I probably wouldn’t have started my first blog on a free hosted site and would have taken it more seriously.

Seek information and knowledge in blogging (paid or free).

This is because there are tons of information out here in the blogging world which are valuable and can help grow your blog. Also, I must warn you; Filter some information because not all information has value.

Read: 5 Podcast Interviews Every Blogger Must Listen To

            5 Useful Facebook Groups for Bloggers

 

  6.  Not Building an Audience 

I literally had no audience at all. I would write and go check the number of people who have read, and it would just be a few people (mostly friends) or none.

The only way I marketed my content was on Facebook. I would copy the link to the article and paste it on my personal Facebook page. Some readers would stop by but others couldn’t care less.

I guess I did not have enough compelling content and headlines and did little to push harder for people to take me and my blog seriously.

If I had understood how to market my blog and get a good audience, it would have been a push for me. Worse of all, I had no idea what email marketing was. For me it was all about posting links on my Facebook page, folding my arms and expecting people to come reading.

Building a loyal audience (or any audience at all) takes a lot more work than folding your arms and waiting for them to show up.

Readers will not come looking for you if you do not introduce them to the product (blog) and give them a reason to invest their time in reading your content.

I was blogging, and nobody was reading, and that was reason enough not to take my blog seriously (zero motivation, I guess!).

But really, what is the point in writing when nobody is reading? It’s like publishing a book and leaving it on your shelve.

 

Conclusion

So, the five big reasons why your blog could fail include; having no real focus, inconsistent content, using a free hosted site, having little or no knowledge about blogging and not building an audience.

I have learned from the loopholes in my first attempt blogging.

I hope you do not make any of these mistakes. Let me know if you have similar experiences and need my advice on your blog. We can always find a way around it.

Cheers!