3 Fatal Mistakes New Bloggers Make And How to Avoid Them

Over the past 9 years as a Blogger, I’ve had many people come to me for advice on how to build a successful blog.

I’ve seen some people build blogs years ago that they continue to run to this day.

The majority of people, however, give up on their dreams of building a successful blog within just a few weeks or months.

From my observations, the people who don’t make it as bloggers all exhibit some or all of these fatal symptoms that kill their blogs.

#1 – Ridiculously Unrealistic Expectations

A reasonable, mature adult understands that if they wanted to become a doctor, they would have to go to post-secondary school for 6-12 years and spend $100,000 – $500,000 on their education.

And then once they finish school, they would be able to open up a practice, and most likely spend the next 3-10 years paying off that debt.

And then once they’ve been a doctor for about a decade or so, they would expect to start making a solid six-figure or higher income especially if they decided to specialize and become a surgeon or something like that.

That same person understands that if they wanted to become a police officer, or a firefighter, or a lawyer, or an accountant, or an architect, they would also have to dedicate a certain amount of time and energy to learning a skill and then to practice getting better at that skill before expecting to be making a good, solid income from that vocation.

For some weird reason, those same seemingly mature adults have this weird, totally unrealistic expectation that making money online somehow happens overnight, with virtually no investment of time or energy required from them to make a six or seven figure income online.

If you want to build a successful blog that eventually generates an income stream for you and you want to make money online, you’re going to have to realize that it is NOT going to happen overnight.

You are going to have to invest some time, some energy and some money into learning the right things, from the right people to help you become successful.

Compared to a formal education such as the one required to become a doctor or a lawyer though, learning to make money online is nowhere near as intense and definitely nowhere near as expensive.

I’ve had people call me about a week after they’ve started a blog, having written one or two blog posts, and they’re wondering why they haven’t made tens of thousands of dollars from their blog yet.

If you do the right things, and you follow the right system, and you have the right mentoring, making money online can happen pretty quickly, but if you have to mentally prepare yourself to KEEP GOING, KEEP LEARNING and KEEP INVESTING in yourself, in your business and your education if you’re going to make it in this business.

If you’re going to give up after 2 days, you’re being a wuss and wussies don’t make money online.

#2 – Not Understanding the Power of Small Wins

As a new blogger, or a new Internet marketer, you’re always one small win from winning big.

Here’s what I mean by this…

… when I started blogging, there actually weren’t a lot of people out there blogging yet, and the industry hadn’t really established itself in such a big way as it has now.

Because of this, there were very few bloggers out there who had created any HUGE success for themselves.  I could count them on one hand.

The benefit I had when I was starting out during this time was that I didn’t really have a lot of big hot-shots to compare myself to, so instead I just focused on comparing my success on any given day or week or month, to my PREVIOUS successes.

For example, I still remember when I sat there wondering how long it would take to get my first 10 subscribers.

It actually took a while.  But when I finally got my 10th subscriber I remember being so excited!

Then I set a goal to hit 20 subscribers, and once I hit that, I again celebrated and was very excited.

I kept increasing my target by very small increments and I kept seeing these small “wins” that kept me going.

Then, I started focusing on seeing how long it would take to get my first real COMMENT from someone other than my wife, or my friends or family…. like a REAL STRANGER that I didn’t know coming to my Blog and leaving a comment.

When I got my comment I celebrated as well!

These small tiny wins is what kept me going in the beginning and kept me motivated.

There were many small milestones that I set for myself, long before I even started putting focus on getting my Blog to make money.

Of course today it’s much easier to make money with a Blog as so many things have been systematized, tested and perfected by companies like Empower Network – but even today I would recommend that new bloggers set small milestones for their blogs which can give them the small “wins” that will help to boost their confidence even before they start making money from their blogs.

#3 – Allowing Small Loses to Kill Their Confidence

On the other side of the same coin, most people also totally underestimate how big of an effect small loses can have on your confidence as a new blogger.

I’ve seen people start blogs and begin to gain some momentum for a few weeks and then they get ONE negative comment on one of their blog posts where some idiot leaves some idiotic half-baked opinion on what the person wrote, and the emotional rejection and hurt that the blogger feels completely knocks them out of the game.

Of course if you ask them about it, they’ll never admit it.  They pretend like it’s no big deal, and that it didn’t hurt them, but all of a sudden you no longer see them writing any more blog posts – EVER!

Trust me, I’ve been there.

I’ve written blog posts which I’ve poured my heart and soul into and I’ve had morons come to my Blog and post nasty comments, being total pricks.

It hurts when that happens, especially if you’re brand new to blogging.

There’s no shame in admitting that those things suck and that they hurt your feelings.

So how do we overcome this?

Firstly, one of the things that I learned from one of my mentors is that IF you become a successful blogger, you WILL have some people who will not like you and they’ll leave stupid comments on your blog posts.

So what I did is I created a milestone for myself where I actually told myself that when I get my first nasty comment, it means that I’m starting to get popular.

Meaning, I re-framed it in my  mind to be a positive thing!  So when I got my first nasty comment, yes it hurt a bit, but at the same time I was really excited because I thought to myself “OMG!  I got my first hater!  This is so cool!  It means my Blog is becoming more popular, and I’m starting to make waves in the industry and as a result I’m pissing off those people who are NOT my target audience.  Awesome!”

Secondly though, the most important thing you MUST embrace as a tool to help you deal with these small “loses” that will inevitably show up in your life as an entrepreneur and as a blogger is to be a part of a community with a support structure in place to support you.

Think of it like this…

… if you were a professional athlete, and you got injured while playing on the field or on the ice or on the court, and you were lying on your back, hurt…. what would happen?

Your SUPPORT TEAM would come to your aid and they would help you!

If you were struggling with your game, or with some aspect of your health, what would happen?

Your coaches and your trainers would step in and help you!

If you were struggling with your mental game, because you were struggling with something in your life, and it was affecting your game, what would you do?

You would go and talk to your coach and get some help, right?

ALL successful people have coaches and mentors that help them.

It’s no different as a blogger.

That is why I love the Empower Network system so much.  It doesn’t just arm you with the Kalatu blogging platform to make sure you have the world’s best, state-of-the-art blogging system at your fingertips.

What Empower Network really brings to the table is COMMUNITY and SUPPORT.

For example, those people who join my Empower Network team have ME and the rest of my team to help them and to support them.  We all help each other succeed.

If someone on the team is struggling, we help them out.  That’s what teams are for.

Bloggers who try to do it all by themselves, without participating in any community, and without getting any coaching and mentoring and help from anyone else, rarely last!

They give up before they ever build any success because it’s not easy to do this all by yourself.

Of course it’s possible, but why would you want to anyways?

Why NOT embrace a community of like-minded, positive bloggers who are also pursuing their blogging dreams and who will encourage you when you’ve suffered a small temporary loss?

How to Boost Your Chances of Blogging Success

Want to significantly boost your chances of becoming a successful blogger?

It’s very simple…just do these 3 things:

1. Set Realistic Expectations and Have Patience
2. Set Small, Achievable Milestones For Your Blog and Celebrate Your Successes
3. Join a Blogging Community and Get a Coach or Mentor So You Have Support When You Have Your Small Loses

These three things may sound very simple, but it’s what I did to grow my blog and every single person that I know who didn’t succeed as a blogger was missing either one or all of these factors.