5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Blog

1.  Auto-loading music.

Please. I beg you, your readers beg you: ditch the auto-loading music! Auto-loading music is not only annoying and surprising, but it’s a bandwidth hog. It makes your blog load slowly. Do you really want to lose a reader because she couldn’t wait for your site to load? And if she waits for your site to load, will she be annoyed because she didn’t know there would be music, had her speakers on high, and a sleeping husband (or child) right beside her? I can tell you this: She won’t be back.

2.  Using a design with a dark background & light text.

This issue is less about your aesthetic and more about usability and readability. Reading online is harder on our eyes than reading traditional paper. Using a dark background with light text makes it even harder on your readers’ eyes.

3.  Too much sidebar clutter.

A sleek, uncluttered design goes a long way with readers. The less clutter, the more space you have. You can use this white space to help lead your readers’ eye toward specific content. Are you proud of your awards, badges, and various trinkets? That’s OK, those things are a right of passage too. You don’t have to get rid of them, but why not put awards on their own page and link to it from your main page? You’ll trade 20 links for just one link and de-clutter the sidebar. De-cluttering your sidebar eases navigation for your reader as well. When there are fewer items competing for your reader’s attention, they’ll be drawn to what’s important.

4. Accidental plagiarism (even with photos).

Very few legitimate bloggers plagiarize on purpose. Most likely a new blogger won’t realize what they’re doing. Plagiarism applies to using any content that isn’t originally yours, whether it’s content or photography or music or anything else. I’ll be honest and tell you that when I started blogging I would Google a picture, then copy it to my computer and use it in my blog post. That’s a big problem because it’s the same as plagiarism–even if I cited where I found the picture. I hadn’t asked the owner if I could use it, I just did it. If you’re new to blogging, take a minute to find out about and understand the issues of plagiarism and copyright. U.S. Copyright Office bluntly says: “Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.” 

5. Using “click here” instead of keyword phrases for links.

I advise you to choose your links words carefully. When you are writing a post and need to insert a link, consider how you are going to write that sentence and where you will include the link. For example, which of these is more effective (potential links in bold)?