As our 4th year blogiversary is approaching, I took a look back at some of the old posts we've done. I honestly cringed, why? Because knowing what I know now I want to tell my former self "no don't do that". But hey, new blogger will make new mistakes. I know now however, not to make them again! Here are 5 mistakes I won't do again!:
USING GOOGLE IMAGES
When I first started blogging, and you can go back in the archives and see, I was infamous for using Google images, just like any other new blogger because I didn't know much about stock photography and didn't have any money to purchase a quality camera. People may think using Google images isn't a bad thing, especially if you cite your source, but I've read over the years too many cases where bloggers are sued by photographers over the use of photos on their blog that they did not have permission to use. There are too many stock photo websites such as Createherstock, 50 Shades of Black Stock, Haute Chocolate, Death to Stock Photos, plus hundreds more to be stealing off of Google. ALL of the images used on this blog now are either stock photography or original images that we take. I personally do not have time nor the money to be paying court fees and what not, child please!
NOT TAKING THE TIME OUT TO LEARN SEO
Again, I'll chunk this up to newbie fuck ups, but learning SEO is something every blogger should do, whether new or seasoned. For the first year I never took the time out to save photos correctly, add in keywords, add a SEO booster in the code of my blog, use a description that would be searchable on each search engine, none of that! While I am still no master when it comes to SEO, there are things I know I need to do before I hit that publish button, and it shows in my numbers!
NOT BEING PROUD OF MY BLOG
I say this not because I never was proud of my blog, but I never promoted myself or my brand as much as I should of, I still struggle with this. For example, every time I made a new post on the blog in the beginning I would make a status on Facebook and ask people to check it out before I made a business profile. I don't know who the fuck I ticked off or if I just have haters, but Facebook wouldn't let me post my url anymore because someone had reported it as spam. That fucked up my courage to be proud of something that I had created from the ground up and it took me a while to start sharing my blog on my personal accounts again, more so asking for support. I've learned now that I can't help who wants to hate, that's not my problem. If I want to see the brand grow in the way I know it can I have to keep it visible and in the minds of the people around me.
BEING TOO SCARED TO DIVERSIFY
This...is why I never really succeeded in being a sales associate. For one I've always had the mindset of not being pushy and getting people to buy anything. When it came to the blog I never thought that people would be interested in a product or service that I would provide enough to buy. What I've learned from that is no idea is a bad idea, and you never know what is going to happen until you try. I rather create products and services and see that it has failed instead of not even trying. So...stay tuned for our new store launching in January!
NOT BEING OPEN FOR CRITIQUE
As being a natural born leader, I never took criticism well because I always wanted to be in the right, and always wanted to be in charge. But as a blogger, you're operating a business, and in order for that business to grow, you have to be open to feedback and critique. Whether that's getting ideas on how to improve your blog template, new content ideas, or how to expand, asking for feedback every once in a while is something every blogger should do, better yet this is a MUST!
What mistakes have you made as a blogger you laugh or cringe about now? Drop a comment below and let us know!
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