***** UPDATED******
I should take my own advice. I had two items #4. Oops! I’ve renumbered them. So, this is edit number 2. Yeah – clearly I’m still new at this 
While I’m here, thanks to all of you who left great comments (and my two rebloggers)! I’ve got awesome readers
*********************
As a relatively new blogger I have made my fair share of mistakes. In the hopes that others can learn from my mistakes, I am going to list ten twelve of them here for the world to see (feel free to add your own). They are in no particular order. Some may be specific to WordPress, but I’ve tried to be general
1.) Not using the spell-checker.
I have had to update things several days after publishing because I had a spelling issue. Some were typos, others were silly mistakes (hear instead of here, and the like). This is particularly bad if you are a writer (is anybody going to take you seriously if you constantly put it’s instead of its?). Sure, I know the rules, but sometimes my fingers type the word the way they want to – not the correct way – if I’m going quickly.
2.) Publishing a bunch of posts the FIRST day.
I get excited about new things. It would have been better if I had written them, but not posted them. I could even have used (if I had found it by then) the publishing scheduler thinggy (over the “Publish” button it says Publish immediately and then there’s a link for “Edit” – use that if you want to do this). Here’s a shout out to Magdalena for introducing me to this.
3.) Forgetting Categories and Tags
Forgetting tags and categories isn’t a cardinal sin – it’s just not going to help you. If there are no tags or categories, it’s really hard for people to find what you wrote. WordPress is really good about putting yours stuff out there by topic, but you have to take the time to tell it what the topic IS.
4.) Not using the “more” thingamajig
For short posts, this isn’t necessary, but if you don’t want to overwhelm people with long posts, it’s best to write a bit and then have a “click for more” type button. This can be found just to the left of the spell check (ABC) button in the text editor for WordPress.
Note, however, that if you go back and put it in after you wrote the whole thing, your best bet is to do it in the HTML view, not the Visual view. Otherwise, you can end up reformatting or something. I don’t know how or why, because I don’t do webcoding, but I’ve done it. Learn from my mistake. Just find the spot you want it to be in the text, and put it there while viewing in HTML. You can go back to visual once you’re done.
5.) Not previewing my posts
Sure, I think my post is excellent and pretty and well written. Then I put it up and realize that something went funky. This is especially problematic for me when I embed pictures. I now live by the “always preview before posting” rule.
6.) Sloppy responses to comments
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll get a whole bunch of comments about what you’ve written. If you aren’t careful (and this depends on the theme and how it handles nesting replies) it might be hard for people to see who you’re replying to. The simple solution – use their name/moniker. For example:
Hey MZ4! Thanks for stopping by. I think your comment is spot-on!
7.) Not immediately making my site private
This might not be for everyone, but I wish I had made my site private before trying to figure out what I was doing. It would have inspired some confidence on my part that I didn’t look like a total moron while I kept changing things. Moreover, since changing the theme can alter which widgets appear, how much space they take, and other things (which you can usually change back), I’m now of the opinion that it’s best to set things up under Private settings until you think you’re mostly settled.
8.) Not setting up the automatic suggestions
WordPress has a neat feature (I think it’s under “settings” ) where it can suggest tags, photos, and even related articles. Now, don’t go using this blindly. Sometimes it makes silly suggestions. If you so much as mention Google, it will be a suggested tag. At this point, it’s suggesting:
- Spell checker
- HTML
- Arts
Now, I don’t think those are particularly good representations of this post, but sometimes it comes up with good ones that I might not have thought of. Also, the picture suggestions are great because it saves me from having to scour the web for free stock photos. If I had any artistic ability with a camera, this might not be an issue, but I’m betting I’m not the only one who doesn’t.
9.) Flying by the seat of my pants
So, I said one day “Hey, I’m going to start a blog!” and that was it. If you are at all interested in SEO (search engine optimization), this is not a good approach. What are you posting? What’s your niche?
Knowing the answers to these questions will help – from choosing a theme to tags. Not to say that flying by the seat of one’s pants isn’t a fun challenge, but it will likely make it harder to do some things. I’ve got a fair number of followers for as long as I’ve been out, but I’m sure some of my posts bore each of them. Some like my writings (stories, essays), some my comments about writing, others my book reviews, etc.
The advantage of this, is that I have a wide variety of visitors. The disadvantage is that it’s harder to keep them because I’m likely to end up being something other than what they thought. So, this is not necessarily a mistake – but not thinking about it beforehand was.
10.) Not understanding how websites work
When I started, I thought I’d like a home page that had a little welcome and what-this-is-about. Then I’d like a page with my posts, a page with my bio, and a page with links.
This was stupid.
It just doesn’t work that way.
For the uninitiated, here’s how it works. “Pages” are static things. WordPress (and presumably other places, but I don’t know for certain) will post your blog entries even if you don’t select a spot for them by name. I don’t have a “page” for each category, but if you click on a category, it will select all the posts in it, and display them.
I certainly don’t understand this entirely, but I should have learned more than I did before I started – or at least before I made my blog public.
As far as I can tell, you have your theme/widgets/headers/menus and those are universal to your site. Pages are static entities that people can look at. Posts go to their own spot, and you can give those names by using categories.
11.) Having no plan or schedule in mind
This is related to flying by the seat of my pants. I had all these ideas, so I started out putting out a post a day for the workdays. I’m still not sure if this is sustainable – I’m running out of ideas, although I do get new ones, not THAT quickly. However, since I started out that way, I feel badly if I don’t post something each day Monday through Friday.
Maybe this is my own guilt issue, but I should probably (at some point) decide how often I’m going to post and make it happen. I missed last Friday, and that bothers me. I also have no idea how I’m going to handle summer (with the kids home) or vacations/etc.
I should plan this out before I get there.
So, what about you? Have you made these blogging mistakes? Other ones?
**********UPDATE (the original one) **********
I forgot the mistake that actually made me want to write this post (oops!). So, I’m adding number eleven twelve.
12.) Not thinking about categories ahead of time
This is another non-planning issue. It’s a real pain to have to go back and add/change/remove categories for a whole bunch of posts. I just decided that 100 word pieces should be a category. Thankfully I only have a few right now, but it wasn’t any fun when I finally got the concept of categories and went back to all my posts to edit them. Save yourself the effort and plan this one out.
This is such a great post Shannon! Really informative. Woop!
Really? I would have thought you knew all this, Beth. You do such a good job, I thought you might actually be laughing when you read this!
Well of course I know it all… I’m a blogging genius don’t forget!
I just mean in gennneralll. However, you have actually reminded me about the scheduled posts. I think I might start using that again! Also, if you don’t want to schedule, I just ‘save as draft’ until I’m ready to use them!
Might have to reblog this on LW! Will probably be tomorrow now though.
Well, if you do, I’m going to have to send a virtual hug. That would be my first reblog
I don’t like “save as draft” unless I really mean it as not finished. Otherwise, I’m tempted to go tweaking it – or accidentally mucking it up. I’m trying to get into good habits and actually write posts ahead of time (more on that in another post, perhaps)
Well, I shall do that tomorrow!
Give me a nudge though or I’ll forget, lol.
Haha, well I guess it’s a little bit different if it’s just you writing, but as we have 20 writers that I have to keep a check on and edit, I have to save some otherwise you’d get them all at once!
I couldn’t do that without cheesing off 20 writers.
Couldn’t do what?
Manage 20 writers.
Oh getcha. Haha, yes you have to have a lot of patience.
I think I have accomplished all the mistakes you have listed and oodles more. To be truthful, am fine with making mistakes. God knows I’ve been making mistakes all my life. It is after all the best way to learn, with the exception of things involving height, like sky diving, hang gliding etc. etc.
The biggest mistake, I discovered shortly after enabling wordpress has to do with reading others’ blogs. Pick who you follow with a little care. I commented on sites where the ‘bloggy person’ seemed detached. Hardly if at all showed little interest to who commented on their ‘shtufffs’. Or. Completely intolerant to anyone who they deemed not in their league. A couple times I was told via email, “please don’t comment here, you really don’t belong”. To which I respond, “thank you, your right I don’t”.
My advise: Pick who you follow carefully. Follow them for a while see what it is within their blogs that interest you. See first if they are a fit for you and you are fit for them. To blog is a good thing. I have learned more than I ever imagined. Have been made to think about topics which previously would gone unnoticed…….by the way think this is my first comment here, but I have been reading a while.
Hudson,
Thanks for reading and for commenting
Those people sound awfully rude. I’m glad I’ve never had that happen, or I’d probably have given up on the whole thing. I guess I’ve had good luck, both as a commenter and a blogger.
I agree with you that mistakes are the best way to learn, but I also believe that it is easier to learn from other people’s mistakes if you can. It saves time – and is good practice for when you really don’t want to make your own mistakes (you mentioned sky diving).
Point taken regarding sky diving.
LOL
Yikes! I can’t believe people were so rude to you!
The worst they’ve ever done to me is simply not reply.
Exiled Star, it hasn’t happened since. Now the blogs that interest me, I read back old post before commenting. I think most appreciate you taking an interest in what they are passionate about. I un-follow anyone who does not reply to comments. For the record, the two whom asked me not to comment did not reply to comments. I would think they would make up a rather small percentage of bloggy people. Most people cherish dialogue within their comments.
That is an interesting point, about un-following people who don’t reply. Just curious here (obviously, I reply to comments), but do you look to see if they reply to you, or if they don’t, do you go back and check to see if they reply to anyone at all?
The reason I ask is that, if it’s the former, I’m wondering what you consider an appropriate time frame. For instance, if I did all my blogging on the weekends (or say, went on vacation for a few days), I might not reply immediately. Does that sort of behavior leave a sour taste in your mouth? If so, what if it’s not normal behavior for that blogger – do they get extra time before you’re put off? I’m back and forth on some of these, and would love to hear others’ thoughts.
Also, as a point of humor, I’ve expressed to at least one person who is really good about reply to EVERY single comment that being Freshly Pressed would cause problems (like lack of sleep for a week) as they tried to reply in a timely manner to each comment.
Am beginning to think it was just me that this happened to. I do think it is extremely isolated.
True there are reason’s for not replying to comments. An having your blog featured in Freshpress is a good example. As a couple of people I follow have had the honour, rightly so I might add, an those good people did respond to every comment -to their credit. How they kept it up for the three or four days the notoriety lasted is testament to their conviction to what they are doing. I confess at those times to un-following during this and then following again once the whoop-a-la subsided. Twenty or thirty notification emails in an hour is a lot to handle. None the less you are happy for them.
Yes you have to show some patience as people have a life. I have had replies to comments come back three weeks after the fact. Your right you have to go back and see if there is intent in not replying.
Thanks, Hudson. I know how I feel about these things, but that doesn’t mean everyone agrees with me, so I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this.
Yes, that is a strange attitude, isn’t it? Wonder why they are blogging at all if they don’t want feedback.
I started my blog and posted the welcome without thinking about the long term plan. I still don’t have one and try and post things that people might find humorous or helpful. I wouldn’t worry about posting everyday or missing the odd one. We’ll understand!
I always save drafts and use spell check and preview. I try and finish a post and wait until the next day to give it time to breathe. A final read through before publishing.
I would like to know how you’ve added the About Shannon Howell box below your post. I’m setting up a group blog for my writing group and that would come in handy.
Um… I’ve no idea.
That sort of appeared on it’s own when I was setting up WordPress. I THINK it’s linked to my Gravatar, which I’m not sure if I had to make or not – or where it is, or what its for.
I’ll see if I can find it for you.
Ok. I *think* it’s in the dashboard. Go to “Users” then “My Profile.” Under that is a section “About You.” I’m fairly certain that’s where that text came from.
I hope this helps
Shannon-
Once again, great post. Been there, done that (1-11), repeatedly! Thanks for reminding me. It is a learning process and I think it’s okay to change some things or add things as we develop our sites. I know that after three months, I am just now starting to go back and really look at the blogs I follow. Some of the odd categories and links you find are real gems and may not have appeared as a post to begin with. So, the only way to see them is to go look.
Thanks, Dennis.
It’s absolutely ok to change things as we develop things – but I had what I’ll call Flying Fonts where changing themes would make stuff look weird – and then my subtitle would be gone – and my widgets in odd places. Best to get at least a general feel for things before you’re totally up and running.
Hmm. Your comment about links reminds me that I have to update my “links” page…
I agree with you to begin set up in Private mode for the rerasons you noted. Maybe WordPress should add that to their start-up documentation?
Links – Always glad to be of help.
Great post, Shannon. I kind of did what you did, jumped right into it without planning. Which is so unlike me–I’m a huge planner. The downside to that, though, is if it is too daunting I will talk myself out of doing something. Such as would have been the case with blogging. That whole social media idea FREAKED me out when I first thought about the need to do it.
Because I didn’t get a lot of followers right away, it all turned out okay. Not too many people saw my screw-ups and so I was able to rectify with little effort.
One of your things I heartily agree with is the need to figure out your brand ahead of time. I have followed people thinking they were one thing, and it turned out they weren’t at all what I was looking for. Then again, I myself am in a specific niche looking to market myself, so it is vital for me to know what I want to be to other bloggers, and vice-versa.
I also agree with the category stuff. I’m still not sure how the tags work, even though dear Beth has ‘splained it all so patiently. I have not made it a priority in my brain to know it, so I don’t know it. But I will. Some point.
I like to change my theme, which is a problem with the widgets and how everything is arranged. But I get bored easily with stuff like that, and so that is a nuisance, but a nuisance I choose.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds it freaky. Not to say I didn’t have a Facebook account before, but it was limited to people I actually knew – and a subset of those at that. Otherwise, I tried to ignore social media – I only got on FB when it was time for my high school 10 year reunion and I learned that was the only way I’d find anything out (not that I went – I was 6 months pregnant at the time and in no mood to travel across half a continent).
Oh Kate! Maybe we should have a Skype-tags-explainathon soon! haha.
How about explaining Twitter to me? I’ve got 17 followers and not a clue what I’m doing (hint hint, I’d like that Twitter post).
Reblogged this on Limebird Writers and commented:
Great blog post all about hints and tips for new bloggers.
Aww! Now I’m really going to have to send you cookies
On second thought, maybe I should just show them to you on Skype since they’d get all stale crossing the Atlantic…
Wish I had read this (or something like it) before I started.
Thanks for taking the trouble to give other newcomers some really helpful hints.
It took me ages to learn some of these lessons – and some I hadn’t even understood until I read this.
best wishes,
paul
Paul,
I wish I’d seen something like this first too! If you have any other tips or things to avoid that I haven’t listed, please let me know (or put up a post and I’ll add a link).
I’m still a beginner Shannon. My blog is still a hotch-potch of ideas – trying to tackle too many themes within one blog.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve only been up about 6 weeks or so. So far I’ve got essays on random topics, 100 word pieces, things about blogging, things about writing, and things about MY writing. I’ve even got pictures of my cat’s bald head!
Reblogged this on First Send Media.
Thank you
I didn’t think this post would be nearly this popular!
I had a blog a few years ago that I like to refer to my “training blog.” I really learnt a lot (and most of it the hard way). However, when I decided to start my current blog, that previous experience was sooooooo helpful.
I thought of doing that, but I was too impatient Janet. You’re probably a better planner than me
All great suggestions for the new blogger. I made some of all of these mistakes when I was in my first couple of months. I still make some, like not spell-checking. Another, for me, was always insisting on writing to the Happiness engineers, (I think that’s what they’re called,) instead of checking out the forums first. In all but one instance, I could have found the information I needed more quickly and easily from a forum, and it frees up the tech support people for questions they have to answer. Excellent post, Beth! Thanks.
Judith,
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I agree that checking the forums is a good tip – although I’ve put in a question to the Happiness Engineers and not had it answered (it forced me to switch from IE to Firefox). I probably should ask in a forum…
Another good tip – thanks for adding it to the list.
Thank you for #4. I have been wondering how to do that!
Crubin,
If you can’t find the Preview button, let me know and I’ll help you find it.
Whoops, I guess you have two #4s. I was referring to the first one about the “more” option
Thanks!
Haha! I guess I should follow my own advice. I completely missed that (time to go edit!).
just reblogged this great post. Was just giving advice to someone about going private first before launching their site. Told them to do the same for Facebook page. Can’t tell you how many times i’ve posted and deleted something before i got it right without thinking about the fact it’s gone “out”. Oy. Also don’t set up your feeds until you are comfortable with what you doing first!
Thanks for the great suggestions
Christina!
First Send Media
Thanks for the comment, Christina. I didn’t even think about the feeds – but I don’t really get what they are (yeah, I probably shouldn’t be allowed near a computer newer than 1994),
Great blog! Your suggestions were very helpful! Thanks!
Thanks! I’m glad they were helpful!
I’m sure I’ve made every single one of these mistakes. Clearly, I am not a professional blogger – or even a very serious one. I better get my stuff together! Great suggestions – thanks for making me realize I need to put more thought into what I put out there.
Heidi,
Based on what I’ve read in these comments, and in my email, I think we (those of us who make the mistakes) are a silent majority
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Great post! Full of such good info too. AWEsome info on the publishing scheduler thingy, I had no idea it was there, I’ve never had a blog before last July and still feel pretty new at it.
I never remember tags and categories (sorry Beth) and always have to go back and add them in later. At least I’m consistent…
As for spell checking, I do my work first in my word-processor, then spell-check a few times there. After copying to wordpress I spell-check again and it always catches different things. Mistakes? I know I’m going to make them, and I do my level best to catch them. If someone is going to be that put off by a typo or a there/their thing that I miss, there’s nothing I can do about it. Like many others, I do my best editing right after I hit the “send” key!
Neeks,
I consider that high praise coming from you – thanks!
I’d go nuts if I had to switch between word and WordPress, but then I’m always interrupted by small children, pets, and various disasters (like a phone call today wherein my previous boss found out his daughter married the man who used to run my son’s daycare…). Oh yeah, I’m kinda distractable
I’m glad I’m not the only one who does good editing after hitting send/publish!
Thanks for stopping by Neeks!
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This is a fabulous resource you’ve put together. So many things I wished I’d known before I started blogging.
I added some categories and ended up having to recategorize 400 posts. That was not fun. So #12 really resonated with me.
Oh, Kourtney, I feel your pain. I didn’t plan at all, so I figured I’d be ok kinda making categories as I went. WRONG.
Nothing says, “I’d rather have a root canal” like having to go back and recategorize a whole bunch of posts. 400? I think I would have just started a new blog. That is some dedication. I got cranky having to do about 20! Any modifications since are just being left. I’ll only go back a week or two at most!
I’m glad you think this is a useful compilation, and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment
I felt like I couldn’t abandon all those posts.
But yeah, 400. Eek.
This is great for bloggers that are at the beginning and even in the middle of their blog life.
I don’t think I could abandon them either, come to think of it.
Shannon this is great and I learned some things I didn’t know wp could do. Thanks very much
Kate,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I’m glad you found this useful.
Hi Shannon,
Couldn’t seem to reply to your reply.
Mine is a mix of writing my book, True Historical Crime(It’s an historical crime novel) Writing in general, Writers I admire, and Bath (setting for the Book) – but no cat.
It comes back to your point about planning what you want your blog to be – If you establish that as a base you can devise a plan for the future, otherwise it becomes a bit ad hoc.
You’ve got a great thread going here though, and a lovely manner.
Thanks
Your right, of course. I’m a terrible planner though.
Thank you for the compliments. What a nice way to start the morning
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Hi Shannon,
This is a great post. I saw it on the Limebird Writers blog. I just wanted to say thank you for letting others, namely me, learn from your mistakes.
Also, love the progress bars. (Don’t know how to do that, but will see if I can figure it out.) I’ll be checking in to see how you’re doing on your novel. You should look into doing NANOWRIMO in November if you haven’t done it previously. It was a lot of fun and a great motivator.
Exhausted,
First, I love your moniker – I’m with you on that one.
Thanks for taking the time to swing by and comment. As for the progress bars, I’ve gotten so many comments/questions on them, I did a whole blog post about them. Take a look here:
http://shannonhowell.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/progress-bars/
if that doesn’t work, let me know via email and I’ll send the code to you that way (posting it online makes the computers think it’s part of the html for my page, as opposed to the TEXT for the page).
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