6 Content creation mistakes that are keeping you from making money

Are you putting a lot of effort in your content creation but aren’t you near making any money with it? It might not only be a visitor or following problem.

Many creators think that it’s important to have a massive following when it comes to becoming a full-time creator that gets paid but that’s not it.

Of course, if no one seems to notice your blog, it’s disappointing, but it’s worse when you make these 6 blog mistakes too. Make sure you also read my Ultimate Guide To Blogging because it’s packed with actionable steps and information to become a professional blogger.

Let’s not focus on your content quality and quantity, let’s focus on the following 6 blog mistakes, to fix:

You don’t focus on one niche and you don’t have a vision in mind

Blogging is probably 80% promoting and 10% writing. You have to have a goal in mind when you create your content! Write it very specific for ONE person, ONE niche and so on.

Don’t confuse people with whom you write for because this way you basically write for nobody.

You’re afraid to make the financial commitment first to invest in the right tools

Sure, it’s scary to spend a lot of money on the right tools before you make any, but it’s so, so necessary these days.

Using a free blogging platform and not using your own domain name are the first mistakes I see many bloggers make.

You will look more professional with your own domain name and you can turn your blog into a professional looking blog within 2 seconds when you invest in a self-hosted blog.

In this tutorial, I explain the exact steps to make if you want to go professional by getting your own domain name and hosting.

You can easily purchase your own domain name from Namecheap from $10 a year, and via this special link, you purchase hosting for just $3.49 a month. I personally use Bluehost (www.bluehost.com) because I like their customer service chat and 24/7 tech support. 

That’s both worth the investment because you’ll look a lot more professional. Often it’s not allowed to put ads on free blogging platforms, so now you can start with affiliate marketing and collaborating with sponsors.

Of course, you should ‘keep’ every visitor that visits your site, especially when that aren’t a lot of people, so make sure you invest in email marketing software to get started with content upgrades, newsletter sign-up forms and weekly newsletters. I personally use Convertkit (www.convertkit.com).

Besides content upgrades, it’s also valuable to invest in software that helps you build (free) online courses and social media schedulers that will generate traffic like Tailwind (read here to read all about how Tailwind Tribes can help you grow your traffic) and Planoly, to schedule your Instagram posts.

Get an affordable media kit template here, and follow my free email course A Media Kit Sells to get started with your media kit and sponsorships.

Sign-up for the 7-day FREE email course ‘A Media Kit That Sells’

Want to turn your influencer business, blog, website, shop or company into a successful press attention machine and a profitable business? Sign up for A media kit that sells.

Learn how to successfully pitch to the right person and how to totally rock every e-mail! This free e-mail course shows you a step-by-step process to create not only an awesome product to pitch your own product, but also how to convert the first e-mails into brand collaborations, sales and press mentions!

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You only focus on writing and forget to promote

Do you remember that I said that blogging is 80% promotion and 20% creating? Most bloggers that don’t succeed professionally completely forget to promote their blog posts after they’ve hit publish, and that’s a waste of time, energy, and money!

Time to take your promotion seriously! Click here to check out my Crash Course PR & Free Publicity! 

Promoting your blog takes a bit of planning and time, but the more you do it the easier it gets. You can learn more about promoting your blog posts for an explosion of traffic in this strategy.

Don’t analyzing your content is a big blog mistake

Google Analytics can be overwhelming, especially if you have no clue what it all means. But if you don’t learn ASAP how to read analytics, it’s gonna be hard to improve your blog the right way.

Constantly updating your most popular blog posts, creating new promotions for your old blog posts that don’t receive the traffic they deserve and tracking which strategies work and which don’t will make all the difference.

You don’t constantly update your old blog posts

Recently I started updating old blog posts for SEO. I’ve written over 1500 posts (!) over the past ≠ 4 years on nonimay.com and I’m not 100% happy with every post anymore. Times change.

Keeping this guide in mind, it’s not all about traffic as a professional blogger but yeah, it’s a great feeling to know that people read what you write about right?

But the sad truth is, most people only read your most recent posts if you don’t (cross) promote your blog posts right, and that is the reason why your page views don’t increase.

So it’s time to spice old blog posts up to explode your traffic. Updating old blog posts is a ton of work, especially if you have more than 100+ blog posts on your site, so make sure you download the checklist so you’re not doing things twice.

I promise, If you update your blog posts the right way, you’ll also see a spark in income.

Download your free checklist that helps you update old blog posts and turn them into money-making machines here:

Being stubborn and don’t following trends is a big blog mistake

Blogging and social media changes constantly. It’s exhausting but so necessary to stay on top of new trends in order to grow.

Example, Twitter may have worked 5 years ago and you might have 1000’s of followers on there, but these days, Twitter isn’t the hottest ticket in town, reach has fallen and there are so many new ways to promote your content.

Try to stay on top of new trends and try to enjoy it. I wish I started earlier with creating my own courses, promoting my blog posts actively on Pinterest and with implementing a very strategic affiliate marketing plan because I could have earned so much more!

Don’t make the same mistakes as I did, and get on top of new trends today.

You don’t know how bloggers earn money (this year)

Of course, it’s difficult to realize how most bloggers earn and spend money. Do they make money with ads and sponsored post? Or with affiliate marketing?

Sure, but that’s only profitable when you have a big following. How bloggers with a small audience earn money? That’s a bit more difficult to get insight into. That why I’ve created a free 3-part video series that helps you with insights and strategies on earning money blogging with a small audience. Sign-up now to learn more!

You might also like to read:

• 7 Ways to boost your blog
• The Complete Guide to: making money blogging when you have a small following
• The Complete Guide to: making money blogging when you have a small following
• Travel update blog + personal
• 15 Things that can take your blogging game to the next level