Starting A Blog Over 50? 12 Things I Wish I’d Have Done Before!
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50. Make your blog successful from the start, avoid these beginner blogger mistakes!
Top blogging mistakes… Please, do yourself a gift and don’t make the same “newbie” mistakes I made!
Gush, I wish I knew about these…before I start my blog!
Yes, blogging is a great challenge to take on, and yes, the learning process is fun, but… There are some mistakes (actually a lot! ha!ha!) I made at the beginning of my blogging journey. Mistakes that slow me down.
I thought it would be a good idea to share them with you so you can avoid these mistakes and start your successful blog on the right foot.
So, here are the biggest mistakes I made; please, don’t do the same! 🙂
- Read Less And Act Quickly
- Take Courses And Buy E-Books About Blogging
- Having A Blogging Plan
- Know More About SEO
- Learn Pinterest Better And Sooner
- Do Keyword Research Before Writing A Post
- Learn & Use Tailwind Before
- Learn How To Use Google For Topics And Tittle Ideas
- Write Shorter Posts
- Use Facebook To Promote My Blog Before
- Waste Too Much Time Finding The Perfect Images
- Learn How To Index Posts On Google Console
- My Blogging Resources
- To Conclude
Ready to learn from my new blogger mistakes? 🙂
*But just before we dive into our topic, make sure you save this.
I’m sure you’ll want to come back to it to avoid all these!😉
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
1-Read Less And Act Quickly: Start My Blog And Learn As I Go!
I just can’t tell how much time I wasted! Precious time I could use to do more important things. 🙁
I spent hours and hours reading all I could about starting a blog. It was so confusing! I was reading and reading without understanding a thing! I remember how frustrating it was! Too much info is worse than not having enough! Phew!!
So, one day, I decided to start my blog and learn as I go. Guess what? Suddenly, everything became easier, and I mean a lot easier! 😊
Once you set up your blog/website and start to work on it, you now understand everything… well, almost! ha! ha!
I realized it was easier to learn one thing at a time!
*Disclosure: I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through one of my affiliate links, of course, at no additional cost to you! I share and promote only products I use, trust, and love! 🖤 Products I know you will love too! Please read our disclosure for more information
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
2-Take Courses And Buy E-Books About Blogging
Another thing I realized is taking e-course and buying e-books on a particular topic was the best way to learn.
Instead of spending days on the web trying to find the right info, I decided to invest a little and save my precious time. Even though I was reading everywhere that you could start a blog for free but, is there anything really free? ha! ha! I don’t think so!
If you are serious about your blog ( we all are, aren’t we?) I suggest you invest a little too.
Yes, I will share the books and resources that helped me so much. So, hold on till the end! 😉
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
3-Having A Blogging Plan!
Even though I had an idea of what to do ( well… kind of!) at my very beginnings, I haven’t had a plan, I mean, a real plan!
But thank God, I realized pretty soon that having a plan would help me. I like things to be organized if you know what I mean 🙂.
Starting a new blog is so overwhelming!!
But having a plan makes me feel so much more comfortable. I feel more in control.
Just like any new blogger, I was overwhelmed by all the new things to do and learn. Wow! Absolutely everything was new to me. And I asked myself so many times;
- Am I too old to start a blog?
- And why should I start a blog at 55?
- Will I like blogging?
- Does it really worth it?
So many questions… Then I decided that, no, I wasn’t too old to start blogging. And yes, I want to blog to have fun, and I will make sure that it is worth blogging and that I will love it! 😉 And when I decide on something, I usually stick to it!!
So, I took a pen, and I started making my blog plan! I’m proud to say that I still use that plan since then! Ok, I tweaked it a little down the road, but the base of my Simple Blog Plan is the same.
Now I know exactly where I’m going! 😊 Feel free to grab your copy of My Simple Blog Plan… the only blog planner I use!
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
4-Know More About SEO
Not knowing more about SEO… right from the start is THE thing I regret the most!
The best advice I can give you is to learn about SEO first!
In case you don’t know exactly what is SEO: SEO is for Search Engine Optimization. Here’s what Google developers say about SEO
Having a good SEO strategy right from the start will help Mr. Google and his bots & crawlers to find your posts and display them when people are searching for the topic you wrote about.
After all, we write posts because we want people to read them. I mean, a lot of people! We want visitors to our website, right?
And if you plan to monetize your blog, believe me, you need to learn SEO!
Because of SEO, many of my posts now rank on Google’s first page. Wow, can you imagine how proud I was? Stay tuned; I will talk about the fabulous e-books I read to learn SEO in a few minutes.
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
5-Learn Pinterest Better And Sooner!
Every blogger says that Pinterest is the best place to promote our posts…
Every blogger says how easy it is to get traffic from Pinterest…But they are wrong!
Pinterest is not easy… not at all!!
Pinterest is a beast all by itself!
It looks so easy at first. I thought all I would have to do was make lovely pins and pin them to my lovely boards. I was so, so wrong! Ha! Ha! Believe me, Pinterest is way more than that! We have to learn and understand it to have success there.
So, again, I decided to buy an e-book and deeply learn it. And Yay!! I think I conquered that bad Pinterest beast! 😊 Of course, I will add the link to that awesome e-book below so you can conquer it too!
One last thing about Pinterest…
I wish I waited until I had 25 posts to start pinning. Because we have to pin every day (and can’t pin to the same URL more than once every 5 to 7 days), having more posts gives you more options. I know that, just like me, you are impatient, but trust me, it is worth waiting for a little.
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
6-Do Keyword Research Before Writing A Post
Keywords, keyphrases…How I wish I knew about the importance of using them correctly!
Keywording is the base of SEO! But how to find the right ones? How to use them? Where to add them to your blog posts?
Again, so many questions!… and so many different answers on the web! Oh no! Will I have to waste days in research to learn it too? ha! ha! Of course not! Lessons have been learned!
Instead of searching for answers, I searched for the best resource, the best way to learn about SEO and keywords, and I found it! I bought 3 books and started learning. And yay! I found out that it was easier than expected! ha! ha! Can you believe it? Finally! Finally, something easy! Well, kind of…
SEO and keywords will ensure people will see your posts and read them.
With good on-page SEO and good keywording, you could even rank on Google’s first page! How’s that? 😉
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
7-Learn & Use Tailwind Before
If you don’t know about Tailwind yet, I suggest you learn it now!
Remember all the lovely pins we have to pin to our lovely Pinterest boards?
Let me tell you! It takes forever to do! I stopped counting how many hours I spent making pins and pinning them to my boards.
Every blogger says that you spend more time promoting than writing posts. And this time, I can confirm they are right! ha! ha!
The beauty of Tailwind is that you can schedule your pins, FaceBook, or Instagram posts for weeks in advance. This will make you save so much time!
Since I use Tailwind, I can make pins in bulk, schedule them, and then don’t have to worry about them for weeks. Tailwind also has AI to help you write your pin descriptions; wow! how cool is that?
* You can try Tailwind for free by using my special link. 😉 A free month will give you a good idea of what Tailwind can do for you!
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
8-Learn How To Use Google For Topics And Title Ideas
Of course, we all know about Google. But what I wasn’t aware of was that I could use Google to find topic ideas and even blog post titles.
Wow! Really?
Oh Yes! Google is a mine of gold for new bloggers!
There are a few different ways to find ideas on Google. I won’t explain everything here because it’s not our main topic, but I have a full post about how to find blog post content and new topic ideas your readers will enjoy reading. 😉 I talk a lot about Google, but I share other great ideas too!
Again, make sure you use Google to find blog post content that readers are searching for.
Using this blogging strategy will ensure you have traffic to your blog. 😊 We have to write what our readers want to read about; it makes sense, right?
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
9-Write Shorter Posts
ha! ha! I remember my first posts! It was always so hard to stop! I could write 5,000 words without even noticing it!
But I realized that people don’t always want or have time to read such long posts.
And, of course, the longer the post, the more time you’ll take to write and edit it…
Ok, I have to admit that I still make 4,000+ posts, but only when it’s absolutely necessary! I now prefer to make my posts a little shorter to please my readers.
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
10-Use FaceBook To Promote My Blog Before
I have to confess that I’m not a big social media fan 🙁 I know I should… But I feel I always have more important things to do…I guess I’m the “old fashion” type…
I waited more than one year after starting my blog to open my FaceBook account! Gush, I regretted it so much. I should have created my account on day one!
But you know how it is. Things go so fast!
So please, avoid this mistake. Open accounts everywhere and start promoting your blog!
You will also build your community and make new friends 🙂
I’m still in the FB learning process, but I’m getting better. Feel free to follow me and become my new friend. You could give me FB tips too! ha! ha! That’s what friends are for, right?
Seriously, blogging is all about promoting. So yes, even in our 50s, FaceBook and Instagram are for us! … even though I thought I was way too old for that! ha! ha!
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
11-Waste Too Much Time Finding The Perfect Images!
Oh, my gush! How many hours have I spent/wasted on the internet trying to find the perfect images for each of my blog posts?
Unsplash, Exposure…and many other websites offer free images, but it’s kind of hard to find the right free image that will fit into your post.
So, I decided to pay for them! I now buy my images and photos from Deposit Photos. They have a large variety to choose from. They always offer great discounts around Black Friday, so I buy a big bunch, and I’m good for months.
I also create my own images using Canva Pro, which I love! ❤️ Canva is by far my favorite blogging tool! The one I use almost every day.
It is so easy to use, even if, just like me, you have no design skills. Believe me; you will become an artist in no time. 😉
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
12-Learn How To Index Posts On Google Console
Mmmm… Index my posts? What? I had no clue about that at all!!
Actually, when I learned about indexing your posts to Google, I was shocked to see that 42 of my posts were not indexed! And I didn’t even know about post-indexing! grrrr… Think of all the traffic I missed! 🙁
So now, as soon as I hit the publish button, you can be sure I go to Google Search Console to index it. I don’t want to miss traffic again.
Please, make sure you index each of your blog posts too! Here’s how to index a blog post in Google Search Console. Small, small task but oh! so important!
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
My Blogging Resources
Now time to talk about the blogging resources that helped me so much!
As I said earlier, investing a little in your blog/business/website is the best thing I’ve done.
I invested maybe 300$ to 400$ in e-books and e-courses, which is not that much! Think of it this way; where else can you start your own business with so little money?
Of course, you can probably find all this info on the web after hours and hours…and hours of research! But I figured that my time was worth more than a few hundred dollars! 😉
So here are the books and courses I bought and why I love them. They all helped me so, so much. I’m sure they will help you too!
1-The Treasure Map To Blogging
From Ling/Finsavvy Panda
The Treasure Map to Blogging is the first e-book I bought ( and I loved it! ) so helpful! It helped me build my website/blog from scratch. Ling explains absolutely everything in words all new bloggers can understand. If you haven’t started your blog yet, I highly recommend it! And because I loved that book so much, I bought her other e-book about Pinterest strategies. 😉
2-The Golden Compass To Pinterest
From Ling/Finsavvy Panda
The Golden Compass To Pinterest helped me understand Pinterest; believe me, Pinterest is a beast all by itself, but because of this fabulous book, I now understand, and I conquered that big bad Pinterest beast!! ha! ha!
If you’re serious about your blog, Pinterest is a fantastic way to bring traffic to your website/blog. You must understand it to succeed in this Pinterest World! That’s why I decided to spend a few dollars to learn it well, and this book is worth each dollar I spend on it! I just love Ling! She’s such a good teacher 🖤
And Now, What About SEO?
3-Get Your Keywords Together
From Trinity/The Pay At Home Parent
Because Keywords are a big part of SEO, of course, I had to learn about them too! ( ha! ha! blogging is a never-ending story!) I have found a fabulous book about keywords. Trinity explains how to find them using only free tools ( and we all love free things, aren’t we? ).
She called her e-book Get Your Keywords Together ( cute name, isn’t it? ). This book will teach you everything you need to know about keywords!… and she offers some free bonuses too!
4-Easy On-Page SEO
5-Easy Backlinks for SEO
Both from Debbie Gartner
Easy On-Page Seo and Easy Backlinks for SEO from Debbie Gartner are the best to learn SEO. Debbie explains everything so clearly! Believe me, after reading these, you’ll become an SEO expert! ha! ha! Ok, maybe not, but you will understand it, and it’s enough at the beginning. You will refer to these e-books often and improve your SEO strategy down the road.
Debbie also offers a Bundle: Easy On-Page SEO + Easy Backlinks to make you save a little. That’s what I bought, and I never regretted it! They are worth each penny I spent on them!
*** Up Date: Many of my blog posts now rank on Google’s First Page! Wow! I’m shocked!! And So, So Proud!! 😊Can you imagine? My small blog is on Google’s first page! I couldn’t believe it! 🎈🎉This sure is a small victory to celebrate!! Thank you so much, Debbie! I read these books many times and apply almost everything Debbie teaches us and Tada! I now see the results! I’m so happy! I had to share it with you!! 😉
OK, I’ll stop bragging! ha! ha! Back to the blogging resources!
6-Blog Traffic Booster
From Margaret Bourne/ Confident Blogger Academy
Margaret explains how to grow your blog, how to know your audience, how to optimize your blog posts, how to write content your readers want to read, etc. It’s a mine of gold for all new bloggers! I’m so happy I bought that e-course, even though I wish I discovered it sooner!
If you are serious about your blog, never hesitate to invest in it. I’m not telling you to buy everything you see, but buy some books or courses from bloggers you trust. Try to avoid following too many gurus, or you will quickly get confused 😉
Top blogging mistakes to avoid when starting a blog over 50…
To Conclude
See how easy it is for new bloggers to make mistakes?
But also, can you see how easy it is to avoid these mistakes? 😊
I know that starting a blog is overwhelming, but I also know that the more organized we are, the easiest it is!
To resume:
- Stop wasting your precious time searching for info on the web and following too many “Blog Experts”. Invest a little in your blog/business by learning from e-courses and e-books from bloggers you really trust.
- Learn about SEO and Keywording from the start!
- Use a good Blog Plan…and follow it!
- Learn Pinterest from a Pinterest expert.
- Use Google for topic and title ideas.
- Schedule your pins, Facebook, and Instagram posts using Tailwind
- Make sure your blog posts are correctly indexed.
- Promote, Promote, Promote your posts and blog wherever you can!
It’s time to start blogging the So Perfectly Simple way!
What if blogging was the beginning of your new Dream Life?
As always, I would love to hear from you! 🖤 Use the box below for any questions or comments ( I swear, I always reply! ). What is the biggest blogging mistake you’ve made? What is the best advice you could give to new bloggers? Tell me, what do you think? I’m such a curious girl; I have to know! And I love comments! ( 😉 plus, comments are good for SEO, ha! ha! But that’s another story…)
We are now blogging friends 😊 it’s time to connect and share ideas!!
Talk to you soon!
Related Posts:
-How to start a blog at 50+ (the simple guide you’ll love!)
-Amazing blogging tools we need (and why you will love them too!)
-Blogging niche ideas, how to find the right one! (you’ll love these!)
P.S. I hope you enjoyed reading Starting A Blog Over 50? 12 Things I Wish I’ve Done Before! 😊
