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New Bloggers Struggle With These WordPress Mistakes

November 14, 2017 by Susan Velez

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Last updated on August 1st, 2018 at 07:01 pm

New bloggers struggle with WordPress. Learning WordPress comes with some learning curves. I list some of the most common WordPress mistakes to help you with your blogging journey.

Most new bloggers struggle with WordPress. I personally know how challenging it can be to learn the platform. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the most common WordPress mistakes people make.

*This page contains affiliate links to products I recommend. If you purchase something from this page, I may receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you

new bloggers

WordPress isn’t as easy as people make it seem. It takes time to learn, heck, I still find myself making mistakes as I learn how to grow this blog.

And I’ve been working with WordPress for over 8 years. I’m happy to say that the basics come pretty easy to me.

However, it wasn’t always this way. I still remember when I set up my very first WordPress site for a client.

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It took me over 8 hours to get it set up. And it was the ugliest site I’d ever made. At the time, I was so proud of myself, you’d think that I just ran the Boston Marathon.

Well, fast forward to today and I now work as a WordPress freelancer from home. Although, I am in the process of working towards leaving my freelancing gig. You can read more about my first WordPress experience here.

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So if you’ve just started your own self-hosted blog, I’d like to say congratulations. You’re in for a great ride.

There’s going to be days where you feel like quitting and pulling your hair out. At points, you’re going to feel like quitting because you’re going to think you’re NOT techie enough to blog.

It’s going to be a roller coaster of emotions.

I’m here to cheer you on and say hang in there. You’ve got this. Plus I’ve got tons of basic WordPress tutorials to help you along the way.

You got this, so keep breathing and keep writing awesome content that helps people.

Common Mistakes WordPress Beginners Make With WordPress

My goal is to help you learn about the most common WordPress mistakes that beginners make.

By sharing these mistakes, my hope is that you will avoid them.

Of course, if you’ve made some mistakes that I don’t share here, be sure to let me know about them in the comments below. It will help us all learn from mistakes that maybe we haven’t experienced yet ๐Ÿ™‚

The Nine Most Common WordPress Mistakes

#1ย Not Creating A Regular Backup

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Many new WordPress beginners tend to believe that WordPress automatically backs up your blog.

Let me tell you a little story about a client who thought that their blog was being backed up daily.

They came to me when they had an issue, someone had accidentally deleted their blog.

They wanted me to restore their site to a previous version.

I asked them if they created daily backups. They looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights, they had no clue what I was talking.

Finally, they said their hosting account created the backups.

Well, when I contacted their hosting account, unfortunately, they weren’t paying for a backup plan.

The hosting account did create backups, but the only way they could back up their site to a previous version is they had to pay the hosting account $150 for access to the backup file.

Needless to say, they were desperate so they forked out the $150 for the 7-day old backup file.

What You Need to Do

If you don’t have a regular backup plan for your blog, now’s the time to stop what you’re doing and make one.

Don’t rely on your hosting account to take care of your backups. You need to set up automatic backups and store them remotely.

The great thing is that there are so many free and paid plugins like Backup Buddy, Updraft Plus and BlogVault (which is what I use) to create backups.

Related: WordPress Backup Buddy

I know that hosting accounts like SiteGround does offer nightly backups for their GrowBig accounts.

If you’re using Bluehost or any other hosting account. You may want to find out if nightly backups are included with your monthly hosting service.

#2 Choosing WordPress.com When You Should Use WordPress.org

Most WordPress beginners tend to get confused when starting their blog. They tend to get started with WordPress.com instead of WordPress.org. Check out this comparison chart.

There’s a big difference between the two platforms.

Related: How do I Know If I Installed WordPress.org or WordPress.com

#3 Overspending On Things You Donโ€™t Need

I’ll be the first to tell you that I was terrible at this when I first started. I always found myself spending money on themes, plugins, tools and all kinds of software that promised me quick results.

The truth is that you shouldn’t be spending a lot of money on these types of things when you’re first starting out.

I know that you probably want that cool plugin that promises you to increase your income and opt-ins.

I’ve purchased all kinds of plugins and themes that are sitting on my dead PC. I don’t use half of them.

Do yourself a favor and save your money. There are no plugins on the market that will skyrocket your blog to success.

I’m not saying not to invest in plugins if you find something that will help you run your blog. In fact, I’ll share 7 of my favorite plugins that I use for my blog.

Don’t feel like you need to invest in any of them. Find the plugins that will help make your blog successful. Every blogger has their own set of plugins that they just can’t live without and these are mine.

#4 Not Wanting To Spend Any Money

We just talked about not overspending on unnecessary items when you’re first starting out. While it’s true, I no longer buy any more themes or plugins because I’m very happy with what I have.

This doesn’t mean that you should never spend any money on your blog.

It’ss important to realize that you can’t do everything for free.

The great thing is that starting a blog on WordPress doesn’t require a lot of money. In my opinion, the most important thing to spend your money on is a good hosting account.

I currently host my blog on the GrowBig account on SiteGround.

As bloggers, we have different options for hosting such as:

  • Bluehost
  • WPEngine

 
You don’t have to spend a fortune if your blog is brand new. However, you want to make sure that you choose a hosting account that will make you happy.

#5 Failing to Delete the Hello Dollie Plugin and The Sample Page and Hello World Post

When you first install WordPress, you’ll notice that there’s a plugin called Hello Dollie.

I am not really sure what that plugin does, but here’s a post that tells you everything you need to know.

Make sure that you delete the Hello World post and the Sample Page that comes pre-installed on WordPress.

I was actually on a blog the other day and I saw their hello world on their blog.

They did have some other blog posts written, but for some reason, they didn’t delete their hello world.

Just because you’re a beginner with WordPress, doesn’t mean that you should look like a beginner.

#6 Failing to Make Your Software Updates

When you start using WordPress, you’ll notice that software updates are released on a regular basis.

One of the most common mistakes new bloggers make is ignoring the updates.

I’ve had clients who are still on WordPress 4.0 and earlier because they are scared to update their software.

I’m not going to lie, it can be scary to update the software. However, these updates are necessary for security reasons.

You always want to make sure that you have a backup on hand, in case something happens during the update.

Unfortunately, things happen and if you experience any issues, you can always revert to your previous version before the backup.

Related posts on how to maintain your WordPress blog:

  • WordPress Maintenance Tasks
  • How to Update The WordPress Core
  • How to Deal With WordPress Problems As A Beginner

 
Remember, working with WordPress doesn’t have to be hard. The more you work with it on a regular basis, the more confidence you’ll gain.

You don’t have to become a WordPress expert just to blog.

#7 Not Changing Your Time Zone

We all blog from different parts of the world. That’s what makes blogging so great.

You have the opportunity to start a blog and share your thoughts, opinions, and passion with the world.

Heck, I started this blog so I can turn it into a full-time profitable business and walk away from my freelancing business.

It’s amazing what my MacBook Pro and my Internet connection can do for me.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you if you’re serious about starting a blog and turning it into a profitable business is to create your content in advance.

You’ll hear so many bloggers talk about creating a content editorial calendar.

Since I’ve started doing that, it makes it a lot easier to take time off from my blog. I’ve gotten to the point where I have months of content written in advance.

However, depending on where you live, you want to make sure that your WordPress time zone is set correctly.

Otherwise, your blog posts won’t get scheduled when you want them to. If you’re looking for the best time to publish your blog posts, read this.

#8 Not Creating A Favicon For Your WordPress Blog

We’ve all heard that important word called “branding” your blog. We see favicons every day when we visit our favorite sites.

no favicon

As you can see from the image above, the site I am referring to does not have a favicon.

You don’t want your site to look like that.

Favicons make sites easy to locate. If you’re like me, then chances are you work on your blog with several tabs open.

There are days that I have more than 5 tabs open. If the sites that I visited didn’t have a personalized favicon, it would take me forever to find the site again.

You want to make sure that you’re taking the time to add your personal branding to your WordPress blog.

I’ve even created a tutorial that will walk you through step-by-step on how to create a favicon for your WordPress blog.

The great thing is that once you create it an upload it, you won’t have to do it again.

#9 Not Creating A Gravatar

If you haven’t taken the time to set up a gravatar, today is the day. I don’t know about you, but I personally hate it when someone comments on my blog and they haven’t set up a gravatar.

In my opinion, it looks extremely unprofessional. It makes me feel as though that blogger is trying to hide their identity. Now I know that may not be the case.

It’s just how I feel. If I feel this way, can you imagine what other people feel like?

Take the time to look at other successful bloggers, you’ll see that they’ve created a gravatar. Why?

Because they’re not trying to hide behind their computers. They want to build trust with their readers.

It’s impossible to build trust with a reader if they are constantly staring at the WordPress mystery man gravatar.

If you still haven’t created a gravatar, then today’s the day to get your pearly whites on your blog.

Related: How to Set Up A WordPress Gravatar And Why You Need One

Final Take Away

Starting with a self-hosted WordPress blog can be confusing. The great thing is that you don’t need to know everything.

You can learn how to build a blog that you’re proud of. It’s going to take time, but as long as you treat it like a business and do something to grow every day.
I have no doubt that you’ll reach your blogging goals.

Even if you make some mistakes along the way, which you most likely will.

You can still create a profitable blog.

Hand Picked Articles For You

  • 51 Most Common WordPress Questions
  • Scared to Start A Blog
  • Getting Started With WordPress What You Need

 
What common WordPress mistakes did you make when you first started your blog? Let me know, I’d love to hear if your mistakes were different than mine.

My Recommended Blogging Resources!

Here are my affiliate links for my most recommended resources. I hope these resources can help you grow your blog too!

Free 12 Day Blogging Bootcamp: This is a course that will show you how to get your blog started.

ShareASale: ShareASale is one of my favorite affiliate networks. It’s free to sign up and they have tons of advertisers that make it easy for any blogger to make money through affiliate marketing.

SEMRush: This tool is amazing and has helped me increase my organic traffic. It is expensive, so don’t pay for it every month. When I’m NOT using it, I’m using KWFinder to help me with my keyword research.

Quiz: Which theme is best for your blog?: Take this quiz if you’re having a hard time trying to decide which WordPress theme you should use.

If you want to build an email list and send newsletters, I recommend ConvertKit: I’ve started using this to help me grow my blog and it is so user-friendly.

JumpStart Blog Traffic: Learn my secrets to growing my blog from zero pageviews to growing each and every month, using Google and Pinterest.

Filed Under: Blogging

About Susan Velez

Hi! I'm Susan welcome to my blog. Are you ready to use the Internet and a computer to change your finances? I share tips to help you make money online through blogging, side hustles and other non-traditional methods learn more Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Shantanu Sinha says

    November 15, 2017 at 2:22 am

    Hello Susan,

    Good shout over here ๐Ÿ™‚

    This one is so much of help for those who are willing to start their own online business and also it took me some what in the
    flash back as there were couple of thing that me to did when I was a freshers.

    #2 this was the thing that I usually crashed into, going for wordpress.com where I needed to get wordpress.org, this one caught
    me so badly and things were in vain as the chances seems to get lessen due to this.

    #4 You can understand as a freshers one do not want to spend lot of money as they are willing to get the free stuff so that
    they can have some amount in the backup, this was same with me, but the truth is if we want to be successful then we need
    to get some of the things which are best when we use the paid version of it.

    Well these are surely going to help out those who are willing to set their own blog and going through these points can save them
    a lot of errors and time.

    Thanks for the share.

    Shantanu.

    • Susan Velez says

      November 15, 2017 at 5:14 am

      Hi Shantanu,

      I’m glad that you liked the article. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to spend money on our blogs. We can’t always do everything for free.

      Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

      Have a great day ๐Ÿ™‚

      Susan

  2. Monika Sharma says

    November 16, 2017 at 3:14 am

    Thanks Susan for sharing this post with basic & common WordPress Mistakes, No one wan’t to commit mistakes but even mistake happen with everyone… There is just one difference, Experience people can easily handle & fresher take time to hand a mistake but your this article is really good !

    • Susan Velez says

      November 16, 2017 at 7:47 am

      Hi Monika,

      Mistakes happen online, that’s why it’s important to be prepared.

      Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

      Have a great day ๐Ÿ™‚

      Susan

  3. Vishwajeet Kumar says

    November 16, 2017 at 4:11 am

    Hello Susan,

    These are some of the mistakes that newbie bloggers made. Creating a backup of your site is very important as uncertainty can happened at anytime and if you don’t have the backup of your site than you lose everything. In addition to it choosing a wrong niche is a big mistake most of the newbie bloggers made. Choosing a right niche can help you to deliver 100% of yourself. Thanks for sharing these great tips here.

    Have a great day ๐Ÿ™‚
    Vishwajeet

    • Susan Velez says

      November 16, 2017 at 7:46 am

      Hi Vishwajeet,

      Most people don’t think about backing up their blog until something bad happens. At least that’s what I’ve seen from my freelancing clients.

      Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment. I appreciate everything you do for me.

      Have a great day ๐Ÿ™‚

      Susan

  4. Ravi Chahar says

    November 17, 2017 at 3:43 am

    Hey Susan,

    Most of the people remain confused between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. They should go with the self-hosted version for sure.

    The favicon, people don’t even know what that is. I have changed it today and it seems I may need more changes.

    Thanks for mentioning the mistakes.

    ~Ravi

    • Susan Velez says

      November 17, 2017 at 7:06 am

      Hi Ravi,

      I’ve seen your favicon, I think it looks good.

      Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and comment.

      Have a great day ๐Ÿ™‚

      Susan

  5. Shivam Sahu says

    January 5, 2018 at 6:49 am

    Hello Susan,
    Great article, and while I knew most of these tips there are a still a few I didnโ€™t know about. One thing I see on some new (and maybe even older) WordPress site is people donโ€™t disable/remove the meta admin widget from their sidebar. No reader/viewer/client/customer, etc needs to see a link for you to log into your WordPress dashboard when they got to your site. That tab is completely useless (just go to yoursite.com/wp-admin) and should be removed as soon as your site is active.

    • Susan Velez says

      January 5, 2018 at 7:02 am

      Hi Shivam,

      Glad you enjoyed the article. Thanks for sharing another great tip for new bloggers.

      You’re right, that widget is not necessary to leave on your blog.

      Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

      Have a great day ๐Ÿ™‚

      Susan

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