Are you making this blogging mistake?

I realized this morning I was guilty of this mistake when I first started blogging.

Thankfully I am still here to write about it.

What am I talking about?

When you first start blogging there is a lot to learn; so you read a lot of different websites and blogs that teach you how to create great content, build your email list and the like.

You might also join a membership site to get help from the experts, buy several eBooks or sign up for a course (or two).

You end up getting an assortment of disjointed advice from all over the place.

While eBooks, courses and membership sites all have their merits, the problem comes when you try to do them all at once.

Most likely when you first start blogging, you will have a separate full time job. Working full time means you only have so many hours in the morning, evening and on the weekend to work on your blog.

During this time you have to write high quality content, promote your work, respond to comments and emails (hopefully you will have some), update plugins and do any design work that may be required.

All of these tasks, if done correctly, can take a lot of time, especially when you are first starting out and don’t really have a clue what you’re doing.

Throw in working through the actions on an eBook, trying to get the most out of your membership subscription (which you are paying for) and completing that six week course that you couldn’t resist and suddenly you are suffering from a huge case of overload. Not to mention feeling overwhelmed.

On top of that your stats are low (or flat lined), comments are few and far between and you start to wonder why you are bothering with a blog in the first place.

It’s no wonder so many blogs are abandoned.

As I mentioned, I was guilty of making this mistake. I would begin working through one eBook (a good eBook should have some sort of action plan) and then another one would catch my attention and I would jump over to work on it for a while.

I’d jump from one blogging expert to another (sometimes their advice conflicted with each other, which got even more confusing). I would start courses but not finish them.

You can see the problem here can’t you?

As a Personal Assistant working for a busy sales team I had to be brilliant at multitasking. The problem with multitasking is that sometimes tasks fall through the cracks.

I remember having a job performance review with my manager who happened to have laryngitis at the time. We somehow managed to do the whole review using his limited voice and a lot of furious hand waving. (It was hilarious but you kind of had to be there).

One point that came out of this review and the only thing he wanted me to improve on was:

DO ONE THING AT A TIME.

While multitasking was part of the job requirement, I still needed to be focused on the one thing I was doing at the time. I had to follow each project or task through to completion, despite having a dozen tasks on the go.

Blogging is no different.

My advice to new bloggers is focus on one project at a time.

By all means read great content by experienced bloggers and sign up for their newsletters. Decide on a couple of experts whose opinion you value and follow their relevant advice.

If you are going to work on a specific project that will utilize your valuable time, effort and money then pick one and see it through to completion.

If you buy an eBook on how to grow your blog, work through the entire book and action all of the items.

If you sign up for a course that lasts several weeks or months, make that your main area of focus (aside from the everyday running of your blog naturally).

If you join a membership group make the most of that opportunity. Participate in the forums, form relationships and collaborate with other bloggers. Get as involved as possible, instead of just reading the information and thinking ‘I’ll do that later’.

The truth is you probably won’t do it later. You will have moved onto something else or given up.

I know this seems like basic advice and fundamentally it is, but for new bloggers too many options mixed with a lack of action can be a dangerous combination.

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