Blogging is like technology, there is something new to learn and experiment everyday. Reading other blogs and bloggers’ experience will be helpful to understand the basics, but experiencing and learning the real lessons will give the clear picture of blogging.
I registered my first domain back in 2007 when I was not aware anything about blogs. 2010 was excellent year for me in terms of earnings and traffic. I started concentrating seriously on blogging last year, which gave me nice lessons.
Blogging Lessons
The below 33 blogging lessons I learned in 2010 will be real practical example for some of you.
33 Blogging Lessons I learned in 2010
1) Blogging and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are not rocket science. SEO is important part of every Blogger journey and something we should spend time learning it.
2) Select your domain name properly with long term plan; you can’t change it later whenever you want.
3) Hosting plan and hosting company are very important like finding a location for a physical business. Avoid free hosting and grab any Premium hosting for your new Blog.
4) Write posts to solve readers problem.
5) Do not write posts for search engines only, but do not neglect them. Learn how to write for readers and search engine @same time.
6) WordPress is the best blogging platform.
7) Still free themes are working well for blogs. You can earn money and get more traffic with free themes.
8.) Making money from Adsense is still much possible.
9) Do not stick with your niche all the time; change it according to readers’ demand.
10) Checking your earnings stats very frequently is not going to help you at all.
11) Do not change your domain name after you established well with Google PR and back links.
12) Google PR and Alexa Rank are only for advertisers and other bloggers, not to your readers. They do not know what these all are.
13) I could have gained more readers if I did guest blogging in 2010.
14) Not all social networking sites are working to drive traffic. Do not add all buttons.
15) Do not start the second blog if you are still busy with your first blog.
16) Changing the blog’s theme frequently is not a professional blogging habit.
17) Checking your traffic stats daily is a real time waste.
18) Missing ‘About me/us’ and ‘Contact’ pages in a blog is like a person without head and legs.
19) Don not depend only on Adsense as an income source.
20) If you are using Paypal, don’t play with them, they will catch you.
21) You regular readers do not click PPC (Pay Per Click) ads.
21) May be you are not interested to capture RSS Feed readers, but your visitors like RSS reader facility.
22) Too many ads will not bring too much money.
23) Do not expect great support and appreciation from your family, friends and colleagues for your blogging. Because they can’t understand what a great job you are doing, only other bloggers and readers know the value.
24) Do not waste your whole time on reading other blogs, instead, you could write a useful post in your blog.
25) Running more than one blog as a part time blogger is a difficult job, except you have guest bloggers.
26) Making an email list is not only to make money, but also to keep a good relationship with your readers.
27) Affiliate marketing and selling products online are not for beginners.
28) Keep your blog’s backup all the time including files and database and learn to restore it.
29) You do not need to publish posts daily if you don’t have anything valid and unique.
30) Do not promise anything to your readers if you can’t keep it.
31) Whatever changes you do in blog, give some time. It takes time (10 to 14 days) to get the real effect. Do not decide anything quickly in overnight.
32) Money is an excellent factor to motivate blogging, but do not blog only for money.
33) If you failed in blogging, it doesn’t mean you can’t succeed anytime
I don’t call myself as a pro blogger, but these learning s made me to understand the blogging and to make some extra money online. I would like to ask your good or bad lesson you learned from your Blogging experience?
Do share atleast one blogging lesson which you have learned in your past.
This is a guest post by Dinesh who blogs at DailyBlogMoney . If you would like to write for ShoutMeLoud, check our guest posting guidelines.
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{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
33 Golden rules for blogging . I could see a lot of experience here. I need to start guest posting too.
Glad you accept my points.
Ramkumar, gust posting is a real good way of getting attention on other blogs.
Niche is something that people tend to ignore. You cannot be sure what you want to write when you start off your blog. So write different articles and see which one attracts the people the most.
By this you get good traffic plus good earnings..
I dint see anything about ‘commenting on other blogs’, its a nice strategy to bring a strong relationship with other bloggers.
Thanks
Yes Jimmy,
I agree with your point, which I missed to concentrate in 2010.
You can combine this with point 13.
Thanks
The first lesson you learned is most inspiring to me unfortunately people started to think getting traffic to your blog is a rocket science but when you do SEO practically you will started realize it is lot easy if you know how to do it.
Never do blogging for money there are thousand of blogs having millions of page views each but not a single ad think again.
Thanks for your valid point.
But the ‘Purpose of blogging’ is different for every one.
Hey Dinesh thanks for such a nice post. As I’m a newbie it will help me alot.
Great, You can combine a list like this after one year of your blogging experience.
Good luck.
good list buddy, choosing domain name and hosting company is very important in blogging…
If you failed in blogging, it doesn’t mean you can’t succeed anytime. “Good expression”. I learn blogging for 5 months, I am busy with SEO, backlink builder, etc. And now I focuse in affilate marketing (Amazon.com). It give me much money.
That can make a good money if you find the correct products and traffic source.
Good luck.
Great List.
This Post Is Very Helpfull For Me Because I Am A Newbie Blogger.
You Are A Great Blogger Dinesh.
All Lessons Are True But 14,19 And 21 Are Very Important For Every New Blogger.
Thank You For Sharing.
KashyapJoshi,
Thanks for your comment.
ShoutMeLoud will be the best place to learn lots of tips on blogging, check my blog too
Good luck.
Hi Dinesh, I wont agree with your 27th point. Affiliate Marketing is the only way to make money online for most newbie bloggers. You can ask VijayRaj Reddy here about how he is making money with his blog.
@Sathis: May be some people are lucky and they started earning from the very beginning of their blogging life. But here, I totally agree with Dinesh! Affiliate marketing and product selling are not for newbies as they do not even know how to proceed and how the internet works.
@Sathish,
Thanks for your comment.
Do you call ‘VijayRaj Reddy’ as beginner? I don’t think so. He is already giving some blogging and wordpress services to outsiders.
What I meant to say is, if you are entering in to blogging as newbie, then do not try affiliate products initially. You can’t recommend and sell just like that, till you build a trust with your readers.
@Tanmay, Thanks for your comment and agree with me.
These points are really must for a beginner who is about to start his own blog. These are the phases which each blogger experiences in his beginning days of blogging. I loved reading all the points. Awesome Post.
The last pt. is the one to believe in
Nice learnings though 
Happy Blogging!!
@sanjeev, @Namit Gupta, @Mani Viswanathan,
Glad you like the post.
Hope you would share something like this in 2012
Happy blogging and Good luck.
Looks like you learned a lot last year.
I disagree with SEO because it can become rocket science. I shouldve guest blogged more last year.
SEO could be rocket science when you are going to provide advanced SEO services to other blogs or companies or work in SEO firms.
To manage a own blog and improve search engine traffic, it can be done by any one with some basic knowledge. Its my personal experience.
Thanks for leaving comment here.
Making money from blogging is easy and many of them are already making it. Always blog for passion not for money
One question though, do not play with PayPal, what does it mean?? could you elaborate it more??
@Vivek Parmar,
Since you live in India, you might not have faced any issues.
Here are the simple points,
1) Do not open a account as you live in different country, if your country is not listed under money receiving supported country.
2) Do not use any VPN software to connect PayPal site.
3) Keep the related documents ( address, name, photo, credit card) with you always, they will ask suddenly.
May be I did the mistakes without reading proper instruction, but sadly, my money still with them
Hi, I think i might disagree with #24, Only when you read, you can write useful tips. Without reading, how can if you write the article, then it won’t be useful?
Fatty, it seems you just skimmed over the article instead of profoundly reading it. The author isn’t advising you to totally quit reading other blogs and only focus on your blog 24/7. The point he’s trying to make is that you need not invest most of your time in reading other blogs, instead you can spend some of that time in cranking out articles for your blog.
Btw, Your website seems to be encountering some problems. The page sticks around for only a few seconds and then it shuts off everything after displaying an error.
Interesting read Dinesh. Couple of things you mentioned I am experiencing now…many setbacks and little success. Definitely will improve with time.
enjoy read this blog…
some point make me thing to write something in my blog..
but honestly u may not understand my language
Great post Dinesh. I like number 4 and 5 points. they are very true.
Because i have few solutions posts which keep getting traffic day in and day out. every month, every year….
Great really great blog post…. Most of them even I have experienced in my 6+months of blogging career…
Nice points there you have mentioned. Probably a lesson from my side too : Have patience to dig through the bad times
Hi Dinesh
Excellent Experience Sharing. Few Points are really worth it. And even Rocket Science will not be Rocket science if use it regularly . 1,3,13,14 are really to considered seriously… and friend and family will not understand,,, This is sure a Rocket Science for them….:0