Creating a blog is EASY. If you use Blogger, for example, you can set up a blog in less than a minute, and write your first blog item in five minutes. What could be easier than that? It takes me at least as long to write an email message.

Blogging Is Easy, But…

Blogging is easy because the blogging platform does all the hard work for you. There’s no design required, and useful tools like RSS are built-in to your new blog.

However, despite the fact that creating a new blog couldn’t be easier, new bloggers tend to make some fundamental mistakes which are difficult to correct later. These mistakes also consign the blog to low traffic. Eventually, the new blogger will give up blogging, because “blogging doesn’t work.”

The Top Five Blogging Mistakes

Let’s look at the top five mistakes new bloggers (and some experienced ones) make when setting up a new blog. I know all about these mistakes, because I’ve made them too.

Mistake One: No Clearly Defined Purpose For The Blog

This is the primary mistake that many new bloggers make. They start blogging without thinking about why they’re creating a blog. Is the blog personal, professional, or is it a money maker?

Mistake Two: No Keywords Selected For The Blog

The second mistake flows on from the first. When you haven’t decided a blog’s purpose, you haven’t chosen any keywords. Your primary keywords (no more than four to six for the first month or so) are vital.

You’d never make this mistake, would you? I could and did. A couple of years ago I set up a blog and although I had a purpose for the blog, I managed to blog for around 700 posts before I realized that I’d never focused on my primary keyword.

Mistake Three: No Clear Path To Monetization

There are many ways to monetize a blog. However, if no advertiser is advertising products using your primary keywords, and no one is buying anything related to your topic, then your blog has no way to generate income.

Mistake Four: No Marketing Plan To Get Traffic

While a blog has natural traffic generators like RSS built-in, you’ll still need to market the blog. Decide on two or three ways you’ll market this particular blog, and then do it. You’ll get the traffic you want.

Mistake Five: Focus On Traffic, Not On Content

It’s a natural mistake to want all the traffic you can get. But what if there’s nothing on the blog to snag interest once the traffic gets there? Focus on content, then on traffic, and when you have content, focus on both - you can never have enough traffic, but your it’s your content that draws your visitors and makes money for you.

So there you have the top five blogging mistakes - avoid them, and all your blogs will be successful.

Want to make money as a pro blogger? You can. Blogging is easy and fun, and many bloggers have quit day jobs to blog full-time. Veteran blogger Angela Booth’s ebook Blogging For Dollars is your guidebook to blogging success. Read the ebook’s blog - it’s updated every week.