I’ve been blogging for over 6 years now, and although that may not be much compared to those who have been blogging since the 90s (what up Geocities!), it’s been a project of mine which has grown in significant proportions. Over the years, I’ve encountered my fair share of highs and lows in blogging.

Today, I’d like to share with you the mistakes I made in blogging all these years. There are a lot more, but I’ll just regale you with four for now 😛

1. Overwhelming myself with blogs on blogging and SEO

I remembered when I started reading blogs about blogging. 7 ways to make your blog a better one. 15 things you must do in order to keep your blog in top SEO shape (Search Engine Optimisation). 21 tips and tricks to put your blog on Google’s first page. 35 WordPress plugins you’ll ever need. All these topics came from blogs on blogging. I had only started blogging then, and I already wanted to be the next Problogger and Liz Strauss. So I started following over 50 blogs on a daily basis, just on topics on blogging alone.

About 6 months in, I was thoroughly exhausted. Don’t get me wrong, these are great blogs. But it was information overload. It had nothing to do with what I enjoy doing, which was writing about women and beauty. I just couldn’t keep up. In the end, my brains were so saturated with what I MUST and MUSN’T do that I actually lost interest in blogging altogether. If you noticed this time last year, I was barely blogging at all (I hit rock bottom when I only blogged less than 3 times a month).

I unsubscribed to the blogs, only keeping the ones that are relevant to me. I still  get a few updates daily, but just enough for me to learn and move on.

2. Not replying comments

This was a HUGE mistake I made for almost two years. I stopped replying comments left on my blog posts. There was absolutely no excuse to my behaviour, only pure laziness on my part. I did not lose any readers then (thank God!) but I didn’t gain any readers either. It was rude of me to not reply comments, especially when the reader has taken time out of her busy schedule to write a reply. I did personally email any urgent questions though, but it wasn’t enough.

I’m glad I finally learned my lesson in getting off my lazy arse to reply comments. If you have the time to comment, I bloody well should have the time to reply.

3. Not commenting enough

Unfortunately, this is a mistake I’m still making. I’m just not commenting on other blogs enough. I’m reading and subscribing to so many blogs these days that most of the time I find myself scanning through the piece and then move on to the next.

I do enjoy commenting on blogs because it’s generating a conversation with the blogger, showing the blogger support on what she wrote. After all, that’s what beauty blogging is, isn’t it? It’s a community.

So, note to self: BUCK UP AND COMMENT.

4. Taking it all too seriously

This is not to mean I don’t take my blog seriously, because I do. I put in a lot of hard work into my blog, and I take pride in it.

What I mean is not to let the blog take over your life. It did for a while. I’d rather be blogging in the weekends than go out with Tim or my friends. I’d rather be blogging than Skyping with my parents who are in Malaysia. I threw a big stink when the pictures Tim helped me take for the blog weren’t good enough. A few months ago, I missed my period and I thought I was pregnant. Instead of being excited or freak the hell out, I was worried how it would affect my going to the ABBW! 😛 (I would still go, of course, but you know what I mean )

Moral of the story: don’t let your blog run your life.

What about you? Have you made any blogging mistakes before? No mistakes are too big, small or stupid. Without them, we’d never learn.