It is so important for new bloggers to avoid making these mistakes when they start blogging for their online business. There are certain mistakes you must avoid to be successful and gain traffic to your website/blog.

It can be hard for new bloggers to stand out from all the other blogs...to stand out from the crowd. You may be feeling like a little fish in a BIG pond because you are unsure of what to do.

Don't worry everyone has felt that way in the beginning. Remember there really is no right way or wrong way to blog; this is just a list of some critical mistakes (in no particular order) that people make which could affect why you're not experiencing the success you want.

1. Not Owning Your Own Domain Name: If you want to have complete control over your website/blog it is so important to have your own domain name. This is also another way of branding YOU! Branding you is want you want. You want people to find you and your website/blog and owning your own personal domain name is the way to go.

2. Not Using Permalinks For Post/SEO: This is the link to your post or page on your website/blog. It tells you what the post or page was about and makes it easier for the search engines to find your website. Using permalinks will not only assist in SEO it can also bring you more visitors. Traffic is what you want.

3. Not Posting Articles/Videos Consistently: There are some people who will go several weeks between posting an article to their blog. You cannot build a business or expect to have traffic coming to your website/blog if you do not post on a regular basis. You must be consistent and set a schedule for writing and posting. People will not bother to come back to visit any longer if you don't post often.

4. Not Responding To Readers Comments: Comments to your posts are very important because that means people are visiting your website/blog and have actually read your post. Ignoring their comments can show your visitor that you really don't care. Having comments is one of things you want; responding to comments can start a dialogue with your visitor. This is one of things you are working for.

5. Not Having A RSS Feed: Nothing is worse than finding a great website/blog with great articles and not being able to subscribe to your RSS feed to get updates. No one wants to remember to go back to your website/blog to read any new articles. People don't want to take the time to see if you may have posted or even to see if you have posted any new articles.

6. Not Creating Great Content: This is critical, having a great headline to draw people in to read your articles. Having great content in the actual article that people want to read and drawing them back to your website/blog often. Returning for that future purchase your product or service. You want people to stay, read your articles, watch your videos and share this information with their friends. Don't be a blogger that only writes for the search engines, this will not benefit you in any way.

7. Not Having An Optin To Capture Leads: You have people coming to your website/blog reading your articles yet they don't come back a purchase from you. Why not??? You need a way to capture the name and email address of your visitors. You need an optin form on your website/blog, letting your visitors sing up to get something FREE. Give your visitor a free e-book, tips and ideas or maybe a video series that has to do with what your website/blog is about. This allows you to send emails to your potential customers weekly...drip...drip...drip... Keep your name in front of them often.

8. Giving Up To Early...Losing Focus: It takes time, a lot of time to build a successful website/blog. Remember Rome wasn't built in a day, and like a website it too will take time to get a great flow of traffic to your site. Getting people to purchase products or services from you is what you want. It's important to keep your website/blog updated, add new content. However, so many people get tired of writing or working on their website/blog because they aren't getting traffic. They aren't making thousands and thousands of dollars a day. So they just quit.

9. Not Selling You: You need to sell YOU to your visitors. Not by patting yourself on the back for all you have done or gloating. That's not selling yourself that's just vain. When visitors come to your website/blog they may be interested in your products or services; however, until you achieve this know you, like you and trust you with your visitors they will not purchase. This is a business of people need to know you, like you and trust you before they will purchase anything from you. You need to let people know why they should purchase from you. Give them benefits!

10. Not Using Social Media: YIKES!!! In this day and age of social media, your website/blog needs to be a part it. Social Media is huge and you need to be a part of this and now! You need to be involved in social media and had it integrated into your website/blog. This is easy to do if you are using WordPress which I highly recommend. Make sure you add Facebook and Twitter to your website/blog and get the word about your website/blog out there to thousands to people. Viral Marketing!