Everyday, many bloggers are making a lot of mistakes when it comes to blogging. However, these bloggers keep making such mistakes on a regular basis, while feeling proud, because they notice many other famous bloggers doing the same thing. Because of such mistakes, many bloggers tend to be naïve in the world of blogging, since they do not understand the concept of blogging, and the impact their blogging has on their blogs and the blogosphere. Making money through a blog does not guarantee that one is a professional or a mature blogger, so I believe it can be good for us to realize certain things that may make us naïve in our blogging efforts.
Following is a list of 10 signs of naïve bloggers that Ronald helped me create. These signs can be present in many people and do not guarantee that someone is naïve. However, if any of these points are the main focus of a blogger, or the focus of their obsession, then chances at that the blogger in question is more of a naïve blogger instead of a useful blogger, for the blog readers.
10 signs you are a naïve blogger
- Infatuated with Stats
Your blogging depends on checking your blog stats. If you get a lot of traffic on one day, your whole life seems happy. Otherwise, you feel depressed and may think that you are doing something wrong. For you, RSS feed subscriber count, site visitors, and similar numbers are more important than blogging or your blog content itself.
- Yearning for Comments
You write to get comments, even if what you write does not deserve any comments. You think about commentors not to appreciate them, but to get their comments on your site in order to get more comments on your site. You do not care if you get a useful or a useless comment; you are happy as long as you get a comment.
- Failure to Have a Back Bone
When you get criticized, you may feel like shutting down your blog. Just as in real life, there will always be people who may disagree with you. Same is the case with blogs; it is very easy to leave a comment that says “I think that’s stupid.” Be prepared; otherwise, you will not last long in the blogging world, which is fast becoming a very vicious, competitive place. You should probably figure out the Art of Reacting to Criticizing Comments, as you probably do not know how to react to criticizing comments.
- You are Blinded by Money Prospects
You blog for money without caring for readers. Period. You write in order to gain sponsors, and you write in order to gain readers who will click on ads. You value and thank sponsors more than your readers. Whether or not you actually ever earn money is a different thing, though you do not focus on what you offer to your readers. For you, the idea that you can try to make money signifies that you are on a noble path, and that you are a hard working person who wants to earn a living. The idea of making money blinds you with such a misconception.
- You Think You Will be Famous
Many bloggers simply focus on getting attention for the sake of getting attention, and if you are one of them, you will do many random, weird things, including posting random things to please people, just to try to be famous. You do not realize that being a real famous person means you do things naturally that result in someone noticing that you do those things, thus making you a famous person. You do not work on becoming famous. You work on doing important things that can make others believe that you are famous. You also do not realize that becoming famous does not mean you did something good; you could be doing relatively evil things, even in your own view, and getting attention. All you want is attention.
- You Think You Can Actually Make a Difference
We all want to do something in our lives, hopefully. Many people think that they can change the world or the blogosphere overnight. If you are such a person, you may be wanting to change things right away, without changing yourself first. Sure, it is not necessary to change yourself all the time, though if you do not know first hand what the change feels like, how can you expect to change the world, since you would not know how to achieve such a change. If your blogging relies on making a difference, you may be disappointed. Blogging in order to try to infuse an idea of a change in people is a much more realistic goal, as voluntary change is more permanent and more effective than an overnight, emotional, emotionally manipulated or forced change.
- You Think You Can Make People Change
It can be next to impossible to convince many people to stop drinking coffee. Yet, many people think that they can change the entire lives of others simply by giving them a lecture or two. Blogging in order to tell people that they are wrong and that they should change can be a sign that you do not know how human interaction works.
- You Blame Others for Your Blog Problems
If your site goes down, you blame your host. If the number of commentors you get on a regular basis goes down, you blame others for not linking to you enough. If your RSS feed subscriber base shrinks, you blame the blogging advice others give you. You never blame yourself. Every choice you make on your blog is your choice, so blaming others all the time for your blog problems is a very naïve thing to do. If someone forced you at gunpoint or threatened to do something, like shutting down your blog if you do not do what they say, then sure, go ahead and blame that someone. Otherwise, stop blaming and start thinking. Thinking while crying is better than crying and blaming someone else.
- You Rely on the Latest Blog Fad
If a famous blogger talks about it, you talk about it. If others are using the same gadget on their blogs, you want to use it on your blog too. You follow the trend simply because there is a trend to be followed. You do not follow things because they make sense. You follow things because you are naïve.
- You step on others to get ahead without realizing the political consequences
This may be surprising to you. If you use people for your own personal gain, you are probably a naïve blogger. You have to understand that using tactics to manipulate people may result in many people being blinded easily at the moment, but as time passes and new trends and views come to surface, more and more people will start realizing that you used them without appreciating them, or without giving them anything useful in return. You are naïve because you try to use people without realizing how such an action will be noticed by others. You simply want to use people and get away with it.
This list will surely help me focus on my blogging more. I hope such a list will help you also, by allowing you to identify similar traits not only in your own blogging style but also in others. Sometimes, a blogger may simply be naïve and may not want to hurt others intentionally. Other times, a blogger may be naïve because they want to use others and they do not think of any consequences.
What is your view on this? Do you agree or disagree with something? Can you think of more points that may be a signify someone being a naïve blogger?
Thank you for reading. 
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