This is the first in my 6 Beginning Blogger Mistakes series.

Starting out blogging is tough. You have no audience, you don’t know when you’re going to get one and you don’t really know what you’re doing in the first place. Often times you haven’t even found your voice yet. Well, just because you’re starting out doesn’t mean you have to brag about not know what you’re doing or having an audience yet.

Let’s start off with those nifty tools you put in your sidebar. A good deal of them show off how many readers your blog has, how many backlinks you have or how high you’re ranked on Technorati. Now why would you post those tools if you have two blog readers, one backlink and are rated seventeen billion on Technorati? Who exactly are you impressing?

I saw a site today by a guy who was talking a big game about how he’s going to retire because of his site and how it’s going to make him super-rich and famous. It was a well designed site and the one article I read by him seemed to come from a place of knowledge. Then I looked up in the corner and saw he had posted how many subscribers he had: 121. Now, I’m not knocking one hundred and twenty one subscribers. But there’s no way this kid is getting rich off that site yet. He’s probably making enough to buy himself a beer a week, nothing more. If he hadn’t put that widget in his sidebar, I never would have known he was full of shit.

Another way people show off how lame they are when starting out a blog is to beg for comments and then get none. I’m not asking you to comment on this post. It’d be great if you did, but I’m not going to ask. Why? Because I look lame if I ask you to comment and no one does. That makes a reader think that no one’s reading even if there are hundreds of readers who just don’t like to comment when told to. So save the “what do you think?”s for when you have a solid loyal readership.

Please don’t mention you’re a “new blog” or “have no readers” in your posts. If I wanted to play Nancy Drew and figure out how new your blog was I could look in your archives. If I’m googling for information on cell phones and happen up on a post of yours you want me judging your knowledge based on the information in your post. So don’t tell me you don’t know what you’re doing. Let me assume you’ve been doing this since before the internet was invented and I should bookmark your site. Don’t talk me out of it.

Let’s say you have a small penis. I don’t, but let’s say you do. Now, are you going to post on the side of your blog “4 inch long penis?” Of course not. So why are you showing off your two subscribers? Play up the positive or don’t say anything at all. Let people assume you’re doing better than you are.

Coming soon: Part 2 of my 6 Beginning Blogger Mistakes series: Focusing Too Much on Aesthetics (Apple Syndrome)