I’ve been blogging for some time now and I have learned a lot over the past few years.
I loved to read blogs and I consume so many blogs on a weekly basis as a way to relieve stress and learn new things.
It was from reading blogs that helped me make the decision to start a blog myself and become a blogger.
After brainstorming blog ideas, my interests and what I think my potential readers would like to read.
Out of that Abundance of Jo was birthed and is both my pride, joy, and blessing.
Blogging is a very interesting job and it comes with so many opportunities, emotions, and frustrations.
You will read on the internet that blogging is the best thing since slice bread and if you become a blogger you will instantly make seven figures and millions of readers.
Very few people will actually tell you the truth about blogging. The work it takes to the point of the seven figures and the hard work behind blogging.
That’s where I come in – here’s the hard cold truth about blogging from an actual blogger.
Blogging Takes Hard Work
When you start a blog, you will quickly realize that it takes a lot of work.
There is a lot that goes into getting a blog up and running – it includes writing, promoting, managing social media, learning SEO best practices and so many other tasks.
Blogging also involves getting organized as you have to build out an editorial calendar, look for and research topics to write about, finding or taking photos, editing, and learning WordPress.
The nature of blogging is such that the tasks never seem to end, they are on-going and the best way to stay on track is to make a schedule of what you want to work on and in which order.
This helps to reduce the stress and amount of work it takes to get everything done.
Also, because blogging has so tasks, you can get easily caught in a rabbit hole of doing unrelated activity that can leave you stuck and not move your blog forward.
For example, I was spending countless hours posting on Facebook and Instagram without investing time into actually writing blog posts that I could then repurpose on social media.
Once I figured this out, it ended up saving me so much time and effort and now I have a solid strategy that works.
The only good thing here is that once you gain more experience, you will learn how to work smarter and not harder.
This helps to manage the overall running of the blog while giving you back time to focus on what’s actually important in making the blog work.
So, make no mistake, blogging is not an easy piece of work. It will take time, dedication and discipline.
Getting Traffic Will Be Tough in the Beginning
There are bloggers out there that will tell you that they had thousands of page views and sessions after posting five posts.
In some cases, that may actually be true. However, when you see a claim like this, ask yourself and research these two questions:
- How long has this blogger been blogging?
- The blog that the blogger is referring to, is it their first blog or second and third blog?
- What niche are they operating in?
These questions are crucial and here’s why.
When blogging was a novelty around maybe 10-15 years ago even as recent as 6 years ago, you could gain a lot of traffic very quickly because blogging was still not as competitive.
People were still figuring out this space and concepts like affiliate marketing was a novelty.
With that, you could grow rapidly and have thousands of page views very quickly.
That’s why it’s important to understand where these bloggers are coming from.
Some have been blogging from 2011 or 2016 and have amassed huge followings so when they make these claims, they are correct, however, the same results may not necessarily stand true today.
Some bloggers also started other blogs and with their experience and followers, those blogs do well – as the same readers from the original blog will follow them as well.
Another consideration is your niche. If you are in a niche that is not competitive or very specific, then you may see quicker success.
If it’s a saturated niche like health, lifestyle, money for example, you will find that it may be harder to gain page views in the beginning.
Therefore, do not start your blog thinking that you will have thousands of page views from day one or even day 30. The truth about blogging is that it may take months or even a few years.
It will take time but you will eventually start building traffic and grow in leaps and bounds.
Blogging Helps You Build Key Skills
Blogging may be hard work but it’s good work.
When you start to blog and you take it seriously, you will see that you are learning so much about how the online business works and these are good skills you can put the use or even monetize.
For starters, when you blog, you are writing.
As you write more, you will find that you are developing your voice as a writer and you will be quicker and faster the more you write.
Writing is a key technical skill that can help you in building out your thoughts and putting together a point of view.
Other skills you will gain as a blogger include learning search engine optimization, social media management, photography skills (if you take photos for your blog), email marketing, graphic design, website management, coding, analytics – the list goes on and on.
You will realize that you are able to do these things along the way and you can build out a portfolio of skills that you can use in the workplace or even a business.
Many people who started out as bloggers are now social media consultants, SEO specialists, graphic designers, blogging coaches etc. All skills that they may have learned from blogging.
When I am facing a tough blogging day, I look back at where I was and where I am today and I realize that blogging has helped my personal growth in many ways.
As A Blogger, You Wear Many Hats
This leads to my next point – as a blogger you will start off doing everything. This is the real truth about blogging – you will be the jack of all trades.
You will be the writer, editor, keywords researcher, social media expert, email marketing guru and everything in between.
Due to the nature of blogging being such an intense body of work that requires a lot of moving parts, you will find that you are constantly doing so much at once.
The trick here I have found is to focus on the key activities that will move the blog along – like creating content and promoting my blog posts to boost traffic.
Then once you start earn money with blogging and you can afford to – you can start outsourcing some of the activities that are not the best use of your time.
Starting out will be hard but along the way, you will learn the activities that you enjoy and the ones that make you yawn and then you can outsource depending on your blogging goals.
Blogging Can Provide You With Multiple Income Streams
While blogging may be hard work and will require dedication, it is one business that can provide you with multiple income streams.
The opportunities to make money abounds with blogging once you have traffic and an engaged audience.
Some of the various income streams include:
- Display Advertising: Once you have enough traffic, you can join an ad network such as Mediavine or Ad Thrive
- Social media manager: As a blogger, you can parlay your skills into become a social media manager for other bloggers/businesses
- Coaching: Depending on your niche, you can provide coaching services based on your expertise to clients
- YouTube Channel: If you have a YouTube Channel attached to your blog, you can make income from it if it is large enough to be monetized
- Affiliate Marketing: You can make money from affiliate marketing by recommending your favourite products and receive a commission
- Digital/Physical Products: With a blog, you can develop your own digital or physical products that you can sell on your blog
These are just a few of the income streams you can generate from a blog which makes it one of the best platforms in online business to make money.
You Will Want to Give Up Very Often
When you just start out, your blog may take some time to gain traction and that’s actual the norm.
You will feel the need or compulsion to give up and throw in the towel but stay the course. Think of why you started a blog in the first place and keep going.
Also, keep educating yourself on how to improve your blog, maybe you need to try a different strategy or you need to build your audience in another way.
Whatever it is, work on making the blog work and you will be surprised at how fast you will start to grow.
Most people fail at blogging simply because they give up too soon and I don’t blame them.
As humans, we want to see results and we work hard to make it happen but staying the course may just be the antidote to becoming a successful blogger.
Should You Start A Blog? Final Thoughts
Starting a blog is ultimately a choice that each person has to make.
As mentioned, it’s a lot of work and it requires discipline and determination.
If you are ready to stay the course and build a business from nothing, then blogging might be right for you.
My blogging journey has been interesting and rewarding at the same time and I would do it all over again. I hope you will hear the truth about blogging and make the right decision for you.
My only advice to myself would be: be patient and stay the course.
Let me know in the comments, are you a blogger or thinking about starting a blog?
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