You will make mistakes, as we all do. Hopefully, following these 11 hard facts for new bloggers, you will avoid the pitfalls and enjoy the ride.
It isn’t easy to build an audience and make a name for yourself. But with enough hard work and dedication, it is possible.
You Have to Put in the Time and Effort to Become Successful
Build it, and they will come. No, no they won’t.
If you thought or hoped that after posting your first post readers will start flocking to your page, you are in for a surprise.
If you want to start a blog and do it right, you will have to put in the time and effort into it to make it work.
These are the key points that many people don’t realize:
1. Your Content Will Need Time to Build Credibility
It takes time for Google to determine who is a credible source of information and who is not.
It takes time for your readers to determine whether or not you can be trusted by what you write.
Start writing blog posts that are relevant to your niche, full of facts relevant to that topic, and provide real value to your readers. Google and other search engines will eventually take note.
2. Traffic Will NOT Appear Overnight
You will need to build a solid base of traffic before you’ll see any kind of money from blogging (unless you pay for it). Successful bloggers have these key things figured out:
- Good SEO practices
There are many ways to drive traffic to your blog, but the only way to get organic traffic is through good SEO practices, and article promoting through various channels, like TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, or whichever makes the most sense to your blog.
- Link Building
Another way is by link building, from other sites to your pages and that requires patience and/or money.
Getting links organically requires building relationships with influencers and established bloggers close to your niche.
If you want to build links faster, it will cost you more, and you could be punished by Google and even your site penalized.
- Paid traffic through ads
You could use paid ads to drive traffic to your site, but that traffic is not sustainable. As soon as your ads stop, the traffic deflates.
You will need to write many articles of good enough quality before you’ll see any kind of return on investment.
3. Reference Your Sources
Using quotes and screenshots of other sources in your content will add credibility to what you are saying (if they actually help with the article).
Infographics and charts will work well too.
4. Quality Matters
When writing your content, have to find a balance between quality and quantity.
The content needs to be well-structured, easy to read, and flows without being too wordy or difficult to understand. You can learn this by simply reading other popular articles online (from different sources), noting what they do, and then implementing it in your own way. The content average length on the topic should be your guide for your blog post.
5. Aim for the Long Term
Don’t set your expectations too high and try to make a quick buck overnight by posting an article or two.
You should instead take a long-term view, look at all of the content you are writing, and keep track of which pages do well and which don’t.
Your goal should be to write good quality content that provides real value to your readers and align it to your most visited pages. If a certain topic is getting more traction, write more on that topic.
6. Commit To Make Blogging Work
You will need to commit yourself if you want to make blogging work for you (no one else will do it for you).
You can think about it as a full-time job. Commit the hours, put in the effort, and see your blog take shape into something that will provide real value to your readers. This is how you get paid blogging… through hard work!
7. You don’t have to be passionate About What You Are Writing About
You don’t need to be passionate about what you are blogging about, you only need to be interested, know the topic and have experience in what you write about.
At the very least, you could write about something new you are starting and take the readers with you on that journey.
Give them your mistakes, what you did well, and your strategies and methods. Be authentic.
That comes out through your articles and helps provide real value to your readers.
Who wants to read an article written by someone who is not even interested in the topic?
There are no shortcuts with blogging because if there were, everyone would be successful doing it.
Having a blog is basically having your own business, so you need to know how business works. Choose a niche that you can easily monetize.
It’s not enough to just sit around and wait for success to come knocking on your door—you have got to go out there and create opportunities for yourself.
Blogging is a job with deadlines, rules and guidelines, an audience to please and competitors who are trying to take your spot.
You will have to analyze your target audience, know what they want to read about.
Understand their language and do the (sometimes dirty) work required such as generating ideas, writing posts, promoting them, etc.
Nobody wants to hear your life story
Sorry to tell you this, but your daily life and you personally are of no interest to your future audience.
We’ve all seen those blogs that are nothing but a personal diary of the blogger’s everyday life.
No one wants to read about some random person’s private thoughts unless they relate directly to them or are somehow interesting.
What they want to hear from you are your knowledge and helpful advice that will improve THEIR life.
How will you help them achieve their goals? Whether that is to start a business, build confidence, be a better writer, or whatever your expertise is.
Give value to your audience, write helpful content, keep constant communication and you are on the right track.
By all means, share your experiences the success stories, the failures and the lessons learned from both because it helps others relate but doesn’t make it too personal.
Your Content is Only as Good as Your Research
When writing articles you must make sure that your content is factual, informative, and reliable. Always
take the time to do thorough research and back up everything that you say.
Don’t forget to use a spell checker!
This is why it is important to proofread each article before publishing it. You could also arrange for friends or colleagues to check your work for you.
If you happen to make a mistake it will be highlighted. That’s why you need to remove emotions from your articles and stick with the facts only.
Whenever you’re not sure about something – research it, don’t guess! When you do your research well, your readers will respect and appreciate you for it.
You Need to Be Patient and Consistent with Your Marketing Strategy
If you want your blog to be successful then it is important that you have a good marketing strategy in place before you begin writing.
A blog requires constant attention and maintenance, so you need to make sure that the time commitment is something you can easily manage.
You need to understand that it will take time for your blog traffic to increase.
You can’t get discouraged after only a couple of weeks or even months.
Even the most popular blogs didn’t grow overnight, so you must have patience and be consistent with your marketing strategy.
You should know that marketing is not an immediate game, it takes time for your efforts to become visible on search engines.
New bloggers expect dozens of new readers each day, but this simply isn’t possible unless you already have a very large audience.
Your best marketing results will come gradually, so try to be patient and consistent with your efforts.
Short-term strategies rarely work, so make sure that you follow the same path to success.
You Need to be Willing to Learn and Accept Criticism
You will not know everything about blogging after reading a few articles online (no matter how comprehensive they may seem).
There is always something new to learn, it’s an ongoing education that never stops.
You will also come across some harsh critics who will tell you that your blog sucks and it won’t be an easy pill to swallow.
But remember, the only way to improve is through constructive criticism so listen to what others have to say, accept feedback and always ask for advice.
You’ll Need to Have a Team
You can do it all yourself if you have the time and energy to spare but it will significantly slow down your marketing efforts.
If you’re just starting out on your own, then focus all of your energy on writing content, while letting others handle the marketing, or design side of things.
As you grow you should gradually bring more people in-house or pay for marketing services that are affordable, whatever is within your budget.
The only way to scale is by bringing in new people, and delegating assignments.
It Takes Time for SEO Results to Show
You need to understand that it takes time for SEO results to show, so start this process as early as possible and don’t give up!
If you have a set plan of action in place from the beginning then it is more likely that your blog will become successful over time.
The time it takes for search engine optimization (SEO) results will vary depending on the keywords you target, but it takes at least 3-4 months before things start improving so don’t give up too soon!
Once your blog is optimized and ready to go, then you’ll be able to witness the results of your efforts in just a couple of weeks.
This is when you can start promoting it and sending out information about your blog so that people will follow you and share your content.
Search engine optimization is definitely one of the factors that will bring organic traffic to your blog. That will determine whether or not your blog becomes successful.
But this happens in stages. First of all, your backlinks need to be improved and you need to make multiple posts that people will want to share on social media.
Your analytics also need time to show accurate data (it can take months). So don’t stop at the first Google results page!
Blogging is Just Like Business – Treat it as Such
You must remember that blogging is a business, so act accordingly. It is not just about writing, but also self-promotion.
Think of your blog as you would any other business and apply the same rules to it.
This includes branding yourself (use social media profiles to create an online identity), building a team around you (find people who will help with your content creating, design or marketing efforts), promoting yourself (get your name out there).
Blogging can become your full-time job in a matter of weeks, but you need to treat it like a business from day 1.
You may want to do it all in the beginning, but that will take a long time and burn you out.
Do what your best at and delegate the rest.
A Blog Requires Constant Attention and Maintenance
Running a blog isn’t just about writing articles – you must also make sure your content stays relevant by updating existing posts or adding new ones at least once every 2-3 weeks.
Blogging is a full-time job that will require constant attention and maintenance in order to keep going.
Your blog needs your time, effort and commitment so you’ll need to allocate a certain amount of time to it on a daily basis for things such as creating content, finding new traffic sources, building a following, and keeping your current readers happy.
You Need Time Management Skills
In order to keep readers interested in your blog, you have to post new material on a regular basis.
You can’t just post once every few months and expect people to be interested in what you have to say. In order for your blog to be successful, you need time management skills.
If you plan to be a professional blogger, then it would be fairly easy for you to plan your time and stick with the plan.
However, if you also need to work a full-time job or take care of your children after school or both then this might not be possible.
The important thing is that you stay consistent and post roughly the same time every week.
This lets your readers plan ahead and gives you a pattern to stick to as well so that as soon as you’re done writing one blog post, you already know what has to come next.
In order to keep your blog going strong, you need to:
-Make a schedule for yourself and stick with it
-Stay on top of deadlines
-Create a list of tasks that need to be completed so that you know what needs to be done.
It’s Not an Easy Game
Last but not least, blogging isn’t an easy game.
If it was everyone would be doing it and making money from it without any problems.
You will need to find the time to write new content, edit older posts, reply to comments, interact with users on social media networks, fix broken links and do other maintenance activities if you want your blog to be successful.
All of your activities must be scheduled beforehand.
Some bloggers dedicate one day a week to maintenance while others use automated tools to do the work for them.
Yes, there will be times when you get discouraged and frustrated – but don’t give up.
Just like in life, the only way to win is by playing the game (i.e., putting in the work).
If you’re not hooked yet then just keep on trying until you build your blog into something that can grow and bring in an income for you over time.
Blogging can be rewarding but it is also challenging. You have to manage many different tasks that are often tedious and time-consuming.
You’ll need to find the perfect blogging niche that is both interesting and profitable, come up with hundreds of content ideas, write quality posts on a consistent basis, promote them through social media profiles and email lists.
I have laid down the hard facts for new bloggers so you know what you’re in for before you go forging ahead. It’ll make your road much easier to travel when you understand where the pitfalls are and how to avoid them!
