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Let me just be straight with you for a minute. When I started my blog I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I had no one to ask questions to and I had no clue how to sort of the VAST library of information there was available to me on the internet. It was so overwhelming!!! Everywhere was SEO this and network that, and social media this and engagement that. It’s like I walked into a bar fight! How do get more followers? How do I make money? How do I grow my blog? What am I supposed to do and what the hell is SEO!?
The past couple of months of blogging has been full of trial and error but I have learned much and my blog has grown SO MUCH! One day I hope to go down in the history books as the most not bad blog in history!!! So, without further ado, here are the things I wish someone told me before I became a blogger.
There’s a pervasive assumption out there and it’s the assumption that if you just write good content, then the views will just come naturally. That’s personally what I thought for a while. If I poured my heart into my content, that people would just show up and that’s true if you already have a big follower base, which I didn’t have so that was out.
Aside from my raging video game addiction, there is nothing that keeps me up in the wee hours of the night, until I started blogging. I spent HOURS doing research, watching videos, taking online courses and trying to make connections. HOURS!!!! And that doesn’t include all the time I spent actually PRODUCING CONTENT. Dude, just let me tell you. It’s a job. If you are serious about making a blog, you cannot just coast on rainbow road and hope money and views come rolling in. You have to put your back into it!
Blogging is NOT an instant success. It’s not even a few weeks success! It’s not even a one month success (most of the time), it takes at least five or six months of grind before you can make money or accomplish anything substantial. Does that mean you shouldn’t do it? NOPE! It means, that you just have to change your expectations.
Just because someone told you in a video or article that something worked for them doesn’t mean it will work for you! There are a lot of people claiming that you can make X amount of money in X amount of days or you can grow X amount of followers in X amount of days and in my experience they are not the most reliable sources. They do have valuable information to generally grow followers but you should not expect miracles. You will make some mistakes and see little to no return for your hard work and that’s okay! Learning is part of the process and thus so is making mistakes!
This is something I regret the most. While I was absorbing all that information about SEO, how to gain followers and what not I FORGOT TO WRITE THE INFORMATION DOWN!!! So I just wizzed around the web from article to article reading and just praying to Odin that I would remember all of it (face palm). I did remember a lot, but I would have been in a better place if I didn’t have to keep re-researching everything I forgot about! Do yourself a favor, get a binder, use One Note or Evernote to write down and organize the information you learn.
A lot! There are billions of people on the internet and millions of them try to start a blog. A great majority of those bloggers quit and have bought real estate on the internet just to end up abandoning it. That’s the simple truth of the matter, what separates the big influencers from everyone else is the fact that they didn’t give up. “Surely, not that many people give up!” says the confused reader. Surely, they do (and don’t call me Shirley). The VAST majority of people do. So, if you’re serious about blogging. Put on your elbow grease and get ready to stick it out. I don’t want to dissuade you from starting a blog, on the contrary, I encourage you to start a blog and stay with it!
It’s VITAL that you choose something you love writing about, because you’re going to be pouring all your free time, brain power and writing into it! However, even though you chose a topic your passionate about, you will not always enjoy blogging about it. There are so many technical details that it can make you dislike even the thing you love most. There are lots of things you’ll have to deal with that you won’t wanna do, but you’ll have to if you want to be a successful blogger. What should keep you going is your dedication to getting your helpful content out into the world.
If you don’t know what that is right now, that means you haven’t started a blog yet. Once you start doing more research about it, you’ll see it EVERYWHERE. You’ll roll your eyes every time you see it and maybe even think about skipping it in the article in favor of something else. DON’T. SEO is FREE READERS AND FOLLOWERS. You should ABSOLUTELY take advantage of Google’s SEO because it doesn’t cost you anything but a little bit of time. Plan your keywords using the Google Keyword Planner and through them in your posts as naturally as you can. You’ll thank yourself later.
One thing I didn’t realize I should do was plan my posts ahead of time. I just wrote stuff on the spot most of the time based on what I felt like writing. In the end, that causes a great deal of problems because there are prime times you should be posting and if you’re rushing to get posts out or struggling to find post ideas, it may be because you didn’t plan your posts. Make it easy on yourself and plan your posts!
Before starting this blog I built up a Tumblr blog first and gained a sizable following. I gained my reader’s trust and then created a blog. That was a smart decision because I just directed all my viewers to my blog and now I receive hundreds of views a day from Tumblr! You, on the other hand, do not have to use Tumblr. You can build up a base on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook then create a blog to direct them to and watch the views roll in! I recommend you use Pinterest though. You can get a great deal of views and engagement from there!
One thing I did that I kind of regret is using the paid (and expensive) WordPress.com. I paid for the Premium Plan thinking it would give me enough, but there are so many limitations to it and you pay for every little thing! It’s like all the DLCs in Sims 4! I HIGHLY recommend using a self-hosting blog using WordPress.org and Bluehost! No one tells you this, but if you self-host your website using Bluehost, you have A LOT fewer limitations. You can use plugins without paying extra, you can monetize with Google without paying extra and even set up Analytics. When you’re ready, head over to Bluehost to purchase a domain and install WordPress.org in one click! It is one the BEST web hosting platforms and is SUPER cheap (only 3 bucks a month to own a piece of the internet!!!). People RAVE about Bluehost! I wish I knew about it sooner, because I would have hopped on the bandwagon a looooooong time ago! Instead, I payed about 100 extra dollars through WordPress.com. Ugh! Don’t make the same mistakes I made.
I really hope these tips helped you!! What burning (or regular) questions do you have about starting a blog or growing a blog?
OMMMG! I almost feel like I could write an article very similar to this. I can so relate to this ;0 When you are a beginner, you have no one to actually guide you. You are simply there doing your own thing and learning and googling every possible thing.
Also, the 6 months are so important. In fact, I think it is just about the right time because in those months you can get to learn so much and have patience and able to create amazing content with practice. You also get to meet other bloggers and connect with people which is just fabulous.
About the ” You are not always going to have fun” part, oh you are right. I mean I love blogging, I keep saying this to other bloggers and I do. Blogging is another part of me but the amount of times I took breaks and did not blog… Woush! I think it is important to just blog whenever you want and to not feel forced to do so.
Wonderful tips! I’m just getting back into the blogging game after a few years off, so I’m keeping this saved! I completely agree regarding “who you know,” too. In my experience, any form of content creation is about being a part of a COMMUNITY, it’s not just throwing your content into the abyss!
Blogging is a real job and it can be hard work. I love some aspects of blogging but others not so much.
I currently use bluehost and absolutely love it! It really does take time to build up your site enough to earn the chance to do collabs!
All of this is so spot on. I seriously never realized how much time it takes to get a blog up and run it and KEEP it up and running.
This is a great article and so, so true. Even if you have been blogging for a decade, if you launch a new concept blog you have to go through all of these things. It takes time, and so much work.
This is so helpful for people who are starting or want to start blogging. It really is a who you know and i think people don’t talk about that as much. Making connections in the blogging world can be such a push forward.
Yes, I agree with all of this! I didn’t realize how much help blogging groups were when I first started. I thought I could do it on my own, but nope, you do need a tribe!
It’s like a full time job and then some! Thanks for this very helpful post! I just started taking this blogging seriously so your tips are very much appreciated!
Thank you sooo much for the valuable insight into setting realistic expectations and a timeframe before seeing the ROI. I’m new to “blogging”, although I’m sure that was what I’d been doing all along for several years now albeit without organizing it and archiving it into one location.
Thank you for these very useful tips, and I agree with you it sure does need a lot of work. I am actually curious on the bluehost you mentioned, I’d like to ask if I switch to bluehost will I be able to retain all my recent posts now? Like a migration? Or do I need to start on a new blog? Thank you!
Wow, this is such a great post and I am sure it will help to all bloggers most especially the new ones. Thanks for sharing this with us.
These are some wonderful tips! I am sure that this will help lots of new bloggers!
This is my sister’s forte. She does so well with it and I admire her for that.
Blogging takes so much work and is indeed not instant success! Planning is so important indeed! A good post for anyone about to start!
These are some good tips. I’ve been trying to gain traffic to my blog using SEO tactics and Pinterest. I wish I could join a Pinterest board.
I could have written this post.. HA! I started my blog with the “write it and they will come” attitude, and I have written blogs for many years. I forgot how much work I put into my successful blog, years ago. After a couple of weeks, I’m now starting to remember how much work actually goes in to blogging. Great tips!
It really takes a lot of time and effort. Planning the post is something I need to work on because there are so many topics I have in mind by I didn’t complete them to be published. Thank you so much for this post. It is very helpful.
Blogging is a real job and it can be hard work. Planning is so important indeed!
I love your blog, Lili! I am a mainstream ELA teacher but have taught some ESL in Brazil and Thailand. I will definitely be using your site as a resource for my own studies as well as to help strengthen my teaching at a third-year teacher. I’m glad I’ve found you!
Oh awesome!!! I’m so glad to hear that! I love your blog too!