When coming up with ideas on how to help others succeed in blogging, I’ve always been haunted by the statistic that 80% of new bloggers will fail within 18 months of launching. That number is way too high if you ask me.
That’s what leads to these about 8 things you should know prior to starting a blog because blogging is not easy nor glamorous like you may think.
Learn From My Experience
These 8 things you should know prior to starting a blog are all from experience. I’ve been in the blogging space for almost a decade, where I would start and stop (take a peep at the dates on this blog!), and I want to help you avoid that at all costs.
1. It’s More Than Writing a Post
When most people think of blogging, they think this will be writing and publishing a post. Nothing more than that has to be done. Well, that is entirely wrong.
While yes, you will be writing many posts, that’s not the only thing you will do. You need images; you need to do your keyword research; you will also need to edit, not to mention you will need to promote your posts.
Of course, you can outsource a lot of this, but when starting and money is an issue, you’ll get stuck with doing this in-house for the time being.
2. Don’t Niche Yourself Down
Over the years, I’ve seen so many people who pick a niche, but it’s a specific, narrow niche. Of course, that can lead to excellent SEO optimization, but that can also lead you not to branch out if/when you want to.
I recommend picking a niche but don’t niche yourself down into a pigeonhole where you only focus on one or two things without being able to open it up to more content.
You should also pick a niche on something you are passionate about. You do not necessarily have to know everything about the niche, but something you are passionate about because you will get very burnt out if you pick something you don’t care about.
3. Always Have a Back-Up of Your Website
When you are in the first steps of building your website, make sure that your website is being backed up regularly. Like your smartphone, you always have a backup if something happens. You should also have something set up on your hosting side of things.
If you do not, you’ll end up like me and having to use the Wayback Machine to help remember the dates you posted content.
Pro-Tip: All your content should be written in Google Drive. You will always have a copy of everything, even if you need a backup for your entire site.
4. You Don’t Need EVERY Social Media
A common misconception is you need to have EVERY social media platform. I am here to tell you that this is entirely false.
While social media is excellent for getting your content out there, you do not need to be active on every platform.
Building up one or two social media platforms because social media can take away time from other more pressing matters.
5. Choose the Right Platform
I’ve been debating choosing the right platform with someone close to me. They say Wix is the best, and that’s a fact, while I say WordPress is where you should go.
This is where I say try out each platform. Nearly all platforms offer a free version to sign up for and play around with. See which one you like and which has the features you think you’ll need to create a successful blog.
Pro-Tip: A few sites will allow you to blog for free with an ad program. We’ve talked about them in depth over here.
6. Stop Being a Perfectionist and Publish!
If you are a perfectionist like myself, you are probably here then. Stop tweaking every little minor detail and publish. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t take the plunge.
I recommend publishing. Even if you may not like it now, it is okay to go back and fix things later. Everyone has to start somewhere. We all have posts that we may not like from the beginning; that’s just the nature of the beast. We look back on it and see how far we’ve grown since then.
7. Stay Consistent
Most bloggers fail within the first 18 months because they need to be consistent. They start out strong and post, post, post, but after the first 3 months, they tend to give up because no one is reading their content, liking their social media posts, etc.
This is normal. You may not have completed a sitemap that allows Google to Index your pages for viewership. Your content may rank low due to SEO reasons. Or you are growing but too hyper-focused on numbers when you should be focused on other tasks.
Stay consistent, learn SEO, and not focus on numbers or likes.
8. Not a Get Rich Quick Scheme
You might have seen posts or ads advertising how I made $20,000 this month’s blogging cycle. While some bloggers make that much money, this is not something you will see when you start out.
To be quite honest, you shouldn’t even worry about how to monetize your blog for the first few months while you learn the ropes and get content out on your website.
New To Blogging?
Whether you are new or dusting off one of the old blogs you gave up on, over the next few months, you’ll see a lot of content that will help you navigate this journey. You’ll learn firsthand what works, what doesn’t, and how to make money like the pros.
What is something that you are having issues with on your blog? Let’s talk about it below!
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