What Nobody Will Tell You About Starting a Blog
Blogging is hard. It’s hard! I feel like people tell you that, but we all get blinded by the dollar signs. You think “it’s hard, but look at the payoff.” And that’s well and great and honestly, it’s how I got all wrapped up in this in the first place.
The problem is that all these people who are finally making substantial money on a blog have hours upon hours of hard work paying off for them. It’s like the mothers who have forgotten how horrible childbirth and pregnancy is. That’s why women keep having children, and that’s why people keep starting blogs.
What they tell you:
You must hustle and work hard to make your blog succeed
Reality:
You can hustle and work hard, but there are only so many hours in a day. The work you will be doing will be for free…possibly for months. You will be working well over 40 hours a week… for free on something that may or may not pay off.
What they tell you:
Anyone can have a successful blog
Reality:
I believe this isn’t true. I think there is probably a natural weeding out process with blogging. Anyone can have a blog, but you have to be a quick study. You must be able to multi-task. Get used to feeling like you are drowning and in a constant state of being overwhelmed if you want to start a blog.
If you aren’t ready to be all in, don’t expect to have a profitable blog. What I mean by that is if you aren’t willing to work hard and for free for a while, you should probably find a different way to make money.
What they tell you:
You don’t have to be good at technology.
Reality:
Maybe it’s just me, but I am so bad at technology. This is part of the reason I feel like everything I struggle with takes me four times longer than the average person. I bet you are reading this thinking “I’m smarter than her, it’ll be fine.” Maybe you are, but I know a lot of smart people who have tried to help me, and even they have struggled. I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I’m also not dumb.
At least I didn’t think I was until I tried to figure out a blog.
What they tell you:
You can do this in no time.
Reality:
No time is quite the blanket statement. You start to think “I can do this on the side, commit a couple of hours a week, link a few affiliates, and before long I’ll be able to quit my day job.”
Unless you get lucky, that is simply not true.
What they tell you:
You can have a successful blog part-time
Reality:
Blogging will consume your life. There are SO many balls in the air at once. You must learn things, and then do those things, then write content, create e-mails, e-mail funnels, learn what the heck any of that even means. When you aren’t actually doing any of that, you are just thinking, thinking, thinking. Then you lament that there aren’t enough hours in a day. A lot of times you will sit and stare. And just keep staring. Then you might get writer’s block for 9 months. I’m not speaking from experience or anything…
Where I am at now
I have concluded this; blogging is really tough in the beginning, and the beginning of it can last for years. There is so much to learn and so many options that if you don’t have time to focus and figure it out, it will take forever.
One of the reasons I started Mom Grows Up was to make a bit of money. I, by some miracle, have managed to make 100 bucks so far as of April 2019. (Update April 2020, I’m happy to report I’m not making at least a hundred a month now….still not a lot. But I also don’t work on it a lot) I’m thankful to the people who bought something from one of my links!
You can go your own way…
What works for me to is be authentic and just move at my own pace. It’s ok to go slow with your blog, and it’s ok not to make lots of money from it. All those expectations were stressing me out! Now I am back to having fun. It’s nice.
You can always come here and find the truth with no ulterior motives. If I recommend a product, know that I am recommending it to my friends all the time in real life. It’d be awesome if you purchased through a link so I can get a small amount of commission, but if not, I’m just so happy someone gained some useful information from me!
**This post contains affiliate links and Amazon affiliate links. I will receive a small percentage of the sale, at no additional cost to you, if you purchase through my link. Thanks for your support!
In fact, if this entire post hasn’t deterred you from starting a blog, you can sign up through Bluehost. Why Bluehost? It’s cheap. Is it the best? Don’t ask me! HA! It works fine for the level of blogging I’m at, which is as almost low as you can get. I say almost, because I have finally made some money after writing this post a year ago. Things might just be looking up over here. But it’s not because it’s easy, never forget this is work!
One more thing…
If you are going to start a blog, don’t do everything backwards like I did. I would start by reading this book (wish I would have read it sooner). If you are going to take a course, the one that helped me start turning a profit (and I have taken several) was this one. It doesn’t walk you through actually starting a blog, just how to profit from the blog once it is up and running.
I took two on how to start a blog, but I took them so far into my journey that I’m not even sure what I gained from each. One of them I took I am an affiliate for, and I won’t even recommend it. I don’t like the course or the people.
If I were to recommend one, it would be the one by Farmhouse on Boone. I’m not an affiliate for her, but I like that she encourages people to blog about their passion, and then teaches about making money from that versus writing about something just to make money.
What’s my advice for someone wanting to start a blog?
Don’t start a blog if…
You are considering making a blog ONLY to have a great side gig or a new full-time job, I’d say don’t start one. If just money is your goal, you might lose sight of yourself and just try to take people’s money. You might recommend products you don’t believe in and write sponsored posts for something you would never need or use in real life. Is that who you want to be? A salesman ripping people off, suggesting products that haven’t truly changed your life? No amount of money is worth losing the value of your integrity.
Do start a blog if…
You want to make a blog to connect with people, tell great stories, help people, inform people, have a creative outlet… If this is your goal, then please start one today. Be yourself. Share the things that you have learned. Be authentic. If you do that, you will profit from it eventually. And when you do start to make money, you will be proud of every single post you have written.
That’s where I am at and where I have landed in this whole “Should I start a blog?” debate. Leave a comment and let me know what you think, or any question you might have about blogging. I’d love to hear from you!
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