Here is the truth about blogging that no one will tell you. We wrote this from expedience and from continuous research of other bloggers.
This article is not aimed to discourage you from starting your blog, but it is to help you build a mindset.
Here are 7 truth about blogging that you need to know.
1. Truth About Blogging: Blogging is hard work.
Having a blog seems fun. And there are many celebrities and people you know may have them too. These are fancy and you can control what you share and share whatever you desire. It seems fun.
But In reality, blogging is a hard work. In every business there is the 80-20 rule where for the 20 percent success there is an 80 percent hard work. This is real in blogging too. You are required to work you heart off, even late at night and your weekends to post that article you have been writing for hours.
Some people claim to write a 3000-word article in few hours and average people like us may not be able to write that much of words. That is not only the hard work. You are required to post your article, edit so that there won’t be errors, then check SEO, install you WordPress theme, set up your website, market your blog, communicate with readers, answer question and control spam messages and keep posting at least 3 times or more a week.
So, do you still think blogging is an easy task? No, it is not. in fact, is could be one of the hardest things you will do in your life time.
You are required to have different talents. This is another truth about blogging: you need to wear more than one hats.
If you keep learning and improving every day, then you will become good at it. What you need it a hard work. That hard work should have a vision and a road map. It is then your hard work will become fruitful. So, it is time to decide. Are you ready to work hard? Are you ready to do whatever it takes to get there?
The truth about blogging- Blogging is a hard work.
2. Truth About Blogging: You are not going to be rich soon
This is a faith cracking sentence. But that is right. You will not be rich in few months even years by just writing and posting. You need to know that there are thousands of bloggers starting like you and others already growing and making income. So, how is it possible to win the game and steal the income when no one knows you yet? And when even google don’t believe your website.
You need to have a serious thought here. Life is harsh and so online life is. Never get in to blogging as a get rich quick scheme. This is why many people lose money by buying thousands of dollars courses and joining some fancy meeting and one on one consultations.
These things are fine but without the work to put in, you will never be successful or make money for that matter. Many blogs need time to make money, therefore, keep this truth about blogging.
Some marketing studies say that to rank on google for a single post, it might take up to 6 months. That is the time that your blog post will have the highest rank on google. This means you post will be on the few of the first few pages if these are really good, in at least 6 months. Up to that you may not see a dime or even you may not see a traffic.
Even the marketing effort counts here. The more and wise you are on the marketing, the better traffic you will have and the better your rank will be. This is how you will start to see the money.
The truth about blogging- You are not going to be rich soon
3. Many blogs don’t even make money
It is amazing to see that many older blogs are not making a dime. In a world where everyone is bragging on how good they are and how much they are making, this is a strange idea. Many random surveys show that about 80 percent of bloggers make less than 100 dollars a month. Most don’t even make money. Only 5 percent of bloggers make a full-time income that is more than 2000 dollars a month.
Like any other business 99 percent of people fail in blogging too. Many start-ups in US for example fail with in the first three month. This is due to false perceptions of being entrepreneur, unprepared mind, lack of resources including money and lack of experience and more.
Many blogs don’t make money for a various of reasons. This is a crazy truth about blogging.
We will discuss this in this blog. Some of the reasons are, lack of patience and quitting within a few months is the top one. It is a common fact that you may not able to make money or even won’t see traffic in the first few months so keep blogging. Don’t quit
Other reason is blogging about everything. Life style bloggers used to be a hot stake of a pan. These days there are many lifestyle bloggers on the internet. Some are rich others have a model look and others are creative. For a blogger to become successful, you need to focus on one topic. You need to be expert in that before moving to another.
The idea of niche come here. For example, instead of writing about health, it is easy to write about diabetes. First, the problem in diabetes is clear. Second, you cannot write everything about health.
You can also go further and have a specific problem like diet for diabetes 1 patients. Then you can write 100 diabetes 1 diet ideas and cuisines and diets. This makes you expert on the topic.
What if you had written about the 100 diseases that come in your mind? You wont last long. You won’t present expert ideas. Your research would be weak.
The truth about blogging- Many blogs don’t even make money
4. Truth About Blogging: A waste of time is everywhere
What are you doing on your blog everyday determines your success in a near future? In reality many bloggers waste a lot of time on the unnecessary things. Just like any start-up, you need to identify what is necessary and what is a complete waste of time. Imagine a start-up firm, choosing colour of a table for a month and purchasing and making the office beautiful. Even thought this is necessary, this does not fulfil your objective.
The objective of your blog is helping people and making money.
Anything else is a waste of time. These could be useful but these are not the end. This means the theme you use of the font you use or the software are secondary. By no means the theme alone could make you successful.
Many bloggers waste a lot of time on choosing theme or identifying topic and more. I was the same. I have spent countless time on themeforest identifying the best theme and comparing and even installing to remove it in few months.
The other time waste is networking. Many beginners’ bloggers use the idea of networking to write a lot of letters to other blogger or to have a night time out or other event.
Other waste of time is buying back links, trying shortcuts to get traffic. This is a truth about blogging.
Other is focusing too much time on the aesthetics, on what your videos should look like or on what kind of camera you are using or what kind of nail polish you are using. These are secondary. If you are not useful, no one is interested in your looks or expensive gestures.
If you find focusing on any thing that is secondary, that alone should tell you that you are wasting your time. That should be a wakeup call to refocus on the primary goal, that is to help your audience through your posts and make money in return.
The truth about blogging- A waste of time is every where
5. Truth About Blogging: Blogging Should not be expensive.
This is one of the contradictions in blogging. Many gurus tell you to purchase an expensive course to be successful in blogging. Some even sell up to 10k or more. Others make you pay a hefty amount of money just to have an hour consultation time in a week with them. This is a mistake. I believe you need to invest in good courses to learn how to become better in what you are doing. And there are many good courses out there.
But blogging by no means should waste your valuable money. Instead of buying a 5000 dollars course and forget all about it in a week, you need to reinvest your money in to promoting your blog.
I am sick and tired of seeing a 300-dollar blogging, SEO or other courses and latter discover that these people have nothing much to say except the known gibberish that I doubt them selves would use.
Buying the most expensive course does not help you become a better blogger. This is a truth about blogging that I can’t say enough.
I have seen hundreds of premium courses to arrive at this conclusion. Here are good ones out there. And these does not demand your life savings.
I agree that no hard work should be forced to be given for free. I also agree that any hard work shouldn’t be sold with inflated value.
Many of the tips and trick you need to know, I will be teaching you here. Some may cost you money others are free. By no means I should ask you for your credit card to leave you empty pocket.
The best way to determine on how to spend on any course is seeing how much you can afford.
The truth about blogging- Blogging should not be expensive
6. Truth About Blogging: You don’t have to be professional to blog
This is a tricky one. In this world of papers to prove your knowledge, it is hard to say that you don’t need a paper to help people to become better.
In reality, you don’t need to be a professional to share your knowledge and experiences.
There is a saying, a long-time patient become a doctor. The more you have an experience something, the better you can help others than even a professional can.
Imagine you lost 30 pounds in three months. You can share your secret, your emotional condition, your health condition, your regrets and more.
You don’t need to be a doctor or a personal trainer to share your knowledge. Learning is also a truth about blogging and being a blogger.
Some topic may need expertise as well, you don’t tell people to take a pill without some data to back it up or without a formal training. This is a life and death condition.
Any other thing is not a life and death condition. You can teach people how to make money, or how to iron their cloths or how to take care of their new born child or how to be a man or more.
You only need to learn and share. Gary call this documenting not creating. Creating may need experience and knowledge. Documenting only demands experience. And through that your failure, not only your success is portrayed.
Therefore, don’t be a doctor to say something on how you beat cancer. Just learn it or experience it.
You don’t have to be a professional soccer player to coach a club, you need to study it. This is a truth about blogging as well.
If you see any industry, it is amazing to see that many industry leading professionals are not even trained in the works the become known in. Most are college dropout. Google and Facebook are owned with average people when it comes to college degree. No one gave a professional degree in social networking for mark Zuckerberg. He just took it. Worked on it.
Coco Chanel was in entertainment before becoming famous in designs. Gordon Ramsey played foot ball before he started cooking. Jane Jacobs who changed the urban American ideology was just a wife of an architect.
You just need to have a courage and desire. You will get there.
#Truth About Blogging: Learn and teach
7. Truth About Blogging: There Is No Perfect Way
I have spent too much time on this back in the days. I have researched hundreds of hours on the perfect topic, the perfect direction to go, the perfect bloggers out there and more. in reality there is no perfect path to blogging, to life for that matter.
What you need to do is start and move on from one point to another testing the waters.
If you are a kind of person who don’t want to move forward without finding the perfect road map, I say just start.
Start with what you have now. This is a truth in life. This is a truth about blogging as well.
There is an idea that changed my life. Many people spend countless hours finding what they want to do looking out side of themselves. Many find their future in the movies they watch or the celebrities they admire or family members they love. In reality, your future is in yourself.
You have been finding what you already have for long. What you need to do is to sit quietly and listen to yourself regardless of what the social self says.
In everything you do, you need to follow your institution and your inside voice. The external should only be a reference.
This means if your desire is to blog about pink dresses and the whole world is blogging about white ones, then you need to start with pink and see how to move on with your idea.
This is why many people are copy cats. They find the perfect place to start and the perfect path. And that path is usually the ordinary, the known.
Then you need to listen to what you need to do, then see if there is a need for it then go do it. And adapt in the process. Be yourself.
The truth about blogging- there is no perfect way
Finally, The truth about blogging
These are not the only truth about blogging. There are thousands of myths about blogging on the internet. These myths are hurting many start-ups and newbies.
Especially, the urge to make money in few days and the need to have thousands or millions of followers with in few months comes first. The truth is everything needs hard work. And with time you will get there.
For this you need to go on with personal experience, trial and error. You don’t have to pay thousands to learn about blogging. You don’t have to waste a lot of money to get what you want.
Pay as much as you can afford and as much as it is necessary for you to move to the next stage of your blogging.
The truth about blogging is it needs hard work, time and patience.