5 things you must know before becoming a blogger

 

Blogging is a ton of fun, especially if you feel passionately enough about something to share your thoughts with the world. And, of course, you’ve got to have some level of tolerance or enjoyment of writing—you’ll be working with words all the time! But there’s more. Building your own blog is a lot like building a small business. You’ll start from SCRATCH and work for hours, weeks, months at a time with little to no results. The key thing is, you can’t stop. You have to keep going to see the fruits of your labor. When will you see them? That’s a good question and unfortunately one that doesn’t have a concrete answer.

Some bloggers see results within weeks or months, others have to wait years. But here’s the thing. A lot of the people who had to wait longer didn’t have much help. They fumbled through the process by themselves, discovering how to create a blog, market it, monetize it, grow it, all on their very own. Hopefully through the information I share with you here, that process will be a lot quicker for you.

Before getting into anything, I always believe in prepping. So that’s what we’re going to focus on today. Here are a few things you should consider before you delve completely into what is sure to be a time-consuming patience game that will, of course, come with rewards 🙂

Make time

Blogging is and will be a time consuming process. If you’re looking for a get-rich-quick method, this is probably not your best bet. The money will come, but to be a successful blogger, your heart has got to be in it—completely! You have to feel passionate about your blog topic. And you’ve got to remain patient. If you work a full-time job, think about when you’ll be able to regularly— whether that be weekly or monthly—make time to commit solely to blogging. If you’re a mommy, like me, this might be after you put your kids to bed. Whatever your responsibilities, carving out between 8-10 hours a week, at least, is what you’ll need to get your blog up and running successfully.

Create long-term goals

Before you actually set up your blog, give some thought to what exactly it is that you hope to achieve from it. What are 3-4 of your long-term goals? For example, for my blog, my goals are to a) be a resource for writers and bloggers b) network with others in the blogging community, and, of course, c) monetize my blog when the time is right.

Be completely honest with yourself and think about what your goals are (feel free to steal mine!). Keep your goals at the center of your focus as you move forth in bringing your blog to life. Preferably, write them down so you can remember them in the midst of chaos when you’ll be a lot more heavily focused on getting everything set up.

Be consistent and constant

This is probably the most significant point of all the ones I address. And it’s one that I struggle with the most. You have to commit to blogging on a regular basis. By regular, I mean with a regularity that is comfortable and practical for you.  Set realistic expectations—and then stick to them. If that means whipping out a post a week or every two weeks or a few times a month, then identify that and plan on following through with that commitment.

(At this point you might be wondering how you’ll ever find enough topics and ideas to keep you going on a regular basis, but that’s all part of the fun and challenge—and I’ll address that in a later post to make sure you’ve got plenty of ideas to keep you going!)

If you become lax, your blog will suffer. You’re going to have to treat it like work or a business and nurture it and give it unwavering attention in order to see it truly thrive.

Be prepared to invest

You already know about the time investment that blogging requires, but money is another part of the investment equation. If you’re looking to customize your blog or monetize it, you will need to invest in some basics, like a domain name, a host and some other tools to. Of course, I’ll walk you through all that in the Getting Started post.

Get ready to be patient

Success won’t come overnight. Blogging takes time and persistence. A lot of bloggers start off with a ton of eagerness and end up fizzing out due to lack of inspiration or because they don’t make blogging a part of their regular routine.

If you keep creating quality content and have all the elements of a great blog (also a topic for another post), you’ll be sure to attract an audience.

If you’re not sure you’re quite ready to make the time and monetary commitment to blogging, that’s perfectly fine, too. In that case, a good way to test the waters is to explore FREE blogging sites. (Bear in mind that if you do find blogging to be an interest and you plan on creating a brand or making money off your blog, you will have to eventually make the investment in a domain.) Some of the more popular free sites for bloggers are listed here: http://stylecaster.com/best-free-blog-sites/

To supplement the information I share here, I’ll always try to find extra articles and blogs to share. If you’ve got a Pinterest account, you can follow my blogging board for a whole slew of helpful information. At the same time, I don’t want to overwhelm you—because there is an entire ocean of posts and articles out there on this very topic and it’s easy to get drowned in all the details. That’s why this blog exists—to give you the meat and save you from the trouble of wading through seas of information. So read at your leisure if and when you feel the desire, but don’t by any means feel you need to know it all! I’ll share all the basics here 🙂

And congrats. We’ve come to the end of this post.

Ready to move on? Great! Stay tuned for more tips!