As someone who is new to blogging, you already know that it is an amazing feeling to start a blog. As a blogger, you have the opportunity to express yourself and expand in ways you might not have even imagined that you could.
Similar to starting a business, a lot of effort is required in blogging. You don’t become successful in blogging by accident. You need to put a lot of intent, work, and time – even when you feel like quitting. To help you keep up your morale, we are here to share some harsh truths that you should know about blogging.
No One Knows Who You Are
As an aspiring blogger, you should know that you are entering a sea of bloggers in a world where no one knows you. This aspect means that you need to make yourself stand out from others by asking yourself the following questions:
- What am I good at?
- What value will people get from me?
- What am I passionate about?
- What can I talk about for hours?
As a blogger, you are actually availing yourself of the opportunity to create your voice based on your strengths and what you are naturally interested in. Only then will people start to notice you.
It is A Long Road
Another thing to know when you start blogging is that it is a long road that you will be walking on. You will be blogging for months and months while creating amazing content, but not everyone will see it. You should know that every time you publish a blog post, it takes approximately ninety days for you to rank on Google, which is also only possible if your blog post is SEO-friendly.
This aspect indicates that you have to know what Google likes and which keywords to use in your blog posts to start tanking organically. On that note, don’t feel bad if your posts don’t immediately get views and likes from the very moment you put them out into the world.
Now, what you need to do is to assess your blog post at least three months after it has been published. This way, you will know if it is working or not.
Travel Blogging is Hard
If you are a travel blogger, you already know that you are spending most of your time on your laptop or phone. In other words, you won’t be traveling that much, but a lot of your time will be spent researching destinations, writing posts, and learning how to use creative programs.
You will also spend a lot of time editing photos and videos, especially if you are putting them on YouTube. You will also be spending time on posting social media, replying to direct messages, contacting brands, etc.
So, if you are considering becoming a travel blogger, you should know about all the hard work that occurs behind the scenes – traveling is just a fraction of everything.
Your Mindset Matters
You should know that not everyone has the skills or mindset to be a blogger. As you enter the world of a blogger, you will soon find out the harsh truth about whether or not you are one of the bloggers. Many people mistakenly believe that they have to be a good writer or a good photographer to blog.
Some aspiring bloggers believe that they have to be good filmmakers or good graphic designers. Whatever it is – they don’t realize that these are essential skills that they will learn as soon as they start blogging.
The thing that is actually hard is to have the right mindset to push through and stay dedicated. It is a matter of keeping on even if you don’t feel like it. Also, you will have to be willing to be clumsy and messy. You might also feel embarrassed when starting something.
Believe us when we tell you that you cannot expect yourself to be skillful and graceful right off the bat.
It Takes Time to Get Your First Subscribers
When you enter the world of blogging, you will get frustrated by how painstakingly long it will be to get your first thousand subscribers. Of course, once the momentum kicks in and the demand for more content grows, the list of your subscribers will grow equally. If this happens, we recommend getting a ghostwriter to create high-quality content for you.
For instance, if you live in the UK, you can hire one of the best ghostwriters UK and publish non-stop content to meet the demands of your subscribers. But – it is a long road until you get there. You can even hire a ghostwriter from the very start of your blogger’s journey and publish high-quality content for your target audience.
As a rough idea, you should keep in mind that it might take you six months to land your first thousand subscribers – however – it varies from one platform to another, and it also depends on how much you have made your blog posts optimized for SEO.
It Takes Time and Effort to Promote Content
Another harsh truth to know about blogging is that you will be spending an incredible amount of time promoting your content rather than creating it. Imagine a scenario where you have invested loads of time and effort in creating high-quality content. But – what happens when no one is going to see the valuable content that you are creating for them?
So, you will have to invest a serious amount of time in marketing strategies to promote the content so that you know that your content is fulfilling the purpose of being visible to your target audience. Rest assured, once you start getting subscribers, you will continue getting more subscribers.
However, along the way, you will also get many people who will unfollow or unsubscribe, and that is okay because it is an integral part of the journey. Your growth is never linear as a blogger, so be prepared for the graph to go up, and then it will also go down.
Also, we cannot refute the golden rule of keeping your mind on the bigger picture instead of minding the smaller things.