At some point or another, I’m sure you’ve considered starting a blog – especially if you’re reading this now. Starting a blog can be intimidating to be sure, and it may prove overwhelming at first. Fortunately, I learned a lot through my own experience blogging, and I’ve made a list of 18 things I wish I knew before starting my own blog. Without further ado, let’s dive in!
1. It Takes Time – A Lot Of It
I know this isn’t nice to hear, and it’s one of the worst things about blogging in my opinion. Unfortunately, it can take a long time to see serious results from your blog. This varies depending on your own personal goals and niche. For example, some people may not be able to monetize their niche successfully for years, while others can do it in 6-12 months. Either way though, it takes time to see those results show!
2. It’s Fine To Make Mistakes
A lot of people are too worried about mistakes at first. Don’t get so caught up with avoiding mistakes that you can’t even get your blog off the ground! It’s best to avoid procrastinating and to just dive in while doing your best. If you make blunders, you can always correct them later.
3. Quality Is Better Than Quantity, But Both Matter
You need to post. In fact, you need to post a lot of content, and at frequent intervals too. However, posting a lot won’t matter if your content is garbage. At the end of the day, you need to strike the right balance between your posting schedule and how quickly you’re able to write new, quality content.
4. Blogging Isn’t Dead, But The Barrier For Entry Is High
Many people think blogging is dying – but it’s not. While I’m not promising stellar success through blogging, it’s still definitely possible for many. The harsh reality of blogging is just that the barrier of entry can be high – it takes a lot of time or money to really get started.
5. Bluehost Is The Top Notch Host For Blogs
There are a lot of decent web hosts out there, but Bluehost is the best for people starting a blog. Its price is competitive, plus it’s by far the most stable host I’ve used. Once you’ve been blogging for a while and need a more premium service, you can look into upgrading your Bluehost account or going with a different host completely. However, for those who are still starting out, Bluehost is the champ!
6. If You Need Something, There Is A Plugin For It
One great thing about WordPress is that anytime you need something for your blog, you can probably just download a plugin for it. There are virtually limitless tools and customization options for your blog with various plugins, so be creative and use them to your advantage.
7. SEO Should Be One Of Your Biggest Focuses
SEO will be one of your best sources of traffic, if not the best source of traffic. Do yourself and a favor and make sure you do SEO right from the beginning! That will ultimately save you a lot of time in the long run, plus it will help you build your core audience faster.
8. Social Media Is Fickle
Social media is a good tool to drive traffic to your blog, but it’s also a fickle source of traffic. Some social media platforms will only drive traffic to your blog seasonally, and others may drive traffic but only for users that don’t interact with your blog meaningfully. Beyond that, social media platforms change their rules or how they operate all the time, so you could lose it as a source of traffic altogether!
9. End Posts With A Call To Action Or A Link
Keep this simple – it pays to not overthink it. At the end of each of your blog posts add a short and sweet call to action for your audience that promotes meaningful engagement. For example, you could say something like, “You can see more of my articles on investing here.” Again, keep it short, sweet, and simple.
10. Get Your Formatting On-Point And Keep It That Way
When you first start, it pays to make your blog attractive and in a readable format. Some people tweak this and change it all the time – which is fine. However, if you start with an attractive blog, it only helps to gain initial traction! Obviously, you can keep tweaking it and perfecting it over time, but make sure the initial effort is there.
11. Do Keyword Research
When you make your articles, especially their titles, make sure you do some preliminary keyword research. Don’t spend too much of your time on this, but a few minutes of research can help you create an article headline that will be better for search engines and receive far more clicks!
12. Start An Email List From Day One
Email lists are one of the best ways to grow and promote your blog. It will take a while for it to become sizable, so do yourself a favor and start building one immediately.
13. Guest Posting Is Huge
Guest posting can be hard to do these days. In fact, many of the larger blogs in several niches won’t accept guest posts anymore. However, if you can find larger platforms to guest post on, it helps your blog grow. It makes your blog more trustworthy to search engines, and it helps you reach out to a much larger audience.
14. Diversify Your Sources Of Income
If you choose to monetize your blog, then build several sources of income! Advertisements are a stable, albeit low, source of income. Affiliate links are another common source of income for blogs. Beyond that, you could even create your own digital or physical products. Figure out what fits your niche and skillset, then start there.
15. Comment On Other Blogs
Commenting on other blogs may not be as useful as guest posting, but it’s still a great way to build traffic and brand recognition for your blog. Do yourself a favor – research a few of the top bloggers in your niche and regularly comment on their articles!
16. Consistency Is Key
At the end of the day, consistency is one of the most important aspects of building a blog. Consistency helps you build up content, it’s good for SEO, and your audience will appreciate it! It doesn’t have to be a crazy schedule, but make sure you have some schedule in place for people to follow.
17. You Can’t Be Perfect
Perfection is impossible, so stop pursuing it. Focus on making your content as high quality as possible, as consistently as possible.
18. The Learning Process Never Stops
While you’re blogging, you’ll always be learning new things. The learning process for building a blog never stops – especially since the industry is always changing and you have to keep up with it. Some people view this as a bad thing, but I think it makes blogging even more exciting!
Conclusion
There you have it, 18 things I wish I had known before I started a blog. If you have any tips of your own for blogging, let us know what they are in the comments. For more content like this, and a free budgeting template and financial goals worksheet, be sure to sign up for the Bitter to Richer newsletter.
