The question shouldn’t be “Is blogging hard?” but instead, “Is it hard to be successful with blogging?” The short answer is: yes. But that shouldn’t stop you! I want to explain what is difficult about blogging, how to make it simpler, and why you should blog anyway.
Do you want to watch this article? Here’s the video episode:
The beauty of blogging is that anyone can do it, but many bloggers never see success. I would like to include some data, but the numbers vary widely depending on the group of bloggers surveyed. Instead of providing a possibly inaccurate statistic, just know that a large group of people start a blog and then stop before they get traffic or earn money from it. These people may not have thought blogging was hard.
If you start your blog knowing that blogging is hard, you are already in a better place than those bloggers who gave up. Start your blog knowing that it will be difficult but possible, and you will succeed as long as you don’t give up.
Now let’s go over why building a blog is hard and how you can make it a little easier.
Learning New Technology
If you’ve never blogged or had a website before, there will be a learning curve as you set yourself up. Technology learning curves excite some people while terrifying others. No matter which side you fall on, you don’t need to stress about the technology side of blogging. There are countless guides you can follow to walk you through exactly what you need to do to set up a blog, even if you have no experience with maintaining a website.
If you’re looking for a place to start, we have a full guide to starting a blog that you can follow.
When you start blogging, you’ll overcome several technological hurdles like choosing a domain name, setting up a website, and creating a content calendar. But you’ll discover that none of that is really the hard part of blogging.
Consistency & Perseverance
The hard part about blogging is that you need to stay consistent to see success. Notice how I say “consistent,” not “frequent.” You need to keep going and keep posting, but you don’t need to post every single day.
If you’ve read any of my blog articles before, you’ve likely already heard this, but I’m going to say it again. You can be consistent on your blog with a frequency that works with your schedule. Posting weekly is a great goal, but if that’s too often, you can post every other week or monthly. Once you choose a frequency that works for you, stay consistent. So, being consistent doesn’t mean posting every day; it means continuing to show up at a pace your readers expect. You set the pace. So choose a frequency that will be simple for you to remain consistent with.
In the beginning, it will seem like no one is paying attention and you are just talking to yourself in the blog articles. You need to push past that. It is normal for a blog to take 6-12 months before it starts gaining traction. That can be difficult, but it is completely normal, and it does take a lot of hard work to get through that beginning stage that feels like talking to crickets.
Creating High-Quality Content
Another challenging aspect of blogging is writing high-quality blog articles. You need to create consistent content, but not just any content will do. You need to create posts that provide value to your target readers.
Understanding exactly who your target readers are is crucial to crafting high-quality content. You need to take the time to create a marketing persona so you have a clear image in your mind of who you’re trying to reach. Your blog articles should be written to speak to that specific person.
Understanding SEO
It can be hard to know how to optimize your website to rank well on search engines. When you’re trying to grow organic traffic to your blog, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can play a key role. To make this process simpler and less daunting, you can follow our on-page optimization cheat sheet.
Of course, there is a whole slew of information you can review to learn SEO. If you want a shortcut, you can leverage ClearPath Online’s digital marketing coaching. The digital marketing coaching can guide you through what you need to learn about SEO and other digital marketing tactics. Additionally, you’ll gain access to an interactive digital marketing planner to help you stay organized and focused between coaching sessions. This combination of expert coaching and practical planning tools ensures you can efficiently optimize your blog for better search engine performance.
Knowing Where to Promote
Creating blog content isn’t the only hard part. After you create a post, it is ideal to promote it on other platforms to increase the exposure. It can be hard to know where to promote your blog articles, especially if you aren’t active on social media platforms. We actually have an article that covers promotion tactics to use instead of social media.
Monetization Plan
It’s important that you don’t start with a monetization plan. Your first priority for your blog should be to grow traffic and attract an audience. You want to have an idea of who you want to attract and then start creating content and working on growing the number of readers on your website.
When you go this route, you not only have an established community you can start selling to, but sometimes the community makes it clear what the monetization plan should be. So, it’s best to wait and see what the needs are for your specific audience before creating a monetization plan.
But once you have an established audience, you want to make sure you have a monetization plan so you can start generating income with your blog. There are several different ways you can monetize a blog, including digital downloads, online courses, books, and affiliate marketing.
Digital Marketing Changes
On top of all of this, the digital marketing industry is constantly changing and evolving. It can be difficult to stay on top of these changes and make sure the tactics that worked yesterday are still effective and beneficial for tomorrow.
One way to stay on top of marketing-related changes is to follow the 1-minute marketing updates. These are one-minute YouTube Shorts videos that we create to keep you updated when there are any changes worth knowing about in the digital marketing space.
Another way to stay current on changes is with the ClearPath Online Digital Marketing Coaching. When you use a digital marketing coach, it’s easy to ensure your online marketing efforts align with the current best practices. That way, you can stay current on digital marketing without any extra effort on your part.
Is Blogging Worth It?
So, is it worth it? Is it worth having a blog if it’s going to be hard to see success?
Yes! The answer is absolutely yes! To be successful with blogging, you need to be consistent. And the more often you blog, the easier it will get. So, as you continue to blog consistently, the process will get simpler and simpler. It takes time, but stick with it! Most people won’t. You can be the exception.
Once you start seeing growth, it will become exponential due to the combination of your previous efforts paying off along with you becoming a better blogger. That is when it gets fun. So stick with the hard part of blogging so you can see success and start having fun with it.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode: