THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BLOGGING: MY REVIEW SO FAR
So, you want to start a blog or you have this idea in your mind or you have probably started and got stuck maybe or you are doing great and you are here because you want to know what other beginner bloggers experience when they just start out.Well, I am about to share the ugly truth about blogging.
If you are here by any chance because of the above reasons then you are in the right place! Today I will talk about my experience so far. I have been blogging for the last six months now and here is the ugly truth about blogging!
The Ugly Side of Blogging
The Ugly truth about blogging: MY REVIEW SO FAR
One day I was going through YouTube searching how you can make extra income free! Yes, free without having to pay a dime whatsoever, and that is when I stumbled upon this channel H-Educate.
If you do not know what H-Educate is, H-Educate H for Hassan, is a you tuber and a blogger as well. A very successful blogger if you ask me. His channel and blog is all about digital marketing and everything else centered along those lines. Of course, he speaks about blogging and making money online and many other things that can a help a blogger like you and I , my beginner blogger friend or my very established guru blogger!
This is where my inspiration came from. He made starting a blog sound so easy, and yeah it is easy. What you and I did not know is about to be shared down below, the very ugly side of blogging.
- Every blogger speaks about free blogs and how you can make money,but here is what,you will not make money with a free blog for sure. You need to buy a domain name and choose a web-hosting service to host your blog website. You can either choose to pay monthly or yearly if you have that budget.
My advice: Save up first and start your blog, or choose to pay on a monthly basis if you have a job that pays you monthly. That is what I do. The downside of paying monthly is that if you do not pay on the particular chosen date, after 14 days your Webhosting Service Company suspends your Website until payment is done! Yeah that is the ugly truth!
- You will not get traffic on your first months of blogging. When I started I did not have enough content so I choose to repurpose other bloggers content or so I thought I was, but google begged to differ!!If you do not have content you can repurpose other bloggers work. Some people do that and their traffic blow up. Mine did but for a month or so then boom! Went from 1k views to Zero views.
My Advice: Write your own content. There is nothing as good as your original work. People appreciate authentic work and that is what draws different readers to different blog websites. Stay true to you and you will see the results for yourself. The downside of re-purposing other peoples’ work is that, you will either get stuck in the middle and run out of ideas or give up midway because when people realize what you are doing, they will run away from your blog! Unless your re-purposing skills are A1! Otherwise, that is the bitter ugly side of blogging.
- You will not make money from your blog in your first year blogging, unless you work overtime on your blog or unless you are very lucky or unless I do not know!! I thought this is how it goes. Start a blog-publish re-purposed content-apply for google AdSense-get views-get money! Shock on me. It does not work like that at all. You need to be consistent, publish your own work be patience and wait to see results.
My Advice: No money will flow in for the first couple of months or year of blogging. Ugly truth. Good news, consistency and working smart will lead to satisfying results! Keep working on your blog, publish often and yeah keep doing you. Until your views hit like 1k and rising, then you will start earning that dollar plus. That is your ticket to success; otherwise, that is the ugly side of blogging.
- Be prepared to learn a ton of new staff you did not know that existed before. You will learn how to be your own writer, editor, photographer, marketer, sales persons and a whole lot of other things. Bloggers do not tell you this for starters. If they did, you would learn all these beforehand to make your journey a little more easy, right! Nevertheless, that is the ugly side of blogging ,that, you will have to learn. Once you open yourself up to learning, you will love every bit of it, I promise.
My Advice: Learn as much as you can about blogging and how it all works before you start your own blog or you can start and learn along the way. That is still an option. You will have to learn. It is inevitable .That is the ugly truth. The skills you will acquire will really help you grow your blog and take it to the next level. So do not give up yet.
- Different people will rush to your comment section when they start noticing your blog is picking up. Ugly side of it, a lot of spams! Different adult sites will comment of your blog to try get people to their sites. You will spam a lot of comments. Do not be discouraged though. You will get positive reviews from honest people with pure intentions who want to appreciate what you are doing.
My Advice: Be prepared to deal with the negative people who crawl in your comments with impure intentions. This might discourage you but do not be discouraged. Things will get better when positive people with positive comments start coming in your blog. Better days are waiting for you ahead. Cheer up. It is only the beginning. Good things are waiting for you ahead.
- You will want to quit several times. Not once, not twice but severally. Why? Because the growth will seem too slow for sure. That is why; you will need to put in more efforts instead of quitting. However, if you feel like you are too burnt out, take a break and go renew your energy. Come back with new motivation to pick up from where you left off.
My Advice: Be ready to face challenges here and there. You will get tired, get discouraged, feel like quitting on your new blog but do not give up just yet. It gets better as you go.
- SEO-Search Engine Optimization is key for any blogger. Just like you, I knew nothing about SEO and how SEO actually works I, how to implement in you blog posts to be able to rank high on SE-Search Engines. I came to learn later about SEO from the one and only H-Educate. He has comprehensive videos talking I detail about SEO and how SEO works and better still how you can integrate SEO in your blog posts for organic traffic. This was very new to me in the world of Blogging for sure. I am glad I learnt about this a bit late though but better late than never.
My Advice: Make sure you learn all about SEO and how SE works so that you will be able to position your blog well on SEs or better still rank high on google. Ugly side of it, no one will tell you about SEO unless you take the initiative to learn all about how it actually works.
- No one will tell you how Google AdSense works or any other Ad Network for that matter unless to find out. There are so many blogs out there talking about Google AdSense and many other Ad Programs. AdSense is good for starters because it does not require a lot of page views and sessions for you to be accepted into the program. What you do not know is that , google will only review and approve your blog if you have posted 15 well written blog posts, authentic , gives value and your true work. Not re-purposed work.
My Advice: Take your time to learn about Ad Programs and the requirements for ones blog to be approved. Trust me; this will save you a lot of headache and disappointment. Ugly side of it, it is not easy to be accepted into these programs. You need to put in the work for your blog to stand out.
- There is no school for blogging or maybe you know one you can recommend? So far, I have not found even a single one (I stand to be corrected though) let me know if there is. You are your own teacher and student. You will learn many great staff and teach many great staff.
My Advice: Learn as much as you can and never get tired of learning. Ugly side of it. No one will prepare you and welcome you to the blogging world apart from the mistakes you will make on the way. You will make many mistakes but the lessons learnt are for life. The lessons will help you throughout your blogging journey.
- Nothing is easy. You will stumble upon many bloggers with their income reports and you will be discouraged, surprised and a bit confused. What they do not tell you is that, it took those bloggers months, years of blood and sweat to be earning that much and finally quitting their 9–5 jobs. Let no one lie to you it happened overnight. It took time, persistent and hard work
- Advice: Do not let those income reports shake your confidence and kill your goal. Everything takes time and hard work. Ugly side of it is that, none of them bloggers will actually confess just how long it took to get there, but with a lot of hard work and consistence you will get there. Just put in the work and trust the process.
I might have discouraged you but that is the ugly truth about blogging for any beginner. You will face many challenges but nothing is impossible under the sun.Everyday is a learning opportunity. Let those lessons shape and reshape your blogging journey always looking to be better than the last time.
Let me know in the comment section below how your experience has been so far and the lessons learnt and of course the ugly side of it as well. See you in the next one.
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