Do you really want to start a blog?
A lot of online business gurus recommend starting one as a way to make passive income. They even recommend businesses to start one.
But how do you know if starting a blog is something you actually want to do?
That’s the topic we’re going to cover in this post.
Let’s get into it.
The truth about blogging
The name of this website is “Blogging Wizard.” Our tagline is “Turn your blog into a thriving business.” An article we promote above all others is our guide on how to start a blog.
We clearly encourage everyone who wants to start a blog to take the plunge and get it done.
So, why would we discourage anyone from starting a blog? Doesn’t that go against everything we believe? Isn’t that bad for our own business?
Yes, and, well, yes. However, we aren’t just here to generate pageviews and affiliate earnings. We actually want to see your success.
Unfortunately, this also means giving you a reality check in case blogging isn’t the thing for you. That way, we both avoid wasting each other’s time.
So, here are a few truths about blogging your average “How to Start a Blog” post isn’t going to tell you about:
- Blogging involves a lot of hard work.
- Because blogging is a lot of hard work, it has no instant gratification.
- Success can come within a few months, a few years or not at all.
- A blog is one of the worst ways to become an influencer or “internet famous,” if that’s what you’re interested in. A blog will hardly get you noticed within your own niche let alone outside of it.
So, if blogging is so hard and not guaranteed to lead to success, why bother with it at all?
Let’s talk about that.
Why blogging is still worth it (regardless of when you start)
While blogging is most definitely a lot of hard work and not guaranteed to earn you any money, it will always be worth doing so long as the internet is around.
The internet has and will continue to go through many changes, but blogging will always prevail for those who are willing to roll with the punches and adapt.
But what are the benefits of blogging? If it’s so hard to get ahead, why bother trying at all?
There are endless reasons, but the following are key.
Blogging…
- …keeps you actively interested in hobbies and topics you care about.
- …allows you to connect with other members of your niche.
- …gives you an opportunity to earn a living from topics you’re interested in.
- …is something you can do on the side of your current job.
- …has the potential to allow you to earn more money than you do from your current job.
- …will always be relevant so long as the internet is around as people will always crave real content from real people, especially with the rise of AI-generated content.
- …is possible even if you don’t have an English degree. You just need to be able to write in a way that resonates with others.
Are you a business interested in starting a blog for your company website? We can name plenty of benefits of business blogging for you as well.
Business blogging…
- …allows you to engage your target audience by providing value, not just products and marketing tactics to sell those products.
- …gives you an opportunity to establish an online presence for your business.
- …gives your brand more credibility among your target audience.
- …helps you to rank for keywords in your niche.
- …drives more traffic to your website.
These are great benefits, but blogging really is a lot of hard work. How do you know if it’s something you really want to do or just something you think you should do?
Let’s see how much you really want to start a blog.
How to tell if you really want to start a blog
We have a few hard truths for you to accept and a few actionable challenges you can take on to tell if blogging is truly the hobby or business model for you:
- Accept what starting a blog really means.
- Accept that success won’t come easily, if it even comes at all.
- Consider if you’re willing to learn the technical side of blogging.
- Write a few posts as a test drive for blogging.
- Create a few social media posts as a test drive for marketing.
- Consider how much time you’re willing to sacrifice.
Let’s go over each one of these points.
Accept what starting a blog really means
You know enough about blogging to know it involves writing articles for a particular niche and publishing them on your own website, usually on some sort of schedule.
But are you prepared for what blogging truly entails?
A single blog post can take a couple of hours, an entire work day or even multiple work days to complete. It all boils down to how much you already know about the topic and how much additional research you need to do.
Here’s a typical task list to produce and promote a single, SEO-friendly blog post:
- Keyword research to determine the best keyword to target as well as additional keywords to mention.
- Jot down facts you already know about the topic.
- Conduct online research from competitor articles and videos and even forum threads about the topic. Add this research to your notes.
- Create an outline for your article to determine its structure, and include your notes where they belong within that structure.
- Write the article, and make sure to include your target keyword and secondary keywords.
- Edit the article.
- Create images for your post, or download stock images from a reputable, copyright-free source.
- Upload your article to your chosen blogging platform, and schedule it.
- Promote your post on social media. This is done best by creating original social media content about the same topic your article is about.
Again, this task list is for a single article. Make sure you’re willing to complete it before you go through the trouble of launching your own blog.
Accept that success won’t come easily, if it even comes at all
Blogging has been around since the 90s. In fact, this form of publication has been around for 30 years now.
This means that most niches are very competitive these days. And with the rise of AI, this is only going to get worse.
As such, success is not going to come easily. In fact, it might never come at all.
Bloggers that do see success often wait years before they’re able to say they make a living from their blogs.
However, success from blogging is possible early on. You just need to be willing to put a lot of hard work into producing a lot of quality content early on.
This means creating content that’s both reader friendly and SEO friendly at the same time.
If you have the means, consider hiring a writer or two to produce that extra bit of content you’ll need to pack a punch in your niche. Our post on how to find freelance bloggers will help you with that.
And while we won’t recommend using AI to generate final content, we do have a few posts on tools you can use to generate ideas, outlines and even rough drafts:
- Reviews of AI Tools
- Lists of AI Tools
- Guide
Note: The AI SEO tools mentioned above include features that make it easier to optimize your content to rank better in search engines like Google. Surfer’s AI is focused on generating entire articles. Frase offers a variety of AI writing features, and Scalenut is great value for money.
You should also understand that success looks differently for everyone.
Some people simply want to connect with other members of their niche. So, as long as they’re receiving comments and emails from their readers, they’ll consider their blogs successful.
Some bloggers won’t consider themselves a success until they’ve earned their first dollar from their blogs, and others need to be able to replace their current income with their blog’s income before they’ll consider themselves a success.
So, if you can accept that success is not a guarantee, consider what goals you want to achieve with your blog early on.
Ask yourself why you want to start a blog.
Consider if you’re willing to learn the technical side of blogging
Launching a blog is really easy to do these days. There are even all-in-one platforms that offer hosting, a content management system (CMS) you can use to write and publish posts, and website templates.
Best of all, you can do all of this without needing to know how to code.
Even so, just the mere mention of words like “web hosting” and “content management system” can be too technical for some folks.
You’ll also need to learn how to use whatever CMS (blogging platform) you choose, set up a domain, launch an email list, set up and monitor Google Analytics, set up Google Search Console, track your rankings, create social media content, and more.
You’ll probably feel like you’re learning how to blog more often than you actually blog, especially early on.
You may be interested in writing content about your niche, but if you aren’t willing to learn all of the technical aspects of blogging, consider choosing another business venture.
Fortunately, we have plenty of guides on this blog to help you answer almost any question you might have about blogging, and we publish new content regularly!
Write a few posts as a test drive for blogging
The early days of blogging involve a lot of time spent with your butt in a chair in front of a computer, typing article after article.
This requires a lot of discipline, and because your blog won’t be your actual job for quite some time, you’ll need a lot of motivation to get that writing done day after day.
What if you go through the trouble of learning about web hosting and WordPress and building your website only to burn out when it comes time for you to actually start blogging?
Burnout can happen at any stage of a blogger’s journey, but there’s an easy way to tell if you’re prone to burnout when it comes to writing: write!
You don’t need to write your posts in your blogging platform’s editor. You can use Google Docs or Microsoft Word and copy and paste the article into the editor once it’s done.
This means you also don’t need to wait until you have your blog set up to write your first blog post.
Come up with a few ideas for blog posts, then choose at least three you want to tackle first.
If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, do a bit of research on your target audience to discover their biggest pain points, then turn those pain points into blog post ideas.
Once you’ve chosen your first three ideas, all that’s left to do is write! And write and write and write.
Writing three blog posts as a new blogger is no easy feat. By the end of the third post, you should have a pretty good idea of how interested you are in getting actual work done for your blog.
Create social media posts as a test drive for marketing
A lot of blogs rely on Google as their main source of traffic.
Heck, we here at Blogging Wizard do as well, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Google is an amazing traffic source if you can rank for keywords in your niche.
However, Google makes a lot of changes to its search algorithm, which means your rankings and traffic from Google may suddenly drop whenever Google implements those changes.
It’s important to adapt your blog to whatever changes Google wants to make, but you can also work on building other traffic sources on the side.
One of the best traffic sources for blogs is social media.
Many blogs make the mistake of promoting their latest posts on social media by simply creating link posts for them, but this won’t see very many results.
You’re much better off creating original content for social media by using content from your blog as an idea generator.
Read through the blog posts you wrote in the previous challenge, and use them to come up with three ideas for social media posts.
Then, create those social media posts.
Like the previous challenge, you should be able to tell how much you like or don’t like creating social media content.
And while social media is not your blog, if you don’t like marketing, you’re less likely to see success from your blog.
Do you still want to be a blogger?
If your answer to this question is yes, check out our guide on starting a blog.
It’s a beginner’s guide that covers the following topics:
- Choosing a niche.
- Choosing a blogging platform.
- Registering a domain.
- Setting up hosting.
- Setting up your blogging platform.
- Essential pages your website needs.
- Creating your first blog post.
- Getting traffic and earning revenue.
