Everybody and their mother online is telling you to start a blog. The things I hear is “It’s so easy”, “Anyone can do it”, and “It’s essentially free to do it”. But is it though? Is it as easy as they say it is? I set out to find out so you don’t have to. I started a blog about planning and organization in August 2022 and I wanted to share my experience as a beginner in this blog creator space in providing you with helpful resources. Read on to find out the 10 things you need to know before starting a blog!
This is Part 2 in my Financial Freedom Journey Series where I go through and share all my side hustles and the truth behind each one. You can read about how I started my financial freedom journey here. Please note that this blog post is not a step-by-step guide on starting a blog. My intention is to get down into the nitty-gritty and share the reality of it but I I will share some helpful resources at the end.
1. Don’t Quit Your Day Job
I am of the firm belief that there is definitely money to be made online and there are a lot of opportunities out there in the “creator” space. However, you will not make money from your blog right away. In fact in can take years for you to earn a livable income from your blog and it involves a lot of hard work and set up for you to start generating that “passive income”.
It may seem obvious to not quit your job but I was almost tempted to do it! I was getting so riled up and excited and wanted to focus all of my attention on this. I was swayed by the inspirational stories of all the blogging gurus. If you take on these projects out of desperation and wanting to earn money right away, you may be releasing subpar content.
Furthermore, there are several streams of income you can generate from your blog including affiliate marketing, selling products online, or brand deals. However, when you are starting off, you will not get accepted into affiliate programs (believe me, I tried). You need to be at it for a bit longer to reap the rewards. Starting your blog is laying the ground work for these opportunities.
2. You Cannot Fully Rely On Google For Ranking
The recommendations you hear online is to post blog posts consistently whether it is once a week or twice a week as well as SEO strategies and high-quality content. Even when you do everything right, it can take forever to get picked up by the Google algorithm. Your best bet is to also promote your blog posts a different way. Pinterest is a great way to promote your blog posts but for me, the real winner has been YouTube. Now I realize, not everyone has the bandwidth to start a YouTube channel but linking my blog posts in my YouTube descriptions has helped me get a ton of views (Especially when freebies are involved).
Find a social media strategy that you can handle and that makes sense for you. But keep in mind that there are places that won’t direct a lot of traffic to your site. Instagram has not worked for me very well, and Facebook hasn’t either. Pinterest has worked the best next to YouTube but there is a lot of research required on that end as well. Everything you do, requires quite a bit of research but it is worth it when you start to see the benefits!
3. You Will Invest A LOT of Time
Again, everyone loves to call a blog “passive income”. But the truth is, there is nothing passive about it. There is a learning curve and when you are in that phase, what should take an hour or so can take you almost an entire day. If you have no experience whatsoever building a website, navigating WordPress and figuring out how to set your theme, and your blog posts takes a while to do. It involves countless hours of research (at least it did for me). You will also probably buy subscriptions to make your life easier such as SEO tools.
I have come to realize that time is my most valuable resource now. If there is a subscription that can save me time and help me advance in my blogging project, I will take it! I actively pay for keyword research tools, SEO suggestion tools, and of course Canva my favorite tool to generate graphics. So starting a blog is also not “free” if you want to do it right. A lot of people will tell you you only need to pay for your hosting and domain and you’re set. But if you value your time, investing in helpful tools will make your life easier. It depends on what you value more…
Now that I have a flow and set up my site, I actively invest about 6 hours a week on ONE blog post each week. This involves research, the actual writing and posting on the site. I also add a couple of hours of website maintenance every month between updating my old blog posts and helping improve my speeds.
5. You Will Struggle With Your Website Speed
My site speed is the bane of my existence! I hate to be so negative about this but in my experience, it is the most difficult thing I have had to deal with. The issue is that your site speed affects other aspects. It not only affects your Google ranking but your Pinterest pins. That’s right, if your site is slow, Pinterest will not push out your Pins! And it makes sense, if your site is not fast, people will get annoyed and navigate away. The modern consumer is not patient and it makes sense (I’m not).
Although it doesn’t seem like it, improving your site’s speed should take priority. I installed Jetpack Boost to try to optimize my speed and it has helped some but I have had to go back and change the sizes of my pictures and try to reduce the number of pictures. It is a constant struggle and I always try to monitor my site’s speed. If you have any ideas or best practices you have used, send help! Let me know in the comments.
6. There Are Legal Aspects That You Need To Look Out For
Repeat after me, your website needs a Privacy Policy. Especially if you start with Google AdSense you have to have all your legal ducks in a row. You need GDPR Compliance notices and other legal compliance notices on your site. This is where I would say that you need a bit of an investment. I used Amira Templates to create my privacy policy. It was so easy to do and so complete! I recommend using a service like this for your privacy policy because it is of utmost importance for you to comply if you are serious about monetizing your blog.
7. Your Website Name And Niche Matter, Really Give It Some Thought
Personally, it took me weeks to choose my domain name. I wanted to talk about planning and organization so I decided to name it sarasplanner.com as a way of depicting my focus on planning. However, I will admit that this name boxed me in. I do want to share other content but I really can’t.
On the other hand, this level of niching has helped me reach my right target audience on other social media platforms and it helped my branding. So the takeaway here is really think about what you want to discuss on your blog. You can name your blog with your name and just use SEO to reach your target audience. Niching is sooo important. If you don’t niche, you won’t grow, period.
8. Keyword Research Will Be Your Best Friend
To say keyword research for your blog is important is an understatement! If you want to be strategic about blogging and set it up to get monetized you need to add keywords that people are actively searching for. But remember that people search different keywords on different platforms so what may work for YouTube, may not work for Pinterest or your blog. There are 3 places I search for keywords and that is using a paid research tool called Keysearch.co, Google Trends, and an extension called Keywords everywhere. If you are taking the time to write, you have to make sure your posts are optimized to be searchable!
Keep in mind that it is not just about using the keywords. Don’t suck the fun out of the actual writing! If you are someone who enjoys writing and wants to create quality content, you can find that soft spot where you are incorporating the keywords in your writing but also writing some awesome articles! Plus Google doesn’t like it when you just write keyword heavy articles and there is no substance.
9. Staying Organized Is A Must!
Consistency is key when you are running a blog. You need to post on the same day each week or twice a week. Find a schedule that works for you and really stick to it. In order to do so, you need to be very organized. Whether you are using a spreadsheet to organize your blog posts or a calendar, it makes it easier to keep everything in one place. A blog post workflow is the best way to do this.
My preferred method is to keep a record of each blog post. In each record, I keep my headline, SEO keywords I researched, any inspiration I used, pictures I used in my blog post, notes, and the link where I can go straight to that blog post. I also flag posts that I know need to be revised. I use Airtable for my workflow to keep it all together and you can grab your template here! It is only $5.00 and it will save you hours of time keeping everything in one place.
10. It’s Not Too Late To Start
You may feel a little discouraged knowing that there is so much competition out there. So many people out there are sharing incredible content that you just don’t know where you will fit in that space. The truth is that you can always put your own spin on things and make your blog your own. It took me years to finally take the plunge and start this project. I didn’t think I had what it takes to start a brand or a blog. This couldn’t have been further from the truth. I feel like a writing machine. Every time I sit down to write, I feel so inspired and motivated to write content that will hopefully help someone.
The truth is that a lot of people start and just give up. If you keep at it, be consistent, and really put your heart into it, you will get further than you thought possible. I have learned so much and although I am still not where I want to be, I continue to improve each day and I know you can too!
Blogging Resources From The Experts
By all means, I am not a blogging expert here, I can’t claim to know everything since I haven’t been at this for long. But I can point you in the right direction and share the resources that helped me.
- If you are a complete newbie, this article on starting a blog is the first thing you should be reading. If I had read it from the beginning I probably wouldn’t have made as many mistakes as I did.
- Sophia Lee was a huge inspiration for me on getting started. Check out her blogging resources and YouTube channel! She is very insightful and gives some great tips for complete beginners.
- Christina Galbato has a free webinar that helped me open my eyes to the blogging world. You can find her website here.
- Anastasia Blogger is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to driving traffic to your blog using Pinterest. I love how educational her content is on YouTube.
Optimize Your Blog Workflow!
Grab my Airtable Blog Tracker Template Below
Keep all your blog posts organized! To ensure that you are keeping up you may need to reference your blog posts periodically and update them accordingly. You may want to be adding links to new blog posts, products or affiliate links. Additionally, you may want to jot down ideas really quick. This template helps you do just that! Pick it up for just $5.00.
