5 Things I Wish I Knew about Blogging Before I Started Blogging

Are you thinking of starting a blog? I know I pondered the thought for months, not even months possibly even years! I wanted to start a new blog but I had no idea where to start, how much money it would cost, and if it was even worth my time. There are many things I wish I knew about blogging before I even started blogging.

I know once I started actually blogging, I realized I should have started a long time ago! I would probably be on my way to making this my full-time income if I had started years ago. Blogging takes a lot of time to learn about the basics, but once you have that down then your well on your way to becoming an experienced blogger!

I would read through these things that I wish I knew about blogging before I started blogging to see if it is something you might be interested in. It truly is a great way to be creative and make a little extra income on the side.

What I Wish I Knew About Blogging

1. You don’t make thousands of dollars right away.

I saw so many posts about how a new blogger made $1000-$3000 in their first-month blogging! It made me extremely excited to start my blogging journey, but I will be real with you. Most new bloggers won’t make a penny during the first couple of months unless you have blogged before and know the basics of monetizing your blog and getting substantial traffic!

There is definitely a learning curve to a lot of the programs related to blogging. It took me months to learn my way around things like keyword research, SEO guides, and Google Analytics. These are all things you will need if you plan on monetizing your blog.

The income you make can be anywhere from absolutely zero dollars to a couple of hundred a month if you are just starting out.

I wouldn’t bet on making blogging your only income at least for 6 months to a year or longer.

2. Traffic doesn’t just “come” to your blog

Getting traffic to your blog is actually a lot of work. At first, you can get friends and family on your blog because they are curious about what type of content you are putting out and probably just want to support you. But, after the newness wears off for most people, there are days you can see your blog get zero page views for a whole day.

There are many different ways you can promote traffic to your blogs such as sharing through your social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also promote through Facebook pages that you share with other bloggers and use Pinterest.

Google and other search engines can take months to actually start showing your blog pages in searches. You also need to learn SEO and implement that as soon as possible to get the most views you can from each post you publish.

3. Affiliate marketing is hard

I think the first thing many people do to try to monetize their blog is to try affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is great if you have tons of traffic and a loyal audience. It can be extremely hard if you are just starting out and do not really have a large volume of traffic getting to your blog.

Affiliate marketing takes a lot of time. When making a blog post you have to gather photos, write out descriptions of products, review products, and spend time linking all of these items you recommend through an affiliate program. It is definitely time-consuming!

If you are interested in learning about the best affiliate programs for lifestyle bloggers, check out The Best High Paying Affiliate Programs for Bloggers

4. You have to pay to play

Ok, so you can totally start out with a free blog in the beginning but if you really want to earn an income from your blog then you must be self-hosted. That comes with a price!

Most hosting companies will allow you to make monthly payments or (at a larger discount) pay for years in advance. You can make the decision on what’s best for you and how you feel about it financially.

I personally use Host Gator for my hosting service and I have not had any issues with them whatsoever! If you’d like to check out their plans, they have some greats deals.

Use my link and get an even better deal with Host Gator! You can get 25% off their hosting plans for WordPress (which is what I use!) Click on the link below to get started with this awesome deal! If you start off with the smallest plan, it’s only around $2.75 a month for your hosting!

Get started with WordPress! Use the one click install to start that Blog you’ve always wanted!

5. Blogging takes up a lot of time. A lot.

If you think working a full-time job and blogging is going to be easy, it’s not. I can tell you from personal experience. I struggle daily with trying to manage my time.

Of course, there are ways to make it work for you! I use my off days to make a schedule for my blog. I plan out blog posts during my lunch breaks. I use Tailwind to schedule my Pinterest pins. I try to outline a post in my downtime then go back and edit when I have hours of time to put in. I would say that currently I work full-time Monday-Friday then put in at least 15-20 hours into my blog on top of that during the week and sometimes on the weekends when I have free time.

Blogging is definitely not an “easy” way to make an income. It can easily turn into working 10 plus hour days and constantly thinking of new ideas to implement.

Blogging is a great way to earn extra income

Blogging is a fabulous way to earn extra income, but it does take persistence and time! You can really earn an amazing amount of money and the sky is the limit if you know your audience and the products or services you are trying to sell.

I don’t write any of this to discourage anyone from starting a blog. I think it is the most amazing thing to have your own website or blog where you can really do just anything you like. It’s a great way to have a side hobby and then make it into an income-earning side hobby, or possibly your full-time job!

If you still haven’t started your own blog, I totally recommend taking advantage of Hostgator’s 25% off sale that is going on currently! You can get 25% off any of their WordPress hosting plans, which is what I use to run my blog. Just click on the link below to take advantage of this awesome deal!

Get started with WordPress! Use the one click install to start that Blog you’ve always wanted!

If your still not sure about starting a blog, check out my blog post How to Start a Profitable Blog on a Budget that will walk you through the steps of starting a profitable blog on a serious budget!

Good luck on your blogging journey!

Thanks for reading,

 

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