10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Blog

If you have an idea of starting a blog then I must say it is one of the best ideas you could have in the current times!

With so many factors affecting our regular work opportunities, running a blog in the long term can provide you with a regular income that a typical 9 to 5 job would never be able to provide.

That’s not all. The freedom you get by being a full-time blogger and living your life as a digital nomad is pretty much unmatched. Imagine being able to travel whenever you want and being able to help out your spouse more and spend a little more time with your family and friends.

With all that said, blogging is not all roses. To get to a position where you are living the life I mentioned above, you have to go through a phase of hard work, learning, dedication, and immense patience.

But it’s all worth it.

So, this blog is about 10 things I wish I knew before starting a blog. Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting into when I made my first blog. And I learned the hard way. My goal with this post is to get your mindset ready to play before you enter the game. 

Are You Ready?

1. Pick a Niche That You Are Interested in or Willing to Learn About

This one is so important when you are a blogger than any other online business. If this was an eCommerce store or something along those lines then It probably would’ve been fine. But, when you are running a blog you are going to constantly write about a niche and all its topics. 

This means you are going to be researching and writing 1000+ word posts on a regular basis. Now imagine you only chose a niche because of the amount of money you thought you could make and nothing else. You will get bored out of your mind and eventually everything you worked for will be a big waste of time when you abruptly stop working on your blog.

So pick a topic that you are passionate about. Or at least you are interested in learning. This is the #1 advice I can give you.

2. Realize From the Beginning That it Requires a lot of Work

When you think of a blogger, you might think that it’s easy being one. But, in reality, it too is a lot of work. Especially at the beginning of your journey where you are putting all the foundations in place of a great blog. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re working full-time. You have to find the time to work on the blog and give the attention it needs to prosper. You have to treat your blog as a business. Not some new thing you are trying. The more you treat it as a business and give it the attention as you would to a brick-and-mortar business the more likely you are going to see it develop into a real profitable business.

3. Develop a System That Will Help You Stay Organized and Focused

We have busy lives. We have jobs, family, kids, and many other things to manage and to find time for. This is why from the beginning you have to create a productivity system that allows you to write your ideas down, stay organized on what to do next with your business, and keep you on track for what you need to focus on for the week. 

I have watched a great video on this by Matt D’Avella where he explains how to keep your day organized so you become a productivity machine. Basically, he explains that for a good productivity system you need 4 things.

A Notebook – to write your ideas and to keep tabs on things that help you run your blog

Calendar – To keep a track of what you need to do and by which day.

To-Do List – A checklist that you can check off on things you have completed and to see what’s next.

Cloud Storage – A file management system that you can use to manage your documents, media, etc.

Here’s the video:

4. Focus on Filling Your Website with Content Than Anything Else

I know for a fact that many of us when we start a blog gets our priorities wrong. I myself included, we forget that there are things that take our blog forward and things that have very little to no impact on the progression of our blog. 

What I’m talking about here are things like changing your website logo, experimenting with fonts, adding different colour combinations, and changing themes, etc. All these things have very little impact on the progression of our blog, especially at the early stages. 

What you really need is, Content! Content takes your blog forward. The more you have and how regularly you post new content will decide how quickly you see results. 

So spend your time writing and improving your content and learning new things that directly help your reader and implement them. 

5. Find a Website That Inspires You in the Same Niche to Guide You

A lot of us had role models when we were younger. Most of the time it was a sports hero or an actor or actress. Similar to that, as an aspiring blogger, it will help you immensely if you can find a blog in the same niche that isn’t too huge or just starting to use it as an inspiration.

What I mean is look at the things that this site writes about, what topics have the most engagement, how they start their blog posts, what kind of headlines they use. This is not to blatantly copy them or steal someone’s ideas. Never do that. Your goal is to improve your own work by looking at a site that has gone past the stages that you are going through now. Being inspired by someone’s work is normal. That’s how we learn. With time you will see how you could do things better than they are doing.

6. Keep Distractions to a Minimum and Don’t go After Shiny New Things

When you are spending your time on the internet, trying to develop your blog, no doubt you will see other opportunities pop up that seem to be far easier at producing results than blogging. These new things will look so tempting and they usually come with a lot of promises. 

No matter how tempting it is, don’t lose focus on what you are doing. Don’t stop what you are doing and start researching these new methods. Nowadays there are many forms of online businesses. Blogging is one of them. The other ones too have challenges you will need to overcome just like learning to build a successful blog. They may be different challenges but I promise you nothing is as easy as they seem. So don’t get tempted by these shiny objects that will distract you.

7. Engage with Your Audience on Your Website

Engagement is also one key ingredient in search engines deciding if your content is helpful or not. Higher the engagement, more likely they are going to rank your blog higher in search engine results pages.

Once you have built up an audience no matter how small, you should be engaging with them. Answer their questions in comments, ask them questions in blog posts so they leave comments to get even more engagement. 

The more engaged your audience is with your content, the more likely they are going to come pay you another visit. 

8. Learn What Kind of Problems Your Audience Have by Participating in Forums

To succeed at your chosen niche is to know your readers and what kind of problems they have and solve them. 

This is where targeting comes in. The more attentive you are to the issues within your niche, the more likely your posts are going to be a hit. So, participate in online forums like Quora, Reddit, and other forums within your niche and learn about your audience.

Seek new forums by: “Your Niche + Forum” in Google.

9. Constantly Learn New Things And Implement Them

As a blogger, you will soon realize that after learning the basics that there are a lot of new things you can learn to improve your blog. 

Always learn new things but also make sure to implement them if you think it will help your blog. Don’t just consume the information and do nothing.

If you come up with an idea, write it down and experiment with your new idea. It might work or may not, but to find out how good an idea is you need to test it.

10. Be Patient and Keep up a Steady Pace of Progress

Being a blogger is very rewarding. You get to impact a lot of people all around the world. You get to help them, solve problems and make another person’s life better with your content all the while you are working at your own pace, being your own boss. 

But you need to be a proper boss to yourself and not take any shortcuts. To keep going when you don’t see results straight away. You also need to be patient with your blog. As it takes close to a year to see results. Yes, you will see progress as months go by. But to see your site truly take off takes a year. This all depends on how committed you were to a regular post schedule and how you incorporated the new things you learned into your website.

Every person finds success at a different time of their journey. Blogging is powerful. Your life could be different a year from now. How soon it happens or if it happens at all is in your hands.