4-years ago, I started my blog anastasiablogger.com to replace my day job.
In my second year of blogging, I made more money than my day job
and now my blog makes multiple six-figures consistently. In this video, I will talk
about some of the harsh truths about blogging I wish I knew before I started this journey.
And the very first one
is that the people around you will likely discourage you from starting a blog…
The Harsh Truth #1. People around you will likely discourage you from starting a blog
When I started my blog, I was still at my day job.
A soul-sucking corporate job with a clear glass ceiling.
And most of the people at my office hated cubicle life as much as I did.
But when I shared with a few people that I've been working on a blog and planning to quit as
soon as my blog makes enough money to replace my day job, their comments were very ironic.
They simply couldn't believe ANYONE could be successful as a blogger.
Well, what about you? Maybe the idea that someone could escape the corporate
rat race makes you a bit uncomfortable or even skeptical.
In your case, these people might be your colleagues, or even your spouse
or your parents or friends. What is the solution for this?
I could tell you, well, be confident and ignore the negative projections of other people.
But if this comes from someone close to you, it might not always be easy to avoid or ignore.
So it might help to work on your blogging project silently. Anyway, in most cases,
you could start a blog without changing anything else in your lifestyle and without leaving your
full-time job. I worked on my blog on weekends and evenings for about 12 months before I quit my job.
You can also start a blog anonymously. use just a brand name instead of your
real name on the about page, or pretend there is a team working on the blog.
Instead of a profile photo on social media,
many beginner bloggers use an avatar or just their brand or logo.
You can always add your name and photo any time later,
when keeping your blog in secret will stop making sense.
Harsh Truth #2 - Blogging is Not Going to Pay Your Bills Right Away
There are people who are overly pessimistic about blogging as they think that all income
reports of established bloggers making six-figure income or more are fake.
These people are wrong and losing an opportunity of their life because
most of the income reports I've seen are supported by proof and can be easily verified.
But there are also overly optimistic people who think that they just need to write a few
posts and they'll go viral and they'll get a full-time income from the blog in a few months.
So the harsh truth is that it's very unlikely that a new blog can replace your full-time income
source at least in the first year of blogging. There are always lucky exceptions to this,
someone could have a previous job related to SEO and social media marketing, & it might
be easier for them to take off their blog faster since they know exactly what they are doing.
But for an average beginner blogger who is learning all the stuff by doing it,
things rarely take off before the end of the first year of blogging.
Solution: don't quit your day job too soon and prepare yourself mentally to see any kind of
results at least 1 year into blogging. If you start getting traction earlier,
great. If not, at least you won't be disappointed.
You just have to accept the reality of a blogging business upfront. Yes,
you can expect amazing life-changing income reports that you might have
seen from established bloggers. Maybe you've seen my video income report where I showed you
how I made about $40,000 in one month with my blogging business.
But with these great potential long-term goals,
you will need to keep your expectations from the first year of blogging quite low.
Harsh Truth #3 - Spend Money to Make Money
You will need to purchase hosting and domain (if your blog is not self-hosted,
this will be limiting your monetization options). When I started my blog, I used Bluehost and it's
a very affordable hosting provider perfect for beginners. It comes with a free domain
name for the first year, and if you want to get a special deal available to my subscribers only,
sign up through my affiliate link in the description below.
Ideally you should also use a premium WP Theme. I recommend you to
look for a theme that is known for a good site speed from the beginning so that you don't need
to switch later. Changing a WordPress theme can be quite complicated technically and you might
need to hire a web developer which can end up costing you more than the Premium theme itself.
Buying courses to speed up your growth. Yes, you can learn many things from free YT videos
but it makes you subject to many mistakes because not all the information that you found
might be up-to-date and the biggest advantage of online courses is that
you get a step-by-step guide so you do first what matters most and avoid the mistakes.
You probably know that I have a Pinterest course that helps you start driving free
traffic to your blog faster, and a Blog Monetization course that will show you
the best blog monetization strategies that I personally use on my site.
Check the links to my courses in the description below.
Harsh Truth #4 - Be Always Prepared to Learn and Change
Blogging is not the type of job where you can learn the skills once and forever.
You will have to learn new stuff all the time and adapt to new reality every day.
Because algorithms of the platforms are changing, new online giants emerge
and the ways people consume content have also evolved over the years.
You need to learn new platforms & technologies if you want to promote your content
where the audience goes. For example,
you might need to change your blog theme or install new plugins over time and so on.
The solution I can suggest for this is simple. Enjoy the process!
Harsh Truth #5 - Self-Discipline
When you start blogging, you will need to organize your own time and tasks,
obviously, you won't have a boss except yourself. And because blogging means wearing many hats,
and learning many skills, you will need to be very self-driven.
And maybe actually you are, you just don't know it yet!
Some people think they are not really inclined to self-discipline but if you
always worked as an employee, you might be very wrong about yourself.
If you never tried working for yourself, on a project that inspires you, knowing that
the sky is the limit for your growth potential and everything is in your hands.
I can tell you that for me, in the corporate environment,
I was an ok employee and was putting in just enough effort to keep the job but
I knew there is not much growth potential, so I wouldn't say I was a self-driven worker back then.
When I started my blog, everything changed. If I could work on the blog for more hours
to achieve more, I definitely would! I never feel tired of working on my
blogging business because it makes me feel like I am in control of what happens
and that my hard work can help my business grow exponentially.
Yes, some things in blogging are out of your control but what YOU DO in your business,
is totally in your control and all I can say is ENJOY it!
But if you think you are not quite able to be your own boss,
the solution I can suggest is just to start a blog and see how it goes.
All of a sudden, you might find that being your own boss inspires
you and gives you as much drive and energy as it gives it to me. If so,
I am sure you won't have any issues with self-discipline as a blogger.
Harsh Truth #6 - Have to Be Aware of the Legal Side of Blogging
Depending on where you live in the world, you might be naturally more
inclined to think about the legal side of anything you do including running a blog.
So many people start a blog without having a second thought about their
legal obligations as website owners. Typically,
if your blog is in English, you can expect to get visitors from any English-speaking country and you
should be aware of the laws in those countries that might affect your blogging activity.
There are certain pages any site must have
like the Privacy policy page. You should start with the basics like this.
As a beginner-level solution for you,
I would suggest just google some templates for a Privacy Policy page.
And as your blog grows and becomes an actual business, you should invest in
at least a one-time consultation with a legal advisor in your country or you might want to
check a Legal Templates bundle from Amira at aselfguru.com. She included in the bundle lots
of documents like Sponsored Posts contract, Guest blogger agreement, and more. If you use my link
to her templates store in the description below, you can get a great discount on her templates.
Harsh Truth #7 - You Can't Just Blog About Your Daily Life
When you are just starting a blog, you probably are not a celebrity like Cristiano
Ronaldo who can just document his daily life, and his followers want from him exactly that.
Today Blogging is not about you. It's about the information your audience wants to find
on the Internet. The goal of your blog should be to provide the most up-to-date
and valuable information that solves your visitor's problems or answers their questions.
The solution here is to find the right topics to cover on your blog.
For that, you should use keyword research tools like
Ubersuggest Keywords Everywhere
And strategically choose the topics for your content that are based on the search queries with
a decent search volume. You don't want to write about things that no one is even looking for.
Harsh Truth #8 - Some Things Are Out of Your Control
While you are your own boss as a blogger, there will still be things out of your control. Things
like algorithm changes can affect your blog traffic both ways - your traffic can grow
or drop, since these algorithms are evolving all the time.
It's hard to be prepared for future changes in the sense that you can't always predict what Google or
another search engine is working on and what's coming your way as a content creator.
Also, you could face some unexpected technical issues affecting your blog.
You can try your best to be safe, but things happen.
A few years ago, I have witnessed a situation when a very popular
WordPress plugin was used for hacking attacks on thousands of blogs. You wouldn't need to
do anything wrong but your site might be affected among many other blogs.
But this can happen as much as any bad luck can happen in life.
There is no solution to avoid these things.
But you can change the way you think about them. The best thing to do about the stuff that's out
of your control is to stop worrying about it. That's my solution for you today - just focus on
the things that you CAN control and ignore things you can't control because stressing out about them
doesn't make you more productive and doesn't fix anything.
Harsh Truth #9 - Writing is Just One Part of Blogging Business
When people start blogging, they often only think that
all they need is to be good at writing texts for the blog. But the truth is
you might not even be really good at writing but you still end up running a very successful blog.
You could even treat your blog as a business and outsource the writing part from the beginning.
But if you are a talented writer and don't want to learn anything else
that can make your blog profitable, then just the writing skills won't be enough.
The solution for this is to be open-minded when you are starting a blog
and understand that you'll need to learn a little bit of everything:
Web design SEO
Social media marketing Email marketing
Affiliate marketing Possibly even Creating your own products
You will need to learn a bit of everything at least to the level that allows you to
hire help for the tasks that you don't enjoy or which can be delegated easily.
Harsh Truth #10 - You Need to Learn How to Sell Stuff
Ok, when you are starting your blog I don't think you should focus on creating
your own products right away. Building an email list to reach out to your audience
later and offer them something to buy is also not the first thing you need to do as a new blogger.
As a beginner, you will focus on creating content and growing your blog traffic.
But if you want to diversify your income streams and move to the next level,
you will have to wear the hat of a marketer and a salesperson, and not just of a blog writer.
I noticed that a lot of bloggers tend to limit themselves to only one income stream - display
ads on the blog. Display ads are quite a passive income stream. You don't need
to put yourself out there or sell anything. Just add a code of the ad network and forget
about it. But this strategy is risky, you shouldn't keep all your eggs in one basket.
If you are serious about making a living from your blog, you will need to diversify
your income streams and learn how to sell stuff. As an easier solution for this, I would suggest
that you start with affiliate marketing, so you can recommend to your audience products
of other companies. It's easier to start this way rather than creating your own products to sell.
So those were the harsh truths I wish I knew before starting a blog,
and if you’re just starting out on your journey make sure to sign up for my free checklist
with the most important 11 WordPress blog settings that you should have done right from day one.
And this video will show you how to create and sell digital products on your website,
go ahead and check it out & I’ll see you in the next one!