There is a lot of information out there about blogging, but unfortunately not all of it is true. Today I bust 10 scary blogging myths and encourage you to chase your blogging dream.
You know what makes these blogging myths scary?
They prevent people from even trying in the first place.
If you are a new blogger and feel like you are constantly facing doubt, don’t fear! I hear these blogging myths from time to time but I believe they are false, and most importantly I think they are motivation-killing.
If you want to be a successful blogger, you have to believe you can be. You have to be consistent and persistant, even when it is hard.
So don’t allow yourself to fall into these traps, believing these myths will only discourage you on your journey.
10 Blogging Myths New Bloggers Should Ignore
1. Blogging is Dead
Every time I hear this myth I just want to face palm and shake my head. People worry about this issue and it stops them from starting a blog, which is understandable since no one wants to board a sinking ship!
The reality is that blogging is NOT dead at all, but alive, flourishing, and I think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
Think about it! Where did you learn to roast that thanksgiving turkey? Someone’s blog. How do you do research on which is the best product to purchase before you take the leap? A blog.
And what are you doing right now? You’re reading my blog, my friend.
No, blogging is not dead, but it HAS evolved.
Years ago “starting a blog” meant starting a public, online diary. But today blogging is less of a journal and more like your own brand of magazine.
Bloggers are content creators. They solve problems for people, teach, and give tips. The future (and present) of blogging is to provide value to people about something you know.
If you can solve someone’s problem, you have provided a service to them. It is a business.
Maybe we just need a new word to replace “blogging” with, because it’s no longer a “web log.” It’s an online how-to publication.
2. The internet (or your niche) is too saturated to be successful.
It’s kind of a glass half empty, or glass half full situation.
I have seen this blogging myth presented as a scare tactic so many times, and I just don’t believe it.
In fact, I have even seen other bloggers write things on their website such as:
“XXX,XXX blogs are started every day and 99% of them FAIL!”
And then to top it off, they try to sell you their blogging course!
Why would you want to scare someone away from blogging if you are trying to sell them your blogging course? I don’t know.
The truth is, the internet is expansive. There is room for everyone, and it will never get full.
Now, there may be some truth to the claim that your niche is saturated.
But that is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a sign that there is a high demand for what you can offer.
The truth is, you don’t have to be the only one who blogs in your niche to be successful, and it would be a bad thing if you were.
You want healthy competition, collaboration opportunities, and an audience who craves more information on their passion.
Those things all come when a topic is in demand.
3. Blogging Makes You Money FAST
Well…. What do you mean by fast?
Consider this:
People are willing to go attend a college, go into hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, work extremely hard with intense focus for 4 years, all in the hopes that they will find a job at the end!
But why aren’t people willing to put in that same intense drive, time commitment, effort, sponge-like focus into soaking up a new skill or starting a business? Especially one like blogging that literally can cost around $500 to start? (Depending on what you purchase and if you take any courses.)
It seems weird, doesn’t it?
Blogging takes time. It is an investment. You are likely not going to see an income during your first month, or maybe even first year.
But if you refuse to stop, and keep improving, and learn from those who have done it before you, then your traffic will grow, and you will make money.
I made my blogging investment back in less than 18 months. It could have been sooner, but I was stubborn and wanted to DIY almost every part of my blog myself, and I didn’t take any courses. This is the long way round.
The reality of this myth is that blogging absolutely can make you money! But how much and how fast is dependent on a lot of variables.
It’s not a get rich quick scheme.
It takes time for your website to be found, crawled, and indexed by Google. It takes time to rank. It takes time for your pins to take off.
But they will. If you plant the seed!
4. You need everything to be perfect before you launch your blog.
This blogging myth is dangerous because it prevents people from ever even taking the very first steps into blogging.
You do not have to be perfect before you launch your blog, and it’s basically impossible to be anyways. Over time you will discover what you like, what your audience likes, and you will learn and improve!
In those new days, hardly anyone is reading your blog anyways, so it doesn’t matter if there is only 5 posts. Just keep adding them!
The magic of a brand takes time, people. Imagine Apple before they made it big, they were just some hippies in a garage. (Literally)
The blogging motto I have tried to live by has been “Beta now, better later.”
The meaning of this motto is simple: put out your best effort now. But don’t expect your best to stay at that level. Expect to improve and come back to make edits later!
When I started my blog, the design looked a little different, the posts were formatted quite differently, and I was just kind of awkwardly fumbling along.
But I kept posting and trying and faking it and guess what?
I landed my first sponsored post within 9 months of launching. And they approached me!
- Do not fret about picking the perfect name. Just pick one that’s good enough.
- Do not stress about making your blog gorgeous, just make it pretty enough to function.
- You cannot and should not allow yourself to compare your 1st year blogging to someone else’s 4th or 10th year blogging. They were once where you are now!
- You need to allow yourself to live in the vulnerable and embarrassing “I don’t know what I’m doing” place for long enough to learn how to get out of it!
And the only way out, is up.
5. Blogging is Really Easy
Easy and Effortless. It seems like that’s all the world wants right now.
I’m here to tell you that easy and effortless never got anybody anywhere.
Blogging, like learning any new knowledge or skill, takes substantial effort. It is especially hard because it takes self motivation and discipline!
I’m a stay at home mom, so I just fit blogging into my schedule as much as I can, and it has been hard! It is hard to put brain effort into learning how to research longtail keywords, and format blog posts, and write custom css so my pages look pretty.
But it has been such a worthwhile and fun kind of hard. Not a bad hard.
I think it is safe to say that most good things in life are difficult to achieve. Especially when it comes to learning something new.
But when a baby is learning to walk, they don’t quit every time they trip. They don’t even bat an eye! They just get up and keep doing it until they learn.
And so it is with blogging. You must learn. And the only way to learn is to try.
6. You have to be an Authority in Your Niche
This blogging myth is mentally difficult to get around because we all feel that impostor syndrome.
“Why would someone want to read what I have to say?”
“There are a lot of people who know a lot more than I do!”
The reason people want to read what you have to say is twofold:
1. You are one step ahead of them.
When we want to learn something, most of the time we don’t go pay a PHD to be our personal tutor on the subject.
Instead, we just ask a friend who has done said thing before. Or else we watch a YouTube video about it…
You don’t have to be a professor or a master in order to teach someone something you know. And most of the time, beginners don’t even want that. They just want the basic information to get started with.
As long as you are one step ahead of your audience, they can learn something from you!
2. Your angle is unique
Your blog is a place where you not only offer information to people, but you also offer them your story.
People want your unique position, your special insights, your particular flavor.
You can google “Best Cheesecake Recipe” and find 1000 recipes, but chances are there is only one that you decide is really the best one. And, chances are, someone else tried that recipe and didn’t like it as much as you did.
Just like you don’t have to be the only person in your niche, you also don’t have to be the most knowledgeable person in your niche.
You just need to be able to offer value, insight, and teach someone something you know.
I think everyone has something they can teach.
7. Affiliate Marketing Only makes Pennies.
This myth is not common, and most bloggers are utilizing affiliate marketing. But because affiliate marketing can take time to learn and grow, it can seem like it isn’t worth it at first.
Affiliate marketing is often slow at first, because it relies on traffic to click on your links. But it still works!
Compared to income from ads, it can be a very powerful way to generate income at all levels.
Actually, when researching some of my favorite well-known blogs’ income reports, I am often surprised to find that affiliate sales remain their top earning source of income when compared to ads or products, even with hundreds of thousands of monthly views.
I currently and in the “pennies” stage of affiliate income, but I am earning it, and I earned it from almost the beginning when I had less than 100 views a month.
I also got kicked out of Amazon Associated for not earning it fast enough during my first 6 months, but that’s okay. I decided I like Etsy’s program better for now, so I haven’t reapplied. 🙂
8. Guest Posting Is a Wasted Effort
Once you get started into blogging you will probably hear about guest posting.
Some people love it, some people hate it, some people say it is a total waste.
I don’t agree. Here’s why:
Although it is hard to write good content and give it away, I have seen benefits as a new blogger from guest posting
It adds social credibility
When I visit a blog and I see an “As Seen In…” section, I shows me that they have experience, an audience, and knowledge I can learn from.
I want to present myself that way, too. I like being able to say “I was featured on so-and-so’s website!”. It makes me feel like I am making progress in my outreach.
It has boosted my Domain Authority
Although Google has said multiple times that guest post backlinks are ignored by the algorithm, mine have all helped boost my domain authority and SEO ranking.
And, although Domain Authority is not the most important thing, mine is higher than some websites I personally admire that have been blogging for longer than I have been, and I think it is because of those backlinks.
Related: 70+ Motherhood Blogs That Accept Guest Posts
It is a good way to collaborate with other bloggers
Reaching out to other bloggers who are at my level has been a great way to swap guest posts and share audiences. Guest posting on websites that are higher in authority than mine has also been a good way to expand my reach and get my brand out there.
This myth makes sense to me from a certain point of view. You’re providing free content for someone and the return of investment might seem low, but I still think it can be worth it, especially for newbies.
9. Blogging is Just A Hobby
This myth can actually be true, but of course it depends on what your goals for blogging are.
If you try to earn any kind of income from your blog, your blog is a business in the public space and has legal requirements.
Did you know???
I did not consider the legal aspects of blogging before I began, but luckily I was asked about it by a friend, and dove into research.
There are certain pages you should have on your blog that will keep you safe. And there are certain rules you need to follow regarding using images, being an affiliate, and more.
Although the chances of being sued are probably low, I am personally not willing to take those chances. So I do my best to treat my blog like a business from the start, meaning I purchased legal templates and make sure to put disclosures on my posts.
I also am very careful to only use images that I took myself, or legally obtained from stock photo websites.
Of course, this is not legal advice of any kind, but I can point you towards a great place to start!
Read all about where I purchased my legal templates, and how you can get information about the legalities of blogging in my post “The Risky Legal Mistake I Almost Made When I Started My Blog.”
10. The only way to get traffic is to rank high or have a huge following
The last blogging myth, and maybe one of the most false of them all, is that the only want to get traffic is to already have traffic.
Of course, that is silly!
There are many DOABLE ways to start the influx of traffic to your blog including:
- Google SEO
- Word of Mouth
- Telling your friends About Your Blog
- & Many more
One very surprising way I got a lot of traffic recently was when one of my posts (that I frankly didn’t put much effort into, compared to some other posts) was randomly linked to on a knitting forum.
That post suddenly got over 10 times the traffic as my next highest post, and it is still my highest as of this month.
Knitting, who knew! I don’t even knit!
Another uncommon way I gained traffic in my first year was by participating in blog hops.
Blog hops of all things! (Didn’t those go out of style in like 2012?)
If you don’t know what a blog hop is, it is basically when a lot of bloggers add their links to someone’s blog post in hopes that they will be “featured” or clicked on. They are also known as “Link Parties”.
Well, I added some links to a blog hop, and somehow, a blogger who makes a full time income from blogging (read: someone who was way more successful than me) found my link, and backlinked it on her website!
When I saw the backlink, I almost fainted. I was so surprised.
Traffic to that post jumped, and it was not even a post I was ranking for, (not even in the top 100.)
It is a myth that you need to be ranking high with a big audience to get traffic to your blog. Traffic comes from where it may, and it grows!
10 Blogging Myths – Busted!
The point of presenting these blogging myths to you is to encourage you. Do not be afraid to put yourself out there, and don’t let anyone tell you that it is silly or impossible.
Blogging is a goal and a dream that is worth while and possible if you persist and are consistent.
I hope that these busted blogging myths has helped you not be afraid to just go for it!
Have you heard any other blogging myths you want me to bust? Lets hear them in the comments below!
