Stop Letting Fear Hold You Back From Building a Blog
Stop letting fear hold you back from building a blog.
We’ve all seen them. The powerful ‘Girl Bosses’ who are owning the blogging world and getting paid to do what they love. The ones whose Instagram feeds show them earning money from an internet café in some exotic location. Do you wish you could run a successful blog but you just don’t believe it’s possible? The truth is, all these successful bloggers started somewhere and it was with a humble idea for a blog. The difference between them and you? They didn’t let fear hold them back.
There’s a tonne of advice about what a blog needs to be for it to be successful but in reality no one gets it right straight off the mark. What works for one blogger might not work for you and vice versa. What’s important here is GETTING STARTED. The beauty of blogging is that it’s a creative, experimental, and a ‘unique-to-you’ way of working. It’s time to harness that beauty and own it.
But I have nothing to write about!
REALLY?!! If you don’t actually enjoy writing, then maybe you’re in the wrong place but the fact that you’ve come this far suggests you do. Finding your blogging niche is one of the first pieces of advice newbie bloggers are often given and it can be really daunting. You feel like you don’t know enough, there’s other people who know more and why would people listen to you anyway? The fact is, even if you don’t have a clear niche in mind everyone has something to say and what you have to say will be of interest to someone. A lot of bloggers didn’t settle into their niche for quite some time. They experimented, discovered, and allowed themselves to be surprised. One thing they did throughout this is write. If you don’t start writing – you’ll never know where it could take you.
Related: Top Ten Tips for New Bloggers
Even if I did have something to write about – what if people don’t like it?
With blogging, just as with life, you can’t please everyone. Not everyone will like what you write but really – what does that matter? It’s a great ego boost to have a lot of people react positively to something you’ve said but staying true to yourself, believing in what you’ve written and being able to stand by your blog content is infinitely more important. Many of the successful bloggers out there started blogging for themselves. The uniqueness of your writing will shine through if you write authentically.
I have an idea but what if no one reads my blog?
There’s a couple of things to remember here. If you’re worrying about what people will think, your content will reflect that. Writing authentically, about a topic that you’re interested in will go a long way to ensuring your content is something people will want to read. This fear also tends to come hand-in-hand with a fear of getting your work out there. Networking is so important when it comes to blogging and all successful bloggers will tell you that their success didn’t happen overnight. Get on Twitter and Facebook, promote what you’re writing and be proud of it. Connect with other bloggers and join conversations on social media. Lastly, celebrate the small victories. Did your blog get 50 views this month rather than the 25 last month? Great! You’ve doubled your readership in a month – and that’s something to be proud of.
I could never build a blog that looks good!
Think again. When you start out there are so many free blogging platforms that mean you don’t need to know about website coding or design. And if you did want to know about these things then there is an abundance of free resources on the web that can get your blog popping out from the screen. Until you’re ready to do this though – keep things simple and clean. Help your readers easily find what they’re looking for with clear links to your ‘About’ page and post archives. When you’re ready to take things up a notch, get an idea of what you’d like your blog to look like and work from there. In fact, until you’ve really settled into your blog and are comfortable with the content you’re producing, the right design ideas may not come straight away, instead you may find that this comes naturally over time.
Related: 3 blog sharing tips for beginners
Woah – I don’t have time to do all this!
Yes, you do. If you really want to start blogging with any chance of becoming successful, you need to make the time. Blogging shouldn’t be a chore, it should be something you enjoy. Many people still see their successful blogs as a hobby because they love it. One piece of invaluable advice that all bloggers should pay attention to is: PLAN PLAN and then PLAN a little bit more. Set aside some time each evening to plan, write and read. Head over to Pinterest and find yourself a free blog planning guide to print off and get organised. Not to mention making your life a whole lot easier - this is what successful bloggers have to do so you may as well start as you mean to go on.
Building a blog really doesn’t need to be scary. In fact, it shouldn’t be – it should be fun! Writing authentically, celebrating the little successes and a bit of organisation are crucial but useless if you don’t start! Every blogger started somewhere, and it’s not very different to where you are now.
Guest post by: Salwa Moh'd
Salwa is a web developer, blogger and a mom of 1. You can reach her at her blog www.salwame.com where she writes about mindfulness, motivation, self-development, and lifestyle.
