Let’s Talk About If Blogging Is Right For You Or Not!
Well, here we are. A blog post about blogging – who would have thought! In all honesty, there are so many articles out there talking about why everyone should start a blog. Blogging these days is big business – and when business seems good, everyone wants in.
While we are huge fans of blogging ourselves, we don’t think it is right for everyone. Not everyone should just “start a blog”. Why, you might ask? Well, there are a bunch of reasons we think this. Just to be clear – this goes for whether you want to make money as a blogger or just have it as a hobby.
So, to help you determine if blogging is for you or not, we wanted to share our thought on our blogging journey. If you are still in the process of trying to figure out whether you should start a blog, then this post will hopefully help you with that.
Why You Shouldn’t Start A Blog
There are lots of reasons why you should start a blog, but there are just as many why you shouldn’t. And, to be honest, lots of website owners don’t talk about these because (often times) they want you to get started so you can use their affiliate links to buy blog hosting.
There are always two sides to every coin and we think it is only fair to talk about the “dark side of blogging”, as well. So here we go!
Growing Traffic (& Income) Can Take A Long Time
Once you’ve started your blog, growth takes time. At least, honest growth does. Blogging is NOT a “get rich quick” scheme. If it was THAT easy, everyone would be a blogger – and everyone would be making loads of money.
If you need to make money soon, then better think twice whether blogging is the right thing for you (right now). You’ll probably invest a lot of time in your blog if you have one which you could spend working on something else with actual pay.
We’ve seen in Facebook groups that people give out advice to new bloggers saying “Oh, it takes about 6 months to start monetizing the blog”. This “timeline advice” is absolutely useless and very misleading. Every blog, every niche, and every blogger is different. Period.
You might make money faster… or you might never make a single sale or a single cent from ad revenue. Not to be too negative, but there just is no guarantee. When people give timelines like it is a sure-fire thing, it can misguide new bloggers and their expectations.
Read Next: How To Set SMART Goals
Competition Is High
In blogging these days, competition can be high. Like, really high. If we had a time machine we would have started years ago and we’d be in a different story by now.
That said, if you get discouraged easily maybe don’t start blogging. Especially if you are looking to start a blog in the beauty, fashion, or fitness niche. These niches are pretty saturated and it can be difficult to stand out and get noticed.
We’re not saying that you can’t or won’t be successful – we just want you to be aware that there are lots of other bloggers out there doing something similiar. If you don’t think you can find a way to stand out, then maybe don’t start a blog.
You Need To Be A Little Tech Savy (Or Willing To Learn)
In the blogging world, things are constantly changing – whether it be the WordPress Gutenberg Update, SEO best practices, new laws
You’ll constantly have to learn new things and adapt. If you don’t, your blog will suffer – maybe not right away… but over time, not following best practices will harm your website.
It Can Affect Your Health
If you care about your blog a lot, it can be very tough to turn your mind off. Since you would be most likely working on your blog from home, it can be hard to “get away from it”. This can also affect your mental health,
Especially when you’re trying to make money and rely on blogging income, it can be very, very stressful. We’ve been through this transition period of not making enough from our blog yet but having to pay the bills and would not recommend it to anyone. Luckily, we had enough savings but it still affected our mental and physical health a lot.
Make enough money to support yourself for a few months (if not longer) before you transition to “full-time blogger”.
Read Also: Mantras For Anxiety That Can Help Calm Your Mind
You’ll Give Up (Some Of) Your Privacy
As a blogger, there is a certain sense of vulnerability. It comes with the territory. If you have a personal blog, your thoughts and ideas will be right there, in words, on the screen for the world to see. You have to think about how you feel about that.
Even if you have a blog where you don’t blog about “you” or anything personal, your work is still reflected in the photos, the words – the entire website. People will be critical of the blog eventually – whether in the comments or on social media. Again, you have to have a think about whether you’re going to be okay with that.
Why You Should Start A Blog
Of course, there are loads of upsides to blogging as well. We wouldn’t have stuck with it if we didn’t see the positives and have had some success (thus far). So, here are some reasons why you should start a blog.
You Can Build A Portfolio
A blog is, above all else, a reflection of your work, your effort, and your personality. Even if you don’t think so – it is. If you want to make blogging into something bigger – like content writing full-time – then you will likely use your blog as a portfolio of your skills and talents.
Can you write for keywords? Do you know how to craft a decent post? How about your knowledge of social channels? All of that matters when you start a blog (and take it seriously) that can become a portfolio for you later on.
You’ll Learn A LOT
With blogging, you can definitely learn a ton of new and transferable skills that are actually useful in this day and age. In fact, you can basically learn as much as you put into it. There are loads of Facebook groups, YouTube videos, blogging courses, BLOGS ABOUT BLOGGING (cough cough) that can help you learn as you go.
One of the biggest things about blogging is just getting started. Once you do that, you can always learn on the fly as you grow and develop as a blogger – as long as you are willing to make the effort.
Read Next: Podcasts For Bloggers That Help You Get More Professional
It Could Make You Money Eventually
One major reason people start a blog nowadays is that they think it will make them money. Yes, it’s true that blogging CAN earn you income. However, the level at which it does will vary greatly and depend on SOOO many factors.
These factors are things like which niche you are in, how much effort you put into it, how much you are willing to learn about blogging, networking, etc. Even then – there is no guarantee you will make any money.
We do make money from our websites. It’s not enough to fully live off of yet but we are steadily working towards that goal. There are also lots of ways to monetize a blog. You can get an idea by reading other bloggers’ income reports, for example.
Our advice is this: If you have absolutely no idea about blogging yet, don’t start a blog with the intention of making money. There’s a steep learning curve and if your only motivation is money, you might not be able to stick with it for as long as you’d need to.
Your Blog Can Help You Grow As A Person
Whether you mean to or not, blogging can definitely help in the area of personal development. Blogging is a form of expression – and if you take it seriously and passionately, you can definitely grow from the experience of writing.
There’s a great feeling when people resonate with what you are writing. Even if not many people are reading what you have to say, the act of writing may be helping you more than you imagine.
But it is not just about writing, it is also about new activities etc. that you might try out because of your blog. For example, we have gotten more into recipe development since we wanted to share some of our favorite dishes with you on this blog.
Read Next: How To Be Successful In Life
You’ll Get To Know Lots Of Great People
This may be different for different niches – but the general idea is this: people who are interested in – and blogging about – similar topics, are great people to meet/know. Connecting with like-minded people, sharing ideas, just chatting with others is a great way to spend your free time.
We all crave elements of social connection in our daily lives and having a blog is a great medium through which to connect with others that have similar interests. There’s a good chance we wouldn’t know some of our close connections if it wasn’t for our blog!
How To Start A Blog
So, if you’ve made it through all that and you want to start a blog, then good for you! Hopefully you’ve had a good think about what you want to blog about, why you are doing it, how much time you have to commit to it, and what you want to get out of it. Setting those expectations will help you set smart goals later.
For starting a blog, there are a few basic elements you need to have to get up and running. These thigs are:
- A domain URL
- Web hosting
- A theme
You could sign up for wordpress.com or Squarespace or Wix.com and essentially get all of those things in one. This is an easy way to start a blog but not a great way if you want to grow and scale it later.
We would recommend that you
The company that we would recommend – and are also hosted with ourselves – is
We know that Bluehost gets recommended by so many bloggers, but you should also know that they have an amazing affiliate program which can make these bloggers quite a bit of money. We’re not saying that Bluehost is bad – we just had firsthand experience with both Bluehost and Siteground and prefer Siteground personally. That’s why we also recommend it to you.
You can start your blog with Siteground here (and yes, this is an affiliate link).
And there you have it – our thoughts about starting a blog – both the goods and bads – and how you can start a blog of your own. We hope we’ve offered a few helpful tips and idea to think about! It’s not an easy decision to start a blog – and it certainly isn’t easy to maintain if you set high standards for yourself.
That said, we love it and we wouldn’t see ourselves doing anything else. But again, that’s just been OUR experience with it. Let us know how you make out if you go for it!
As always, Stay Curious,
-B&L
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