Experience is a great teacher.
Over the course of my 10+ years as a blogger, I have learned a lot of important lessons.
Some were easy to learn. Others weren’t.
In this post, I’m breaking down the most important ones you need to know about.
I’ll start at the top and count down to the most important.
Let’s get into it.
Note: Not started your blog yet? Check out my full tutorial on how to start a blog to find out how.
14. You need to get serious
I’m not talking about ditching your sense of humor. Don’t do that.
But you do need to get serious about your blog.
I didn’t take my blog seriously at first.
I was too preoccupied with other things and I had a rather lackadaisical view to the blog I had at the time. My approach was far too casual.
Then everything changed.
I pushed myself to really think about what I wanted, then put together a 5 year plan and wrote it down on scrap of paper.
It included everything I wanted for my life, both professionally and personally.
That scrap of paper ended up shaping my destiny and still does today.
13. You need to be passionate
In the past I launched various blogs and they failed.
Why?
I wasn’t passionate about those topics.
Sure, it started out all well and good but as time went on, things started to fall apart and I lost motivation. Pretty fast in some cases.
That’s why it’s so important to choose a niche that you have real passion for.
Passion is the driving force behind everything that I do.
And it’s why I actually spend more time helping people (for free) than I do blogging.
I love what I do, and when you do good things, good things can happen to you.
12. Just get your blog out there
When I launched Blogging Wizard in 2012, I rushed the launch. Like, big time.
But that was after spending months on a launch plan that I ended up scrapping because it was too complex.
I went with a much more simplified version of my launch plan instead.
As a result, I wasted months of my time when my blog could have been live far quicker.
There’s a saying that applies quite well here: “Done is better than perfect because perfect is never done.”
So, if you have to choose between delaying your blog for months to implement your launch plan or simplifying your plan so you can launch faster, go for the latter.
That said, a solid launch plan will help your blog grow faster when it launches. That’s just a reality. And in an ideal world, that’s what I would have done for each of my blogs.
But we don’t live in an ideal world and we all have restrictions on our time.
Just do the best you can with the time you’ve got available.
The important thing is to get your blog out there.
11. Expect to put some money into your blog
If you want to earn money from your blog, you’ve got to start viewing it as a business.
Every business has operating costs.
At first, they seemed straightforward. Not too expensive in the grand scheme of things.
For example:
As time has gone on, my expenses have increased dramatically.
I purchased more tools to help me save time. Some were lifetime deals. Others are ongoing subscriptions.
Then, I started hiring people. Now, I’ve got a small editorial team supporting me.
But this is all part of becoming more efficient and making life more enjoyable.
I did go through a phase where I tried to do everything myself. I could afford to hire people yet for some reason I didn’t.
That’s a surefire way to burn yourself out.
And that’s what happened. I ran myself into the ground trying to do too much.
So, don’t do what I did. As soon as it makes financial sense, consider investing in tools and people to help take your business to the next level.
10. Start making money from the start
I’m asked this all the time:
“When should I monetize my blog?”
The answer?
Now.
Don’t wait like I did. Monetize your blog now.
I’m not saying you should slap nasty looking ads all over your blog right away.
Sure, ads are a valid way to monetize a blog but they do hinder the user experience a lot.
And most decent ad networks will require that you have a minimum amount of monthly visitors. Mostly coming from the US.
But there are better ways.
I’m talking about digital products such as online courses.
Start with a course first and build your content strategy around it.
It’ll give your content plan a lot of focus.
Note: Need help monetizing your blog? Check out our articles on the best ways to monetize your blog and how to sell information products.
9. Build your list before you launch your blog
Jon Morrow built his blog to over 13,000 subscribers before he published a single blog post.
He just put up a landing page where he offered a juicy PDF resource in exchange for email addresses. The trusty lead magnet.
Then, he wrote guest posts to popular blogs in his niche and used the link in his byline to send traffic to that landing page.
I was in such a rush to launch my blog that I just went live and it was a while before I put together a ‘bribe’ for my subscribers.
8. Focus on building your email list
In 2012, the social media hype train was going full steam ahead. I guess you could say it still is.
A lot of popular bloggers at the time were telling people to focus on building an audience on social media.
Some of them had huge audiences of their own and used social media to drive a lot of traffic to their site.
I followed this advice and I regret it.
Then again, I think most bloggers ended up regretting it.
Especially when Facebook killed organic reach for most pages. And all social media algorithms gradually started to become more carnivorous.
Looking back, I wish I focused on building my email list as soon as possible.
In particular, launching my first lead magnet.
So, I missed a lot of opportunities to grow my list in the early days.
But I eventually made up for that by creating a VIP Resource Library.
Whenever someone subscribes to my list now, they not only get one freebie, they get a lot of stuff.
7. More content isn’t always the answer
I used to think that publishing more content was the answer.
But, it’s not.
Sure, I get more traffic (on average) when I publish more content but it also means that at some level, the quality can suffer.
And it takes time away that I would usually spend promoting content (that’s important).
Your audience can only consume so much, but, it also depends on how lengthy your content is.
This usually means posting less when you are publishing more detailed content and posting more often you write less detailed content.
It is a balancing act.
Test to find what works.
If in doubt, ask your audience.
Putting a survey together using a tool like Crowdsignal is easy (and free).
But always consider how much time you have available. You can’t scale beyond capacity.
6. You can only do so much
Have you ever done this?
Taken on so much that, you can’t possibly do anymore?
I’m guilty of this and it’s been a hard lesson to learn.
In fact, I’m still working on it.
But, I’m getting there and you will too.
5. Real growth takes time
There are people in your niche that sit at the top.
Why are they there?
They have worked for it; countless late nights, published countless blog posts and a solid plan of how they are going to get to the top.
Becoming an overnight sensation can happen, but don’t rely on it – it’s a rare occurrence.
Still, don’t let that deter you.
When you put in the time, dedication, passion and raw effort – you can make it.
There are shortcuts that you can take and writing for authoritative blogs in your niche is a great route to the top.
4. Master your own productivity
Productivity is key. And you’ve got to master it.
Over the years, there are some pieces of advice that have stuck with me and had a huge impact on my productivity.
Here are the main ones you need to know:
- Value your time – Your time isn’t just precious, it’s valuable. Put a monetary value on your time and you might find that how productive you are changes overnight.
- You need time to think – You need time to plan and think things through, even if it’s just 30 minutes each day, it will help to keep you focused.
- Prioritise your tasks – Ask yourself if what you are doing is really the most important thing you need to do.
- Cut out negative influences – These are just a distraction and negatively affect your mind-set.
- Eliminate all distractions – If you find yourself getting distracted by something, for example if you find that you’re constantly being disturbed by phone calls, sometimes you may just need to turn your phone off. This might just be something you can’t do if you have people that need your attention to resolve issues, use your best judgement.
- Eat a frog a day – If there’s something you have been avoiding, get it over and done with early on in the day.
- Use tools to manage your tasks more effectively – I have tried a lot of productivity tools over the years. I ended up settling on Notion (aff) because it’s very flexible. Other tools I’ve tested are far too rigid.
3. Know when to ask for help and resource up
Doing everything yourself is hard work.
And that’s what you’ve got to do when you’re starting out.
You have no choice. It doesn’t matter how you do it. You just have to find a way to get everything done.
But as your blog progresses and your own skills develop, you have more options – you can get people to help you out with the things you aren’t good at or don’t have time for.
You can either exchange services with freelancers or you can hire freelancers to work for you.
You can do this with all sorts of tasks. Article writing, logo design, social media management, link building, SEO, etc.
Here’s the truth:
Building or growing anything is far easier when there’s other people there to help you.
And as your blog develops, the role you take will develop too. So, you can hand over the tasks you’re not good at to someone else and focus on what you’re best at.
Generally, this will mean hiring people to handle more of the “behind the scenes” stuff so you can focus on creating content.
Check out this list of freelance websites when you’re ready to get started.
Just be careful and vet anyone you work with – if you know anyone personally who offers similar services, ask them first.
It’s important to find people you can trust. But it’s even better if you trust them and they have a good understanding of your brand.
2. The work doesn’t stop when you hit publish and you will be glad it didn’t
I know how it feels.
To spend hours, days, even weeks on a piece of content, and, finally you hit publish.
But, nobody ever reads it.
A truly great piece of content that just gathers dust in a corner, never to see the light of day.
It’s not a nice feeling.
That’s why you need to go beyond just publishing your content.
You need to put the time and effort into promoting your content the right way.
It can definitely be time consuming, but, it’s well worth it in the end.
Here’s something else for you.
Your content strategy will largely dictate the success of your blog.
There are a few things to take into account:
- Who is your target audience? How can you align your content with their needs?
- Which blog posts are already working well for you?
- Which blog posts are working well for other bloggers in your niche?
- What are people searching Google for?
- What are people sharing on social media?
- Are there influencers in my niche that could help me take this post further?
- Can my headlines be improved?
Note: Check out my post on how to promote your blog for some other ideas.
1. The learning never stops and never should
Learning is important.
It helps us grow and develop into what we want to become.
I’m happy to say that I learn something every day and I always set some time aside to read a new blog post or a book (well, part of one).
It helps me to keep ideas flowing, and, I get a real buzz from figuring something out – I love that about blogging.
Things change fast. Especially when it comes to topic areas such as SEO, before you know it what works, doesn’t work.
And there’s always new tools coming on to the market, new tactics being discovered – we can always do something better.
So keep up with your daily dose of brain food and witness the results for yourself.
You’ll be glad that you did.
Final thoughts
Your blogging journey will be packed full of lessons you can learn from.
Some of them you’ll learn the hard way. Others will be easier lessons.
Learning lessons the hard way can sometimes feel like failure. And failure is often seen as a bad thing.
But the truth is that failure is how we learn. It’s not a bad thing at all.
Failure makes us stronger. Failure makes us smarter. Failure is a natural part of the journey.
It’s the learning experience that counts.
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