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Being a blogger is more common now than it ever was before but there are still many blogger misconceptions out there. I want to clear those up today because there are some ‘facts’ that are ones I’ve seen online that aren’t really true. To be fair, I didn’t even know about some of them. I even believed some of these before I started.
1) You spend all of your time writing
One of the biggest blogger misconceptions is that you spend all of your time writing. When you think of a blogger, one of the first things that might pop up in your mind is someone typing away on their computer. You’re not wrong. I do spend HOURS writing a week but there are many other things I have to do that aren’t writing-related.
When I first started my blogging journey, I didn’t’ think it 100% through. I knew that I loved writing and constantly daydreaming about all the ideas I would write about. That was it. I didn’t think about all the other things I would have to do to run a blog. The process from having an idea pop into your head to getting down to write everything is all very exciting and still is. It’s my favourite part of having a blog.
As time goes by, you’ll realize that writing isn’t all there is to it. You have to…
- Create pins to get traffic from Pinterest
- Be active in niche communities to promote your blog
- Working on SEO (higher ranks on search engines)
- Edit photos
- … etc.
These are only a few of the things I have to do consistently on top of writing daily. The list doesn’t seem like a lot, right? I didn’t think it was that bad either until I started working on everything. I have to juggle my blog and everything else going on in my life.
This isn’t the best example to compare to because I’m not a superstar but if I remember correctly, Ariana Grande once said she loves music but doesn’t love all the other stuff that comes with the job. I’m not saying I don’t love doing all the other stuff because I am happy that I’m gaining other skills. However, my main reason to get into the blogging world is simply that I love writing. It will always be my number one reason.
2) It’s easy to get pictures for your posts
I wrote about this in another post and talked about how difficult it has been deciding what pictures to put up with some more personal posts. If I’m writing about my designer bag that I bought on Vestiaire, I can use different bag angles to put up. I have more freedom to play around with pictures.
When it’s a topic like ‘moving back with your parents,’ I struggle to think of what pictures I should use. What’s a good picture to represent the post? Do I put up a picture of a house? For more personal topics, it is harder to find suitable photos. This is true even to this moment.
Then there’s the issue where you might have a picture in mind but can’t find one. You look through your own camera roll or on websites that allow you to use pictures for commercial/personal use. You end up settling for a picture that you only feel okay about because the options available aren’t that great.
It’s not something I thought about in the beginning. It’s pictures! How hard could it be to put some up in a blog post? WRONG. This is definitely one of the blogger misconceptions that I believed myself.
3) Blogging doesn’t take much of your time
I don’t think people realize how many hours it takes to craft ONE blog post. I certainly didn’t. In your head, you always think things take less time than it actually does. I thought 2 hours is plenty of time to finish writing a blog post. I was warned by other bloggers about how much work there was but I shrugged it off. Eh, I’ll figure it out. How long can it take anyway?
There are things you have to personally go through yourself before really understanding. This was one of them. To be honest, I haven’t calculated exactly how much take it takes for me to write one blog post because I rarely sit down and write for 3 hours straight. I squeeze time to work on my blog whenever I can so it’s hard to keep track of time.
There’s always something to do on your blog. My plate is basically full all the time. As I try to take stuff off my plate, more piles on. Also, life gets in the way. Yeah, yeah. It sounds like an excuse but it’s totally true. You might have plans to do all these blog-related things in one day but end up barely doing anything. There have been multiple things I’ve been putting off doing. Learning about SEO Jumpstart was one of them but I’m finally starting to pick things up.
If you’re creating your blog for yourself only and want to blog whenever you feel like it, then maybe it won’t take up that much of your time. However, I want to give it my all when it comes to my blog. It’s essentially like an unpaid part-time job but I’m prepared to tackle everything that comes along with it.
4) Results will come naturally
This is another one of the blogger misconceptions that I believed was real. Results do come naturally to some extent but don’t sit around waiting for your blog to explode. You’re going to have to wait for a LONG time and even then, it’s not guaranteed that many people will see your website. To accelerate the process, I would highly recommend finding different ways to get traffic. I talked about it in my last post about how I made a mistake not to promote my blog earlier.
There are several ways to get blog traffic. I found a great article where it talks about this topic more in detail: https://worldofwanderlust.com/29-ways-get-traffic-blog/.
The lesson is to be active, not passive. You’ll get faster results.
5) Blogging isn’t worth your time
It depends on how much you like to blog. It’s like watching TV. Some people think watching TV is useless because they feel like it doesn’t add any value to their life. Therefore, it’s not worth your time. Others watch TV because life can get stressful and it’s the time where it can take their mind off of real life. It’s relaxing and entertaining. There’s no right or wrong but a difference in opinion.
It’s up to YOU whether or not blogging is worth your time. If you’re not interested in the blogging world then yes, blogging isn’t worth your time. Deciding whether or not something is worth your time is a personal statement. It’s certainly worth my time because it makes me happy.
6) You can get rich quick
Out of all these blogger misconceptions, this one kind of gives me a chuckle because it’s not true. Yes, you can make money as a blogger. This article is a great read on how bloggers make money: https://familiesforfinancialfreedom.com/how-bloggers-make-money/.
Simply put, you need blog traffic. Without traffic, it’s extremely hard to use make money whether that’s through affiliate marketing, ads, or selling your own products. Many readers might see your post but the percentage that actually makes a purchase are low. That’s why you want as many people as possible to see your blog post.
Let’s talk about me as an example. I joined an affiliate program because I genuinely love Vestiaire Collective. An affiliate program is where I can sign up to earn a commission if someone buys from my link. It doesn’t cost the buyer anything. It’s the company that pays me.
I’ve had dozens of clicks but no one has bought anything yet although, fingers crossed that someone will soon. I’ve been at this for some time already. If blogging helped me get rich quick, I would have made a ton of money by now. Or I guess I’m one of the few unlucky ones.
Each blogger has different goals. Some want to be a full-time blogger while for others (like me), it’s a hobby and a real BONUS if we can earn some money on the side. You’ll see bloggers that say they went from making $0 to being a full-time blogger in one year while others take YEARS to even make some income. You don’t know how much work it takes behind the scenes for bloggers to make money. It’s 100%, not a get-rich-quick scheme.
Do you have any questions about what it’s like about being a blogger? For you bloggers out there: any blogger misconceptions that you want to clear up?
Xoxo,
Nicole
2 Comments
Thank you for the honest blog post!
Thank you for reading!