Unexpected Blog Challenges You’ll Encounter

Last updated on December 28th, 2022 at 09:19 am

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In the blogging world, people seem to believe that one of the biggest blog challenges is creating content.

Although that might be true but on your blogging journey, you’ll bump into these unexpected blog challenges.

Things you didn’t think about as a new blogger. 

This blog post is going to talk in detail about what you might struggle with.

Unexpected Blog Challenges #1 – Editing Blog Posts

Oh man, where do I even get started with this topic?

When you have been blogging long enough (I’ve been blogging for 2 years already), you’ll find your website having many blog posts.

Some bloggers like to leave their old blog posts as-is. They want to show how far they’ve come to readers while other bloggers choose to edit all of their past work.

I’m a part of the latter.

Many of my previous blog posts were not SEO-optimized.

I knew NOTHING about SEO at one point. 

So I had to go back and edit a lot of things.

Even if you’re not thinking about SEO, which is crazy, it’s a good habit to offer the most up-to-date content for your readers.

In addition, when you have been blogging consistently over the years, your writing will naturally improve. You might not notice but once you compare your most recent blog posts to your older ones, you’ll realize the difference.

You want your blog posts to be GREAT. Or else why would people come and stay on your website?

When you start as a newbie blogger, you might not be even thinking about editing blog posts. You’re too busy thinking about creating new content!

Enough time passes and it’s something you have to think about.

I admit editing blog posts are a PAIN in the butt. It has been one of the toughest blog challenges I’ve encountered so far.

It can also be extremely time-consuming if you have hundreds of blog posts but it’s worth it in the long run.

Use my free editing blog post checklist to make things easier for you. You can follow these steps to ensure that each of your blog posts is in the best condition it can be.

2) Putting Up Pictures With Blog Posts

Each blog post should have at least one photo. That photo would be your featured image.

The featured image along with the title is what people see when they are on your blog.

(Depending on what WordPress theme you’re using, you might also have snippets of what the blog post is about.)

But you usually want more than 1 picture, if you can. 

Some blog post topics such as writing restaurant and drama reviews are easy to find pictures for.

When I ate at SHE, I just took photos of the food and the restaurant interior. For drama reviews like Hi My Sweetheart, I took screenshots. 

It’s simple and straightforward.

Topics about blogging and lifestyle are harder to find pictures for.

I did not anticipate how hard it would be to find relevant images for certain blog posts.

Other blogs and websites make it seem too easy.

Unless your blog is about cooking, fashion or beauty, finding pictures might not be on every blogger’s mind when they start out. 

That’s because you’re too busy thinking about other things.

The solution is to find stock photo websites like Unsplash. They permit you to use their photos on your blog.

However, there are a few things to consider.

What to Keep in Mind When Choosing Pictures  

You want to choose one that’s attention-grabbing. If the picture is too plain, fewer people are going to click on your post. 

The picture has to represent your blog post properly. It wouldn’t make sense if you put a picture of clothes when you’re talking about LASIK recovery activities.

There also might not be the picture you want. There’s usually plenty to choose from on a stock photo website but be mindful that the image you want for your blog post in your head might not be actually available.

It can be frustrating but stay flexible. Find a similar picture that’s close enough.

Of course, there is also always the option of looking at another stock photo website. 

3) Colour Consistency Issue

Another unexpected blog challenge is colour consistency for photos.

When you look for a photo on Unsplash, some of the stock photos you find are darker in colour while some are brighter.

Even when you’re taking pictures of food, the final product will look different depending on the restaurant’s lighting.

An example would be my blog posts about my top Chinese dramas.

Visually, the screenshots do not look consistent.

A screenshot from a recent drama will not look the same as a screenshot from a drama that was close to 10 years ago. The quality just isn’t going to be the same.

This might be a minor thing to others but this was one of the unexpected blog challenges that drove me nuts in the beginning.

My recommendation is to edit your pictures on an app. The look might not be completely consistent across your website but at least you can kind of fix it.

4) Not Talking About Yourself

Let’s admit it – most of us love talking about ourselves.

It’s natural to want to talk about yourself but most of your blog posts should be valuable content you can provide to your readers. NOT about yourself.

This may be one of the hardest unexpected blog challenges to overcome.

There might be a few blog posts about yourself like life lessons you’ve learned or 50 facts about me. However, it’s important to keep in mind that you think about providing helpful information to your audience.

Experienced bloggers have warned new bloggers not to fall into this trap.

My first round of editing blog posts made me realize how self-centred I sounded in a lot of my old content. 

For example, when I first posted my social media blog post, the whole post was about my experience.

The current version does still include my story but in a shortened version. I wanted to focus on other areas such as the benefits of staying off social media. Content that can help other people.

You can share your story and experience but it’s not beneficial to write the entire post about you.

It’s not about me, me, me.

There is a higher chance that you can talk about yourself later, especially when you have developed a close relationship and trust between you and your readers.

If you’re starting as a new blogger, remember that your blog posts are about serving your readers.

Unexpected Blog Challenges #5 –Pinterest

When you’re starting out, you might be surprised about Pinterest.

Personally, I thought Pinterest was mostly about home décor and wedding things. Both topics I’m not interested in currently so I stayed off that platform.

Until I became a blogger.

Almost all bloggers talk about this platform.

Seriously, it would be hard to find a blogger talking about blogging without them talking about Pinterest.

Other than SEO, Pinterest is arguably the biggest source of traffic for many of them.

Pinterest is a way of promoting your blog. You create pins to post on the platform.

Experienced bloggers have different opinions on the number but most of them would recommend creating anywhere from 3-15 pins per blog post.

Using Tailwind

Once you’ve created your pins, you go on Tailwind, a platform that helps you schedule your pins instead of doing it manually.

When you pin manually, it’s not as convenient. It’s also easy to fall into the trap of pinning many pins at once and then none at all for the next few weeks.

Pinterest’s algorithm prefers a consistent stream of pins.

Tailwind can help with that.

Tailwind also shares the best time slots for you to post on Pinterest. You’ll likely get more attention from others when you follow their suggestion rather than pinning at random times.

SEO can take months to implement. If Pinterest works out well for you, the time could be shorter before you gain more readers.

What’s Hard About Pinterest

Creating and scheduling pins is not a difficult task, per se. You choose a couple of templates you like, choose a few pictures, write the pin descriptions, and schedule them out.

But it’s tedious work and not fun. It’s something you find yourself doing constantly too.

You can try other ways to promote your blog although most bloggers would probably say not to give up on Pinterest.

It’s one of those things you just have to do.

Final Notes – Unexpected Blog Challenges

This blog post is my honest opinion on unexpected blog challenges, especially for those who are seriously considering stepping into the blogging world or are new bloggers.

The blogging journey is rarely smooth sailing. You’ll encounter unexpected blog challenges on your way just like I did.

Maintaining a blog is tough but if you want it badly enough, these difficulties will not stop your dream of pursuing your path to being a blogger.

Now to You – Unexpected Blog Challenges

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Xoxo,
Nicole