5 Ideas to Know Before Starting your Blog: Do it the Right Way

If anyone tells you that you just have to write a bunch of articles per week and monetize your website to get a successful blog bringing easy money. He or she is probably not having a great blog. 

Experienced bloggers have learned it the hard way: There’s no such a thing as easy or fast in blogging. 

Starting a serious blog is like any project or business you want to do, it is a long process and it involves a lot of learning time. 

You need to know about: digital marketing, content marketing, search engines, seo, email campaigns, analytics, coding, design, video production, etc. Not perfectly, but at least learn the basics. 

Yes, you can earn revenues from your blog.

But if the financial side is only your goal, you’ll end up like most beginners: abandoning your blog six months after starting it.

This is not what you are aiming for. I’ll share with you 5 ideas to know before starting your blog and doing it the right way:

N°1 You will spend before earning

Blogging is like any business. If you are serious about it, you will need to invest some money.

Yes, free blogging platforms exist. But they are very limited. You cannot have a professional blog if the name of your website is www.myblog.wiz.com. Which is what happened when you set up your blog on free platforms. 

To create a professional blog, get your own domain name with a self-hosted blog. You will have a full control of your website and will be able to add features, advanced designs and monetization tools. 

So, think of it as a business that you are really trying to make it work. It can be a side gig, there’s no issue with it. Free platforms are fine only if you’re very new and just want to explore the world of blogging.

When I started, I spent some money because I knew I wanted a WordPress blog with a recommended hosting platform. Those who downloaded my guide on how to set up your own blog know that I am using Bluehost as my hosting provider, especially because of their technical support and easy integration with WordPress. 

Then, I bought a theme (the blog’s design) to have all the premium features and some plugins I found useful (like this cool button for social media sharing).

In total, it costs me at the beginning: around USD150 (P 7,000) to keep my blog running for 3 years. Which is basically a very little investment. I would need thousands of dollars to have a restaurant or a shop in a mall.

At that time, I was still a student who wanted to try new things and earn some side money. My budget was very low.

But I wanted to create something on my own. 

Instead of using this money for a trip or for some gifts, I stayed at home during summer and chose to invest and work on my first blog.

Back then, I made one of the best decisions in my life.

The truth is it becomes an investment for yourself. You are developing skills that will be useful in your future life or career. Becoming better at writing or at communicating. Doing thorough research and developing your critical thinking. 

This side activity or hobby can turn into a real activity and business. However, do not chase the online money.

N°2 Money cannot sustain your motivation

On Google Philippines, when I searched: start a blog Philippines.

The first results were all about posts related to “making money online”. Check below:

Money is the reason why many blogs are abandoned by their owners.

With a too big focus on earning revenues, you are losing the first essence of writing a blog: delivering value with your content. 

You don’t want to have a low quality blog, full of ads and banners that no one wants to visit. You want to create something great, otherwise there is no point in investing your time and efforts.

If you have noticed, there are no non-targeted ads from Google Adsense on my blogs. That’s because I know how to monetize it well and I made sufficient research to know how to blog effectively.

Creating high quality content should be your main motivation. Your visitors are not here to see your ads but to look for answers they want to solve. Ask yourself when did you ever read a blog post? Probably when you were looking for a particular information, and so did everyone else. 

Your readers are searching for answers and your blog has to be the source of it.

Try to create quality content consistently, research enough on your subject and tackle it well. Naturally, people will enjoy visiting your blog  and more will come.

At that moment, not before, you’ll be able to monetize your blog. Your regular visitors will give you inspiration and a desire to do more. They will form your community and your goal is to take care of them.

To be clear, it is fine to earn money with your blog. The more you are getting revenues, the more you can improve your blog (and your brand): By outsourcing a graphic designer, a community manager, a video production team, even having your own office, etc.

If you are getting great revenues from your blog, it means that you deserve it. You are just getting rewarded from the time you spent developing your craft.

N°3 Starting a blog takes time and efforts

Some bloggers are still convinced that you only need to write a couple of articles to get some traffic and/or revenues.

Those who never had a serious blog are entertaining this myth.

Keep this in mind: having a blog requires a huge personal investment.

We live in a world where we’re accustomed to have everything right away. It can be really frustrating not to see the results of our work as quickly as possible. 

Blogging is like any competency, the more you practice it the better it becomes. 

When you start a blog, there are so many things to know about. Which is why you’ll probably search articles like “how to start a blog the right way”, “what to consider before starting your blog”, etc. Then you’ll probably think of what name you should use for your website. Which blogging platform to get, what design, what are plugins, widgets, etc. 

So, it might take several weeks or months before being familiar with every topic that blogging embodies. 

Your research done. Time to set up your own blog. From the theory, you get to the practice and you’ll make some beginner mistakes, some changes, and all of this will take lots of time. 

Plus, you will improve your blog. Adding more content. Creating a mailing list, potentially online products, e-books, training, etc. 

You will have to publish new blog posts often. That means spending time on planning, writing posts, designing, finding and optimizing the images of your posts, brainstorming new ideas, checking the quality of your content and the sources.

You get the idea now. It takes a lot of time to start a professional blog.

Besides, after some weeks, you might enter the Negotiation Phase (I talk about it in this article). Your early excitation of starting a new project will fade. Your pace reduces, your motivation as well. You understand how many things need to be done.

And that’s where successful bloggers make the difference with the rest of all: They don’t give up.

N°4 Even when things are fine, you can lose your motivation

As any project we start, a real euphoria takes us over. Thinking of the amount of new opportunities and how our great idea is going to change our life. That’s how we dive into this new project and put all we got. 

As time passes, little by little, our motivation decreases. 

For many reasons: a new opportunity in your career or life; thinking that we are not good enough to make it work, thinking that blogging is maybe not for you in the end, etc.

This is either the transition phase or the abandon phase. People get stuck there and don’t push through. Doubting moments happen all time. 

Some months after I launched my first blog. I stopped posting articles. Not even one for the next 6 months. For many reasons: blogging was just a side for me, I had many other activities. I just had a new job at that time and I could only write during my non-working hours which was very few. I also had a vlogging travel channel.

And honestly, writing was the last thing I wanted to do after going back home from work. Sitting at my desk (my bed, I was sharing a room at that time), again, and being productive, again. That was tough! 

And you also I am sure have your own challenges and other things to do besides maintaining a blog. 

Plus, even if you truly enjoy writing. Sometimes, it is very difficult to sit and start writing on a blank page. Many advice to write about what you love and you are passionate about, and as the saying goes “you’ll never work a day in your life”. Thing is that if you are guided by passion, your motivation can decline.

Blogging isn’t to be considered as a sprint but a marathon. So, it will be tough. But if you really want to make it happen, don’t quit.

Blogging is something that is very fascinating. Whoever you are, you can share content that will impact people’s life for the better – if you are not a scam.

N°5 Dare to fail greatly so that you can achieve greatly

Here is my last advice.

If it is your first blog. You will certainly make some mistakes. 

Probably tech ones: I remember one day my website disappeared because I edited something I should have not. Thanks to some forums, I solved it (yes lots of people are blogging and can teach you how to). 

Maybe you’ll make wrong strategic decisions when starting your blog.

When I was starting my blog I wanted to talk about everything that crosses my mind. I am a French-Filipino who grew up in Paris and now lives in the Philippines, in Manila. So, I wrote about intercultural life, but also public speaking as I enjoy it. And the next blog post, would be again a different topic. 

It was nonsense to my audience as they did not know what I was going to write about next. 

Which is something bad for a blog. No one will be able to identify which topic you are an expert in and therefore, that you won’t add greater value to what they know already. 

I was just expressing my thoughts. Talking about my experiences, like a self-centered author. Not really empathizing, and who cares about what you write if it doesn’t help them? No one.

With time,I understood. It was better for me to focus on two topics: blogging and business. I would become a great expert and would be able to help my readers. Instead of telling about my life, I only do it if it adds value to the subject. 

This adjustment totally changes my blog. 

We learn by doing, don’t we?

Today, if you are starting. You might not know who you are talking to. But tomorrow, you will know your readers more. Some of your articles might encounter unexepected success.

You will realize that you are more comfortable on certain topics. And through all those steps, your blog will little by little sculpt its own identity.

Starting a blog is a great adventure. Bringing you lots of benefits. You might hesitate before having your own as there are already lots of blogs online, tackling similar topics as the one you want. 

This is true, but it does not mean that there is no room for your blog. It is not too late. Your personality, your voice, your story or your talent is unique.

 Now that you have those ideas in mind, maybe it’s the time to set up your own professional blog. You can check my other blog posts or read this section to learn more.