You start blogging with all your dreams. You want to proclaim yourself as an entrepreneur.
Or you may want to build that dream business you’ve always been wanting to build.
May be you want send your message out. Or may be you want to financially support your family by doing your part of “something”.
Everyone has different reasons for starting a blog.
However I am quite familiar of coming across abandoned blogs. Blog that are trashed. Blogs that are just dumped as if they are of no use anymore.
With every start-up there is so much energy, hope, enthusiasm, and of course, dreams, efforts and monetary investment involved.
So it is no joke that you start a blog and then think about quitting.
But you know what, over 90% of bloggers that start blogging think about quitting blogging at least once in their career.
I myself had thought about quitting blogging twice.
Even though I had prior blogging and online experience, I just hit the bottom at a point where I wanted to simply quit blogging.
I wanted to sell my websites and just get back to taking care of household.
But then, fortunately, very soon after this thought popped up, I bounced back with twice the strength and confidence (thanks to my hubby).
After I was stabilized, I went back and analyzed what caused the thought and why was I forced to such a situation.
I summarize those findings here.
I started blogging without clarity, and without any purpose. I couldn’t make any money. Besides, I couldn’t get any further.
I was stuck at a point and I got frustrated and desperate. When I think about it today, it is no surprise.
When I blog without clarity and clear goals in front of me, I am essentially wasting my time and efforts.
I am simply doing pointless things. And yes it DOES take time and effort to do pointless things, don’t you agree?
In fact, it takes a lot more mental energy to work on pointless things that can easily lead to brain drain and burn out than working on clearly laid out goals.
Rather, if you have clarity in the first place, everything becomes pixel perfect. You clearly know your outcome/destination.
You clearly know the steps you are going to take (a.k.a tasks that you will be doing) in order to get that outcome.
Blogging without clarity not only wastes your time and efforts, but it can easily frustrate you.
Why? Because you would be putting in a lot of time and effort but you won’t be getting the results you should be getting. And this is really frustrating isn’t?
Once you stop doing what you are doing and start twisting your arms to find out your purpose, and your clarity, you will feel a lot lighter (stress-free).
And you will find that your “work” in general has got a new purpose and has become a lot more meaningful.
And, you will find that your confidence will naturally be boosted (yes, talking from experience here).
Oh yes, this is the most popular (or I should say a notorious) reason why most bloggers quit; because, as I’ve said many times on various places at this blog, a blog won’t make money by itself.
“Monetizing a blog” is a wrong concept! You don’t simply start a blog and then think about monetizing it.
You start a business and THEN start a blog to promote and market your business. That’s how it should be.
[clickToTweet tweet=”If you first start a blog and then think about “how” to add a business to it, you will most probably fail.” quote=”If you first start a blog and then think about “how” to add a business to it, you will most probably fail.” theme=”style4″]That’s how a lot of blogs failed that I know of.
When I first started out, I had started a couple of blogs, just for the sake of blogging.
However I did not have an intention to earn money from them (luckily).
Those blogs did fail and I had to dump them. But I was fortunate that I didn’t believe or expect that those blogs would make me money.
However it is not the case with most blogs that are started today.
Bloggers have a big expectation that their blog will one day start earning cash, mostly on autopilot so they can quit their day job and live a luxurious life.
Sure this dream is not faulty. But I see no room for a business here! How can you expect to make money without a business?
Before you think about starting a blog and before you decide on your domain name, devise your business model.
Now the term “business model” may sound too tricky and nerdy. But it is really really simple (at least for the start). Just answer these questions:
That’s it.
Sit down and analyze your business model if you have one.
And if you don’t have one (which is the most common case I see with my blog audit clients) devise an income generating business model first.
You may have heard many people telling you that you don’t need to be an expert in order to blog on a niche.
That is true, for starters. But then you cannot be blunt throughout your blogging journey.
You have to develop your skills and develop expertise in your industry to stay on top. This is beneficial in two ways:
1 leads to more profits, of course!
Now you can see that having expertise benefits you and your business naturally.
If you don’t take enough efforts to develop expertise, you will be forced to quit blogging in a short while.
You might have heard this phrase a lot. It used to be quite popular (even now it is very popular).
Lots of beginner bloggers usually fake it until they make it.
What kind of faking am I talking about? Well, all kinda faking.
Some bloggers might want to prove that they are experts in a field so that they can get coaching clients.
Who will want to hire a new life coach, or any other coach? So newbie bloggers might be tempted to fake their expertise.
They might put up fake testimonials, or fake income proof, or fake success stories.
This is just one example. There are people faking income reports, fake case studies and much more.
This kinda “fake it until you make it” trend might work for a while.
But very shortly people will smell the ingenuity in your approach. And very soon you might be forced to quit blogging by loosing your reputation.
So what’s the solution? Build authority and success slowly, genuinely.
A genuine testimonial or a success story is worth much more than a fake testimonial.
Plus your hands are clean so you don’t have to worry about hiding stuff in the long run or be alert always to hide your failures.
If you are starting out and need genuine testimonials, you can always get them by doing some work for free or getting the help from your blogging friends.
Never ever fake it until you make it. It is a dangerous trap that will force you to quit blogging definitely.
Your prospects are the ones who will be doing business with you as long as you are in business.
If you don’t understand them properly you are already out of business.
Now, blogging is a great way reach your customers and deliver them what they want.
That is how your blog will help you get more business.
But if you keep blogging without caring enough about your customers and prospects, you will soon be out of business.
Your blog won’t gain traction. And it won’t serve the purpose.
Not understanding your prospects and blogging without serving your customers will give out a negative message that your business is not for “them” – your potential customers.
They might not be interested in reading your blog anymore. So how do you think you are going to get new customers via your blog? No, you can’t.
How to understand your prospects well and create a tailor made blog for them? That’s a topic for a new post and I will put it up soon!
To sum up, just implement some simple tips and you will be good to go.
Now, I would like to hear from you. Have you taken any of these tips lightly so far? If so what is it?
And how do you plan to fix it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Awesome write up :D really helpful to encourage blogging regularly....
Glad you liked it Radha. Thanks for stopping by!
That's an interesting set of thoughts. It is a very good pointer that when passion takes form of a business, it can certainly thrive.. :)
Passion is very important Vinay. Even though it is not the only one ingredient, it is one of the most important ingredients!
Jane, I dig the new look! Infused with your personality. Clarity sets blogging success in motion or makes you want to quit, if you lack this element. I blog to be free. I also blog to connect with people who want to make money online. If I build my blog around this level of clarity I'll naturally attract like minded folks. If I lack clarity how can I expect like-minded people to find me? Impossible.
Before you blog figure out why you want to blog. Then focus clearly on 1 target audience and build your blog - from its design, to post, to post - around this clear end, or goal, to get through the tough times. I too entertained quitting here and there Joan. We all do. So glad I didn't know, because I'd be writing these words from NJ instead of Thailand ;)
Tweeted through Triberr!
Ryan glad you like the new look of the site :) I cannot stress enough the importance of clarity. I've paid heavy because of that one mistake!
You are a great traveler :) Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the share!
And, you wouldn't have been able to tame tigers, nor get that photo with the tiger on your Facebook profile :P
There are many reason due to which many bloggers come to the end of their blogging. As you have explained about getting the proper idea of our niche at what we are going to blog or we can say for any online business. Every blogger need to figure out the solution. And we all know no one can become an expert with in few days. People need to devote their time for their work. Having the right direction is based on the blogger's mind, in which he/she is going to take it. Thanks for sharing. You have explained in an effective way.
Jane, great topic and points. I started as a hobby to help others learn from my mistakes online and then started to make a little money from it along the way. I need to define my goals more and think of it more as a business too. Thanks for the inspiration on this.
I can't believe how many blogs I've become across that were abandoned.
Is it all about money? Sure, many people love wrtiting, but most try to make money from it or advance in career. I think most bloggers fails due to lack of goals and planning.
Very true Kaloyan. Without goals and planning, no one can get success.
Thanks Jane for pointing out these mistakes.
Yes I learn something about blogging here and of course starting to follow your tips..thanks for sharing.
Wonderful tips! Well, totally agree with an interesting, yet important point that you made about faking. Rather than following fake it until you make it trend, building an authority and heading towards success slowly and genuinely, is what's most important for success and long-term business. Thanks Jane for this amazing post !
When I saw title of email "I decided to sell....", First I shocked that Why Jane want to sell. I was busy but still I started to read that. and finally I came to this awesome write up....
Great Post. Really helpful.. Thanks for sharing notes.
Makarand,
Like you, after reading her third e-mail subject which told about selling her third blog, even I thought something had really happened to Jane! But, felt nice to know after reading the e-mail, this hadn't really happened.
Otherwise, you and I wouldn't even exist as commenters here. And no one would've known one of the top 20 Indian bloggers. Jane would've been a common girl with a common life - eat, sleep and make work hard daily to earn a living - that kind.
Hi Jane,
Congratulations on the new look of your blog - looks great indeed :)
You are absolutely right - we all get such thoughts of quitting, happens with me too. But when I see the positive feedback of people through the never ending comments, their interaction on the blog and social media, and I know my blog is helping them in some ways, it gives me all the more reason to continue with greater force.
As you already know, the purpose of opening my blog was never to make money but to help others through the knowledge I had and learned slowly with time. And it's the love and respect of people that I've earned and value much more than money. However, with the time I'm devoting now blogging, I'd surely be thinking of monetizing my blog in a few ways. Yes, clarity about what you want from your blog is essential as that gives you the direction to carry on and achieve your goals.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead :)