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Why Blogging is Scary

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If someone asked you to describe blogging, would “scary” be the first word that popped out of your mouth?

For lots of people, it might not be something they say out loud but it’s probably something they are thinking.

Blogging can actually be really frightening to lots of people! There’s nothing quite like pouring your heart and soul out onto the internet where billions of people can read what you have to say.

For those who are also blogging as their business, the stakes are higher and things become even scarier. Here are a few reasons on why blogging is actually pretty scary and why those who blog are brave as hell (and how to overcome these fears).

You Might Not Make Any Money

If your blog is your business, your ultimate goal is to make money through it. Of course, other goals you may have would be to help people solve problems and build connections, but ultimately you need to pay your bills.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to blog for a profit!

But keeping a profitable blog isn’t an easy task.

Nobody goes into business with the hopes that they won’t make any money, and blogging is the same. Thinking that your blog might always be “just a hobby” is scary.

Most people wouldn’t think of trading in their 9-5 job to basically write for free for a couple years with the hopes of turning a profit eventually.

But many bloggers keep their 9-5 jobs on top of building a successful blog on the side so that one day they can eventually follow their passion and run their blogs full-time.

Some bloggers even (and successfully) quit their day jobs so they can focus all their energy on their blogs. Scary? Yes! But also brave? SO much yes.

How To Overcome This Fear

First, view your blog as a business. If you invested in a brick and mortar business would you just let it sit there unattended and hope that some customers came in?

Probably not.

You’d likely be working, hiring staff, promoting and going to events to network and learn. You’ve got to apply that same type of thought-process to your blog.

Treat your blog like the business it deserves to be.

You Need to Invest Lots of Time

One thing that has always bothered me is the assumption that running a profitable blog or profitable social media presence happens overnight.

I get a lot of questions from acquaintances and strangers that go like this:

“I want to get free stuff sent to me. Can you help me set up a blog?”

“I want to make money from ads on a website! Where do I sign up?”

Hey, if it were that easy I could’ve been retired by now, but unfortunately, it’s just not that easy. You can’t just hop on social media or start a blog and have the passive income roll in.

Unfortunately, many people have that mindset and then get frustrated when they aren’t making any money after a week.

Lots of time needs to be invested into creating your blog. From writing to promotion to networking, it can be a full-time gig on its own.

But those who set aside the time to build their blogs will benefit from it.

How To Overcome This Fear

Set aside the time to nurture your blog. You won’t get anywhere by investing 30 minutes of spare time a month into your blog.

I’m not saying that you need to spend 40 hours a week tending to your blog, but you do need to set aside the time to put in the work!

And yes, it is possible to grow a profitable blog while working full-time!

There’s a lot of Guesswork Involved

Guess what I didn’t learn in University?

  • how to write a blog post
  • how to grow an email list
  • how to use social media marketing
  • what a funnel is

My degree is in marketing, mind you, but yet I still had no idea how to do any of the following when I began my blog!

I get it, blogging is scary because there is so much to learn and so guesswork involved.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of guesswork involved until you finally “get it” and what works for someone else might not work for you!

How To Overcome This Fear

Take the guesswork out by taking courses and learning from those around you.

I currently have a free 3 day SEO workshop happening and instead of trying to spend years patching together your SEO strategy, sign up for my workshop to learn strategies you can start applying instantly.

If you’re ready to go even further with your blogging, I offer blog coaching services where I sit down with my clients and give in-depth reviews of their blogs and formulate a strategy to help them reach their blogging goals.

Fumbling around and trying to “guess” what your next step should be is not a good game plan and can take years to figure out, so don’t let that be part of your plan! If you want your blog to be a business you need to treat it like one and invest in it.

You Need To Get Vulnerable

Sometimes it’s helpful to get a little personal and give your readers a glimpse into your life. Whether that’s sharing a personal bit of information or injecting a personal story into some of your articles.

You don’t always need to be talking about your life, but doing so will help build a connection with your audience.

Some people are very fearful about being this personal, however.

How To Overcome This Fear

The more you do it, the easier it will become. Start small! You don’t need to write an article about your life story, but if you are writing a recipe, talk about whether or not you made it for a special occasion.

For example, you could say: “I made this recipe for my great grandmother’s 95th birthday and she told me she had never tasted a macaroni that was as rich and delicious as this one!”

See? That’s not super personal but it’s still a personal story that was added into what we can assume is a recipe for mac and cheese.

You Never Feel Like A “Pro”

Unless you’re an expert on the subject you are writing on to begin with, you likely won’t feel like a pro anytime soon (if ever) and that’s ok.

The point of blogging and writing blog articles is to provide a solution or an answer to a question you readers have.

You don’t need to be an expert on the subject to write on it. You just need to be able to research the topic you are writing on!

I see this all the time in blogging groups and forums. People are always asking “can I write about X if I don’t have much experience in it?”

Yes! You can and you don’t need to become an expert in order to write on anything. Just don’t be writing about stuff that could get you in legal trouble (i.e. don’t write about legal advice if you aren’t a lawyer).

Think about it. When you were in grade 7 and you were asked to write a paper on the history of WWI, were you like “no, I can’t do that. I’m not a historian so I don’t have the authority to be writing on that topic”.

Uhm, no! You wrote on it anyways! You did the research and blogging is basically the same.

How To Overcome This Fear

I ghostwrite for small businesses of all sorts and I’m not an expert in any of the topics I write on. What I can do, however, is research each topic and include facts and sources to back up my information.

If you feel like you’re not qualified to write on the topic of your blog, just remember that lots of people aren’t experts in their niches either.

What is important is that you are doing research prior to writing your articles!

There’s Lots of Rejection Involved

From not getting emails back from the companies you’ve pitched to getting unfollowed, unliked and possibly reviewed poorly on social media, there can be lots of rejection involved with blogging.

And I’d be lying if I said I’d never felt that type of rejection and that it didn’t hurt me.

Putting yourself out there is scary enough, but putting yourself out there only to get rejected is even worse!

Rejection stinks but there are a lot of influential people who went through years of rejection before getting their big break.

How To Overcome This Fear

Don’t let your fear of rejection get in your way! Keep powering through what you love to do and learn and grow from any rejections you may receive.

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