Why start a blog?

Have you thought of starting a blog?  Yes! It’ll be fun, but I’m not gonna lie, it’s going to be hard work to grow it to make money from it.  That’s the honest truth. I started this blog as a hobby at first, but I changed it to be more business-like. It’s still early days, but I know I’m on the right track.

Starting a blog is no secret, and it’s not rocket science, but it’s lots of learning and work. Firstly, knowing your “why” will be the driving force of your blogging journey. Because the “why” is what will give you a vision and goals for your blog. Your progress may stagnate if you don’t know your “why”.

For me, my “why” is to help contribute to my family’s finances. What a bonus I get to do this through blogging. Thank God for His guidance. What about you?

Push past the doubts, keep going and you’ll get there.

When it dawned on me that my passion for writing, teaching and problem solving could be expressed through blogging, I was super happy! However after I decided to launch my blog site, I was doubtful. How was I going to ‘monetize’ my blog? Was I wasting my time? Would I fail? In spite of these fears I started anyway. So can you.

Why should you start a blog?

Let me guess: you want freedom – freedom from the 9-5 slog, from the pressing limitations of that set salary and set hours.  You want to be able choose how and what you spend your time on. Sounds like a pipe dream? Not if you intentionally want to pursue freedom! That’s why you’re reading this…

But, you can’t just be in it for the money – that motivation alone will only get you so far. You need to love what you do, why you do it, with a clear purpose in mind.  Vision and goals are super important to your progress. And just as necessary, is your personal inner drive. More on that below.

The reality of starting a blog:

Many bloggers don’t tell you upfront the price you need to pay to get the results they’ve got today.  Sometimes the ‘advice’ is glossed over, overly sales driven and only focused on the positives. Like have a passion, follow this formula, do this, do that etc. The truth is, like any business, you’ll need to put in a lot of learning, hard work, perseverance, and energy if you want to reach your goals.

Fortunately, a blog is pretty low cost to start with. The main thing I’ve learnt is to plan out my goals and content, with an aim to reach my goals. I’ve bumped into hurdles (mainly mindsets) and made mistakes along the way but I’ve just kept going. If you keep this attitude in mind, you’ll reach your goals too!

What to do before you start your blog:

Alot goes into pre-starting, starting and building a blog, in order to monetize it. So, instead of stabbing in the dark (wasting all that time and energy) you’ll want to be focused. That means, being equipped with knowledge, education, and training on all things blogging! Let’s begin by defining the who, what, why and how of blogging.

Here’s a little checklist to help you define the why, what and who:

• Why or what motivates you to start your blog?

• What’s the goal of your blog?

• What problem/s are you solving for your audience?

• What’s your unique selling point (usp) niche or voice?

• Who’s your audience?

What about your inner drive? 

• Are you willing to take a risk – to step out – and handle failure if you need to?

• Are you disciplined and focused enough to reach your goals?

• Are you willing to learn fast or pay someone or ask someone to help you with the techinical website online stuff?

• Are you willing to work hard – that means to work when you don’t feel like it and making sacrifices that you’re tempted to not make.

OK! Is your direction clearer now? The next step is to know how to professionally present your blog content. You want to attract readers don’t you? It is something you must nail, because without it, you and your blog may go around in circles (like I did at first).

So, are you now ready for readers to read your blog? Find out here: Let’s go.