Do you want to be a blogger? Well, it is great that you are thinking of starting your own blog. But, take a minute and think through what exactly blogging entails. While no one should tell you where and how to invest your time, talent and money, it is good to know the some of the reasons which can make you a failure as a blogger. Just like any other venture that you can think of, starting a blog requires that you carefully evaluate the cons and pros associated with it:
Patience is definitely a virtue that you must have
Patience is not the virtue of waiting for something, but rather developing and keeping a good attitude while you wait. Starting a blog is a venture that pays off after many months if not years. For a majority of bloggers, they only get to see tangible results from their hard work after at least one year. For some, it might even be three years.
Many people today start ventures with expectations of getting immediate results. This leads to many people starting ‘big’ and then after a few weeks running away from the very thing they were so much loved. It is good to appreciate that good content takes a lot of time to be noticed by the audience. Moreover, growing an audience will also take time and effort.
Making a living out of blogging is hard
Like in most businesses, it takes time for you to start getting positive results from your blogging efforts. However, when it comes to blogging, it takes much longer to get tangible results which you can boast of as real earnings. Generally, the online conversion rate is anything between 1-2% of the total reachable market. This means that if you have a fan base of 5,000, then 100 is the potential number of fans you should count on. It gets even worse because the amount the average follower or fan will give you per month is much less than $1. Earning $100 a month out of an average fan base of 5,000 is not encouraging, especially if you are to pay Ad Sense ads averaging $13.
A blog will make you hate your passion
True, many people who chose to turn their hobbies into commercial enterprises have had to endure the painful realization that their once colorful hobby ceasing to be one. It is more heart wrenching with a blog because the returns will stay a whole lifetime before they become realistic. This is while demanding that you give the best of your time, effort, and even money.
Even if you succeed in converting your blog from a simple read into a huge global blog, you will need to keep with the demands of the growing fan base. Sometimes, whatever made your blog tick will no longer be viable in the current state of affairs given the huge number of fans with different backgrounds. If you really love your hobby, think again before turning it into a blog venture.
A blog can make job opportunities shrink
Many people do dream of starting a blog in line with their profession. Well, this is a great thing because you get a chance to offer services in a field that you are an expert in. But think of it; you work in a financial advisory firm and your boss came to learn that you have a blog that offers financial services or even other unrelated services. Chances are, they will want to peruse it and see what exactly you write on it. The bosses will be wary of what content you might put on your blog that might jeopardize their business.
Blogging demands a lot of work
Of course, you already know that a blog is made of great content among other things. The thing that you might not be aware of is that well-crafted content is just but the first step in blogging. There is designing, marketing and again some more marketing. You will need to promote your blog on many platforms and tirelessly. You must reply to all comments made by your Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms fans. It is essential that you be active on social media and drive all conversations back to your blog.
Becoming a blogger
Becoming a blogger is a true adventure that will have a lot of exciting turns and unexpected outcomes. But then, if an adventure goes as planned, it stops becoming one. Therefore, if you have the knack, the patience, the ability and stamina to wait for a year or more without getting a penny from a venture you work so hard to build, then, by all means, you are the perfect person to start a blog. If however, you lack any of these qualities or are unsure about the whole idea, think hard on why you would want to start something only for it to become a millstone around your neck.
