3 Things You Should Know Before You Start Blogging

I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like everyone is trying to get into blogging these days. Lots of people are starting blogs based on certain topics and really going at them hard. The life of a blogger is often painted as this perfect life where you live by your own rules and have a schedule based on your life. If your blog is successful, you can earn a lot of money and get endorsements and sponsorships that provide you with loads of free stuff too.

It’s easy to get caught up in the glitz and the glamor of blogging as we only really see the good side of it. When we engage with a blog, we read the content and nothing else. We don’t see what happens behind the scenes, we just see what’s put out there, and we love the idea of doing it ourselves. If someone’s managed to create an empire through blogging and be really successful, why can’t we? After all, it looks so easy and relaxed, right?

Well, this isn’t categorically wrong, but it’s far from being completely right either. If you’re a natural, then blogging can feel very relaxed in the sense that writing posts and creating content is a breeze for you. It’s something you don’t have to think too much about as you’re putting thoughts on a web page and it’s almost like a hobby. However, there is so much hard work that goes on behind the scenes away from the actual content writing. Bloggers have a much harder working life than you might think, there are plenty of causes for concern.

This is where the main topic of this piece comes into play as many bloggers don’t realize the struggles happening behind the scenes. So, they rush into blogging thinking it’ll be fun and get hit with loads of things they didn’t know existed.

As such, staying on this topic, here are some of the things you wish you knew about before you started blogging:

Your Content Can Get Stolen

Most people get into blogging because they read a selection of blogs every day and love it so much they want to join in. When you only read the same blogs, you’re getting the same content in the same place, all the time. It doesn’t really cross your mind that there are loads of other sites out there that might be trying to steal and replicated this content and pass it off as their own.

Consequently, when you start blogging yourself, you’re unaware of this threat. Websites could be stealing your content and claiming it’s theirs, then getting more traffic and making more money through ad revenue. If you don’t know this is happening, your site can miss out on so much traffic and so much money.

Thankfully, you can deal with this by getting something called DMCA protection. For those that don’t know, the DMCA is a copyright act that protects online content. It stops people from stealing things that are DMCA protected. Immediately, all you bloggers out there are curious how to get DMCA protection, and you’ll be pleased to know it’s easy and free. With this protection, you can find sites and domains that are infringing your content and move to get it taken down. As you can imagine, this is something you have to do all the time to ensure your content stays on your site and isn’t passed off as someone else’s.

You Need To Invest Money

Personally, I see nothing wrong with blogging to make money. It’s no different from starting your own business and being self-employed. So, it’s fair to say that a lot of bloggers are driven by the prospect of making money. You’re aware that money can be made from a blog, but you’re unaware of how much money goes into a successful blog.

This is something that shocks a lot of bloggers when they get going. It’s possible you’ll see some degree of success, but you will fail to make a living out of blogging unless you invest money into your blog. Like I said, making money from a blog is the same as starting a business. Guess what you do when you start a business? You invest your money in different areas to help start things up and propel you to the top.

With a blog, you may have to invest in things like web design to create the perfect site that looks great and works well on all devices. Or, you may want to invest in advertising to help spread the word about your blog online and get some traffic via sponsored search results. You could even pay for link building services to help improve the organic search performance of your site. The point is, there are lots of ways you can improve a website and make it successful, but you have to invest money. It’s very hard to make money from a blog without spending some of your own.

You Will Have Haters

We like to believe our content is great and our opinions are always well-balanced and informative. However, it’s impossible to please everyone all the time. People will visit your blog and love what you write, while others will hate it.

At the end of the day, this is just a fact of life; there will be haters. You’ll get some mean comments, maybe a few mean tweets, and some negativity from different corners. The bigger you get, the more haters you’ll have as people really seem to dislike other people’s success. Especially when it revolves around digital media.

My point is, don’t start blogging with the thought process that everyone will love what you do. Also, don’t think you can convert everyone into a fan. Be aware that you’ll get hate, and ignore it. Don’t respond to any criticism that’s not constructive as it simply isn’t worth your time.

No doubt a few seasoned bloggers are reading these points nodding their heads in agreement. If you know about them before you start blogging, it makes everything a lot easier, and there are fewer shocks. Hopefully, if you’re thinking about starting a blog, this article has helped you see things more clearly than before!