Blogging, if done well, can work well for you… But.. Yes, there are quite a few buts here.
When you buy a domain name, install WordPress and create a fresh new website, you’ll start putting in the content.
But then the questions start pouring up in the mind.
And the list goes on.
The optimism with which you have started won’t stay with you anymore.
But that’s not the point.
You’ll make mistakes.
Your blog will disappoint you at some point in time.
But that point is how fast did you learn from the mistakes that you made.
Are you even learning? Are you putting in the work despite the mediocre results?
I’ve built one blog that really did when it comes to impressions & clicks (but not money, haha).
It took a lot of time to figure out how to get those impressions and clicks.
The blog received 300K page views (organic) in the last month of its survival period (Yes, that blog doesn’t exist anymore).
And in this article, I’m gonna talk about the mistakes that you can avoid and most importantly blogging lessons I wish I knew before starting that blog.
Note: All of these based on my blogging experiments in 2020 & 2021.
It doesn’t matter how quality content you publish in the beginning, getting traffic takes time.
I’m talking about months of time and maybe years if you want to rank no.1 on google.
You need to be patient and give google some time to recognize your efforts.
The reason why I’m saying this is because, in the beginning, I wrote a lot of content to make some quick money.
It didn’t work. And I am pretty much sure that it won’t work for anyone.
Here is my advice for you.
Don’t expect anything in the first 6 months. Just put out content without expecting anything in return.
Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.
Saadi
When I started my blog, I published around 1500 articles.
Obviously, I didn’t write all of them.
Along with me writing, I’ve hired a couple of college students and it ain’t long-form content, so it took me around 6 months to get to that number.
But the traffic I’m getting for the content isn’t evergreen.
So basically my 12th-month traffic is almost equal to 8th-month traffic, despite putting out a lot of content in that 4 months gap.
That’s a sign of a complete failure, especially when you publish a lot of content, consistently.
So, what went wrong?
The content that I’ve published has a short life span.
Basically what that means is people are not interested to read that content after a certain time period.
For example, if you write an article about “Oscars 2020” people would not be interested to read that article in 2021. Or in 2024.
But if you write an article about “How to build a bigger biceps: The complete guide”, then it would be valid for the next 50 years, or forever.
Now, that’s called timeless content. or also called Evergreen content.
So make most of your blogging effort will go to writing evergreen articles.
The accomplishment of any goal is the progressive accumulation, or compound effect, of small steps taken consistently over time.
Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect (Book).
Every small thing that you do, when done consistently produces remarkable results.
So, I want you to do the same with publishing content. It’s very hard to put out content when you don’t (and you won’t) see any results (traffic or money) in the beginning.
But if you keep on writing articles, the output will take off at a certain period of time.
For example, in the first 6 months if you get 10k users, in the next 6 months you might get 50k. Content compounds over time. Timeless content definitely compounds over time.
Expect anything worthwhile to take time, perhaps a long time.
Don’t be in a hurry to monetize your blog. Wait for the traffic to grow.
If you own a certain amount of traffic, you can make money at any given point in time.
So focus on publishing content and gaining traction from Google. Once you are getting a decent amount of traffic, you can put ads.
Now, what ad network should I use? Which monetization methods should I try?
Ok, let me tell you a story.
How frustrated would you be when you earn around 0.01USD for an ad click? Well, that’s what happened with my blog when I placed Adsense ads on my blog to earn some money.
Here are some stats, for context:
The blog is in the entertainment niche and most of the traffic (more than 90%) comes from India. So, the CPC is low. I knew that the CPC would be low and I won’t earn as much as I would earn in any other niches but I didn’t expect that it would be that low.
For a total of 100K+ Pageviews, I’ve earned around 30USD. Hmm. That sucks, right?
Once I’ve reworked on the content, I’ve tried Propellerads along with Adsense ads (Yes, you can use both the ad networks at the same time).
And the earnings are way better than what I used to earn from Google Adsense.
So, if I’m earning 0.01 to 0.02 USD from Adsense, I’m earning 0.1 to 0.2USD in Propellerads. Still not good, but better.
But my point here is don’t try to limit you blog with just ads. Even with ads, try different ad networks. And at the same time, experiment with different ways to monetize your content.
And that can be courses, paid articles, sponsored ads (selling ad space), etc.
In my case, this blog is a way to meet potential clients, who I can do business with (I do content marketing btw).
Final point: Focus on getting more traffic first. If you are using affiliate links then make sure you add them in the articles from day 1 itself.
How you are getting the traffic to your blog is way more important than how much traffic you are getting.
In the initial days, I had a decent following on Twitter.
So I hustled every day, tweeted a lot, and shared many articles. And the day I didn’t share any article on Twitter, I used to get less traffic.
So basically what that means is I need to hustle on Twitter for the rest of my life to get traffic. And I don’t want to do that. Neither you should try to, as long as you are trying to improve your socials or have a large following anyway.
I’m not saying social traffic is bad. Using Twitter to build an audience and drive traffic to your blog is a good strategy. But depending mostly on social is not a good idea.
If you are not getting organic traffic, that means you have picked up the wrong niche or a very competitive niche. So, gaining traction from Google clears these barriers in your mind.
Impress google first.
Ok. What about publishing content? Some say that quality always beats quantity while some say that you need to put more content to become better at putting more quality content.
The common answer you find for this question on the internet is “it depends”. Well, I’m gonna give you a better one.
Decent quality with an excellent quantity is better than decent quantity with excellent quality. Ok, read that again.
This is very true, especially in the beginning. Make sure you build a habit of writing as much as you can.
Don’t use perfectionism as an excuse. The only way to get better at writing is to write more.
The quality of the articles can be improved at any time. But if you put out content consistently, your content will be recognized by search engines very fast.
Perfection is the enemy of progress.
Winston Churchill
Like I said, organic traffic is very important.
But if you build an asset like an email list or social media following, you’ll have more instant ways to get traction. And it’s always a better strategy to diversify your traffic.
A small change in the Google algorithm can mess up the amount of organic traffic you get every month. But if you own a list or online following, you can still drive the traffic to your blog.
Diversify your blog traffic. But don’t just try to use every social platform. Focus on one (highly recommended) or two social platforms. Like I said, I used Twitter, as it was good for sharing news and links.
If you are getting traffic from one single source then it might not be a safe option.
But, I am saying this again: “Impress Google, first.” Then figure out a social solution.
Creating a blog solely based on something you love can’t make you money. There has to be a demand too.
So if you write something that has a good demand you can make money.
But if you don’t love writing on that particular topic, you won’t write for it. Not for the long term. And so won’t make money despite its high demand.
That’s the paradox you need to understand in blogging.
If you write content around topics like “Insurance” and “Real Estate” you can make you lot of ad income.
But do you love writing for it?
Are you curious about those topics?
If the answer is “No”, you should move on.
Because in the long term you can’t force yourself to write content around those topics. Understand that willpower is limited.
Find what you love and are curious about. Then think about the money part.
Are others making money from it? If so, then you can too.
And since you love writing for it, you’ll stick to it for a longer term. And if you stick to it long enough, you’ll see the monetary results.
Entrepreneurial efforts often fail. But good entrepreneurs don’t fail because they stay at it.
Naval Ravikant
There is no secret path to creating a successful blog. If there is, everyone would be leaving their jobs and blogging.
So, just start. Make mistakes. Learn from your mistakes. Be patient. Most people give up in the first 2 to 3 months. But you won’t. I believe you.
All the best for your blogging journey.