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You want to be a successful blogger? Then let’s talk about blogging!
As I started up this blogging journey, I searched and searched for advice and the best tips for bloggers.
It took countless hours, saving hundreds of pins, and reading hundreds of articles. I watched dozens of videos, and were promised only great things can happen with starting a blog.
Can you relate?
If you’ve read our most popular article, Every Reason You Should NOT Be a Blogger, then you know that it isn’t necessarily free to start a blog, either!
So, with the flood of differing opinions, dishonest bloggers who are promising immediate success, and with the initial financial investment, it is absolutely normal to be a bit apprehensive!
After a handful of months in my belt, and after discovering the secrets to monetizing, we have been writing quite a few articles to help our fellow newbie bloggers out!
Before diving into this article, be sure to check out some of these other articles to jumpstart your blogging success!
- A Detailed, Step-By-Step Guide to Starting Your First Blog!
- Our Most Profitable Affiliates We Use To Earn Money Blogging
- How To Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic To Your Blog
- Are You Ready To Join the Blogging Community? Take This Quiz To Find Out!
- The Top Reasons Why Your Blog Isn’t Making Money
A Trip Back to Psych 101
Whether you took psychology in high school or college, you may remember that our brains are pretty complicated blobs of electrical connections!
And, unfortunately, your blob of electricity is going to convince you to not be a blogger.
In this article we are going to go over the #1 reason why bloggers struggle after a few months, and why most never monetize their blogs!
Now, you want to make money, right? (I mean, that’s pretty much every person’s reason to be a blogger nowadays!)
Then you need to learn about this HUGE problem.
Let’s explore some quick topics then we’ll get to the good stuff!
Your Brain Does Everything To Avoid Pain
If you are considering becoming a blogger (or if you are one currently), have you come across these thoughts?:
- What if no one comes across my blog and I don’t get traffic? I won’t be able to pay off all the expenses!
- What if I accidentally do something wrong, legally, and get in huge trouble?
- What if this really doesn’t work and I’m not good enough to be a blogger?
- What if I can’t ever be successful? What if my friends find out about my blog and make fun of me?
This list could go on, and you know it!
Okay, so the very first thing we need to address is that, when you are encountering something absolutely new, your brain will try to find all the wrong things to avoid anything bad from happening.
It’ll make you start fearing about costs, judgement, and potential failure.
Your brain wants to protect you! It sees an opportunity for negativity and pain, and may want to take you far away! (As in, make you not believe you could ever be a blogger)
It’s great that our brains are doing it’s job, but it also could be taking you away from an awesome opportunity to earn money, live debt free, and find self fulfillment!
So, what to do? It’s not as simple as just ignoring your thoughts and making a bold action to starting a blog. You must be careful!
In fact, it’s a lot more complicated.
The #1 Reason People Fail At Blogging
Ready for this? It’s novel! It’s enlightening!
The reason people fail at so many things, from blogs, to online businesses, is because of a significant lack of self confidence.
Now, I know what you may be immediately thinking: “Hmm. That’s not anything too special. That’s the coveted secret?”
One of the most famous psychologists has explained it herself, and how this is deeply rooted in people’s failures.
But, there is a way out!
There is a way to make sure you aren’t one of those unfortunate newbie bloggers who stop after a few months and never makes their money back.
Don’t be one of them!
Ready to learn how to stay motivated throughout the first few months blogging?
Ready to learn how to improve your chances of monetizing and earning money as a blogger?
Ready to improve your self-confidence?
4 Crucial Steps to Improving Your Confidence as a Blogger
#1. TAKE. A. COURSE.
One of the best decisions we made as a brand new blogger was to take a course right at the beginning, that was in step-by-step format.
I took this course because we did not want to go into blogging blindly, and we are absolutely grateful we made that decision.
Listen, you guys. Blogging is no joke. There are a ridiculous number of new things you have to learn, and you don’t have time to go through hundreds of articles to make sure you got it all.
If you have no idea what you’re doing, you are most likely to miss something huge!
There’s a lot with blogging, and this is just a short list of what you’ll need to learn, in detail, quickly:
- Social media marketing and graphic design
- Sales (Planning on monetizing? Then you’ll need to become a salesperson.)
- Search Engine Optimizing
- WordPress (Truly, I have no idea how I would have done this without guidance!)
- Hosting
- Plugins, website design, and the millions of things that go with it
- Monetizing with affiliates
Want to learn more about our favorite course for beginner bloggers? Check out this article for in-depth detail!
#2. Learn To Accept Praise
Ever heard of performance anxiety?
(Trust me, you’ve experienced it.)
THIS phenomenon is why so many people struggle with blogging!
You become afraid due to a fear of judgement!
And, if you don’t think you’ve felt this before, can you relate to any of the following:
- Not wanting to speak up in class due to worry what classmates would think
- Fear of talking to a person of authority, like a boss, about a critical topic like a raise
- Not wanting anyone to know about a unique hobby or interest of yours due to their potential judgement
These are just a few brief examples, but we’ve all be there.
With blogging, this is the biggest hurdle!
Remember those fears listed at the beginning of this article? Those are fears of judgement revolving blogging!
One of BEST ways to better handle this problem is by accepting praise.
For example, the next time someone compliments your hair, don’t give some random comment about it being blown around in the wind, or that it is greasy Day 3 hair.
Respond by being grateful and thankful. Learn to accept praise!
Once you are able to start accepting praise from others, you’ll begin to feel more confidence!
But, this won’t completely remedy this problem! The next step is even more crucial.
#3. Give Yourself Praise
This is “part 2” to the psychological component.
I want you to think about this short phrase: “Unhappy people criticize while happy people praise”.
How do you talk to yourself on a day-to-day basis?
We aren’t going to tell you to all of a sudden start thinking happy thoughts. It just doesn’t work that way!
Instead, we want to challenge you to start giving yourself praise.
Our brains are out to seek pleasure, and avoid pain. But our brains also listen to everything we say to ourselves.
If we criticize ourselves constantly, it’ll lead to poorer performing, and increased unhappiness.
Let’s relate this back to blogging:
If you regularly criticize yourself, you are highly likely to have increased fears of judgement and won’t take risks when it comes to blogging.
You could become too afraid to send emails, too worried about writing about a particular topic, not wanting to start due to judgement by friends or family, fear of failure and wasting money…
The list goes on.
Can you relate?
The important thing is, you aren’t alone! But, if you want to have a successful blog, you need to address this unique component to blogging that no one talks about!
#4. Don’t Start Without a Plan!
This is the final part to improving your confidence and skyrocketing your chances for monetizing and earning from blogging.
Seriously, do not start without having a plan in mind!
We have a [free step-by-step article] that will guide you to starting up your blog, and although it is jam-packed with helpful tips, your learning should not end there!
You need to really consider taking a course for beginner bloggers or even reading a blogging book so you don’t miss out on important details.
Blogging is literally like starting up a business. You’ll be considered an entrepreneur!
But, would you recommend any new business owner go into this without any idea what they’re doing? Highly unlikely!
Here are a few ideas for how to start your successful blog with a plan:
- Go onto Pinterest and discover what niches are successful. Look through affiliates to see what potential monetization methods are available for your future blog.
- Take a course like Make Money Blogging for Beginners, or consider learning through another platform. You’ll never regret learning something new!
- Watch YouTube videos about all aspects regarding blogging: affiliates, products, how to write articles, etc.
- Write both short-term and long-term goals for your blog. Don’t just have them be money based! Consider guest posting, freelancing articles, traffic, social media followers, etc.
Thanks! But, Now What?
There is more to blogging than you’d think!
Before jumping right in, consider this big psychological component to blogging, and think about how it could affect you!
Additionally, we’re always creating new content to help our readers become better bloggers!
For example, come learn about Pinterest marketing, or how to get huge traffic boosts to your new blog.
There is always time to learn and grow!
Lastly, we want to give a special “hey” to all of our new readers who have stopped by. Be sure to leave a comment, we’d love to hear from you!
Do you have other suggestions that our other readers could benefit from? The comment section is just a scroll away!
Thanks for hanging out with us! We continue to enjoy helping our readers achieve their blogging goals! Be sure to check out all of the other topics in our blogging series!
ThirtyEight Investing
All advice and opinions provided in this post are reflections on experience and are for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please see our disclaimer page details.