5 Things No One Tells You when Creating Your First Blog.
As a new blogger, you’ll find a seemingly infinite number of posts about how to start your first blog.
Marketing studies show that people like lists. And further studies show that (for some completely unknown reason) we seem to especially like lists with odd numbers.
But all these odd numbered lists, like
11 things to do before you start your first blog.
9 steps to launch your first blog business.
37 first blog ideas.
all seem to focus on making the process easier.
No one wants to hear that starting your fist blog is hard.
No one would click on a post touting the “7 not-so-easy steps (many of which will inevitably give you trouble) to start your first blog”.
The point of most of these posts is to make it sound easy.
To be fair, I don’t think this is done out of malice or ill-intent. I think the authors are trying to be positive for their readers, to be encouraging, to help imply you can do it, if you set your mind to it.
And for some people it may be actually be really easy. A lot of the resources out there are filled with good info that will help you set up your first blog successfully.
It’s easy to find info on how to start a blog, but hard to find info about the common problems and issues you’ll face.
That’s what this post aims to remedy. I’m pointing out a few of the things that made me stumble on my first few blogs. And, I’ll offer some insight into how to handle those, even if all I can do is offer an encouraging “don’t give up!” speech.
(And yes, I understand the irony of bad-mouthing “easy lists” posts when I have a post on this site called “7 Steps to Launch Your First Money-Making Blog, and this post contains an odd-numbered list. I’m not above it, just… pointing it out).
- Building traffic can take a long time.
- AdSense and Affiliate programs can turn you down.
- The theme/styling of your site kinda matters.
- Pinterest isn’t a sure-fire traffic funnel.
- Following the best formula from the best experts doesn’t guarantee an income on your site right away.
1. Building traffic can take a long time.
I see a LOT of posts where the author explains how they made $3,500 in their first month, etc.
I’m glad for them. And that is certainly possible. It may even happen to you if you do everything right.
But it’s more likely that your traffic numbers will stay low for a while at first.
How to fix it – The important thing to remember is keep at it! If your blog is growing at a glacial pace, don’t get downhearted! That actually means you’re in the norm. Even if you do everything right, your audience may not show up for a while.
But they will come.
2. AdSense and Affiliate programs can turn you down.
This one surprised me the first time it happened.
I started my career building websites for other people. It was up to them to handle ads and affiliates.
It wasn’t until I built my first blog that I realized AdSense and some affiliate programs expect your blog to have a certain amount of traffic before they will let you be part of the program.
I set up my website, wrote my first few posts, then went to sign up for the affiliate programs for the products I recommended, and sign up for AdSense.
It didn’t go quite like I had hoped…
AdSense took 4 weeks to “approve” my application. And two of the affiliate programs turned me down. All due to a lack of traffic.
I was hitting the Pinterest game hard, but because of the reality of Issue # 1 above, I didn’t have a lot of traffic yet.
How to fix it – Some traffic eventually showed up a couple weeks after I launched, so Google AdSense approved me. I re-applied to those affiliate programs and they approved me the second time.
So this is essentially the same how to fix it as issue #1- don’t get downhearted, the traffic will eventually come.
3. The theme/styling of your site kinda matters.
Okay, there is some debate about this one.
Some people say the theme/styling doesn’t matter as much as it used to, as long as it doesn’t look bad. Most people are browsing Pinterest and other social media on mobile now anyway, so they’ll probably land on your via mobile and most themes look the same on mobile…
There’s some truth to that.
Others will say that it matters. That if your site doesn’t look absolutely legit people will blow it off. Even if they land there the first time on mobile, they will eventually show up on a desktop browser and see the full theme. So you want it to look professional, like it’s a good source of reliable information.
I am somewhere in the middle, but I lean a bit towards it matters.
You can build a good strategy to drive traffic to your site and they will probably consume some of the content when they get there.
But if your site looks like it’s the base model of what the internet has to offer, they may not come back. Or worse, they may not trust what you recommend.
Goodbye affiliate marketing potential.
If people see that you were deliberate and took some time on your styling, they’ll think the same about your content. They’re more likely to file you away as a reliable source to return to.
How to fix it- I will say that maybe this doesn’t matter a ton when you first start. I strongly believe (and have written) your first goal when starting a blog is to get a site up and one post on it. Everything else can come after. So, you don’t necessarily need to worry about this at the beginning.
But you will want to come back and spend some time on branding. You want to seem like an expert right?
4. Pinterest isn’t a sure-fire traffic funnel.
Pinterest has become the leading source for many blogs. I’ll be honest, this surprised me.
I was creating websites when Pinterest first came on the scene, and I had no idea it would become what it is today. I wrote it off for years.
But even with a great Pinterest strategy, you may not see the traffic others boast about.
The Pinterest algorithm is a strange beast.
Even blogging experts don’t know the true ins-and-outs of it, because it’s proprietary.
I paid for a Pinterest strategy ebook for my first blog. I followed it exactly…
And saw literally 0 visits to my blog.
After a few weeks, I reached out to the author of the ebook, she simply said “this happens sometimes”. She apologized for having a bad experience with her book, which I appreciated, and recommend I give it a few weeks and start over. And to her credit, this time it worked.
Same strategy, literally the same posts. I saw about 1,000 users that month. For me, that was great. But it definitely did not work the first time.
How to fix it- don’t expect Pinterest to launch you into blogging stardom immediately. If it does, great! If not, that’s okay, it’s still a powerful tool that you should definitely use.
I do believe that it’s probably the most important tool for us bloggers right now. But…
Let’s just set expectations that it may not work immediately. And remember, “this happens sometimes”.
5. Following the best formula from the best experts doesn’t guarantee an income on your site right away.
There are a LOT of good people out there really trying to help others start blogging business.
These people offer a lot of good resources. And some of them offer the “full formula”. The “everything you need” promise. I offer one of those- a guide to everything you need to get started.
But that post, and the others, aren’t a promise.
These resources are just that- resources. Not guarantees. You could follow them to the best of your ability, and that will probably get you up and running with a money-making blog.
But maybe not.
You may have to try again. Not every formula, not every approach, is for everyone.
How to fix it- Just keep swimming.
Yeah, I stole that. But it hits the nail on the head here.
You have a style, you have a personality, you have a million things about you that are different from the next person trying to build a blog. Some things just may not work for everyone.
But just keep doing it. Keep trying.
Maybe you need to try a different niche. Maybe you need to adjust your writing style. Maybe you need a mentor or a tutor.
If things don’t work out with your first blog, try it again.
You’ll already know what doesn’t work!