What No One Tells You About Starting A Blog

Well it’s been four months since I started working on re-launching “I’m Done Being Selfish”. This whole blogging thing might sound like a piece of cake, it did to me. I’ll admit I used to think “how hard could it be?” well I’m here to tell you it’s a lot harder and takes a lot more time then anyone leads on.

 

These are the things that have surprised me the most over these past four months:

• You need to be pretty tech/marketing savvy- I always thought of myself as being pretty tech/marketing savvy until I started blogging. I hold a degree in Business Marketing and a Bachelor degree in Communication with a concentration in public relations. I’ve been taking computer classes in school since the backs of the Mac Desktops stuck out three feet and came in six different colors. In my six years of college I spent 60% of my time watching YouTube tutorials and reading blogs when my research papers/finals just couldn’t seem to hold my attention for another minute. I’ve been pinning since 2012, have an Instagram addiction and at one point I had over 4,300 friends on Facebook, but nothing could quite prepare me for this and all the behind the scenes technical work that goes along with it.

 

• You need a TON OF TIME- I’ve spent long days and longer sleepless nights just trying to get my tool bar menu categories planned out and in order. I’ve spent hour after hour going back and forth comparing not only cameras, but which lenses to purchase to go with it. I spent days of doing nothing but playing trial and error, sometimes leaving myself off even more behind then when I started. It boggles my mind that there are women that work full time, have three kids, and still manage to make $8k a month off their blog.

 

• The amount of research needed- I have never in my life read as much as I have in the last few months. I feel as though my brains filled with pages and pages of statistics, and information and facts, yet I still feel like I have so far to go and so much more to learn. Between coding, picture quality standards, different affiliate programs, posts and their specific timing depending on what platform they are being promoted on. There is just so much tedious information, but being knowledgeable is what will help build the right foundation is what will set you apart from the rest

 

• There is so much planning to be done- This might be the planner in me but I highly doubt anyone with a blog that was successful from the start ever just dove right in. I have pages and pages, notebooks filled with planned posts, social media tips, photo ideas, contest budgets, the lists just goes on and on. I still need to invest in a big calendar to write out and put a time frame on posts and different blogging tasks.

 

• Perfecting your social media- I think one of the things that surprised me the most was the fact that you could spend months working on just launching your blog, have the best content, paired with the most fabulous pictures, taken with your $3,500 camera and there’s still a huge possibility that not one person will come across your page. Your social media accounts are even more important then your blog when it comes to drawing people in and capturing their attention.

I really cant believe how in the dark I was about blogging, all that comes with it, and the true investment it is. But, along with all the sleepless nights and long days comes a feeling of accomplishment that is so much stronger then I had ever imagined, and I’m only just getting started.

What are the most surprising things you found when starting your own blog or launching your own website?S