How to Blog Effectively When You’re Feeling Stuck

Don’t worry, we all do it. After all, starting your blog is the easiest part of the process. Growing it is the most challenging part.

It takes time to grow a blog and I want to help you stay on track to see your blog mature into what it could be. We all hit obstacles at one point or another, especially, when we’re brand new.

Whatever you do, don’t let those obstacles stop you from striving towards your online goals. Remember, blogging is a long-term strategy and it takes time to learn how to grow it.

As your blog starts to mature and you see things coming together the way you want them to. Someone stops by and leaves a comment that derails you.

Now you start thinking, should I continue? Maybe I am NOT cut out to be a blogger. No one likes my blog or finds it useful, why should I continue?

So instead of moving forward, you just forgo this week’s blog post. You tell yourself that eventually, you’ll get back to it. After all, no one is going to miss my next blog post.

Then you start going out looking for the next big thing that you can do. After all, so and so promises that this is so much easier than growing a blog.

It’s so easy to jump from one thing to another. Before you know it, you look back 5 years down the road and say “if only I’d have stuck with blogging on my first blog.”

How to Blog Effectively When You’re Feeling Stuck

As bloggers, we all get stuck. This doesn’t mean that you can’t succeed in blogging. It just means that you need to relax take a few breaths and follow these tips.

Don’t Wait For Others Approval

One of the hardest things for new bloggers is that they are always looking for approval. We all want to be told that we’re doing a fantastic job on our blogs.

I see it all the time in Facebook groups. People want to know how:

• Their blog looks and does the colors look good?
• Do their social icons look good?
• Did they use the right theme and does the site look good?

It’s hard to launch a blog and feel that it’s not good enough. But the truth is that a blog is never 100% good enough.

As your blog continues to grow and mature, you’ll make changes to it. However, you can not know what types of changes you need to make to your blog from day one.

As long as you’re blogging on a self-hosted blog and you’ve made the required blog configurations for your blog, then just go for it.

If you still haven’t started a blog, here’s a step-by-step tutorial that will teach you how to start your own self-hosted WordPress blog.

The great thing about blogging is that you can always go back and make edits. You can even delete a blog post if you decide that you don’t want it being in your archives.

Remember, it’s your blog and you can make changes and pivot and turn if you need to as you grow your blog.

Don’t Listen to People

As a new blogger, it’s so easy to listen to people who come by and leave comments on your blog. Now there are some bloggers who mean good and are actually trying to leave you helpful criticism.

However, there are plenty of people online who want to voice their opinion when they don’t have a clue about your blog. These types of comments are enough to derail a new blogger.

You wake up and you’re excited to see your first comment. However, when you to moderate your comments, you realize that it’s just chocked full of criticism.

This comment alone makes you feel you’re not good enough. You start thinking that you’re not an expert in the niche and what gives you the right to start a blog in this niche?

Remember everyone has their own opinions and some of them voice them louder than others. It’s up to you to remember why you started your blog and just keep going.

Don’t let others stop by your blog and ruin your day. You have the power to ignore these types of comments, you can even choose not to publish them on your blog.

It’s your blog and you started it because you want to work hard towards a better life. Don’t let someone who found your blog online derail you from your Internet dreams.

Don’t Focus On Your Blog Metrics

I know that this sounds like a cliche since every month I journal my blog growth by sharing my blog traffic reports with you. As a blogger, it’s important to know the numbers of your blog.

After all, you don’t get to work on your blog full-time yet. So you need to make sure the blogging tasks you are doing are actually helping you grow your blog.

Related: Weekly Blogging Duties What I’m Doing to Grow My Blog

However, what I am referring to is don’t check your Google Analytics every morning. If you still don’t have it installed, check out this tutorial that I created that will help you get Google Analytics installed on your WordPress blog.

Once you have it installed on your blog, your job is just to focus on growing your blog. It’s going to take a lot of hard work to grow a blog.

One of the quickest ways to second guess yourself if you’re doing things incorrectly is to live by your blog metrics. Make it a point to check your analytics once per month.

The only blog number that matters is your blog income and your email subscribers. As long as you see your income growing and your email list growing, everything is good.

These are the only two numbers that I care about. Yes, I keep track of other numbers on my blog, but the truth is that I don’t really care about them.

As long as my blog income is growing and my email subscribers are increasing, I am happy.

Work On Increasing Your Page Views

So many people will say that page views don’t matter. I know, I know, we all should want targetted traffic to our blogs. I do agree with this and I don’t obsess over page views.

However, more page views mean that more people are visiting your blog. This increases the chances of someone clicking on one of your affiliate links. Buying your Amazon Kindle books, your products or even hires you to do something for them.

You can check out my Amazon books here.

You need page views, without them, your blog is pretty much just a hobby blog.

Don’t believe me, read this post about why you should focus on increasing your page views. Becky and Paula have written a great post that shares how much a blogger makes based on page views.

It’s an interesting read and if you want to know more about how to make money with your blog.

I recommend the book How To Blog For Profit: Without Selling Your Soul.

This book will give you an inside look at what it actually takes to create a successful blog. The great thing is that it’s filled with real life examples of how bloggers are actually making money with their blogs.

Create Your Avatar

One of the best things you can do is sit down and create your avatar. Who is your blog for? Remember, your blog isn’t for everyone.

Take, for instance, this blog. My blog is for new bloggers who need help with the techie side of WordPress and want to create a profitable blog that brings them passive income.

My blog isn’t for advanced bloggers who want to learn how to create themes and plugins. It isn’t for bloggers who want to learn how to use paid advertising to grow their blog.

Why?

Well, the truth is that I don’t know anything about those things. So it would be virtually impossible for me to share information on those things.

I can only write content on things that know about or am interested in. I figure since I started this blog to help me move from my freelancing gig to a full-time entrepreneur, I could share my journey with you.

Since I’ve been working with WordPress for over 8 years, the techie side of blogging comes pretty easily to me. So I figure why not share my WordPress tutorials for beginners who don’t know anything about using WordPress.

If you still don’t know who you’re helping, then maybe it’s time you sit down and figure out who you’re avatar is. Once you figure it out, write content for that one person.

Chances are there are more people like that one person out on the Internet. If they haven’t found you yet, eventually, as you keep writing content that caters to them, they will find you.

One Thing I Did

It’s so easy to write content that doesn’t help your avatar. When I started this blog, I sat down and really figured out who my avatar was. I got clear about their pain points, their struggles and try to cater my content to what will actually help them.

It takes time and to really come up with an avatar for your blog. I even went so far as to add an image of my avatar on a whiteboard with their pains and struggles underneath them.

Now when I sit down to write my content, I just look at my whiteboard and write content that is helpful.

Don’t worry if you don’t know your avatar yet. As you continue writing content, you will get clearer on who your people are. I suggest taking an afternoon or weekend and really figuring out who your trying to help.

Treat Your Blog Like A Business

I know that it’s hard to treat your blog like a business, especially, when it’s a side hustle right now. However, if you want it to grow into a profitable business, it’s important to work on it every day.

You might have to get up an hour earlier every morning just to write a new blog post. Maybe you will have to give up watching television when you get home from your day job and work on your blog.

If you’re serious about turning your blog into a business, then you’re going to have to sacrifice somewhere. The great thing is that eventually all your sacrifice and hard work will pay off.

Find out what you’re willing to give up to grow your blog. Your blog is not going to grow if you’re not working diligently to grow your blog.

Final Take Away

It’s exciting to start a blog and think about all the possibilities that can be. However, growing a blog takes time and a lot of hard work.

Put your head down and just keep working towards your goals. You are the only one who knows what you want to accomplish with your blog.

Don’t stress about the small little details, remember, you will figure everything out as you continue growing. As long as you’re creating amazing content that helps your peeps, then you’ll be good.

Hand Picked Articles for You

• 42 Ways of Coming Up With Blogging Ideas
• Advice for New Bloggers That Will Help You Keep Blogging
• What to Expect The First Year As A New Blogger My Experience

 
Have you ever felt stuck with blogging? Share what stumped you and what got you back on track to continue working on your blog, I’d love to hear how you got out of the blogging slump.