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How to Blog Effectively When You’re Feeling Stuck

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Last updated on August 1st, 2018 at 06:40 pm

One of the biggest hurdles a new blogger faces is how to blog effectively when they get stuck. When you finally launch your blog, you’re probably so excited that you took the leap and are working towards your Internet dreams.

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how to blog effectively

Congratulations, you’ve now joined the millions of blogs that are available online. So now what? At first it’s exciting but soon you’ll start to second guess yourself.

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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

holding you back

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

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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

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.

If you need help understanding WordPress, I’ve compiled a great list of WordPress tutorials on this blog that will make it easy for you to understand WordPress better. If you’re ready to rock your WordPress blog, then be sure to visit my WordPress tutorials for new bloggers.

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

 
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.

 

My Recommended Blogging Resources!

Here are my affiliate links for my most recommended resources. I hope these resources can help you grow your blog too!

Free 12 Day Blogging Bootcamp: This is a course that will show you how to get your blog started.

ShareASale: ShareASale is one of my favorite affiliate networks. It’s free to sign up and they have tons of advertisers that make it easy for any blogger to make money through affiliate marketing.

SEMRush: This tool is amazing and has helped me increase my organic traffic. It is expensive, so don’t pay for it every month. When I’m NOT using it, I’m using KWFinder to help me with my keyword research.

Quiz: Which theme is best for your blog?: Take this quiz if you’re having a hard time trying to decide which WordPress theme you should use.

If you want to build an email list and send newsletters, I recommend ConvertKit: I’ve started using this to help me grow my blog and it is so user-friendly.

JumpStart Blog Traffic: Learn my secrets to growing my blog from zero pageviews to growing each and every month, using Google and Pinterest.

About Susan Velez

Hi! I'm Susan welcome to my blog. Are you ready to use the Internet and a computer to change your finances? I share tips to help you make money online through blogging, side hustles and other non-traditional methods learn more Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Velin N. says

    Hey Susan!

    Great tips, as always. I recognized myself is most points you mentioned, as my day always starts with checking my rankings and page views.

    Instead of creating valuable content that can help others, most people (including me) waste too much time on the design and other parts of their blogs. There is no way to increase your page views when you are not creating something valuable for others that people will want to read and share.

    By the way, this is the first time I’m commenting on your blog. I recently found it and now I’m checking it on daily basis. Keep up the good work, I really enjoy your content.

    Best,
    Velin

  2. Susan Velez says

    Hi Velin,

    Welcome to the blog, I am so glad that you enjoy the content. I try to make it as helpful as I possibly can.

    You’re right, checking your page Analytic stats on a daily basis is a bad habit. I still find myself doing it sometimes. (I am getting better at not doing it, but it does take time to break that habit)

    Glad you finally decided to comment, nice meeting you and feel free to stop by anytime.

    Hope you have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  3. Moss Clement says

    Hi Susan,

    I agree to your points that many bloggers waisted too much time checking their rankings, page views, etc instead of creating quality content.

    My blog is relatively new, however, I tried so much to avoid focusing on my stats, instead, I ensure to create more high-quality content to help me build a loyal readership, and traffic.

    Thanks for sharing Susan!

  4. Susan Velez says

    Hi Moss,

    I’ve seen your blog and you’re on the right track to creating awesome high quality time. As your blog grows, you won’t have any trouble growing your audience.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  5. Ravi Chahar says

    Hey Susan,

    People always discourage others. If someone wants to grow, he/she should focus only on the goal. I remember when I used to check the page views multiple time in a day.

    It doesn’t matter how many visitors you get. Everything changes with the time. Blogging is a long process and people should remain consistent.

    ~Ravi

  6. Navin Rao says

    Wonderful Susan,
    It’s quite, common for a new blogger to get criticized by other so called bloggers. And i agree, there are people who just comment to bully even if they don’t know what they are doing at all… And the advice would be, publish their comment without hesitation, not let them decide what you are up to, instead show to whole world what the commenter was up to… A focused blogger never be effected with such things…

    I love the point, you have mentioned, treat your blog as business.

    Certainly this the formula of growing. Build your personal brand as the businesses do showing good social media presence and creating marvelous content around your niche and also making new friends….

    Have a great day, a good read!

    Navin

  7. Susan Velez says

    Hi Ravi,

    Yeah, it’s easy to get discouraged at the beginning because most people think that they can grow their blog in a few weeks.

    Consistency is the key to blogging.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  8. Susan Velez says

    Hi Navin,

    That’s the cool thing is that you get full control over who’s comments you want to publish on your blog. Me, I would prefer not to publish anything negative on my blog.

    I try to keep trolls off my blog after all, I am running a business and don’t want to deal with negativity.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  9. Arfa | Epife blog says

    Hi Susan,

    You’ve summed it up so well. A lot of new bloggers get discouraged in the early stages of blogging. There can be several reasons for that. You have fairly discussed the important ones. I usually give the same advice to my readers that take the first step and you will start growing. Blogging isnt any traffic race but it’s more about providing value, sharing experiences and engaging with an audience.

    Thanks for sharing great tips here.

    Arfa

  10. Susan Velez says

    Hi Arfa,

    It’s so easy to get discouraged at the beginning because you work so hard and don’t see the results. It does take time to grow a blog.

    You’re definitely right, providing value and sharing your own personal experiences is a great way to gain an audience.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  11. Lisa P Sicard says

    Susan, Even us bloggers that have been around for some time now get stuck. I sometimes think “will this one be good enough?” “Will it generate traffic? ” Etc.
    We should focus more on what can we do to help others. When you get questions from readers, blog an answer to them and others who may have the same question.
    We just have to DO IT, like the Nike brand phrase from years ago. No more thinking, just do it!
    Thanks for the inspiration on this one Susan 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!

  12. Susan Velez says

    Hi Lisa,

    It’s so easy to get stuck when things aren’t going the way that we had hoped.

    Great tip on just doing it not matter what.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment and I hope you have a wonderful weekend as well.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  13. Hassaan Khan says

    Hi Susan,

    I so much believe in the core message of this blog post. I used to care a lot about what people think; it wasn’t helping. It’s not just about blogging, in fact, it’s a lifehack.

    We care so much while wearing clothes, buying shoes, sharing our blog post, and pitching our service.

    I’m reading Tony Robbins’ book “Unlimited Power,” and it’s helping me so much so that it’s changing the way I think about business. Not only did it make it more confident, but I also learned how to react to certain things in life.

    Some of your points are incredible — like “don’t wait for the approval” and “don’t listen to people.” I liked this blog post. It made me happy that you talked about all this.

  14. Susan Velez says

    Hi Hassaan,

    I know what you mean, I think we all go through that stage in life where we seek approval from other people.

    Glad to hear that you’re getting over that by reading Tony Robbin’s book. I love that book.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  15. Elvis Michael says

    Hey Susan, great stuff as always 🙂
    I find that some niches / demographics are much more vocal than others, for one reason or another. Some people who are into video games, for example, won’t waste a second to put you down if they disagree with something you wrote.

    Thankfully, exposure is what gives you a thick skin. So you keep on publishing and learning from good and harsh criticism alike.

    And as far as being stuck, i tend to suffer from the complete apposite: I have more ideas than I can handle in 24 hours, so I try my best to ignore them and simply write them down for future reference.

    – To our success!
    Elvis

  16. Disa Rastogi says

    Hi Susan,

    Thanks for sharing wonderful tips for newbie bloggers. And yes, one has to sacrifice something, to squeeze time from our daily schedule for blogging. This very much applies to me. Hoping to start working on my blog more.

    Regards,
    Disa

  17. Susan Velez says

    Hi Disa,

    Yeah, it can be challenging when you’re not a full-time blogger yet.

    Glad to hear that you’re going to be working on your blog more.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  18. Susan Velez says

    Hi Elvis,

    You’re definitely right, putting ourselves out on the Internet will definitely toughen us up. We can’t always care what people say.

    Glad to hear that you never have any issues coming up with ideas.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  19. Donna Merrill says

    Hi Susan,

    I think what was so important about that you shared here is that people need to not worry about if things are perfect.

    They just have to do what they know they can do, and make it happen.

    Of course, you’re going to pick up some new tricks and spend time studying new things.

    But you can’t get stuck there.

    You just have to keep moving forward.

    Like you say… it’ll all come together eventually, if you just keep doing what you’ve gotta do.

    -Donna

  20. Susan Velez says

    Hi Donna,

    Perfection stops us from moving forward. Just do it and make the changes as you learn.

    Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  21. Christina Eni says

    Hi Susan!
    Good Day!

    First of all thank you for share an amazing article, this really encourage me a lot. I was really fed up about my blog due to lack of some good knowledge.
    You exactly said the right thing don’t get stuck there, keep moving forward. Now I will really get time to write an article on daily bases.

    ~Christina

  22. Susan Velez says

    Hi Christina,

    Welcome to my blog and I am glad that the article motivated to help you keep moving forward.

    Blogging is tough and can be discouraging at times. Just keep pushing yourself forward and learning and implementing and I have no doubt that you will see the results you want.

    Feel free to come back anytime you want.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan