Last updated on August 1st, 2018 at 06:56 pm
So you’ve bought your domain and got hosting, now you’re ready to share your passion with the world. You sit down and write the first blog post.
However, instead of hitting publish you hit draft of the pending review button. You tell yourself, I’ll publish it when my blog is ready.
A week later that first blog post still isn’t live. For some reason or another, you just can’t pull the trigger on it. That little voice inside of your head keeps telling you that you missed a step or your logo just isn’t pretty enough.
The First Blog Post Is The Scariest
Look, I get it, nothing is scarier than putting yourself out there on the Internet and sharing a piece of yourself. We are our own worst critics. But if you really want to create a blog that earns money, you’re just going to have to sit down and do it.
I’ve written a blog post that will walk you through step-by-step on some great first blog post ideas that will give you the best bang for your time and energy.
Don’t waste your time writing blog posts that aren’t going to make a difference in your traffic. Otherwise, you could be spinning your wheels for months without noticing a difference in return.
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We’re our own worst critic. Starting a blog and learning the techie side is the easy part, sure it may take some time to get comfortable with it.
However, many new bloggers tend to play around with plugins, headers, colors and anything else that prevents them from going live with their first blog post.
Why?
Because it’s easier to sit there and change out our themes than it is to publish your first blog post. After all, no one sees your thoughts or feelings if you keep them in draft mode.
However, if you really want to make money on your blog. If you hate your job or just want to make a side income from your blog, there’s no way around it. You’re going to have to hit publish hopefully, sooner than later.
11 Things Holding You Back From Going Live
Let me know if any of these things are holding you back from going live with your blog. Hopefully, you’ll realize that it’s nothing more than fear.
It’s Not Easy
I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that it was always easy for me to share my personal experiences with you. I used to be ashamed to admit my blogging mistakes. I thought that no one would take me seriously on this blog.
There are still days that I feel like this. However, I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I don’t really care about what other people think. Plus I know that if my clients are willing to pay me for my WordPress work, then I must know something right π
As you continue publishing new content on a regular basis, it will get easier. The great thing is that you won’t have traffic from day one.
This gives you a chance to perfect your blogging voice and get comfortable with your writing style. When you finally start learning what it takes to grow a blog, you’ll sound like you know what you’re talking about.
It’s Not Perfect
Get it out of your head right now that everything has to be perfect. You might not have hit publish yet because you’re waiting until you have the perfect logo, the right social sharing plugin, the right theme or whatever.
The truth is that none of that matters. I know that you want your blog to look amazing before you go live. But the truth is it’s just an excuse that’s holding you back from going live.
My blog isn’t perfect, in fact, it’s far from perfect.
I had no desire to pay for a web designer when I started my blog. Instead, I just used the Genesis Framework and am using the Daily Dish Pro theme.
It doesn’t have to be perfect from day one. In fact, you don’t need to spend thousands on your blog design. Read this story about how a food blogger is getting 6 million views from a $70 blog.
It’s very inspiring and will have you thinking totally different about your blog.
Thinking Your Blog Is For Everyone
Believe it or not, your blog isn’t for everyone. There are going to be some people who may visit your blog once and they will never come back.
Then you’ll find those readers who find your blog and theyΒ are so enticed by the content that they sign up for your email list, blog feed, and subscribe to everything that you do.
They may even reach out to you via email asking you for your help.
Those are the people that you’re writing to. You don’t have to worry about whether or not everyone loves your blog or not. Because the truth is that not everyone is going to.
Remember, you’re just blogging to get your little corner of the Internet. You don’t need to try to reach everyone.
You Don’t Know Who Your Audience Is
Pretty much all new bloggers make the mistake of not knowing who their blog is for. We tend to believe that our blog is for everyone.
However, this isn’t the case. Hopefully, you’ve taken the time to find out who you’re trying to reach with your blog. Here’s a great article that will help you discover who your avatar is.
When I first started this blog, I had a hard time figuring out who my readers were. It wasn’t until I sat down and really dug deep into my avatar.
Just by doing this, I am now able to write better content. Whenever I sit down, I write content just for my avatar and let me tell you, that has made a world of difference.
It Doesn’t Sound Good
Maybe you have your blog content written but for one reason or another, it just doesn’t sound good. You have proofread it several times, but something is missing?
As I mentioned above, we are our own worst critic. Your blog post probably sounds fantastic, sure it may not win a Pulitzer prize, but I have no doubt that it will be fine.
Ask Yourself These Questions
- Does the content help your reader?
- Was it written to help solve a particular problem?
- Is the post focused on one particular topic?
If you can answer “yes” to these questions, then just close your eyes and hit publish. trust me, it won’t be the end of the world.
Thinking You Need More Than One Post
I see it all the time in Facebook groups. New bloggers are constantly asking “how many blog posts do I need before I go live?” Of course, everyone is different.
Remember when I said that you won’t be bombarded with tons of visitors as soon as you hit publish. It doesn’t matter if you go live with one post or 5 posts.
It’s going to take a while before you start getting visitors to your blog.
The longer you wait to go live, it’s just going to hinder your blogging journey. Remember when you first thought about starting a blog?
You pre-paid for your hosting like I did. Your goal is that in 3 years your blog will be able to pay for itself. Well the sooner you get your post published and start writing amazing content, your blog will be able to sustain itself 3 years down the road.
Am I Using The Right Plugins?
It’s so easy to fall into the mindset that if you’re using the right plugins, your blog will grow faster. Sure there are some awesome plugins that can help make our job easier.
Related: My Favorite WordPress Plugins
But the truth is that it doesn’t matter which plugins you use. Plugins alone will not make your blog successful. You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and work hard on providing the best content possible.
Oh, a word of advice is to make sure that you’re using a social sharing plugin that makes it easy for people to share your content.
Remember, you can always change out plugins or add new ones as your blog grows. So don’t let that little voice tell you that you’re not using the right plugins.
There’s So Much to Do
Okay, you’ve written your first blog post, but you’re stuck in paralysis analysis. You have no clue what to do after hitting publish. Instead of hitting publish you head on over to the Internet and spend time reading what other people do after publishing a blog post.
Related: How to Grow a Blog What I’m Focusing On My Second Year
Yes, it can be overwhelming so much in fact, that we find ourselves trying to do everything. We know the importance of promoting our blog posts.
After all, no one is going to read your new blog post if you’re not putting it front of new readers. Well, the truth is that all comes with time.
The best thing you can do is take it one step at a time. If you hit publish today, you can start off by promoting your blog posts in the Facebook Groups that you visit on a regular basis.
This will start getting readers to your blog. Many Facebook groups have share days where you get to share your blog posts on a daily basis. Heck, you can even do what a lot of new bloggers do, which is start pinning your content on Pinterest.
Eventually, you’ll have your own set of blogging tasks that you do every time you publish a new blog post. The most important thing is to remember we all started from zero and it takes time to get comfortable with what you should be doing to grow your blog.
Am I On The Right Blogging Platform?
Hopefully, you started a self-hosted WordPress blog. If not that’s okay, you can still start blogging on a free platform. Maybe you’re just testing the waters to see if blogging is right for you.
I have to admit, blogging is hard. It takes time to build a successful blog. Most people will end up quitting before they see their hard work pay off.
How Do I Know This?
Because I’ve quit several times in the past. I wasted so much time and money on setting up blogs that I had no business starting. Back then I was just chasing the mighty dollar.
Today, I have a self-hosted blog and I love what I do. If you’re just testing the waters right now, it’s okay. Just focus on providing the best possible content that you can.
As your blog continues to grow, you can always migrate to WordPress later.
Should I Get Feedback First?
This all goes back to thinking that your content isn’t good enough. For one reason or another, we seem to think that we need reassurance before hitting publish.
You want someone to tell you that your content is amazing. Kind of like when we were in school. Whenever we did something amazing, the teacher would reward us with a sticker that said “Good Job.”
The best thing about blogging is that you have an edit button. If you publish something you can always go back and make changes to it later.
There’s no reason to worry about getting feedback from someone. Of course, you can ask your significant other to read it first, but the truth is that they may not understand the whole blogging thing.
Just publish it, I have no doubt that it’s better than what you think it is.
Did I Properly SEO My Post?
Okay, if you’re thinking this, then you’re way ahead of the game than I was when I started my blog. I had no clue about what SEO was.
Hopefully, you’re using the Yoast SEO plugin which will make it easy to your optimize your blog posts. If you don’t know what SEO is, here’s a great tutorial to start with.
Don’t overthink SEO, as long as you get the green light, go ahead and publish. Of course, you want to make sure that you’re using the right keywords that your audience can find you.
I use and recommend the Long Tail Pro for keyword research. Unfortunately, it’s just something that we all have to learn about as we grow our blogs.
Final Take Away
Blogging is hard, especially when you don’t have a marketing background or education. Most of us have decided to become bloggers because we want to either earn a part time income or create enough so we can make this our full-time income.
If you’re like me, then you have no clue what it takes to grow a blog. That’s actually why I share my monthly blog growth stats with you.
I want to help you grow your blog. As long as you understand that it’s going to take time to grow your blog and you can’t expect overnight results, I have no doubt you’ll be fine.
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Have you published your first blog post? How long did it take you to get the courage to hit publish? Can you think of any more reasons that people don’t hit publish?
Share your thoughts and comments below, I’d love to know what is holding you back from going live with your blog.
Hey Susan!
You hit very important points here on why most hold back to get blogging and building.
The number one thing that can hold you back a lot is Overthinking. Most of the successful bloggers I’ve met started blogging because they just wanted to genuinely help others in a certain niche. They didn’t think they could make so much money doing so. They just went forward regardless of all of these little details.
My best advice to a newbie would be to find a passionate topic/niche and just go for it without any hesitation. Jump first and build your wings on the way down. You would accomplish goals a lot faster because you have no choice but to learn quick and implement quick. You have already jumped! so there is no going back!
You learn as you go, not learn before you go. Take the risk, because it is a risk. And it is a risk because it will be challenging to actually earn a living through blogging. And that is the beautiful part of it all, the success will be so much sweeter because of all of the hard work and struggles you had to go through in order to get there! π
Thank you for sharing these tips, Susan!
Let’s keep on blogging and rocking!
Best regards! π
Hey Freddy,
I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum, where I started a blog because of the money. Then I started this blog because I share my WordPress tutorials and blogging experience to help others.
I love helping others who are coming up behind me. You’re right, when you do it because you love it, it’s a whole different ballgame.
You just have to jump in and do it. If you let yourself think too much, you start coming up with all kinds of excuses.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Have a great day π
Susan
I love this, Susan. I’ve had many first blog posts during my now 8 years of blogging. How many blogs? Too many to count. But each time, there was excitement and apprehension.
I think your tips are spot on, for sure. My advice would be, spell check it, grammar proof it, add a few pretty images, make sure you have your H1 h2 h3 titles and hit that publish button! π
B
Hi Susan,
Wow, you gave me a flashback to when I started blogging. I remember I would hold off on publishing a post because it wasn’t ‘perfect’ or I feared how it would be received to the online world or socialverse. π
I like that you write for your Avatar. I don’t have one but I do have a mental picture of who my audience is. I learned that from Donna Merrill years ago. π
This is a great post Susan. Thanks for putting this together!
Cori
Hi Bren,
Like you, I’ve had several blogs in the past. Finally found something that I truly love and actually know something about.
I am terrible at proofing. I don’t mind writing, but I hate spending the time to proofread it.
Thanks for taking the time to share.
Have a great day π
Susan
Hi Cori,
I think we all tend to do that to ourselves when we’re brand new. We want everything to be perfect.
Unfortunately, it won’t ever be perfect when you first start. The cool thing is that we can always change things up on our blogs.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Hope you have a wonderful day π
Susan
Hi Susan,
Wow..you hit so many topics of when I first started bogging. My first post was short sweet and a total mess. But hey, we all have to start somewhere. I didn’t wait until everything was perfect. I was in a network marketing company at the time and was “all in” learning just about any information I could get from them to apply.
Oh boy was that a mistake he he he. But mistakes propel us to gaining the correct information we need to conquer a positive action. I knew from that point I needed marketing experience. I did have experience offline, but online was a new story.
I blogged, I studied and focused on only one topic not the three others I was doing. I’m still a learning buff. The more we learn, the more we can give to our target audience.
Thanks for covering so much here for new bloggers.
-Donna
Hi Donna,
I think we all have those beginner experiences when we really didn’t know what we were doing.
That’s the cool thing about blogging. We all learn as we grow.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Have a great day π
Susan
Hey Susan,
The first blog post (or the first few posts) are a really scary experience. You are not really sure if you should go ahead and hit that publish button no matter how hard you have worked for it.
I remember those days freshly when I would panic to make my writing public by hitting the publish butt. Scary!
Starting a blog without properly knowing about your target audience (or who your target audience is, for that matter) makes a huge contribution to those initial scares.
And of course, the little technical and SEO stuff come in your way. But with time, you can master those.
Thanks for bringing these up. Very useful.
Cheers,
Jane.
Hi Jane,
You’re right, the first few blog posts are scary.
Just like anything else, with practice and consistency it gets easier overtime.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Have a great day π
Susan
Hey Susan,
Now that you mention it, I have no idea when I wrote my first blog post or for whom (it was all ghostwriting then and I just don’t remember who my first client was — this was 16 years ago).
Now, with all that time spent writing, one would imagine I’d have a blog just that old, eh? No, I didn’t. I would easily write for others but I never started one for precisely this list of points (every single one of them).
I got down to serious blogging for my agency only 2 years ago and it’s already picking up the pace. But damn, I had to push myself to start and I still have to push myself to blog (and now I have three separate blogs) — this won’t ever end.
Great job trying to push some of us who keep lurking in fear π
Ash
Hi Ash,
We all learn from our experiences, I know that I’ve learned a lot in my online business.
Glad to hear that your blog is already picking up the pace.
Keep up the great job and thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Have a great day π
Susan