The internet is full of great articles about blogging, including how to build a successful blog.
Maybe this will become one of them, whatever.
However, this piece is different.
You'll see.
Starting a new blog is an exciting time that is filled with a lot of hope and enthusiasm. A lot of the people who read this particular blog are here because they have fallen in love with the art of blogging and want to make it a big part of their life.
The sad part is that most bloggers will lose that excitement and enthusiasm when they start to realize that results are hard to come by – traffic is low, earnings are hard to achieve, and growth just doesn't seem to occur. It's important to recognize why these bloggers may have failed, so that you can make sure you don't fall into the same traps.
If you've been harboring this wonderful desire to start a blog and make a living, let me tell you this:
This is the perfect time to decide not to self-host (WordPress) your blog, not now.
I want you to take that decision, seriously.
So what is the biggest danger for new bloggers?
The popular advice you often hear from affiliate marketers: Go WordPress self-hosting. They advocate this with ardent dedication because they want you to click on his/her referral link to host your blog. That's all they want. However, none of them is giving you the right advice. Okay, let me explain:
By the end of this post, you'll understand what it takes to become a successful blogger, so that you too, can join the long list of blogging success stories. Let's get started.
The Reality of Search Engine and Advertising
It is no secret that we live in an age of information overload. Almost every blogger seems to have some ideas about blogging, creating engaging contents, SEO and copywriting. But why most of them are failing?
It takes several elements to succeed or fail. Below I'd love to share one fundamental reason why most bloggers fail and which no one seems to care enough to share.
Search Engine: When I started blogging in 2004, I hoped that I would get a ton of traffic through search engines because all of the other popular blogs got a lot of Google love. The reality is you won't get too much traffic from Google because your blog is new…it takes years before your search engine traffic kicks in.
Advertising: Want to grow your blog faster? You need to go for paid advertising. Typically, organic content on social media is used for branding or creating brand awareness. With paid advertising, you are guaranteed reach and can utilise your content to elevate your brand with specific targeting and obtain more qualified leads. With such high usage of paid advertising by marketers across the globe, you should really consider the online paid advertising space.
Now, if you are a new blogger with little budget, the biggest danger for you is going self-hosting (WordPress). Majority of the affiliate marketers will tell you to go self-hosting and start a WordPress site. I am not saying they are wrong. But majority of beginners had failed, and that's a fact.
The moment you pay for your hosting, the clock starts ticking nonstop for the next billing. In the beginning, search engines will not give you the traffic you badly needed, and so you will start wasting your time in promoting and building your blog (including SEO, backlinks) after going online instead of marketing, advertising or selling.
 |
| Time waits for no one |
So when the time comes for the next hosting bills (1000+), you had to decline because you made no money from your blog. And you finally quit.
In the beginning, the only person visiting your blog may be you. It takes months or even years to grow loyal audience. So why spend thousands of money on paid hosting now? If building a succesful website or blog, one that generates substantial income, is going to take months or even years, why go for paid hosting now?
If you don't want to fail and you want to be succesful, you should take a step back before investing now and ponder on this important question.
SEO has changed and we must change. We all know SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a long-term strategy. It may take days, weeks or months for Google to crawl your website or blog. But it will take years to be on the top Search Engine Result Page (SERP), provided you followed the best SEO practices.
Ask this yourself. Do you think you can simply beat your competitors on the search result page who are ahead of you by 10-20 years by following some SEO techniques? Don't you think they are most probably following the best SEO practices to beat their own competitors? I think it's about time to stop listening to those SEO experts who want your business and start focusing on your business.
To get started, you don't need a self-hosted website or blog. You can build a branded site with a custom domain name on a reliable free hosting site like Blogger and Github Page. You can buy a custom domain name from NameCheap for as low as $8.88. And that's it!
After getting the recognition you need - with your custom domain name + free hosting, you have all the freedom to switch for the self-hosting plan - anytime. You can make this happen in 3-5 years. So don't quit on the way. When you reach this stage, you can literally sell almost anything and be successful.
