Are You Scared to Start a Blog?

Are you scared to start a blog? Here are 10 common fears and 10 reasons to stop being afraid to start a blog. Blogging is an amazing adventure and I’d hate for you to miss out because you are scared to start a blog.

I’ve noticed over the years that many women want to start blogs, even have great ideas, and yet they never get started. Because I love the craft of blogging so much I was curious what was keeping people from even starting and talked to women who wanted to start blogs but hadn’t.

Real Women Reveal Their Real Fears About Blogging

These are the actual reasons women gave me for not starting a blog. Do any of these statements sound like you? These are REAL things that women have said to me about why they haven’t started their blog yet. 

• “I’m struggling with what feels like every aspect of it” 
• “I think I’m scared to start writing because I don’t want to fail?” 
• “I wanted to be confident in what I was offering.”
• “I feel like I am having such a hard time trying to narrow my focus, my mind is really all over the place.”
• “I don’t have full-time hours to devote to blogging at the this moment.”
• “I am still trying to figure out a name for my blog”

Don’t be Scared to Start a Blog!

After two years of working with new bloggers, I keep seeing the same reasons over and over. To help all of you who want to be bloggers but for some reason haven’t, I’m going to help you face your concerns about blogging so you can get started right away.

Most women don’t regret starting a blog but they often regret not starting it sooner!

Why Start Right Blogging Right Away?

The reason to start right away is because you truly learn blogging by BLOGGING! It doesn’t have to be perfect from the get-go. And the best way to get over all the things holding you back is by creating your blog.

I LOVE blogging and love to write about it. Here are my favorite posts to help you become a real blogger.
How to Start a Blog for Profit and Fun
How to Write Your First Blog Post
How to Let Blog Topics Find You
How to Go from Beginner to Blogger
How to Use Pinterest to Grow Your Blog
How Blogging Changed my Life

As a member of several groups and as  an active blogger, I know that a lot of the things that hold people back from starting are mostly in their minds. What I mean is, that the REAL barrier to starting a blog is something that you tell yourself about starting a blog.

10 Reasons Women are Afraid to Start a Blog

To help people get past those limiting thoughts, I’ve created a list of 10 reasons you haven’t started your blog yet. If any of these reasons are stopping you then I hope you will reconsider and just get started.

Here are my Top Ten Reasons Why You Are Afraid to Start a Blog

Blogging Fear One: You Can’t Decide on a Name for Your Blog

Yes, a name is important but if picking a name keeps you from blogging for months, then you are going to just have to get over picking the “perfect” name.

In general, to pick a name you play around with some ideas. Then you run them through a domain name checker to see if the name is taken. If it is, you try again. It can be frustrating to have your first choice not be available. It’s a good idea to go for a .com name since most people are used to that.

That all being said, what if you just can’t decide on anything? Do your best. Domain names themselves aren’t very expensive. If you change your mind before you start your blog, you can always pick something else. A friend of mine did that.

Yes, there are some really great blog names out there but you don’t have to have the perfect name to be successful.

Here’s something most new bloggers don’t know. Very few people come to your blog because of its name. Most people find your blog because of a specific post that they’ve seen promoted on social media or Pinterest.

Eventually if they visit more times or you get really big-time, people will know the name. And if that happens—no worries. They connect your name with a great blog!

Start with the best name you can and grow your blog into something that makes your blog name AMAZING.

Blogging Fear Two: You’re Not a Great Writer

You might think this is a perfectly good reason to not write. You’d be wrong.

Let’s face some truth here. Most people are not going to read your early stuff when it’s written. This is your time to try out different topics and practice your writing. By writing, you will learn what subjects really resonate with you and with your readers and you will get better at writing them.

Writing is a skill that is best developed by DOING. You can’t become a great writer without writing. As you network with other bloggers and get involved in social media, you’ll read more blogs and you’ll learn better ways of organizing your thoughts.

Best of all—you don’t have to be a great writer to be a great blogger. Many popular and successful bloggers are just okay writers.

Blogging Fear Three: You’re Afraid of the Technology

The technology behind a blog can be kind of scary and at points in our blogging journey, all of us have to learn new things.

Yet, the basic technology for starting a blog is not that difficult. You can find a how-to post that will walk you through it to get started.

For the first few months, it’s enough to write a new post or two each week, create a graphic for it, and publish it. If you concentrate on creating good content, you will be putting yourself in a strong position for everything else you’ll need to learn.

Once you are doing that consistently and confidently, then go to the next thing. Many bloggers are trying to do all kinds of things when they are still writing poorly and making bad graphics. Trust me here. You really don’t want to be promoting your early posts before they are ready.

But when you are doing them relatively well, then it’s time to master the next thing. People might try to scare you about having to do this or that but stay the course and get a good foundation under you.

There will ALWAYS be a next thing and you will be ready for it.

Blogging Fear Four: You are worried what people will think?

Almost everyone worries about what people will think when they first start blogging. Start your blog anyway. And by “people,” I mean people in your real life: spouses, parents, siblings, children, friends, and co-workers.

You don’t have to tell people in your real life. Don’t worry, the real people in your life aren’t going to be that interested anyway. You might think you need them to get a few eyes on your posts but you don’t.

Your real audience will develop organically. Some people that love you dearly will NEVER even look at your blog. It’s more common for people to not care about what you write than for people to care about what you write.

As you progress and you write about what you need to write about, you will care less and less what people you know think. Why should you? You have thousands of other readers that you are helping and that will be your focus.

Blogging Fear Five: You don’t know what to write 

Start writing anyway! When I started, I had some ideas about what I wanted to write about. It was difficult in the beginning because I wasn’t sure about the right topics. However, I just kept on writing.

Eventually, some topics I had never even thought about began to come to mind. And fortunately, I wrote about them. Over my first year or so, my topics seemed to center around five categories. Some categories from the beginning just didn’t work out and I let them go.

Some of my best performing posts just came to me and I wrote them without having thought about them before. That’s inspiration folks!

Yet, I know from experience that inspiration needs regular feeding. When I get inspired, I write down as much as I can on the topic. I will usually have a few open posts that I’m working on. Sometimes, an idea is so strong, I can write the whole thing in one sitting. Sometimes I work on it over a period of time.

Inspiration will get you started but the commitment to writing daily is what will get posts finished and published.

In the beginning, try any topic you want—even if it feels different from what you were thinking your blog would be about, this is how we develop our true writing voices.

It’s great to have a plan but the greatest writing sometimes comes from when we are willing to write something we hadn’t planned.

Blogging Fear Six: You think you don’t have the time

Here’s something that every blogger feels: There is never enough time. I’m a part-time blogger and I never have the time to do everything I want to do. Yet, because I’m committed and I work on my blog and/or social media almost every day, I’ve built a blog that I’m extremely proud of.

It is seriously, one of the greatest joys and achievements of my life.

My daughter at The Soccer Mom Blog writes full-time and supports a family of four with her business. She started part-time with a school-age child and a newborn. Again, she never has enough time to do everything she wants to do.

That’s okay. Learning to manage our time is part of the process. Every morning I do some of my social media work. Weekends and days off are when I do most of my writing. In the evenings, I will do a little of whatever needs doing.

By being consistent and committed, a blog grows and earns its place in the world. You don’t have to be fulltime to make it work but you do have to be consistent.

Blogging Fear Seven: You’re afraid you will fail

You won’t fail if you don’t start that’s for sure. You also won’t fail if you remain consistent and committed and you keep stretching to be better.

Who decides if you fail or not anyway? I have seen good bloggers decide that when year is up, if they aren’t making money they will quit.

To be making money by the one year mark, is a totally made-up and arbitrary indicator of success. Some people are making money at the one-year mark; it’s not impossible. But for many people that is just not going to happen. THAT is not failure—it’s simply that it hasn’t happened at that point in time.

Blogs and bloggers are different. Only you decide if you succeed or fail. Don’t let anyone decide for you and never compare your progress to anyone else’s.

It truly is sad to see someone quit because they don’t think they have succeeded by a certain date. It’s even sadder to see someone not try at all.

TRY!

Blogging Fear Eight: You Can’t Narrow Your Interests

To some extent, you will need to narrow them down so they fit under one umbrella. However, it can be a big umbrella and you can change it if you need to.

Some things you think you want to write about just won’t feel relevant after a while. New topics may come up. As you write, you will naturally settle on a few general categories that make sense for you and your readers.

Here is a very important thing to know. Blogs are not an online diary. You will be writing posts to have a specific focus and to provide specific information for your readers.

Your posts will be written to help someone with something. No matter how many things you are interested in; there aren’t going to be unlimited subjects that you can help people with.

Don’t worry about narrowing it down-think about what you know enough about to write about in a helpful way and start writing.

Blogging Fear Nine: You think all the good ideas have been done

Don’t ever fall for this one! Of course, other people have written about your topics before. However, no one has ever written about them the way you will. Your voice will be unique and you will say it in a way that appeals to readers.

One hundred people can write about the same thing and they will all sound different. Your slant will be different than anyone else’s.

Occasionally, I will see a post with the same name as mine. When I go check it out, expecting to see it look the same, I am always surprised by how different another blogger has tackled the subject.

Have you ever visited the cookbook section of a bookstore? Food is food. Take a potato for example. Google how many recipes there are for a potato. Millions.

Don’t worry that all the good stuff is already taken; there is always room for one more voice if you have something to say.

Blogging Fear Ten: You don’t think you are confident enough

Of all the reasons, don’t let this one stop you. Feeling confident when you start will not make you a better or more successful blogger. However, building and growing your blog WILL make you more confident.

No one knows for sure if they have what it takes when they start. The difference between those that eventually feel confident and those that don’t, is that the confident bloggers keep at it until they feel that way.

You can become confident through the process of blogging. It’s difficult to become confident simply by reading and thinking about blogging.

Quick Start List to Get Blogging Today

It can seem overwhelming all the stuff you have to do. Again, don’t let this stop you. You don’t have to know everything at once! Give yourself time to learn one thing before you move on to another.

This is a list of resources including posts I’ve written (free information!) and one paid class. Bluehost is an affiliate link. You can read my full disclosure here.

Four Steps to Become a Blogger

Set Up Your Blog

Take a day when you have some time and set up your blog. That’s it. Just get it set up. Here’s my tutorial. I have BlueHost and one thing I really like now is that Word Press is automatically installed for you now.

Setting up your blog sounds worse than it is! It doesn’t have to be perfect or “professional” yet. In fact, give yourself permission to NOT be perfect!

Then once that is done—write your first blog post!

Write Your First Blog Post

Write your first blog post. Here’s my guide for doing that. Or just write whatever you want to write about. I wrote a guide because blogging is not writing an online diary. There are some good habits to learn early and I share them here.

Make Your First Pinterest Graphic

Learn to make a Pinterest Graphic. This one is huge. Pinterest is the leading referrer of traffic to blogs. Page views are how most (but not all) bloggers make money through ads or sponsored posts. More page views = more money.

If you are handy with graphic-making programs such as PicMonkey or Canva, then start making your own. If you need extra help, I have a class that can really help, Pins that Produce.

Get Support and Help

Once you’ve got started, come join us in the Banking on Blogging Facebook group where you can learn the foundations of blogging that will set you up for success.

Are You Ready to Start Your Blog?

Feel free to stay in these first four steps as long as YOU need! Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. As I said earlier, it takes commitment and consistency to make it as a blogger. If you take nothing else from this post remember that.

Don’t let anyone tell you how fast you need to go or set artificial goals for you. And please, do not let any of the above reasons keep you from starting a blog.

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging my friend!

Love, Sara

RELATED Blogging POSTS

How to Start a Blog for Profit and Fun

How Blogging Changed My Life

How to Write Your First Blog Post

How to Let Blog Topics Find You

Grow Your Blog with Pinterest