5 Blogging Myths Demystified
Credit: soooo
Just like any career, blogging has its own myths. Blogging is obviously a hot buzzword these days. It has been for a while now. So it’s no surprise that people have some assumptions about what bloggers do and how much money they make. But those are people looking in from outside. There are plenty of newbie bloggers who have a set of unrealistic expectations when they get into this business. It’s too easy to assume that if Darren Rowse is making thousands of dollars a month from his blog, so can you. You may also assume that you can run a blog for just a few dollars a months, essentially keeping most of everything you make for yourself. In reality, things don’t work that way. A lot of things that people tell you about blogging are myth. The sooner you realize that, the better off you are.
5 Blogging Myths
Get Rich Quick: there have been bloggers who have made it big time in a fairly short period of time. But 99.99% of bloggers don’t get to that point. And those who do have worked very hard for everything they have achieved. It’s easy to get encouraged by those $100K Adsense checks. But don’t ever assume anything unless you have all the facts.
Free Web Hosting: many new bloggers start their blog on WordPress.com or Blogger network. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you are serious about blogging, you should always take time to register your own domain and host your own website. As your blog becomes more popular, you will have to spend more money on hosting. But consider it an investment in your business.
Platform: many bloggers assume that if you choose Drupal or WordPress for your blog, you are going to have much more success as a blogger. I admit that WordPress has been a great help for me. The platform is very easy to get a handle on, and the plugins make it much easier to enhance my blog. At the same time, the same things could have been accomplished with Drupal or even Joomla. You certainly want to take advantage of a decent CMS for your blog, but don’t assume that you are going to make it big if you suddenly switch to WordPress from your old CMS.
Post Frequency: many bloggers assume that the more articles they write a day, the more traffic they are going to get. That could be true as long as your posts are all of high quality and valuable to your readers. But if you are writing extremely short posts that don’t add anything to your blog, then you may be better off posting less frequently to focus on the quality of your posts. Besides, after a while your readers get used to your posting frequency. Make sure you don’t set the pace too high to handle.
Social Media: I admit that social media has been a game changer for bloggers. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook can drive lots of traffic to your blog and help your posts go viral. But don’t take social media as a silver bullet. Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites are not all about you. So don’t ever think you can just post your blog posts to Twitter and suddenly become a superstar. Getting traffic from social networking sites may look easy, but if you are not taking time to contribute and add value to the community, you are going to turn people off.
There you have it. One thing I have learned about this business (the hard way I must add) is one should not assume anything in the blogging world. If something looks or sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
