5 Difficulties that Every Newbie Blogger Faces

Are you a newbie blogger? Then you will understand better what I am going to tell you now. I am going to tell you about the difficulties faced by newbie bloggers. When I started my blogging career (approximately 1 and ½ months back) I was struggling to find a way to express my ideas which will appeal to everyone. On top of that, I did not have any experience about working with WP.

On my way to blogging, I made mistakes, plenty of them. One day I made a mistake and the next day I tried to fix it.  Moreover, I was constantly looking for suggestions on how and what I should do to make my blog a success. I did receive much advice and as a new blogger, I lapped it all up. Needless to say, I visited a number of blogs. I used to read and read and read some more.

Then I started noticing certain things about different blogs and realised why I liked some and did not like others. And now I will tell you what exactly I felt and decided that my blog is not going to have these. I started eliminating certain features from my blog.

5 Difficulties faced by Newbie Bloggers

1. Your blog Design: The first thing that you notice about a blog is its design. How would your blog look like? Is it inviting? There are quite a few blogs which have tiny fonts. So tiny that actually, I had to squeeze my eyes several times to get it correct. And there are some others which have a dark shade as the background. Maybe they want the letters to stand out. But, for me, it was an eyesore.

• Navigation: The next feature was navigation. Some blogs had a very difficult navigation design. I had to search for the main menu and sometimes it was difficult to pick up a sub-menu from the drop-down list.
• Pop-Ups: Some other blogs had too many pop-ups, flying from left, right, or running after you once you try to scroll down. And there were at least three blogs I visited which did not allow me to read further unless I signed for a subscription. I had to close the tab, I had no choice.
• Subscription: When it comes to subscription, better leave it to the reader. If I find something interesting or feel that it will add value to my learning, I will definitely subscribe. But if I cannot read what you have written, how will I decide?

And this I am writing as a reader, because being a newbie blogger, chances are you will do a lot of research and that will include a lot of reading.

What I Realised: A reader comes to your blog to read. She comes in search of content. If you write something interesting, she will subscribe. But, I think, a reader will turn away if you force her to take an action against her will. It is a fact that most of us want to monetize our blogs and for that we need subscriptions. But the subscription box can be placed at the end of the post and should not try to distract the reader.

2. How many Social Media accounts: When I started reading various blogs, I found there were suggestions to open accounts for almost all social media platforms that are existing out there. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, Quora, and LinkedIn. Well, the list was long. But almost all talked about an account on Pinterest.

To me, the best platform has been Facebook. I discovered some wonderful friends, gurus, and compatriots here who encouraged, were polite when they found mistakes in my writing and were a great support to me. Two groups which have influenced me a lot need a mention here:

       2. a) Write better, Blog Better, Writing Support for Bloggers                           (visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/writebetterblogs/?ref=group_header )

      2. b) Blog to Business (Visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/blog2business/?ref=group_header )

What I realised: Many well-known bloggers say Pinterest is a platform which helps newbie bloggers to get their blogs noticed. And drive traffic to their blogs. Many have found this platform giving them positive result in a short period of time.  But I found managing so many accounts, notwithstanding various apps to handle that for you, becomes a bit too much for me. Though I have various accounts, I am most active on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. So, choose what you can really handle and be productive.

3) Trying to Bring Traffic: The first thing that worried me when I started out, is how to bring traffic. And this worry started when I had only one post. And it still continues. But it is no longer an all-consuming fear. Now I concentrate on writing some engaging posts. I do not succeed always, but, I try. And I believe, that is the key to success. This idea of never giving up can help you eventually reach your goal.

What I realised: I read a post in my reading journey that you do not get to see a positive result before 7-8 months of blogging. I mean, you actually need that much of time for your blog to make a mark. Of course, there are others who have done it earlier, but, to me, this 7-8 months’ time frame seems quite reasonable. Having realised that, I no longer panic when I do not see too many subscriptions.

4) Problems with Content Writing: This is one of the biggest difficulties faced by newbie bloggers. What to do to get new ideas? If you are planning to produce at least one blog post per week, you need to have at least 8 blog post ideas to cover the next two months. The problem with the new bloggers is they are not experienced enough to write on a particular niche consistently. They run out of ideas very quickly. I had the same problem when I began blogging. But help is at hand. You can get blog idea generators online. I had briefly spoken about one such generator in my previous post. And these tools help you to a certain extent. Apart from that, read a lot, whatever has been written on your niches. Read the comments in various forums or groups. These alone will give you an idea about the needs of fellow bloggers and what they are looking for. Is someone looking for a solution to a particular blogging problem? Or, is someone asking for a bit of help with a tool? If you have an idea, you can write a post about it.

What I realised: When you start writing, an idea for your next blog post pops up. And if you are excited about the idea, you go on writing, without bothering about how much to write. A blog post is easy-to-read if it is around 1000 words. I have read some blog posts which are more than 2500 words. The content is excellent but, as a reader to read something so lengthy is daunting.

5) Blogging is a tough job: Yes, it is. Take it from me that it is, indeed a tough job. It just does not involve writing a post. Your post requires images to emphasise a point and that means searching the sites to find that perfect image. It requires scheduling, i.e. when to post. It also demands that you send the new post link to your subscribers. And after doing all these, you need to promote your post in various forums, groups, and social media. You are constantly on the lookout to promote and make people notice that you have written something worthwhile to read. And that is difficult and sometimes, scary.

What I realised: It is a tough job, but, I am tougher. If so many bloggers out there can do it, so can I. There are many free tools available which can help me to get organised and do some work for me to ease my burden. so, if blogging is your passion, nothing can stop you from reaching your goal. Break your big goal into smaller, achievable ones. Do one thing at a time, stay focused, and work at your blogging career. One day you will get there.

There are many other difficulties faced by the newbie bloggers. I could have talked about those as well but, I did not want this post to be lengthy. I will be talking about those difficulties some other time. These are the difficulties that I have faced and am still trying to come to terms with some of them. However, this has been a learning curve and this challenge has kept me going too. And what are the difficulties do you face?