Whilst I absolutely love blogging, one thing that annoys me are the blogging myths that surround it.

This post is to debunk some classic blogging myths for you (nearly all of which I’ve had myself!).

BLOGGING MYTHS YOU NEED TO IGNORE

1. BLOGGING ISN’T A REAL JOB

I had to start with this one because it annoys me so much.

The worst blogging myth in my opinion is that blogging isn’t a real job.

What even is a real job anyway?! If you’re working hard and getting paid for it, that’s a job. And that’s what blogging is people!

In my honest opinion, this blogging myth has arisen from people who either don’t understand it or are jealous of people who blog and make money. Because I know that when I first read income reports from other bloggers I thought “but how can you make money from blogging?!” and “but surely they aren’t doing anything?”. (Oh how I was wrong!).

And I think that this blogging myth might be round for a while. To the extent that one day I’d love to be a full time blogger, but I still struggle to tell even family and friends this because I know the stigma attached.

Nevertheless, this is a blogging myth and you need to ignore it. Blogging is a real job. End of.

2. YOU CAN’T MAKE GOOD MONEY BLOGGING

Following on from blogging not being a real job, not being able to make good money from it is another blogging myth.

I can see why people believe this. There are plenty of aspiring bloggers who don’t make any money at all. There are bloggers who make money, but it’s a small amount.

I’m included in this, as although I have made money blogging, it’s not much and it’s inconsistent. However I have to remind myself that just because I haven’t yet, doesn’t mean I won’t and it doesn’t mean I can’t.

If you don’t believe me, you just need to read some income reports from bloggers. Some of them make $50,000. Per month. 

Or check out this post I wrote interviewing bloggers that make over $1000 a month (one of them is making over a million dollars a year!).

3. YOU HAVE TO BLOG ABOUT A CERTAIN TOPIC TO MAKE MONEY BLOGGING

I can see why this blogging myth has come about, because in some blogging niches it’s seriously hard to make money. And that’s because in some niches people are just willing to spend more money, and in others they’re not.

For example, people who read beauty blogs are actually looking to buy products. And people who read recipes need the ingredients to make the recipe. So it’s easy to link to these products and make money when people use the link to buy it.

However if you blog about charity shopping, it’s really hard to sell stuff to people because these people are buying their stuff in charity shops! So you can see why it’s hard to make money in this niche. But this doesn’t mean you can’t. You can make money through advertisements if you get enough page views (or other methods).

Plus, you can blog in what’s considered a profitable niche like beauty and not make a single penny. Just because Zoella makes millions, doesn’t mean you will.

To sum up, ignore the myth that you have to blog about a certain topic to make money blogging. Because you can make money in a topic that doesn’t traditionally make money, it’s just harder. And you write posts in these “money making” niches and still not make any!

4. LOTS OF PAGE VIEWS = LOTS OF MONEY

Wrong! And I’ll prove it to you- I get under 3,000 page views a month, and I make money blogging!

Just because you have people reading your blog does not mean it will be profitable. There are bloggers with 100,000+ views a month that don’t make anything. Because they haven’t monetised it!

I think this blogging myth comes from the fact that if you have more page views, it’s easier to make money. Because you will get more money from adverts, have more people clicking your affiliate links, and brands will pay you more for sponsored posts.

So ignore the myth lots of page views means lots of money. Because you can still make money with hardly any page views, and have lots of page views and make nothing.

5. BLOGGING IS FREE

Yes, you can start a blog on a free platform, take no photographs and then blogging is free.

However, if you want to make money blogging, blogging is not free. You need to pay for your hosting and domain name to start. Then you need to actually buy the products you blog about, and photography equipment to take pictures of the products! And then if you’re struggling, you might buy blogging courses, e-books or coaching to help you even more.

So yes, you can blog for free. But if you want a successful blog, it is wise to invest in it where you can.

6. BLOGGING IS EASY

This blogging myth is a bit of a weird one. Because saying blogging is easy is so vague it makes it kind of true.

I love writing a blog post, so I find that easy. However when people say blogging is easy, they’re talking about blogging overall. I hate coding and tech. So that part of blogging to me is most definitely not easy.

Plus, easy is perspective. Yes, I look at starting a blog now and think it’s kinda easy. But then that’s because I’ve learnt how to do it. My and my dad both play piano, and he’s grade 5 and I’m grade 3. He looks at my grade 3 piece and thinks it’s easy.

It was definitely not easy when I was trying to start a blog all by myself. I won’t lie to you, I cried the first time I tried to use WordPress!

So anyone who tells you blogging is easy is probably:

• Is talking about blogging overall. There is something about blogging they definitely struggle with!
• Not in the middle of trying to do something difficult on their blog right now. If you asked me if blogging was easy when I first saw WordPress, I’d have screamed at you.

Ignore the blogging myth that blogging is easy, because it’s an opinion.

7. BLOGGERS JUST BLOG

I started blogging because I loved writing. However I quickly learned that blogging is not just writing a blog post.

Bloggers will know this, and if you’re not a blogger you need to understand; bloggers don’t just blog. You not only have to write a blog post, but you have to take photographs, create graphics and proof read the blog post.

Then you have to promote it across Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Regularly.

That’s after your blog is actually up and running of course. To even have a blog you need to learn some of the tech behind blogging like installing and understanding WordPress, installing and using themes, and adding plugins to your blog.

Plus there’s a whole bunch of other stuff to do like learning how to actually make money blogging, how to get email subscribers, how to stay legal, how to create branding material… And these are just what I could think of from the top of my head!

Bloggers have to be photographers, graphic designers, web designers, social media managers, and a heck of a lot more. So blogging myth number 2 debunked- bloggers don’t just blog.

8. YOU NEED GOOD WRITING SKILLS TO BE A BLOGGER

Umm, heck no! You just need to be able to actually write!

I read so many blog posts that are not well written. They have bad grammar, spelling mistakes and sometimes don’t even make sense. (I’m not bashing other bloggers- if I’m rushing when I write a post, this is me!).

Do not think for a second you need good writing skills to be a blogger. You just have to write in a way that people can understand and enjoy. That’s it!

9. YOU NEED TO BE AN EXPERT

Again, I think people are put off starting their own blog because they’re not an expert at what they want to talk about.

Whilst it helps to have something that makes you qualified to talk about your blog topic, you certainly don’t need to be! People read blogs for the personal touch. As long as you have experience in what you write about that’s fine.

It’s also totally okay to not be an expert when you start but to know you will learn more about it as you blog more. I had someone email me the other day saying they had been told not to blog about blogging because they didn’t have a blog. I said “1. Don’t listen to what other people say, and 2. You won’t know about blogging until you have a blog!”.

10. POSTING MORE MEANS YOU WILL GET MORE TRAFFIC

This blogging myth is guaranteed to give you the blogging burnout quickly.

This was a mistake I made myself. I was constantly trying to write and publish more posts thinking that this would mean more people would read my blog. I was so wrong, and it just resulted in my getting very fed up of blogging quickly.

I soon learned that posting more does not mean you will get more blog readers.

I now only post once a week, and I get double the blog traffic I was when I was posting twice a week! (You can read more posts on how to get traffic here).

And instead, I focus on using Pinterest to get more traffic.

I now have a free Pinterest course that teaches you how start using Pinterest for your blog.

You can read more about Easy Pinterest with Emily here, or sign up below to get started:

11. PEOPLE WILL JUST FIND YOUR BLOG

You write an awesome blog post with amazing images, press publish, and …crickets. Why is nobody reading it? My post is awesome!

An amazing blog post will mean people will read it, but only once they’re there. Sadly just because your post is awesome, does not mean people will find it.

You have to really put effort into getting traffic to your blog. It’s better to post less often, write posts that are optimised for Google, and promote them more. Because otherwise nobody will read them!

12. YOU NEED TO BE ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

A myth lots of bloggers believe is as soon as you start a blog you need an account for every single social media platform there is.

Similar to posting too often, if you try to tackle lots of social media platforms you’ll spread yourself too thin.

I’m currently working on SEO and Pinterest, but next on my never-ending-blogging-to-do-list is to take on Facebook.

And even though it’s good to have multiple streams of traffic just in case for some crazy reason one social media goes (just the thought of my Pinterest account being closed scares me!), it’s too much for you as a human to try and juggle them all…

On top of all the other blogging tasks. You are just one person!

Try picking just one or two social media platforms and growing them, or having multiple and figuring out which platforms are good for your to get traffic and which ones at worth your time.

13. BLOGGING IS DEAD

“Blogging is dead” was actually a search suggestion by Google when I typed in “blogging is”. Meaning people are searching for it, so it’s a blogging myth.

Of course blogging isn’t dead! If anything, I think it’s growing. There are hundreds or famous actors and singers, and when they get old a new singers and actors take their places. Who’s to say you’re not the next Justin Beiber of the blogging world?

And I think an amazing thing about blogging is that you can be crazy successful and still not famous. Like there are bloggers out there making millions, but “normal” people have never heard of them!

Blogging definitely is not dead. Especially where I am in the UK- it feels like it’s only now becoming a thing here. And in actual fact, it’s not a thing really where I live. Do you know any bloggers based in Wales? If you do, you’re one of a few!

I think the idea behind this blogging myth is that with video growing, reading isn’t necessarily as popular. But guys, Kindle didn’t wipe out books because people who like to read, read books. People are still using Google and checking websites (and therefore blogs). Blogging ain’t dead.

14. THERE ARE TOO MANY BLOGS

Like the point above, as more successful bloggers also become famous, suddenly there are too many. Who decides there are too many anyway?

Out of all my friends and family, none of them have a blog (although I’m trying to make them have one!). Yes, there are more blogs now. But no there aren’t too many.

Plus even if there are loads, it doesn’t mean they’re even any good, let alone successful! And you have to remember that lots of blogs are abandoned too.

15. SUCCESS WILL FIND YOU OVERNIGHT

You do read success stories from people who started a blog a month ago and are making money already. But I hate to burst your bubble, this is unlikely to be you.

It can take bloggers months, even years, before people would consider them “successful” i.e they have lots of readers, subscribers or make lots of money. And you don’t hear about the bloggers that fail or haven’t found success yet.

Please feel free to prove me wrong, and I want to prove myself wrong too! But it won’t be a case of you going to sleep with a few hundred page views and no money, and waking ups making hundreds from passive income.

Don’t believe success is an overnight thing, or you will be thoroughly disappointed. As Messi said, “It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success”.

BLOGGING MYTHS: FINAL THOUGHTS

These are some of the most frustrating blogging myths I could think of, and I’m sure there are many more than both bloggers and non-bloggers believe.

Just remember that a myth is a widely held belief about something. So just because everyone is telling you blogging is dead and not a real job, you shouldn’t believe them.

And you should more than definitely prove them wrong!

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Or check out these other start a blog tips you might enjoy, like:

• The ultimate free start a blog guide
• What you need to know before you start a blog
• How often should you publish a blog post?