When you are new to the world of blogging, you start with a lot of research. Blogging isn’t a simple task as it may seem. It isn’t writing words on a document and calling it a day. There are many steps to the process, especially if you want your blog to be successful.
One of the first things other bloggers tell you to do is to define your ‘niche.’ This is what you are going to focus your blog on for the time being. It is what your readers will know you for and what you will market yourself as. Of course, it can change over time but the goal is to find something you can write endlessly about. And the biggest piece of advice you get when trying to create your niche is to choose something you know well and are experienced in.
If you ask anyone in my immediate family, you would know that blogging is something I have been doing on and off for years. I remember sitting down with my mom and creating my first blog at the age of 12. Since then I have created countless blogs and have spent hundreds of hours doing research. I have learned so much that I could tell you how to create your own blog.
But over the years these blogs never took off. I tried everything from lifestyle to fashion blogs. All things that I thought I was passionate about at the time. Fashion blogs were my favorite and I spent years trying to make one. I would make my sisters go outside every day to take a cute picture of my outfit to post. Some days this would result in multiple outfits. While everyone was supportive of this, none of it ever felt right.
Here is why starting a blog is hard
Finding a blog niche is hard.
Thinking of niche ideas is easy, especially when you have a lot of things you love. It is easy to come up with lists of ideas you can write about. If you are in a lifestyle or fashion niche the ideas seem endless. When I had a fashion or lifestyle blog I could easily fill up my calendar with a month’s worth of content. It was when I sat down to write that it became a struggle. It’s one thing to go out and take a picture of what you are wearing, but something completely different to write about it.
If it is something you love or feel passionate about, you might still struggle to write about it. And while I love home decor and fashion, it was never something I could sit and talk about.
Every time I go to sit down and write, I wouldn’t want to write about my niche. I would want to share my stories and what I have learned over the years. Which to many would seem like a simple concept, but it’s not.
Blog readers are selfish.
That sounds harsh because it is.
Besides finding your niche, you have to make sure your niche is something other people want to read. The quote I hear the most from bloggers is:
“make sure you are solving the reader’s problems.”
In other words, readers don’t care about you. They care about you solving their problems and what they need to hear. They aren’t going to click on your blog post if they don’t feel like you will solve a problem for them. I am sure you see all the jokes about food bloggers sharing their life stories before the recipe. It is very hated!
I am sure many people probably haven’t made it this far in reading this post because I am talking about myself and my struggles. I kinda get it though. There are some bloggers where I don’t care about their life stories, I just want the important information. If I am going to read a post on the best ways to style a sweater, then I want to read about that. Not about how you learned to style a sweater.
But there is this part of me that misses old blogging and reading about someone’s life. The fashion bloggers I used to follow also shared stories about their days. There were several that I could relate to and made me feel somewhat ‘normal.’ Which is why I wanted to create this blog. I wanted to create a blog that people came to for the stories. And that just isn’t much of a niche anymore.
But the hardest part, people I know would read the blog.
The nice thing about blogging is that I know I could keep it a secret. And I have done that for years! It makes it hard to want to blog though. If no one reads it, what is the point of doing it? I want my blog to be a place to share with people. To build a community.
Because I want a niche that would focus on sharing my stories, it brings a new level to my fear. I come from a place where we gossip about everything but ourselves. No one should ever know our flaws. Let alone random strangers on the internet. There is this fear that we wouldn’t be seen as perfect and put together.
So there is this fear of backlash over what I could say that would upset people. Especially ones I am close to. This is a fear that has been holding me and I no longer want it to. It has taken me a long time and is something I am still working on.
If I am being truthful, even writing a post as simple as this is hard. What if someone reads this and tries to stop me? Or sits at home and gossips about me?
While I struggle to start a blog, there are so many reasons to continue.
I love blogging. I might not be the best writer, but it has always been a creative outlet for me. There are so many things I can learn from the process. Including how to let go of the fear of people judging and gossiping me.
I started this blog with the goal of it being a hobby blog. Something that doesn’t really exist anymore. I want to share my stories and what I am doing in life. This is in hopes that someone else will learn something or be motivated to do the same. I also want to create a community of readers who just come to hang out and feel like they aren’t the only ones struggling in life.
Life can be great if you let it be. So don’t let your fears of not starting something because it’s hard stop you.
Lovingly, Lex
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