New bloggers tend to go all in when they start out. You have these great ideas with every intention of bringing them to life. You’re going to be the best blogger ever! You’re ready and willing to put in the time necessary to make it all happen.
You say yes to every collaboration, you work double time at creating content 7 days a week, and you buy a bunch of stuff you think you’ll need. Then it’s the weekend and you have a baby shower but also 50 deadlines you have to make. Now what?
You want to go to the baby shower, baby showers are cool, but you can’t because you’re in over your head. But you go to the baby shower anyway and tell yourself you’ll do everything when you get back. Well, all the girls are going out after the baby shower… so you join them.
Now you’ve set yourself back even more. So then you just skip some content for the week which turns into 2 weeks and 3 weeks, and before you know you’ve given up blogging altogether.
I realize I’m being extreme here but it all starts by being too ambitious. Don’t be cocky and think you can do everything because you can’t. Do only what you can and outsource the rest. And if you can’t outsource, do the best you can with what you have. Know your limits and be cautious when doing these 3 things:
Launching too many things at once
When you first start blogging it’s natural to be overwhelmed. You look at other bloggers around you and you automatically compare yourself to them. Then your wheels start turning and you start implementing all these things the other bloggers have. You’re going to start a clothing line, open an Etsy shop for jewelry, write a book, be a lifestyle blog, you’ll write 5 times a week, it’s going to be great! You go 0 to 100 real quick.
Then you realize how much work it is to just blog once a week and you think eh, maybe I’ll hold off on the clothing line and book deal for right now. It’s great to have lofty goals but take them one. Goal. At. A. Time. I always say Starbucks started with one cup of coffee.
Right now I have like 50 things I want to do with my blog but I’m not doing them all at once because that’s silly. I wouldn’t be able to give each project the attention it deserved if I did that.
Last year I launched my Build Your Own Blog eGuide (currently being updated), which was on my list and this year I launched #BlogWithBritt which was also on my list. And if you’re one of my email subscribers, you’ll know what else I launched, ::wink wink::. So as you can see even I’m taking things one step at a time.
Launching too many things at one time is distracting and honestly annoying to your followers because it’s hard for them to keep up.
Balancing work/life
Working full-time while balancing a life outside of work is tough, really it is. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. You want to be successful in your career or entrepreneurial ventures and maintain your friendships, relationships, health, etc.
If your side hustle is your ultimate dream, you’ll have to work double time which means some other aspects of your life may suffer. However, more often than not it’s necessary in order to get to where you want to go.
So most of you know I write for my own blog, Not Another Blonde, Zanita (duh), Azalle, and The Wonder Forest. I write for Zanita and The Wonder Forest once a week and Azalle once every other week (if I can)… In addition, I write for my own blog twice a week so now we’re up to 5 - 5 blog posts a week!
That’s a lot for someone who blogs and works for a company full-time. I’m not complaining but don’t be fooled when bloggers make blogging look easy because it is far from that.
Now let’s talk about time. I work about 45 hours a week at my day job. One blog post takes me around 2 hours to write on a good day when I’m feeling inspired, which includes editing pictures, adding links, proofreading, scheduling, etc. And on a “bad” day, I could write half a blog post in one whole day. That’s a LOT of time spent working and blogging, which doesn’t leave much time for the “fun stuff”, but that’s a choice you have to make.
The best solution to this issue is to counterbalance, meaning whatever needs your attention in that moment is what you need to focus on. And my other solution is to batch.
Batching is when you bang out a big task or multiple tasks at one time. So instead of writing blog posts for Zanita every week, I write 4 of them in one day for the month. That way I don’t have to worry about them every week. When you batch you’re able to do a lot more in a shorter period of time thus freeing you up for other things like your day job, relationships, fitness, etc.
Having no short-term goals
Short-term goals will save your blog time and time again. I mean, you need to have smaller goals in order reach your bigger goals. When I first started blogging I only had major unattainable goals like make $1 million per year. That’s still a goal of mine but that shouldn’t have been something I had in mind for my first year in business.
A short-term goal would be something like make $5,000 per month which could be broken down into 5 collaborations per week at $1,000 per collab or 7 clients a month at $715 per client. So your short-term goal of making $5,000 a month turns into a long-term goal of $60,000 a year which is totally attainable. (These numbers were all made up BTW.)
Another short term goal would be to gain 1,000 Instagram followers a month which means you would need 250 new followers a week. And then 1,000 new followers a month would equal 12,000 more followers for the year.
When you only have long-term goals it becomes more like a fantasy because there’s no action plan behind it. Therefore every year you make these goals, don’t reach them, get disappointed, and do the same thing all over again next year.
Short term goals set things in stone and get the plan in motion to reach whatever milestones you had in mind. 250 new followers a week doesn’t sound as daunting as 12,000 followers a year. You’re essentially dissecting the big picture into smaller steps that will help you get to where you want to go.
What is the most overwhelming part of blogging for YOU? Share your story in the comments below!
xx Britt
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Image Source Credits - Sandra Semburg
You Should Also Read:
Get to Know Your Audience: Instagram (Part 3/3)
The Secret Sauce to Growing Your Following
Why Only 4% of Bloggers Make It
