Blogging

5 Misconceptions You Have About Starting a Blog (That Makes Money)

You want to dive into blogging but just can’t pull the trigger.

But, the thought of working from home and being able to take care of your little one is a hard dream to shake off.

This is what you want to do, and from all the hours of pouring over Pinterest and reading blog post after blog post, you’re still not sure if you’re cut out for it.

I so get you, mama!

When my husband suggested I do something like be a virtual assistant, I honestly had no idea what he was talking about. Like, people make money doing that? Or actually, make money blogging? What?

Yeah, it took me a while to realize that it is possible to make money blogging.

But, there were a lot of wrong beliefs I held about blogging, and I think many of you might too.

These misconceptions cloud our judgment about pulling the trigger and taking action to create blogging goals and a plan.

But I want to tell you a secret:

Blogging does work!

I started Twins Mommy with the intention of connecting with other working at home moms. This soon turned to helping mom bloggers.

With all my experience marketing my freelance writing business and growing it, I started to offer help to other moms wanting to make money blogging.

This lead to creating two courses to help bloggers! Both have generated income for me in less than six months!

I also do affiliate marketing on this blog that’s almost a passive way to make money on this blog.

I plan to create more courses for Twins Mommy, but what I want to let you know is that in the beginning I never knew this would have been possible.

I saw other bloggers making big money on their blog or business and knew that could never be me.

I kept holding on to these misconceptions about starting a money-making blog.

If you still have these wrong beliefs, let’s dive into those and see how we can change that!

5 Wrong Beliefs You Have About Starting a Blog

1. You Need a Niche to Blog

Let me just say that you don’t need a niche blog to start blogging. The first 10 posts you publish won’t even be read so you can post whatever you want on whatever topic you enjoy.

While a niche is easier to monetize your blog, in the beginning, that’s something you shouldn’t focus on right away.

Focus on growing your audience and connecting with others, so you understand their problems.

From there you can tailor your products and affiliate products to solve their problems!

So, in the beginning, feel free to blog about a lot of topics and see which topic takes off. Maybe your post about what you need to know before bringing home baby became viral on Pinterest.

Then you know people coming to your blog want to know more about that topic!

So, I say let your niche come to you and don’t worry about having to have a niche right away. Start the blog already!

2. It’s Hard to Start a Blog

This is a bit misleading – it’s easy to START a blog, but a challenge to MAINTAIN and GROW your blog.

Blogging is a journey, and you’ll have a lot of ups and downs, and it’s up to you to keep yourself motivated and want to learn.

In the beginning, learning will be your top goal. The faster you learn how to use Pinterest or ConvertKit, the faster you’ll be at making your blog a success.

To keep your motivation up, I strongly suggest you join some Facebook group communities. My group, Mom to Mompreneur, is a very supportive group filled with moms that want to help you!!

Join us!

This is the place to ask for advice, lean on other moms and get the support you need when you’re feeling down!

Don’t do this alone!

3. It Takes A lot of Money to Start Blogging

You can start a blog for less than $100. It’s much cheaper to get your business up and running than when your parents were around.

From business cards to ad space in the newspaper to creating door hangers, businesses back in the day needed a huge initial investment.

But today? Not so much. You pay for your hosting, can grab a free theme, start your email list for free and there ya go!

Don’t let the initial cost turn you off on starting a blog. If you learn the right strategies to make money, then you’ll make up what you initially spent within that first year of blogging.

4. You Can’t Make Any Real Money Blogging

You CAN make money blogging!

I made my first $1k blogging within a few short months having a service!

On Twins Mommy, blogging generated $2k in one month!

It is possible mamas! But, at first, you’re learning so much that analysis paralysis occurs.

Everything is too much, and you can’t keep up.

I know what you mean. That’s why I say to wait to monetize your blog. Learn how to blog, learn how to do email marketing, learn how to use Pinterest and then learn how to monetize.

If you do this in stages, you won’t be so overwhelmed!

When deciding to monetize your blog, look at the legit ways to do this:

  • Offer a service – I offered freelance writing, but you can offer coaching, Pinterest management or VA services.
  • Affiliate marketing – most bloggers choose this route and make money doing it! This is when you promote a product and use a special link. When others click on that special link and purchase, you get a commission of that price.
  • Sponsored content – brands may reach out to you to promote their product on your blog or social media.
  • Create a product – this can be the most challenging to do as a new blogger, but the best strategy in the long run. Creating your own product – course, eBook, printables, etc.. – has the potential to earn more than other monetization strategies.

5. You Need to Post Everyday to See Any Traffic

This isn’t true at all.

However, you do need to post more frequently if you have a new blog with no content. If you want people to start coming to your blog early on, then create consistent and frequent content.

I suggest – if you can – post twice a week for a set time. I was able to do that for Twins Mommy for the first 6 months.

After that, life got hard, I landed more freelance writing clients and had to drop to 1x a week.

Do what you can.

If that means creating content BEFORE you launch, then do that.

If that means creating one post every other week, then do that.

Just be consistent.

Just Do It, Mamas!

Just like what Nike says – Just Do It! Don’t sit on the idea of wanting to start a blog.

Sign up today, get on WordPress and publish your first blog post! The faster you get your blog published, the faster Google can recognize your blog and get you ranked in the future!

So, now it’s your turn – tell me whether you just started a blog or want to start a blog. I want to hear from you if you originally had these misconceptions about blogging too!

Remember to pin me!

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18 Comments

I learned a lot of new things about blogging from this wonderful blog post. I am looking into other services that I can offer. I would consider the suggestions you have here. Currently, I am working to increase my email subscribers. This post, as well as your other posts, are truly impressive!Reply to Sharon
Hey Sharon! That’s great to hear! Glad you found some tips that you’ll avoid!Reply to Elna
This is a great post! Even though these weren’t really misconceptions for me, I still took away a lot. I am gearing up to start a blog and trying to read as much as I can about blogging and most of what I have read is stuck on having a “niche” to get started with and I was finding that a little discouraging but still out to get started despite that repeated message and my lack of a niche. But I love the message you have here. VERY encouraging so thank you! This post is by far one of my favorites.Reply to Angie
Hi Angie! Wow! Thanks so much! I’m glad you took some advice from this post. I’m excited you want to start a blog 🙂 Regarding your niche, I always tell new bloggers it’s okay to start a blog without a core niche idea. If you have some topics, write about those topics FIRST. Later figure out what your audience wants and then blog those topics 🙂 That’s what I usually do for my blogs 🙂Reply to Elna
Hey Elna! I loved that you mentioned that it’s not necessary to know straight away which niche you should pick. I’m currently blogging about art, creativity & blogging. I’m really enjoying talking about 2 niches and I have properly segmented my email list so the two don’t mix unless someone chooses to receive both sets of emails. But is it a wise idea for the future? I am so passionate about them both. I love writing, blogging and drawing. And I incorporate it all into one blog post. So, I’m not really sure if I want to stick to just one. I would love your views on this! I really value your opinion. 😀 Warm regards, AngelaReply to Angela
Hi Angela! Thanks so much! You can blog about all three topics but pay attention what you audience wants. Right now I’m trying to lean my content on Twins Mommy to focus more on the mommy part and not the blogging part. Not sure if this will do anything or hurt me but I have to try. Segmenting your list is a good idea!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna. Your sincerity is so transparent and I appreciate it very much. Thank you for your encouragement and honesty. Been thinking of starting a blog since November last year but because I am not a techie I am intimidated by the technicalities involved in setting up my blog.Reply to Cecille
Hi Cecille, Thanks so much for that wonderful compliment! Yes, the tech side can be a challenge but what’s so great with SiteGround is they can do it for you!! In my start a blog post I show you how to set that up! Super easy.Reply to Elna
Hi my name Wendy Carrillo I have a degree in graphic design I’m currently not working as a designer I quit my job to spend more time with my daughter and I have a part time job right by all my friends and family keep telling that I should blog I love decorating parties and everything that involves that I made my daughter an Instagram because since I had her one of my favorite hobbies is to take pictures of her and dress her up I really want to be a home mommy and make money but I honestly don’t know how to start and the idea of making money by logging sounds amazing however is been really hard for me to gain followers on Instagram that’s why I think is complicated to make a blog if I can’t even get followers please if you can give any advice it will really help so far your website has help me a lot but if you have any advice on how I can do that it will save my life! Thank youReply to Wendy
Hi Wendy! Thanks for stopping by. Maybe try Pinterest and Facebook? Instagram might be hard for you at this moment. I’m sure you’ll find your audience on Pinterest or FB!Reply to Elna
Hi Elna, I definitely agree that you don’t have to post everyday. I tried that in the beginning, And it just resulted in a lot of stress, constantly looking for new topics to write about. I now try to post twice a week, and I feel like that should be enough. And I hope that the rest is also true (about the real money). Because I’m just starting out, and it does discourage a bit, with how much time and effort you put into it. x RoseReply to Rose
Hi Rose! Yes, posting every day is too stressful for sure! For me, once a week is enough but lately, I’ve been posting more frequently so do what you can when you can!! Yes, you can make money blogging for sure!Reply to Elna
Hey Elna! These are common blogging misconceptions. I think most of us start with a few of these, then realize they are not entirely true. It doesn’t take a lot of money to start your own blog and it is not hard to build it and design it. I would say that the most challenging part is building up the revenue from it and the subscribers’ list. I love blogging because I can see the potential it has to give you a passive income. It’s almost as good as running your own franchise business – because you make that type of money with blogging. And it’s a lot cheaper to get started with it! Thank you for sharing this! Best regards! 😀Reply to Freddy
Hey! Thanks and yes they are common and everyone thinks of these at one time or another before starting a blog. Yes the big challenge is monetizing and growing your email list. But I find after I start a new blog, I grow much faster each time!Reply to Elna
Thank you for this post, Elna – I wish I had known how easy it is to start a blog and make money off it yeeeears ago! I think people also believe that blogging is dead and it so is not (you’re proof of that).Reply to Sarra
Hi Sarra, Aww thanks so much and yes, for many of us, if only we knew way back when eh? I’m glad you are here though and blogging away!Reply to Elna
Amazing notes, Elna! You totally hit the point about blogging. There are tons of misconceptions we have about blogging and you’ve hit them. For instance, I thought I needed tons of content before I see any reasonable traffic but the moment I started and published my first post, it got great attention and got shared tons of times. The thing is you need the right tactics & strategies. Thanks! Cheers, Simon Zaku.Reply to Simon
Hey Simon, Yes! The RIGHT content for the RIGHT target audience is what you need. Not a lot of posts. Glad you mentioned that!Reply to Elna