How to Stay Positive About Blogging

Blogging can be rough. It’s a huge time commitment and takes forever (if ever) to see any returns on the time you invested. How is it possible to stay positive about blogging in the face of all that?

 It’s not always easy. There are days when I don’t feel like writing, days when I wonder if I’ll ever see a pay-off from all the effort that I’ve put in. And that’s ok. It’s ok to take a break from the blog sometimes, and it’s ok to sometimes feel defeated. But you can’t dwell on those things.

Staying Positive About Blogging

In order to stay positive about blogging, you should think about why you started in the first place. What are your blogging goals? How are going about achieving them? Are you setting realistic benchmarks? These are all important things to consider that will help you stay positive during your journey.

But they aren’t the only things. Small steps in the right direction and learning new skills are also immensely important to keeping a positive outlook!

Realistic Benchmarks

Honestly, I think setting realistic goals is the number one thing you can do to help yourself stay positive about blogging. Stop reading into the exaggerated posts claiming how easy it is to make thousands of dollars blogging in your first month. Yes, that is possible, but it’s also incredibly unlikely. Blogging is a long-haul game. Trust me, I know! I made a whopping sixteen bucks during my first year blogging.

Every month, I look at my paltry growth (or lack thereof), and rather than get discouraged, I get excited! All of my monthly updates are sickeningly positive – even if the growth wasn’t the best. And do you want to know why? Because I’m freaking realistic!

I know that blogging isn’t a get rich scheme. When I first started Partners in Fire, I estimated that it would take at least two years to see any income or real traffic from the website (I’m about 1.5 years in now – and I’m slowly building organic traffic).  I stay positive because I knew I was in it for the long haul, and knew I was willing to put in long haul work. Are you?

Remembering your Blog Goals

Another thing that will help you stay positive about blogging is reminding yourself of your blogging goals. Not everyone blogs for money, and that’s ok! Some people blog for themselves, or just to help people. Whatever your focus is, remind yourself of that.

If you are mostly writing as a journaling exercise for yourself, does it really matter if you have traffic? Probably not (though I know getting that traffic feels amazing!). If you are primarily writing to help people, does it really matter if you aren’t making any money? Making those sales feels amazing, but it’s not necessary if that’s not what your primary goal is. And you can’t expect to see this type of success if you weren’t focusing on it. Sometimes its good to remind yourself of that. 

The point that I’m trying to make is that it’s much easier to be positive about blogging when you are honest with yourself about what you hope to gain from it. You shouldn’t be bummed about not building traffic when you aren’t even trying to build traffic. The same goes for monetization, and anything else.

Celebrate the Small Wins

There are so many small things in blogging that can be considered a win. You may have just reached a follower goal on social media, got a post featured on another website, had a pin go viral, or even just made a small affiliate sale. All of these things should be appreciated and celebrated! Heck, even just writing a blog post when you are tired should be celebrated! It isn’t easy to work full time (or parent, or study, or whatever it is that you spend the majority of your time on) and then keep working on your blog. That’s a freaking win!

Its pretty easy to stay positive when you are celebrating every little milestone as a win. You may think that it’s not big deal, and others have been there before, so why should you be stoked about it? I’ll tell you why: because it’s a freaking achievement. Be proud of it.

Learning New Skills

One of my favorite things about blogging – and one that keeps me insanely upbeat about the whole experience – is all the new skills that I’ve learned by doing it. I didn’t know anything about SEO, and I’m learning more about it every day! I’ve also learned how to create awesome images, manage various social media networks (ok, to be fair, that’s a work in progress), and my writing has greatly improved.

There are thousands of other skills that I’m still learning and improving on every day. My next big hurdle is learning how to write pitches and get sponsorships from companies. It’s a terrifying endeavor, but an incredibly useful skill. Pushing myself to learn these things makes me a better blogger, but I also think it makes me a more well-rounded person. If I decide to quit my job and venture into a new industry, I’ll have tons of skills to highlight on my resume.

It’s easy to stay positive about your blogging adventure when you are getting so much out of it. Those things may not be money (or traffic) yet, but the things you are learning along the way are worth being excited about.

What Else Help You Stay Positive About Blogging?

I’ve listed some pretty amazing things to be positive about even if you aren’t seeing the growth you expected. But I’m sure there are tons of things that I am missing! What helps you stay positive on your blogging journey when you aren’t getting the results you’ve hoped for? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

And if you aren’t a blogger yet, what are you waiting for? Start now with BlueHost!*

 

 

*Links with this next to it are affiliate links. That means I’ll receive a small commission if you decide to click on it and buy something. Don’t worry, it doesn’t cost you anything extra!