The beginning is always the hardest part of anything.
Beginning school.
Beginning a new job.
Beginning mama-hood.
Beginning a Blog and Business.
It’s the start, the first, the beginning that’s scary.
And it’s this struggle to start the beginning that turns into a struggle. The fear is at its height. That little annoying voice in the back of your head is telling you, “If you don’t start you’ll never fail.”
But really, if you don’t start you’ll never succeed!!!
So you decide to start, oh but wait, you need to do some research before the beginning. Then those few short days of research turn into months, maybe you’ll take a few courses to ensure you know for SURE you’re doing it right. Because who wants to start something and not do it right?
And really, the house should be cleaned and organized before you can even START to think about the beginning. Who can focus on starting something new when the house smells like garbage?
Before you know it, it’s been a year, and you’re still in “research” mode. But this time you’re poorer than when you started the research, because you’ve bought courses, and you’ve lost time.
Time that could have been spent creating something really awesome.
That’s where I’ve been in starting my journey to business owner, work from home-r, blogger. I’ve researched, I’ve read so many blog posts and articles about starting a business and blogging that I’ve gotten myself all up in a tizzy trying to figure out who has the most accurate advice, and what everyone else is doing. When all this time, I should have been spending my valuable free time starting my beginning.
So, here I am, starting.
Are you trying to start? Tired of the not starting? Tired of the thinking of doing? But not doing.
I hear you, and I want to help you with your beginning as I’m on my path to mine.
Whether you're just getting started in business, or blogging, or blogging for business, I've narrowed down 5 tips to help you FINALLY hit publish on that first blog post.
Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing.
So, you’ve probably spent some time on Pinterest and discovered there are people blogging about every topic imaginable. You’ll even find people blogging about your topic. But don’t be scared off, this is a good thing. This means, there’s an audience just waiting to hear what you have to say about it.
Like, the topic of blogging about blogging. Are there thousands of blogs out there talking about this very same thing? Yep, but here I am, blogging about blogging. And ya know why, aside from the fact that I enjoy blogging about blogging and I’ve been blogging to some degree for the past 10 years, because there’s people like you out there willing to hear what I have to say about it.
All these different voices are out there, and yeah, we might be saying a lot of similar things, but each of us brings our unique perspective to it. Our own angle so to speak. So, when you start your blog, you’ll be bringing your own personal touch to it. And people will come to hear what you have to say, because you’re saying it. And they like you, they really like you!
Don’t be afraid to mess up
What if you promote that blog post before it goes live? What if you use an image you didn’t have the rights to use? Are you super awkward on social media? I mean really, the internet is FOR-EV-ER...but it’s not. Yeah, you might feel really embarrassed about your little faux pas. But more than likely not many people noticed, and if they did they’ll be moving on to the next thing. Plus, all those little mistakes add up to knowledge that you can use later. That’s the beauty of messing up, you learn from it.
It’s okay to change your mind
So, being indecisive is one of my quirks. In fact, Loving Simple started out at as quick tips blog for cleaning, cooking, and decluttering. At the time, I thought if I blogged about something I wanted to accomplish then it would magically happen. And I’d be some sort of domestic goddess.
Turns out, it didn’t happen, and I really didn’t enjoy writing about cleaning, cooking, and decluttering. And I’m DEFINITELY not a domestic goddess. But I did learn something through my experience with the first version of Loving Simple, if I hadn’t started, then I would still be planning a blog about domesticity instead of creating a space that I can actually enjoy and help others find their path.
So, the key here is, just start the darn thing. Sometimes, procrastination is really fear rearing its ugly head. Once you start doing, and realize that path isn’t quite as cool as you thought, you can redirect. And then go back and delete and adjust once you find your path.
What if no one reads my blog?
It seems like there are tons of people that become popular overnight, but what you didn’t see was the work and the time they put into their creations. Sure, it looks like they started their blog and business and the next day the page views and the income was rolling in. But that’s just not how it works. This whole blogging thing takes time. There are things you can do to move things along a little quicker, but it still it takes time to build up a loyal readership.
Be consistent, put yourself out there, even though it’s scary (!), and you’ll see something happen.
Don’t be nervous about friends and family finding out
They probably won’t get it. A lot of people still think that blogging is a public journal of your private thoughts. Blogging is a little about sharing some of yourself with your readers, it helps them get to know you as a person. But a blog is more about learning, finding inspiration, and sharing knowledge, and less about telling complete strangers who your favorite member of N’Sync is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
There may be the naysayers in your circle, but there may be some that are super supportive and even interested in what you’re doing. You may even be able to make them into a blog convert!
Either way, it doesn’t matter what they think, you should start a blog anyway.
If you keep at it, awesome things will happen.
Feeling a little more brave about starting your beginning now? I know it seems daunting, especially when you think about all the things that you have to put into place to get your blog started. But once you get started, and get over that fear of the beginning all those little pieces will fall into place.
Remember, while you’re worried about who might see you mess up or think you’re weird, you’re forgetting all the people who NEED to hear what you have to say. The people who are waiting for someone to share their experience, give them advice, and make a connection with online That’s why blogging is so amazing. Just as much as you need it, it needs you.
Until next time my brave blogging babes, happy beginning to you!!!