There are several little myths and intricacies that people believe about blogging that do not always turn out to be true. There are a lot of aspiring bloggers out there and a lot of them will be thinking that success, fame and a future in blogging are just around the corner. However, this is not always the case and this article should give you a better insight into the misconceptions that a lot of people have around blogging.
“Any well written blog can be successful if the content is good enough” – This is one of the first things that a blogger will believe, specifically about their own content. They may feel that if you put enough effort into the writing the words will speak for themselves and reach a multitude of people in a very short period of time. However, there are so many more parameters placed around blogging that your content could be Harvard standard and still see a minimalistic amount of traffic.- Another false truth about blogging is that you can write your articles and blogs about literally anything, being constantly spontaneous with world news blogs to keep things “fresh”. In some cases this may work with a specific person doing a blog but in terms of a small-time blogger relevance and subject-orientated blogging is everything. For example, a blogger would be much more successful writing every article about something related to video games rather than a variety of articles about a number of subjects.
- Something that some people will believe is that blog readers aren’t naïve in believing certain people over others, or being swayed in an argument or point of view by certain people. This however is a folly, as follows of celebrity blogs for example are far more likely to be enthralled by a point of view from this individual rather than a random blogger that they can give no name to.
- Having a large following through social media is something that some bloggers feel isn’t necessary to be successful – however these people are usually the ones with low traffic blogs, as social media literally controls our everyday lives nowadays and you are far more likely to find your way to a blog article through a social media format (e.g. The Lad Bible through Facebook) than a standalone blogger through Google of general searching for a blog.
- “Blogging is the best medium of getting ones opinion across to others over the internet” – Although this statement may have been closer to the truth around 10-15 years ago we are now living in a modern age and there are several superior ways of marketing yourself to the general public. For instance, as previously stated social media is a huge influence and in addition to this there are online newspapers and even vlogs on YouTube which will see more traffic from the younger generations.
- It is the opinion of some people that the level of written English in a blog isn’t all that important and that the subject itself is the only thing that matters. Whilst the subject is important there are certain things from an SEO (search engine optimisation) perspective such as the quality and popularity of links to this page and overall grammar and standard of written English that do affect the traffic to a blog post via search engines such as Google. Other things are more important but it is still a relevant thing to mention.
- A good amount of bloggers think that blogging can only ever be a hobby or a pastime because there isn’t enough money in it to make a success of yourself and do it full time. However, I would beg to differ as there are a whole range of blogging sites that can see upwards of 100 million unique monthly visitors a month (for example Huffington Post). Most of these articles are linked and shared by users on social media aswell, furthering the influence of the article.
- Something that most bloggers and social media users alike think when it comes to blogging is that they have to spam as much content as possible as quickly as possible in order to be successful. This in turn can cause you to have a reduced quality in your work and by extension kill your blog by publishing content for the sake of it. Some people are waiting on the edge of their seat for your next post, and so make sure you produce high quality content quite regularly so that they will be relieved and inspired when a blog post is finally presented to them.
- One of the things that I would say a lot of people undervalue with regards to blogging is the desire to create longer posts and produce extended articles rather than smaller snippets. This is primarily out of fear for boring a viewer and having them move on to another post rather than finish your own. However, if the content is relevant to them a lot of people are willing to invest time into finishing a post and so be sure to write as much as you like as long as it is high-quality and engaging.
- Some bloggers feel that you must conform to opinions that everybody else has in order to be recognised. On the contrary, being adverse and having a differing opinion allows the reader to question and contrast their own thoughts which makes them think a lot more about what they are reading. This engagement is why people want to read articles and so don’t be afraid to think a little outside the box.