Pros and Cons of Blogging: What you Need To Know Before Starting

If you’re looking at the pros and cons of blogging, it means you’re on the road to making a decision. You’re wondering if it’s going to be worth it. The reality is that it is. This list of the advantages and disadvantages of blogging goes in-depth, with the advantages winning.

Before you read further, this post is for those who want to become bloggers, not businesses for which blogs are an essential marketing and SEO strategy for brand awareness.

If you’re considering blogging, you may be concerned about the required time, money and energy you need to invest.

I get it! As a veteran lifestyle blogger and blog coach, I’ve experienced my share of ups and downs when it comes to blogging.

There are many blogging myths for us to look into to see if they are actually true. To make it easier for you to decide, I explore the top advantages and disadvantages of blogging. We’ll look at blogging myths and the realities of blogging – the good, the bad and the ugly.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click on a product or service, and decide to purchase it, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. All recommended products and services are based on my positive experience with them. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.

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what Are the Pros and Cons of Blogging?

Before we delve into the advantages and disadvantages of blogging, doing some soul-searching is an important first step.

Understanding why you want to start a blog will help you as you go through the pros and the cons.

Knowing what you can handle time and committment-wise, and setting realistic expectations for yourself is vital to your success.

Recommendation: Do a mini SWOT analysis (strengths, weakenesses, opportunities and threats) of your current abilities, time, etc., before making your final decision.

What Are The Pros Of Blogging?

The benefits of blogging are many.

Those who love a challenge and who have a go-getter attitude are the most successful and relish these pros of blogging:

Blogging Is A Creative Outlet

One of the top benefits of blogging is how it taps into your creativity.

Creative people thrive as bloggers, given what’s needed for content creation. Writing blog posts, creating visuals and publishing them in an appealing, aesthetic manner taps into creativity skills.

When I was starting as a blogger, I was working full-time at a PR agency. Publishing my own blog was my creative outlet. It continues to be my creative outlet to this day, and with blog coaching, it taps into my business skills as well.

Blogging Can Generate An Income As a Side Hustle Or Full-Time Career

Another of the many advantages of blogging is monetization. When done well, you can earn an income, either as a side hustle or a full-time income.

However, when you monetize your blog, you realize that it’s no longer just a blog, but also a business.

You go from focusing on content generation to how to monetize it effectively. Your blog becomes a marketing tool to attract potential customers.

Blog content itself isn’t a primary driver of sales: it’s what builds my visibility, credibility and authority as a blog coach. That, in turn, drives trust and openness to purchase digital products and blog coaching services.

Be Part Of The Blogging Community

Online blogging groups can be some of the most supportive communities, with other bloggers providing much-needed feedback and motivation.

From online groups and forums to online meet-ups and in-person summits, the blogging community is a thriving one.

It can be a great way to build a social circle of like-minded friends. If you’re an introvert, blogging groups are an excellent way to build friendships while growing as a blogger.

PRO TIP: Join my Blog It Better Society Facebook group for bloggers. We’re a supportive bunch of new, intermediate and pro bloggers who love to help each other out, answer questions and just be better bloggers.

Blogger Communities Offer Support

Build Your Niche Authority

One of the advantages of blogging is how it helps you build your niche authority.

Through consistent content creation, promotion, and branding, successful bloggers can establish themselves as topical authorities. Your blog is also your most powerful tool for growing your personal brand.

Your content is where you can shine, showcasing your knowledge, insights and what you believe. For example, this blog is my way of positioning myself as a niche expert in blogging.

PRO TIP: Avoid falling into the trap of creating AI-generated content. Even with grammar mistakes, your own words can be more powerful than the best AI-written blog posts. Use real examples to showcase your skills, knowledge and expertise throughout your blog content.

Build New Skills That Can Help You Professionally

Another one of the key benefits of blogging is that you learn so many skills beyond writing. Consider what’s needed to run a thriving blog.

• Content creation skills: writing, visual content (photo editing, design, video, audio)
• Promotion and content marketing skills: through Pinterest, LinkedIn, social media
• Email marketing: building a loyal subscriber base
• Sales: selling your products and services
• SEO: generating organic traffic

And so much more.

Related: 15 Habits of Successful Bloggers

You Have Control Over Your Own Platform

One of the key benefits of blogging is that you have control over your content, especially when you’ve got a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Micro-blogging on social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook can be limiting. If, for any reason, they decide to shut down your account, all of your hard work is lost.

Other platforms, such as Wix, Squarespace, and even Showit, which uses WordPress for its blogging, can all disappear tomorrow, leaving you in a lurch.

When you own your own blog, on your own choice of hosting provider, you have the control and ownership of your content.

PRO TIP: Always create a backup of your blog regularly using the free UpdraftPlus plugin. It stores a copy of your WordPress blog content at the location of your choice (e.g. your Google Drive). This is useful if something goes wrong with your site, like it almost did for me.

Build A Network

Blogging is an excellent way to extend your network of expert blogging acquaintances. From other bloggers in your niche to those in adjacent niches, as well as technical support.

All of these contacts can help with:

• Collaborations that boost your blog growth and visibility
• Solving problems when they arise
• Giving you feedback when you need it
• Helping with social proof when you’re launching a new program

Building strong friendships and partnerships is a win-win situation for bloggers who use their blogs for business.

Blogging Wins Are Satisfying

Blogging Is Fulfilling

Last on the list of benefits of blogging is how thrilling it is to launch and grow a blog. You’ve accomplished something many will never do!

Once you get started and you see your blog growing, and you’re picking up new skills, it’s even more fulfilling.

The “I built this” feeling is great when others start to send you thank yous for sharing insights that have helped them solve a problem.

The Cons Of Blogging

Like with everything in this world, there are some downsides to blogging. Many successful bloggers learn how to get around the cons and make them into opportunities.

The reality is, you can get past the disadvantages of blogging, too. There are always solutions!

Here are the top cons of blogging:

Blogging Can Be Time-Consuming

Unless you have a team of assistants or are automating with AI tools, some aspects of blogging can take up time.

For example, writing a well-researched, optimized and well-formatted blog post of about 1000 words can take anywhere between 3 to 5 hours. This limits many part-time bloggers who are just starting their blogs to about one blog post a week.

Finding smart shortcuts with batching, AI tools and organizing blog content can greatly improve how fast and well you create blog content.

Repurposing blog content with the help of tools like Canva makes it easier to promote it online, without hours spent working on creating new assets.

It Can Take a While To Grow Your Blog Into A Successful Business

The reality is that it can take several years for a blog to become a successful business. Anybody who tells you differently is lying.

When you start a blog, your focus is on building a content foundation. This is necessary as you will be:

• Working on attracting readers
• Building awareness of your website
• Positioning yourself as a niche expert

Creating all of this GREAT content can take a while. Using shortcuts with AI tools isn’t always the wisest route. AI-written content lacks personality, and people can tell when it’s not written by you. So, there’s time involved in all of this content creation.

Take into account the need to build an audience and following. You will also need to promote content extensively. This all takes time.

The solution? Plan to put in an intense year of work building your blog before switching into monetization mode. Make your Year One Goal simple: build a foundation of great content.

And remember, it took Amazon about 5 years before it saw a profit.

To make money, you will need to invest in the tools to transform your blog into a business. This is the price of starting and growing a business.

Learning Technical Skills

It doesn’t matter what kind of blogging platform you use – there will always be a technical learning curve with any content management system.

Some struggle in learning how to set up a WordPress website.

Although it’s one of the more complex ones, a self-hosted WordPress website for your blog is one of the most powerful ones out there. The flexibility and customization, as well as scalability, are by far better than what you get with Wix, Squarespace and other sites.

Once I learned how to use WordPress in 2014, my blog flourished. I was able to scale up from a blog site into a business site fairly easily.

If your long-term plan is to make your blog a business, start with a self-hosted WordPress blog. Sure, the learning curve will feel painful at first, but the good news is this: there are many resources out there to help you.

Get help from:

• YouTube videos
• Forums for WordPress, or any tool you use (e.g. plugins)
• Facebook groups (e.g. Kadence theme has an excellent Facebook support group)
• Technical experts (I have a couple of great people who can help you)
• Blog coaches (we’re not techy, but we can at least direct you to the right resources)

PRO TIP: Here’s one key piece of advice for beginner bloggers: learn how to use WordPress, including setting up your theme, working with a hosting provider and figuring things out. Trust me when I say this is the most cost-effective thing you will do. Save your budget for when a big issue happens, and you need to hire a tech expert.

Blogging Can Be Frustrating At Times

It’s Easy To Make Mistakes

With a technical learning curve, learning how your content management system works, it’s easy to make mistakes.

For example, I made the mistake of using too many plugins in my early days of using WordPress. Some greatly slowed down my site, leaving site visitors wasting precious seconds waiting for my pages to load.

It’s also easy to make mistakes regarding upgrades and changes.

For example, if you decide to switch domain names, you will need to make sure you have redirects in place from your old domain to your new one. Otherwise, you lose backlinks, which affect your ranking in search results.

To avoid making too many mistakes, research what you plan to do. Ask questions in Facebook groups and check out YouTube videos.

It Can Be Frustrating Learning New Things

Another one of the cons of blogging is all the things you need to learn! For some bloggers, who are very impatient, this could be seen as a big downside.

As I mentioned, you may be tempted to hire people to do things for you.

This move in itself has its downsides: how do you know if what the person is recommending is a valid strategy or just a money grab?

If you know how things work, then it’s easier to direct freelancers and third parties and to spot when somebody is trying to “pull a fast one on you.”

PRO TIP: Learning how to do things on your own also feeds into the thrill of achievement and skill-building. Take on one challenge at a time.

It Can Take A While Before You Start Making Money

If you’re blogging to generate an income, the reality is that it can take a while before you make any substantial amounts of money.

While it’s certainly possible to break even on expenses with a focus on monetization, you would need to be hustling pretty hard to do so with a new blog.

When I started this site and my blog coaching business, I had a very realistic business plan in place. I was happy to earn $1000 in my first year.

The fix is simple: change your mindset to money-making instead of just content creation. Once you start to look at ways to monetize your content and skills, it gets easier to start generating an income.

Competition Within Your Niche

Every niche, unless it’s a micro-niche (e.g. Food blogger focusing on cuisine in the province of Ontario), will have hundreds if not thousands of other bloggers competing for readers.

You may fall into the trap of imposter syndrome. However, you have to realize that while there may be lots of competition, many of them will drop out within the first year of blogging.

The longer you grow your blog, the easier it will be to rank better and make your mark as a niche expert.

Blog Investments Can Be Costly

One of the blogging myths that many believe to be true is that blogging can be very costly.

While this is true if you’re starting with a self-hosted WordPress blog with an expensive theme and plugins, the truth is that there are many free tools you can use.

When you begin planning to start a blog, you realize you will need to invest in your blog.

Here are some ways to save money:

• Use the free Kadence theme: many of the free templates it offers make it easier to customize your theme.
• Upgrade your Kadence theme to a cost-effective one like the Kadence child themes from Studio Mommy when you’re ready.
• Use free WordPress plugins. There are many that do just fine in the beginning as you grow your blog.
• Tap into free blogging tools that will help you as you grow your blog.

PRO TIP: In my first year of starting my business and this blog, I kept my costs to a minimum, with a few key investments, like the caching plugin WP Rocket. This helps me easily speed up my site’s loading speed, creating a better user experience.

RELATED: How To Make An Extra $100 Per Month To Fund Your Self-Hosted Blog

You Need To Market & Sell

Another of the biggest cons of blogging for some is that if you want to make money, you’re going to have to market and sell products and services.

While you can just place ads on your blog, the reality is that they don’t make much money. That is, unless you’re getting massive traffic to your site while using an ad platform that pays well.

You will need to learn the basics of product/service marketing and selling techniques. The good news is that there are many ways to do this.

You’ll find a couple of strategies that work for you and your audience. It can easily become one of the advantages of blogging for you!

Don’t be afraid to sell. Be afraid to hold yourself back from success. It will all the effort for nothing.

Blogging As A Business Means Selling

You Don’t Feel Like You Have The Time Or Commitment

When you’re stretched for time, you sometimes start to lack commitment. It’s a vicious circle.

However, if you REALLY want to start a blog, but are short on time, create a realistic plan.

When goal setting, set your deadlines well into the future. Under promise yourself. Surprise yourself with you deliver before your deadline.

There are many ways to blog efficiently. You will need to find the ways that work for you.

Spend your time wisely and use AI tools to help you speed up processes that usually take longer. For example:

• Create outlines in ChatGPT
• Have your AI tool craft Pin titles and descriptions for your blog posts
• Use templates to speed up designs like Pinterest pins or Facebook posts
• Create a content plan with ChatGPT

Once you start seeing yourself producing great content and creating a system for yourself, you’ll realize you can do it.

Promotion Is A Pain

The last con of blogging is promotion. Many bloggers love the idea of writing and producing content, but hate the promotion part.

Blogging success is 30% content creation and 70% promotion. You essentially become a marketer.

The good news is that you don’t have to promote everywhere. Learn about which social media platforms are best for bloggers. Add Pinterest and SEO, along with an email newsletter, and you’ve got a diverse promotion plan that always keeps traffic flowing to your site.

Finally, activities such as doing digital PR for your blog can result in faster growth and more recognition than simple promotion activities.

The Benefits Of Blogging Outweigh The Cons

While the list of cons can be a bit longer for you, the benefits of blogging are much more rewarding.

Whatever your reason for blogging – whether for sharing personal thoughts or running a business – you will find it fulfilling. Building an online property that people find useful, inspiring or even entertaining, depending on your content, is extremely satisfying.

There are many blogging myths out there. But the fact is, blogging can be very lucrative and fulfilling when you approach it with the right mindset.

Ready to start a blog? Need some help? Let’s connect. From one strategy blog coaching session to ongoing support, I work with new bloggers to get them on the road to successful blogging. Contact me for blog coaching sessions and get started sooner rather than later!

QUESTION: What do you think about the pros and cons of blogging that should be added to this list?

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