The frustrating side of blogging

Being a blogger seems very easy to the outside world. We open our laptops, purge a few words, then sit back and watch the money churn in. What a brilliant life, don’t you think? And on top of that, you live the luxury of an influencer without having to get out of your pajamas! Talk about a win! If you had asked me before I started my blog, I would have said that it is basically the dream. That is, until I discovered the frustrating side of blogging.

Fellow bloggers know that it isn’t as easy as it appears. If anything, it is a very frustrating hobby to make an income from. And with so many blogs already saturating the web, how much value can a ‘Growing With Spawn’ add?

If you aren’t already a blogger, I thought I would share with you the not-so-perfect aspects of blogging. But please do take it with a pinch of salt. After all, everyone’s journey is different!

Improving your DA is harder than losing weight

Have you ever wondered why some websites always appear at the top of your web searches? You know, the likes of Wikipedia, Amazon, etc. It’s not because they paid a pretty penny to be there – although some might’ve. It is that five-headed best called Domain Authority (DA).

When I first found out about DA and how it affects the opportunities you can get from having a good one, I was determined to grow mine to as close to 100 as possible. Now, I’m not trying to be a negative Nancy, but trying to grow your DA is probably harder than losing a few pounds… literally! With nearly a year to my domain, we have only crept up from a DA of zero to eight. Let that sink in… One whole year!

But why is this relevant?

I bet you’re wondering why I care about my DA so much. Well, if you have never heard of GetBlogged, you should shuffle your blogger butt over to their site and sign up today. As much as I am not being paid to recommend them, I was lucky enough to have heard about them through a fellow blogger and have been a convert ever since!

When it comes to making money from your blog, there are many ways to do it. The easiest way is, of course, to sell a product of your own to your dedicated readers. However, if like me, you struggle to come up with ideas of what to sell, there are many sites that offer jobs to bloggers. On blogger outreach sites such as this one, they offer paid opportunities for bloggers looking to make a quick buck. The only catch is that your DA has to be good enough to qualify!

Oh, and before I forget, the biggest key to improving your DA is to get as many ‘do follow’ backlinks as possible. Simple enough right? *Scoffs*

Let me know if you want the intel on DA, and I will dedicate an entire post to it. But for now, on with the struggles.

Finding ways to support other bloggers without it being a tit for tat

If you don’t know by now, I am a mom, wife, and hard-working employee. I also have a family and friends that I need to interact with every now and then before they disown me. Add blogging to that mix and the twenty-four hours each day has to offer is not nearly enough to keep up with every blogger’s site who supports mine. And the worst part is that I really want to. However, adding more blogging hours means debiting it from a different pillar of my life. Spoiler alert – that is not an option!

And yet, we all know that if you become part of the blogging community, you need to support your fellow bloggers. So how does one juggle the pieces of the puzzle? Wait, is that even possible to do? You know, juggle puzzle pieces? Anyways, back to managing blogging and real life, it essentially becomes tiring. As a result, I have witnessed quite a few unfollows, and a significant drop in engagement on my blog.

Do I hate it? Yes. Can I do anything to change it? Not that I can tell… If there is anyone who has mastered the formula, please, help a sister out!

But to my ride or dies, I really appreciate every like, comment, and retweet you do. I see you, I appreciate you and I will do everything to support you too!

Related: Why bloggers should have blogger friends

The expenses

When I first started out my blog, I was not aware that I would be paying as much as I do just to keep it afloat. While there are free options on WordPress, none of them allowed me to customise my site to my liking. So onto the premium plan we went… only to find that it was limiting as well. Now, here we are on the Business plan, subscribed to a paid email generating thingy and paying an annual fee for this domain name. Let’s also throw in the paid theme that has now become a GWS signature, the time factor (yes – my time is worth money), and the internet and office fees (ie. mortgage).

Here’s the thing, no one forced me into this commitment, but had I known how it would’ve panned out, I most likely would’ve made different decisions. So my fellow bloggers, if you plan on changing out from a personal or premium plan, rather go self-hosted! And tell your friends too.

The most frustrating side of blogging: Ranking on search engines

I wrote an entire piece on this but decided against adding it because we all know how saturated the internet is. If you forgot, refer to point one. However, ranking on search engines is indeed possible, but staying on page one is the hard part. With many people using the same keywords and optimising their sites for SEO, it is only expected that one’s reign on the front page would be very short-lived. I remember how excited I was to have found that my humble site ranked on Google’s first page. But by the next morning, I had nothing to show for it. If that isn’t such a frustrating side of blogging, I don’t know what is!

So fellow blogger, if you make it to the coveted slot, make sure to take a picture because it will most likely be short-lived.

Check out: A simple SEO guide for bloggers

Have you happened upon the frustrating side of blogging? What are some tips you have to manoeuvre out of it?