How To Battle the Imposter Syndrome That Stops You from Blogging

To start a blog, put your mind in the right place first

Let me start by paraphrasing a Chinese adage:

The best time to start a blog was 10 years ago. The second best time is now.

You know that’s true. Yet, you still find reasons to put off this dream of yours. Maybe you think you can’t be a blogger because you’re:

• Lazy
• Unmotivated
• Unqualified
• Not tech-savvy enough
• [fill in the blank with whatever rationalization you have for it]

Look — I’m not saying these aren’t valid reasons. They surely are valid to you if they’ve been stopping you from doing what you want to do. But whichever adjective you picked from the above list, I ask you to consider one more possibility:

Maybe, under the rational reasons for not starting a blog, there’s another one: fear.

Deep down, it’s the fear of not being good enough, running out of things to say, or making a fool of yourself that holds you back. This is nothing to be ashamed of. Almost everyone who creates something for the public has experienced it at some point in their life.

Our brains are wired to worry about what other people think of us. It’s just a feat of the human mind. The good news is that it’s possible to move forward with your blog despite this.

If you doubt it, let me tell you that I was where you are not long ago. I thought I wasn’t qualified to start a blog and publish articles for people to enjoy. I was too afraid to even consider it as a possibility.

Then, in July 2019, I made a bold decision. I signed up for a blogging course and decided to build a blog that will bring me $1k+ a month in passive income. I haven’t looked back since.

This post is the first of my Behind The Blog column in which I will be sharing my blogging journey with you. I’m far from having all the answers, but I’m committed to figuring them out. I hope that what I learn can help you start your blog, too — regardless of how much of an imposter you feel like right now.

Are you with me? Then let me tell you how it all started.

How I Started a Blog Despite Feeling Like a Fraud

For years, I used to invent all kinds of excuses not to start a blog. Most of them were just symptoms of one ailment that is common among creatives: imposter syndrome.

For many years, it prevented me from showing any of my writing to the public. ‘Who are you,’ said this little voice in my head, ‘to think that your private thoughts may have any value to others?’ Because of that voice, I spend years manufacturing excuses not to publish my stuff.

The first breakthrough came in 2017. That year, I started offering content writing services — first for free and then for humble pay. Even though I was living paycheck-to-paycheck, an important shift occurred in my mind.

Suddenly, I was being paid to write.

If someone gave me money for my words, I couldn’t be that bad. And if I wasn’t that bad, I figured that, with time and practice, I could get to the point of being good enough. What I meant by that was to be able to write a blog for a living.

It took two more years to reframe that fantasy into an actionable plan. In 2019, an opportunity presented itself. A friend told me about the Freedom Machine, a blog-building course from Smart Blogger.

I’d just lost my best-paying freelance client and had to redefine my writing journey again. The idea to buy the course landed on fertile ground. Jon Morrow, the guy behind Freedom Machine, was promising that if I followed all the steps, I would get to a minimum of $1k in passive income a month.

The course was expensive but, at the same time, it felt right. For the first time, I was realistic about the amount of time and effort it would take to build a profitable blog. But I also trusted that, with the support of the course, I could pull this off.

I knew overthinking this wasn’t going to help. I made a decision and bought the course. I wasn’t willing to put off my blogging dream any longer.

When the choice was made, I dove straight into the materials. What I found surprised me.

The Four Common Beliefs That Limit Aspiring Bloggers

The course didn’t start with advice like “write X blog posts a week” or “grow your social media following.” Right off the bat, it challenged my beliefs about blogging.

The first thing I needed to do was put my mind in the right place.

I realized that much of my imposter syndrome came from misguided concepts about blogging. I had a lot of ideas I clung to — even though I was no expert on the topic.

Here are four limiting beliefs that hindered me the most. Chances are, they also keep you from starting a blog.

1. “You need to be an expert in your niche”

When I looked at the most popular bloggers, they seemed like they knew everything about their field. I felt like I could never compete with them. I thought I needed to gain more knowledge before publishing any posts.

I knew my blog would be connected to personal growth and mindfulness. I kept reading about those topics and going to workshops — but the knowledge I gained never seemed enough. Finally, it hit me that none of the “expert” bloggers I looked up to were so knowledgeable right off the bat.

They also had to start somewhere — and then keep learning as they were moving forward.

When I joined Freedom Machine, I realized blogging doesn’t require you to deliver expert-certified knowledge. Rather, I started seeing it as a form of thought leadership, a journey that appeals to a particular audience.

For that, you don’t need to be an expert. As long as you’re honest about what you do and don’t know, you can appeal to people by sharing your unique combination of experience, skills, and story.

For that, you also need to write well — and about the topics that interest your audience.

2. “Blogging means writing whatever and however you want”

This may come across as a harsh wake-up call — but if it does, it means you needed it. Blogging isn’t writing about whatever you want and then finding an audience for it.

To be at least moderately successful as a blogger, you need to reverse the above process. This means finding people you want to appeal to first. Then, you have to identify what content they’re interested in, and only in the end, write it.

Reorienting my focus toward the reader was the breakthrough I needed. At first, I worried this would limit my self-expression and take the joy of writing away. Now I see that serving my audience gives a much-needed direction to my creativity.

In other words, catering to specific readers makes things easier, not harder. In a few moments, I’ll explain why it’s also one of the best cures for imposter syndrome.

But first, let’s look at another popular belief that may be stopping you from blogging.

3. “The crowded blogosphere makes it impossible to get noticed”

When there’s a lot of competition in your field, you can interpret it in two ways.

The first is that, because there are so many players in the game, it’s hard to get ahead. The second interpretation says that the existing competition validates the demand for the product or service you’re offering.

The Freedom Machine taught me to embrace this second narrative. The fact that the blogosphere is so huge — and growing! — is a confirmation that people want and benefit from reading blogs. Therefore, your main concern shouldn’t be the competition.

It should be the market demand that made this competition possible in the first place.

If you look at the blogosphere as a market, you start thinking of your blog as a business. This doesn’t only help you get more practical about the whole thing. It also allows you to overcome the worry that “the blogosphere is too crowded” and focus on finding a niche for your blog instead.

Before I say more about it, let’s look at one last belief that may be holding you back.

4. “You need to have a well-baked idea to start blogging.”

Here comes the core of imposter syndrome: believing that you need to wait until you’re ready. A lot of people tell themselves that they’ll start a blog when X or Y happens. They need to have 50 solid article ideas, get better at writing, or read a certain number of books on their topic.

Usually, the real obstacle isn’t any of these things. It’s the lack of confidence that you have what it takes to start a blog. But here’s the secret: This confidence won’t appear before you start. Very rarely does “feeling ready” precede action.

I once heard Niklas Göke speak about this and one sentence he said stuck with me: “It is not the idea that starts the process; it is the process that brings the ideas.”

You need to start building your blog despite not feeling ready. The sense of competence will grow as your blog does. Treating it as a prerequisite to action only holds you back.

So how exactly do you get started without feeling ready? Here are some practical ideas you can nurture and capitalize on.

How to Change Your Mindset From Fraud to Good Enough

Let’s establish this first: you don’t need to feel on top of the world to start blogging. However, feeling like a fraud certainly doesn’t help either. Luckily, I discovered that there’s a “middle way” that goes between the two.

To feel like a good enough writer and person is… enough. You don’t have to think of yourself as superior in any way. It will do the job if you see yourself as a decently-skilled, reliable writer who’s able to plan and execute a new project. This project will be stretched over time and you can get help with it.

This doesn’t sound so scary anymore, does it? You don’t need to be a superhuman to start a blog. You are, however, required to accept a few new, helpful concepts.

To each of the limiting beliefs I struggled with, I found an antidote. These are not some fancy cognitive techniques or life hacks. Rather, they’re natural capacities that every person has and can capitalize on.

Let me show you what I mean.

1. Honesty

In blogging, honesty is one of your best tools. As long as you don’t pretend to know something you don’t, you’re allowed to talk about any subject in the world. Of course, you also need to provide value. But this can be done in other ways than just sharing “expert knowledge.”

Can you see what I’m doing with this post, for example? I’m telling you clearly that I’m no blogging expert and I’m just starting. At the time of writing this post, my blog isn’t even live yet. But for some reason you’re still here, reading.

This means that by honestly sharing my struggles and ways in which I dealt with them, I can provide value to you.

A blog can be framed in a lot of different ways. One of them is the blogger saying: I don’t know, but I’m determined to figure it out. Are you willing to take the ride with me?

A lot of readers will say yes.

2. Willingness to help

Many people start their blogs with this me, myself, and I attitude. Maybe you fear that catering to readers’ needs rather than expressing yourself “purely” may take away from your joy of writing.

But discovering that your writing helps someone can feel even better than writing just for the sake of it.

Humans are wired to find satisfaction in being helpful. We’re all tribal beings, designed to connect with others. This means providing value can motivate you like nothing else. Just wait for the first comment from a reader saying that your post “made their day” (if you haven’t already received one, in which case you know what exactly I’m talking about).

Embracing a service mindset can sustain your work much better than creating just for the sake of it. Plus, it pretty much erases imposter syndrome.

It’s almost impossible to feel like a fraud when you know you’re being genuinely helpful to others.

3. Business approach

Now let’s address the worry that the blogosphere is too crowded to squeeze in one more blog — yours. Thinking about this issue in business terms may shift your mindset.

Imagine a chef who wants to open a restaurant in France — a country with a well-established culture of eating out. Would she give up the idea just because there are already many successful restaurants around? I doubt it. I think she’d rather take it a sign that there’s a demand for what she wants to offer. Then, she’d focus on identifying the unique value only she can provide. This would ensure customers choose her restaurant over others.

You’ll need to do essentially the same in the blogging business. Concentrate on questions like, What are your readers looking for? How can you use your skills and experience to answer the market’s demand in a way that no one else can?

To answer, you’ll need some research and self-reflection. This will allow you to identify your niche, create a product, and define marketing strategies to reach your target audience with your message. In essence, you’ll develop many characteristics of a business owner.

Would you call a business owner a fraud for working hard to provide their customers with what they want?

And finally, as for that annoying belief that you have to feel confident enough to start a blog…

You Won’t Feel Like You Can Do It Unless You Do It

If you want to blog — or start any new project, for that matter — there’s one crucial thing to understand. You can’t feel confident about something you haven’t tried yet. A sense of competence comes from doing things. It’s not something you can build prior to action.

Starting a blog despite not knowing what you’re doing is the only option. In my experience, there’s no way around this. But the good news is that your confidence will grow as soon as you take the first step.

The act of doing something you’ve never done before upgrades your self-image to a whole new level. Immediately.

It may happen when you publish your first post, get the first comment from a reader, buy the domain name for your blog… or any other time. I can’t guarantee when and how exactly your mindset will shift.

But if you decide to start and keep at it — it’ll happen, sooner or later. You’ll start seeing yourself as someone who’s already blogging — not just dreaming about it.

Once you acknowledge that you’re doing this, you’re already on the other side. This is what some people call “the point of no return.” You may still not know where the road leads — but you’ll be damn sure you’re walking it.

And let me tell you this: The road, in itself, is a great place to be.