Summary

The author reflects on their unsuccessful one-year experience in blogging, despite significant effort and investment, ultimately deciding to pursue other writing opportunities.

Abstract

The author began blogging in 2019 after consuming a vast amount of YouTube content on the subject and was initially inspired by the success stories of other bloggers. Despite investing $100 in domain and hosting, and working diligently, the author did not earn any money from the blog. They highlight the harsh realities of blogging, emphasizing the importance of traffic, SEO, domain authority, backlinking, and social media sharing, and the challenges associated with each. The author, a software engineer, found that blogging was not yielding the expected side income and was detracting from their enjoyment of writing. After multiple failed attempts to monetize the blog and a lack of readership, the author decided to leave blogging and focus on writing on platforms like Quora, freelancing, and creating content on HubPages and Patreon, which proved to be more financially rewarding and fulfilling.

Opinions

Blogging is portrayed as a challenging endeavor that may not be suitable for everyone, despite its popularity as a potential side hustle.
The author suggests that the success stories of bloggers often omit the years of effort that preceded their financial success.
SEO and domain authority are seen as significant hurdles for new bloggers due to the high competition and the time required to build a strong online presence.
The author expresses skepticism about the effectiveness of SEO for new blogs, given the low domain authority and the difficulty in ranking on Google.
Backlinking is considered a tough and complicated process that contributes to the difficulty of blogging.
Social media sharing is not seen as a reliable method for generating significant traffic or revenue, as it often results in low engagement and minimal ad revenue.
The author believes that writing for other platforms and freelancing can be more lucrative and enjoyable than maintaining a personal blog.
The decision to leave blogging is presented as a positive choice that allowed the author to focus on their passion for writing and to establish a more reliable income stream.

I Made a Big Mistake by Blogging for One Year

What I have experienced in my one year of blogging Journey

“People learn nothing by being told, they have to find out for themselves.” ― Paulo Coelho

It was the year 2019, and I started my blog by watching 100 Youtube videos about blogging on Youtube.

I read the Success story of many bloggers and started working like Elon Musk. I was Super exited at a time to starting a blog.

As a new blogger, I invested $100 [ Domain+Hosting] on my new blogging startup and started working day and night for my blog. But It was my big mistake to start a new blog for making good side hustle.

I Am not demotivating you if you are running a blog. But I suggest you to rethinking about your blogging career.

Blogging is not a cup of Tea

I wasted my $100 without getting a single penny. People who tell their blogging success stories are not wrong. They tell you their success, but they will not tell you how many years they were sitting on a table with a single penny. Blogging has harsh realities.

To earn money by blogging, you need Traffic. Traffic is the most expensive thing in the blogging world. Some people will tell you to adopt SEO and bring traffic to your blog, but do you know the dark side of SEO?

SEO works well for those you have good domain authority and backlinks. You can rank your one or two blog post on google, but are they going to pay at least your house rent?

Getting ranked on Google is difficult. Write on your blog for 3 years and then you can start earning. It is a reality. When people say you you will earn within 6 months is fooling you.

What makes blogging difficult

Blogging is not about writing a content unlike freelancing where you can sell your content easily online. Blogging has other parameters, including SEO and domain authority and Backlinking.

SEO

SEO plays a role where google will rank you according to your keyword. There are hundred’s of website launch daily and lacks blog post published daily with proper SEO.

SEO effect went zero as your blog has zero domain authority. No one is going to tell you this harsh truth because they want to sell their product or let you watch their YouTube video.

If you are going for a long-tail keyword, then stop will get less traffic with a high bounce rate. SEO is more complicated than you think it is more than keyword research, but in a market, many keyword research companies are fooling new bloggers.

Domain Authority

If your blog has good domain score that decided by google. for that, you must have good daily traffic and low bounce rate. To create good domain authority, you need at least 5 years.

There are thousands of blogging companies in competition with you competing at least for 10 years and you are going to Rank within 6 months and will start earning thousands of dollars?

some sites have good domain authority and they will rank on google easily. Ex. One answer on Quora Ranked on google within 2 hours. Will it possible for my new blog post?

Backlinking

Backlinking plays a role in google. The average top ranking site has 80 backlinks to their one blog post. Is it possible for your blog to backlink by 80 other sites?

If you are starting writing to get a backlink from their site then who is going to click on that link? It is more complicated. Backlinking is tough work, and that makes blogging more miserable.

Social Media Sharing

When you share your post on social media you will get traffic to suppose you are getting 1000 daily visitors and how many will read your articles? And how many are going to click your ads?

If 5 people click your ads, you are going to get 50 cents. It is worth it after spending 5 hours daily on blogging?

I experienced this pitfall in one year of my blogging career.

Why I left blogging

Screenshot from Author’s PC (google Analytics)

I am a software engineer and to earn some side hustle so I can earn easily When I sleep and blogging come out of my mind. I searched on YouTube and watched videos and blogged.

I spent almost 40 hours on my blog, but I didn’t earn a single penny from it. I learned SEO and Marketing by paid coaching still result were zero.

I love writing. But as a blogger, you are doing all things except writing. I am not enjoying my writing hobby and started getting burnouts.

I applied 8 Times for Ad-sense approval and google rejected my blog by saying ‘ we need unique content’. I tried 8 times, but they rejected my blog and my one-year effort.

I didn’t get any traffic for my blog. You know, How you feel when no one is going to read your article? It pains from inside.

What’s Next?

I left blogging behind and focused more on my writing skill, then I joined Quora and started writing there. I was getting a huge response. People are reading my stuff and upvoting me.

I started approaching towards companies for freelancing as I was coder many software companies gave their work to me. Also joined Upwork and Fiverr to reach a potential customer.

I earned about $500 in my 6 months of a professional writing career as a freelancer and still writing.

Also, I write on HubPages and opened a creator account on Patreon as a Photographer.

Working for side income was the primary aim for me, and writing is helping me to achieve it. I looked at blogging as a potential source of side hustle, but It gave me nothing. Writing on other platforms and from freelancing, I can create a good side income stream and still working on it. I earned more writing for others than writing for my blog.

I left blogging because it was diverting me from my writing and it was the best decision I have taken in my life.