People will tell you that creating quality content consistently is hard.
You won’t believe them.
You’ll think, It can’t be THAT hard. I have a work ethic. I can overcome it.
You’ll embark on your blogging journey.
And then you’ll figure out that THEY WERE ALL RIGHT.
Here are the top 6 things I learned from my first 10 hours creating blog content.
Disclaimer: I have by no means mastered any of these. I have simply come to learn some things I have yet to learn.
1. Content Creation is Hard
While I want to acknowledge that there are some people who might not fall into the category of people who will go through that thought process, I also know that the vast majority of people do. After you try your hand at blogging, you might gain a much greater empathy for all those abandoned-after-two-measly-posts-years-ago blogs.
I’m not exactly new to the content creation game, so I went in with the knowledge that it would be difficult. Yet, even with previous experience, it’s so easy to fool yourself into thinking you can do a better job than anyone else out there while you’re sitting there contemplating starting something.
Austin-Copywriter Kristin Hicks said it beautifully, “Writing doesn’t come naturally to everyone. And copywriting for the web doesn’t come naturally to anyone – it’s a distinct skill that has to be learned.”
(Note: I’m not endorsing her work; I came across her page today and bookmarked it because I liked some of the things she wrote.)
It’s hard because it’s a skill.
2. Curating Photos is Hard
I’m not complaining, I’m stating facts to drive home a point: if you’re not writing content and you think it’s easy, be prepared to run into some road blocks!
There are some really great resources out there to pull photos from the web, which you can find with a quick Google search.
There are also some really great guides on how to snap great original content, which again, you can find with a quick Google search.
I’m so grateful for all of those resources.
HOWEVER – finding or taking the right photo still takes a lot of intentionality. Perhaps finding a photo for one piece of content isn’t an issue. Perhaps even two pieces of content. But, from my experience, it’s a skill to be able to get photos that make sense with your content and look good together.
Finding photos isn’t necessarily a challenge, but it’s difficult to find photos that all make sense, excite your readers, and support your brand identity, all at the same time.
3. It Always Takes Longer Than You Think
Sometimes I come home with an ambitious game plan: to think of a topic, brainstorm my ideas, write a draft, research supporting articles, come up with a title, find an image, proofread, proofread again, proofread another time, and publish my post all in a the span of an evening.
Most times that’s wishful thinking.
Since I’m at the beginning of my blogging journey, I’m not worrying too much about the intricacies of blog writing because my primary goal is to get my thoughts typed out and shared.
For example, something I haven’t even started thinking about yet is SEO (search engine optimization). Yes – it’s important. Yes – I’ll need to do it eventually if I want to increase my visibility. And yes – it will add much more time to my writing once I get there.
So, even though I’m pretty minimal in my content creation, it still takes a while. My biggest struggle is the opening sentence. I’ll often times revise it 25 times in a single sitting. It weighs on me how much the leading paragraph impacts the whole article.
When I’m struggling with it, often times I’ll convince myself that the article doesn’t make sense anyway, and I’ll scrap the topic and start over.
There’s a lot that goes on in the back-end that you don’t see while reading a published post.
4. You Can Justify Any Excuse
It’s too late, if I start now, I’ll be interrupted, and my content won’t be as strong. I’ll wait until I have a solid block of 2 hours to dedicate to writing.
There’s no good spot for me to sit and write, it’s too noisy. I’ll wait until things quiet down.
My head kind of hurts, I can’t focus on anything but the pain. I’ll just write tomorrow, I’ll feel better then.
All of my excuses suddenly started sounding SO LEGIT once I had something to excuse myself from. It’s so easy to talk yourself into believing that it’s really not the right time to create content.
However, it’ll never be the right time. There will always be something in the way. If you keep waiting for the right moment, it’ll never arrive.
What a metaphor for life.
I’ve been learning to acknowledge whatever excuse my mind conjures up and then thinking of ways I can overcome it. It’s (usually) rewarding to choose to make progress toward my goal instead of taking the comfortable way out.
5. Pressing “Publish” Is Scary, But Almost Nothing Actually Happens
As a new blogger, your audience is likely very, very small.
Shout-out to my very small audience right now! You guys are the OGs!
Every view on my posts makes my heart jump with joy. It’s such a small amount that I can afford to get excited about every view. (And to be clear, I like it that way for now).
When I first started writing content, though, I was paralyzed with the fear of the entire internet’s eyes reading my words. When you publish something online, it feels like just because it’s so accessible, that everyone will suddenly see it and judge it.
Not true. It’s like getting a new haircut: a small amount of people around you will notice that something is different or new, but people won’t care as much as you, nor will they flock to your side and start going out of their way to make some sort of comment or judgement.
You have to work hard to get your content in front of a large audience.
This has been my most comforting lesson, because it allowed me to begin to write freely and get excited about posting instead of being overcome with fear.
Oh, I was so young 10-blogging-hours ago!
6. You’ll Learn So Much
Every minute I’ve invested into creating my “perfect” blog has revealed just how much I still have left to learn.
It’s pretty awesome when you’re wanting to learn.
It’s pretty overwhelming when you’re just wanting it to be over with.
The reason why this particular blog has survived this long while my other attempts have crashed and burned is because I’m excited to keep learning this time around. Every time I’ve been in a mindset of just trying to get it done, I’ve lost patience and tapered out.
It’s frustrating to think you were well prepared going in only to be hit with the reality that you barely know anything. I’ve learned that I could spend hours and hours reading other people’s experiences, studying their tactics, trying to avoid their mistakes, but I wouldn’t accomplish anything until I actually tried it out myself.
Go Do The Thing!
Studying can never replace experience; the person who studies how to become an astronaut is not an astronaut.
This is both wonderful and terrible.
Wonderful – because it means that there’s no shortcut to success, so the people who succeed have to actually put in effort. Terrible – because it means there’s no shortcut to success, and you’ll actually have to do something.
If you’re excited to learn, go do the thing! And let me know what you learn in the first 10 hours of your own journey.
