Afraid to invest in your blog?

Are you afraid to invest in your blog?

Many bloggers are.

And it’s often why many bloggers fail.

But you don’t have to be one of them.

You should understand how serious this pitfall is, and take steps to avoid it.

Fear of investing can cripple your blog

If you are an active blogger, then you know it takes some investment to gain anything close to success.

But if you’re just starting out, you may not understand this.

In fact, the very word “investment” may send chills up your back.

Blogging is supposed to be free, isn’t it?

Well, if that’s what you believe at the outset, then every time you hear about investing in your blog, you might curl up in fear.

And distrust.

After all, isn’t blogging free?

Isn’t blogging free?

Blogging can be free.

You can get a free blog at Blogger, at WordPress dot com, and others.

But here’s the tradeoff (since nothing is really free at the end of the day).

Those sites where you can blog without having to pay for hosting or domain names are not yours.

They are owned by Blogger, WordPress or whatever other free platform you choose.

In fact, you can “blog for free” on many, many platforms.

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These include LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, Quora and the list just goes on and on.

But in every single case, you do not own your own blog.

I should clarify one distinction here, and that is WordPress.

WordPress has two options.

You can blog for free on the WordPress platform if you register at WordPress dot com.

But if you register at WordPress dot org instead, then you must host your own site.

In that case, you do own your own blog with WordPress dot org.

So, anyway, yes… blogging can be free if you just want to start posting articles.

But that’s just the very bare bones beginning of blogging.

If free is all you’re willing to invest in your blog, then I’d say your investment fears will likely cripple your business.

How much should you invest in your blog?

I guess you could get by with a bare minimum of investment.

If you’re totally afraid to invest in your blog, that is.

But it would be like buying a $30,000 car and then opting out of power steering and transmission, audio equipment, power brakes and windows, and on and on.

Maybe you’d end up getting the $30,000 car for $22,000.

But then you wouldn’t be driving the same car.

It would only perform like a $22,000 car, not the $30,000 one that you really wanted in the first place.

Blogging is like that.

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The less you invest in your blog, the least likely you are to succeed in attracting an audience, driving traffic to it, and building a profitable online business with it.

And aren’t those the things you really want to accomplish?

I assume you don’t want a blog with no readers, followers, traffic, customers or clients.

So, the question becomes, just how much should you invest in your blog?

What kind of results do you want from blogging?

So let’s consider some of the typical results you might be looking to get from your blog.

I just mentioned a few…

• attract an audience,
• get traffic to your blog
• build a profitable online business

So let’s take these for example.

There are things you could invest in to get these kinds of results.

An autoresponder service will help you build and maintain an email list.

It’s an investment.

Usually, a small monthly investment.

Yet, it’s one of the most important things for a blogger to have.

You can sign up for a free trial autoresponder to see what it’s all about.

Your email list is a great way to turn casual subscribers of your list into a loyal audience.

That, in turn, helps you get additional traffic to your blog because loyal followers tell other people about you.

They also share your blog posts on social media.

That will clearly help you build a profitable business from word of mouth and social sharing.

But, in addition, you can do direct promotions to your email list which can become very profitable in and of itself.

What’s it worth to get the results you want?

So, if an autoresponder helps you obtain the 3 results listed above, what is it worth to you?

Clearly, it’s critical to get an audience, traffic and profit.

If those are the results you really want, is it wise to refuse buying an autoresponder service because you don’t want to invest in your blog?

You might think you can get those results without an autoresponder, meaning, without building and nurturing an email list.

And, yes, you can.

But it’s going to be much harder and take tons of time to even come close to accomplishing what you can with an email list.

So, for a few dollars a month in fees, you would be choosing to forego the incredible results that you stand to gain by investing in an autoresponder.

I wouldn’t call that a wise decision.

Instead, I’d say you’re probably going to sabotage your entire business simply because you’re afraid to invest in your blog.

What things does a blogger need to invest in?

There are lots of things you can invest in.

But you can certainly overdo it by investing in all kinds of cool things that you really don’t need, and will probably never use.

Don’t get sucked into the Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS).

I’ve seen many bloggers overspend on a lot of stuff that may not be junk, but is simply something they don’t need.

Blogging is a simple business.

Don’t overcomplicate it.

But, still, don’t be afraid to invest in your blog when you really need something to move your business forward.

I’ve already mentioned that blogging is not free.

And you shouldn’t try to make it a totally free business venture.

It’s good enough to know that it’s easily one of the cheapest businesses you could possibly run.

But don’t cheap out on it.

You’ll only cheat yourself.

Now, here’s a short list of things that I think just about every blogger needs to invest in.

Hosting and Domain

Don’t try to blog on a free platform.

That’s just far too short-sighted.

Get a good website host.

I’m an affiliate of Bluehost because I think it’s one of the best… and easiest to use.

Then buy a domain name (Bluehost will give you a free one if you use their hosting).

All that will cost you very little, but it’s absolutely necessary if you’re at all serious about running a blogging business.

Autoresponder

I’ve already talked about how important an autoresponder is to your blog.

The main reason to blog is to build a following.

That’s nearly impossible to do without signing up people to your email list.

It’s your regular email messages to your subscribers that starts building a relationship and trust.

Your entire blog is based on relationships and trust, so don’t even think of getting by without an autoresponder.

Page builder/editor

There are many ways to build and edit pages that will help your blog.

Invest in your blog by getting one of these page builders.

It’s essential if you’re looking to build an audience and/or a profit from your blog.

There are many different page builders and editors.

My favorite, which I’m also an affiliate of, is Thrive Themes.

The most important thing is to have the capacity to create attractive and functional pages.

Thrive Themes makes this so simple with intuitive drag and drop features.

Whether you use Thrive Themes or something else, though, make sure you are able to create the pages that make your blog do what you want… grow a following and build your income.

This is an essential way to invest in your blog.

Here’s a quick glimpse at just two of the kinds of pages you’ll need to create.

Squeeze page

You need to create a squeeze page to build your email list.

That’s the page people see to get them interested in signing up.

On your squeeze page, you tell them why they should sign up and how they’ll benefit from doing it.

So, for instance, you might offer a free ebook on a topic you know they’re interested in.

To obtain it, they must sign up for your email list.

Then, your first email to them will contain a link to the free ebook.

Sales page

This is a page containing a button for people to buy your product or service.

Or, an affiliate product or service.

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This is how you actually start earning commissions and making money on your blog.

So, clearly, a sales page is a key element of blogging.

Coaching

Bloggers often skimp on the most important way of all to invest in their blogs.

That’s by hiring a coach.

You aren’t likely to know all the technical, marketing and strategy things you need to in order to grow a successful blog.

It would take a long time and far more expense in courses and training to learn it all.

But you don’t have to learn it all.

Most of what you learn won’t be on target with what you need for your particular situation, anyway.

So why not invest in your blog in the most effective way possible?

Hire a good blogging coach to show you just what you need.

Forget the rest.

Focus on your goals and your blog.

Get right down to business and start making things happen with the help of a knowledgeable coach.

A good blogging coach can take you by the hand and show you exactly what you need to do.

And just as importantly, exactly what to avoid doing.

Afraid to invest in your blog?

Those are the very best things you can do to invest in your blog.

After that, you should give consideration to other things that will help your blog gain success.

You’ll want to consider software to help you automate your marketing.

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Don’t think blogging is just about content creation.

For every hour you spend creating content for your blog, you need to spend 4 hours marketing it.

That takes a lot of work.

Automating that process not only helps ease your burden, but it also vastly widens the reach of your message to your target audience.

Then there’s software to optimize your blog posts for the search engines… so-called SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

You might choose to invest in various apps, blog themes, or technical solutions to special projects like banner ad creation, to mention just one example.

And perhaps you want to invest in people to help you run your blogging business by outsourcing tasks that you don’t have the time, knowledge or inclination to do yourself.

In conclusion

There are so many things that can help you build a successful, far reaching blogging presence.

But to put them to work for you, it’s absolutely required that you get past any fears you may have to invest in your blog.

That doesn’t mean that you should be spending recklessly on your business.

But after careful thought and planning, decide what areas of your blogging you could be improving by making some wise investment.

Then, figure out what you can afford to invest in, and go for it within the budget you have safely set for yourself.

At this point, I’d like to hear from you.

Leave me a comment below and share your thoughts.

What kind of investments are you making now to create success?

Or do you find that you are just too afraid to invest in your blog?

-Donna

PS: Don’t forget to share this article on your favorite social sites. Much thanks 🙂

• Bio
• Blogging Magic

Donna Merrill

Donna is a well known blogger and creator of "Blogging Magic" - an intensive guide to blogging. "Blogging Magic" is for beginners who are trying to figure out how to bring their blogs to life with tons of visits, comments and social media interaction. It's even for advanced bloggers looking to reach new levels of authority and engagement with their audience.