How Do You Know If You’re Ready To Start A Profitable Blog?

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You may WANT to start a blog, but how do you know if you’re ready to start a profitable blog?

This post will be aimed at those who are wanting to start a blog to receive an income from it, more than anyone who wants to start a blog as a hobby.

Imposter syndrome is not only real but can be so hard to push past and work through.

You see all of these amazing, beautiful, successful blogs and you want that for yourself but don’t feel you’re ready/worthy to start.

Why should anyone listen to you or what you have to say?

Spin that question around and you get:

Why SHOULDN’T anyone listen to you and what you have to say?

You are unique, and that’s what will make you stand out.

Once you’ve made the decision that you want to do this, there should be no stopping you!

If you know your reason for starting a blog

Having a reason to start a blog is a huge first step and is the perfect foundation to start on. There could be a multitude of reasons why you feel blogging is a good business decision for you. No matter the reason, if it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough to work!

Blogging without an aim or reason will make everything so much trickier for yourself and who needs that extra stress in their life!

Have a good reason and you’re already on the winning path.

You can absolutely have multiple reasons, and always try to keep these in mind if you ever feel discouraged or have any self doubt creeping in. You started your blog for a reason, trust in these reasons.

If you know what you want to blog about/what topics to write on

Second to having a reason to blog, is knowing what you plan/want to write about.

This may change and adapt as you go on, but having a solid direction to start in is key.

You can of course branch out into related topics, but start with a set of topics all relating to the base theme of your blog.

As long as you have a good idea what you are going to write about, that’s another thing checked off!

Picking a niche that you love talking about and telling others about is perfect.

Whatever that topic is that you can research and talk about for hours on end – that’s the one you choose for your blog!

Having that niche also be one you can monetise is the perfect base for your new blogging business to be successful.

If you can relay information back on a topic/ If you watch videos on your chosen topic and know all/most information

As mentioned in the point above, whatever the topic is that you can spend hours (and hours) researching, learning about and then sharing this knowledge with other people – that’s the one you choose.

You will never know everything there is to know on any given topic so never strive for this before starting.

Can you start and learn as you go? Absolutely!

Don’t see yourself as the expert in your field (unless you are of course!), see yourself as someone knowledgeable on a topic who’s keen to share your knowledge along your blogging/learning journey!

Much less daunting isn’t it?

People want to read your blog because they have chosen to get their information from a source which sounds like a real person.

No-one expects perfection, so don’t expect it of yourself!

Instead of aiming to learn literally everything in your niche, as long as you know the basics and want to continue learning more to be able to share more – you are absolutely ready to start.

Do you ever find yourself watching an entire YouTube video or reading an entire blog post, and realising that as much as you enjoyed reading/watching it, you didn’t learn anything as you already knew all the portrayed information?

Yes?

That means that person is sharing the exact same knowledge you already have and were keen to watch/read.

This is proof in itself that you know enough to share with others, and that people are looking for that sort of information.

If you know the basics, share what you know, learn more, share more.

That’s it!

Never use lack of knowledge as a reason not to start.

You are worried there is already the same information out there

People will also be able to feel your passion for your chosen topic coming through and will start to associate you with that topic.

This is why being yourself is so important!

You could read 5 articles of exactly the same information but you will absolutely be drawn to one or two over the others. You may find you can’t even quite put your finger on why.

Sometimes it’s the way someone words things, the way they talk/type, or even specific words they use.

The important takeaway is that different people are more drawn to different people.

You may be sharing the same information that’s already out there, but who’s to say that readers won’t prefer how you put it across?

People love individuality – so let yours shine!

Who else should get to decide if you’re ready?

This is a tricky one.

I know anyone who has or has had any sort of anxiety – especially regarding the judgements of others – will put off starting their blog – as I did exactly the same.

Even when I did start my first blog, I then didn’t tell anyone about it and remained anonymous for a long time!

If you can relate to this, I want you to think about this;

Why not you?

What makes you/your knowledge/your way of putting information across, any lesser than the way anyone else does?

Your blog may be the exact thing someone needs.

They may be able to relate to your blog/way of portraying information more than they can with other people.

Noone knows how much you know on a topic or how much passion you have for a topic, why should they get to decide if you are ready?

Don’t let other people make any decisions about your life – even inadvertently!

Stay anonymous if you want to to begin with.

Don’t tell anyone about your new blog until you feel more confident.

Keep writing and researching to fill your blog up before even starting to market it as this may help with any anxiety of it all.

The main point here is to start.

Do not put off starting for fear of “anyone else”.

Start today because this is YOUR dream and YOUR life.

Confidence in yourself and your blog will come in time, you just need to begin to let that confidence start to grow.

Noone starts off as an expert – in anything.

How do you know if you’re ready to start a profitable blog? You’ll know. You’ll feel it in you that you want this, so do it.

Can you set aside time/money for your blog?

Starting a blog can be done on a budget, but you will still need a small budget to set yourself up properly to have the best chance of success.

Does it have to be a lot? Absolutely not.

Is it best spending some money to begin with to set yourself up properly? Most definitely.

It doesn’t have to cost a lot at all, but the things I would recommend getting to begin with are;

Domain and hosting – the one I would recommend for anyone starting out is HostGator.

I’ve used HostGator for well over 10 years and it’s perfect for beginner bloggers!

A nice, customisable theme for your blog (the one I’ve used on here for years (correct on Oct 2022) is Ashe Pro as it’s so customisable, but any theme that fits you and your niche would work!).

A PO Box – this may sound odd and certainly came as a shock to me!

When you set up your email capture to grow your email list, you can do this part for free for the first couple of thousand subscribers. The bit that I hadn’t initially realised though is that you need to have a physical address at the bottom of each email you send. If you don’t want your own home address (definitely would not recommend), then you will need another physical address. This is where the PO Box comes in.

You don’t need an expensive subscription to one, just a “pay as you go” type. I initially only put £5 or so into mine to keep it open, so it’s not expensive at all, just something else to consider.

This is the one I started with (for those in the UK).

Next thing to consider is a business email address.

This will mean your email can be @(blog name) rather than blog name@(yahoo/google/hotmail).com. Small difference, but having a business email makes you automatically look a lot more professional.

This should only be a few pounds/dollars a month, but is worth it!

You can always set this up later of course, but getting it set up early on saves any hassle down the line changing contact info.

The one last thing I would recommend but is more flexible in terms of budget and time is taking courses.

Courses may feel like a waste of time/money but they are absolutely the opposite.

They are one of the best investments you can make in yourself and your online business.

There are other things that you will need to pay for down the line but initially, I’d say those are the only ones you really need when getting started!

Read my post here about How To Set Up Your Blog!

Willingness to learn

As with any new skill, it will take time and commitment to learn.

As I mentioned earlier, you certainly don’t need to know everything to get started.

What you do need, is a want and willingness to learn more about your chosen subjects.

Along with any courses you choose to do, you can also read other blogs, watch videos online and read books.

All of these will help you build your own knowledge, where you can then share that information with your own readers, in your own way.

You don’t need to spend hundreds of hours a week on learning more information, just some time each week where you can.

As long as you have some time to set aside for learning/improving both your knowledge and your skills for your blogging business, you are good to go.

Don’t put it off

Making the decision that you want to start is the main thing.

I would highly recommend going for it as soon as you know you want to.

The longer you deliberate or worry you aren’t good enough or aren’t ready, the more at risk you are of talking yourself out of it.

I know from experience – I am the world’s worst at overthinking things and waiting until everything is “perfect” before I start.

What does that achieve? Nothing lol.

Literally nothing.

I know this is a lot easier said than done, but ask yourself what I now ask myself when I can feel myself stalling or talking myself out of things…

“What am I waiting for?”

Sometimes for some of us it’s not as simple as “just doing it”, but asking yourself things like the above can help you get into the right mindset for it.