Blogging myths? Yes – they still exist.

The bitter truth is that many bloggers till fall prey of those myths.

And yes, you could be one of those.

These myths have become so common that you end up delaying your own achievements just because you believe in these silly lies!

These lies/myths appear to be so true – and they are sadly even spread by some of the experts in the field.

Which is why many bloggers end up believing the same.

Let’s unearth some of those myths and help you become free of these stupid beliefs!

#1 You can easily start a blog for free

Nope! No you can’t. May be you have heard a lot of suggestions on this.

And, may be you are tempted to think that initially spending money on starting a blog is foolish.

You might be thinking of getting a free hosting account, putting up a simple website with a free theme available, signing up for a free email newsletter service and so on.

I would say – that’s plain foolish.

Now, pardon me for the strong language.

But when you consider your blog as business, you need to invest time and money in it if you want to make money out of it!

Opting for free hosting, searching for free themes and plugins is not the best way to start a business.

I am not saying you should be spending lavishly on your business. No.

You should certainly do your due diligence before making any purchase.

But for setting up the base you need to go pro, and not cheap or free!

You don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars on something that can be done for free, or cheaper. But it depends on what you are spending it on.

A very crucial aspect of your business like hosting, and the website design should not be chosen for free at any cost.

But you can opt for certain other free or freemium WordPress plugins that do the job.

At some point though, you will always feel that you need more features and that you need to choose the paid option!

#2 SEO is all about keyword research and stuffing

When anyone says SEO, most bloggers just think keywords.

I won’t deny the fact that keywords play a very crucial role in doing SEO.

Yes keywords are the phrases/words used by your target audience to search for information that you want to rank for.

But all of SEO is not about keywords.

There are so many on-page and off-page factors that you need to set right.

In fact, keywords are not as important as the stuff you need to set right on your site.

Neil Patel even says you need not do keyword research for you blog posts.

Don’t just narrow your vision on keyword research – finding a handful of keywords and stuffing them in your content.

SEO is much more than that!

To help you kick start, here’s some important reading that you shouldn’t miss!

• 15 Basic (but important) SEO tips for your blog
• 10 Best SEO plugins to try for your WordPress website
• WordPress SEO by Yoast – Plugin installation and set up guide
• WordPress permalink: All you need to know (Uses, structures and SEO)

#3 Build it and they will come

Yes this used to be the norm. About a decade ago, bloggers used to get this advice. And it might even have worked!

But the times have changed now. Any niche is highly competitive and overly saturated.

There are millions of blog posts that are written and published everyday.

If you are still hoping that you can simply build a blog and people will fly to it, that’s ridiculous.

For one, in any niche, the top, big-shot blogs have occupied the SERPs and also the social media platforms.

Second, there’s so much information out there and you have to give people a chance to see your content before they can visit your blog.

Which is why you need to promote a lot.

I totally agree with and recommend this: Spend 20% of your time in creating content and 80% of your time in promoting it.

Don’t simply cave in, write content, publish it and hope people will come over to read your content.

It simply won’t happen.

#4 More content = more traffic

This used to be one of the most popular myths in the blogosphere. And even today, there are quite some bloggers who believe this myth and go by it.

I totally agree that content forms the backbone of a blog. So you need to be creating awesome content on a regular basis in order to keep your blog alive.

This also helps you to stay in good contact with your readers by helping them and spreading the word about your brand/business.

If you need help with content creation, check out my course!

Now, when you think about how often you should be publishing – it totally depends on you. For some publishing once a week will be a reasonable frequency.

For others, publishing once or twice a month will be a feasible option.

Whatever frequency you choose, just make sure you stick to it for maximum benefit. Only with consistency, you will be able to see scalable results.

If you simply publish lots of content hoping that more traffic will come your way, you are wrong.

I mean, I am NOT saying you shouldn’t publish more content.

Publish more if you practically can – if you can publish everyday or multiple times a day without compromising on the quality of the content.

And I highly doubt that.

Especially if you are the only one who takes care of content creation and don’t have a team to help with, you certainly cannot publish more by keeping the quality high.

All that matters is the quality.

#5 You can make money from your blog

Whoa, whoa! What did I just say?

Did I say that making money from a blog is a MYTH. Ouch!

So, is your whole life a lie? Have you believed in something that didn’t exist and jumped on to the blogging wagon?

Not really. Here’s some consolation – you CAN make money from your blog – but most probably you have got the wrong notion about this whole “make money blogging” thing.

Writing a few blog posts, publishing them, pasting in a few ad codes and sitting back – this used to be the formula for making money from a blog.

And it probably worked a while ago. Not anymore.

Totally relying on any one mode of income is not a safe option – if that only option stops working your business will go bankrupt.

Rather, have a handful of income streams so your business stays safe always. Never be shy to try out any new income stream.

Nevertheless, the point I am trying to make here is this – don’t think that starting a blog, publishing a few blog posts and having a few ad widgets will help you make money.

I’ve covered this topic in detail in my free E-Book “Can I REALLY Make Money Blogging?”.

In this e-book, I have also shared 4 working ways to make money blogging beyond the wrong notion of “start a blog and it will make money itself”.

Grab it and read to know more about this.