Blogging Advice for Beginners from the Experts

Whether you’ve been blogging for a while or you’re a beginner, we can all use a little motivation and blogging advice from the experts.

Blogging is more than just buying a domain and setting up a WordPress site. That’s actually the easy part. I’ve been blogging on and off for about two years and the most difficult part for me, aside from coming up with topics, is motivation and mindset. We’re so accustomed to instant gratification that most people quit before they really get started.

Blogging Advice for Beginners from the Experts

You want to quit your corporate job, work from home and live the dot-com lifestyle? Well, it takes work. It’s a slow, steady, slog up the muddy hill kind of work. But the payoff when you reach the pinnacle is incredibly rewarding. For the record, I’m still slogging.  But, I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and talk with some of the biggest names in blogging and affiliate marketing about what it takes to be successful and how they stay motivated. So here we go, a little blogging advice for beginners from the experts.

John Chow’s Blogging Advice

John Chow is a seven-figure blogger who makes money teaching people how to make money online. He has one of the biggest blogs on the internet. John is also a regular speaker at Affiliate Summit.

Q: John what advice would you give to someone just starting out?

“My advice would actually be to start. Seriously to start. Most bloggers when they start out are overwhelmed with all that’s involved. Reading my blog there are thousands of pages of information. Oh my god there’s WordPress, there’s content creation, there’s formatting.  And they so overwhelmed in all that stuff that they don’t actually start. I have friends who have told me that they want to start a blog, that they are gong to start a blog and that was ten plus years ago. I’m still waiting for the blog today.”

Q: John what would you tell someone to help them stay motivated?

“Have a series of mini goals. So I have a main goal, Then I break it down into how to I achieve it. Like I say I want to make this money but that’s going to require me to do this, this and this. Ok I’ll do this first. So that’s a mini goal. In order to achieve it you need to reward yourself each step along the way. Instead of saving the big reward for the main goal reward yourself along the way.”

Read my entire interview with John Chow by clicking here.

Shawn Collins’s Blogging Advice

Shawn Collins is the co-founder of Affiliate Summit with Missy Ward. Affiliate Summit is the leading industry conference for affiliate marketing. Shawn is a best-selling author, blogger and podcaster.

Q: Shawn What would you tell someone who is starting out in the Affiliate Space?

“A lot of people try to go for the highest commissions and the most popular niches, I just tell them to focus on something that they really care about. It’s a lot easier to stick with. So many times I’ve tried to create sites that I didn’t really care about and I do a lot of work and I just let them die because after six months I just didn’t care about it. So from the start just focus on a topic you really care about. It makes it a lot easier.

Q: Shawn Is there a magic bullet for success?

“Patience. That’s the magic bullet.”

Read my entire interview with Shawn Collins by clicking  here.

Syed Balkhi’s Blogging Advice

Syed Balkhi is an award-winning entrepreneur with several 7-figure online businesses. He’s the founder of WPBeginner – the largest free WordPress resource site, List25, OptinMonster and WPForms,- a drag & drop WordPress form builder. That’s just a few of his business ventures.

Q: Syed what advice would you give to someone just starting out?

“ I think you need to have a clear focus. You need to know exactly what you want to get out of the blog so you don’t get distracted. Have your goals set out and actionable how you’re going to achieve those goals. And you measure it. How timely are they? Can you get there in one month, in two months? Have concrete deadlines. Obviously, you have to start. Don’t compare yourself to somebody whose in the space already because every expert started out as a beginner at one point. Don’t be afraid of just putting it out there and seeing where it goes and learning from your experiences.”

Q: Syed what would you tell someone to help them stay motivated?

“Breaking down your goals into specifics is very important, but a lot of times what I see wrong is you have a long-term goals over here and your short-term goals are over here. You have to make your short-term goals build up to your long-term goals. Don’t wait for a year to reevaluate. A lot of times people don’t measure their success often and don’t reward themselves often. If you have an employee you’re probably not going to wait a year to do their review. You might do it every three months or every six months. So why not do your blog review every three months and every six months and watch. If you wait for a while to see this you’re going to lose motivation. But if you see growth every month it will help you.”

You can read my entire interview with Syed Balkhi by clicking here.

John Rampton’s Blogging Advice

John Rampton is an entrepreneur, investor, online marketing guru and startup enthusiast. He is founder of the online invoicing company Due.com and is also probably one of the most inspiring people I’ve met in the online marketing world.

Q: John what advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?

“Stop comparing yourself to other people. It doesn’t matter what blog you have, it’s not going to be the same as mine or somebody else’s blog. My advice to people when starting out is to START! So many people think that they have know everything before they start. I just say START! You are going to figure out what works for you and how it works and it might not make a lot of money in the beginning. Specifically about blogging, nobody makes money in the beginning, so just start.”

Q: John what are realistic expectations for someone who’s been blogging for a few months and not seeing results?

“When I started blogging about 8 or 9 years ago, I blogged 3 blog posts a day around 500 to 1000 words for each blog post with pictures and everything. I did that for 9 months and I did not make one dollar! So if you are 3 months in and you are getting a little frustrated, I’m not saying to quit or not to quit. I’m just saying that was my experience.

It was John Chow’s experience. It was Syed’s experience. We didn’t make money for a while. It took us a good year before we were really making anything. And I’m not saying you can’t make money in quick amounts of time, but most businesses don’t make a profit day one. Think of it like a business. You’re building your own business. And you need to invest in your business. The more time you invest, the more it should pay out to you.”

Read my entire interview with John Rampton by clicking here.

Wrapping it Up

As a newerish blogger, if that’s even a word, I have learned a lot from these folks. I’ve heard them speak, I subscribe to their newsletters and I follow them on twitter. Personally, I prefer not to reinvent the wheel. It’s much easier to learn what has worked and not worked from others and then apply it to your own business. If there is one takeaway here, it’s to start. Don’t wait for perfection or for the stars to align. Just do it!

Be sure to check out my other posts Top Affiliate Marketing Bloggers of 2016 and Wisdom From Six, Now 7 Figure Blogging at Affiliate Summit.