When is the best time to start a blog? Should you wait for the optimal moment? Should you have lots of content? Or should you just do it now?
Here’s my take on it…
I recently spent a weekend away with a group of old friends, most of whom I’ve known since childhood.
While we were away together, one of my closest friends (let’s call him John) asked me about blogging. He told me he was excited about an idea for a blog he wanted to start. However, he was waiting for the perfect time to do it.
I asked John what the perfect time meant. He explained and described why he felt it wasn’t now.
I listened to his reasoning and made a proposal about what I felt he should do.
After I heard him out, I simply told him… do it now and don’t wait because actually the perfect time to start IS now!
Why Can’t He Do It Now?
We had quite a long conversation about it. I asked him what was stopping him from starting his blog right now. His reasons were:
- Too busy with work.
- Responsibilities outside work.
- Tiredness.
- Now isn’t the right time.
- Needs lots of content written before the blog goes live.
- Feels intimidated by it.
- Needs to learn more about blogging.
- Unsure where to begin.
These points are all totally valid and most of them will be the same for anybody thinking about beginning anything.
Some of these reasons are also difficult to get over let alone remove.
Employment is one such obstacle since it takes up so much of our time each day. We have to prepare for work, travel to and from it, and punch in our contracted hours. We may even have to work more hours than we’re contacted for!
Responsibilities outside employment are also difficult to overcome. Family commitments, spending time with friends and loved ones and the day to day administration of your life are all vitally important. Each of these require your time.
It’s also tough to motivate yourself when you’re tired. After particularly trying days, you need to unwind and feel that you deserve a bit of down time.
However, when I dug a little deeper into John’s reasons, most of them were not based on scarcity of time. Most were due to anxiety and fearful feelings.
In the numbered list of reasons against starting a blog now, point 4 onwards are to do with how John feels, rather than actual commitments.
He feels it isn’t the right time. In his view he doesn’t have any much content to publish. He’s also daunted by the idea of it and doesn’t believe he knows enough about blogging yet. Finally, he doesn’t know how and where to begin.
My Advice About What to Do
We can’t do anything about the time limitations our responsibilities put upon us. However, we can do something about some of the other reasons that prevent us from taking action.
John’s fears are based upon his inexperience with blogging. He is unsure how to get his blog off the ground and doesn’t want to appear as an amateur.
My advice to him was don’t worry about it.
It’s not that I was being glib about his anxiety, as that’s totally valid. It’s normal to feel uncomfortable about doing something that puts you and your thoughts into the public domain. This is especially so when something is new to you.
My recommendation to do it now is based upon a hard truth. As a new blogger, hardly anyone will see what you’re doing for months.
Why is This?
Most new bloggers hope they’ll receive a glut of traffic the minute they launch. That’s just not the way it goes unless something miraculous happens.
The reality is that you’ll struggle to get any visitors for months. There really is no reason why you shouldn’t just do it now if you feel you don’t have experience and skills or you don’t have much content.
If it takes 6 months (probably longer) for search engines to begin understanding and trusting your blog enough to begin sending you visitors, then you should start blogging today.
The chances are you won’t become a laughing stock because so few people will see what you’re blogging about!
If you start your blog now, you’ll have at least 6 months to start getting it into shape.
You’ll be able to set up your blog and start building up content. In 6 month’s you’ll have learned an awful lot about how to manage many of the technical aspects of blog administration. You’ll also begin to feel more confident about what you’re doing.
In addition you’ll begin to learn techniques to encourage people to visit your blog to see what you have to say.
Believe me when I tell you, the best way to learn about blogging is to simply start a blog. So you may as well do it now!
Another Reason to Do It Now
Perhaps the best reason to do it now is we never know what’s around the corner.
Waiting for the right time to do something might mean you’re waiting until you have more time.
I have something to say about this: life rarely allows that to happen!
As time passes we pick up more responsibilities, we take on more things, our lives evolve.
If you don’t make a blog a part of your life with some of the time you have available now, you might find it more difficult to make space for it in the future.
The clock keeps on ticking whether we like it or not, and sometimes we put things off even if they’re on our bucket list!
My advice to you if you’re thinking of starting a blog, even if you don’t feel you’re in quite the right place… do it now!
If you’re thinking about starting a blog but feel like John, drop me a comment below. I’ll help to talk you through it!
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