Top 10 Blogging Challenges and Best Ways To Overcome Them

Blogging in 2022 is not what it used to be 10 years ago. I started my blogging journey in 2012. During these last 10 years, I’ve seen how radically everything has changed in the blogging community. For example, earlier, there used to be a few blogs, and you could easily rank on search engines writing a blog post as small as 500 words. Facebook used to be the most popular social media channel to promote your blog posts.

But now, we have a plethora of blogs with a flood of same/re-phrased information everywhere. Facebook is almost non-existent in terms of reach and popularity. And it’s very difficult to attract new visitors and grow your readership amid rising competition and pesky search algorithmic updates. While these challenges are due to a change in time, there are still many other challenges that we face throughout our blogging journey. In this post today, I will therefore address the top 10 blogging challenges that every blogger faces at some point of time in his/her blogging career.

1. Finding the perfect niche and getting started

One of the biggest challenges that confronts new bloggers is finding a niche which is in harmony with their passion, skills, and interest. In other words, that in a nutshell is finding out something which drives you, motivates you, and something doing which rekindles joy, happiness, and a sense of fulfillment in your heart.

While your passion is one of the factors in choosing a niche, there are many other factors as well that you need to consider before choosing a niche for your blog. For example – how competitive the niche is? What’s the level of public interest? And so on…I encourage you to go through my post on how to choose a niche for your blog where I’ve discussed everything in detail.

2. Coming up with Engaging Content on a regular basis

Another hurdle that most of the bloggers face is to come up with fresh and engaging content ideas on a regular basis. A blog has to be updated with fresh and engaging content on a regular basis. This ensures traffic, reader engagement and search visibility – all of which are very essential for the survival of the blog.

Solution:

While this is a perennial issue that disappoints a lot of bloggers, it can still be tackled. I usually rely upon the following ways whenever I think that I’m running out of ideas for my blog:

• Reading the blog of competitors
• Going through reader comments on my competitor’s blog and understanding their problems and pain points
• Searching forums like Quora with my keywords of interest. For example – if I’m looking for new topic ideas related to ‘Email Marketing’, I will search the Quora database for new questions related to ‘Email Marketing’
• Similarly, searching social media networks, especially Twitter and Pinterest using my keywords of interest.
• Using MyblogU – a unique platform that helps you brainstorm content for your blog.
• Using search marketing tools like SEMRush and Ubersuggest.

3. Being Consistent

People visit and subscribe to your blog with the hope of seeing fresh content every week or at least in a month. So, you have to be consistent in your content publishing strategy in order to be successful. Sounds easy? The problem is that we are usually very active and consistent in the beginning, but this energy gradually withers away as we begin to exhaust all the content ideas.

Solution:

Here are some effective things that you can try to maintain your blogging consistency:

• Create an editorial calendar well in advance. This means researching the topics and keywords that you would want to cover on your blog, at least one month (ideally 6 months) in advance. Then you have to fix a date for drafting and publishing all these topics in your content calendar.
• Blogging is not only about writing. You also have to prioritize other important tasks like guest post pitches, networking with influencers, creating graphics for your social media, and most importantly – working on your SEO strategy. Therefore, ensure that you make some room for these important tasks simultaneously on your content calendar.

4. Motivation to Maintain Your Blog

Another major challenge that bloggers usually face is when they start losing motivation to maintain their blog. This challenge is mostly faced by those who manage their blog in part-time or as a side-hustle. Lack of motivation to maintain a blog can arise from a number of reasons like:

• Lack of time
• Seeing no results (like traffic or money) even after putting in efforts
• Lack of focus / distractions in everyday life

Solution:

The solution lies in first identifying and acknowledging the root cause of your problem. Is it your full day job that’s stressing you out and leaving you with less time for your blog? Is it that you’ve turned lazy and on auto-pilot mode of consuming content on a couch rather than producing it? Are you spending your creative energy on too many areas of interest? Identify all such problems and create a roadmap to eliminate them one by one.

5. Not Able To Make Money From Your Blog

Making money from your blog is one of those fruits that starts reaping when your blog starts growing. But sometimes, even after we have put in effort, we do not see the desired results. You may publish 5-10 blog posts per week, but still, you may not be able to attract the required traffic that converts and helps you make money online. You may have put an advertisement page on your blog, but still, you may not receive even a single advertisement query.

Results? You will be demotivated to work on your blog. Eventually, you may even end up giving-up blogging, altogether!

Solution:

Lack of traffic is the most common reason for not being able to make money on your blog. So my suggestions will include tips to first increase your traffic:

• Work on to build your traffic, especially organic traffic. Learn SEO, implement good on-page and off-page SEO strategies on your blog, and see the results.
• Think beyond Google AdSense, and send applications to join other good alternative ad-networks like Media.net, Mediavine, and BuySellAds. If you have developed a niche blog, affiliate marketing could make you more money than any other traditional ad-network.
• Network with fellow bloggers for help.

6. Writers’ Block

Writers’ Block is a situation where a blogger is unable to think of fresh ideas clearly, write a new blog post, or even finish off an existing draft. This is a very common problem that hits almost all bloggers at some point in their lives. It’s more of physiological, cognitive, and behavioral issues that temporarily thwart all the creative energy and enthusiasm in a writer’s life.

Here are some of the most common reasons for hitting the Writer’s Block:

• Physical injury or illness
• Loss of a loved one
• Spoiled relationships
• Stress, Panic, or anxiety
• Fear of criticism
• Too much focus on being perfect
• Change in routine

Solution:

• Relax and take a break
• Travel to a beautiful and quiet place – ideally a place where you can associate very closely with nature – mountains, hill-stations, clouds, beaches, lush-green gardens.
• Meditate / Exercise
• Read motivational books

7. No Significant Traffic

A blog can’t survive without traffic. Without traffic there is no brand recognition, no engagement, and obviously no money. There are certain times when even when you are putting dedicated efforts, you do not see any considerable traffic coming to your blog. As a result, you feel disappointed and begin to question your own skills and abilities.

You are not alone, my friend. We all have been through this challenging phase of blogging as a career.

Solution:

• Review the keywords you are targeting. Ideally, you should not focus on keywords with very low volume and very high competition. Use the Google Keyword planner tool to find out the monthly average search volume and level of competition. Look for relevant keywords within your niche with high search volume and low competition.
• Diversify your traffic. Don’t just depend upon organic traffic, as all your traffic can plummet literally overnight because of notorious search algorithm updates. Learn the different ways to market your blog for free.

8. No Engagement by Readers

It’s basic human nature to crave for approval, appreciation, or feedback. It’s so demotivating when you write a 1000-word article with all your heart, and yet no one turns up to even leave a comment on that post. Right? It happens when you fail to build a community around your blog. Without the feedback of your readers, you will never know how well your article is being received by them.

Solution:

Here are some tried and tested tips to increase your reader engagement:

• Ask for questions, suggestions, or feedback – Sometimes you have to be direct in your approach. So, while writing your articles, don’t miss the opportunities where you can solicit ideas, suggestions, or feedback from your readers. It works!
• Implement a simple comment system on your blog. To further increase participation, you could try integrating your comment system with social media like Facebook and Twitter.
• Leave thoughtful comments on other blogs within your niche. Your insightful thoughts may arouse curiosity in other bloggers to check your blog and comment on your articles.
• Engage with your fans on social media. Run contests, giveaways, post engaging pictures and videos. Your engaged fans on social media are much more likely to visit your blog to comment and share your articles.

9. Maintain it as a side hustle

Maintaining a blog in part-time along with a full day job is a major challenge. When you are engaged with a 9-5 job, you are much more likely to be short on time. You will be so busy with your day job and assignments that the weekdays will pass away in a flash. Loss of energy and enthusiasm to pursue blogging activities after a hectic 9-5 is another challenge. So, what’s the way out?

Solution:

• Fill the gaps in your commute. By filling the gaps, I mean utilizing the travel time in doing blog related activities. For example, if you are commuting to work with a public transport or taxi, you could utilize this time productively by doing blogging activities like writing new articles, updating old blog posts, proofreading, and promoting your blog posts on social media.
• Use the weekend to plan for the weekday ahead. For example – What new topics/titles do you want to cover? Keyword research? Which old articles do you want to update? And so on… You have to schedule and prioritize each task in advance in order to make the best out of your weekdays.
• Avoid being a lazy couch potato in the evenings. Now, this doesn’t mean that you should avoid rest altogether. Take a brief rest. But avoid distractions like TV and Social Media traps on smartphones – at all the costs. Remember your commitments towards your blog, and act on your list of scheduled tasks.

10. Keeping up with the latest Google search quality guidelines

For a majority of blogs, Google is one of the top sources of traffic. At present, even on my blog, Google accounts for more than 70% of the monthly traffic. With that being said, growing and protecting this (free) organic traffic is of paramount importance. How do you do that? By keeping yourself updated with all the latest Google search quality guidelines. But the problem is that these guidelines and best practices keep on evolving and changing. For busy and part-time bloggers, it is a challenge to keep themselves updated.

Solution:

• Follow and subscribe to Google Search Central blog
• Also make sure that you follow their official twitter handle and YouTube channel for timely updates.

What challenges do you face as a blogger?

I’ve shared my experiences in the above blog post. Now I am eager to listen to yours. What hurdles did you face (OR still face) in your blogging journey? How do you plan to overcome them? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.