Why Do Bloggers Struggle?

The biggest challenge that bloggers face is very simple (but not really). It's the same problem that all new startups face, primarily it's dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity.

Most bloggers can execute, especially if they are serious about blogging but then why do so many bloggers struggle when it comes to growing their blog and/or monetizing it?

It's because they are facing a mountain of uncertainty...uncertainty in knowing exactly who their targeted audience is, how they will engage with their site, website design, backend coding, capturing e-mail, figuring out revenue sources, etc., etc. In short, they are just like a new startup who is trying to figure out who they are, who their targeted audience members are and how they are going to be operating. 

The only way to deal with this uncertainty is by experimenting, testing out your assumptions and pulling insights from the data you collect. Many startups are pointed towards great resources like Eric Reis and The Lean Startup Methodology but bloggers unfortunately are just given recreated narratives by successful bloggers who almost always back-doored their way to success.  

They are usually just chasing one vanity metric to the next and spinning around in circles all the while, missing out on great opportunities to learn about their environment. 

When bloggers start to blog with a startup mindset, instead of a hobby one, you notice that they are much more singularly focused in achieving their goals and most importantly, they are learning on a much faster scale.

Bloggers need to blog with a purpose, a purpose of learning more about specific questions that they have about their blogs and how it works and who exactly who their targeted audience really is. They need to be proactively discovering the mechanism by which their blog and their audience will interact and grow into a community.

Classes and training courses like the ones many of us full time bloggers put on are great and can dramatically help speed up the learning curve. However, they are not a perfect roadmap. A perfect roadmap doesn't exist.

Blogging, just like any other entrepreneurial startup is extremely ambiguous. It's very much like dating where there is a ton of great resources and advice out there to learn from but ultimately, you have to take in all of those advice and insights and create your own path.

No two couples end up getting married in the exact same way. Similarly, no two blogs will find success in the exact same way.

The only way to answer all the uncertainty you face is to get on the court and play and start answering those questions.