7 Huge Reasons Why New Bloggers Fail

Hey new blogger!

Ye' of many starry-eyed hopes and dreams for your brand new blog!

It's all happening! You've got an idea for your new blog or content channel and WOW it's gonna be the next big thing...

So you're getting down to business and making all the plans but you've got this nagging doubt in the back of your mind and it just won't go away. 

Everywhere you look there's dead accounts, dead blogs, crushed hopes and dreams, and a tiny voice in the back of your mind is asking, "why do new bloggers fail?"

And you know you should probably listen to that little reasonable voice, but instead...

NOPE, not gonna be me, not my project! Not today Satan!

So you forge ahead anyways blissfully unawares of the traps and pitfalls that await you and sadly you're probably destined to fail.

Sorry, don't hate the messenger, it's just statistically likely.

There's something like over 500 million Tumblr blogs alone on the internet... 

And according to Blog Tyrant something like 99% of blogs will fail  (though I couldn't find a corroborating stat anywhere to back this up, I wouldn't be surprised.) 

That's a staggeringly HUGE number of abandoned blogs even if the actual figure is more like 80 - 90%.

From another Blog Tyrant post where they surveyed 350 bloggers here's a few more big scary and tweetable stats:

And a small clue as to why (also from the post above, BlogTyrant is great, go read their posts): 

Welp!

If you see zero efforts from your blog or podcast in a year what do you think the chances are you're going to continue?

Discouragement is a big factor in abandoning any new project. I talk more about this in section 7 of this post, so read on.

Why Do So Many New Bloggers Fail?

What's in this post? In this post I'm going to give you what I believe to be the top 7 reasons why new bloggers fail, starting with the biggest reason of all.

This is by no means a definitive guide, there's probably 9 bajillion reasons why bloggers ultimately fail, but I believe these to be the biggest and most avoidable reasons why most new bloggers, podcasters, and digital content creators eventually give up with their new projects.

Who's this post for?  New and aspiring bloggers, podcasters, YouTube stars, Instagram Influencers, Content Creators, Solo-entrepreneurs, Affiliate Marketers,  and starry-eyed first time business owners.

This post is relevant to almost anyone starting a new business and the probems discussed are very similar to why all entrepeneurial endeavors have a high failure rate. 

Let's go!

#1. New Bloggers Fail Because They Go Into The Wrong Niche (And For The Wrong Reasons)

If you don't have PASSION or deep domain expertise in a subject matter the chances are high you're eventually going to flame out.

It's even better if you have passion and expertise! But one or another of these all-important ingredients will drastically increase your chances for success in the content creation realm.

If you want to get real smart about it, take a look at the venn diagram below. It's a simple enough exercise.

At the intersection of your passions, expertise, and market opportunity (what people NEED, WANT), there's lots of opportunity for you.

Here's where many new bloggers and content creators go drastically wrong with this and ultimately fail...

You've heard the saying, "the riches are in the niches."

There's a lot of truth in that, but it's not the whole picture, and it's my belief that choosing a niche for the wrong reason (to make money, for example) is the top reason your blog or new podcast will fail.

"Bitcoin and crypto is huge right now, I'm going to start a blog about it and cash in big..."

"I've heard there's a ton of money to be made in weight loss, I should podcast about it..."

Most new content creators pick niches they simply know nothing about, have zero passion or expertise in, start creating content, then fizzle out.

If you don't have passion in the subject matter can you really see yourself waking up every morning and creating insanely valuable content about it?

So before you start your blog or podcast, ask yourself this question: do I know enough about this subject, or have enough passion about it, that I can create a sustainable business around it? Can I come up with new and insightful content on this subject every single day for the next 3 - 10 years?

Side note: if starting a blog that makes money is truly an interest of yours, the best way you can speed up the process is through a blogging course like Blog Growth Engine by Adam Enfroy. Adam teaches you how to start a blog like a CEO. You'll learn: SEO, affiliate marketing, ways to monetize your blog, link building, outreach, and so much more! He has a few courses, but BGE is his flagship course, and the best blogging course on the market by far.

That's honestly what it takes. Building a sustainable business is much harder than building the actual blog itself.

Back to the riches in the niches part...

You may be thinking to yourself at this point, "but, but, but yeah I know and LOVE sewing, but can I make money from this subject online?"

Hell yeah you can.

You can make money in almost any niche, and while it's true niches like Health, Wealth, Dating, Weight Loss, Business Opportunities, Money/Finance, etc are HUGE and there's a lot of money to be made here, the reality is you're going to out-competed and outclassed if you can't bring substantial value, expertise, and passion to these subjects. They're just too competitive. 

To illustrate my point, in one Google search I've uncovered hundreds of affiliate programs for sewing... this is the "Market Demand / Opportunity" part of the diagram above.

Make sure to perform a few searches like this before jumping in just to be on the safe side. if it looks like there's plenty of programs and opportunities to sell known and trusted products, you're good to go.

The truth is, you're much more likely to make money by niche-ing down into smaller interest level topics and building a loyal tribe around great content than by going after giant topics like Bitcoin etc.

# 2: New Bloggers And Content Creators Will Fail Because of A Lack Of Confidence

Confidence is absolutely a critical trait for successful entrepreneurs.

If you're not confident in yourself, in your product, or your writing skills, or what you have to say to the world, eventually your willpower to create more content will be tapped out and you will give up. 

So how can you build confidence in your new blog or project to give yourself an advantage?

As a new blogger or content creator one of the fastest ways to boost confidence is to prioritize small wins early on. Each mini win will give you that endorphin rush of success and a burst of energy to keep going.

Small wins will boost your confidence and grow into BIG wins, I don’t care if it’s making your first $1 online or $100 or getting a spot on a podcast or whatever!

FOCUS hard on stacking small wins, and have a plan in place to increase them.

To get this right you need a plan in place: what are your goals? What are your BIG wins you're working towards long term and what are the small wins you can stack that will turn into big wins?

Making money is an easy one to focus on, but there's tons of other things that could qualify as a micro win: your first 100 instagram followers, getting your domain and getting WordPress installed, setting up Google Analytics, getting your first guest spot, etc. 

These are all vital to a new a blog or online business, don't undererstimate their significance in your journey and celebrate these wins as they come in, it will set you up for long term success and growing confidence.

# 3: New Blogs Often Fail Because Their Owners Fail To Treat Them Like A Business

Businesses win or fail because their creators and employees create systems and habits that propel the business forward.

They automate or outsource things that don’t scale easily with growth. Founders outsource non-core areas of their business or hire experts to take care of it. They stick to schedules. They treat their customers with respect. They focus on providing value to their customers and their market. 

Do you really think your blog or podcast can stand out in the massive ocean of online content if you don’t treat it like a business?

Failing to treat your content creation channel like a real business and treating it like a hobby is a massive reason these endeavors fail. If you don't prioritize your new blog, eventually other priorities will crowd it out and you will find yourself focusing elsewhere.

So sit down and really ask yourself some tough questions:

What’s your plan to grow and scale this thing? How can you outsource or automate away stuff that’s too hard or non-core to your skill set? How can you treat your visitors like customers and start giving them what they want? How can you monetize your traffic?

By the way I create tons of info vid's on exactly these subjects on my Instagram account, follow me here.

Have no doubt that a blog or podcast can be a VERY legit business. In fact, it can be way more lucrative than your average brick and mortar type business. Why? The profit margins are much higher.

Take a Look At These 4 Bloggers That Definitely Did Not Fail And Are Earning Over $100K Per Month From Their Blogs

Each of the bloggers below are earning obscene amounts of cash, with very low overhead, and are living their best damn life.

Still don't believe you should treat your blog like a business?

Go check out all these awesome bloggers for inspiration.

• Pat Flynn blogs and casts at www.smartpassiveincome.com
• Melyssa Griffin can be found at www.melyssagriffin.com
• John Lee Dumas is heatin' it up at www.eofire.com
• Michelle is making sense of finances at www.makingsenseofcents.com

# 4: New Bloggers Often Fail Because They Succomb To Shiny Object Syndrome

If you find yourself chasing every hot new online opportunity out there...

Starting website after website only to abandon them weeks later...

Starting a new insta page and then moving on to ForEx trading or Crypto...

Then you may have SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME.

It's OK, me too!

We all suffer from this, but it's one of the massively huge problems entrepreneurs face, and it relates to reason number 1 and 2 that new bloggers will fail: lack of confidence or picking the wrong niche.

It's hard to focus when you don't believe in yourself or your chasing the dream for the wrong reasons. 

Chasing new opportunities hoping for quick wins ultimately leads to ZERO wins and a business that can't sustain itself.

So you've started your blog or your new podcast, and you're confident you've got a great idea, the passion and expertise it takes to create a ton of content day after day, and the right mindset to crush it, then promise yourself you will focus only on this new business before pivoting to something new.

# 5: New Bloggers And Content Creators Fail Because They Fail To Monetize Their Content (Make Money)

This relates to # 3 (Not treating your blog like a business).

You may be interested in starting a blog as hobby or side project, or you may want to turn it into a full time business that ultimately frees you from the 9 - 5.

It doesn't matter. Earning enough to at least cover expenses will help you justify time, money, and resources you're devoting to your new blog or content channel, and more than that, it will provide a boost of confidence. 

Prioritize monetizing your blog as quickly as possible so you can cover costs like hosting and justify to your partner all the time you're spending "blogging" and turn eye-rolls into eyebrow raises.

Most people these days set out to make some money from their blog.

It's only natural, they've read about the digital nomads traipsing about Thailand and blogging from the beach like 4 hours per week raking in the dough.

While these stories DO exist and it is possible to earn a full time living from a blog, they're not the norm. However, settiing your sights on a reasonable goal early on will set you up for some small wins that will eventually compound into BIG wins if you continue to work hard and double down on stuff that's working.

I suggest having an early earning goal for your blog of something super attainable (especially if you're working full time), like "earn my first $100 from my blog within 3 months."

When you get that first $100 from your blog you will be super energized to continue and the wins will start to stack up.

#6: Bloggers Often Fail For The Most Common Reason of All: Life Gets In The Way

The 6th huge reason new bloggers fail is easily the most common reason of all.

Life simply has a way of getting in the way doesn't it? New baby on the way. Promotion at work and more responsibility. Relationship issues. It goes on and on.

But if that's the reason your new project fails, I've got news for you, it isn't LIFE that got in the way, it's you. It's a mindset problem.

Let me explain. 

This goes back to treating your project like a business and horizon confusion (what's horizon confusion? Keep reading.) 

If you opened a restaurant and then immediately discovered you were going to have twins, would you just stop showing up, stop paying your employees, stop receiving orders from vendors, and forget about it?

No, I don't think so. Yes, it would get more difficult, but I'm guessing you would hustle on, why? Because you've already invested a huge amount of yourself and your resources into your new venture.

Life isn't going anywhere. Plan for it to happen. Adversity isn't going anywhere. Approached correctly adversity and failure can be the catalyst for massive success. Respect that. 

So the key to future-proofing your new business (podcast, blog, whatever) is to prepare yourself in advance for LIFE, because it's just going to happen no matter what. If you're starting this thing right now, create a plan RIGHT NOW for how you will continue operations, continue to create content, and keep moving the needle. 

Start by asking yourself some basic but revealing questions:

• How important is this project to me REALLY and is it a business or a hobby?
• How invested am I in this project? (If the answer is very little, life will easily knock you down, if the answer is a lot, you will fight for it more.)
• What is my plan if something goes drastically wrong and life gets in the way?
• How will I continue to serve my audience (if even on a diminished scale)?
• How much time exactly can I continue to devote to this realistically if life gets in the way?
• How passionate am I about this project really? If the answer is very little, you're at serious risk of dropping this project the moment you face real adversity.
• And finally (but most importantly) who am I really doing this for? If the answer is for you, go back and re-evaluate your business idea, if the answer is to serve your audience and help them, then you're in a good place.

Now you're starting to approach the mentality you need to succeed in this world.

Hobbies and business plans that don't provide real value to a market will be the quickest ones to fail the moment adversity comes along, and it will, trust that. 

#7: New Bloggers Often Fail Because of a Weird Mindset Problem I call "Horizon Confusion"

I probably have no business making up new terms. 

But this is something that's so ridiculously common and such a simple mistake that I don't know if it even has a proper term yet, so yeah, I'm gonna just make one up. 

Horizon confusion is when you're confused about how long it will take your business to start seeing success. 

In this scenario the "horizon" is the far off shiny goal of success, it's the sun coming up on the far away hills of "You Made It!"

This again comes back to your Mindset. 

You should know that most blogs (and businesses) don't even start turning a profit for at minimum one year, it might actually take 2 - 3 years to make it successful, especially if it's your first shot at this.

If you've done this many times before you can expect your horizon to be closer by virtue of your past experiences.

For the majority of us our horizon is 1- 3 years away. 

If you're starting your blog right now and telling yourself, "I'm going to replace my full-time income within 2 months and be job free within 5 months"... 

Then you're most likely setting yourself up for failure because that's probably not going to happen.

Horizon confusion leads to discouragement which leads to stalled enthusiasm for your new venture, which ultimately leads to failure.

A more likely outcome is in 3 months after a ton of work you've only made $100 (or nothing) and still have zero subscribers and you will start to beat yourself up as a failure and start to look for your next "get rich quick online" thingy. 

I've seen it happen a million times and it's pretty sad to see all that hard work turn to dust, and I hope it doesn't happen to you. 

So here's how to prepare for it. 

First of all, you have to cherish the micro wins. You have to live in the small successes and you must have realistic goals

If your goal is to make your first $1,000 with your blog in week two of it being live, you're most likely doomed

If your goal is to make your first $100 with your blog by month 6, you're in a much better place mentality-wise.

Once you hit that goal celebrate the hell out of it because the shot in the arm and the endorphins will propel you on to your next win.

Likewise all small accomplishments should be celebrated. First 100 Instagram subscribers? Crack open some champagne. First email subscriber? Call your mom. 

Once you've primed yourself for the simple reality that success is likely farther off than you think, and you should be celebrating the tiny wins, this again comes back to some of the other huge problems identified here.

These are all mindset problems:

Are you doing this for yourself or to help people? If you're trying to help people than who cares how long it takes you?

Are you treating this like a business or a hobby? If it's just a hobby, than who cares how long it takes, if it's a business on the other hand, you'll need to face reality: businesses are massive undertakings, so be real with yourself and give yourself time to succeed.

Conclusion: How To Avoid Blog Failure and Stay Out Of The Blogger Graveyard

Well this post is getting absurdly long. 

So let's wrap it up with a TLDR and briefly go over what we've covered. 

These 7 takeaways should help you explode your chance at success with your blog, illuminate why new bloggers fail, and help you plan for success.  

1. Choose a niche you are passionate about or have deep expertise in, or both is even better (serving others, not yourself). Your expertise and passions are a gift to the world, why deprive people who need it?
2. Prioritize small wins to build confidence in yourself and your work. This relates to #1. If you're passionate and experienced in the subject, I guarantee you will be more confident about putting yourself out there. 
3. Treat your blog like a business. This is an easy trap to get into because blogs have very little investment needed to start them, so tell yourself early on that it IS a business and watch your results compound over time.
4. Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome and focus. Look, no shade here. We all do. It's a struggle we all go through. Mindset, passion, dedication. These are the keys to conquering SOS.
5. Prioritize monetizing your blog early on. I hate to be crass but money does matter. It's a business, remember? Prioritize monetization from DAY 1, it will help you focus your efforts while justifying your time and resources.
6. Life will definitely get in the way so have a plan for when it does. It happens to us all. Create a plan and you will insulate yourself against life's habit of knocking you down. 
7. Be realistic about your success timeline and avoid "Horizon Confusion". Set yourself up for success with realistic goals, horizons, and mentality and you will be ahead of the pack.

So there you go. I would love to hear from you if this post helped you out, please leave your feedback in the comments 🙂

If you think you've got what it takes after reading all these reasons you might fail with your blog, I suggest taking the quiz below. It's a quick 6 questions and will deliver a score at the end.

See you next time!