10 Blogging Secrets Most Successful Bloggers Won’t Talk About

*Psst… secrets in this post!*

“Blogging and building an online business is easy…”

… I heard yet another blogger say this a couple of days ago.

In this post, I will talk about blogging secrets that most successful bloggers wouldn’t talk about.

Why am I writing this post?

Have you heard of the phrase, “The truth will set you free”? Well, I am a firm believer of that.

Also, I want to educate bloggers on the realities of online entrepreneurship. That way, fewer of you will fall into shiny object syndrome or give up easily if you know the reality of what actually goes on behind-the-scenes. You can do this!

If you’re interested in finding out tough blogging secrets that few would talk about, read on.

What are the blogging secrets that most successful bloggers wouldn’t tell you about?

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1. Getting things off the ground is hard

“Getting things off the ground is hard… bloggers don’t tell you this when writing posts for affiliate sales” – Trinity @ The Pay At Home Parent

Now, don’t get me wrong. Blogging is not complicated, in that it doesn’t require complex algorithms, fancy equations, or expensive machines.

However, it is hard, especially if you don’t know what to do.

Your life is a lot easier if you get a course like Kickstart Your Blog – the steps itself are not difficult to learn, BUT you still need to put in a ton of work and that may get hard.

In other words, starting a successful blog is difficult but not impossible. 

Make things a lot easier for yourself by getting a course like Kickstart Your Blog! It will handhold you through all the curveballs that growing an online business will throw at you, and save you a ton of time, tears, and energy.

If it were so easy, everyone would be a successful blogger… right?  So don’t make things harder for yourself and get help when you need it.

Most bloggers don’t tell you about the hard work that needs to be put in when trying to get sales. IT IS HARD, but it’s 100% worth it!

2. Get ready for a ton of screen time

The thing about blogging?

You will end up spending an awfully long amount of time in front of the computer. You definitely need to be comfortable with long hours of screen time.

Online businesses don’t build by themselves. You do need to reach a certain level where you are comfortable outsourcing your work and building automated funnels… until then, get ready for long hours of quality time with your computer.

Nobody quite talks about this, but I feel that it is such an essential thing to know. If you hate sitting long hours in front of your computer you probably should think twice about starting an online business.

3. Ghostwriters / Private Label Rights content

Bloggers buy content/blog post from other content creators/mills and repurpose or customize those for their own audience. It saves them time. – Mala Magotra

Many successful bloggers do not write their own content. They get their content from mills and then repurpose them for their own audience. This content is called Private Label Rights (PLR) content.

It’s actually more common than you think.

Or, they hire someone to write on behalf of them – these people are called Ghostwriters.

By doing this, it saves them time because they don’t have to spend time writing (could get very tiring) and can focus on other aspects of their business. I am okay with people doing it as long as they make it clear that they are doing so, but most do not.

What about myself?

I write all my own content because that’s my way of connecting with you guys. Writing my posts personally allows me to stay “on the ground” and provide you guys with value – I like to enhance blog posts with my personal thoughts and opinions and no amount of rewashed content can do that for me.

4. Nobody talks about paid traffic

Successful bloggers run paid campaigns and often get great results from them. They just don’t talk much about this.

Paid traffic is not very sexy to preach about because not most new bloggers are willing to invest a ton of money into their business to make money.

They rather spend time and see success first before investing.

As a result, paid traffic acquisition gets less attention because there isn’t much value in talking about this for both the successful bloggers and their readers, who are mostly beginner bloggers.

But you know what, it works really well too!

5. People will call you out

I hope you like attention. You are going to need attention if you want to succeed online.

The bad thing about attention? The more visible you get, the more you would find yourself at the receiving end of criticism, whether it is constructive or not.

Intentionally or not, you are going to make mistakes and people are going to call you out.

You are going to have to learn to be humble, apologize when you’re wrong, and keep improving. 

This is especially so when you grow bigger and more people are exposed to you and your work.

6. Loneliness

Okay, okay… I know I said you have to like attention less than a minute ago. But hang on! You have to be okay with being lonely too.

Why? Because in real life, you will be all alone typing away on your computer!

There are days I wake up and feel lonely because I am working on my computer alone all day long, it drives me nuts. I try to go to Starbucks just so that the white noise makes me more comfortable.

That is why it is extremely important to make friends online and join masterminds. You learn from each other, and you stay connected to other humans.

7. Not every niche will work out

That’s the truth. You may LOVE something with all your heart, and want to chase your passion, only to find out that it will not work as an online business.

In fact, not all niches are born equal – some are more profitable than others. Here is a list of profitable niches that have been proven to make you money, if you are looking for one. Obviously, the list is non-exhaustive and there are a ton of other niches that would work out well. Use it as a starting point.

Also, make sure to run The Profitable Niche Test on your niche to make sure that it actually works: 4 Steps To Finding Your Dream Niche For Your Blog + Biz

Essentially, make sure that you are solving an actual problem that people would actually pay to solve.

8. You have to be a great salesman

If you hate salespeople, it’s time for a mindset change.

If you want to succeed as a blogger, you are going to have to SELL. It doesn’t just stop there –  you are going to have to sell almost every day. In fact, if you stop selling, your business stops working.

Most people don’t talk about this because it is uncomfortable to many.

There may be different ways of marketing yourself: Some more direct than others, some may be ickier than others, but at the end of the day you will still have to create products & services and tell others about it.

9. They all follow certain proven strategies

You would soon realize that most successful bloggers follow the same proven strategies. They may not always be the same, but observe what they are actually doing and you would soon notice some patterns that keep repeating.

Why?

There IS a certain way of doing things that work. Blogging and online entrepreneurship isn’t like trying to launch a rocket to Mars. People have done this before, again and again. So why fix what is not broken?

Webinars work, writing list posts work, optimizing for SEO works (need SEO blog tips?), Pinterest (or Pinterest strategies?) will get you traffic, and course launches will bring you money.

Observe what people are actually doing – you will soon notice that they don’t differ that much from one another.

10. …Yet, you cannot just fully duplicate the strategies of others

You have to look at your own strengths and work from there. For instance, I know that I love writing and am good at that.

Hence, I publish at a higher-than-average frequency as compared to other bloggers.

If you are very charismatic in real life you would find that recording videos online and running webinars would work so well for you.

If you can barely say a word without stuttering ten times, perhaps it is better that you focus on other marketing strategies.

So to a certain extent, you DO have to find what works for you. Most bloggers only tell you that there are proven strategies, OR they tell you to be yourself and ignore what everyone does… But they don’t tell you that both are true!

Summary

I hope you’ve learnt a ton from this post about the blogging secrets that you need to know about. It’s time to put your thoughts into action!

Now that you are aware of the hard work that has to be put into blogging, please feel free to check this tutorial for the right way to start your blog: How to Start a Blog in 20 Minutes. It’s been shared over 50k times.

I recommend the best host, themes, etc that are of the most reasonable prices, regardless of how much affiliate income I get from the post to get you started on the right track, unlike many other bloggers.

And yes, it takes 20 minutes to start your blog, but years of hard work to build a 6-figure business from it.

For proven strategies, please head over to courses.raelyntan.com and get your learning on. 🙂

Get access to my resource library full of workshops, cheat sheets, checklists, printables, and other amazing FREE resources that will grow your blog + biz here:

– Raelyn 🙂