As a blogger, I use Pinterest a lot.

I search for dinner recipes when I have no idea what to make.

I look up essential oil blends that might calm my toddler’s horrible temper tantrums.

I pin my own content to group boards and Tailwind tribes.

But there’s one thing I don’t do.

I don’t spend any of my time reading post after post about “How I Got 100,000 Pageviews in My First Month Using Pinterest”.

I don’t read, “How to Set Up a Blog in 5 Minutes”.

I skip right over, “How I Got 1k Subscribers in My First Month Blogging”.

If there’s one thing that makes my ears actually turn red and hot to touch is when people make online business seem fast, easy, and free.

Business isn’t supposed to be quick and easy. People write articles like this because it gets others to click.

I can’t tell you how many of my readers have expressed frustration that blogging was much harder than they thought. I agree.

I’ll be honest, I got into blogging thinking I could just write nonsense about my life and the masses would come. I’d slap up a few ads and I’d replace my full-time nursing income in a few months.

Because that’s what those blog posts led me to believe.

Here’s the truth; that’s a lie.

Setting up your blog shouldn’t take 5 minutes. It should take 5 minutes to install WordPress, but the rest of it?

The theme, the logo, the pillar content. That all takes time. It matters what your site looks like. It matters what your logo looks like. The quality of your content matters. The foundation matters.

You didn’t get 1k subscribers in one month? Well, that blog post you read probably forgot to mention that they already had an established network (like a Facebook group) that they could drive their offer to.

They weren’t starting from scratch.

They probably didn’t mention that they had a network of biz besties promoting them.

They forgot to get into the nitty-gritty details of a kickass lead magnet that people actually want.

You didn’t get 100,000 pageviews after you signed up for Tailwind? Well, what do your images look like? What kind of content are you putting out there? Are your titles easy to read or are you writing sentences in a fancy script that can’t be read on a giant computer screen let alone a mobile device?

Are you still trying to take your own pictures? Are you still using all the “free” stuff because you don’t want to invest in your business?

Reality check.

When people have extreme success really quickly, it’s anything but easy.

They likely have different circumstances than you, maybe they don’t need to work another job full time.

Or they don’t have kids constantly screaming and fighting with each other while you’re trying to concentrate.

Or they don’t have a dog that needs to be let out every time they sit down to write.

Or they don’t have a husband that keeps asking them why they look so angry when they are typing. (Is that just me? I keep telling him that’s just my concentrating face lol)

And here’s a big one: they likely have some disposable income they can use to invest in starting their business up the right way. 

They can skip a lot of that trial-and-error-learn-as-you-go phase.

Designing an amazing lead magnet is quick and easy because they pay a graphic designer to do it for them. They get noticed on Pinterest because they can afford custom templates and they can invest in tools like Tailwind. Let’s not forget the e-courses to teach them a strategy that actually works, and money spent on ads to help them build their list or get those pins to take off.

And their “first month” probably isn’t their first month.

If they haven’t already been-there-done-that with another blog, then they have (at the very least) spent months behind the scenes working on branding, writing copy and pillar content, and education (learning the foundation of blogging as a business).

Then they “launch” and call it their first month.

Why does this bother me?

Because it’s discouraging. It’s discouraging to those that work so hard and don’t understand why they aren’t seeing those results.

It’s discouraging to have the resources and money to get that success but you never knew you needed to do those things because people weren’t honest about what it takes in the first place.

It’s discouraging to read posts about quick success and think, “Yeah I do all that, so what the hell?!”

And what happens when people get discouraged?

They give up. They succumb to defeat and they never see success.

I want nothing more than for you to be successful.

So here it is, the uncensored truth.

You need to invest. Time, money, energy. Non-negotiable.

You need to believe in yourself and have the confidence to put yourself out there.

You need to sacrifice.

While your husband is watching tv, you’re blogging. While your family is at the movies, you’re blogging. While the kids are napping, and after they go to bed. Any moment you have to yourself, you blog.

You write. You create. You learn. You don’t stop.

And if not, that doesn’t mean you won’t be successful eventually, but it will take longer and you need to be okay with that.

You can’t look at others success and wonder, “why not me?”

But I know you, you’re not like that. You do the work. You have what it takes.

I’m certainly not saying to burn yourself out or that you need a ton of money to be successful.

You need to trust the process. Don’t give up. Stop comparing yourself to others. You can’t get sucked into quick-cash rabbit holes or believe that blogging is effortless.

Or get discouraged when it seems effortless to others. (Trust me, there’s another side to their story)

And of course, you need the right tools. 

Our free templates are a killer place to start (along with all of the tutorials and resources you’ll need).

Social media templates to get you that traffic.

Worksheet templates to turn your brilliant content into actionable lead magnets.

A media kit template to get you those sponsored posts.

(You get the drift.)

FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW TO GET ACCESS TO ALL OUR FREE TEMPLATES ⬇