7 Blogging Myths That You’d Look Foolish Believing

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When it comes to blogging, there’s unfortunately a lot of misinformation out there.

Usually, this isn’t because of anything malicious, and if you’re a believer of one of the blogging myths I’m about to share with you, it’s not anything to feel bad about. Outdated articles, fake gurus, and half-truths are rampant in the blogging space, due to how quickly the landscape continues to evolve.

As a community of bloggers, let’s set the record straight together.

In this article, I’m going to share some of the most common blogging myths that I still see being circulated, and share actionable tips that will help you achieve better blogging results.

Let’s start with one of the biggest ones!

1. Write It, And The Audience Will Come

Publishing great content is only one piece of the battle. If you don’t have the skills to attract the attention of interested consumers, good quality content doesn’t really have much meaning.

However, it’s still commonly believed that good content on its own will help you build an audience. That if you truly put your best out their for the world, the world will magically stumble across it.

There used to be a degree of truth to this one – when the internet was much smaller, people really could find you if you implemented SEO best practices.

However, that period of time is long gone. There is more content out there about any given topic, than a single person could ever consume. As a result, search engines have had to use much more complex ranking algorithms to ensure that only the best content gets in front of readers.

Good content that is well-marketed, will always outperform great content that isn’t marketed.

That being said, some people build a strategy specifically around targeting keywords that aren’t being served well already. This is perhaps the one exception to this rule – if you are very selective about the article topics that you write about, it is possible to receive passive Google traffic without having to actively market the content.

Of course, this is a skill set of its own, and I cover it in my blogging course.

2. Articles Should Be X Number Of Words

This is another myth that has some basis in truth, depending on what metrics you’re hoping to improve.

We know that longer articles tend to correlate with higher search engine rankings, and an increased number of social shares. However, taking these statistics at face value does not necessarily paint a full picture.

Traffic on its own is a vanity metric. It only matters if you’re able to make a positive impression with your content, eventually encouraging readers to take some further action.

This means that writing exceptionally long (or short) articles simply for the sake of doing so, means that you’re sacrificing what actually matters – the potential impression it can have on the reader.

As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to write just as many words as it takes to cover your points in detail – without adding extra fluff for the simple sake of boosting word count.

Make your piece as comprehensive as possible, then add things like a table of contents so people can jump around, and plenty of images to break up the text.

By doing this, you build the best resource you can for your reader – without wasting their time unnecessarily.

3. Blogging Should Be Done Cheaply – Without Spending Much Money

This one is just silly.

If you could buy a tool, book, or course that could save you dozens or hundreds of hours worth of time for a relatively low cost, you’d be foolish for ignoring it simply for the sake of saving money.

Yet, so many bloggers behave with a scarcity mindset – they are so worried about saving a few dollars, they prevent themselves from making real money with their businesses.

Just because you can do something for free, doesn’t mean that you should. If you’re not paying with your money, you’re paying with your time. And your time is much more valuable.

Books and courses in particular can provide some of the highest return of any investment. The knowledge always stays with you, and will never go down in value.

For a full list of tools and resources I use to run my businesses, click here!

4. Paid Traffic Sources Should Be Avoided

Similarly to #3, paying for accelerated results makes since in a shockingly large number of situations.

In fact, paid traffic is one of the most straightforward ways to scale your business quickly, and it’s why it’s so important to know your numbers.

Imagine this (oversimplified) example:

You have an email sequence that sells a product that makes you $100. 10% of people that go through your autoresponder sequence end up buying it.

This makes each email subscriber that you acquire worth $10.

Let’s say you have a landing page to opt-in, that converts at 20%. On average, you’ll need 5 clicks to gain one subscriber. Each landing page view costs you $1.

If all of these numbers are true, it would mean that you’re paying $5 to acquire a subscriber, that should make you an average of $10.

This is a grossly simplified example, but I hope it paints a picture on how powerful paid traffic can be, if you learn how to utilize it.

It’s possible to grow a profitable email list without spending money – but you can grow a larger, more profitable list even faster when you utilize paid traffic as well.

5. All You Need Is One, ‘Lucky Break’

One common belief I see beginner bloggers buy into is the idea that one single moment is going to skyrocket your blog into the stratosphere.

One reputable site linking to your article, or one influencer giving you a shoutout.

Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. While these sorts of things can certainly give your blog a little boost, the effects aren’t as long-lasting as you may imagine.

Instead, it takes a consistent series of small steps in order to gain meaningful traction. This can take months and months for any results at all to manifest.

At times, it can make you feel a little bit crazy – putting so much effort in, without much to show for it.

However, no fantastic blog is built overnight – even if the blogger is blessed with good luck.

If results are slow, hang in there. Ensure you’re using proven strategies, continue making progress, and eventually you’ll achieve blogging success.

6. Your Niche Will Make Or Break You

There is only one thing that truly matters when selecting a niche – that there are people actively spending money in that market.

That’s it.

At its core, blogging is all about attracting, engaging, and connecting with active consumers in that market, so a transaction can happen somewhere. This could be through selling your own product, selling another company’s product as an affiliate, or some from of advertising.

The point of ads? To target buyers.

There are no magical, hidden niches that you need to discover. In fact, there is a direct correlation between profitability potential, and competition.

Sure, there are some niches that may be ever-so-slightly easier to make money in than others – but really, this isn’t something you should spend too much time focusing on.

Pick a niche, and get going!

7. Blogging Is Dead

If you’re this far into the article, hopefully you understand why this myth is silly.

The fact of the matter is this – as long as people continue to read articles online, blogging cannot die. Blogs are simply a platform used to attract attention, and engage readers so that they will take some sort of action.

As long as people are willing to read your content, you can still make money with it.

Yes, voice and video are on the rise, but that doesn’t mean that blogging will be going anywhere any time soon.

(By the way, I publish videos on YouTube every week that never get shared on my site. Visit my channel and consider subscribing by clicking here!)

Because there is so much opportunity today, I would even argue that there has never been a better time to start a blog. After all, there is no reason you couldn’t utilize audio and video right alongside it!

Conclusion

I hope that this article has cleared up some misinformation.

The blogging landscape has changed so much since I began blogging 9 years ago, and I’m very interested to see how it will continue to change in the future.

If you were previously a believer of one of these 7 blogging myths, don’t worry. Even the world’s best bloggers wouldn’t have known these when they first started out.

Wishing you the best, and if there’s ever anything I can do to help you in your blogging journey, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

To your success,

– James McAllister