10 Questions You Should Ask before starting Professional Blogging

I think that 2006 and 2007 was like the golden years of professional blogging. Many people wanted to enter into this field in search of earning money and fame both. Situation has changed a lot in 2009 and 2010 because of the economic recession. Now, the recession has almost finished and maybe we will find a resurgence of interest in professional blogging or blogging for earning money.

Well, before you decide to enter into professional blogging I think that there are some questions you should ask yourself so that you do not regret your decision later. For the sake of an attractive title, I have limited the number of questions to ten and you can ask yourself even more if you like.

1. Why do I want to start professional blogging?

This is the first question you have to ask yourself. If you want to know why want to become a professional blogger then it will become difficult for you to be actually one. Try to keep some thinking about this question because it is very important.

2. What is my goal?

I hope that you know what are your goals? If you ask me when I started to try to become a professional blogger, my main goal was to earn money. I desperately needed some money and I was in a foreign country. There was no way for me to do any job. So, I was spending my days in the computer and I thought that the only way to find some money may be was Internet. Fortunately, at that time, blogging was flourishing and I think that I joined the industry at the right time.

3. Do I just want to earn some money?

I have just stated that I want to earn money and that is why I joined professional blogging. However, earning money was not the only goal for me. I wanted to make it a real career. I wanted to show my skill and knowledge with it. I could do it because in the last five years, my entries have been linked numerous times by many good blogs. I also could improve my writing skill and analyzing skill. I wanted to earn money even more than that I enjoyed the matter that many people enjoyed my writing.

This satisfaction has helped me a lot and that is why it kept me not becoming a writer for the search engines only. Now, most of my blogs even do not have advertisements. Only two blogs of mine contain Adsense advertisements. In the other five blogs that I look after there are no ads because I want to get mental satisfaction from them. I want that our entries are read by many people.

4. Do I enjoy writing?

I have seen many people who do not enjoy writing at all but they want to earn money by blogging. Personally, I think that it is almost impossible because the most important part of blogging is content. If your blog does not have good content then no matter how good design it has, no matter how much you are an expert on search engine optimization- it will be difficult for you to become successful. Secondly, if you do not enjoy writing then blogging can become a torture for you sooner or later. So, remember that if you do not enjoy writing then this is surely not the field for you.

5. Am I ready for the challenge?

In 2006, I noticed that many people thought that blogging was very easy. They felt that you just needed to write some sentences and then submit in some social bookmarks or make some comments in other people’s blog and put some advertisements. Then money will come on your way. Fortunately, in 2010 or now almost at the beginning of the 2011, hardly anyone has this kind of idea. In fact, the recession has taught us many important lesions and one of the most important lesions is that earning money by blogging is not that easy.

Professional blogging requires a lot of time and efforts and sometimes it is very painful. It has a lot of stress and you have to be ready for the challenges if you want to become successful here. So, you should also ask this question whether you are that kind of person who likes or can handle challenges.

6. How I can find the Time?

Time is of course an important factor for any job. If you do not have enough time or if you think that blogging doesn’t take time then it is not the right field for you. Blogging requires a lot of time at first or in the beginning. If you think that bloggers are enjoying whole day and then partying whole night then you have very wrong idea. Blogging means spending a lot of hours alone and trying even on weekends. So, before starting your efforts to earn money through blogging ask yourself how much time or how many hours can you give every week.

7. Can I survive the initial setbacks?

At first, Blogging is not only challenging but it can become heart breaking. You will notice that no matter how much you try you are not finding good result unless you are lucky. If you are lucky then there is not any other thing to bother. But 90% of people are not that lucky. What will happen is that maybe you have written some great contents but search engines are not finding you good way. Your content is better than your competitors but you are not getting enough traffic. But these things are very natural at the initial first few months or even until one year. The older your blog becomes and your archive grows than search engine finds you easier. So, are you ready for the initial setbacks?

8. Is there any limitation for me?

I have some very big limitations as a professional bloggers because of living in a third world country. First of all, electricity is a very big problem for me and this summer (April-October 2010), in my home, most of the time there were no electricity for four to eight hours a day. Second limitation that I face is the absence of high speed Internet.

The third limitation that I can talk about is that in our country, there is still no PayPal or any other reliable online payment processing system. So, when it comes to earning money from advertisement then my options are very limited. So, try to know whether you have any kind of serious limitation in the place you live. For example, if you do not have good Internet then it can become a big problem.

9. Do I want to become a part time or full time Blogger?

Many people get too much excited about earning money through blogging and they dream that they can leave their job and become a full time blogger. The reality is that unless you are living in a third world country where you do not need to earn a lot of money, becoming a full time blogger is very difficult. Especially if you live in a country like United States or UK then your living expenses are very high indeed. Earning that amount of money through blogging is extremely difficult if you live in a rich country. Always remember this matter that only few hundred or may be few thousand bloggers from USA or Europe are full time. Most of them are part time because as I have said that earning enough money to pay all your bills every month through blogging is very difficult indeed.

10. What if I fail?

Of course, we do not enter into any job with the dream of failing in it. However, failure is a part of life and it is indeed a very natural part of life. Even in blogging, although I got some success in the first three years. Then I failed a lot because of bad health. It doesn’t matter whether my health was bad or not but the reality is that I failed a lot. Now, I am trying to make a comeback in professional blogging. So, are you ready for this matter that if you fail then you can again try for it?

Finally, I do not want to discourage you. I myself took the challenge of professional blogging and entered in it. However, I wanted to show you the real picture and that is why I am writing this entry. You do not need to feel discouraged but just spare some minutes thinking about these questions. If you like this entry then surely you can post a comment below.