How to Stay Motivated When Blogging Isn’t Easy

No matter what you’ve heard before, making a living blogging isn’t easy. Despite what some YouTube guru may tell you, it takes years of hard work before you can ever enjoy enough of an income to live comfortably. In fact, some never see any success at all. With that being said, you must find ways to stay motivated. Otherwise, you’ll end up throwing in the towel prematurely.

Four Tips for Maximum Motivation
Everyone finds motivation in different things. For some bloggers, the idea of generating enough revenue to live a comfortable lifestyle is motivating. For others, they simply want to know that people are reading the content they’re writing. But regardless of what specifically motivates you, the following tips will keep you on pace:

1. Set Short-Term Goals
Every blogger has this idealistic view of where they want to be in three, five, or ten years. But the problem is that many don’t know what they’re doing up until then. “It’s those annoying, time-consuming, in-between parts that keep most people from truly attaining the financial success that they desire,” entrepreneur Timothy Sykes believes . “While they want the amazing end result, they don’t understand how much work is required to actually get there.”

That’s why it’s critically important that you set both short-term and long-term goals. The short-term goals – which may include daily, weekly, and monthly checkpoints – keep you motivated in the present, whereas the long-term goals give you vision for the future.

2. Accomplish Two Things Every Day
Have you ever had one of those days where you spend 10 or 12 hours at your desk working on various tasks and putting out fires, only to look. back at the end of the day and wonder what you really got done?

You should never end a day without being able to accomplish at least two things. They can be incredibly small things – such as sending out five tweets or responding to comments on your latest blog post – it doesn’t really matter.

The point is that you should finish very day knowing that something positive has been done.

3. Track Progress
If you’ve ever worked for a major company in a sales or marketing role, then you’re probably familiar with progress reports. Managers often require weekly, monthly, and quarterly progress reports so they can track how things are going in different areas of the business.

As a blogger, you should be tracking your own progress. You can do this via Google Analytics .

It’s as simple as checking in, identifying specific metrics, and then compiling those numbers into customized progress reports that you can look back on in the future to see where things are going.

4. Network With Successful People
“If I were starting out in blogging today knowing what I now know I’d invest significant time each day into connecting with others online,” successful blogger Darren Rowse admits . “The old adage of ‘it’s not what you know it’s who you know’ rings true in blogging.”

When you network with other bloggers, you’re able to see what they’re doing, bounce new ideas off them, and even enhance your blog’s visibility through guest blogging relationships.

Thankfully, networking with bloggers is fairly easy. Most of it actually takes place behind your keyboard and via social networking platforms, message boards, and online communities.

Push Through the Hard Times
Blogging isn’t easy. It takes months and years of consistent writing, marketing, and networking to build up an audience that allows you to enjoy financial freedom and make a difference. With that being said, make sure you’re finding motivation – especially in the hard times.