This post will change your life. 
Because there is a big difference between building a blog and building a business.
Ideally, read this post as though you’re just new to the blogosphere. You may have been deceived all these while.
Right now, you may also be doing something right but not realizing it.
Why should you blog? I’m sure you’ve a lot of reasons to give.
Such as reaching your target audience and selling more of your products. But guess what? Blogging in itself is not what you need to reach those who matter. You need something different.
For instance, if you want to travel to Canada, you need a guide (map, directory or someone) who can guide you.
The fact that you’ve VISA to Canada doesn’t guarantee you’ll get there effortlessly. Blogging is just a tool and before you can use it, a lot of things must be in place.
I know that a lot of people will not agree with this post, but here are my 5 reasons why you should not blog and what to do instead.
1. It’s all hyped up
Yes, I said it and I’m here to defend it. Most of the benefits you’ve read so far, pertaining to what a blog can do for you is all hype.
I’m not saying that a blog is totally messed up, but as little as attending a conference and making few core friends can change your business – instead of straining your muscle blogging.
You see, hype doesn’t and can’t help anyone. You need to get the facts straight. Nothing should be shady about your business or how to get it to the next level.
Some bloggers will tell you that you may not know how a blog grows your business, just get started. This is a wrong advice if you ask me, because success is never by accident.
It’s a deliberate effort to see a change. So forget the hype and if you must blog, get your objective clear and then get to it.
2. A blog is a tool, not the result
The result you need for your business should be to grow your sales; make more money and get consistent clients and customers.
Most people think that when they launch a new wordpress blog, then everything is over – they’ve achieved what they’re looking for.
All lies. A blog is simply a tool to reach more of your target audience. It’s never the result. If I can’t get clients to hire me to do content marketing for me, then I’ve failed with blogging.
The same thing goes with you. If you’re broke and your blog is active with thousands of email subscribers, you’ve failed in using blog correctly. Think about it.
3. Blogging hinders productivity
Yes, it does. Each time I want to do something offline to grow my business, I’d remember that I need to write a new post.
You may argue that this is not bad, but to me if I can’t do exactly what I planned to do as a result of someone else coming my way, then my happiness and productivity is hindered.
Blogging is good but if you’re not careful, you’ll become lazy even though you just published a new post.
4. You may not make BIG money
You will agree with me that blogging can’t make you the kind of money you need. For instance, I make more money as a freelance writer than a blogger. More so, my niche sites generate more cash for me monthly than a blog.
I don’t even make a single dime from this blog because I’ve not monetized it successfully since I launched it in 2012. Most of those bloggers who make the big money didn’t make it from their primary blog.
Most often, they created a product, started a niche site and ranked it in Google or did consulting.
Most of those income reports are not true. I’m not saying that all of them are lies. People like Pat Flynn and John Chow are the few guys who make a lot of money from their blogs. If you want to make big money online, do something different.
If you ask me, I’d say start a niche site and get it ranked in Google first page for a highly searched buyer keyword.
That way, you’ll keep receiving commission checks from Amazon or Clickbank. But if you want to hone your writing skills and you’re not concerned with making more money, then blogging will work better for you.
5. Blogging is stressful
I’m yet to find any business tool that’s as stressful as blogging. Waking up every morning to write articles and at the end of the day, only few readers accessed it. This is pathetic considering the amount of efforts you put into it.
Blogging is stressful!
It’s true that no business is easy, but it shouldn’t be stressful for you to succeed in it either. When you’ve passion for what you’re doing, the stress will not be considered. Is your passion for your business or your blog?
With a blog, you’ll always be drained and in search of new ideas to blog about. Of course, if you refuse to update your blog or keep it active, it starts dying.
There is no neutral point for a blog. Either it’s growing or it’s dying. Remember that when you stop adding new valuable content, your readers would start leaving one by one. Do you want that?
What to do instead
I’m not discouraging you from blogging. Far from it. Instead, I’m showing you the way to get it right from day 1. Define your objective.
Have a clear goal for your business then use a blog to simplify your reaching the goal. Establish a real business for yourself and then use a blog to reach people who can help you further grow ‘that’ business.
To avoid stressful blogging, the idea to abide by is simple: Write every day. Publish once or few times per week and then channel all your energy into promoting your posts.
Get more people to read your posts than you push the publish button. That’s how successful blogging is established.
What do you say to all these? Is the post clear or biased? Remember that I’ve a blog but the way I go about updating it is quite different. I publish once a week and do more marketing. What about you?
Hi Michael,
I agree your point. Thanks for sharing nice post once again.
Hi Michael,
Nice post!
I am sure this article would provoke many people.
Indeed, many people are just excited blogging just at the beginning, they have not yet determined their goals why they make the blog.
To be successful in blogging, we are must often promote our posts, especially to social media. By doing so, our post will have many readers. Of course, the content must be quality content. Correct me if I’m wrong 🙂
This article is like awaken us for our reason in blogging.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Michael.
Regards,
Nanda
Very thought provoking article. I spend a lot of time drafting my blog and website articles. The blog articles are posted about once a month. They take so much time to write, proof and polish. But what a time drain. I get no compensation because my blog is a wordpress.com type blog.
Your points are well taken and I am not sure what to do at this point except to keep blogging. More than once a month seems impossible since I do have a tax and estate law practice to run.
You are absolutely, This article is Great and out spoken. Frankly this is the fact behind bloggers. And finally you told to set up the GOAL first. This is important and every bloggers. Then we should have to proceed on it. Thanks a lot.
Hi Micheal,
This is my first comment on your blog but I have been following your blog for quite sometime. This post has really made me not to leave this page without commenting. I think some blog just to gain popularity while their business lies elsewhere whereas some blog to make money out of their blogging site. But even if someone monetizes their blog, it takes long too make the really money out of it. Actually, before they make money with blogging, they have to gain the popularity to make the money.
Glad you agreed with my post.
I esp loved what you said about how blogging is the tool NOT the result. Great advice. I think thats esp important to remember when trying to achieve anything thru blogging. Thanks again for the good read. This was a great article!
Welcome to my blog Neils and thank you for reading.
It seems you are talking to me directly Micheal. Have implement few from your tips for my lifestyle blog to build a brand first before talking about money. Most newbies think blogging is easiest way to make money online without know that it called online jobs. Please Micheal i need you help for my niche site — ways to drive readable convert traffic it.
Thank you so much bro.
Hi Mike,
You have landed another one bro! I always know your articles to be a little bit controversial which by the way a skill which every serious copywriter must have and also posts of this nature brings in lots of conversations and reasoning.
In fact I have read in one of your articles where you stated that you love the style of writing controversial articles and I see it working on your blog.
Talking about making money with blogging, I think two things happen here. Or better put, there are two kinds of people who blog:
1. those who blog for money and
2. those who blog for passion.
The only thing I can say here is that your article captured these two people and the comment thread on this article so far reveals this…
Now this is what I call strategic content marketing and so thumbs up bro!
Jackson
So you know me very well bro?
Good post, I’ll think this 🙂 have a nice day
Hi Michael, this is great post, thanks for share this with us.
Thanks so much.
Great Post, Yes Its True Buying a Domain and publishing Few articles on that blog is not blogging.
Blogging is passion and a blogger needs to work on his blogs by regularly updating their blogs by new articles and also a blogger need to interact with Their visitor by Commenting or reply on their queries on comments.
You’re welcome home Singh
Interesting points. I don’t blog to make money – I make no money at all from blogging, in two years, it’s a creative tool to express myself with. I don’t understand why everyone’s so obsessed with turning every endeavour they do into a money making exercise. It overtakes your life. If you’re a write, enjoy the process of blogging.
I hear you so clearly Alex. Thanks for contributing to the post.
Good post, I’ll think this 🙂 have a nice day
This is really great information about blogging. I am writing on blogs since 2012. At first I had intention to make money but after one year of experience I feel that it is stressful but interesting also. I learn a lot of things from your blog. Thanks…
I appreciate you.
Hi
To be frank, it is really difficult for me to stay away or leave blogging. Money is important in life but I am in love with blogging and I really cant leave it. I may not become a full time blogger, but apart from my everyday work, I would still keep blogging. 🙂
I’m in love with helping people achieve their goals, not really ‘blogging.’ there is a big difference.
I like the way the author write this article. this article is very helpful for me.
Thanks for your input.
5 Hot Reasons Why You Should Not Blog is really very awesome. I really love this post. The information in this article is really unique and useful for me. After reading this article, I think I have some ideas for myself. I do follow your articles recently. Thanks for sharing this post. Hope to read more interesting information from you. Great job!
I appreciate you following my articles Pham.
Awesome write up! but my question is just that why is it that more people go into blogging since it is not lucrative?i support your argument on this write up that blogging doesn’t bring too much money like that.
Thanks.
thank you.
Hey Michael,
You made valuable points with this article. I agree with your presentations are I agree with them.
However, I must point out that the tone of this piece would be discouraging to most bloggers who had been hoodwinked with the idea that blogging is the easy way to make money online.
Nevertheless, I see no wrong in expressing the realities of an event, idea, or concept, which you have just shared in this post.
Blogging is not what many think it is, and I hope that this post has “revealed” the realities to the readers.
Your post is awesome!
I have left this comment in kingged.com, which is the Internet marketing, social bookmarking and content syndicating website where this post was shared.
Sunday – kingged.com contributor
http://kingged.com/5-hot-reasons-why-you-should-not-blog/
You’re always supporting me Sunday. I appreciate you very much.
“there is a big difference between building a blog and building a business.”
I want to quote this one, a great takeaway for me. I like how you emphasized your point here. Agreeable that blogging is just a tool like a VISA in your sampled scenario.
“Have a clear goal for your business then use a blog to simplify your reaching the goal.” Spot on! Nice!
I found this post shared on Kingged.com, the Internet marketing content aggregator site, and I “kingged” it and left this comment.
I’m glad you enjoyed the post Metz.
Blogging is a very tricky thing, people having good knowledge about their niche may fail in it. And a person comparatively not having enough knowledge and continuously doing good on blogs may get success in it.
You’ve a great point my dear. Thanks for pointing that out!
This is so true.
In my opinion, blogging takes to much time to write all the posts and at the and the earnings from that are almost nothing compared to the time and effort making the posts. There are few extremely cases like Pat Flynn like you also said but that’s rare.
Blogging can only be an option if you have some business or product and then make it separated blog site for customers to give them news , updates etc. Otherwise it’s just a hobby.
Thanks for explanation Michael and have a great day!
Regards,
Luke
The stress is just way too much compared to the results you can get. My heartfelt desire is that bloggers begin to diversify and do something more profitable, instead of slaving away blogging.