6 Reasons Why My Blog Launched Later Than I Intended

When I first decided to take the plunge and start my blog, I was fearful and apprehensive. Fearful that no one would even read it, and apprehensive thinking if they did, I would be judged. However, deep down, I knew if I took those steps outside of my comfort zone, I could potentially help several mothers and this motivated and excited me.

I planned to launch the blog during spring 2021, but in hindsight, it was unrealistic in the grand scheme of things.

Starting the blog, initially, was great! I completed a course on setting up a website from scratch. I did a mock blog in the space of a week. I was hopeful! I can do this! Yet, that wasn’t the case. I had a mammoth task on my hands. Especially, for someone with no previous experience.

Usually, I’m an organised person, but the amount of research I had to conduct, the amount of information I had to consume and the amount of time I had to spend on the blog stalled, overwhelmed, and frustrated me. I’m a mum, home educator and I have a child in the entertainment business. What was I thinking?

Below are the 6 main reasons why my blog launched later than intended.  

1. Lack of Help

Being a blogger was a dream of mine for years. I would read blogs and aspire to one day be part of the blogosphere community. Little did I know how challenging and tiring it would be to take on these tasks – especially on my own.

I was quite naïve going into this. I didn’t realise the amount of time and energy it took to start a blog. The more I found out about running a blog, the more I realised how I could benefit from some help – trusted and reliable help.

In the beginning, I had some, which was great. However, it wasn’t for long. I also got plenty of advice – but getting advice and physical help are two different things. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated the advice as it prevented me from making several mistakes that would have set me back months but having help could’ve allowed me to progress at a quicker pace.

Because of the lack of help, I had to come to terms with the fact that my blog wasn’t going to launch anytime soon.

2. Information Overload

When starting my blog, the first thing that entered my mind was acquiring as much information as possible to bring my dream to fruition. Is this a bad thing? No! Learning is a positive thing. However, not when you are consuming more than you can digest.

A few years ago, when I thought about blogging, I did some research on courses and found them to be out of my price range. However, this time around, it was different. I had the pick of any course that I desired. All free of charge. I was in my element.

However, the more courses I took, the more I learnt, and the more I learnt, the more I realised it was never-ending.

It slowly became apparent; all this information was overwhelming.

3. I was Overwhelmed

Okay, so I consumed all this information which now must be put into practice. I have to set up my website and social media outlets, write engaging content, find photos, and optimise my post. I have to market my blog so that my audience can find it. And – I must stay on top of the business and admin side of things: write a business plan, go self-employed, open a business account, keep records of my expenses and the list goes on and on… I’m exhausted thinking about it.

It got to the point where I had so many tasks to complete, I didn’t know which ones to work on first. So, I occasionally ended up completing none.

Being overwhelmed, prevented me from moving forward as quickly as I would have liked. I still worked on the blog but at a slower pace.

4. Lack of Time

As I mentioned earlier, I home educate, which takes up a lot of my time. I have to think of engaging lessons and find topics that will keep my daughter interested. She is a hands-on learner, so I can’t just give her a book and leave her to it. What works with one child, doesn’t necessarily work with another. Although this was a challenge, as it took up a lot of my time, I was still able to work on my blog.

So, as you can see, working on the blog, whilst home educating, was challenging but achievable. However, when you throw my daughter getting a role in a West End production into the mix, it was downhill from here. Between this and home education, my time was limited. I did my best to put in the hours when I could, but with the extensive workload and my lack of time, I found it difficult to fit it all in. I had definitely bitten off more than I could chew.

5. Struggling to Write Content

You would think, writing a post would be easy for someone who wants to be a blogger. I would think so too! So, why couldn’t I complete a post? I was constantly overthinking everything that I wrote. Does it sound okay? Is my grammar correct? Have I used the correct punctuation marks? Are my sentences too wordy? And the questions went on…

When I was at college and university, I had teachers and lecturers checking my work. I had that security blanket. If you read my about page, you would see that I am dyslexic, so I not only had those questions to worry about, but it also took me longer to research and write posts. So, what could take someone, without dyslexia, 1 hour to write, would probably take me 3 to 4 hours or sometimes more.

6. Taking Photos

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I always run from the camera. I either hide, cover my face, or turn away, and if I can’t get away from taking a photo, I tend to find someone taller than me and stand behind them. Although – for the sake of the blog, I was prepared to take a photo or two.

But the thought of taking photos was becoming stressful: I was thinking, what should I wear? How should I style my hair? I rarely wear makeup, so should I wear some? Where should I take the photos?

I just wanted to focus on the reason I started the blog – writing content. So, I decided not to take any and immediately a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

Although I had all these setbacks, my goal was never to give up!

Have you started a blog, business, or project? How long did it take you? Did you have any setbacks?  

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