You won’t believe it, but I almost quit blogging after about a year and a half. Looking back now, I’m so glad I didn’t. Staying patient and consistent has finally started to pay off, and I can honestly say it was worth the wait. Though the results are quite slow in number, I believe they will change over time.
Everywhere on social media, you’ll see creators saying things like, “Start a blog and make passive income!” or “Blogging is an easy side hustle.” It all sounds so tempting, doesn’t it? But here’s the truth – it’s not easy at all.
A Little Backstory
When I first started, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. Writing has always been something I love. It’s how I express myself best. I find it easier to put my thoughts into words rather than talk about them out loud. That’s actually one of the reasons why, even though I have over 7.5k subscribers on my YouTube channel, I’ve never started vlogging or made a video with myself on screen. I just don’t have that kind of confidence (yet).
So, instead, I wanted to create a small space on the internet where I could freely share my thoughts, opinions, and experiences. A place to talk about the things I love, whether it’s books, kdramas, BL or random reflections. And that’s what led me to discover blogging.
But here’s the thing – I rejected the idea as quickly as it came. Once I started researching how to actually start a blog, I realized I needed to spend money to host it. This was around 2019, during the pandemic, and at that time, I was still a student with no source of income.
To make things more complicated, I live in Nepal, where there were very few hosting providers back then, and getting access to international ones was difficult because our payment system made online transactions almost impossible. So, reluctantly, I dropped the idea.
But somehow, life brought me back to blogging again…And there’s no looking back.
Still, there were moments when I felt like giving up, and I had almost quit blogging.
Why I almost quit blogging
No results
Let’s be real, the main reason most people quit something is because they don’t see results right away. And I am no different breed. I almost quit blogging so many times because there were no views, no readers, and it honestly made me feel invisible.
I tried everything: monthly updates, book reviews, personal stories, and K-drama reviews. At one point, I was obsessed with BL dramas, so I even wrote posts about those. But still, nothing seemed to work. For almost a year, my blog barely had a traffic, as you can see, views are less for someone who is blogging for a year, which is why I had lost my motivation to write.
Writer’s Block
As I mentioned earlier, I had written all sorts of content, and I think that’s exactly what burned me out. I started losing motivation to write and found myself avoiding my blog altogether. I became inconsistent, posting less and caring less about what I was creating.
Without clear goals or direction, blogging began to feel like work instead of something I loved. It no longer felt like my passion. And that’s when I really started to question myself:
“If this is how it’s going to be, should I just stop? Maybe blogging isn’t for me.”
After all the effort and time I had invested into learning and setting up my blog, I was genuinely ready to quit blogging.
Lack of Money
Another major reason I almost quit blogging was money. Hosting a self-hosted blog isn’t free. I had to pay around Rs 5000 per year, which was a big amount for me at the time since I was still a student and not earning.
When I wasn’t getting any results, it started to feel like I was throwing money away for nothing. My motivation dropped even further with no views, no income, and my savings were slowly disappearing.
I remember thinking, “What’s the point of paying for another year if I’m not getting anything in return?” I had already decided that I wouldn’t renew my hosting when it expired, but I didn’t, thank god for that.
Learning Curve
Whoever says blogging is easy, I completely disagree. Before even launching my blog, I had to learn so many things. I spent hours researching hosting services, comparing offers and discounts, and figuring out how to use WordPress.
Even though I come from a technical background, it was still overwhelming to learn WordPress. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for someone without any tech experience.
Once I finally got my blog up and running, the learning didn’t stop. I had to figure out:
- How to design my website using Elementor
- What aesthetic do I want
- Which WordPress plugins were actually useful for my blog
And that’s just the start. You will come up with new problems to face in moving forward with your blogging journey.
All of this became even harder because I was juggling so many things at once – my frontend internship, a part-time content creator job, and my studies. Trying to make time for blogging on top of everything else felt almost impossible.
My Mistakes
SEO game
One of the biggest mistakes I made was not knowing about SEO. I had no idea that blogging required strategic thinking, from keyword research to how you structure and optimize your posts for readers (and search engines).
I wrote dozens of posts without realizing that no one was searching for the topics I was writing about. I was basically pouring all my energy into content that had zero demand. I wasn’t being intentional; I was just writing whatever came to mind because I was desperate to make something work.
It’s only recently that I started to learn how SEO actually works and began applying it to my blog. Since then, I’ve noticed a big improvement; my traffic has grown in ways I didn’t expect.
I started using the Rank Math plugin to check SEO requirements for each post. But I’ve also realized that plugins aren’t everything; you still need to go beyond the checklist and adjust things based on your content and audience.
Lack of patience
Another major mistake I made was not being patient enough. Blogging is a slow journey; results don’t show up overnight. It’s more like planting a seed and waiting for it to grow.
From my experience, blogging can absolutely work as a side hustle, but if you treat it like a full-time commitment, the results might come even faster. It took me almost two years to finally see consistent traffic on my blog. And honestly, there were many moments in between when I wanted to give up.
But the key takeaway is that if you stay patient and consistent, blogging does pay off. It just takes time, persistence, and a lot of learning along the way.
What changed my mind
I had almost decided to quit blogging until one of my blog post – ‘Island’, suddenly started getting attention. It wasn’t a huge spike, but at least I was finally seeing some views. That small progress gave me hope. I thought, “Okay, maybe I should give this another year and see where it goes. Maybe blogging is worth it after all.”
That one post reminded me why I started blogging in the first place, because I genuinely loved writing and sharing my thoughts. Even if only a few people were reading, it meant that someone out there connected with what I wrote.
So, instead of giving up, I decided to keep going, write more, learn more, and see where consistency could take me. Slowly, I began to understand SEO, focused on my niche, and improved how I presented my content. And even though growth was still slow, it finally started to feel real.
Chat with me
If you’re interested, I can write a full SEO case study on how I managed to increase my blog traffic. Just let me know in the comments or drop me an email, and I’ll put together a detailed post about it.
I’d also love to hear from you. Was this post helpful? Do you want to know more about my blogging journey or the lessons I’ve learned along the way? Let’s chat in the comments!