How to Start a Successful Blog in 20 Minutes (or less)

I saw this blog title “How to Start a Successful Blog in Less Than 20 Minutes” somewhere and I nearly fell out of my chair. It made me so angry, I had to write :D

I’ll tell you this as a somewhat ‘seasoned’ blog builder; Anyone who tells you that you can build a blog in a super short period of time, is lying to you. Plain and simple.

Let me rephrase; it’s entirely possible to get a blog up and running in a short period of time, if said blog is SUUUUPER simple, and requires no customization whatsoever. But a successful one? And TWENTY MINUTES???

On the other hand, if you’re like me, and have been building websites and blogs since Christ was a child, you could very likely build a blog in a short amount of time. But it ain’t gonna be anything that you’d want to show off to friends, family and total strangers. And it’s definitely not gonna be ‘successful’.

Those blog titles piss me off because when I was a new blogger, I read more than my fair share of those headlines, so when I started building my blog, the process made me wanna chuck my laptop at a wall! I thought something was wrong with me! I thought “shit. I must be a complete idiot if this person can do it in 20 minutes and I can’t even grasp the concept of ‘plugin’ vs. ‘widget’”.

If you’re a new blogger, who’s just dipping your toes into the “blogosphere” thinking that someone else can build a blog in say… 20 minutes, spending hours+ customizing your Wordpress theme can be EXTREMELY discouraging!!

Even if you use a free blogging platform, it’s STILL going to take you a couple of hours to even start figuring it out, let alone consider the amount of precious time it takes to tackle building on a platform like Wordpress.

For God’s sake! (Can you tell that I’m super chapped?)

Telling someone (ANYone) that they can build a successful blog in under 20 minutes is shady. Especially when you know that new bloggers are going to take that statement literally, make the attempt, and throw up their hands in frustration, thinking that they ‘re doing something wrong, or that they’re mentally incapable when they can’t do it!!

Yes they’re doing something wrong! They’re believing the idiot who told them that they could set up a fully functioning blog in under 20 minutes!!

I’ve probably built 75+ blogs, and it still takes me longer than 20 minutes from start to ‘finish’! (And seriously…is a blog ever really “finished”?)

But I digress.

The statement that you should be able to build a successful blog in under 20 minutes also leads others to believe that what bloggers do is easy. People, this blogging thing ain’t easy. You have to stick with it, and you have to love it to stick with it. Just because it isn’t easy, doesn’t mean that it’s not worth every second that you’ll put into it (and it’ll cost you some serious time, so you’d better damn well love it).

Fellow bloggers; telling someone who may be thinking about building a blog, that it can be done in under 20 or 30 minutes is just irresponsible. Stop that nonsense.

Harsh? Nope!

As a blogging community, we’re supposed to be helping others, not throwing false hope and discouragement their way. Misinformation doesn’t help anyone. All it does is make us all look shady, and that’s just shitty.

And that’s my rant for this beautiful Sunday morning ;)

Peace xo

Debbie