Want to start a new blog but worried you’re not good enough?
You’re not alone.
Many pro-bloggers were in the same shoes before their blogs took off. One of my favorite bloggers, Darren Rowse, started his very successful photography blog, DigitalPhotography, as an amateur photographer.
So how do they do it?
In this post, we’ll go over various steps you can take to create a credible blog and become an authority on your niche, even as a newbie.
Let’s begin!
1. Commit to Your Success
Once upon a time, I ran a food blog (my Youtube channel for that blog is still up, you can check it out here.)
I thought the blog was a great idea since, at the time, I was spending a lot of my time learning how to cook.
The problem was I’ve pretty much spent my entire life ordering take out.
The result?
My recipes sucked.
And despite spending a lot of time and effort in the kitchen, my recipes kept sucking.
So I quit.
Did I quit because my recipes sucked?
No.
I quit because I wasn’t committed to my success.
I wasn’t ready to tread the long path that’s invariably required to learn a new skill.
So, before you start, ask yourself if you’re ready to commit to your success.
Are you ready to do the work day-in and day-out despite the negative emotions that’ll come up like failure, doubt, and discomfort?
Because that’s what you’ll need to do for an extended period before you can gain momentum and produce tangible results.
“Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.” – Seth Godin, The Dip
If you are in it to win it, that’s awesome.
There is no reason you can’t build a successful blog on a topic you’re not an expert in.
2. Do Self Case Studies
Dave Asprey, the founder of Bulletproof, has a wildly successful health and fitness blog and podcast.
His podcast, “Bulletproof Radio,” has been downloaded more than 75 million times.
While he initially started selling coffee, his brand has gone on to sell other health products such as oils and supplements.
But Asprey doesn’t have a medical degree or nutritional training.
In fact, he’s often criticized due to his lack of proper credentials.
Yet his influence in the health industry is undeniable.
How?
Simple. He made himself a guinea pig and shared his experiences with the world.
Asprey spent two decades and more than a million dollars hacking his biology.
He started by creating the recipe “bulletproof coffee” and documented the health benefits he experienced with it.
Today, he continues to experiment with new ideas geared towards helping his audience improve their biochemistry and increase their mental performance.
The same strategy applies to blogger and bestselling author Tim Ferris.
Ferris is famous for trying unconventional ideas such as fasting for long periods and sharing his experiences with his viewers.
As a result, he has one of the most successful blogs in the world.
Of course, you don’t have to spend millions of dollars or do extreme things to build a loyal audience.
Doing quick and simple experiments work well too.
For instance, I wanted to see if I could use infographics to generate links and traffic for my photography blog.
But, I noticed plenty of marketers are already doing it.
So I took one of Neil Patel’s advice.
Instead of creating static infographics, I created an animated infographic (check it out here).
It cost me a couple of hundred bucks, but I wanted to see if it works and document my results.
It did work, and I often talk about the results here on this blog.
And even if it didn’t work, I’ll still be able to share that experience with my readers and increase my credibility.
3. Empathize
As you can see from earlier anecdotes, credibility isn’t about having credentials. It’s about having influence.
And influence doesn’t come from how much you know, but how much trust is given to you.
If you look at all the photographers I follow online (I’m a photographer 
), you’ll find that most of them aren’t professionals.
In fact, a lot of them don’t have much experience.
So why do I trust and follow them?–Because they make me feel understood.
When I listen to them, I feel like my goals matter. It’s hard not to see them as friends.
That’s the power of empathy.
Empathy is perhaps the most undervalued skill in the blogosphere.
But make no mistake.
Empathy has the power to change lives.
Before moving forward, lets start from the beginning–What is empathy?
What is empathy?
Empathy is seeing things from your readers’ perspective. It is connecting with them in a way that makes them feel understood, valued and loved.
While empathy is easily mistaken for sympathy, they are not the same.
Sympathy is feeling sorry for your reader; empathy is feeling alongside them.
One of my favorite talks about empathy is this speech by one of my favorite writers, David Forster Wallace, take a minute to watch it:
Empathy allows you to connect to your readers in a deep, meaningful way.
It empowers you to recognize and respond to your audience’s needs.
You can easily describe their worries and struggles because you can identify with them.
This insight lets you provide your readers with the genuine support and motivation they need to pursue their goals and dreams.
It also allows you to forge a bond with your readers in a way that no level of credentials can.
Write with empathy, and your readers will not be able to resist wanting to get to know, like, and trust you.
That said, how do you learn to write with empathy?
Here are two critical things you can do:
1. Ask Questions
Asking your audience questions is one of the best ways to understand what’s going through their minds.
Ask them open-ended questions such as what are their biggest frustrations, fears, and dreams?
Ask them what would they pay anything to get in this world? Or what would they pay anything to avoid?
For my photography blog, I ask at least one of these questions to anyone who signs up to my newsletter.
If you don’t have a list or an audience, go to where your ideal audience hangs out and ask them there.
Youtube and Reddit are two of my favorite places for this.
You can quickly ask questions by replying to anyone leaving a comment on a topic within your niche.
Ask smart questions and get people talking.
The more they respond, the more you will learn.
2. Listen
Listen to and study what your audience is saying.
A great way to do this is by looking at the most popular content in your niche.
You can use tools like Buzzsumo, Ubersugest, or Ahrefs.
Find the most shared blog posts and videos with the most views and study them.
Read all the comments on the post and try to identify a common theme. If you hear the same question more than three times, chances are that’s a pain-point for your readers.
You’ll also want to analyze what makes these posts popular. What emotions do they trigger? Do they highlight pain or pleasure?
Amazon is another excellent place to do this.
You can study products that your audience consumes and read their reviews.
For my photography blog, for example, I often look at popular photography books and read what people have to say about them.
You can also do the same by attending live webinars hosted by the experts in your space.
I know this is a lot of work.
But this is what you need to do if you want to know your audience.
The more you listen, the more you’re able to understand and connect with them.
4. Be Vulnerable
Your imperfections make you likable, relatable, and trustworthy.
It’s almost impossible to make an audience fall in love with you if you only talk about how awesome you are.
Why?
Without a weakness, you become boring and impossible to identify with.
Think of Superman. Without kryptonite, you’ll lose interest in a heartbeat.
We love people who fail every now and again. And we love it even more if they are open about it.
So share your struggles, mistakes, and failures with your readers.
Be ok with admitting what you don’t know and exposing your most authentic self.
Sure, you’ll probably turn some people off. But those are not your people.
Your people are the ones who will respect you for admitting to your mistakes.
They are the one’s who will see your failures as a source of inspiration and motivation.
So take courage.
Vulnerability is scary, I know.
But it’s necessary to earn your audiences’ trust and develop any real connection with them.
5. Be Transparent
One of your biggest advantages as a non-expert is the similarity between you and your audience.
Because you’re not an expert, you’re more relatable to your readers.
You develop an immediate bond because they can see themselves in you.
But this will only be effective if you’re transparent about who you are and what experience you have.
If you pretend to know more than you do, you’ll lose the opportunity to have this natural connection with your readers.
Not only that, but your readers are smart and can smell a fraud from a mile away.
If you want to develop credibility, be transparent about who you are.
There’s no need to pretend to be someone you’re not.
Many successful bloggers are not experts but “regular people,” blogging about their journey and experiences.
6. Find A Mentor
Look for someone in our niche who has the results that you want and follow that person.
If possible, attend their webinars, read their books, and buy their courses.
Doing so will offer you insights that could take you years to figure out on your own.
Following a mentor or a guru in your space will help you hone your skills faster and avoid the pitfalls commonly experienced by beginners.
They don’t necessarily have to be someone you know, either.
Of course, it’s always better if you reach out and talk with them, but it’s not a requirement.
Your mentor can be anyone from an author to a blogger who’s accomplished the success you want in your niche.
Once you find a mentor, only follow their methods.
Don’t listen and take advice from different experts and try to bring them all together.
Taking advice from multiple people will only get you confused, overwhelmed and sidetracked.
So choose on person and do everything they say.
Once you start seeing results, you can gradually incorporate other methods you see fit.
7. Create Video and Audio Content
I get it.
You dread being in front of a camera and your voice being recorded.
You’re a blogger, after all, not a Youtuber or Podcaster.
But, before you ignore this tip and scroll down to the next, look at these statistics for a second:
- A report released by Statista found there were 88 million U.S podcast users in 2019, and they forecast 140 million podcast users as of 2022, which is a 60% increase in listeners.
- A study found that in 2019 adults spent an average of 86.23 engaged with digital video content, which is an increase of 41% or 25 minutes since 2015.
- People spend 2.6x more time on pages with video than the ones without.
- Video help increase consumer interaction by 51% and sales conversion by 500%.
There are two key takeaways here.
First is that more and more of your audience are consuming audio and video content.
And if you want to compete with experts in your niche, you must take advantage of all the available tools.
Your competitors certainly are.
If they are not, that’s even more reason you should do it. In this case, you have a golden opportunity to stand out and capture a piece of your market.
Second, video and audio content capture your audience’s attention and trust in a way that text-based content don’t.
This isn’t surprising considering both video and audio generally feel more personal than text-based content.
Whether through body language, facial expression, or tone of voice, both audio and video humanize your content and make them more relatable.
This is important because, as mentioned multiple times here, credibility comes from trust, not credentials.
Combining the power of audio and video to your blog is a great way to deepen your connection with your readers and enhance your credibility.
8. Curate Content
Curating content is a great way to add expertise and credibility to your blog.
Curated content is when you handpick, comment, and link to a collection of relevant quotes from other people in your space.
You add value by sharing information that you know will benefit your readers and get them excited.
Even better if you can find and share unique content that your readers may otherwise have never seen.
Ever had that friend who’s so into technology to the point that everyone he knows goes to him for advice?
It’s the same when you curate and share unique content to your readers.
You eventually become the go-to place to find the best and latest information in your niche.
Curating quality content is also a great way to build a relationship with the experts in your niche.
And we all know the easiest way to grow your influence in your space is by connecting with other influencers.
9. Up Your Photo Game
We judge a blog within seconds of visiting it.
This means the images on your blog need to be amazing if you are to establish credibility.
Low-quality, generic photos on your website will communicate the same about your blog.
So take the time to find high-quality photos that will make you stand out.
If you can hire a photographer or videographer, do so.
Before your readers can trust you, they first need to get to know you.
Generic stock photos don’t help them do that. Rarely do readers trust a faceless entity.
If you want your readers to fall in love with your blog, you need to be willing to show them photos of yourself.
And by hiring an experienced photographer, you can ensure that your photos will come out looking professional and sleek.
10. Take It One Day at a Time
Brush off the pressure to accomplish things quickly, because building a blog takes time.
Modern society has made it fashionable to be speedy in everything we do.
But when it comes to building a blog, the reality is a bit different.
Building a blog requires and takes time; there’s no shortcut.
Along the way, you’ll make plenty of mistakes and waste time, no matter how much you prepare.
You will feel like you’re on a treadmill, always working but never making progress.
Know that all of this is part of the journey.
Here’s a quote I had on my wall that helped me kept going in my first year blogging:
“Anyone can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the battles of those two awful eternities, yesterday and tomorrow, that we break down. Let us, therefore, do our best to live but one day at a time.” – Anonymous
Your success as a blogger is dependent on your ability to take things one day at a time.
So don’t rush. Fight the battles of just one day and learn to fall in love with the process.
Conclusion
Starting a blog that you’re not an expert in may seem daunting. But it shouldn’t be.
With the right guidance and determination, you have just as much chance of succeeding as any expert in the industry.
But, remember, the journey to a thousand miles begins with the first step. So, dig deep within and find the courage in your heart to start that blog and fulfill your destiny.
Take the straight and narrow path towards your goal and we have no doubt you’ll get there someday. We’re rooting for you!