If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the course of my blogging career, it’s that good blogs take time.

If you’re run off your feet, and struggling to find space to do all the things your blog demands of you, that’s probably not what you wanted to hear.

But in my experience, it’s true.

There is no overnight success

Blogging superstars aren’t made overnight. Look at any of the heavy hitters in your niche, and I’ll guarantee they weren’t born yesterday. Even if they’ve only entered the blogosphere recently, if they’re already experiencing success, you can bet they’re leaning on a wealth of past experience with your niche, or a related niche, or with technology. Probably all three.

It takes time to get the kind of experience that gives you authority. It takes time to get to know your audience, and understand their needs. And it takes time to find the best way to meet that need with your skills.

There are tactics that you can apply to your blog to fast-track your progress. But it’s important to realize first, that these tactics take time in themselves, and second, that while they might advance your progress in some area—and that’s great!—they’re unlikely to rocket you to blogging superstardom, complete with mega-income.

There are many pieces in the blogging puzzle, not a magic bullet.

Experience pays

If that seems disheartening, you’ll be happy to hear that there is a bright side.

All the time you put into blogging will pay off.

When I say “blogging,” I’m not just talking about learning to use advertising or gain subscribers or write great posts. I’m talking about everything your blog inspires you to do, from holding events and meetups, to interviewing the leading lights in your niche, to creating products or selling services, to making new friends and contacts.

All of it pays off. I really do believe that blogging can enrich us as people if we let it, and a blogger with a broad perspective and a considered approach based on real-world know-how is in a great position to achieve things not just through their blog, but in their lives as a whole.

The thing is, getting that experience takes time. That’s what experience is: time invested in a particular task or set of tasks. If we see the work our blogs demand of us as an investment, rather than a simple expenditure of time we could spend elsewhere, that can help us channel our energies, but also give our blogging the energy—and time—it deserves.

Enjoy the journey

I’ve found that if I worry about the time I’m spending on various blogging tasks, all I feel is stressed!

If I let myself become immersed in those tasks, and really focus on what I’m doing rather than how long it’s taking, that’s when I get the chance to learn, ask questions, investigate, and practice. For me, that’s what makes what I do enjoyable. And that, in turn, is what’s let me get the experience I’ve gained over the last ten years or so. To me, that experience is invaluable.

What bloggers do really is part of a journey—there’s no end-point. It’s all part of our experience. So why rush it? Why try to push forward to an arbitrary “success metric” when we know that what matters is our experience, and experience takes time?

Are you trying to rush your blogging journey? Or are you prepared to give your blog and yourself the time it—and you—need?