Can you start a blog when you’re not an expert and succeed? In short, yes! But how?

It seems “experts” are everywhere we look, which makes most of us feel like there isn’t a place for us online since we don’t know enough about a niche.

But that’s just not how the internet operates.

Readers want to connect with bloggers.

When you are true to yourself and relatable, readers will establish a connection with you and come back for more.

They feel like you are a real person, while with experts, they encounter this considerable gap.

One of the best things about starting a blog within an industry that you don’t know much about yet is that your take on a subject will be entirely different from an expert’s.

Chances are, you will be much more in tune with the audience who’s also there, as beginners, trying to learn something new.

In fact, not being an expert gives you a leg-up.

It’s much easier for you to write something understandable in the point of view of a beginner.

You know what beginners are going through and what will help them the most because it’s exactly what you’re doing.

Tips to Start a Blog When You’re Not an Expert

1. Improve as You Go

No one starts as an expert. Everything has a learning curve, and every expert was once a beginner.

It’s important to always remind yourself of that.

Also, just like anything in life, you’ll get better over time.

Every day when you write a new article for your blog, you’ll improve.

You might not notice the improvement straight away, but it will become easier as you go.

Some topics in your niche will be easier to tackle when you become more knowledgeable.

2. Talk About Your Journey

When it comes to starting a blog without experience within a niche, you can talk about your learning journey.

Your experience with the industry can be precious to others eager to learn about it.

When you document your journey, it can help other beginners learn more about your topic.

As a beginner yourself, your experience might be exactly what the reader needs to stay focused and motivated.

Besides, documenting experiences is much easier than coming up with general content.

3. Choose the Right Topics

When starting a blog when you’re not an expert in the niche, selecting the right topics is vital.

In other words, don’t try to write about topics that require a significant level of expertise.

This is a crucial mistake that new bloggers often make.

They believe the audience expects them to be experts and they go on to write “expert blog posts.”

Here are the issues with that particular strategy:

• It’s not something you dominate, so, most likely you’ll be copying others’ opinions. So, what if they are wrong?
• It might come off as phony, and that’s not a good start for any blogger.

Instead of writing an essay on a complicated issue in your industry, write about something smaller that you just discovered, and you thought it was interesting.

4. Write from Personal Experience

Many new bloggers assume that their experience since it’s not vast isn’t relevant.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Whether someone just got into a niche that they know nothing about or they’ve been doing it for years, all experiences matter.

Most importantly, readers out there will identify themselves with both.

5. Take the Learning Out Loud Approach

Some people study for years and years until they can be recognized as an expert, and then they start talking about it.

Putting your head down and focusing on learning definitely works, but it’s time-consuming, it requires a lot of patience and might not be the most effective learning technique.

For you to become an expert within the niche you’ve chosen and be recognized as one, it will take time.

So, patience is required either way.

But if you take the learning-out-loud approach, at least, you’ll be creating valuable content, and hopefully monetizing, from the start.

Learning out loud means sharing what you learn along the way.

Let’s say, your niche is blog monetization.

As soon as you learn how to monetize your blog through ads, you should write about it and share that information with your readers.

The beauty of learning out loud is:

• You’ll never run out of topics to write about
• You can share your failures as well as your successes
• You get to push yourself out of your comfort zone constantly

Teaching others about a specific niche doesn’t require you to be an expert.

What’s more, if you learn something new and explain what you’ve learned to someone else, you’ll be much more likely to learn and never forget it.

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What Kind of Blog Posts Should You Write When You’re Not an Expert?

As a new blogger that doesn’t know about his or her niche as much, there are many blog posts you could write.

Some might be a bit more challenging at first, and you’ll need to take time to research.

Remember, with each blog post you write, you’ll learn more and more about your niche.

List Posts

Listicles or list posts are, by far, one of the favorites around the internet.

They are relatively easy to write, highly engaging and creative. You can write a list with the five mistakes you made when starting, seven tips for anyone getting started with your niche or the ten reasons why you got into the industry.

Interviews

Though as a new blogger it might be a bit harder to get experts willing to be interviewed, still you should give it a try.

Interviews are a fantastic way to get you closer to the experts which, in turn, elevates your status before your audience.

If you have a blog about baseball cards, you could reach out to collectors and do an entire blog post about them.

Or, if your niche is Disney characters, I doubt you’ll reach them, but you could contact other aficionados and get them to share their passion.

You get the gist.

Expert Roundups

Once you have enough interviews, you can put together one blog post with all the experts comments on a particular topic.

That allows you to create extremely valuable content for your audience without you claiming to be the expert.

If you can’t reach the experts, you can do the second best thing and search through the web for their interviews and quotes.

Just make sure you link all of your sources.

Resources Roundups

Another type of blog post that delivers tons of value to your audience is gathering a bunch of resources together.

For instance, if your niche is blogging, create a list of all the useful tools you have at your fingertips.

Or, forums that you like to visit.

Websites that inspire you.

There are endless possibilities. Most importantly, this type of content is highly shareable.

Profiles or Success Stories

As you go deeper within your niche, regardless of what it is, you’ll surely find many exciting people and success stories.

Take the opportunity to write about them.

It’s a great way to gain some exposure in your niche and build relationships with stakeholders.

Discussion Post

As the name suggests, on a discussion post you get to ask your audience a question and start a discussion around a particular topic within your industry.

When you write a discussion post, it forces you to research both sides, which helps you develop yourself.

Plus, these posts tend to get audiences engaged.

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Becoming an Expert

If you are interested in a niche, but you’re far from being an expert, don’t let it stop you.

Everyone needs to start somewhere, and you can start right now.

Research your niche, think about what you should learn first and start creating blog posts as you go.

Getting Started as a Beginner Blogger if You’re Not an Expert

As a beginner, you might struggle with other aspects of starting a blog when you’re not an expert such as the technical aspects of blogging.

Most likely, you’re asking yourself – what platform to use, how to set it up, can you make money, amongst many other questions.

I’ve been there, too.

You can do it all by yourself, no doubt.

But, if there are others around that can take you by the hand and show you the ropes, why not take the opportunity?

Having someone to guide you will get you where you want to be much faster.

Also, starting a blog when you’re not an expert requires a lot of motivation and dedication.

Being part of a community and building relationships with other bloggers can help you stay on track.