I actually believe there are quite a few barriers for the newbies of today. And I know because I am one of those newbies!

There is knowledge in content and what to write about, knowledge needed on how to actually get your visitors, knowledge on how to then leverage your site to actually get it to start making money, plus you also need to have the technical knowledge to upload the site, change the graphics, make the posts etc etc etc.

It isn’t just the $108 per year in actual costs. It is also the cost to learn to include whether that be time or whether that be paying a mentor to learn step by step.

Growing an online business is no different to growing an offline business. Yes there is the slight difference in money, however both need time, money, focus and most importantly the person creating the business really needs to love what they are doing for it to succeed!

Great article.

Kind Regards

Jacinta
Jacinta Dean´s last blog ..John Thornhill’s Internet Marketing Master Class Coaching Program Week 19!

Knowledge is equally important but unless it is used, it is nothing but garbage.

Realizing that there are already so many blogs in your niche is also a fear factor. What do I have to say that hasn’t been said before? It’s important to remember that with the internet, we all have a voice. What you say, in your voice and based on your experience is what people want to read.

For the money aspect, in addition to the domain name fee and the yearly hosting fee, there’s also the premium theme cost, cost of joining problogger forums, cost of photos to enhance your site, cost of ebook or online courses to learn technologies and marketing. It goes on and on. None of this include the opportunity costs, of course.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the easier (and least expensive) businesses to get into and is worthwile, but there are many costs that you never think of until you actually start blogging.

Just my $0.02

Karen
Karen´s last blog ..Just For Today Challenge, Day 11: Get Outside Today

Even though Wordpress is free though, you still have to be able to know the basics of HTML, CSS, etc. For a newbie like me, this was like a totally new language. It was definitely something that I had trouble with since I was more skilled with using a pencil. But I guess you can say this falls under the category of having a lot knowledge in anything, including the technical side of using the internet.

Oh yeah, like you said, psychology time is very important. We can always buy more knowledge, we can always hire people to do stuff for us, but we can never buy more time. I think knowing that and learning how to spend you’re time wisely is a crucial factor in becoming a good blogger.
Hulbert´s last blog ..Finding Relief: A Painful Way to Get Out of Pain

WordPress and premium themes make things easier but there is still a fair amount of technical knowledge required.

Another barrier is fear. The fear of making a mistake, looking stupid, not being a good enough blogger. Fear really holds people back.

Andrew
Andrew @ WeBuildYourBlog.com´s last blog ..Free Premium Theme