When you begin blogging, you have to admit that you were influenced by the leaders in the niche, the people that were showing off their monthly earnings with big fat checks.  I won’t mention names, as you know most of them by now.  But, what if they didn’t exist?  Would you have begun blogging or would you still be following the blogging trends of ten years ago?

First off, this post is not to attack blogging as a form of communication, profession, etc., but instead a snapshot of how blogging as a whole is a lot different from what many expect it to be.

Underrated

1. Getting a blog to the level that you want it to be is a lot harder than you think it may be, no matter the length of time you spend on it.  It may take years, in some cases.
2. Readers are not willing to accept excuses for anything.  It only takes one button to subscribe to your blog and one to unsubscribe.
3. There is more involved in blogging than simply being able to write posts and communicate with readers.  You have to know some search engine marketing skills, how to effectively manage a “business” and more.
4. There are dozens of saturated niches, so unless you are able to convey to your readers that you are different from the rest of the pack, you won’t see your blog grow.
5. Although blogging is “free”, only people that spend money on themes, advertising, and what not will see the highest results, unless, like previously mentioned, can come off as a leader in their niche.
6. Blogging is stressful.
7. Not everyone will become successful.
8. Content is hard to come by, and takes insightful ideas and creativeness to extend your blog to its full potential.
9. The whole aspect of blogging, from social networking to staying on top of events in your niche can be an obstacle to tackle.
10. Competition can lead people to make irrational decisions, leading to the downfall of their image.
11. Beginning a blog (and publishing with your real name) can result in your loss of job.
12. You are in a constant war against scrapers and people that are “selling” your content so they make a profit (spam blogs and the like).
13. Blogging allows anyone, no matter what race, religion, age, or gender to express their own opinions and view the feedback of others who may share the same interests.
14. Content Management Systems and blog platforms such as WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, and Blogger have allowed thousands of people to capitalize from the market, and without that, there wouldn’t be the resources and tools available today.
15. Bloggers don’t get the respect (generally) that they deserve on an everyday basis.  While there is some recognition from the media to a few of the “top” bloggers, mainstream media doesn’t credit bloggers where it is due.
16. Creating and maintaining a blog can help you improve many aspects of your personal life, from the financial perspective to knowing how to effectively communicate with others.
17. Companies and individuals can read others’ opinions on their products and services, which may have led to an increase in quality of websites, and services online, and perhaps a few other traditional products.
18. Companies that institute blogs generally see a spike in their customer appreciation level, as they are able to see what the company is doing - both for products and internally - and the consumers have a more “direct and personal” line to the owner/employees at the company.

Overrated

1. Anyone can start a blog, it’s completely free provided you have a computer and Internet connection.
2. Blogging can, in fact, take less time per day to generate an income than a “typical” job.
3. Advertisers are able to target bloggers by niche and category, so there is/will always be a stream of revenue for bloggers to generate an income from.
4. Hundreds of thousands of tools and websites have been developed catering to bloggers.  These tools help simplify or extend the process of blogging to a more basic, although sometimes more complicated, format.
5. Anybody can come off to others as a professional, even if they have very little knowledge about what they are talking about.
6. There are thousands of benefits to blogging, yet they are rarely realized or utilized to have the best advantages over other professions/social networking/communication.
7. While there are still millions of active bloggers, there are thousands of people that have started their blog and just “quit”, indicating that blogging really isn’t the best way to go about making an income online.
8. Too many people start blogs with too little experience, so as a result, most people do not trust the opinions of bloggers.  On the opposite spectrum, this inhibits bloggers from growing to their full potential.
9. Within the blogosphere, there is a lack of clear understanding what makes a decent or bad blog, as everyone has their own views.  While you are entitled to your own viewpoint, this misunderstanding leads to bloggers that think they have achieved a “great blog” when in fact it can’t compare to others.
10. Services, plugins, themes, and so forth creators often charge ridiculous prices, leading the “rich” bloggers being able to capitalize on them, inhibiting the growth (somewhat) of smaller bloggers.
11. Similar to traditional media formats, blogging is a writing format where there are trends in traffic/readership/viewership, which creates “holes” in the industry, and from this, individuals are blinded by facts that should be exposed.
12. Blogging isn’t really a different form of publishing online, it is just a more simplified, easier to use, and prettier version of the web page that emerged about fifteen years ago.
13. In many cases, but not all, you must have a previous presence online or offline before you can successfully transform that credibility factor into producing the results that you desire.

Do you have any additional ways that you could state blogging as either underrated or overrated through your experience blogging or your views of the “blogosphere”?