A Few Things I Learned My First Year of Blogging
Blogging to me started off as a way to share with the world about my son’s CHD. It was a way for me to express how it has affected me as a first-time mother, my son, and our family as a whole. I wouldn’t say it was something I planned on giving my all too or even taking that serious (and I didn’t at first) but, now its become something I enjoy doing something that over the course of the next year I plan to put in way more effort than the first.
In just the last two months I’ve done more for my Blog than I did throughout the whole year and by doing so I’ve seen tremendous growth. So even though my first year did not go as I had hoped it was a learning experience an with that being said here are a few things I learned over the course of this past year.
Be True To Yourself: which to me means blog what you are passionate about and something that’s important to you. Not something that is on trend and if you blog about it you think you will get more exposure. Don’t do that, for instance if you don’t like fitness or health & wellness which is really popular right now don’t try and force yourself to make a whole blog dedicated to something you aren’t truly interested in it will only make it harder for you in the long run. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t have a few blog posts over that topic by all means go for it just don’t make it your main topic or niche.
Decide On Your Niche: which means figure out if you want your Niche to be more narrowed down into one or a few categories or if you want to keep it broad and just kinda keep your options open. When i first started out my Niche was strictly CHD but i found myself wanting to talk about so much more than that so i decided to make my blog more of a Family/Motherhood & Lifestyle blog but, still have a big part of it focus on creating awareness for CHD. In short blog whatever your heart desires some subscribers like that some don’t everyone has an audience out there for them.
Be Consistent: this is major you can’t just start a blog make a few posts and then neglect it and think it’s gonna do numbers. (Guilty as charged) You have to put in the work and really establish yourself before you should even considered slowing down your output. That doesn’t mean you have to post everyday or every week just do what you are comfortable with and stick to it. My personal outline I guess is to post at least 4 blog post a month for some people that may not be enough however for me that’s just what works right now. I’m not gonna lie sometimes I don’t and sometimes I post more than that. However that’s my own personal problem and I deal with the consequences of these actions when checking my analytics for the month. So clearly I’m still working on this consistency thing. Life hasn’t been on my side but I’m going to stop making excuses and do what I need to do.
Pinterest And Social Media Are Your Friend: Utilizing these will help bring traffic and exposure to your blog and content. You put in what you want to get out of it. So if you barely utilize these don’t expect much. My main blog traffic comes from Pinterest because out of all things I put in the most time an effort on Pinterest. Back in February when I was barely posting maybe posted twice to my blog in months I had about 35k monthly viewers, a hand full of followers, and around 3k engagement on Pinterest not bad but I mean I could do better. So I decided to really dedicate myself to it and get results and just this April I passed my goal of 450k monthly viewers. Now I’m at almost 500k and growing, 60 followers, 18k engagement and over 1.5k saves & Clicks to my Blog an thats just for the past month. My next personal goal will be to grow my Instagram following and learn to engage and interact more which leads me to my next point.
Don’t Take Shit Personal: I mean it is not going to make for a good mix if you take every little thing personal. An by this I mean you will meet people (other women) who may seem genuine or seem like your friend and say they will support you when in fact that is not the case at all. There are people out there who will befriend you and use you for your creativity or what you can bring to the table for them and give you nothing in return. I mean some people will flat out steal /copy your ideas and give you no credit or even acknowledge you. Instead of taking it personal remember that copying is the highest form of flattery. Don’t stress yourself about it be vindictive or hateful, just know their karma will come and move on with your life. Don’t let them or anyone stop you from reaching your goals.
Envy Is Real: With social media these days it’s honestly hard not to have envy even if you aren’t that type of person. Now to me there are two types of envy the kind where you see what others have and you wish them bad because you feel you deserve it and not them. Then there is envy where you see what they have and you still wish them well and are happy for them but you wonder why these same things can’t happen for you. It can make you feel less worthy or deserving of such things or success. As a enneagram Type 4, yea I know type 4 (Shaking my head) envy is something that I really have a problem with. Before you lose it though I deal with more of the second type of envy, I wish everyone well and want to see everyone succeed (which sometimes bites me in the ass but oh well not gonna change who I am) anyways dealing with this type of envy as a Type 4 can be very draining. There are times where if I’m being completely honest it can cause me to go into a deep depression about how I am not worthy enough, how I have no purpose, how I will never succeed at anything, how I feel so misunderstood, even little things as to how people don’t like me or want to be my friend. I know seems silly but it’s just how I think. I’m a very compassionate person but I am also extremely blunt so sometimes people get confused as to how I let things like that bother me. I plan on doing a whole post on being an enneagram 4 and how it affects my life at another time from being a introvert to social anxiety. But just know envy is a real thing and its natural to have envy just don’t do it in a malicious way to where you stop your blessings wishing bad on others. Things that are meant to happen for you will happen for you in due time and if they don’t maybe it just wasn’t meant for you.
Being Genuine Goes A Long Way: If you stay true to yourself and are a genuine kind human being to others you will in return find genuine people who will support you to the fullest. There are other Bloggers/Women/Mamas whoever it is out there that just want to make honest connections with people to help empower and uplift others like them. Of course you will run across some bad apples or people you thought were genuine who really aren’t your cup of tea and faker than the next. However, somewhere in that mix of bad there will be the good ones people who you may form social media friendships or even real life friendships with you never know. I myself have formed a few friendships with women who I think are truly genuine and I am grateful for them, for supporting me and uplifting me at a time in my life where whether they know it or not I needed it most. So thank you to you if you are reading this may our friendship continue to grow and prosper into something truly beautiful.
These are just a few of the things I learned from my first year of blogging and I honestly can’t believe it’s been a whole year. It definitely hasn’t been easy it was a big eye opener and a huge learning process. I am however excited for what this next year holds and what the future may bring. The Sky is the limit and I look forward to really taking what I’ve learned and growing from it not only for my Blog but as a person.
PS: Thank you to my husband for being my biggest supporter. I may not say it enough or maybe I do i don’t know but I truly appreciate you and everything you do for me and my blog. You pushed me to start it when I didn’t even think it was possible you always support any and every endeavor I want to do even if I quit it after a month. Not once have you given up on me even when I’ve given up on myself. I owe a lot of where I am today to you because without you in my corner making things possible behind the scenes there would probably be no blog. So Thank you so much DeMarcus I love you.