I’ve been blogging for about 9 months now and it has been so much fun I can’t wait to see what the next 9 hold! I enjoy sharing my thoughts and experiences with each of you – in the hopes that it will help someone someday. Writing is something that I’ve always held an interest in and I’m glad there is an outlet for me to do something that I love so much.
Over the last 9 months, I have learned so much about the blogosphere. I’ve experienced the high of people raving about a post that I’ve written while watching the visits to my blog climb to over 1,000 in just under 2 days. I’ve also experienced the low of posting a blog post that barely reaches a couple of dozen people.
As I reflect back, there are some things that I wish I would have done from the start. Things that would have helped me in the early days and would have leveled out some of the ups and downs that I experienced. Here are 5 of them:
- Content is more important than Social Media exposure. I found myself in the early days of my blog more focused on retweets and shares than on perfecting my blog post. My early posts lacked substance and fell short of the goal for my blog.
- Readers need stories, not just information and opinions. I was too focused on the point of the post that I left out sharing stories about myself and my experiences. If a blogger wants people to come back to his/her blog, they must be willing to let the reader get to know them – and the best way to do this is through stories about his/her own life.
- Treat others how you want to be treated. I expected big time bloggers to share my content. I wanted them to take my content and send it out to their readers and sing my praises. Now, even if I deserved this (which I don’t), most big time bloggers won’t do this…especially if they don’t know you. I have found that if you share others’ blogs and if you encourage and get to know other bloggers, they will return the favor.
- Quantity AND quality drive traffic, not just one or the other. I remember when my first blog post crossed into the realm of a few hundred views. I thought I had made it. What I missed was the fact that if I wanted to have those couple of hundred people return to my blog, I had to continue to produce content. Having a post with hundreds or even thousands of views isn’t an excuse to take a vacation from writing – it’s actually the opposite.
- Blogging takes time. I thought it would be easy. I’ve lived a long life and had plenty of experiences. But, I’ve found that simply coming up with a topic much less finding the time to sit down and write – takes time. Time that I often do not have. But, if I want it to be successful and if I want it to be something that lasts, I have to make the time for it. I’m still working on this one…
All things considered, this has been a really fabulous ride thusfar. I wish I had more exposure. I wish I had more subscribers. I wish I had better content. But, I’m really enjoying this journey. And, the 5 things I’ve listed are all things that I can fix NOW.
Have you ever tried something new? How did it go? Were there things that you wish you would have done differently from the beginning? Comment below.