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The thing about blogging is that it’s a never ending learning process, it’s a is real case of trial and error and there are a multitude of things I’ve learned about blogging since starting a couple of years ago.
I have so many ideas and plans for the blog over the next year but this has also made me think about the mistakes I’ve made so far.
Things I’ve Learned About Blogging
Identifying My Priorities
There is so much more that goes into running a blog – from managing multiple social media platforms, to taking beautiful photos. I’ll admit that as my blogging to do list grows longer, I occasionally struggle to prioritise and feel a little overwhelmed.
I realised pretty quickly that blogging around a full time job was not going to be easy, there was no way I could be good at everything. So I chose to focus on the elements I enjoy: writing and photography and concentrate less on the aspects that I find a hassle: Pinterest and Facebook.
There is a lot of talk in the blogosphere that you will only be a successful blogger if you have a huge audience, and I suppose that generally this is correct. But then I think it depends of your definition of successful. If you are only aiming to make lots of money by working with big brands then yes, you do need a larger audience and social media following. However, for me success is when someone engages and says that they’ve been informed or inspired by something I’ve written. My audience and following is small, but it’s engaged and for me, that means a hell of a lot more.
Watching the Numbers
Due to the obsession with large social media followings there are some inevitable tactics that people use to grow their numbers. Pods, follow-no-follow, the buying of followers, they all have an air of duplicity about them.
I soon realised that I was spending far too much time watching my numbers go up and down that I wasn’t concentrating on what was important: producing good quality content.
I’ve now changed this. I only look at my followers once a month, I don’t use pods or other tactics and I only follow accounts that truly interest and inspire me.
Hiding Myself
I started this blog with the intention of remaining as anonymous as possible. Please don’t ask me why. I just didn’t want any of my friends and family finding the blog and I tried to keep all of my social media accounts separate so that the two worlds did not collide.
I have however learned that when blogging personality is key. Sometimes a reader may only want specific information about a destination but we all travel in such personal ways that it makes sense to blog in a personal fashion too.
Learning New Skills
I’ve never been particularly ambitious. I left school, went to college and got a full time job. In this time I realised that full time education definitely wasn’t for me so University wasn’t an option. I worked and enjoyed my job but felt no impulse to learn anything new. I never wanted to do any more courses or pick up hobbies that required learning new skills.
It was only in 2015 that I noticed I had lost my creativity and momentum. I was in a rut, which is why I decided to make travel a focus, but then I started this blog and realised that new skills needed to be learned and that this would be ongoing. Not only that, but I’m enjoying it.
What have you learned about blogging?
Let me know in the comments.
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