Top Lessons Learned After One Year of Blogging

Yesterday marked one full year of blogging and I have to say that it feels wonderful! When I decided to start this blog, I didn’t realize all the lessons I’d learn within the year. Blogging is definitely more than just writing your post and hitting publish (See the ins and outs here –The Ugly Truth Behind Starting a Blog). It’s brought so many great lessons, associates and opportunities my way! So it’s only right that I share these lessons with you in hopes that they’ll help you further your personal blog/brand!
 

Blogging Successfully Takes Time

Building a successful blog takes so much more time than people realize. You have to love what you do because this is not a route for instant success. It didn’t matter that I spent hours reading “How to” articles, I still learned everything through trial and error.
 

Practice Makes Perfect

My writing skills increased once I knew that I wanted to post content twice a week. I quickly found myself writing new posts almost daily to stay ahead of my publishing schedule. This was the same for creating graphics and editing photos. Every post needed at least one graphic for promotion and photos to display throughout. It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted my photos to look and the overall aesthetic.
 

Your Interests Don’t Matter

Since I run my blog on WordPress.org, I’m in charge of all the technical aspects that occur behind the scenes. Which means I learned A LOT of things that I had no interest (or patience), in learning. Did I mention these things were learned the hard way? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to edit code and completely crashed my site. Or the times I forgot to run a backup and lost all my updated changes. When I first started, I knew nothing about WordPress, designing a site, SEO, email building, plugins, page speed etc. and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! However, if I wanted a successful blog then it was essential that I learned how to complete these tasks on my own.
 

Established Better Habits

Staying organized, having a plan, writing things down, scheduling and keeping myself disciplined have been the key elements to my success thus far. If you’re serious about taking your blog to the next level, then good habits with lots of discipline are necessary. Whether you begin with these habits or not doesn’t matter; they’ll manifest as you begin to grow.
 

Broadened My Horizons

Building up a blog requires lots of online and in-person networking. Last year, I made the decision to step outside of my comfort zone and attend a networking event alone (I wrote about that scary experience here). I won’t tell you how it ended but let’s just say I even shocked myself!
 
Online networking isn’t as scary but can take up a lot of time. It required me to interact with other bloggers via social media, comment on their blog posts and promote their content. I even did an entire segment where I featured women entrepreneurs on my blog! In the beginning, reaching out to women I didn’t know was quite awkward. . . but it got easier as time went along.
 

RELATED: 5 Things I’ve Learned From Starting a Blog

Brands Do Not Care About Your Following Count

In the beginning, I thought my following count on social media was the only thing that mattered. Once I focused more on bringing my audience value through my content, that’s when the paid brand deals began to appear in my inbox. Please take it from me. . . brands DO NOT care about your following count. They’re more concerned with how your content influences your audience; this is the value you bring to a brand.
 

Email List(s) are Important

Starting an email list was not on my radar last year. . . until I understood that my social media accounts could be gone in an instant. I learned key techniques on starting an email list and how to get my audience to sign up. Building my list has become top priority next to creating content that my readers find valuable.
 

Social Media Promotion Tactics

I didn’t just learn the ins and outs of running a blog, I learned marketing techniques as well. The work didn’t stop once I hit publish, I then had to figure out ways to promote my content authentically. I stepped out of the box and learned a lot of ways to promote without coming off as a “sales person.”
 

Re-branding is Completely Normal

I’ve loved my blog layout and brand colors from the very beginning! However, once I evolved and chose to monetize my site, I needed to switch things up. Re-branding your site will probably occur more than you’ll think! The good news is. . . your loyal following will stay with you along the way and appreciate that the changes are for their best interest.
 

Go Easy on Blogging Advice

There’s blogging advice everywhere. . . heck, you’re on a site that’s all about giving advice! Lol. The thing is, all advice isn’t necessarily good advice that’ll work particularly for you. I personally liked trying almost everything just to see what worked and didn’t work.I could go on about the many things I learned in my first year of blogging! It has been an amazing journey that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I would’ve never thought that I’d learn all these lessons in such a short period of time. I’m excited to see what this year will bring in terms of more lessons and opportunities! As usual, when I learn you will too! What did you learn your first year of blogging? Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe!
 

Until next time ASSASSINS. . . Stay Disciplined!

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