It’s been almost 10 months since I started this little blog of mine and let me tell you, I have learned a lot.
I didn’t really know that blogging could be a career until a couple of years ago, but once I knew that was the case, I knew it was the career I was meant to have.
This isn’t necessarily advice on blogging, but it’s what I have learned to be true for me in this career choice.
Make it personal.
When you listen to podcasts or read articles about blogging, you’ll repeatedly hear that the most important thing is to be sure your content is valuable, that you are a trusted resource to your readers. While I agree that there should be value to most of what you post, I believe that what is even more important is to make it personal and have your own voice.
I think that many bloggers get caught up in the “valuable posts”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked through to a blog post through Pinterest that has that catchy title and realized that it was the same “how to start a blog” list I’d read a hundred times already. Are those tips valuable? Probably. Are they going to make me return to that blog again? No. What will? If the author of that blog makes it personal, relatable and has a voice that I enjoy.
My best read blog posts are all posts that I’ve injected my personal experiences and opinions into. I’ve learned that people read my blog because they want to hear my voice. They don’t think that I’m an expert on styling mom jeans or skincare, which is good because I’m certainly not an expert. They come to this blog for my personal styling tricks and my real life skincare journey.
That said, offer value if you can, but offer it in your own unique voice.
If you have no patience, blogging will teach you patience.
I had no patience. Like zero. I have always been in a hurry to accomplish my goals, but blogging has certainly taught me how to have some patience. It’s a slow climb, but I think that it makes you appreciate the successes even more so. When I have a substantial increase in followers or page views or I make a sale on LIKEtoKNOW.it, I am so unbelievably grateful and excited! You guys have no idea.
I continue to work hard at growing my blog and my business every day, but I also practice patience and understand that it will take time. It’s fun to share the journey as I go.
Get to know your audience.
You can’t offer your audience the content that they want and need if you don’t know who they are. When I started blogging, I was sharing a little bit of everything just to see what people responded to. As I’ve grown my audience, it’s become much more important to me to get to know you guys through social media and my analytics to understand who you are, why you read my blog and what you want to see from me. I’ve learned that a lot of you love the Out of Office posts, but Wellness Wednesday can be pretty hit or miss for you. I’ve learned that my LTK followers love gorjana jewelry as much as I do. And last week I got a resounding NO LAMINATE COUNTERTOPS vote from ya’ll on Instagram – LOL thanks for the feedback!
All of this feedback and engagement shows me what you want to see from me, and as a blogger, there is nothing more valuable to me. I appreciate my community and getting to know you guys is a blessing that I do not take for granted.
Don’t take shortcuts.
Establishing myself as a lifestyle blogger with longevity in this career is important to me. This isn’t a hobby for me, it’s something that I feel I can be really good at. It’s tempting sometimes to take shortcuts to faster growth, but I know that I want to grow a community that wants to be here and I want to be connecting and sharing with you guys at many stages of my life to come.
I believe that one of my favourite bloggers, Sivan Ayla, has grown her lifestyle blog and her business to be something that withstands the test of time, and I believe that she has done that by not taking shortcuts. Her community is loyal and invested. When I contemplate some sort of shortcut in growing my audience, Kirby usually asks me “WWSD?” (what would Sivan do?) and it helps me to remember what my end goal is. Thank god blogging is also teaching me that difficult quality of patience!
I’m not an expert. I still have so much to learn, to test, to try, to fail at. But I can take what I’ve learned and apply it to this business of mine.
Are you a blogger? I’d love to connect and know, what have you learned along the way? And if you’re not a blogger, I still want to connect and I’m always happy to receive feedback!
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