As I was going through my previous posts, looking for some inspiration for today’s article, I realized that on March 10th, this blog turned one year old. Since March 10th, 2021, I’ve posted an article per week, every single week. It’s the most consistent I’ve ever been with any kind of writing ! So let’s see what this year of blogging did to me, and what I’ve learned so far.
I started this blog after creating my Youtube channel, thinking that it would be nice to provide different kinds of media – because some people prefer to watch & listen, and some people prefer to read. I couldn’t keep up with posting one video per week, but I managed to keep posting one article per week.
Honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised. Blogging has always been something that I enjoyed doing. When I was a teenager I had a dozen blogs on Skyrock (I don’t know if this was a worldwide trend or just a French one but everyone had blogs on this website back then), and I loved running them. Even as an adult I started to take it more seriously, creating a WordPress blog to post my travels, restaurant recommendations and other reviews (jayuroads.wordpress.com), for example. But I never managed to be consistent with it. It looked more like I was posting whenever I felt like it than anything else. Which is… true, actually, haha.
So what happened with this blog right here ?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I guess it’s because it is a part of my business, a way to show who I am, in a way that matches with my personnality. Blogging is more me than being a Youtuber, no doubt about that. As I created my own business, I really wanted to do things well, and I really wanted to be consistent with my work – and among the different medias that I’ve used to be present online, blogging is the thing that stayed.
So what did I learn during this year of blogging ?
- I can do it in a regular way. It’s easy to think that you’re just messy and not meant to post on a regular basis, and that that’s life. This blog taught me that I could do it, I could post a new article every week. Which means I am capable of consistency, which is a huge step for me.
- Not every blog post has to be perfect/super smart/heavily documented or detailed. I think that part of why I couldn’t be consistent in the past was that I was putting too much pressure on the quality of what I was posting. Not that I’m no longer interested in the quality of my posts ! But I’ve allowed myself not to write something that would be worthy of being published in a famous newspaper, if you see what I mean. It’s just me and my space here with you readers, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
- Playing around with my other blogs before helped me to build this blog. It helped me to choose which topics I wanted to talk about here, and what kind of articles could be interesting for the audience, without me having to promote the posts.
- I’m always amazed by the fact that some people read my posts and subscribe to my blog even though I almost never promote it/post about it on social media or elsewhere. The WordPress community is so great for that.
- Habits are strong. I can’t tell you how long it took me to include writing and posting an article per week without really having to think about it, but I’m so glad I’m here now. Of course, I always think about what I’m going to write about, but I’m sure I won’t forget that I have to post something every Wednesday, you see.
- It’s okay to just write about what caught your interest these days. Yes, having a theme/main topics is important so that people know what they subscribe to, but it’s also okay once in a while to post about something else. People are not going to run away just because you posted one article about something completely unrelated to your usual posts. For example, I mainly post about entrepreneurship and writing, but I see that my bullet journal posts also interest people. It can be a nice way to see if your interests could also interest your readers.
- Just because your new post doesn’t get likes right away doesn’t mean it’s not good. Because I never talk about my blog or promote it, I don’t expect instant likes to my new articles, and what I can tell you is that people will find your blog post when they search for this specific topic, or maybe they will find it in a completely random way, so it may be tomorrow or in six months.
- Even if it feels lonely at first, keep writing. Blogging is not for instant gratification. People will read, but very few will like the post, and even fewer will comment. It doesn’t mean that what you write is not interesting, or that no one reads it, not at all.
- As a writer, it’s important to write on a regular basis, and I’m proud that I could keep up with this, even when I was stuck with my other writing projects. As I’ve said before, habits are strong, and I believe that writing this blog has helped me to write more as an author as well. It boosted my creativity. I think it also made me more confident about writing in my second language, English.
Of course, I feel like I have to mention that I’m writing this post as a blogger who doesn’t make a living out of blogging. I blog because I want to, I don’t earn any money from this, so my experience and what I take from it are of course different from a professional blogger.
Did you relate to some of these points ? How is your blogging journey going so far ?
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Marie.
Marie K. Ricci - Author | Translator 