Blogging

My Blogging Journey #4

by Pooja G

My Blogging Journey And Why I Decided To Share It

I would recommend reading part 1, part 2, and part 3 of my blogging journey before diving into this post so that you can understand this one better. I also want to thank everyone for taking the time to read about my blog and my blogging journey and for all the amazing comments you have left on the other three posts. I can not thank you guys enough for the support- your comments ALWAYS make my day.

You guys may remember but a while back I took a survey and asked you guys what you wanted to read on lifesfinewhine and what I should blog about and I got so many amazing responses. Some people suggested that I should write about my blogging journey over the last six years. I thought this was a really great idea and a while back I did a sort of mini throwback post where I used a site to help me see what my blog looked like back in the day and how it’s changed over the years. I got a lot of great comments on that and again I got some people asking to elaborate about my blogging journey and talk about the changes I’ve made, how I’ve made them and what inspired me to blog and to continue blogging, etc.

I’ve decided to write six posts on my blogging journey. Since I began blogging almost exactly six years ago (it will officially be six years in about a month) I thought I would write one post a week talking about my blogging journey during each year as well as what was going on with my life and how it effected my blog. I will also be talking about the technical things like the updates I made, what plan I use, how I customize my plan, the SEO work I got done and more. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy sharing it with you guys and I hope it helps newer bloggers on WordPress as well. I would also like to give all my readers a heads up because my blogging journey posts tend to be a little longer than my regular posts so if you don’t like longer posts this may not be for you.

2018- Everything Starts Coming Together Again (For Real This Time!)

I’m just going to start with a little recap of what happened in 2017. In a nutshell, I had started 2017 off strong and was blogging regularly as well as figuring out all the tips and tricks of blogging like staying active, interacting with other bloggers, using tags/categories wisely and more. However, mid-2017 I had to move from Kenya to Canada for university and this kind of threw me off. Of course, moving to Canada was the right decision for me but it was also extremely overwhelming and since my studies have always been my priority I decided to focus on university and figure all that out instead of blogging regularly. I blogged very little for the last four months of 2017 and when I did blog they were random posts at random times- I did not have a specific schedule whatsoever.

However, by the end of 2017 I had made up my mind to work harder to balance my life and blog more regularly. I decided to come up with a schedule with which I could do both- work on my studies and keep that my priority but also blog as regularly as possible and maintain at least some kind of schedule. The main thing that was killing my blog was sporadic posts with no proper schedule, topics etc. I will take this time to say that although I was posting regularly my regular readers still really supported me and I truly appreciate all of you OG followers so much!! I am one of those people that I will either give it my all or not try at all- I know that’s not great but it’s just how I am. I’m a perfectionist and I knew that I wanted to blog and that I wanted blogging to be a part of my life so I decided that if I was going to be a blogger I was going to give it my all and work my ass butt off. I accepted that it would be difficult but I also knew that with some planning and prioritising it would be very possible.

So, in January 2018 I came back to Canada with a little anxiety and a lot of ambition! Okay, so I didn’t start off strong but I did try really hard. I still had not found the perfect schedule or even a schedule that would work for me but I was posting again and more often so that was a start. Admittedly not a very strong start but a start nonetheless. To be fair I was still in first year and was still figuring out the whole university thing. I also wanted to spend more time on university and my subjects and really absorb the knowledge and education I was getting because I knew I was very privileged to have it and I wanted to make the most of it.

I also had kind of figured out what topics I wanted to write on and I had a more clear vision for my blog and what I wanted it to turn into over time now that I had picked out the topics. I knew that I definitely wanted to write about mental health because as you guys know spreading awareness about mental health is something that is very important to me personally. I also wanted to write about travel because I wanted to- and still very much want to- travel a lot more. Unfortunately, I did not see 2020 coming… I was also super into makeup and food and I wanted to share both of those with you guys so if you see my posts from 2018 you will notice a lot of them do have to do with vegan food and vegan/cruelty-free makeup products. By mid-2018 I had successfully gotten 4000 followers and my traffic was increasing again due to the increase in posts. I had also started to earn money off my blog on a regular basis. It really wasn’t much but it was a start and it encouraged me to keep going.

The problem I was still having was finding a balance and also getting back into the habit of writing on a regular basis. When it comes to writing for me personally I feel like it’s a knife I have to keep sharpening because if I stop writing it’s going to go blunt and I’m just not really going to be in the mood to write. If I write on a regular basis and really get into it then it will become a habit and I’ll get used to writing everyday and I will somehow find the time and energy to do it. Another problem I faced was not staying in one place for very long. I was in Kenya for a couple of months and in Canada for a couple of months and due to the time difference my optimum times kept changing and at that time me being the dummy I am I did not know you could schedule posts earlier on so I had a hard time dealing with the time difference too as well as dealing with all the change which as you could image was absolutely great for my mental health and anxiety… Usually after a month or two in one country I would finally get the hang of everything and then it would be time to leave again and I would get messed up again.

By September it was time for me to go back to university and start my fall semester and I left at the end of September but then something crazy happened! The weather was insanely horrible in Kenya/Ethiopia so my flight got delayed and I ended up getting stuck in Ethiopia for a few days. At first I was nervous but in the end it turned out to be the vacation I didn’t know I needed but the vacation I deserved lol! I LOVE Ethiopia so much- the people were absolutely amazing, the food is literally the most amazing food I have ever had, the country so breathtaking and as a history major there were so many historical places to explore which was such a bonus. To read about my time in Ethiopia you can click here. Anyway the point of all this was life was crazy, I was living in different countries, my brain was getting so much information from school that I felt like I was pretty close to becoming a genius or completely snapping (spoiler alert: I did neither) and blogging was something that was just really becoming something I wanted really badly but didn’t know how to get.

But not everything was awful and 2018 was not over just yet. Things took a turn in October- I sat down with myself and gave myself a firm talking to (both of us cried but it was worth it…) and decided enough was enough. I had promised myself I was going to do better this year and I was not going to let 2018 without fulfilling that promise. I was going to do better, I was going to finally get my stuff together and for real this time.

If I had to pinpoint an exact month/date when this blog took a turn for the better and became something I began taking seriously and working on it would be November 2018. I posted almost every day- still hadn’t figured out the whole scheduling in advance thing so I didn’t post every day- but still going from posting a couple of times a month to almost every day was a huge step in the right direction for me. I also started doing a lot more research about blogging, how to get more traffic, how to get more followers, how to use the features properly and basically stuff like that. By the end of November, I had finally figured out how to use the tags properly– I had been using to many before and was spamming WordPress- and how to use all the other features to grow my blog.

I really gave it my all in December and again posted as much as I possibly could in a much more scheduled manner with much better quality posts. My views more than doubled and I got the highest views I had ever gotten in December and I got a lot more followers too which was amazing. It really motivated me to keep going and do even better in 2019. I was fully prepared to finally do this whole blogging thing the right way. I was super proud of myself and even started working more regularly on my Instagram and trying to grow that along with my blog. I also began talking to more blogger and meeting more people due to the increase in traffic which was amazing. As you guys know I love the social part of WordPress and I always love conversing with you guys. And in the end I was just happy that I had achieved my goal of reviving my blog in 2018- sure it was at the very end of 2018 but if you know me you know I definitely used to be one of those people who does things last minute so it was actually a very fitting conclusion.

If you want to read my posts from 2018 you can do so by clicking here.

Thoughts

Does you blogging journey have any similarities to mine? Have you faced any obstacles in your blogging journey? What are some of your blogging goals? Do you find it difficult to balance blogging with school/work/life? What’s your blogging journey/story? Let me know in the comments below I would love to hear your thoughts and your story!

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92 thoughts on “My Blogging Journey #4”

  2. Good stuff. I totally agree with you on the writing point. Practice makes it much easier. Also, I have a very good friend who is Ethiopian, and that’s given me an opportunity to meet a lot of Ethiopians and get to know something about the culture. I’m kind of jealous that you got stranded there. I really want to go there someday.

    Reply

    1. Thank you! I got super lucky because Kenyans don’t need a visa or anything to enter so I could pretty much just skip all the technicalities and explore. I will definitely be going back when I’m able to as well and I would totally recommend going there when you get the chance!

      Reply

  3. I have mentioned this before, I love the way your blog changes as you change. I love that it’s an extension of who you are. That’s beautiful.
    I am curious. How did you start making money from your blog?

    Reply

    4. Thank you so much! I started when bloggers/sites started reaching out to me and wanted to buy ad space on a regular basis.

      Reply

  9. I wanted to know how do you make your featured image for the blog? I am using the canva app, but am totally unaware of which category will help in making the perfect sized image for the blog! Do help.

    Reply

  12. Thanks for sharing your journey Pooja. It has been inspiring and insightful at once. More importantly it was heartwarming to read about your personal struggles and blogging triumphs. I wish you all the very best and keep writing.

    Reply

  14. I like how you both cried at your October 2018 meeting… 🙂
    quite impressive that you have gone from 4,000 followers in 2018 to over 17,000 now…

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much! I started making money through other bloggers/sites that wanted to buy ad space to increase their views and get views from my readers.

      Reply

  16. My blogging journey is similar to you in that we both want to talk about mental health! I think the fact I am posting regularly now is helping increase the number of views i get 🙂 the biggest obstacle will be when i start a full time job in September as then i have no idea how ill balance working full time, studying for the actuarial exams and blogging!

    Reply

    1. Yeah being regular with blogging makes a huge difference and does help your growth a lot. I’m worried too as I start school in September but hopefully we’ll both be able to make it!

      Reply

  17. This post so relatable and inspiring. I’ve read this ‘series’ for the umpteenth time.

    Reply
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  22. One of my favourite things I’ve heard recently is from Jim Kwik, “Practice makes progress.” Whatever the goal we are aiming for we will only get there if we do our research, put in the effort, and act with consistency.
    I would like my blog to start being a place I share my poetry, my stories, and advertise books that I will publish (hopefully the first will be this year!) Reading all your tips is helping me slowly start moving towards that, to learn how to make some income from my writing, which I love.
    Kudos to you for putting in the effort and growing your blog. All the hard work you’ve put in is right here in how your blog looks, how your writing has developed, and how much you interact so positively with the community. 🙂 Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

    1. I absolutely agree if we put our all into something we can get results. It may not always be instant results but over time we will move ahead in the right direction. I’m glad my posts are helping and I really look forward to reading all of those on your blog. Thank you!

      Reply

  24. I think it’s great you have a schedule, yes we are similar as i also came up with a schedule so blogging doesn’t interfere with school and it’s going well! great post pooja, can’t wait to see the next two!

    Reply

  26. I like how much you’ve invested in your blog over the years. I see that consistency both I’m writing and delivering blogposts can really skyrocket views too. Thanks for sharing PoojaG!

    Reply

    1. Thank you! Yes consistency is one of the most important things when it comes to blog. It can make a huge difference in your views and follows.

      Reply

  27. Well, I’m glad you made it through all the rough patches that hit you.
    You’ve truly inspired us with your journey, and your posts; and I’m so glad to see your blog achieving big things. Keep it up! 😀

    Reply

  29. Honestly… this was super helpful! Just.. thanks for being real🙏🏻 I just created a new posting schedule but I think the biggest thing I got out of this post is that getting followers(real followers) takes time and effort. Thanks again!

    Reply

  30. Super AMAZING POOJA!!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️Keep blessing the world with all your Love! BiG LOVE TO YOU ALWAYS! – Yeka ❤️💜💙🧡💚💛❤️

    Reply
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  33. I can’t believe how happy the end of this post made me. You did it girl! You didn’t give up. I’m super inspired by your journey. Loved reading all parts of your blogging journey. More power to you. 🙂

    Reply
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