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.
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 affected my blog. I will also be talking about the technical things. Like the updates I made, what plan I use, how I customise 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.
New Blogging Goals
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.
My Blogging Journey In 2018
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.
A Clear Vision For My Blogging Journey
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.
Getting Back Into It
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. 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. 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.
A Little Unexpected Vacation
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. And the country so breathtaking. 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.
Some Tears
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 it would be November 2018. I posted almost every day. I 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. 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.
Conclusion
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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