It’s my 10th blogging birthday!
I’m surprised I’ve been blogging for 10 years, because I often feel like a beginner as there is still so much to learn and implement. But then it is also hard to remember a time before my blog; it has been in my life longer than my children.
At times, I feel I SHOULD be a bigger blogger as I started earlier than many bloggers, but in reality I haven’t had the dedication or consistency of others as my attention has ebbed and flowed. Maybe I COULD be earning a great income from my blog, but that has never been my focus. So instead of thinking about what could have, should have I’m celebrating my achievement of reaching the ten year milestone.
2016 Blog Review
The time I spent blogging decreased throughout 2016 as I felt overwhelmed by life, and realised it would benefit other areas of my life if I stepped back from my blog and social media. You can see this clearly in the number of posts I published each month towards the end of the year, and the impact that had on the total posts for the year, the lowest for several years.
However, I didn’t stop loving blogging and channelled that into helping people with their blogs and social media. I’ve really enjoyed these discussions and wondered at times if I’m better at helping others with their blogs than working on my own!
There is a bit of a change in the most popular posts, but they continue to be old posts (thank you Pinterest).
- 23 ideas for the first page of your journal or notebook (2010)
- 15 different types of journals to keep (2007)
- What if I do it wrong (2015)
- How to start a personal journal (2008)
- 7 different books to use for a journal or diary (2015)
2017 Outlook
I’ve recently had the desire to start writing and engaging with people online again so I’m working on changing my daily routine so I can fit these around my non-digital life. At the moment this appears that it will happen first thing in the morning as I’m waking earlier.
Looking back on the posts I wrote last year, I think I’d tried to make them too formulaic in an attempt to make them quicker to write so I could retain an adequate posting schedule. Being completely honest, I think even I was bored with what I was writing a lot of the time. So this year, I’m hoping to be less prescriptive and more helpful and informative.
I also want to provide more content of the type you want to read, so would be really grateful if you can complete my annual reader survey either at the bottom of this post or in a new window.
10 things I’ve learnt during 10 years blogging
I’ve learnt so many things during the last ten years that it is impossible to list or even remember them all, but here are the ten biggest things I’ve learnt during the last 10 years of blogging, many of which I’m still working on.
- If you feel uncomfortable about posting something don’t, at least not yet; let it sit for a while and give yourself chance to delete or rewrite it
- Comparison with other people rarely helps you, find your way and set your own goals based on where you currently are and where you want to be
- No matter how many times people say it, blogging is not dead
- Analytics are great but always consider what they say in relation to what you want to write, for example, one of my most popular posts is about hotdesking but as I don’t do it anymore it is hard for me to write more posts on the topic
- Blogging is not just about your reader, it’s about finding the sweet spot between what you want to write and what people want to read – blogging is meant to be enjoyable so don’t write about things that don’t bring you pleasure
- Don’t let your blog take over your life instead blog about your life
- The key activities are producing great content and connecting with people
- Technology changes so be adaptable but don’t stress about doing everything at once or straightaway, sometimes there are benefits to waiting and seeing what other people do (especially if they write instructions)
- Remember why you started and your values
- There are great opportunities through blogging (such as wine tasting), but you don’t need to rush it, so concentrate on writing good content and helping people
What are your biggest things you’ve learnt through blogging? Or what are the biggest lessons you’ve learnt during the last ten years?
Happy blog birthday! Gosh, ten years…that is an amazing milestone which needs celebrating!
I can see how blogging can take over your life if you’re desperate to boost it and make it your main earner, but what with all the social interaction too, I find it too hard to maintain and still find time for everything else in my life! But I agree with you, whenever it stops being fun that’s when you should stop blogging
PS: I didn’t know blogging was dead!
Hi Tracey, I missed out because I didn’t celebrate the milestone only acknowledged it with this post. I love blogging and want to continue so realised I need to spend time working out what do I enjoy the most and stop doing most of the other stuff.
When Twitter became really popular there was talk that people no longer wanted long content, and then when video really took off there was talk people didn’t want to read content. But blogging continues to evolve.