Reflecting On A Month Of Blogging
So I've been back blogging properly for about a month and a half now, and I will say the lessons I've learnt in that short space of time have been eye-opening and things I wish I knew from Day 1 of my blogging experience. The positives and negatives go hand-in-hand with blogging, as I am sure those who are reading this right now and are bloggers themselves can agree with.
The Positives
I bloody love blogging. I class it as my online diary. I feel I have the confidence to talk about things which strangers will read and can easily relate to without us having met face-to-face. I love how supportive the blogging community is! We all get that it's hard to stick to a blogging schedule and whatever life throws at us, others will comment with their thoughts and I love it!
My following has massively increased. When I first began my blog and social media platforms for it last year, it was just a constant struggle to gain followers who were GENUINELY interested in me, not gain followers because I've been approached by a company who, for so much money, will promote me on their page - I class this as buying followers, don't know if anyone else does? Putting this to one side though, everyone understands this struggle and to literally see the figures in comparison to others that are high is depressing and makes you question what you're doing wrong; but, the amount of Twitter accounts out there that will RT a blog post of yours and will share your social media links is staggering! It just shows the support is there and will never weaken really. (I hope to God it doesn't). At the time of writing this, I've hit 400 Instagram followers for the first time EVER on my account. At the time of writing this, I am 79 followers away on Twitter from hitting 1000 followers EVER. It is just such a great thing to see that you're being noticed and recognised.
More people are reading my content. At the time of writing this, I still can't believe the following I have developed since coming back to blogging after a break. My pageviews on my blog posts keep increasing because I've learnt to schedule tweets on Buffer and try to promote my posts as much as I can. My photography on my Instagram has MASSIVELY improved because I ensure they are the best they can be and I have comments praising the quality, leaving their thoughts underneath of my latest post.
The Negatives
The pressure. I don't choose to feel pressured to blog and I don't feel like I'm obliged to have a new post up more than once a week - I class myself as an "Occasional Blogger" after all - but when you see others saying they've managed to schedule new posts for the next month or they have loads of ideas for future posts, I do sit there and think, "wow. I am doing a shit job here." I should use this as motivation and I do about 40% of the time: the other 60% is spent wishing I had the creativity that others do. I am my own hypocrite because I advise new bloggers not to compare themselves to others when I am doing nothing BUT that. Constantly feeling like I have to tweet everyday and Instagram everyday just so I am active online almost 24/7? I hate that.
Thinking I have to have theme behind my content. This is what put me off blogging for a while, hence the break away from it all. I follow many accounts on social media where their feed has a recognisable theme and/or they specialise in one area to focus on writing about. I can't do that. Why should we feel we have to limit ourselves to talking about just a couple of things where we in fact want to write about whatever we want? Instagram is also very guilty of this: I find a lot of favoured IG feeds have themes, but why go to all the trouble to maintain this idea of an IG theme where all you want to do is upload a picture because you actually want to?
The engagement is very hit-and-miss. I only need to mention one word again: Instagram. They are the main culprit for this at the moment because of the whole shadowbanning situation which is a right pain. With this, I try to avoid posting every day but also because I don't have enough to post all the time and want my photos to be good enough and not to look like a last-minute-upload-because-I-forgot-to-post-something-on-my-feed. One day I can get 60 likes in 1 hour and the other I can get just under 30 in the first hour. We shouldn't have to worry about the best timing to upload photos - don;t get me wrong, it does help, but it's so annoying when you upload a new blog post or something on Instagram and the views/likes and below par.
Always worrying if my content will be good enough to read. I know I've said I write my content for myself and because I know others will read it, yet I always worry about this at the back of my mind. What if people don't like it? What if it doesn't make sense? What if it is pointless content? I cannot help but worry all the time. I still have a list of what I want to write about, but I look at the list and think hmm, maybe this isn't needed etc...
Blogging is tougher than what others think. I credit full-time bloggers who organise their time to be involved photoshoots for their next post and are constantly engaging on social media, schedule their posts for the next month: this is why I refer to myself as an occasional blogger because I know for sure when I start back at uni next month, I won't be able to blog as much as I would like to. Nevertheless, I have loved how successful my blog has been up to this point, and I am very much looking forward to how it can progress in the months to come.
The Positives
I bloody love blogging. I class it as my online diary. I feel I have the confidence to talk about things which strangers will read and can easily relate to without us having met face-to-face. I love how supportive the blogging community is! We all get that it's hard to stick to a blogging schedule and whatever life throws at us, others will comment with their thoughts and I love it!
My following has massively increased. When I first began my blog and social media platforms for it last year, it was just a constant struggle to gain followers who were GENUINELY interested in me, not gain followers because I've been approached by a company who, for so much money, will promote me on their page - I class this as buying followers, don't know if anyone else does? Putting this to one side though, everyone understands this struggle and to literally see the figures in comparison to others that are high is depressing and makes you question what you're doing wrong; but, the amount of Twitter accounts out there that will RT a blog post of yours and will share your social media links is staggering! It just shows the support is there and will never weaken really. (I hope to God it doesn't). At the time of writing this, I've hit 400 Instagram followers for the first time EVER on my account. At the time of writing this, I am 79 followers away on Twitter from hitting 1000 followers EVER. It is just such a great thing to see that you're being noticed and recognised.
More people are reading my content. At the time of writing this, I still can't believe the following I have developed since coming back to blogging after a break. My pageviews on my blog posts keep increasing because I've learnt to schedule tweets on Buffer and try to promote my posts as much as I can. My photography on my Instagram has MASSIVELY improved because I ensure they are the best they can be and I have comments praising the quality, leaving their thoughts underneath of my latest post.
I've developed connections to bloggers and brands. I've engaged with brands and more bloggers than before. I won my first ever giveaway thanks to DS London HQ & Phases of Robyn which I wouldn't have known about if it weren't for being more social on social media than before. I have been welcomed as a member with the gorgeous and meaningful jewellery brand Adored UK, something I never thought would happen so soon since I've returned to blogging. The feeling to be recognised for my content and myself as a person is really humbling and it makes me feel I am doing something right.
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| My gorgeous personalised cosmetics bag from DS London x |
Of course, there are always two sides to blogging.
The pressure. I don't choose to feel pressured to blog and I don't feel like I'm obliged to have a new post up more than once a week - I class myself as an "Occasional Blogger" after all - but when you see others saying they've managed to schedule new posts for the next month or they have loads of ideas for future posts, I do sit there and think, "wow. I am doing a shit job here." I should use this as motivation and I do about 40% of the time: the other 60% is spent wishing I had the creativity that others do. I am my own hypocrite because I advise new bloggers not to compare themselves to others when I am doing nothing BUT that. Constantly feeling like I have to tweet everyday and Instagram everyday just so I am active online almost 24/7? I hate that.
Thinking I have to have theme behind my content. This is what put me off blogging for a while, hence the break away from it all. I follow many accounts on social media where their feed has a recognisable theme and/or they specialise in one area to focus on writing about. I can't do that. Why should we feel we have to limit ourselves to talking about just a couple of things where we in fact want to write about whatever we want? Instagram is also very guilty of this: I find a lot of favoured IG feeds have themes, but why go to all the trouble to maintain this idea of an IG theme where all you want to do is upload a picture because you actually want to?
 |
| I don't see the need to focus on developing an IG theme on my feed |
The engagement is very hit-and-miss. I only need to mention one word again: Instagram. They are the main culprit for this at the moment because of the whole shadowbanning situation which is a right pain. With this, I try to avoid posting every day but also because I don't have enough to post all the time and want my photos to be good enough and not to look like a last-minute-upload-because-I-forgot-to-post-something-on-my-feed. One day I can get 60 likes in 1 hour and the other I can get just under 30 in the first hour. We shouldn't have to worry about the best timing to upload photos - don;t get me wrong, it does help, but it's so annoying when you upload a new blog post or something on Instagram and the views/likes and below par.
Always worrying if my content will be good enough to read. I know I've said I write my content for myself and because I know others will read it, yet I always worry about this at the back of my mind. What if people don't like it? What if it doesn't make sense? What if it is pointless content? I cannot help but worry all the time. I still have a list of what I want to write about, but I look at the list and think hmm, maybe this isn't needed etc...
 |
| Blogging is tough, but I love it at the same time x |
Blogging is tougher than what others think. I credit full-time bloggers who organise their time to be involved photoshoots for their next post and are constantly engaging on social media, schedule their posts for the next month: this is why I refer to myself as an occasional blogger because I know for sure when I start back at uni next month, I won't be able to blog as much as I would like to. Nevertheless, I have loved how successful my blog has been up to this point, and I am very much looking forward to how it can progress in the months to come.
I would love to hear how your blogging experience has been for however long you have been doing it! Do you agree with what I've said? Do you think there are other positives or negatives that I may have missed? Let me know down in the comments below as I always love to hear what you lovely lot have to say x
Until next time...
Much Love
V A x
Blogging is defo like an online diary, when things are on my mind I usually blog about it and it makes me feel better and the blogging community is defo so nice! x
ReplyDeleteS x
SHELISES WORLD
It's amazing how talking about things to basically strangers is like a weight off your shoulders! xx
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