My First Year of Blogging- What I Have Learned

Holy Cow, y’all. I can barely believe it has been ONE {as of today} whole year since Re-Fabbed went LIVE! That moment was a moment I will never forget. It was a moment full of excitement and fear. I had no idea if a single soul besides my immediate family {and wasn’t positive about them LOL} would even look at my site. What if it was a total failure? What if nobody could relate to what I put out there? What if I had all of these big ideas in my head and fell flat dab on my face and simply couldn’t put it into action? All of these fears could have kept me from pursuing my dream, but I refused to let it. I went ahead and put myself out there and started promoting my first 3 posts- having no idea where it may take me. All I knew was that I had ALOT of learning to do…and I mean ALOT.

This past year of blogging has been so full of learning and growing that I feel like I could never adequately share everything in one post. I could probably never write it all out in several posts, if the truth be known. If I sugar coated what it takes to start and sustain a blog, that would be completely unfair to anyone reading this that is considering starting one for themselves. It is hard work. I am serious. It really is. There is so much more than just taking a few pictures and writing a quick story line. I wish I could say that is all there is to it. One thing about me is that if I set my mind to something, I will do it. I may fail at it, but I am going to do all I can to try. I have always been that way in life. I am determined to a fault. It is one of my best qualities, and it is one of my worst qualities {just ask my husband!}. So, with this blog, it was no different. I was determined to learn what it took, and slowly but surely…I have been. I am nowhere near finished learning, but step by step- I got there. Did it take hours of computer research to figure out what plug-ins to use and what all of these codes meant? Yes. I remember one day {which spanned into 3}, I was trying to put a “Pin It” button on my site. I wanted all of my pictures to have that so that it could easily be pinned. {If you are starting a blog- DO THIS.} I had no idea what to do or how people got them on there, so I read and read and read. I tried things that failed. I tried things that looked stupid. I stayed up way too late trying to figure this out…but…I finally got it. Something so small, yet so big for my blog took a few days because I had no idea. I am not computer savvy, folks. I was learning from scratch. I say this to encourage you…whether it is starting a blog or starting out on an adventure of your own and you have no idea what to do. The first step is to take a step. You will not learn it all over night. It will take time, but don’t give up. Keep learning each day. You will eventually come father than you imagined.

Soooo….let’s do a little re-cap of my first year with you to give some ins and outs of what I have learned!

 

Follow Your Heart

This is where it all begins. If you have a goal in mind, whether it is to start a blog or a business of any kind- it all starts in your heart. I had known for a long time that I wanted to start a blog. I barely knew what a blog was, but I knew enough to know that in my mind, I felt like it would be a good fit for what I wanted to do- which was mainly write. I love to write…if it is about things I care about. I am not talking about research papers or junk like that 🙂 If I have a topic I am passionate about, I can write for days. In fact, this post may get rather lengthy if I am not careful! THAT was my main objective in the very beginning, when my heart starting tugging on me to start a blog. As time went on and I didn’t act on my desires, I began to do more and more decorating and remodels. I realized that although I was certainly not the most talented, I had a knack {or so people said!}. I also started doing more DIY projects and painting, and let me tell you- I started to LOVE it. When I started putting all of this together, I realized that a blog was definitely a perfect fit. I knew alot of people may not understand. When you go out on a limb, don’t expect people to join you right away-or even ever for that matter. They probably won’t. They will be hesitant and sometimes even discouraging. It can hurt your feelings {it does mine-even still}, but you can’t let your feelings dictate your heart and your direction in life. Feelings will steer you wrong, but your heart never will. So, after finally deciding to go for it, I did. I felt like I had found my niche for my soon-to-be blog, and I went head first into the water, having no floaties and no idea how to swim.

Find Your Niche

When it comes to blogging, I have learned that finding your niche is key. While there are SOME successful blogs that cover everything under the sun, the ones that stick to more well rounded topics {not necessarily just one topic} seem to be far more successful overall. I do not cover just ONE topic. I have found that to be too confining for me. I cover DIY, design/decorating, inspirational writing on occasion and a very very occasional recipe {I have one right now}. If I do a recipe, it is because it is extremely easy and I think it will fit my reader base. I am not a food blog, so that is not something I am going to do much of. I do think it is fun to do something out of the ordinary every now and then, but it is not something I will often do. So, find what you are good at and what you love to do the most. If you do that, you will not find it difficult to find and create good content. It will come naturally.

Create Good Content

It doesn’t matter how beautiful your website is or how many awesome plug ins you use, if your content is not good- you will not get readers. There is NO doubt that I have had some less than stellar posts along the way. I mean, some are embarrassing. That is part of learning. I have debated on going back and deleting them, but I decided to leave them. It shows me how far I have come when I look back…and that always feels good. Creating good content is not easy. It takes some research in learning your target audience and how they will relate to what you write about. Along the way I have realized that the majority of my readers love before and afters the very most, whether that be a room reveal or a furniture makeover. They also like my inspirational posts, which I don’t do a lot of…but I do love doing them on occasion. I have also found that helpful decorating and shopping tips go over well. I really keep learning daily what works and what doesn’t. It is really trial and error. The key is to make what you write stand out among the rest. There is an article called “5 Irrational Fears that Keep Bloggers from Being Successful” that says that 95% of blogs that are started are abandoned within 4 months. Over 172,000 blogs are started daily. Those statistics are ASTOUNDING. It can be scary to know the failure rate, but to me, it gives me that much more of a reason to try to stand out…and it should you too!

Social Media is Your Friend

Whether you like social media or not, it is a necessary evil when it comes to blogging. The only way {ESPECIALLY at the beginning} for people to know that you have content on your blog is for you to tell them. Period. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) does not even know you exist at the beginning. Google does not just pick your blog up and start sending people your way. I wish it worked like that! You have to work hard at helping them find you (which is a whole other post in and of itself!). Right now, you have Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Plus, Stumble Upon and the list could go on forever. Put your content out there and promote it! Do your best to gain followers so that you have more people seeing your posts and hopefully coming to your page. While follower numbers are not everything, they do help with pageviews and engagement. That is just part of it. Now, I will say this…PLEASE do not expect this to happen overnight. It takes TIME to gain a following…and that can be extremely frustrating. I would suggest to focus on one social media platform at a time, and get it going pretty good before you go onto the next one. I am not saying not to post on several platforms at the beginning. I would do that. I would just focus on learning and growing one at a time. I focused on Facebook the most at the beginning because it was the one I felt most comfortable with. It is the one that has grown the fastest for me. I started on Instagram a few months in {should have sooner}…and Twitter even later than that. Those two are ones that I have never focused on yet. I am growing slowly, but until I put my focus there, I don’t expect big growth. Pinterest is one that I had always been on, but until recently- I had never truly dove in. THAT is the one I am working on the most now. You can’t do it all at once or you will go nuts, trust me! I have tried that! Please take my advice.

Network and Grow Relationships

In talking about growing your social media platforms, I think it is extremely important to realize that one of the key ways to do this is to grow relationships with other bloggers. Like people’s pages on Facebook {from your personal page and business page} that you feel like speaks to you and your niche and share their posts. Everyone appreciates their work being shared and reaching broader audiences. I know I sure do! Comment on posts, whether on social media or directly on a blog. Comments, likes, shares are so important. We all appreciate the engagement, and with social media algorithms constantly changing, it helps more than ever. Follow your favorite bloggers on Instagram. Give +1’s on Google Plus. Retweet on Twitter. Stumble their webpage on Stumble Upon. Pin their content on Pinterest. Seriously, there is so much to do to help other bloggers. Don’t do this because you want something in return. Do this because you genuinely like their content and want to share it. They will take notice of you and you build relationships that way. I always notice when blogger’s comment on my posts, whether blog or social media. When they start engaging with me, I start to feel a connection with them, and I am prone to do the same for them. I also start to feel like I “know” them better, even though many of them I have never personally met. I am even friends with some bloggers on my personal Facebook page. That helps me know them even better, outside of blogging! I really enjoy that alot, and I think it is so important to build each other up. We are truly the only ones who know the struggles of blogging. When our page goes down and we lose content or pageviews or our WordPress session times out and our post is gone, those are the people who can truly empathize with you! Make those relationships! I recently got the opportunity to travel to New York City for blogging business with Hometalk, and I got to meet some fantastic bloggers. We sat and talked for hours about blogging, and it was amazing. I felt such a connection with them, and they instantly became my friends. I am telling you, this is key to your success as a blogger. You cannot do this along, and you shouldn’t do this alone.

Have a Neighbor Named Katie

I am kidding, partially. I know many of you won’t have a neighbor named Katie that is as awesome as mine, but I needed to give her a category all to herself. She is amazing. She is a fellow blogger at Fun Home Things, and she has been at it for a few years now, so she knows the ins and outs. As I was getting started, I would go to her with questions along the way- and no matter what…she was there for me. She helped me SO much with some things that I just didn’t understand. Now, I didn’t bombard her- I did a TON OF RESEARCH on my own, so do not get me wrong…but having her there with her knowledge and helpfulness was more valuable than I could ever express. Through blogging, we have become amazing friends. We share something in common that so few people in our area understand…and we connect on a very deep level. She is a selfless person who is always uplifting others, whether in blogging or life in general. When I have been so discouraged along the way, she has encouraged me immensely. She tells it like it is when I need to hear it and makes me realize how far I have come and how much I have to offer. To have her as my friend has been one of my biggest assets in blogging. I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate her! Be sure to check out her amazing blog~ Fun Home Things!

Never Give Up!

We hear this everyday, but it is so true, for anything- really. You absolutely, positively cannot give up! In blogging, if you love what you are doing- keep on keeping on. Set goals and work hard everyday to reach them. Learn something new everyday that you can implement on your blog, no matter how small it may be. In time, those little things will turn into big things. I believe very firmly in this. I have done it and seen the results with my own eyes. I have been very discouraged along the way, no doubt. There have been days that hardly a soul visited my blog…and that wasn’t even at the beginning…that was a few months in. I felt defeated on those days, but I didn’t let it stop me. I started working harder and promoting more…and guess what? I started seeing major rewards from that hard work. In my first year I have been featured by Country Living, Good Housekeeping, Huffington Post, and House Beautiful. I don’t say that to brag at ALL…I say that to show you that even when you are new and still finding your way, if you are true to yourself and your brand…and you don’t give up, good things can happen! So, when you get discouraged and you think about giving up…remember this quote- “When it gets difficult is often right before you succeed.” Chris Garrett

Stay True to Yourself and Your Brand

Your blog is a brand. It reflects YOU. There is nobody else that can do what you do. Sure, there are lots of fabulous bloggers, but there is only one you. You are the only one that can write YOUR story and YOUR blog. Be true to who you are and the values that you possess. Be authentic. Relate to your audience. Be personal, at least to some degree. Remember, to some people you seem out of reach. Make them realize you are human just like them. Share your life. When people feel like they can relate to you as a person, they are far more likely to engage in your content. Let your personality shine through in your writing. Find yourself in your blog and nurture it and protect it. Only work with brands that suit your brand and what you want to ultimately achieve. Don’t ever sell yourself out for a few bucks. It is never worth it. Stay true to yourself every step of the way and you will never be sorry or have regrets.

Just a Few Extra Tips I’ve Learned

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Pageviews are not everything! When you start blogging, more than likely you will be obsessed to a degree with the amount of pageviews you are getting. Please don’t be. I was. It will suck your time, and it will easily make you feel like your hard work isn’t paying off in the beginning. It truly takes time to build your page, as well as your pageviews. Build your content. Pageviews will come. At this point, the majority of my pageviews is coming from older posts. It truly helps to give it time and build your blog’s content. If each month, you are moving in a positive direction and learning more and more- you are on the right track. The rest will come.

Designate your time wisely. I will say, I am still trying to get this one figured out. Blogging is time consuming, and even more so when you enjoy it like I do! Make sure to set specific time aside for post writing, editing, watermarking, social media, etc… If not, you could literally spend all day on that stuff!

Monetize early on. There are people who won’t agree with me on this, and that is OK. I started with google adsense early on (like a month in?), and while I wasn’t making hardly anything- I wasn’t doing anything either. The ads were on my blog, and I didn’t have to do a thing…and I was making money little at a time. Over time, it adds up. I also started with ShareASale a few months in for affiliate marketing, and I was very pleasantly surprised with the money I made with no effort except a couple of ads on my side bar. I ONLY put ads for companies that I truly love, so it was a no brainer for me. I highly recommend it. No matter how new your blog is, this is a great chance to make some extra money. They have over 3000 merchants, and you chose the ones you want to work with. Check it out! *There are LOTS of ways to monetize, but that is a totally different post in and of itself. This is just the couple of things I did early on that helped make me some extra money. As I am growing, I will be doing more and more. Just wanted to throw these 2 out there for you.

Email subscribers are one of your biggest asset, if not THE biggest asset. Work to obtain subscribers. They are the ones who care the most about your work, and they want to see what you post. Unlike social media, where people may or may not see your posts, they will always receive the notification of when a post goes live. My blog has grown the very most from my email list.

If you start to feel overwhelmed or burnt out, take a break. The best thing about blogging is it is not required to work. If you are on vacation or sick, you can skip posting. The world won’t stop and your blog won’t crash! Pick it up as soon as you can, and get back at it. Sure, your pageviews may go down- or they may not…but make sure you stay focused on why you do this and take the breaks you need. Your blog and your sanity will thank you 🙂

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Honestly, I could go on forever. This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. It really is. But, I feel like I have written enough. These tips are more than enough to get you started in the right direction. Sure, I left out a lot of the technical stuff, but this stuff is what will make or break you in the end. You can always hire a tech or learn for yourself like I did on the back end. The writing and the love for blogging has to come from you. So get out there and GET TO BLOGGING! Let me know if this post helped you in any way! I would love to hear from you!

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Last Updated on May 13, 2016