It is my BIRTHDAY today!!!!!!!!! What better way to celebrate it than share the lessons I have learnt from my one year of blogging.When I started this blog back in 2018, I had no idea on how to run a blog. I was writing just for the sake of it and to kill boredom. It was for my own entertainment until I realised that people actually enjoy reading it and were looking up to more content. That’s when I decided to be more serious with it. It has been a year and three weeks now since I officially started to do commercial blogging. This has come up with so many lessons.
It is not easy.
When I was writing for fun, I owed no one an article. I could post whenever I wanted, whatever content I wanted and however I wanted. It was like writing in my diary. Check out my very first article here. But now, I have to take in so many considerations before I post a new article.
It is crowded.
There are a dozen of food and travel bloggers in kenya leave alone the whole world. Everybody wants to run a blog. The contents might even look the same but it is upto me to create unique content to me and my readers. I had to find my niche and run with it. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel but just do it better so as to stay relevant.
Time consuming.
Juggling a full time job and a blog is not a walk in the park. Both jobs demand so much from me especially when it come to time. For me to post an article every Friday, it means I have to prepare,write and edit that article by Thursday evening. Coming up with great content is not something I can do in minutes. There is a lot of planning, scheduling and prioritizing.
You need money.
Ever heard of the saying “use money to make money”? Now you know. To sustain this blog, I need to pay for it for it to pay me back too. I need to pay for my domain name /website and also for hosting which is not cheap. There are also other things that require money when it comes to maintaining the blog. It is not like before when I was writing on blogpost which was free.
Money is not made overnight.
I thought that once I have my website up and running, money will start coming in the next month. Easy pizzy! I was so wrong. There are so many dynamics that lead to the website earning money that I had no idea about. I am learning on the way. It is more of a marathon than a sprint.But I am so glad that my traffic keeps on increasing as the days go by.
Networking.
No man is an island. Networking with other bloggers in the same or different industry is key. I have learnt so many things I didn’t know from reaching out to other bloggers out there. This are the same people that can recommend my work to their followers.Through networking, I have been able to get collaborations with tour companies and even restaurants.
Consistency.
This has been my mantra. Wake up and do the work. I post every Friday and so I have to make sure I have good content to go up on my blog. Sometimes I even write two to three articles in a week so that just incase next week I am not in my element, I have a backup article to post. Most of my readers are always looking up to Friday for some amazing content.
Believe in yourself.
Sometimes this is easier said than done. There are days I don’t feel like writing, no motivation, no time, no inspiration. And then I remember that when I started this blog, I could only get like twenty people to read it. This was after I had to forward the link to them everyday I post.
Now I don’t have to send my article links to people and this makes me really happy that I am getting traffic from google.There is some form of satisfaction that I feel when I see my viewers increasing. I only post links my social media handles. This has really made me feel so proud of myself and the progress I am making. I have to believe in myself no matter what because I will miss out on every chance I don’t take.
One step at a time
A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. I have learnt that I am a work in progress and I need to take my time to get to where I want to be. Every person’s journey is different and I don’t have to compare myself with anyone.
To sum up my one year, I would like to say thank you to you my readers, the brands that I have worked with and to the people in my support system who got my back. I really appreciate you.
Thank you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!