Join hosts  Girlxoxo, Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge for our 4th annual #AMonthofFaves blog event – a fun way to recap the year that was. We have every day of the event (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) planned out for you, so you can join in anytime. There will also be a link-up on all our blogs – put a link to your post so  that we can stop by each and every post to leave comments, high fives, good vibes and well wishes.

Wed. | Dec. 6 – This Is How We Blog #AMonthofFaves – Essential Computer Programs, Browser Plugins, Websites and / or your blogging routine, blogs on blogging that you follow, blog tips you learned and used this year

 

I already wrote a post about all my favorite blogging tools this year.  Today I want to talk about what I’ve learned about blogging after doing this for a very long time.  It will be 14 years in January.

No one cares about your schedule

I see this question all the time from bloggers.  How often should I post?  What if I need to miss a day?  Is Monday-Wednesday-Friday better than Tuesday-Thursday? 

I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t matter one bit.  Think about the blogs you follow.  Off the top of your head do you know if they have a posting schedule if they don’t announce it?  Would you really notice if they posted a day “late”.  I bet you wouldn’t. 

Ignore the stats

I always feel like patting baby bloggers on the head when sometime in their first year of blogging they get stat obsessed.  It happens to almost everybody.   Suddenly they are all about the page views and improving SEO and backlinking.  Then one of two things happens.

  1. They get over it
  2. They quit blogging because it isn’t fun anymore

Unless you are trying to make a living from blogging, ignore the stats.  Find a core audience who likes what you write.  Write what you want to write when you want to write it.

Enjoy what you are learning

I think about Malcolm Gladwell’s advice that it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something.  I see this in action when I have to write something now that isn’t on the blog.  I can sit down and write out papers for work, etc in no time.  Write every day for NaNoWriMo?  No problem.  You are learning to write when you blog.  Enjoy your learning.  Don’t rush.

It’s Ok to have a hobby

I get this one mostly from nonbloggers who hear I’ve been doing this for a while.  How much money do you make?  They are surprised when I say none.  I’m not trying to make money doing this.  I have a job.  This is a hobby.  It’s ok if you don’t want to make money doing it.  For me the work involved in trying to monetize isn’t worth the small amount of money I might make.  Other people may make other decisions.  It is all ok.

 My number one piece of blogging advice:

Do whatever it is that attracted you blogging in the first place.  If you wanted to write about your day, do that.  If you want to review books or movies or products, do that.  If want you want to write about changes over time, fine.  Go with it.  You do you.  Don’t try to please everyone else. 

What have you learned from blogging?