Two days ago, on May 8th, I celebrated having my blog for a year! In that year, I have written 105 blog posts (this one makes 106!) and amassed over 1,000 views and almost 500 visitors. I have accumulated over fifty followers (thank you so much!) and have enjoyed every minute of having this blog. It’s been such a fun hobby and pastime to work on my writing and write about things that genuinely make me happy. Here are some of the things that I’ve learned from having my blog!
Discipline
One of the first things I learned is discipline. Early on, I had decided that I was going to post twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. This was simple to stick to when I had tons of content prepared. WordPress has a function that allows for scheduling posts in advance and I took advantage of it whenever I could. But when I didn’t have content prepared, it was a bit difficult. There were some times that I didn’t have any idea until late in the day on the day that I had to post. I remember over spring break, I didn’t post on that Friday until almost ten pm.
But I knew that I wanted to keep my posting at twice a week. I sat down, brainstormed until I had found an idea, and wrote it then and there. I knew that I had to be disciplined and keep to the goal that I had set for myself, even when I didn’t feel like doing it. I had to exercise discipline whenever I got distracted or didn’t “feel” like writing. There are going to be tons of times in my future that I will have to do something that I don’t want to do, but I will have to follow through. When that happens, I can think of this blog and know that I can do it.
Mixing It Up is Okay
In a year, I wrote about a lot of different things. I branched out and tried different topics and ideas that I normally wouldn’t have written about. Most of the new ideas I ended up liking, and even with the topics I didn’t, I was glad that I tried it! I gave it a shot and tried my best. Mixing up what I wrote about kept me from getting bored and getting stuck in a rut where I write about the same topics again and again. I suggest writing about different things to make yourself a better writer and to really mix things up.
Find Something That Works and Keep It
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I found a lot of topics that I love writing about. My recurring blog posts, like my favorites of every month, what books I’ve been reading, recipes that I want to make, and playlists. They’ve been popular for a long time now and it’s been one of my favorite things about having a blog. I love writing about topics that are both familiar and fun to write about. Once you find something that works, keep writing about it!
These are the things that I have learned while having my blog! It’s still hard to believe that I’ve had this website for over a year now. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? Thank you to all of my followers and readers, I appreciate you all so much. Thank you for supporting me and my writing! And as always, thank you for reading!
Love,
Kaitlin
Kaitlin H Powell 