Blogging Series – Part IV: How to Tackle Your First Year of Blogging

Happy Thursday, friends! I hope you enjoyed this week as I have certainly enjoyed sharing it with you. With my first year of blogging complete, I wanted to find a way to use the knowledge that I gained to help others who may be considering this process. So, I put together a few tips that I learned this year. Check out below for ways to guide you through your first year of blogging!

1. Be Honest. Be You. Readers are here because of you and your voice and your style and your words. Stay true to who you are and allow that to come across in your content. And take the time to figure out what your style of writing is. Being “you” will keep readers coming back for more.
2. Find Purpose. Clearly define your reasons for doing what you are doing. Create milestones throughout the process as these will keep you motivated and give you direction. Verify the actions you take align with your reasons of why you created your space in the first place. No point in wasting time on activities that will not benefit your vision.
3. Create an Idea Bank. Find one central space to stores ideas. Once you introduce creativity into your lifestyle, ideas will hit you all the time. All. The. Time. I keep a notebook in my purse that I scribble thoughts on throughout the day. It may be a word or a story or an idea for designing a photo shoot. Regardless of what it is that notebook is where I turn for inspiration.
4. Channel Your Inner Courage. Try out those ideas you have. They might actually work. It can be scary and intimidating (trust me, I know), but it is completely worth it in the end as you will feel accomplished. I wouldn’t pass on the feeling of accomplishment because that is what will drive you to try the next crazy idea. And if it doesn’t work, learn something from that experience and do something with that knowledge the next round.
5. Read Out Loud Before Pressing Publish. Doing this allows me to cut down on the wordiness in my posts. You feel silly at first when you read it out loud, but what you will gain is insight as to where you are wordy. You want your post to be clearly communicated. This will help you achieve that concept.
6. Meet Grace. Figure out your strong areas and in contrast learn which areas aren’t your expertise. For example, the technical side of blogging just confuses me. I can spend all day googling on something and still never figure out how to do it. Whenever it comes to that aspect of blogging, I realize that I need patience, time, and help in this area. I know that about myself, and it allows me to handle those situations with calmness and less frustration.
7. Be Patient. It takes time to find your niche and build your space and generate a following. Stay optimistic and know that your hard work will pay off. I’m rooting for you!
8. Share the Love. There are tons of bloggers out there. Some who have been around for years and others who are just beginning. Take a couple of minutes, find a few different bloggers, and leave them a comment that keeps them motivated. Cheer them on. Like a post or a photograph. Leave kind words. It will make you feel good and take your mind off yourself and your space. Keep in mind, you can also apply this advice to other methods of social media as well.

Have more questions regarding blogging? Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email  at ashleylandry.blog@gmail.com. I would love to help! That is all I have for this week, friends! I’m off to enjoy my day, and I hope you will too! Thank you for following along!

If you missed any part of this series, check out the following:

Blogging Series – Part I: How I Became a Blogger

Blogging Series – Part II: Evaluation Day

Blogging Series – Part III: Happy Blogiversary!