December 11, 2018

What I’ve Learned in My First Year of Blogging

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I am so excited to be celebrating my first year of blogging! I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by. I have learned and grown so much this year through my blog and wanted to share some of that with you!

The Friendships. First and most importantly, I’ve learned that friendships through social media are a real thing! This has been my favorite part of blogging thus far and I think it always will be. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and connect with so many of my fellow blogger friends in this community and it has been such a blessing to me in so many ways. I’ve also been able to get to know so many of these incredible women just through messaging each other on Instagram (hoping to meet some more of them in the next year). Making these friendships was something completely unexpected when I started blogging and has been my absolute favorite part of this experience.
The Time. Blogging is more time consuming than I could have ever imagined. I knew when getting into this that it would be time consuming, but definitely underestimated how much time that entailed. I am so thankful to my VERY patient husband that is so supportive of my blog and doesn’t mind me spending so much time on Instagram and on my blog when we have down time at home.
The Planning. Contrary to what some may think, creating blog posts takes a lot of thought, planning and time. I have not been very good at posting at my blog during the past few months with all that has been going on in our lives with this move to Dallas. A major goal of mine for 2019 is to treat this more like a business and be more consistent with posting on my actual blog instead of just focusing on Instagram.
What you give is what you get. I get A LOT of questions on Instagram about my “engagement.” For those of you who are not involved in the Instagram world, this means the “likes” and comments I receive on my daily posts. Everyone wants to know my “secret.” Well here it is people! I spend SO MUCH TIME on Instagram EVERY SINGLE DAY. I am CONSTANTLY networking, messaging, liking, commenting, and communicating with other bloggers and brands on this platform. You can’t just sit back and blog the Instagram algorithm. YOU HAVE TO WORK HARD AND PUT IN THE TIME!! PS: this is the same advice I have to give when it comes to working with brands as well, you can’t just sit back and wait for them to come to you. That may work for a little bit, but you need to go after them even if it takes time!
It takes a village. I learned VERY quickly that this was something I could not do alone. I mean seriously… I can’t even take the pictures on my own! There have been so many people in my life that have shown support with their time and wisdom. My mom, dad and husband have by far been my biggest supports and have been since day one. When I first threw out the idea of starting a blog last Thanksgiving, I was a little embarrassed to even bring it up to them. I wasn’t sure what they would think. I brought it up to them each individually and all three of them were fully on board. I also mentioned the idea to my best friend, Catie, who gave me the confidence to get started. I remember her saying, “you just have to be shameless and go for it.” This was something that has stuck with me through out this whole process. I am a more shy person at heart and actually do not like attention being drawn to myself, so the thought of posting pictures of just myself everyday on social media was a little intimidating, but it was Catie that got me over that hump.

I could go on and on about what I have learned this year, but I’ll leave it at that for now. Here’s to year TWO!