Let's rewind a year to Wednesday 1 February 2017 when I had just clicked publish on my first blog post. I had been planning content since the beginning of the year and wanted to give myself a bit of a head start having a few posts ideas already up my sleeve.
At this point I was unemployed and wanting to find a new way to express myself and share my love of fashion with the world. 12 months later and I'll admit, I haven't posted as much as I wish I had but when I have managed to get another post out there, I have been overwhelmed with the amount of views I have received.
A lot has changed in the past year, I have tried my hand at a variety of jobs, got my confidence back and made more of a conscious effort to spend more time with my favourite people. For all of these reasons, it has sometimes been hard to maintain regular posts, but is definitely something I hope to improve on in the next 12 months!
So here it is, what have I learnt in my first year of blogging?
Stay true to yourself
Comparing yourself to other bloggers is one of the worst things you could do. Everyone is on their own little journey and it's okay to go at your own pace. It may be that some people simply have more time to write and shoot than you do so naturally they're going to have more content than you are. As long as you post about topics that are important to you, that will come across and people will appreciate that.
Working full time and blogging is hard work
Monday to Friday I spend my time in an office working in admin and marketing for a local accountancy firm. Once I get home and I've had time to relax, have my tea and watch Corrie I often find it's time to get in bed and start the whole routine again the next day.
Then when it gets to weekends, I'm either catching up with friends or family and before you know it, it's Sunday night and I'm wondering where the hell my weekend disappeared to?!
Between all of this I find time to write and shoot to ensure that I have content ready to be posted. Blogging isn't the fastest process. I get what I want to say written down, get the imagery together to support the post and then once it's all complete and I've gone through it a couple of times, I get my editor (my mum) to read through and make sure everything is okay! After that I post to all my social media platforms, to ensure that everyone knows I've got a new post on my blog.
Sometimes I don't think people are aware of how much time and effect goes into blogging, but I do it because I love it, and love hearing from you.
It's okay to get writers block
I like many bloggers I imagine, experience two things on a regular basis.
My mind is either bursting with ideas and and after a couple of hours I'll find myself with 2 to 3 new posts ready to go! Or the alternative, I sit staring at my laptop screen without the foggiest idea of what I am going to write next, let alone, where I am going to find the imagery to support the posts I can't even seem to think up!
I've found with blogging, you simply just have to go with those intense power hours, and also come to terms that it's okay to not be able to think of a topic you want to talk about just because you feel that you need to get something written down.
Readers love to learn about you
It was then that I realised how much I do love blogging and the effect that it has on my readers.
Do what you love
It's only been a year but I have loved being apart of the blogging world. If I didn't enjoy what I do, there would be no point in continuing and it would come across very clearly in the work that I produce!
This year I am hoping to write even more and I am super excited for things that are coming up which I can't wait to share with you!
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, like and comment on posts and social media this last year. I get such a buzz from seeing that what I love to do is something that you're also interested in!
Happy 1st Birthday Setting the Style, here's to many more years of creativity.
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