THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT WHAT I WANT TO BRING BACK TO BLOGGING
It’s been three months since I started publishing content everyday on this blog, and even though it’s tough, I’m so glad I made that decision.
But there’s been a post I’ve wanted to write for a while now and it’s coming to you today. I don’t know why I haven’t written it earlier. Maybe it was because I just burnt out after launching #BloggingBreakthrough and doing my public speaking gigs. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen negativity around the community lately that has stopped me from writing this. Or maybe it was something else that’s just made this the right time to do it.
As of September, I’ll have been blogging for three years. It’s officially seven months since I refreshed the ABOH brand and moved over to Squarespace. And three months since I started publishing content every day. I feel like blogging is such a huge part of my life now that I can’t imaging not having it. Over the past few months and years, there have been so many huge, exciting changes to our industry, and new things are happening daily.
This blog went from sharing my entire life, to digital marketing and blogging tips and tricks. I’ve spoken before about how I feel like my day jobs have affected exactly what I was writing about, and I’ve definitely struggled to find my feet. But now, I feel like I’ve got a really good balance, and I’m in a really good place with everything, even if my pageviews aren’t as high as other bloggers I know.
But as my own blog has changed, I feel like the blogging community has changed with it. Now there are whatsapp groups, and sometimes I feel like I’m back in high school as there are a lot of cliques. I used to love reading and commenting on posts just because I wanted to. I loved getting to know my favourite bloggers and finding out about their lives. Then I changed to reading every single advice post I could get my hands on, which ended up clouding my vision and made me lose my path.
Then as I finally reached success in my career and got the job I’m in now, I found my blogging feet. Running this blog alongside my job is hard, but after seven months of doing it, I wouldn't change a thing.
Recently though, I feel like things with blogging have drastically changed – and I know a lot of you reading this will agree. Now, it seems like we’re all chasing things, whether that be a full-time blogging job, sponsorships, pageviews, shares, comments. We stopped sharing personal posts and instead, started sharing things we thought we should blog about. The things we thought would get us more readers and more opportunities. The things that everyone else is doing because hey, if it works for them it’ll work for me, right?
This has led to a flatness in the blogging industry. So over Christmas, I started questioning things. I was bored of having a “niche” where I could only write about one thing and nothing else. I was bored of chasing numbers. I was bored of doing what I thought I had to.
But combined with my desire to succeed, this left me confused. I didn't want to carry on with my blog the way it was (purely blogging tips), because I felt everyone else was doing the same. Soon enough, I’d end up packing it in altogether and that was something I didn't want to happen.
So here I am three months into my new venture and I felt inclined to share my journey with you, and what I want to bring back to blogging. I refuse to believe in a specific niche. I believe people can come to my blog for a chat, lovely images of a country walk, and my social media tips too. If they’re all huge parts of my life, then why can’t I share a variety of topics? Never do I write a post another person has written – it’s always from my experiences and what I learn that I know will help you.
What I want to bring back to this place is blogging on my own terms. I want to write seven times a week, I really do. I want to write about what I learn about blogging and social media that I know will help you. I want to write about our careers. I want to write content to motivate and inspire you. I want to share my life. I want to look back on this blog and be able to see everything. I want to inspire you to get a breakthrough with your blog… in the unique way that you do it.
And this might mean my pageviews don’t hit the numbers of others. It might mean that my Instagram community grows at a slower rate. But thinking about it, I’d rather love what I’m doing with my blog, and know I’m connecting with you in a true and real way, rather than just putting out advice post after advice post, promoting myself no end and asking for one more follow.
So here’s to getting a breakthrough with our blogs in a real way. Here’s to following our own path, enjoying it and being proud of it. Here’s to communicating with people, not because we feel like we have to, but because we want to.
Here’s to finding comfort with each other, because no matter what your numbers say, we’re all human and on this road together.