Writing has never been my strong suit so starting a blog would have been one of the last things I would ever think I would want to get into. I can just remember being told when I was in school that writing and grammar weren’t important and I was never going to use it! Boy, were they wrong because I use it every day and since the school, I went to felt it wasn’t important I struggle with it more than most people. When I launched this blog I had no idea what I was doing and to be honest, in the beginning, I was winging it and because of that, I made a lot of mistakes. I thought blogging consisted of writing posts, finding a good photo, and doing it all over again a few days later. That mindset has not only put more work on myself because I was not only doing a lot of things wrong but also holding myself back. I wouldn’t consider myself an experienced blogger but if I were to delete my blog and start over there are a few things I would do differently and today I am going to share with you a few of those things.
Take time to think about a blog name- When I launched my blog the original name was living with a disability but then I realized I really hated that name so I changed to Life with Spina Bifida. I still am not very fond of that name because I wish it was something more creative and unique but the truth is naming things is not my strong suit and is a quality I lack! Your domain name is something you can only change as often as you are willing to purchase a new one and that may not always be in the budget so think about it wisely. It can be a hassle to have to go change everything because you decided you didn’t like the current name and that the new one makes much more sense for your blog. After all, you can’t just change it and be done with it but have to update it on all your social media. That my friends can be very time-consuming!
Get plugged into Facebook groups- Bloggers in Facebook groups can help you if you are experiencing any sort of technical error and of course, grow your blog! There is so much that goes on behind the scenes of a blog and a lot of it makes bloggers feel very frustrated because not all bloggers are tech-savvy so when something goes wrong with their blog they don’t always know what to do. I didn’t realize the power of Facebook blog groups until I had been blogging a year and let me tell you the support has been incredible! I have gotten so much help with promoting my blog and learned so much on how I can make my blog better I don’t know why I didn’t think to do this sooner.
Know the copyright laws- Sometimes the hardest part of creating the perfect blog post is the images! What most new bloggers don’t know and ignore is that you can’t use any images from google because you could be violating some copyright laws and using images your not allowed to use. When I launched my blog I didn’t really know this so I just went on google and found a picture that I thought looked good and could make my blog pop! I immediately stopped and took those photos down because I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to use these photos and the trouble I’d get in for using them if I wasn’t allowed just isn’t worth it. I started creating photos from Canva and using stock photos for all my blog posts because that is the safest way to go. You don’t have to worry about getting in trouble for using those photos because you’re allowed to use them.
Copyright all your photos from the start- In this day in age people will try and plagiarize bloggers’ content or steal their photos thinking we won’t notice or mind! What people don’t realize is how much bloggers actually lookout for stuff like this so the chances of getting away with it are pretty slim. Bloggers expect this kind of thing to happen and if we don’t catch it one of our followers will and will notify us. Bloggers work really hard creating content that we think you guys will love and stealing it and calling it your own is wrong.
Share other blogger’s posts- In the beginning, the only person’s posts I really shared were my own and to be honest I think that was the reason I struggled so much with getting growth to my blog. Share other bloggers’ posts because if you do it is likely they will return the favor.
You don’t have to follow everyone that follows you- Sometimes when a blogger follows you they may either pressure you to follow them back or you may feel obligated to do so. It took me a long time to realize this but you don’t have to follow everyone that follows you but as a matter of fact, you should only follow the people who write content that you are going to read. In my very first months of blogging, I had a hard time wrapping my head around this and followed everyone back that followed me with hopes that they would follow me back. To not only realize half of those people never even visited my blog and that I was just subscribed to a bunch of blogs that I didn’t really care about. I ended unfollowing half of those people and started focusing on increasing my engagement and that is when I really started seeing some growth. You aren’t doing anyone any favors by following a bunch of blogs you are never going to engage with because blogging isn’t just about the numbers it’s also about the engagement you have with your readers.
Bloggers are always learning new things! Some of the things you may see us do within the first couple of months we launch our blog we may stop doing a year into blogging because it could be inefficient or we may find a better faster way to get things done. There is still so much to learn about blogging and every day I am learning so much about blogging from people who are much more experienced than I am! Bloggers, have you made any mistakes since the day you launched your blog? What kind of mistakes did you make and how did you correct them? I’d love to hear them so please leave them in the comments below.
Leave a Reply