Last week, I asked you, "What do you wish you'd known about blogging when you started?"
Many thanks to all those who left a comment telling us — I've rounded up some of the best here.
(I couldn't use all the comments, so do check out the original post to see some more.)
One common trend I noticed in the comments was that it takes time to see growth, and that your blog's growth often won't be steady.
So if you're not quite seeing the results you want yet, hang on in there.
Let's get to the comments…
Alex from AdSense Market wrote:
One things I wish I'd known when I started my Online Business was:
Running the business is your first priority. Your success (and financial stability) will come from expertly running your business — not teaching yoga, life coaching, writing copy, or making jewelry. In other words, you will spend 15% of the time doing what you love (your gift..in my case coaching and writing) and 85% of the time marketing, administrating, selling, strategizing your business, and answering a shitload of email. Survival will totally hinge on how quickly you adopt this role of Business Owner.
JK Riki from Animator Island wrote:
First of all, I'm very happy for the way my life has played out, even the bad stuff, because it's shaped me to who I am now. So when I say "I wish I had" I don't really MEAN it, because I wouldn't want it any different. But for the sport of "things I know now I didn't know then…"
I wish I knew how much more difficult regular updating would be. When I started my mind was racing with ideas, and it would be "easy" to have weekly updates at AnimatorIsland.com. So easy, in fact, that my long-term goal and plan had me increasing to bi-weekly updates after the first few months, and then daily updates shortly after that. How crazy that seems now!
Quality content takes a long time, and a LOT of work. Sure you can do throw-away pieces to fill space, but my goal with Animator Island was to help other animators, and I couldn't do that every single day with great content. So it remains weekly updates, every Monday, and that works well. I'm just glad I had learned previous lessons that let me not PUSH to get to more updates, because then I would have been overwhelmed.
Lesson: Start small and don't force growth for the sake of growth. Better to truly have something to say instead of saying anything because you need an update!
Edie Melson from The Write Conversation wrote:
I've been blogging since about 2008. One thing I wish I'd known when I started was that healthy blog growth isn't a steady, upward line. In the beginning a lot of my blog followers were friends who wanted to support me, even though they weren't necessarily interested in the focus of my site. But they shared my blog with others and many of those became the real foundation of my readership.
This meant that for the first year there was a lot of shuffling in my numbers. Sort of a two-steps-forward, one-step back movement. I thought I was doing something wrong and wasted a lot of angst and effort on something that was normal.
Carolyn from Lost in the Leaf City wrote:
I wish I had known that I'll never stop blogging. I did for a year and have to wrestle with ideas waiting to be accomplished or published on my blog Lost In The Leaf City.
Blogging is hard work. I feel guilty sometimes writing just for the sake of updating.
I wish I wasn't lazy writing quality content from the start. I know it's hard but doing it made me realized that there are more work: finding the right image, organizing the content, throwing away the first draft (ouch)!
Do it or either don't do it.
Give your best in every post. You'll be surprised with the result – great ones – for others – and yourself.
Does one (or more) of these comments resonate with you? Leave your own comment below to join in the conversation.
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