Lessons I have learnt from my first month of blogging

My blog turned one month old at the weekend. I know it’s not a very long time to have been blogging, but it's another exciting blog milestone and feels like a small victory for me. As I said in my first post, I’d been wanting to start a blog for a really long time but I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to start one and then forget to post regularly. Luckily, however, I’ve found that I absolutely love blogging and I’m confident that I’ll keep it up.

Here’s what I’ve learnt from my first month in the blogosphere:

Happy habit

Apparently it takes 21 days of doing something to turn it into a habit. Although I haven’t written a post every day, I’ve been trying to write at least two every week and I’ve also been jotting down ideas whenever they pop into my head (usually when I’m about to fall sleep, why does that always happen?!) Now that I’ve passed the one month milestone and the habit-forming 21 days, I’m pretty certain that I'll have plenty of topics to write about on a regular basis.

Fantastic feedback

Something that has given me a mahoosive boost is the lovely response I’ve had! My fab friends and wonderful family have been supportive, of course, but I’ve also had great feedback from lots of people online, fellow bloggers, local businesses and even a couple of old friends I haven’t spoken to for years.

Conquering the fear

I think the scary thing about blogging is that you are really putting yourself out there. I had ‘blog fear’ at first and I think that was partly why I didn’t start one for so long. I guess the whole thing with blogging is that you just have to be confident and hope you are writing something that people will want to read! It’s a crazy thought that people from all around the world are reading your posts. I have a fair few readers in the USA, Netherlands and Australia (hello over there *waves*) which is really cool.

Time and targets

Blogging can be quite time-consuming, especially if it’s a photo-heavy post. For example, my blog about homemade sushi took a while to put together, as I wanted really strong images to go with it. Instead of my phone, I used my new Canon, then by the time I’d uploaded and edited the pictures, it was much later than the deadline I’d given myself to finish the post. As I work from home, I’ve managed to fit blogging into my routine, so I’ll write a post either in the morning before I start my work, or in the evening after dinner, or sometimes I’ll write a few in one go on a quiet Saturday or Sunday.

Yummy homemade maki sushi!

The timing to upload the posts has to be right too. There’s no point posting one when nobody will have time to read it, for example, on a Monday morning. The analytics tool on Blogger is really useful for monitoring visitor numbers and audience reach, so I now have a good idea about the ideal days and times to post.

What to write about?

It can be a little tough when you don’t have a ‘specialism’ as such. If you specialise in writing about something specific, like food or beauty, for example, it’s probably a bit easier to tap into that market and readership. At first, I was a little worried that I didn’t have one core subject to focus on. Who knows, I might end up making my blog a bit more specific in the future, but for now, it’s actually quite nice having the freedom to write about whatever takes my fancy!

Popular posts

My two most popular blog posts (so far) are my reviews of the Sun Inn and Linthwaite House Hotel, so I’ll definitely carry on writing reviews of restaurants in my local area. A few years ago, when I was a journalist on my local paper in Southport, I had my own food column and I’d write loads of restaurant reviews for it, so it’s actually a nice blast from the past to be writing them again!

Our gorgeous afternoon tea at Linthwaite House Hotel

They are the lessons I’ve learnt from my first month in blogging. I’m really chuffed to have had more than 1,000 views and I hope that number will continue to grow. I know I said this when I reached 500 views (and I promise I’ll calm down about the overexcited blog milestones) but I just wanted to say thanks for reading my blog and for giving me super feedback. You are a lovely lot, you are! x