Why I Think 2019 Will Be An Awesome Year To Be A Blogger
Happy New Year! And welcome to the first post of the year on From Roses and I’m hopefully starting as I mean to go on. 2018 was the year that everyone proclaimed that blogging was dead and I for one, definitely had a wobble and even wrote a post all about it back in the summer. After all, this is my job and my livelihood so naturally things like that will cause anyone to have a little bit of a meltdown. During the last 12 months, I've looked at my own relationship with blogging and had to ask myself some really hard questions as well as make sure I gave honest answers and I definitely do not think blogging is dying or going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, things have changed and there is no denying that and the traffic certainly isn’t what it used to be but dead? Absolutely not. So just in case, you’re also having a little bit of a wobble and a worry here is why I think 2019 is going to be a great year for blogging and how I’m going to keep myself inspired this year.
BE PROUD OF YOUR BLOG
The term ‘blogger’ comes with a lot of stigma and I know for a long time I didn’t want to own the title in the way I should. I downplayed what I created constantly in fear of being judged and called silly which isn’t something that any good human being does. And because there has been this stigma around for such a long time I think it probably affected us all in some way, after all, it’s going to get to anyone if they hear the same insult being thrown around for long enough. Whether you blog purely for fun or you are fortunate enough for it to be your job then own that and be proud of what you do online. No-one should feel like they have to shy away from sharing something that would more than likely bring joy to so many others if they only had the courage to share it. There is so much value in the world of blogging and over the years I do believe that it’s been taken for granted as it’s at our fingertips and completely free.
know your why & remember it everyday
Each and every one of us has a different reason to why we started blogging, many of us started to simply share things that we love and it was as simple as that but now the world of blogging has become so lucrative plenty of people start with the sole aim of making money. I consider myself a long-term blogger as it’s something that I’ve been doing 8 years and when I began there wasn’t really such things as sponsored posts or #ad. That’s all something that has come in within the last few years and it’s so easy now to lose your way and forget where you began because once money gets involved then it all too easily take precedence over creating something you're passionate about. Something that I started to do last year was really asked myself what I was doing online and whether or not I was sticking to my core beliefs or not. Making sure that I was still sharing content that I felt was valuable, entertaining and of use is what I’ve always strived for. Sometimes it doesn’t feel enough to share something that we believe is nice or entertaining, but there doesn’t always need to be some deeper meaning for it to go online. I know that personally, I don’t always want to consume something that’s super heavy and sometimes a photograph of a dog is just what I want to look at. And I don’t believe in agonising over every little detail, but reminding yourself of why is something I truly believe is integral to stay on the path that you want to be on.
THERE IS ALWAYS SPACE FOR YOUR VOICE
A topic of conversation that has always irked me no end is that the internet is full, we’ve reached capacity and it’s not true. It’s something that seems to happen to all areas of life whether it be online or not and there is room for everybody to be brilliant. Saying that there isn’t room for anybody is so disheartening to people who feel so passionate about something and really think they’d be good at it but feel like they have no space to do it. Often I wonder if maybe those things are said to deter people just in case it takes away from what they’re creating but just like there is no capacity on the internet there is also isn’t any on the limit on what people can consume either. There is never a bad time to start a blog, an Instagram account or anything that you want to venture into.
DON’T DEPEND ON THINGS YOU DON’T OWN
This is something that I’ve felt passionate about for a while as last year something that was spoken about a lot was that Instagram had replaced blogging. And there is no denying the popularity and adoration for the social media platform that is Instagram, it’s something I use daily and I love but I don’t see how it can ever replace blogging and other long-form content. After Instagram introduced that awful side swipe function and everybody freaked out it made me realise just how much we all rely on something that we have absolutely no control over and we all know that if Vine died then so can Instagram. The most wonderful thing about blogging is that you have full control over it, you’re not subjected to any pain in the bum algorithms or bots and a blog does what it says on the tin. I know that I in the past have thought well I need to focus all my energy into Instagram as that is what seems the most popular and whilst I do love creating things for those squares I know now it’s not wise to put all my eggs in one digital basket.
your blog, your way
There is always an abundance of blogging advice out there and when blogging really skyrocketed into the mainstream when it was ‘in’ to a blogger there was a constant stream of advice posts. Even now I see almost daily posts on Instagram about how to drive more traffic and grow your audience in about a week, not only, for the most part, are they complete gibberish but in the long run, they’re really not that useful. These supposed advice posts and online classes always seem so structured and ridged and only show how to create content in one way. Which isn’t the only way to do things at all, the most incredible thing about having your own online space is that you can run it in exactly the way you see fit and what works for you. How we create is something is very much personal to all of us, I know that I probably don’t do some things that certain people swear by and vice versa. And that is something to relish in, the fact that we aren’t all clones of each other churning out the same posts time after time is something that I know is so important but often we do seek out similarity from each other to feel safe.
focus on community over stats
This is something that I’m incredibly guilty of doing myself and I think we all are to some extent. After all, it’s drilled into us that high stats are what we should be chasing to become ‘successful’ but in reality, those numbers mean very little when there aren’t engaging with what you’re putting out there. Engagement and reaching the people who connect with what you’re doing is something that takes time and patience but it’s so worthwhile as those are the things are not only valuable if you are looking to monetise what you’re creating but it also brilliant for both user and creator. So many relationships can be formed from leaving something as simple as a comment which is why the internet can be so special and wonderful. My blog stats have never been as low as they have at the moment but knowing that I have my own little community that comes from this blog that regularly comment and share how they feel about a certain topic or give me book suggestions is not something I could have ever imagined when I started this whole blogging thing and it's incredibly special.
