Blogging

Celebrating Four Years Of Blogging x 4 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Blogging.

THE BIG FOUR.

Guess who clocked four on the 21st?

Wow! Have I really been running this little ol space of mine for four years already? It honestly doesn’t feel that long just yet. I can still remember taking that first step to setting up this blog and my very first post like it was yesterday and right now, I’m celebrating four years in this blogging journey. Ayeee!
Even though these past few weeks have been a bit trying in terms of keeping up with this space (and life in general), I must admit that this blog would continue to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. It also helps that it acts as a sort of journal for me. 



Right from the first awkward blog name (who remembers what the blog’s first URL was? lol) , the name change, getting my own domain, working with brands for free to getting paid for it, hosting an event, starting my blog consultations, down to finally getting my first blog award, it has been four years of constant growth, amazing opportunities and definitely lots of lessons.
I  already talked about the different ways starting this space has changed me in this post, and in the spirit of reminiscing/celebrating growth, I’ll like to share a few things I wish I had known/done back when I first started blogging. Maybe, this might also be helpful for anyone looking to start their blog soon.

But before we get into that; Check out my first year, second year and third year of blogging. 🙂
Now, Let’s dig in!


1. Defined My Blog Manifesto and Purpose Earlier.


When I started blogging, I had no intentions or idea that this could really be a big thing or even something I could actually earn from/turn into a brand for myself. I was blogging because I loved to write and share my thoughts, so there was no clear direction or focus – I was basically just going with the flow. Looking back now, I know that if I had started out with a clear written out manifesto for my blog and stuck to that, It would definitely have grown faster. Because when you know you’re out here to build something, then you are more inclined to take every aspect of your blog seriously – from design, user experience to aesthetics.
That’s the advantage new bloggers have now, there is really no excuse to start out mediocre because there are tons of knowledge on blogging out there to help you get started right.
My blog planner has a page to help you brainstorm your blog manifesto and figure out ways you can stay on track with it/achieve it. More details on the planner here.
I also do blog reviews and consultations, so if you’ll like a second eye to take a look around your blog and suggest improvements or you, you can find out more details here, and If you would love to dive even deeper with me and take your blog to the next level. You can book a blog consultation with me HERE.


2. Started Out On WordPress.


I mentioned my blogger vs WordPress opinion in my post on starting a blog here. Back when I started blogging, there weren’t as much “blogging” blogs like there are now and I was so green on everything blogging that I didn’t do any proper research and just straight up went for the easy option – blogger. Right now, if I could turn back the hands of time, I would definitely start with WordPress because there are sooo many limitations with blogger that WordPress doesn’t have and having to make the switch from blogger to WordPress four years down when I have 430 posts and close to a million views I can end up losing is stressful. It might not be a big deal at first but in the long run, you start to feel the effect. I know I am!

3. Placed Priority To Growing My Mail List Earlier.


Even though I didn’t have a fancy blog theme and things weren’t so picture perfect and crisp, I had a pretty good following in my earlier days. Loyal ones too. (Quick shout out to anyone who has been reading my blog from the word go! You smart. You loyal. I appreciate that!) It is such a bummer and still upsets me till this day that I didn’t tap into that and started building my mail list from then. I had the normal google reader subscribe thing going on but I hardly ever even promoted it or made any effort to get people to subscribe.
Sometimes I reread old posts and see some frequent readers who somehow fizzled out over time and I just wonder what ever happened to them. With an email list, I could have retained quite a number of them.
Getting people to follow you on social media is good but remember, if something goes wrong with their/your social media, you’ll always still have good ol trusty email to fall back to. So if you’re just starting out, don’t be like Cassie. Go build that list!

4. Realized That Writing The Content Is Just One-Half & Promoting It Is Major Key.

Thinking back now, my promotion skills were super poor! I don’t think I did any major promoting besides bugging my BBM and facebook contacts. I shared new posts just once to twitter and I hadn’t even started using Instagram then. lol! I definitely missed out on amassing a lot of traffic back then. 
I already talked about how important social media is in growing a blog in my post on reasons why your blog’s traffic might not be growing, so you have to constantly promote your posts (in a non-spammy way, though)
Oh another shameless plug here, when you get the Cassie Daves blog planner, you get a page filled with social media posting schedules to help you effectively share your content all over your social media platforms in a way that will get your content seen more and drive more traffic to you. Get your planner Here!
Bonus :
Another thing I wish I knew earlier in my blogging journey is SEO! Not even the complicated or deep ones. The simple things like naming your pictures, adding meta tag description to it, using more keyword rich blog post titles and not titles like “Going green” (can you tell that I am guilty of this? lol) etc. I didn’t do any of that for years and you can just imagine how much traffic I was losing because of that. I also only realized late last year that I turned off my “enable crawlers and indexing” option and I was so weak when I realized. lol If you use blogger, go to settings > search preferences > crawlers & indexing to see what I’m talking about.’ Also, if you’re like me and you’ve never heard of google search console, you should totally check it out here (Listed it in my planner too!)
There’s also reducing/re-sizing large pictures to make your blog load faster and also using the extra large option when you upload your pictures for those using bloggers to make it bigger and of a better quality. I learned most of these things pretty late in my blogging journey, so I hope that someone at least finds this post helpful. 

Now, back to gushing over how awesome you guys are and the fact that I’ve actually been blogging for four years (That’s a full time university course you know? )

Some of my favorite posts over the years –

2013
2014
2015
I know I keep over flogging this but yes! Once again, I’ll like to mention how constantly floored and thankful I am for every single one of you that have ever read my blog, shared, commented or sent me encouraging messages. Thank you! Hopefully, I’ll get to celebrate my fifth blogging year with an actual event next year.

Let me know if you found this post helpful, please.
You can catch up on all my fab blogging tips HERE
 I’ll love to know some of the things you wish you had known earlier in your blogging journey too! And if you’re a new blogger, what are you struggling with right now?
Oh and of course, feel free to bring in the congratulatory messages! *insert big smile*

Author: Cassie Daves

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