10 Things I told Myself When I Started Blogging

Blogtober14- Day 6. Almost a week in and all is well! I'm really hoping to push myself to make it the whole month and thankfully have some fantastic prompts from Taylor and Helene. Today's prompt: What are 10 things you'd tell yourself when you started blogging...

Now I haven't been blogging too long so I'm not sure I could think of 10 things to go back and tell myself- but I can definitely think of 10 things I did tell myself, and still myself today. Some of these opinions have changed over the few months I've been on here- and some are still the same! 

Things I told Myself When I started Blogging

1) "oh this will be so easy"- newsflash, sometimes it's really really hard. You have writers block, you don't have any pictures, that negative comment really dug deep. Not that it's the hardest thing in the world- but now that I've been going at it for a solid 8 months it's like having another job.

2) "I don't care if anyone reads this"- yeah, I mean I'm still somewhat in this mindset- I'm not necessarily writing for other people but at the same time I am,  but sometimes I actually do care if people read, and comment. I'm not obsessed with my numbers in any way and still come back each day for me. So for now I think I've lived up to this.

3) "Blogging won't take up that much time.."- this might be the biggest joke that I thought could be true. As mentioned before, blogging can/is like having another job. And I'm not even that big of a blogger. I plan my posts maybe a day or two ahead of time, and for the most part the posts are easy. It's the reading of other blogs, commenting, replying, finding places to promote/advertise, setting up tweets/fb messages/that instagram shot. You could spend hours upon hours doing this. I try to limit myself to M-F and for only an hour or two each day but it can get out of control!

4) "I'll just spend a few bucks- here and there.."- this is completely doable, not spending any money. Especially if you have a great sense of html. But at some point you end up spending a bit here and there for an ad, for a new layout, to enter that giveaway, to buy products to promote, on that beautiful new camera (I'm not there yet!) and it will add up. I don't expect to necessarily make any of it back but like any other hobby (dance, knitting, a book club) there are costs associated with it.

5) "Just be yourself!"-I feel for the most part that I've kept to this, I try to write how I talk, post about my life and what I find interesting. There have definitely been a few days I've posted just to have a post out there but I would like to think not only am I being myself but helping myself further find who I am.

6) "Keep an open mind and make some friends"- this is one thing that I've done for sure- blogging has been a great gateway to new products, ideas, finding like minds and meeting some really really awesome people.

7) "I'm going to be a champion!"- not sure where this thought came from but it appeared and here I am. What I will be a champion of I do not know. I will take my award now though just for keeping this as long as I have.

8) "This will be great writing practice for my hike"- for the most part this has been, and this was the reason I started the blog. I wanted to be in the habit of already updating and writing posts. Either way it will be different thought because most likely I will be posting from my phone, or from a slow computer in towns along the way. The posts will probably be less frequent. I'm in the habit of writing though so hopefully now I will be more likely to jot down notes each night, take more pictures and record everything better.

9) "I will only post a few times a week"- When I first started I didn't know that blogging was such an intricate world of so many wonderful people and blogs. Honestly I didn't even read any other blogs, I knew I wanted to do something for my hike and a friend of mine told me she was starting a blog so I was like sure, let's do it together and then we will have support. I figured if I update 2 times a week I would be fine. Then I got into it, found out readers like consistency and content as well as frequent updates. Now I post at least 4 times a week and aim for 5. haha! This will change though when I'm hiking..

10) "have fun!!"- and I am! I love doing this- meeting new people, having conversations via twitter, enjoying new instagram photos, reading tips on how to wear the perfect interview outfit or just a great recipe someone tried. I like writing book reviews and telling you about the new clothes I bought, or the recipe I tried. It can seem like work sometimes (I have to reply to those comments, or oh no my ad is expiring!) but I love it. It's a job a truly enjoy right now and hope I continue to enjoy it for quite sometime..