A couple of weeks ago my blog had it's first birthday which is a big milestone so I had to celebrate! When I started my blog I knew nothing about content creation and at first, all I thought you had to do to grow is create content and somehow you grow the more you created! Creating content is important for growth but if that is only it took to build a successful brand everyone would do it! When you start working for yourself and build a blog or YouTube channel you pick up so many skills that you never had before. I have been a creator for four years so I have been blogging for much longer than one-year but only on this particualr one for one year. There are a lot of lessons you can learn from your first year of blogging so in this post I am going to talk about some lessons I learned in my first year of blogging!

Don't be afraid to show your personality- If you ever were to get on a new blogger's site you may realize that a lot of them are very uptight and are almost afraid to show personality. They try to get almost every possible grammatical error they can find and write it like a college essay. There are no rules against writing blog posts like a college essay but technically blog post are not supposed to be written that and blogs are usually supposed to be written like your having a conversation with someone. It's all about connection because if you can't connect with your audience in some way people will get bored and you won't get very many readers! I used to be that person who tried to get every grammatical error and write blog posts like a college essay until I realized more people will be interested if you don't write like that and show them your personality! Blogs thrive on personality and if someone wanted to read a college essay they wouldn't be going to a less formal website like a blog! 

Most bloggers are nice-  When I started this blog my biggest fear was haters! I almost imagined myself getting a ton of them but to be honest not very many people hate on my blog and most bloggers actually are supportive and want to see you thrive! There will always be that one person who wants nothing except to see you fail but most people aren't like that. Unless someone is threatening to sue me which has never happened because I have the proper legal statement in place I just block these types of people becuase I don't have for it! 

Respond to all comments- It amazes me when I come across a site and see a creator approve comments but not a single response to any of the comments that were approved. I sometimes approve comments and then respond to them a little later if I don't have time or don't know the correct response right away but I don't ignore my readers! Content creators should be answering all comments, not just the ones they feel like answering! Readers will not come back if you have the reputation of not responding to comments so you want to try and answering all of them even if it's just with a simple like because at least that shows you read it!

It does get easier- Some pro bloggers strongly believe that you have to write every single day to improve your blog posts even if you don't technically publish them you should write! This is where I disagree and I don't think bloggers need to be writing every day but I think if you write too much it can lead to burnout and hating content creation because you can do too much of a good thing! The more you do something the easier it will get and you don't have to force yourself to do something constantly to improve your skills. The blog posts you wrote today will be a little bit better than the one you wrote last week and it's just practice! When I first started blogging four years ago it took me days to write a five-hundred-word blog post which sounds like a lot to someone who doesn't write often but that is actually a short blog post. I am now able to write well over one thousand words in a few hours because I have had years of practice! It won't happen overnight but you will get better with practice and consistency!

Plan ahead- I can write blog posts the day of because I am a more experienced blogger and can write posts in a few hours but not all bloggers are able to do that. Some people have jobs and have to work on the day they are posting while others may take a little bit longer to write because they are less experienced so it may take them days to write one short post. Brainstorming post ideas or writing a day or two in advance can help give you more time to come up with new ideas and to write them so if you struggling with this it's definitely something you want to do! I usually try to write a day or two in advance to give myself more time but I don't always have that kind of time.

Comment on smaller blogs- Some pro bloggers will say to comment on big blogs that have hundreds of thousands of followers to increase engagement. I would only say that is a good idea if the creator is active and responds to comments because a lot of big blogs aren't and neglect comments due to the fact they have so many to respond to that yours sometimes gets lots in the bunch. It won't help you increase engagement and get new readers if no one is interacting with your comment or even sees that it's there! Small blogs generally are more engaging because you have less comments and often get a response so there is a better chance you could find new readers on a smaller blog than a bigger one! Some bigger blogs are run by a team of people that are top of comments and it would help to comment on these blogs but in my experience, a lot of big blogs lack when it comes to answering comments.

Take time to think about the name- When I launched my first blog four years ago it was called Life With Spina Bifida which makes sense because that is the name of my disability but I always hated that name so it was never a permanent choice. I thought that name was too plain and common so after about a year or two I changed it to Embracing Disabled Life which I literally only had a few days. I like the idea of that name because my job as a disabled creator is to help people cope and learn to embrace their disabilities but that name just sounded stupid to me and I was embarrassed to even associate myself with a blog called that. The hatred of my blog name is what forced me to come up with my current blog name My Rockin Disabled Life that has grown on me. There is nothing wrong with changing the name if you are unhappy but don't do what I did and keep repeatedly picking a name that you hated just as much as the last. The name of your blog is important because it is what represents your brands so don't feel like you have to rush it and take time to think about it. I wish I would have done that becuase I would be so much farther in my blogging journey if I had!

Have the proper legal statements- I know a lot of bloggers who do everything correctly the way that it's supposed to be done but I know some bloggers who don't even have a disclaimer or privacy policy that we are required to have. When I come across a site that doesn't disclose sponsored posts properly or doesn't have any disclaimers or privacy policies I assume they are amateurs and aren't aware bloggers are legally required to have these statements on their blog! I honestly don't know why some people take so long to get them up and wouldn't want them as soon as possible because it can protect you from getting sued! Legal statements are one of the most boring jobs of blogging but you should have them to protect yourself!

I have made a lot of mistakes since I started blogging four years but don't we all make mistakes especially in the beginning of your blogging journey. It's okay to make mistakes because that is how you learn from them and if you perfect at everything all the time you will never improve on something! There are a lot of lessons to be learned with blogging so don't feel like you have to learn it all in one go because even people that have been blogging for years and years don't know everything there is to know. There will always be someone more experienced than you so don't be afraid to take advice from someone who has been doing it longer than you because there is always room for improvement. What lessons have you learned in your first year of blogging?