My Biggest Blogging Regrets! | Blogtober

Blogging’s a funny old thing, is it a hobby? is it a potential career? should I be taking it seriously? or should I just have fun with it? These are just some of the questions that run through my head on a daily basis and 3 1/2 years on, I still don’t have an answer to them. For me, I don’t see Blogging as a career I’d like to progress into. It’s a bit of fun and when I first started, I never really thought twice about what I was writing or uploading, but nowadays I am taking it more seriously, planning more, uploading more and being more professional about it. After being furloughed since March and eventually loosing my job, I’ve felt like a full-time Blogger. One part of me absolutely loves it and the other part of me, not so much, but it got me thinking about lots of the little things that I regret when it comes to Blogging and if I could be in a whole different situation when it comes to my career if I’d taken it seriously from the beginning and I’ve put together a list of those things that I wish I’d have done differently.

No preparation:

I started my blog the same day, probably even the same hour, as when I first thought about starting a blog. I just went onto blogger, set it up and I was writing my first post. I just wish I had prepared more by thinking of a blog name, planning more of my content rather than just sticking to beauty and also just done my research into it a bit more. I’d never really been a blog reader, so the day I started reading a couple was the day I started mine. Although it was spontaneous, it’s still one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Not using Pinterest:

Until recently, I didn’t really know what pinterest was used for and how it works, but at the beginning of this year I decided to create some pins and be active on there to see what happens. Within about a month I’d had 2 viral pins, thousands and thousands of clicks to my blog and over 5 million monthly unique viewers. I have been slacking recently on the pin front so my views and clicks have dropped but I highly recommend giving it more of a try if you’re a blogger.

Not being active on other socials:

I’ve always kept my blog separate to my other socials aside from a quick tweet to a new post or a blog link in my Instagram bio and it wasn’t until the beginning of this year that I actually started to try with my Instagram. During lock down, I had so much more time on my hands to focus solely on my blog, start uploading on Instagram everyday and start actually using pinterest. Social media goes hand in hand with Blogging and it’s one of the best ways to grow your blog other than SEO and getting search engine results; which I’ll talk about in a second. I did see a huge growth in my IG account and my followers too.

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

Not taking SEO seriously:

It wasn’t until I migrated to WordPress this time last year, that I actually started to realise I had been missing the vital part of growing a Blog; SEO. Since I’ve started working on SEO, I’ve had 3 or 4 posts reach the top of search results and lots of my posts are getting on the first page of google for some keywords. It’s only small right now but it is growing by the day and my views are getting back to what they were in my early days of Blogging.

Having a specific niche:

When I first started Blogging my blog revolved solely around Beauty and it was that way for around 2 years or so before I started introducing other topics into my posts. I think I sometimes forgot that it’s actually my blog and I can write about what I want. I have been know as more of a little bit of everything blogger for about a year now and I’ve rediscovered my love for Blogging again during this time.

Not reaching out to Brands:

I’ve had quite a few brands reach out to me for either sponsored posts or gifting and I’m so grateful, but I have only reached out to one brand before asking for a product that I wanted to try in exchange for a review and they were so up for it and said they loved my blog. This was over two years ago now and I keep meaning to reach out to more but it’s a mix of not knowing what to say, being nervous about it and whether to ask for payment / gifting etc. If anyone has any advice for me, that would be amazing!

So, those are some of my biggest blogging regrets and things I wish I’d have done differently from day one. Have you got an blogging regrets? Do you do these things but not necessarily regret them? Let’s have a chat in the comments below and I will see you tomorrow with a new post.