how to step-up your blogging game
The majority of us Bloggers started off fairly similarly. Awkward poses in our bedrooms, outfits we wish would disappear of the face of the World Wide Web and let’s not get started on all those band lyrics as post titles. Whether we like to admit it or not, blogging has somewhat evolved over recent years into a serious and respected career. Girls are taking out leases on office spaces, Talking about their “brand” and running miniature empires, it is all quite daunting!
Whether or not I fall under any of the above is debatable, but I did however make some choices and some changes which I believe enabled me to take my blog in the direction that I wanted it to go.
[lem_title]Investment[/lem_title]
And by investment I don’t just mean money, however that is a big part of it too so do please read on. It always makes me chuckle to myself when people refer to blogging as easy work, “not a proper job” or simply just dismissing it as a career entirely. I don’t know of many careers where the majority have spent years working for free using up spare time, holiday time and whatever else is left over to devote to their jobs. Ask most bloggers and the story will no doubt be the same with years of hard graft behind the never ending pages of posts which document it all.
So with that in mind you have to be prepared to invest your time, and lots of it, you will need passion, motivation and proactivity to keep going and sometimes it won’t be easy but there’s just something about blogging which I, myself found intoxicating. I’d work well into the night after my 9-5 had finished, I’d shoot outfits at weekends to ensure I had all the content I needed and I sacrificed holidays for two years to ensure I had enough time to attend events and collaborations. In short, you gotta love it.
When it comes to monetary investment, I find it’s something that so many shy away from yet it’s such a fundamental part of communicating your dedication to your blog and also how seriously you take it and you’ll be please to know you don’t have to invest thousands because there’s so many options and factors that you can consider for investment. When I fell in love with blogging I also fell in love with Photography so the first place I invested was my photography putting all my birthday money to buying my first DSLR camera that I didn’t have a clue how to use, but with a little time investment I was soon snapping away confidently. I spent hours researching and collating imagery that inspired me, slowly teaching me the basics of composition, I say basics because I will always be painfully critical of my photography.
Little did I know that investing in photography equipment would go on to rival my handbag addiction.
The next thing that I invested in was my blog design, some 2 years ago now, taking the first paycheck from my blog and putting it straight back intoa brand new innovative design. Luckily you don’t have to invest in expensive bespoke designs like I did, grateful as I am that I did, there are so many great developers out there like Pipdig, offering templates for really great prices.
[lem_title]Organisation[/lem_title]
It’s a subject I often discuss here and sometimes I wonder whether it’s for my benefit or yours as organisation is so very important to me that I am always, always looking to improve. My posting schedules, content creation time tables and time management are all things I am on an endless mission to master, and as I improve so does my blog. Try to set out a schedule of posting that works for you, three blogs per week? One big post per week? however you structure it, aim to stick to it and if you decide to up your load at any point, be sure to make a song and dance about it so that everyone knows what to expect. But don’t be so hard on yourself if sometimes life throws a curve ball and messes up your schedule, internet connections, technology or illnesses being the main culprits.
When it comes to the actual content creation try to keep it fresh, I’ve heard of bloggers working months in advance and whilst I am utterly in awe of their organisational skills, like seriously give me summa dat! I like to keep my content a little more fresh aiming to work two weeks in advance as an absolute maximum due to product launches, trends and general spur of the moment creative brain farts.
[lem_title]Make a choice[/lem_title]
It seems like a simple one but you have to make a choice whether you want a career in blogging or your love it as a creative hobby, neither is right or wrong as it comes down to personal preference. I remember 3 years ago I reached that point where I had to make a choice, I was dipping in and out of blogging, constantly changing up my style and trying to find my feet. When I was on it, it took up every second of my time, when I wasn’t it faded into a distant memory sometimes for months at a time.
One day I had to either decide to give it my everything, giving it my all in the hope that it might one day become something. Or let it go and focus more on my career at time and to continue in that direction with my life. All I can say is thank the lord I chose the hard option for my position because at that moment I fell in love with it all and never looked back.
