In all honesty, I’m still a noob when it comes to blogging. I’ve only been at this for less than two years. When I started, I was blogging three times a week but after a few months, fizzled out a bit as I was navigating balancing motherhood with my career with my blog, a side hustle + passion, with life. As I made the transition to leave my job last January, I was trying to get into a new rhythm and blog more again, but it wasn’t until this past summer I made a commitment to get back to regularity + have held myself to a higher blogging expectation.

Even with the commitment and higher standards, I’m not some bigtime blogger (yet). I don’t have the readership that my friend Amy of BalancedAmes does; I don’t have the amazing Pinterest + growth skills of my friend Steph at FirstThymeMom and I most certainly don’t have the following, opportunity and aesthetic of one of my FAVORITE Instagram mamas @marylauren. But, you know what I do have? I do have almost two years of experience. Of finding my voice, finding my way and improving on my writing, skills, strategy and output + growth. And because the poll in my IG Stories yesterday told me that 96% of you wanted some BTS blogging info, I decided I’d share some insights of what I’ve learned along the way.

 

Behind the Scenes of Blogging:

|1| You have to have hustle and boundaries.

I began blogging as a creative outlet and used the writing time and publishing space as a way to express myself. I recognized the opportunity that blogging opened the doors to and had a desire to turn my creative outlet into somethng more serious. So, I quickly learned that if I wanted to do so, I had to hustle. I had to put the time in to learn the strategy, find and cultivate a readership and actually create the content. Many o’ days, hustling has looked like writing blog posts at 10p when I’d rather be asleep. Or praying my children nap at the same time + for a significant amount of time so I can take a few photos in the daylight + get a jump start on some posts or catch up on emails regarding collaborations. It’s constant and a bit demanding.

With that hustle though comes boundaries. I could go, go, go because really, the blogging world never shuts down for the day (plus it’s my personality to do so). Lots of people are on Instagram and Facebook at night – prime times to post and interact. But, it’s also important to me to be present for bedtime with my kids and not be on my phone answering emails all day. I will be the first to admit that this boundaries lesson – it’s the hardest one for me. If I want to achieve more, I have to do more, but right now, I don’t really have that capacity. I’m learning and re-learning what my boundaries are.

 

|2| You need to build your backbone.

My lack of backbone in the early stages of blogging is a good portion of the reason why I fizzled out on blogging for a while. I needed to build my backbone. I needed to be able to find a way to let the comments, criticisms, unfollows or disapprovals just roll off my shoulders instead of taking each one to heart and shedding some tears as a result. I specifically remember calling my friend Sarah of MKE Moms Blog crying in the early stages of my blog journey. I told her of how my feelings were so hurt by some feedback I received and she had to talk me through it. {She always has the best advice and is so complimentary.} She, and others, have been instrumental in helping me build my own confidence in this blogging world. Putting myself, my family, my heart out there comes with a big open hole of vulnerability and for a while I patched that up with a band-aid because I wasn’t ready for it to show. Last winter, after I opened up about our early miscarriage, I hit a pivotal point in my blogging journey. The women who reached out in support, to echo my grieving, to just say hi — they made me realize, there is a community out there of supporters, not naysayers. It just took me a while to build my backbone and confidence enough to find them.

 

|3| Collaborations are delicate relationships and they certainly aren’t always handed to you.

Blogging can come with opportunity to partner with some amazing brands. (Yes, some of this is paid. Some is unpaid.) It’s a really fun aspect to writing and content creating. I actually love it! With that said, the relationships with these brands are actual relationships. They take a lot of communication, of planning, sometimes of negotiating, of delivering high quality content and results. The relationships deserve respect (honoring timelines, photo specifications, etc.) because after all, both the blogger and the business want to put their best work out there.

As for cultivating these collaborations, some come to you. Some come through influencer networks for those bloggers who utilize them, and others have to be pitched. I have a list of brands that I absolutely want to work with. I recently pitched two brands on two different ideas that I’m very excited about + proud of, and guess what? I was rejected. Twice. But I professionally addressed the brands to hopefully continue a relationship in the future when the time and opportunity strikes rightAnother lesson here is that it’s not always about the free stuff. Sometimes I get asked if I just get things for free and while sometimes that is the case, I would never collaborate with a brand on a product or service that I would not fully endorse myself. I’m also at the point in my life where I don’t need more stuff. I don’t want more stuff. I won’t just take something for free to post about it because I truly believe that collaborations are relationships and if I’m going to post to serve an audience of readers or followers, I want it to be true, genuine, fun and useful. Lesson learned to me: don’t take free stuff because it’s not always free. (As in “no strings attached”.)

|4| If you want to move forward, you have to put your best foot forward and treat your blog like a job.

As I decided to take my blog from casual to more serious (aka a blog business), I had to put my best foot forward. I had to start treating it like a job. To me, this meant replying to emails within 24 hours of receiving them. Staying on top of messages and engagement on social media. Posting on a regular and consistent schedule on Instagram. Scheduling posts and creating blog content twice a week. Up leveling (or trying to) my photos. Listening to podcasts and taking workshops to IMPROVE.

This photo was taken at Starbucks while I was writing this post by a random high schooler who had a very perplexed look when I described I was a blogger writing a post about blogging and I needed a photo. ?

 

|5| Sometimes, done is better than perfect.

Ahem, perfectionist over here. I could read, re-read, re-read and re-read some more when I’m writing a post. I could take foreverrrrrrr to write it as I search my brain for the perfect words and perfect way to express what it is I’m trying to say. But, I do NOT have that kind of time. Right now, I’m sitting in Starbucks with time ticking until my hot yoga class (thanks to my husband giving me a little time away) and just feeling grateful I don’t have to stay up until 11p to finish this up. Not everything is going to be perfectly edited, though I wish. And sometimes, when I search and search for the perfect words, it doesn’t even turn out how I want it to. I want all of what I write to sound like my voice how I would talk with you if we were having lattes (or margaritas) together. And I’m not perfect. So this space isn’t going to be either. It’s just going to get done + be a good representation of who I am.

 

|6| Social media isn’t always fun.

I started posting on Instagram Stories over the summer and honestly, I hated it. I didn’t (don’t) like the sound of my own voice and could never really remember to capture anything good (also struggle a bit because of #1- boundaries). What did people want to see anyway?

Also, posting regularly to serve an audience means you have to regularly have content to post. Just snapping a photo at the last minute doesn’t work for me. Daylight is best – and in Wisconsin right now that is hard to come by – plus sometimes I need help with my photo concept idea. Sometimes you have to break out of a photo rut and try something creative – not always fun or easy. These things take me some time + sometimes I need to search for inspiration.

Another not fun social media example: I have mornings where I’m trying to get a post up because it’s a collaboration on a specific timeline or it’s to share a blog post for the day all the while my kids are in some sort of chaotic state around me. That is NOT fun. Posting a picture and getting your caption + tags right and updating your hashtags while your kids are screaming, getting into trouble or pulling on you, yeah not my idea of a good time. I think the shift in my mind here though is that I now use social media for my business purposes (but love to keep up socially, too) therefore sometimes I have to get a post up. So, no, I don’t need the talk that I should just stop if it’s not fun. ?

PS – If you’re not doing so already, follow me over on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest! ❤️

|7| The numbers matter, but don’t get caught up in them.

Unique page views, unique monthly visitors, Instagram followers, Facebook followers, number of repins on Pinterest, likes, engagement rates. All of these numbers! They actually DO matter. They matter when you are trying to grow and build what you are doing. It’s sometimes hard for me to separate the numbers in the short term from the numbers in the long term. I remind myself “not every post is going to be a winner” and thanks to some outside encouragement, I often look back on how far I’ve come in the amount of time I’ve been here on the blog. Ultimately, I just try not to get caught up in the numbers on a daily basis, but look at an extended period of time in order to determine if I’m succeeding at my goals.Side note: Likes do not matter to me for self-worth. I’m not trying to get likes to fuel my self-esteem or make myself feel cool / good in any way. It’s a tricky thing to describe when you’re blogging (and Instagramming) as a job. You need the likes for engagement, which brands look at and value when determining whether or not they will work with you.

 

|8| Serve, serve, serve.

My blog is a personal blog. I share a lot about what’s happening in my life, my perspective on different topics and things I’ve experienced or encountered. When I think about others as I’m writing, it’s helpful to me. What about me, in my life, in my vulnerabilities, will help others? Because I seek and find inspiration in others who are sharing their own hearts, I know that sharing mine may do the same. Which is why I continue to put myself out there – to serve and speak to women’s hearts.

 

|9| Don’t keep secrets. Share everything.

No, this is not to say I’m going to tell you EVERYTHING about what is going on in my life. Definitely not. This is to say if I have anything that you want to know about blogging or Instagramming, simply because you’re curious or want to do it yourself, that I will SHARE it. I’m an open book. I’m not an expert, but I’m happy to share anything I know with anyone who wants to know it. I’ve gratefully learned this lesson from other blogging friends and want to emulate exactly what they do, because I firmly believe that a rising tide raises all ships. And, I’ve been witness to that happening, too.

 

|10| Say you’re a blogger.

This might sound funny, but in the beginning, I didn’t really want to tell anyone that I was a blogger. I’m not sure why. Maybe I was embarrassed (why I don’t know) or scared of judgment or who knows what the case was, but I didn’t want to bring up my blog in conversation + when others did, I would get really quiet. I’ve learned though that I need to say I’M A BLOGGER. If someone is asking about a topic I have written a post on, I should share it or mention it. If I’m having a conversation with someone about what I do for work, I need to SAY it, not discount it because I don’t have a full time salary as a result. Saying you’re a blogger makes things real, it makes it easier for others to support you and you never know who you may be connecting with that could lead to more opportunities for you and your blog. (I’m speaking that to myself. ☺️)

 

As I’ve learned these lessons and developed myself as a blogger, I’ve realized just how cool this gig is. It is a LOT of hard work, a lot of time and a lot of dedication, lots of rejection, some success, a whole deal of excitement… and, I kind of love it. I have big blog goals for 2018 and am going to hustle (with boundaries) to go after them.

 

What do you think? Have any other questions?

 

XO,

Your BTS Blogger Gal