Lessons I learned in 8 years of blogging

Back in 2013, I took the plunge and decided to start a blog and here are the lessons I learned in 8 years of blogging and continue to learn even today. When I started blogging, I did not start it with the idea of it being a small business that will down the line start to make me money, enough money for me to rely on it as a source of ‘extra and consistent income’ every month. One thing I should mention is that, I did not start making money from this blog for at least a good 2 years and when I did, I was making pennies which couldn’t even cover the cost of running a blog.

The lessons I learned in the 8 years of blogging are not only personal to me but shared amongst many other veteran bloggers (although I don’t consider myself to be one). Blogging has evolved so much over the last 10 years, before it felt more like just another version of ‘myspace’ (showing my age). Today, blogs are a lot like your portfolio and CV in a way to show potential brands that you are a fit for their brand and will be happy to pay your asking price for content creation and other work they might require, blogs are now a business portal.

Lessons I Learned in 8 years of Blogging

Blogs are not longer the space you just share your moscato obsession but rather it is a monetizable tool that you can utilise to make extra income. I have shared many times on this blog my passive income report showing my readers how much money I make on this blog and I have now switched it over to share the passive & side hustle income reports to my Youtube Channel. Whilst on this blog I only shared money I made from this website, on Youtube, I share income from side hustles too as I consider them all part of my small business. I was able to start a lot of the side hustles that I do thanks to lessons I learned in 8 years of blogging.

If you are new to blogging and want to learn how to start a blog, there are so many wonderful bloggers who have created content around this topic. I shared tips on things I wish I knew before I started blogging, but if you are interested in starting a blog then I recommend checking out this post. Blogging is something that I recommend to everyone who asks me for ‘ways to make money online’ but I always reiterate that this is not for the faint hearted and you need a lot of patience and not think of it as a ‘get rich quick scheme’ because it isn’t. So below are the lessons that I have learned in the last 8 years of blogging.

1. Niche is not important but topics of interest are: I am sure you will hear a lot of bloggers and influencers talking about how having a niche is so important and why you should have one. Personally, I do not subscribe to this train of thought, I think that ‘topics of interest are more important than niche. On this blog I talk about travel, beauty, fashion, home and money because these are topics of interest to me. I found that when I started to focus on one topic, I run out of steam quickly hence why I recommend focusing on topics of interest and not ‘niche’. The one thing I think niche is important for is finding people who are like minded and will have shared experiences.
2. Delegating is important to grow your business: If you want to grow your blog as a business, you need to learn how to delegate some ‘mundane’ tasks to someone who can do it better than you. When I started blogging, I did it all, I was the writer, editor, VA, photographer, social media manager and so on. I still do writing and editing but everything else I have outsourced and this allows me to focus on negotiation deals with brands and PR. Sit down and think about things that you can delegate to someone else and focus on things that make you money.
3. Imposter syndrome is real: When I started blogging, I learned so much from other bloggers but I then went overboard and started doing everything they were doing and not sharing content that I loved and was interested in. I found that my style of writing changed, the layout of my blog looked exactly like some of the bloggers I admired and whilst there is nothing wrong with that, I just found that I lost my originality and authentic self. Make sure you focus on learning and not coping what other people are doing just so you feel like you are doing something important.
4. Blogging is hard work: I have never lied to anyone who has asked me if blogging is hard or not because blogging is a lot of work especially when you are starting out and are a one-woman/man band. There has been many times in the last 8 years that I have wanted to quit but I also love blogging so much so it was a challenge. I realised that if I wanted to continue blogging, I needed to make sure I added in breaks as much as I needed and not feel guilt for not blogging all the time.
5. You have to put yourself out there: For me blogging and like in real life, I try to stay as true and as authentic as I possibly can be whilst trying to keep some things private. Blogging taught me to stop hiding behind the keep board, click that submit button and let the world have at it. You could be mother Theresa and there would still be someone who doesn’t like you and that is ok. Life is for the living and you need to put yourself out there, be confident in yourself, your content and be as authentic as you can possibly be.
6. Taking a break is important: This is something I learned the hard work, I learned it once I encountered full on burn-out because I had overstretched myself in all areas of my life. I was blogging daily, sharing content on all platforms daily and even woke up in the middle of the night if I forgot to post that day. It took to a point where my health was impacted and I knew something had to give. Now, I schedule breaks regularly and changed my blogging schedule to a couple times a week and if I don’t feel like sharing content, I don’t.
7. If you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work: I love what I do and since turning my blog from hobby to small business, I found myself struggling because there are days when it feels like too much work but coincidentally it has been those days where I have not delegated nor taken any breaks from the blogging sphere. Once I have taken a break and come back to it fresh minded, I am always reminded of why I love blogging and I hope I will continue to love it even more.

Last year, I shared the lessons I had learned after 7 years of blogging and I still stand by those lessons as I am standing by the lessons I learned in 8 years of blogging. If you are a blogger, what are some of the lessons you have learned since you started blogging? What advise would you give someone who just started out?