So, I’m thinking about starting a new blog soon, it might not be 2020, but close enough, since we’re nearing the end of 2019. How futuristic does 2020 sound though? Weren’t we supposed to have flying cars by then? We’re such losers.
Back to blogging though. I’m thinking to keep Beauty Bites only for food and healthy lifestyle and to share my personal development stories, blogging, productivity and business tips and ideas in another blog. When that’s ready I’ll link to it, in case you wanna check it out. I know it’s the right thing to do at this point, as I’m feeling super excited about it!
I understand blogging is not cool anymore, it already wasn’t cool when I started Beauty Bites in 2015. But to me, it makes me happy. It’s fulfilling to see how far I’ve progressed and how much progress I’m making from even just a month ago.
That being said, I never thought blogging would be for me – all the writing and promoting content are so not in what I considered my nature. Back in high school, a million years ago, I hated literature. The teacher did not like me either, because I didn’t live up to my sister’s ability to write and connect, which I guess she expected of me.
I liked math and chemistry. Those were pretty straightforward. You can’t tell someone 2+2 ain’t 6, when it is…I’m kidding I actually liked Geography. Oh, how I hated geography…Can’t tell you where Thailand is on the map if my life depended on it. How did I even finish high school? And with good grades? I guess I was lucky and just slept my way up. Was that joke too much? I still have a recurring dream I need to pass a math exam and it actually scares me. Someone analyze it for me please. I hope it doesn’t mean I’m a complete psychopath who likes to keep hairs in his pillows (I watched about such a guy on TV back when people actually watched TV and not their phones).
Blogging in 2020. Let’s talk about it. What’s gonna be different if I were really to start a blog all over again? A little bit about social media, that seems to be changing by the minute, but in a way still stays the same.
Blogging In 2020: Things I’d Do Differently
1. Start Social Media Before The Blog
The one thing I’d definitely do before starting the new blog is to start social media even before I’ve started the blog. No secret I love Pinterest, so that would be my first choice. Then I’m thinking Instagram since it’s easier to build an audience (even if small) when you’re brand new by using hashtags and other strategies I guess.
The reason I want to do that is because it takes time to build trust with these platforms. You might remember I started social media about 2 years after starting this blog and because of that, during those 2 years I didn’t have anyone come around. Now it’s grown into something that brings me so much joy and helps me connect with others and serve those who need it.
So by starting maybe two, three weeks in advance I’ll have the basics covered and I will have build a small audience. So that when the blog is actually ready, I would have people to show it to.
I also don’t want to wait more than 2-3 weeks to start, because I kinda lose motivation when I put things off and I get less excited.
Of course, with starting social media – I’ll focus on saving and sharing content that’s relevant to my blog niche. So for personal development, blogging and business I won’t necessarily be saving a pin about how to dry tomatoes, even if I might want to do it. Always think what your ideal reader would like to read.
2. SEO Everything.
SEO is a mystery to me. I try to do it, but then I’m too slothful to go and start guest blogging and building backlinks. It just doesn’t excite me, it makes me want to run away and hide somewhere.
But I have found that choosing the right, more niche keywords and writing longer, helpful articles really helps.
Oh sorry, I forgot to mention what SEO is: It stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s what people do to get found on Google. You do it by using specific keywords and by formatting your blog posts properly.
But with SEO I don’t just want to SEO my blog, I’ll SEO my Pinterest account too. Pinterest also works with keywords and you need to use them everywhere – in your account, board descriptions and pins.
I hadn’t thought about SEO until maybe a year ago and it has really made a difference, even if Google still hates me. And we all know Google is more important than Zeus and the universe, so I’m feeling like quite the loser.
3. Write Helpful Content That Isn’t Perfect
Whenever I write content now, I always keep the end in mind. Start with the end in mind they say. And this is so very true. And it makes things so much easier and the content so much more helpful.
The end I keep in mind when I’m writing content now vs in the past is that I want my content to be useful, but not overwhelming. I don’t want to go into too many details. I want people to come, get the information or inspiration they need, really understand why this is important and then take action. Like actually take action.
I don’t want to warn them about a million things, this can go wrong and then that can go wrong. Such content wouldn’t be empowering, it will be debilitating. Keep it straightforward and focus on the essentials.
Keeping the end in mind has helped me create better content a lot faster. I’m not wondering around what this blog should include and what it shouldn’t. Not trying to impress anyone. I’m quite aware I’m not writing poetry and I’ve let go of the desire to be unique or to make content about how special I am.
4. Get the Technical Stuff Right!
I won’t go into too much detail here, but here I’ve build a foundation that really works for me at this point so I’m thinking about using the same things on the other blog:
- Hosting: Siteground (absolutely recommend, get 60% off!)
- WordPress Theme: Genesis and the Divine child theme (the one I’m using now), although I really love the Cook’d theme as well, so I might use that!
- Pinterest Scheduling Tool: Tailwind (!can’t live without it, get a free trial here)
- Pin-Making Tool: Canva!
BTW. if you’ve never made a blog before and need help with it, read my How To Start A Blog Guide, it pretty much goes through everything you need to know at first about creating a blog.
5. Create a Blogging Calendar and Stick to It
This has been the first year I created a very simple schedule for this blog, that is humane, not overloaded and actually works for me. And I have stuck to it (well most weeks!). At the beginning of the year I said: I will have a post out twice a week.
That simple goal changed everything. I was able to stay consistent with my blog and with social media and this year I’ve seen so much growth and progress, it really makes me happier and helps me breathe easier.
Before this year, I’d have weeks when I didn’t post anything, weeks when I’d post 5 times and I’d always have that nagging in my head – when are you going to post something???? Now I’m calm and so much more productive.
With the new blog, I’m thinking of blogging once a week at first and see from there.
6. Delegate More
I don’t know if I’ll necessarily hire someone to do things for me, but I’ll definitely invest more in scheduling tools like Tailwind, automate as much as I can and create layouts for things like social media graphics and blog posts.
7. Think of Starting A Blog As A Marathon
I hate when people say this, because running a marathon has never been something I’d want to put myself through. I’ll probably change my mind in a few years when I get a little bit older and have to prove things to myself.
But when it comes to blogging, patience pays off. It really does. Impatience, however, can waste quite a lot of time. Checking stats over and over again has only made me unproductive and stressed in the past.
Now I really want to look at a blog as what it can be not just a year from now, but 3, maybe 5 years from now. What it can become.
I always used to set monthly or annual goals for this blog – how much traffic it should get, how much money it should make, how many posts it should have. And it always created stress, not excitement. But this year, I let go of this and understood that with patience this blog can grow this into something much bigger and better and it’s okay if I don’t “get there” this month or this year.
