After 1500 post in blogging, I’ve learned quite a bit! I’ll be sharing some of those bits of knowledge with you here in Episode 14 of the Sandbox to Success podcast!
Table of Contents
What I Have Learned About Blogging In 1500 Posts
I wrote a post that published January of 2013 called “Top 5 things I’ve Learned About Blogging In 100 Posts.” It’s now August 2015 and we’re just shy of the 1500 post limit! I’ve been working diligently since the post, and we’ve been posting more frequently.
Here are some of the pieces of advice I gave them. Let’s see if I still agree with myself.
Write Down Post Ideas As Soon As You Get Them
I didn’t take my own advice with this, but I’m starting to do this more frequently. I keep my to-do list on paper in front of me so that I can cross of items throughout the week. I wrote in the original post that you should write down post as soon as you think of them, no matter what time of day!
Only Commit To As Many Post As You Can Handle
When I first started, it was compliment obtainable to write 3-4 post a week (we post daily). Now I’m back to work full-time and it’s harder to keep up. When you start a blog think 6 months into the future and don’t take more than you can handle. This is something I still live by. Although we write many more post these days, we have excellent contributors that help us out! We use flexibility throughout the different sites to and not all of them have daily posts.
Choose A Theme
On the original post, I wrote that having a broad theme (niche) makes it easier to write on a wide range of topics without seeming scatter brained. I have changed my thoughts on this! We found the initial theme of parenting for Thinking Outside The Sandbox was too broad. We ended up making a spinoff site to support that, and it is going extremely well now! Be sure to go back and check out the entire podcast I did about niche’s.
Don’t Expect To Make Money
When Cat and I started we hoped to help small business owners like us and make a bit of money. The few dollars we made went towards hosting and other overhead cost. We did it because we love it. This is a concept I still believe in. Don’t start a blog to make money! You can work towards that, but you aren’t likely to make money right away. Since writing this, however, blogging has now become my full-time gig. We also have a team now, and help other full-time mom’s support their families. We have 22 writers and a whole host of other people as well and we both get a income. There is money to be made blogging, but you aren’t going to make it those first few months. I remember when I first started my husband said “You need to think about how much time you’re spending on this and taking away from family and think about if this is what you should be doing.” The very next week we saw a monetary pay off in the form of a sponsored post!
Be Organized
I’ll be the first to admit that this is not my strong suit. This will allow all those life moments that pop up to not be stressful to you. This is a concept I still agree with. All of our contributors submit at the first of the month. We have other concepts come through during the month, and this allows us to have an overflow of material to use as needed.
Now after 1500 post, I have a couple of new things to share with you!
Make large images
Tiny images don’t view as well and people don’t share them as much. Mine are about 120kb when I do my big large pinnable images. You may have to go up in hosting for this, but it’s worth it! The blog I’m referencing today has a tiny little picture that’s shifted off to the side. Not sure why I thought that was a good idea at the time! Now everything I larger and centered. Make big images for everything, because you never know what they’ll be made for. If you want smaller images for other social media sites make these in addition to the large images, but the large images should always come first.
Do Not Be Afraid Of Change
Things are constantly changing. What worked for you last year won’t work for you this year. Something I hear frequently from people that have been blogging for years is that there’s no future in mommy blogging. I don’t agree with that! We’re constantly growing our brand, and trying new things. Not everything is successful, of course, but we’re always growing. For instance, I went to a conference in New York recently. Since then, I’ve been able to take that experience and we are now building the brand and expanding in a way that we weren’t going to! If you’re blogging by yourself, take time every couple of months to re-evaluate. Talk with peers. Hire someone if you like. I’m a blog mentor and help people to brainstorm and evaluate the direction of their blog.
As always, I want to hear your feedback. Let me know if you agree, or don’t agree, think I’m spot on or way off point! Thanks for listening to the Sandbox to Success podcast, with your host: Katrina M. Thom.
