When I created this blog in 2017, I had experienced many ups and downs of blogging. I’ve had writer’s block, trouble keeping pace with my weekly blogging schedule, and even had problems with people I knew offline and their opinions about what I should and shouldn’t blog. All the time this was happening I was working, took care of a relative that eventually passed away, and dealt with my own health problems. Still, I wanted blog where I could write posts about anything that fell into a lifestyle category. Thus why this blog exists today.

After all the years of blogging, it wasn’t until recently I realized I have readers not because I talk about whatever is trendy, I talk about whatever I want to talk about. Since realizing this, I remembered my unofficial “rules” for writing a blog. I’ve been dwelling on them quite a bit in the last few weeks, so I decided to write six things I learned about creating and writing blog posts. These are not all my unofficial “rules”, but they are the ones I feel would be the most helpful to anyone struggling to write posts for blogs.

Be Yourself

So many people try to put out content on social media that contains a version of themselves that isn’t really the truth. Although we cannot disclose everything about ourselves on the internet, especially in blog posts, there are things we can do to avoid distorting a realistic perspective of ourselves to readers. One of the ways that helped me is to list all the things I talk about on my blogs. Once that is done, I list all the things I know I am and can do offline. I try to focus on things that are things I would praise in others but can also do myself. Then I compare what I write online and what I am offline. This helps me see the difference between what I talk about online and who I am in the real world. It also helps me see if there are things I know about that would make good blog post topics in order to add more of my real world self into my writing. And above all else, don’t write or make content that isn’t true about yourself in order to get views!

 

Be Honest With Yourself

One of the most important things I learned while maintaining blogs is to be honest with myself. Being honest can mean anything from what type of posts I want to write, what kind of information I want to include in them, and what topics I want to cover all the way to the frequency of publishing the posts and how fast I can work. Since real life problems are more pressing than getting a post out, it can be hard to judge if writing and publishing a post is can be done in a certain time frame. Be honest with your real life limitations and how fast you can create posts. Quality of posts should always be more important than quantity. Taking sponsorships and brand deals are different as they need to be written and published in a certain time frame, but the same thing applies to the amount of sponsored posts you can write.

 

Focus on What You Know and Are Passionate About First Before Venturing into Other Topics

This was something that was hard for me to do at first. It isn’t easy to create posts that capture an audience, but it can be easier to write about things you know and are passionate about. This way you can get a feeling for the kind of posts and topics people like to read about before moving onto something else. Especially if that new topic is new and unfamiliar to you.

 

Create a List of Things You Won’t Talk About Online and Stick to It

This was something I decided to do when I was a teenager and still do it today. Some of the off limit topic are posts discussing details about my opinions on politics, religion, my family members, upsetting events in my life, and details about my health struggles. I have broken these rules in the past, but for the most part I keep to them. Doing this helps keep any prying eyes away from anything I feel too sensitive talking about to any random reader that may stumble across my blog and reads these posts.

 

Just Because Everyone is Talking About It on Social Media Doesn’t Mean You Should Too

I’ve fallen into this trap many times over the years and nearly fell for it recently as well. Just because everyone is talking about it on social media doesn’t mean you should too. If the subject matter bothers you or isn’t something your blog covers, then don’t talk about it for the views. You will run the risk of not only messing with the reason why your readers read your blog, it may do something to the algorithms that help new readers find you blog. I think it is fine to talk about something trending on social media, but as long as you don’t interrupt the topics of your blog with only what is trending on social media. If it is something your feel comfortable adding to your blog, then do it. Just don’t keep chasing after trends. They change so rapidly that it’s hard to write posts and keep up with everything. Unless your blog actually covers trends on social media. Then talk about it as much as you want to!

 

Don’t Be Hard on Yourself if Something is Happening Offline That Inhibits Your Blog Post Creation

If you are like me, then you have plenty of work to do that has nothing to do with blogging. This is why I experienced struggles writing posts. I would get constantly distracted by real life problems instead of working on posts. During these times, I would be really hard on myself. My imposter syndrome would be aggravated and I would doubt my own abilities and worthiness in having and maintaining a blog. This is why I say one of my learned lessons while blogging is to not be hard on myself during these times. Sometimes blogging needs to be more important than other things. Sometimes it’s not. Just know that the real life difficulties of keeping and maintaining a blog is something that will happen no matter if there is blog or not. It just feels different because blogging is a part of social media. Not a traditional job.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

 

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