Six months ago, I launched The Britt Blog because I had stuff to say and needed an outlet.
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster since then (diet culture, ADHD, eggplant recipes, bulimia, work-from-home outfits, lifting weights – phew!) but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
3 reflections on blogging
Blogging, it turns out, is way harder than I thought.
Like I share on my About page, I didn’t really read or follow any blogs before launching this one. I’ve learned a lot in the last half-year, and certainly know more about code, “lazy loading”, mobile optimization, and web privacy policies than I did before.
However, the amount of advice and recommendations for first-time bloggers can be downright overwhelming. Six months after launching The Britt Blog, here are my top three reflections on some of these blogging practices.
You really DO need a plan
All the research I did prior to launch told me plan, plan, and plan some more. So objectively, I knew having a content plan and a calendar to track posts was important. The Type A perfectionist in me was happy. But in my heart, I felt like having a content plan was more of a guideline than an actual rule.
After all, this is a personal blog, not a business. I wanted things to evolve organically. Plus, my brain was full of ideas and topics and blog posts just waiting to happen. Surely, sitting down and banging out post after post wouldn’t be that difficult, right?
Wrong.
Having an editorial calendar – even for a personal blog – proved to be an extremely helpful tool, not just a nice-to-have. It ensures I can keep prioritizing the blog in the midst of everything else and overcome the inevitable writer’s block that pops up. I made a very simple one in Excel, but there are tons of free templates out there.
Think ahead
Any serious content creator will tell you that planning posts ahead of time saves you lots of time and sanity. After six months of The Britt Blog, I can attest that having an “admin day” once a month to brainstorm and plot potential blog post topics within my editorial calendar has been a great practice.
This goes for the actual content of your posts as well. Often, this means having multiple draft posts going at one time. For example, I knew I’d want to post about my work-from-home style challenge at the end of January. So as I shared those outfit pics throughout the month to Instagram, I also uploaded them into a draft blog post. I continued to post throughout January, and then when I was ready for the style post, all I needed to do was wordsmith the text around the pictures. Boom.
Be true to yourself
It’s really easy to get caught up in SEO, email sign-up conversions, key word usage, bounce rates, etc. And those things are important, especially if your blog is more commercial. But if your blog is purely a personal project, like this one, then the only metric that matters at the end of the day is “Am I proud of what I’ve put out there?”
Of course, it’s equally as important to me that the The Britt Blog as easy to find as possible for those I want to reach (psst, that’s you, by the way). But to me, it doesn’t matter how many of you like me or read this blog if I’m being fake or lying to you about my story or experiences.
Every time I post, I ask myself if I’m proud of it. If I’d stand by what I’m saying if I were to tell it to you in person. That is how I stay true to what I want this blog to be.
Let’s keep going
Blogging as a platform keeps changing, so there’s always new things for me to learn. And I know I won’t always get it “right.” But the point of launching The Britt Blog wasn’t to be perfect anyway.
And to those of you reading this post – whether you’ve subscribed for email updates or are reading this because someone told you to – THANK YOU. Thank you for sticking with me, reading the blog, and letting me know what you think.
