With a little over a month behind me, I’m still very new to the world of blogging. From the start, I knew that it would take a lot of consistent work and dedication to keep this thing running. Despite that, I’ve hit a few hurdles along the way. I expect there to be much more as I progress, but at this point, I’m ready to embrace them. I started this blog as a way to reach out to others, but I’ve also learned a lot about myself and expanded my comfort zone in the process. Here are my confessions as a new blogger, and some of my thoughts and feelings towards blogging so far:
I often feel like my content isn’t good enough, or that I’m too new of a blogger.
When I started my blog, I knew that joining group boards to share my posts would be a great way to discover other bloggers and share my own work. But when it was time to ask to contribute, I froze. I thought to myself, “Why would anybody want to accept a blog that only has three posts and just went live yesterday?” I saw all of these well-established bloggers posting, and thought that maybe I wasn’t ready for the group boards. But eventually I told myself to just do it, and it was no problem for me at all.
Everything seems all fine and good, right? How would an established blogger be established if they weren’t allowed to contribute from day one? I ended up realizing this, but I am still sometimes wary of what I post to group boards. Even on “All Niche” boards, I compare my content to what others are posting to see if it fits. I know that holding back has been preventing me from getting my feet on the ground. But lately, I believe I’ve been building my confidence by getting out there. Sometimes all it takes is making that first step.
Designing my blog has been difficult.
In my day job, I do work with back-end programming, but I also re-did my company’s website. And when I say I re-did it, I mean I did custom work based on a design my co-workers asked for. Even though some call me artistic, I found designing this blog very hard to do. In fact, it’s been a work in progress since two months before launch! I created a local server to design my site until I was happy enough with it to buy hosting. Eventually, I decided that it doesn’t have to be perfect. And if I kept this blog on the local server until it was, then I probably still wouldn’t have a live blog.
I knew that design wasn’t a simple task, but it’s really been something I’ve been struggling with on this blog. There’s a lot to consider, from accessibility to branding to user experience, and I’ve accepted that it’s not something I’ll get right on the first try.
I feel weird about telling people in my life that I have a blog.
For one, I feel more comfortable sharing my thoughts with people on the internet that I don’t know than people that I do know. Which, before the days of social media, would probably be a strange preference. But sometimes, it’s hard to be open about deeper ideas to people who don’t know that side of you just yet. I want to settle this someday, but for now, being open to my current readers is helping me be more comfortable about my ideas and being more open in general. Eventually, I feel that I will have the confidence to share this blog with the people in my life.
The other part that makes me feel strange about having this blog is the reaction people have to it. Some people think it’s funny that I have that kind of an online presence. (Something about saying you have a blog makes people laugh, what is it?) Others don’t like blogs because you’re not being held accountable for any bad advice or misinformation that you post. That’s the easier of the two things to get over, but it still deters me a little bit, especially because most people don’t know the maintenance work it takes to have a blog.
I’m worried that I’m not giving my readers good advice.
One of the reasons why I started this blog was to share my experiences and help other people. I’ve been successful at doing this in the mentoring positions that I’ve had in the past, but I still worry about my writing not being sufficient enough to be posting online. I often worry that I’m giving readers bad information that won’t help them, or saying something will be helpful when it’s not really helpful for everyone.
I think that my ability to just buy hosting, put up a site and write whatever I want is a bit scary. There’s a lot of misinformation spread online, and I’m not just talking about the news. I could make this blog a fitness blog and tell you what exercises you should do to stay in shape. I could write about exercises that people stopped doing decades ago due to overwhelming injury, but someone who doesn’t know about those exercises would think my blog is great! And maybe my niche won’t do that kind of damage if my advice isn’t great. But I still want my readers to walk away with something beneficial. I want to help people unlock their potential and be happier with this blog, and every time I proofread my posts I hope I’m accomplishing that.
I’m nervous about spreading myself thin on social media.
I can at least say for this one that I took the first step and made my handles. But I’m actually one of those people that don’t have a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Instead, I’ve watched people become addicted, have FOMO, and compare so much that they develop a negative self-image.
I believe my next step will be starting an Instagram for this blog, but I’m worried about constantly needing pictures for it. I don’t want to stop what I’m doing to get the right picture for the ‘gram, and I don’t want to be swallowed into the pit of social media. I’ll have to figure out what kind of content will go there, but for now, as long as I’m aware and have a strategy, I believe I’ll be able to let go of this one.
The blogging community is really cool.
There are so many blogging communities out there with so many friendly people! Plus, I love that there are so many people that have this shared blog niche with me. I’ve adopted self-improvement in my everyday life, and my story behind that will be entirely different from someone else’s. It’s not a competitive thing at all to have all these bloggers in the same niche, but rather a constant flow of people inspiring each other, and I love that so much. We’ve all got our own story here, and we all get to share and support each other.
Starting this blog has been one of the greatest things I could do for myself.
Although I’ve become more confident and true to myself in the past few years, I still feel like there’s a lot more I need to do to be more open to not only myself but others. A side-effect of starting this blog ended up being a boost to my own confidence and being more open to discussion about things that I wouldn’t usually talk about. It’s hard putting yourself out there, and it’s been a mental journey for me, but so far it’s been worth it, and I feel that it will continue to be worth it.
Sincerely,
Julie Anna
“I feel weird about telling people in my life that I have a blog. For one, I feel more comfortable sharing my thoughts with people on the internet that I don’t know than people that I do know.” Same here, girl! Same here. I’ve only told a few people in my life about my blog…and for now, I want to keep it that way. I think for me, it comes down to fear. Fear that people will judge me due to their preconceived notions about what I’m like—as opposed to my readers, who come in with a blank slate. (Hopefully, I’ll get over this fear in due time!)
And yes! I can relate to everything you said here. Since starting my blog in August 2017, I’ve struggled with similar doubts. Am I giving good advice? Does anyone even care? Do I have to be all over social media? This blogging thing can be really overwhelming at times! What helps is constantly reminding myself that I have to be prepared for the long game and take it one day at a time. That it’s not a race and that I can afford to relax a bit.
Anyway, I wish you the best on your blogging journey and can’t wait to read more of your content! 🙂
That’s a good way of putting how we’re both feeling. It’s as though people in our lives would see our blog and see a person different from who they think they are, but that’s really because we’re pouring out all our passion into our blogs. To suddenly be that open with people can be scary. I’ve been in the habit of telling people that I’m working on a “site” since that falls in line with my career and it is true! But I’d like to get over this fear too so I can eventually be open to people in other creative mediums, like with music.
I think taking it one day at a time as you said is a great piece of advice for all of us and I’m going to keep that in mind. No matter someone’s experience in marketing or technology or writing, blogging has a big learning curve attached to it. It’s also a creative medium, and, like a song or a painting or any other creative medium, it’s not something that should be rushed. I started this blog taking it slow, and then I started rushing it. But you’re right. I’m going to relax too while still giving it my best.
Thank you! I’m looking forward to reading yours as well!
Agree to every single thing you said. Being new myself I get a bit nervous about revealing too much about myself online. Also it does kindda feel weird telling people you have a blog. I don’t know why but it does.
I think a big part of it is that people don’t realize that it’s not a simple thing. I think a lot of people think it’s a silly thing where you jump online, post whatever you want and now you have a big following. I was talking to a friend who had a blog once a long time ago agreed to the difficulties. It’s probably one of those things where people don’t understand it unless they experience, and for me personally I’m afraid of the judgment that will likely follow.