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Time flew by, and before I realized it, I have already been blogging for one year! Crazy to think about how far I’ve come in that year. How much I’ve grown. How many things I’ve did in my first year of blogging!
Sure, I am not one of those people who have created a full income-producing business within a year, but I am actually ok with that.
I started from absolute zero and therefore had to learn so much. And the funny thing is while in the beginning, I was pretty desperate to start making money with my business, now a calm and security have settled over me.
I don’t care so much about the fact that I haven’t even made 100€ in my first year of blogging. Sure, that would have been great, but I know it will come eventually.
That knowledge, combined with the joy of the journey, has made me much less desperate and left me with the hunger for learning and growing even more.
So even though I have not made much money in my first year of blogging, I have planted some important seeds that will no doubt explode my income soon enough.
This post is dedicated to sharing those seeds I’ve planted in my first year of blogging.
I hope this gives you a more realistic view of how that blogging journey can look like.
Not all of us have those crazy success stories we read online. And because it seems like ‘everybody else’ has them, many people get discouraged and quit when things don’t work out as quickly for them.
Just because you don’t see results yet doesn’t mean the seeds aren’t growing! So, let this post inspire and motivate you to keep working through that initial phase of seemingly no growth.
Read also: 10 Lessons I Learned In My First Year Of Blogging
Recap
1. Getting comfortable creating content
As mentioned previously, I’ve started from absolute zero. I first got introduced into the whole idea of online entrepreneurship in October 2018.
And as Black Friday came around in November, I jumped straight into my first business model. It wasn’t exactly what I had imagined, though, and I put it on hold a few months later.
Then on the 1st of April 2019, I published my first blog post on my brand new Blog.
By that time, I had gathered some little insights into the online business world. However, I still knew very little about content creation or marketing.
Therefore I dedicated the first two months to simply get the hang of it.
I didn’t do any marketing during that time. Merely coming up with content ideas and writing blog posts.
It surely wasn’t very spectacular, but I believe that this time of purely focusing on writing content gave me some very much needed confidence and ease in my whole blogging journey.
Now, looking back, I realize how incredibly far I’ve come.
It took me much longer than those initial two months to get truly comfortable and efficient in content creation.
I remember it as being rather difficult for me to come up with content ideas, and it seemingly took ages to actually write it out.
Nowadays, I find inspiration for content out of nowhere. If I am inspired, I can write a 2,000-word post in half or even a third of the time it took me back in the beginning.
Now, one year into my blogging journey, I have lost the fear of running out of content ideas. The quality and value of my content are steadily increasing, and I am actually feeling proud of it.
In the beginning, I struggled a lot with creating content that I myself liked and was proud of. Very often, it just didn’t feel very original or valuable. Now, that has changed, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it!
2. Becoming clear on my niche
Maybe the biggest problem I have struggled with throughout my first year of blogging (and quite honestly I am still struggling with it a bit) was finding a niche I felt aligned with.
I started somewhat in the Personal Development niche. By now, I am more in the “Boss Lady” niche, meaning Female Entrepreneurship and parts of Personal Development.
I am much happier with it now, but I still don’t feel like I am entirely aligned with it. But I guess I just keep going with the flow and developing my business with time.
But this uncertainty about my niche has definitely slowed my progress down significantly. Would I have a niche I would feel crazy passionate about I would be able to give 130% and create tons of content and products and therefore make an income quickly.
You can read more on that topic in 4 Things That Determine How Long It Will Take To Build A Profitable Business.
3. Creating a Blog
I know I’m captain obvious for stating this, but I’ve created and published a Blog.
Nowadays, everyone can do that and even in a matter of a few minutes.
But still, I consider it something to be proud of. After all, putting myself out there on the world wide web for the first time can be a scary thing.
That’s one reason why so many people don’t ever get started with building a business.
4. Settling for a branding design
The word “settling” here is a loose term. I am still not entirely fixed on my business branding.
But I have at least come to find somewhat of brand-specific colors and fonts I try to stick to.
Of course, it is beneficial for your business if you stick to the same branding from the very beginning.
But personally, I try to not stress myself too much about it. After all, this is my business and my rules. If I want to change my branding into using only hot pink, I will do so without asking a business advisor for permission. (I am so not going to have a hot pink business!)
5. Learning about SEO
Ah, search engine optimization, you love it, or you hate it.
In the beginning, SEO can feel utterly overwhelming. After all, search engines like Google use over 200 algorithms to rank pages and posts. You will never be able to do well on all of these 200+, and who knows when Google will just suddenly change them?
On the other hand, you can reap great rewards with SEO, and it can actually be rather easy and fun.
For learning about SEO, I like to use Neil Patel’s content. He always shares excellent little tips and tricks that you can implement to make your content rank better.
Through his content, I have learned a lot about SEO in my first year of blogging.
Granted, I am nowhere near having my SEO game on track as much as I want to, but I am getting there.
6. Marketing consistently on one platform
One of my best decisions during my first year of blogging!
Marketing has been the scariest topic for me in building my business. I dreaded doing it for a long, long time.
What also didn’t help was the fact that I didn’t particularly like the social media platforms.
Thankfully, however, I discovered Pinterest marketing and dove in headfirst with Tailwind and Pinfinite Growth.
I have been pinning somewhat around 20 pins consistently each day for months now on my Pinterest account.
That effort has been rewarded, and Pinterest is by far my most significant source of traffic. And the best part: It is steadily growing!!!!
Again, I am nowhere near the traffic I want to have. But I’ve recently hit the 1,000 monthly sessions mark on my Blog, and that is a motivating development.
7. Creating my first Freebies
Another milestone I was pretty proud of was creating my first freebie as an opt-in incentive to my email list.
I am still struggling with having freebie or course ideas I am truly passionate about.
So having the first one was a big and comforting step for me.
If you are struggling with this, too, just create something basic and small. Like a printable planner or a Journaling prompts list.
Offering a one-page pdf file might not seem very exciting, but there are people out there that will want that! And most importantly, it will get the ball rolling for more fabulous and better freebies and eventually, also your own courses.
8. Starting an Email list
As mentioned in my previous point, I also started an email list! Again, there was some resistance towards doing that, which makes me all the more proud to have overcome it.
It’s still in its beginning stages, but I am sure it will grow massively during the next year.
If you are anxious about having that more personal connection to your audience an email list provides, you should use the time to build it when you only have little traffic to your Blog.
Sure, it will feel a bit like a waste of time to write weekly emails to a handful of people. Still, it allows you to grow more comfortable with it, with only a few people watching you.
What’s next
Alright, so those were the most significant milestones I ticked off during my first year of blogging. Naturally, the question that follows is, what’s next?
I want to do or accomplish a few things in my second year of blogging:
- Becoming more passionate and inspired about my business
- Creating my first course
- Having at least 10,000 monthly visitors to my website
- Earning 2,000 €/month with my business
- Hiring my first virtual assistant/outsourcing a few tasks
- Starting a YouTube channel and a Podcast
- Proudly telling my family and friends about my business (I am still keeping it a secret until I have finally begun to make a regular income and established it as a ‘real business.’)
I guess in a year from now I’ll be able to tell you how many of these I’ve actually accomplished ^^
Until then, I hope you keep working as ambitiously as I on your business or whatever goal you currently have.
Have patience and be consistent! If you keep going, success is inevitable!
With much love
Sophie
