Sunday 5 October 2014

10 lies I told myself about blogging

It's always fun looking back at past mistakes. You can sit back smugly, with a knowing little smile, and shake your head about your sillier, younger self.
Today's challenge prompt is: 10 things you'd tell yourself when you started blogging.
Let's see what I told myself 18 months ago, shall we?



1. "My blog is just a place for my photos." 
Oh yes, I really did think that in the beginning. About 2 years ago, I started taking pictures of the animals, and wanted to find another place besides Instagram and Facebook for them. Thus the idea for this blog was born.

2. "It's just a hobby."
Just a hobby? That I could easily let go when more important things came up? I wish.
Truly, friends, sometimes I do. However, I can't. This blog is very important to me, and I will sacrifice a lot (sleep, ironing, Netflix, extra reading time) in order to keep it up. Never saw this one coming, but it's just the way it is.

3. "I only blog for myself."
Well, in all fairness, in the beginning I did. As far as I can tell, I was the only reader - not even my family read my blog. (They still don't.)
But once you gather followers, you blog for them just as much as you do for yourself. I ask myself frequently: "What will my readers get out of this post? Will they find it funny? Uplifting? Inspiring? Or useless?" If I feel it's sort of pointless, I will adjust it in order to make it more interesting. Do I always succeed? Certainly not. But I always have the people reading this in mind. I try not to be offensive or condescending. And I love it! I love writing for an audience. If not, why would I blog?

4. "I will never figure out that computer stuff."
In the beginning, I didn't know what an url was. Or what html meant. Coding was a mystery to me, and for the longest time I had no idea what 'no-reply' blogger meant. 'Link-ups' were another unknown to me, and it took me months before I realized that readers wouldn't see my reply on blogger unless they checked back (that's why I answer comments via email).
But you know what? It is possible to learn all that stuff. And once you have overcome yet another hurdle, you feel incredible!

5. "I may turn into one of those trendy DIY gals."
I did exactly one DIY post. You see, while I admire all those creative types who make nifty stuff, I'm not one of them. However, the first blog I ever followed was A Beautiful Mess, and their blog is all about DIY. So I sort of thought, maybe you have to be into DIY when you blog? Luckily, you don't.

6. "I won't care about the numbers."
Didn't we all think that? The reality is, we all do. It can't be helped.

7. "It won't cost anything."
To be fair, it doesn't have to. You can get on a free blogging platform, do your design with the help of free online photo editing tools like Picmonkey, take all your photos with your phone or whatever camera you already own. I did all of those things for months, that's how I know it can be done!
But I did start to invest some money into blogging by buying my domain name (~ $12/year), upgrading Picmonkey to Royal ($33/year), buying myself a new camera (the Canon Rebel SL1), and sponsoring other blogs occasionally (currently I'm sponsoring our lovely host Taylor. Did you see my Saturday Takeover 2 days ago?).

8. "I will never think about it 24/7 and have dreams about blogging - surely?"
Yes, it's true, I dream about blogging. A lot. About meeting fellow bloggers, about me living as a full-time blogger, about posts that I have never written, but which exist in my dreams. It's bizarre, and very, very awesome.

9. "It won't change me."
Ha. The biggest lie of them all. Blogging made me find my style, my confidence, passions I didn't know existed, made me make new friends. Blogging changed my life for the better, 100%.

10. "I can quit any time I want."
Seriously? I would classify myself as a blogging addict. Boom! There it is. I love it, it changed me, and I don't see myself quitting any time soon. There are lots more things I need to figure out first!
So yeah, quitting is not in the books. At least not for a very, very long time!

Are you a blogger? What are the 10 things you told yourself in the beginning?

Love, Miriam

The Daily Tay

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18 comments

  1. I love your list. So many of these are so true for me too. I just didn't know in the beginning how much this space would effect, change and encourage me! I love the one about writing for an audience, too. You're right, it's not just for us. I just wrote my list to my past self and one was "write whatever you want", but you know, I think you're right. I want to write things that are encouraging, inspiring, uplifting, etc. And that's okay. It's okay to ask those questions about your audience. So good. Thank you. I'm editing my list a bit now. :)

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  2. Good list! I'm actually doing a weekly countdown with posts that consist mainly of photos, too bad these are not good, high quality ones :/

    Diana

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    1. Thanks Diana! Don't worry too much about the quality of your photos, the more you practice, the better they will get! As long as you have fun taking them, it will show! :-)

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  3. Oh goodness...yes. You are very right haha.
    I can't believe I'm such a liar! :P

    xo

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  4. What a fun take on the topic, you nailed a lot on the head. The #'s one is so true, everyone blogs for numbers even if they don't admit it.

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  5. Oooh #3, that's a good one! I find myself bouncing around in the struggle of who to blog for!

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  6. Such a great (and totally true) list! Fellow blogging addict here...especially with my Tuesday Tops - if I can't get one out, it drives me crazy with anxiety! And though I haven't turned into a DIY girl (just yet) I have caught myself often thinking "would this be good for my blog"? And have even done some crazy things for the SAKE of my baby - oops, I mean blog haha. I love it!
    ~ Samantha
    samsamcherie.blogspot.com

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  7. LOVE your list. So true about #7. For me it was because I loved all the outfits I saw so I bought them! xoxo Lisa - Showered With Design

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  8. I love your list. I think we all lie to ourselves at some point and say we don't care about how many followers we have and that we just blog for ourselves. We do blog for ourselves but of course it is always nice to get comments and find out that people appreciate what we are writing. Otherwise like you said why bother having a blog. I invested in a domain. Having a blog does not have to be expensive which is something I really enjoy about it but I agree it does help to invest some money into it. I was a no-reply blogger at first. I didn't even know what that was. Until someone kindly told me and showed me how to fix it.

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  9. I think I thought a lot of these things too!! I also thought it didn't have to be overly personal, a bit more anonymous.

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  10. I really like the way you phrased this! It's kind of funny to look back at all the things we tell oursevles as new bloggers. I haven't been blogging for very long but I definitely agree with these! Glad I found your blog through the link-up!

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  11. I love this list! So true and so honest! I definitely told myself a lot of these lies too :)

    JJ x
    outcrowdfashion.com

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  12. Love reading things like: Blogging changed my life for the better, 100%.
    I can totally relate to that!! And i think we shouldn't think about numbers in a bad way, but much rather see it as an encouragement. If i get more comments and likes than usual, it simply is an indication, that i hit the right nerve & people are really interested in that topic. ;)
    btw: Where in Germany did you grow up? Glad you liked my Where i come from post, i had fun writing it :)
    xo,
    Luchessa @ http://luchessa.org/

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  13. I think I am secretly becoming one of those DIY girls... Will the day ever come when I post a tutorial? I sure as hell hope not lol

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  14. Oh those stupid numbers! We do all care about them. Even huge bloggers! The pros definitely weigh out the cons, though! Even if it does cost some money every now and again :)

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  15. I love this post. You hit it dead on and I found myself completely agreeing with everything you said. One thing that really stuck out to me is how blogging has changed you. It absolutely has for me as well and for the better. I truly love it. Great post!!!

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  16. It's such a delicate line to walk - the doing it for you and the inevitable interest in readers and numbers and all that. Great lies - any blogger can relate, I'm certain.

    -Amy

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  17. Loved reading this post, especially as a new blogger!
    -Rachael

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