Tips I Learned For New Bloggers From My First Year || I Attempt To Sound Like I Know What I’m Doing

Hello loves! You may have noticed that I just celebrated my One Year Blogiversary! I was originally going to post this post as part of my One Year Blogiversary celebration post, but then that post got too long as I started rambling on about how much I love you guys, so I decided to move this to its own post!

Since I’ve been blogging for a whole year now, I’ve grown a bit of an ego so I wanted to share some of the tips I learned from one year for new bloggers and anyone else who wants that would have helped me when I was first starting out! Honestly, I feel like I’ve been blogging for a really long time. I was here when links in the WordPress editor were still blue and underlined. And then they turned black and underlined. Now they’re pink (my personal favorite). So I’ve been here through three colors of links, so I figure that’s long enough for me to be a seasoned old advice giver so here we go 🙂

Do NOT get hung up on stats

When I first started blogging, I obsessed over my stats. I refreshed the stats page every hour. I stalked other bloggers, seeing how many likes and comments they got on each post. Now? Not so much. Mys stats actually aren’t as good as they were a couple of months ago when I was still obsessed, but I know that I’m a lot more relaxed now. I’m not blogging for the stats. I’m blogging because I love blogging.

 

Work out a schedule, and schedule posts

Having a schedule takes so much stress off my back. Whenever I finish a book review, I just look ahead to the next Monday or Friday that I don’t already have scheduled. Tags? Thursday. And that way on days where I’m super busy, a regular post can still go up!

 

Commenting is everything

Commenting is really such a great way to make friends! Reading comments on both my blog and others always cheers me up, and I love when little conversations get going! It’s especially fun to read comments on discussion posts to see everyone’s various opinion! And, if all that isn’t great enough, commenting is really what gets you more views/followers so it’s a win-win situation!

 

Make your blog easily accessible 

People are busy! If they stumble across your blog but, say, can’t even find your blog (if you have a static front page and it’s not immediately obvious where the posts are) or can’t find the follow button easily, chances are, they’re not going to spend the time to figure it out.

 

Stop comparing yourself to other bloggers 

No matter how hard you work, how much you achieve, there is ALWAYS going to be someone with more followers, more engagement, more views, better ARCs than you. You might get jealous of them (I know I do). But stop comparing yourself to them; instead, be happy for their success and think of how far you’ve come yourself!

 

Don’t be afraid to share your opinion

In the beginning, I feel like everyone starts out giving books inflated ratings and not wanting to be negative. But really, you aren’t gong to be happy or feel like yourself if you’re acting like you liked a book more just because that’s the popular opinion! And anyways, negative reviews are often more fun to read and get more reads haha.

 

Be Yourself

This sounds cliche and vague but it’s really the most important piece of advice I have! If everyone is doing some tag or trend you aren’t interested in, don’t do it! Don’t feel obliged to do every tag you’re tagged in if you aren’t interested in it. Don’t feel like your blog design has to look like other big popular bloggers if that’s not what you like! You’ll be happier if you’re doing what you want to do, and you should only blog because it makes you happy!

 

Let’s Chat

What are some of the things you’ve learned from blogging? How long have you been blogging? I’d love to chat in the comments below ❤