6 Things Blogging Taught Me Over the Last Year

When I was 12 I grew in height really fast: faster than anyone I knew. I also had this hair that was uncontrollable and wild.

So I walked through life with my fuzzy hair and giant self and knew nothing. But there has always been this little voice right behind my ear that made me write. I remember wanting a laptop so badly so that I could put my thoughts into words. So every time parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday or new year’s present I would say “a pretty looking notebook.” Not a bad wish for a kiddo, isn’t it? Never accrued it to me that I could make a living out of writing.

Anyway.

I grew up to be a writer. Besides my romantic poems, I also started to write about the things that matter or things that may help others. Guess that’s called blogging nowadays. Years passed by, and here’s what I learned over the last year from my personal experience.

A rich background won’t hurt

This might seem obvious and naive, but still. My grandpa, the wisest man I ever met, always told me:

“Imagine you meet someone you like and want to start a conversation with them. If you don’t have a rich background, if you don’t know at least a little about everything, you won’t be interesting to talk to.”

And I bumped in to the truth of his words a couple of time in my life. When I write about marketing I also write about other things: people, the world, why and how things work a certain way. As a blogger, no matter what you write, you’re going to put a little bit of yourself: otherwise, your content will be just like anyone else’s, it won’t stand out and people won’t be able to connect with it.

And if you’re writing about a topic you have no clue, research comes to help. And not only then, research is a fundamental part of blogging. You learn new things and you grow. Also, even if you think you’re a pro in a specific field and can write without any research, you’re wrong. Just a quick fact-finding around what others have written about the same topic will help you improve yours immensely.

You Need to Understand Human Psychology

I took 2 psychology classes in college and had the best time. I believe this helped me understand people better. Learning about causes and motivations behind irrational behaviors of others makes you a wiser version of you, hence a better version of the writer within. And the moment you understand how the human brain works, you’ll know how to write to get your readers’ attention.

Emotional Awareness

In our day to day life, we sometimes get lost and forget to look inside and examine our own thoughts and emotions. And that is called being introspective. When you take your introspective mind and add your observing self, which is the act of taking an existential view of yourself, you get emotional awareness. Only when you can achieve the latter, you can better know how to function at your optimal levels and succeed. And you know what else you’ll get? Freedom: freedom of not being afraid to be different, to show the uniqueness of your mind, to embrace your irrational ideas and to reason through change. I learned that as a blogger, you won’t survive without these. I mean, if you’re afraid to let your weird thoughts out, what are your going to offer to the world?

Great Content Matters, But is Not Enough

You can write and write, pour your heart out, give your 100% and your content won’t work if people can’t find it. And you know how people can find your blog posts? Keywords!

I learned that you always need to take into consideration keywords when writing in this web era.

Have a topic in mind you want to write about? Do a little keyword research. Find out what people usually search for, what interests them the most. With the right keywords, you’ll write content that actually matters to your readers.

Here’s what I do. I decide on a topic: let’s say bananas. Then I do keyword research for the word “banana.” I use Ahrefs. Type in the word and see what’s its competition: meaning how much stuff there is written about that topic. Then, you’ll also see its average monthly searches. Besides, you’ll also get suggestions of other keywords related to your topic.

But don’t get too carried away: even though keywords are important, still don’t forget to sound human.

Staying on Top of Trends is a Must

Just like in everything else, trends come and go. Be it fashion, design, or politics, trends are going to define themselves and we’re going to have to at least stay on the same page with them for a while. I mean, if a designer sticks to flat design in 2018 it’s going to look outdated and people are not going to like it, right? Well, just like that, blogging has its trends.

Know how you can stay on top of them? Read a lot! At least that’s what I do.

Creating Your Blog is Not Scary

I remember how scared and overwhelmed I felt every time I thought about launching my blog website. The thought of people reading my writings, knowing from head to toe, criticizing me: and I would shut down. The safe side was blogging about different topics, even the ones that don’t excite you, doing a lot of research and writing what the majority thinks is true. In other words, never having to say what you, as a person, think. But that’s not why one starts blogging.

Not to mention the technical part. One thing I enjoyed, not gonna lie, was creating my logo: felt like to a real designer for a second. But since I’m not, I had to turn to a logo maker. I used Renderforest Logo Maker for mine: it generated different versions of my logo based on the description and chose the one I liked best.

Before I created my website I was terrified. But you have to go for it. I mean, if you really want to share your thoughts with the world, share your writings and help people with your words, what’s the harm even if you might get criticized, right? At the end of the day you do it as you love it!

I hope my words give you encouragement to go and get your dreams.