What I Learned from Writing 50 Blog Posts: Key Takeaways from a New Blogger
Last Updated on April 21, 2024 by Kelly
I just hit a milestone for this blog… I published 50 blog posts! Blogging has been quite the journey for me. It’s something I’ve been interested in for years, but I only got serious about it this year. I started this blog in 2018 and stopped after I wrote 5 blog posts. (That’s not uncommon… turns out most bloggers quit!) A few years later, I decided to try again. In about three months I’ve written 45 blog posts. I’ve learned a lot in the past few months, and in this post I’m sharing 16 things that I’ve learned as a beginning blogger. (I also share some of my initial page views data at the end of this post!)
| Update: See my traffic report results after one full year of blogging! (150 posts!) |
What I’ve Learned from 50 Blog Posts
1. Remind yourself not to give up
When you start blogging, you’re pretty much writing into the void. You spend hours and hours researching, writing, and formatting, but you don’t really see any payoff for it. You hit publish and nothing happens. You just have to keep doing it anyway.
Most experts agree it takes at least six months for a published blog post to “mature” enough to gain organic traffic, so it’s really a waiting game. If you’re frustrated that you’re not seeing results in the beginning and quit, then you’ll just never know. I’ve just had to tell myself over and over again to just keep going. Even when I’m tired. Even when I don’t know if it’s any good. Even when I don’t know if my posts are helpful to anyone yet. I just need to keep writing.
2. Enjoy the creative process
Blogging is a lot of fun. You probably shouldn’t blog unless you really enjoy it. I know a lot of other people have said that, but it’s totally true. I work full-time and I’m also a parent, so I don’t have a lot of free time. If I’m going to dedicate my free time to something, I really need to enjoy it. Blogging is the creative outlet that I’ve been craving.
3. Let travel blogging improve your travel experiences
Even though we haven’t traveled as much as planned this past year due to covid, the travels we have done this year have been enhanced by blogging. There’s a quote I really like that speaks to this:
“You experience every journey three times: When you dream it, when you live it, and when you remember it.” – Anonymous
I’ve found that to be the case with travel blogging. Travel blogging helps me to re-live the journey that third time, when I’m remembering it. I also do way more research for my travel blogs than before I was a blogger, and that’s really helped to enrich my experiences. Whether it’s researching the meaning behind a name or the best place to go for a bite to eat, the extra research has led me to dive deeper into my travels.
4. Impostor syndrome is a major obstacle
The hardest thing for me about blogging is thinking that I shouldn’t do it because I care about what people think of me. At the end of the day, I just have to ask myself if I like doing it. Turns out that I do, so I’m going to keep on doing it. Anytime I feel self conscious about putting myself out there, I just try to re-center myself with my core values. If it brings me personal fulfillment and is aligned with something I care about, then the best thing to do is to keep having my actions match those values.
5. Connecting with others is one of the best parts
My blog here is pretty new, but I’ve gotten to connect with so many people through my travel Instagram account. I really love being a part of a community that loves to travel, take care of nature, and respect different cultures. I’ve made some real friendships with people from all over the world, and that’s pretty awesome!
6. Writing isn’t the hardest part
When you read a blog, you see the words on the page, and it looks like that is where all the effort went. For me though, the technology is the hardest part about blogging. I don’t know how to code. I have some training in statistical modeling, so my experience with syntax has helped me with some basic coding. I don’t know much about servers or site speed. These are areas in which I need to bring more attention as I go. Especially in the beginning, I would often be stuck for hours on a simple issue. (For example, trying to figure out how to insert an image that’s not loading.)
7. It gets easier with practice
Like most things, it does get a lot easier with practice. Now that I have a formula for publishing blog posts, I can concentrate more on the writing and less on the process. I’ve built myself a template that works for most of my blog posts, I’ve learned how to research key words, and I created a Pinterest account to promote my posts.
8. Keep track of all your blog posts in Excel
I created an Excel sheet because I like to visually see my progress. For each blog post, I have columns for the following: Topic, title, word count, date published, and URL. I created a formula in Excel that will calculate for me automatically the age of each blog post. If I don’t count the 5 posts that I published in 2018, the average age of my 45 remaining blog posts (as of this writing) is 35.9 days old. I also created a formula to track the average word count for each post. It’s helpful to have this data handy when assessing my blog’s progress and performance.
9. You need to learn a lot about SEO and monetization
Besides the writing and posting, it’s also important to learn about Search Engine Optimization and monetization methods. I’m not an expert on either, so I’ve spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos about these areas of blogging. There are costs to this blog (like the domain name and some of the plug-ins I use), so I’d like to be able to cover those costs with the blog. Currently I use AdSense and Amazon Affiliates.
10. You don’t need to pay for a blogging course
You can take a blogging course if you want. I’m sure a lot of them are really helpful. But I don’t think you absolutely need to. (I didn’t at least.) In my experience, most information is available for free online. You just need to know what to look for.
11. Try to write every day
The main thing about blogging is creating enough content to reach more people and reach more keywords. I’ve found it helpful to have a writing schedule and I’ve done my best to stick to it. At the end of the day, writing is the most important part about blogging.
12. Promoting is important
The only exception to the point above is if you’re spending time promoting your content. This is something I don’t really do much of because… impostor syndrome. I haven’t shared my posts on my personal Facebook page or Instagram accounts. But I have started with Pinterest. I keep reading that the promoting part is important, so that’s an area I could probably do better in.
13. Write for your audience
I don’t write much about my personal travel experiences, because not many people are probably all that interested in my travel stories. I’m writing mostly to be helpful to other people, so I try to write about things that my audience would like to read about.
14. Read a lot of other blogs
This quote has really stuck with me as a writer:
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: Read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King
There’s no getting around it. If you want to blog, you need to write. A lot. You also need to read a lot of other blogs. You have to be comfortable with failing and not getting it perfect. You only get better with practice, so you have to get yourself the chance at improving with time.
15. It’s important to unplug too
When traveling, it’s important to pause and savor the experience. It’s hard to do that if you’re too busy taking photos with your smartphone or scribbling notes. Plenty of bloggers will make remote work seem luxurious, but it’s actually quite the grind. And if you’re not careful, you could really miss out on fully enjoying the present moment.
I try to experience a new place with my full attention. I’ll then jot down the important notes later so I don’t forget them while they are fresh. It’s definitely a balancing act between fully enjoying an experience and trying to remember it all to share with others.
16. (Repeating #1) Don’t Give Up
If you like blogging, you just have to keep on doing it. Even if it’s embarrassing, scary, or hard. Work through those emotions and keep showing up. Find people that support you. And at the end of the day, just remember that only you can live your own life.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.
Traffic Report
I’ve tried to find out how many page views a new blog is supposed to get per month, and I can’t seem to find that anywhere. So, I figure I’ll at least share my own!
I keep reading that it takes 6-8 months to start to see organic traffic from a blog post begin to accumulate. The average age of my 45 newer blog posts is 35.9 days old, and the average age of all 50 of my blog posts is 115.31 days. So, if I’m supposed to wait at least 180 days to evaluate my blog posts’ performance, I still have a significant amount of time to wait.
So far, I’ve written about 97,000 words in total across those 50 posts. (Average post length is about 1,940 words long.)
At this point, I just need to be patient.
My plan in the mean time is to keep on writing and see what happens.
For 50 posts, I received 296 page views in the previous 30 days. I’ve written 20 of those 50 blog posts within the last 30 days, so a lot of those posts are just too new to get any traction yet.
This was basically without any self-promotion, except for some pins on Pinterest.
My goal is to write at least 100 blog posts and then re-evaluate how I like blogging. By posting these statistics today, I’ll be able to compare my blog’s performance in a later post. I’ve started this blog with a lot of our more recent travels, but I’m excited to expand the blog to include many of the different countries we have visited! (That’s something to look forward to, especially since we can’t travel internationally at the moment!)
Summary
I really started blogging seriously about three months ago, and in that time, I’ve published 45 blog posts. The average age of those posts is 35.9 days old, and I’m getting about 300 organic page views a month at this point.
We now have a blog post on what we’ve learned from writing 100 blog posts. We share our updates on that page. Feel free to check it out!
Disclaimer: We always strive for content accuracy. Since the time of publishing, travel-related information regarding pricing, schedules, and hours may have changed. Please look up such information directly from each vendor or institution for the most current information.
