Two years of blogging!

Posted 20th Jan 2022 by radiosarahc34 Comments on Two years of blogging! Thoughts, musings and randomness

Well, I almost missed this!

Thanks to WordPress for the notification because for some reason I had it in my head that my two-year anniversary was next week – I’d sat down to write something completely different, that’ll have to wait.

In my defence, I’ve just looked back at what I wrote to mark a year of blogging and that post went up four days late – my eternal quest to get my shit together and be even a tiny bit more organised is going really, we can all agree on that.

I found this post really easy to write last year. 

This one, like a band’s notorious second album, is proving to be a little more difficult, which, to an extent, is a reflection on year two.

Year two has been hard!

I started this blog to get back into the habit of writing. 

To get back to telling a story in more than three lines. My job in radio means I spend eight hours a day being incredibly stingy with words, I am a master at telling you four stories in 75 seconds (at least I assume I am, I’m still employed after all).

I started this blog to be more creative, to share more stories, as I wrote a year or so ago, blogging has given me a lot in return:

“Some people might think it’s just a silly, little blog and maybe it is. To me it’s given me my voice back, it’s made realise I have something (lots at times) to say, it’s given me conviction in my beliefs and reintroduced me to something I love doing and that is priceless”.

All that is still true.

I still love having this outlet to write things out, I still enjoy sitting down and getting my ideas and thoughts onto the page, but it does come with its challenges.

I’m going to say something that “creatives” don’t think they should really admit…..I want to grow this blog and make some money from it.

Yes, I can sit here saying “I do it for the love of writing” and while that is in part true, year two has been about growing the damn thing and that is hard.

I started this blog on a bit of whim, I had thought many times about starting a blog, but the day I actually signed up to wordpress and pressed publish on that first post, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I still don’t.

I had no idea what it took to build something from scratch.

I didn’t appreciate how much work and effort I’d need to put in to get readers and get followers. 

I literally hadn’t given it a second thought. I thought it’d just be a case of writing something once a week or so and on that basis, I just steamed in and went for it.

To be honest I think if I’d read guides about starting a blog and what I needed to do, I’d still be fannying about debating whether or not to start the damn thing.

There’s been other struggles too, I haven’t had as many ideas, I don’t feel I’ve been as creative (I think that’s pandemic fatigue) and there’s been times where I simply can’t be arsed.

The ‘fear’ has reared its head again, I worry I sound like a bell end, it takes me a few hours to give my head shake, stop caring and crack on.

There’s been moments where I’ve wanted to give up and delete it all.

Despite this, I’m still here and this blog did surpass the targets I had in mind for year two. 

I still don’t know the first thing about SEO, I don’t really want to get hung up on it. I don’t want to end up writing for a search engine, I’d prefer to write about what I enjoy and hope for the best when it comes to readers. It may not be the best strategy but it’s working so far.

I still haven’t signed up to Pinterest, I keep being told its good blog marketing, I just can’t stand the thought of another social site so I’m not doing it.

I probably don’t share often enough to the social media sites I do have.

I’m still shocking at sub editing what I’ve written.

I’m only just getting to grips with schedule (kind of).

This blog is growing, even in the months where I completely neglect it, which continues to blow my mind.

I’ve got back to making time for writing, whether it is for the blog or my work in very slow progress

The ideas are starting flow again, getting them down on the page is easier. 

I still get that same enjoyment out of crafting something and pressing publish.

Every comment, like and follow keeps me going, so thank you to everyone who has ever clicked on this site, I really do appreciate it.

Bring on year three, I’m excited to see where my little blog is in a year’s time!

Thank you for reading xxx

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Thoughts, musings and randomness

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anniversary, Bloganuary, blogaversary, blogging, writing

radiosarahc View All

Journalist, writer, traveller, music lover, collector of hats, news addict, bookworm