6 Things I Learned After a Year of Blogging

There are things you can only learn by doing, but there’s also a lot you can learn from others. Take a moment and think about just how long it’s been since you started.

Being a writer in today’s writing climate basically means that you’re writing around the clock. You’re writing so often that there’s no rhyme or reason anymore to whether or not you’re in the mood to write. You just write because you need to keep writing.

As you get absorbed into that demand for more content and the rigors of keeping your quality up, it’s easy to lose track of how long you’ve been writing like this.

I started in the summer of 2018. I only had the faintest ideas about content strategy when I wrote my first story. I wanted to write about the women of the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. I’m quite interested in that era, but here’s the problem; almost no one else is.

This was my first attempt at writing web content.

I did try to make it a little interesting and add some sort of “what’s the point” to my headline. I also went back and edited the piece a little after I realized that no, people really don’t want to read big, blocky paragraphs and disorganized articles with no subheadings.

All in all, it’s just not that great of a piece of content. But this is why we keep writing and we keep learning. There’s always room to improve.

I’m now more than a year deep into my adventure as a content creator. While that piece only got about 140 views, I’ve come a long way. I’ve got a long way to go, but these are the things I realized in my first year of being a web content writer.

Choosing the right visuals for your stories takes creativity.

We need more free stock photos. There are a lot of nice, free stock photos out there. There are plenty of websites to choose from and it makes finding good quality photos quick and time-effective.

Nevertheless, I read a lot of articles all over the internet and there are some stock photos I’ve seen dozens of times. I see the same photos in articles, stories, Instagram ads, and even in traditional advertising sometimes.

If you stick with Unsplash, dig deep. Go past the first few pages and look for the hidden gems rather than the photos we’ve all seen too many times. It seems impossible that with thousands of images out there, we manage to get so many repeats, but it happens.

There are a ton of different websites; if you’re resourceful, you can find unique photos. You can also sign up for trials on different paid stock websites to get a little sampling of some different images.

You always need to work on your headlines.

Headlines are important in traditional newspapers. Any journalist in the world can tell you that. Digital media isn’t all that different from print media in that respect.

There are tools out there that help, such as CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer. You’ve got to keep brainstorming, experimenting through trial and error, and learning the best strategies to attract more readers.

We all need to write eye-catching headlines. We all need to get our content out there and share it in an easily digested way. It’s a constant process of learning and keeping up with the latest strategies.

You’ve got to dig deep for original ideas.

It’s really hard if you write about popular topics to make your ideas truly unique. It actually makes me uncomfortable to see how often I see different pieces by totally different authors with very similar ideas and advice.

I’m not saying this to make anyone feel bad or feel singled out; I’m guilty of it too and have ended up scrapping pieces if they felt too banal. At the end of the day, we’re all looking for answers and we come up with similar solutions sometimes.

You go in thinking that you have this fantastic, super original idea, then while writing or researching, you realize it’s already been written about quite a bit.

I don’t think there’s a single easy solution to this one, not when there are so many of us writing so often. This just adds to the importance of imbuing your stories with your own personal experiences. Your experiences are always unique, even if you’ve gone through similar trials as other people.

However, I have adopted a challenge. When I have an idea, I write it down, then return to it a few days later to make sure I feel like it’s unique and imbued with enough of my own personal experience and research to be distinctive.

Research is your best friend.

The internet is a vast place and it’s growing every day. Trends come and go. It's incredibly helpful to be up-to-date on the latest news, research, and studies related to the subject you're passionate about. That also goes for your topic of choice.

It's not always easy, but if you make a commitment to researching your topic inside and out, you'll be able to produce truly unique content that stands out from the rest. Beyond that, just generally including a little relevant research in your pieces makes your stance a lot more informed, strong, and persuasive.

“Blog” is not a dirty word.

Blog, article, web content, story, piece, long-form content post, and any other synonym for these things we write and post online on one website or another.

We call it so many different things. You can say blog. It doesn’t mean your work is worth any more or any less. Long-form content sounds fancier, but at the end of the day, a cat doesn’t become a dog because someone named the cat “Dog.” A cat is a cat. A blog is a blog. That’s okay. Blogs are cool, especially when they’re done well and actually help people.

There are no shortcuts around doing hard work.

We’re in a climate where we need to produce a lot of content. However, on principle and for the sake of providing useful content, we can’t compromise on quality.

I’ve been trying to do daily articles for months, but I’m not the fastest writer out there. On top of that, I stubbornly refuse to sacrifice quality. I spent two to three hours on every single one of my stories between writing, editing, researching, and finding ideal visual assets.

I also work full time. I’m sure you can see where calculating the time required for daily content on top of a busy life gets pretty difficult. Time is not on your side to post every day, but it’s something to strive for if you really want your content to take off.

You’ve got to balance being down to earth with your desire to see your work reach a large audience. With every story you write, you have the chance to make your voice carry a little farther in the digital world.