Things to bear in mind when it comes to blogging

Whilst writing my post on my blogs three year birthday, I realised how many lessons I have learnt in that time. I briefly mentioned some of them in that post but I wanted to elaborate on them more here. Blogging is a funny old thing and it is incredibly easy to get caught up in it and I know in the past that I definitely have and I have to remind myself of some of these things.
Things aren't always as they seem
I'm sure this is something that we are all guilty of when looking on somebody's blog or Instagram. Just because their life might look peaches & cream 24/7 that probably isn't the reality of it at all. We all tailor what we broadcast online because who wants to document the negative? I do this all the time, I share only a select few moments of my day and life because I want to remember the good moments not the crappy ones.
Online life & Personal life
Sometimes I think I lead two lives, my online life and my personal life and whilst my blog does cross over the two are completely different. A lot of bloggers keep a lot of things private like relationships etc because not everybody wants to share that much online. I do this within my relationship, I've been with my boyfriend over a year and shared very little about him. Although I will mention him here and there, I've chosen to keep our relationship very much between ourselves and out of respect for him and his life too. In recent months I have been more open and shared a lot more than I used to and I have enjoyed so maybe it just takes time?
Being a success?
A few weeks a go I saw a Twitter chat about how many you followers you need to be thought of as a 'successful' blogger? In all honesty the conversation made me feel blue about blogging and that some people only view you as a 'success' if you have 10,000 followers. Success is a very personal matter, some people might have only just started blogging and that doesn't make them any different to somebody with 35k followers. We all have different goals when it comes to writing a blog and we are all running our own race with it.
Taking inspiration & copying
Somebody a couple of weeks ago completely copied and pasted some of the features that I had written on my online magazine ALO and were passing it off as their own. I was absolutely furious and it really upset me that somebody could ever think that was ok to steal my hard work and say it was theirs. It is never ok to copy somebody, I repeat NEVER however taking inspiration is a completely different thing and that is an amazing thing about the blogging world. There will always be some sort of cross over with blog posts like anything but if somebody does copy something then talk to them about it. I always think it is nice if somebodies post has inspired you to create your own then mention them. If somebody does copy you it is tempting to write an annoyed tweet, it isn't the answer.

Finding your own voice
Finding your own voice with your blog is so important. People are going to be reading it for you and because they want to hear about you and what you have to say. Be yourself and people will love that far more than you trying to be like anybody else in the blogging world.
Take the time to reply
This is something I will always do, if somebody has taken the time to tweet or comment I want to reply to them. Not everybody I can do this I can appreciate this but even just favouriting something on Twitter does not take two seconds. It bothers me when I've taken the time to write something to somebody and they never respond to it.

Numbers take time
There are many posts floating around at the moment at how to gain readers quick, I don't understand this. It is like starting a band and automatically expecting to be selling out shows at Wembley, it isn't going to happen it takes time and it is so lovely to see your space growing.
Hate
Getting online hate is not nice and it is something that we've sort of come to expect when putting ourselves out there online which is terribly sad. It isn't ok to write mean things about somebody and it never will be, it isn't ok to write passive aggressive tweets either they are both just as bad. We can't all get along because that is just human nature but we can all be polite. A lot of people try and mask being rude with the phrase 'constructive criticism', the two are worlds apart.

Grow with your blog
When I go back to the beginning of my blog I feel like I'm a completely different person, my style has changed so much. My photography has got better and so has my writing and I feel like I've finally found what works for me.
Blogging on a budget
Nobody has an unlimited budget to buy every single press release and we all have to live within our means. I don't think you need a lot of money to blog, I think you have to have ideas and put them into practice. I definitely cannot afford to go out every week and buy make up so I like looking to what I already have and think of concepts around them.
Schedule
I see a lot of people worry that they can't post enough and that people will forget about them. Some of my favourite blogs don't post everyday and that is fine. Blogging for a lot of people is just a hobby and it should never feel like something you have to do, I'm sure everybody knows that not everybody can publish a post everyday.

Remember why you started
Sometimes the blogging world can be very overwhelming and it is easy to feel lost within it. This has happened to me a couple of times and I took a step back from it all and remembered why I began this in the first place and suddenly it doesn't seem so scary anymore.
Be yourself
In a lot of ways I feel like I'm still trying to find my feet with this, Im an incredibly sarcastic & dry witted person and I worry about showing this online. I worry incase people just think I'm being rude or a bitch as sarcasm isn't the easiest thing to get across in words. I'm getting better though so we shall see about this one.
What do you like to keep in mind when blogging?

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