It’s My Blogiversary! What I Learned From My First Year of Blogging

Rich Frugal Life is one year old! I’ve officially made it through the first year of blogging, which is when most new bloggers give up. While I still don’t really know what I’m doing most of the time, that’s okay. Today I’m celebrating my 1-year Blogiversary! Here’s what I learned during my first year of blogging, as well as my future plans for this blog.

Let’s be honest here… blogging is not easy

Blogging is hard work!

After reading countless blog posts about how easy it is to make money blogging, you might incorrectly assume that to be true. And while blogging might come easily to a few, those people are unicorns. Blogging actually takes an immense amount of time, effort, and patience.

Most people who tell you that blogging is easy are trying to sell you something. It’s true, that you can start a blog in minutes. However, designing the website, adding coding, and producing and marketing content is a totally different story, especially for someone with no experience.

Blogging requires a number of different skillsets. My background is in business and accounting, so I already knew a lot about personal finance. I also have writing experience, albeit, mostly stuffy professional business writing from my previous jobs. However, I had no clue how to start or design a website, nor any knowledge of HTML or coding languages. Can you tell I’m just scraping by? I’m also not great at (and don’t enjoy) marketing myself on social media and other forums, which is important for increasing traffic and making money.

“If you write it… they will come”

That’s the philosophy I’ve been following thus far on this journey. Mostly because researching and analyzing personal finance topics, like whether to pay down debt or invest extra money, is my favorite part of blogging. Also because, as a stay at home parent this past year, I just haven’t had time to do it all.

While it’d be great to reach a larger audience and make enough money from this blog to cover expenses, I don’t want blogging to become a full time job. I had one of those, and it was more lucrative than blogging will ever be. I’m done “working” just because I have to.

So, I’m choosing to follow my passion instead. Even if that means growing this blog slowly and on my own timeline.

I almost quit (more than once) during my first year of blogging

To continue with the honesty, there have been times during the past year where I’ve wanted to give up.

I’ve spent a lot of my “free” time on this blog over the past year. Too much. And while I have written a number of posts that I’m quite proud of, I’m still programmed to seek out external validation. It can be demoralizing when the results don’t add up to expectations or the stats I see other bloggers sharing.

Comparison is the enemy of contentment.

When traffic is up or a blog post is featured, my moral is high, and the creative juices flow easily. However, when traffic is down, it’s a lot harder to find that motivation.

I know it takes time to build a blog, find community, and grow organic traffic. Knowing doesn’t make it any easier though. The corporate world teaches us to seek validation and focus on external metrics in determining whether or not we’re successful.

It’s hard to turn that off and instead focus on the intrinsic value and how blogging is one of the ways I’m finding purpose in my early retirement.

Remembering why I started this blog

When it gets hard, I turn back to my “why” and focus on that.

I share our journey to financial independence to hold myself accountable, normalize the discussion of money, and provide another real life example to anyone interested in the FIRE movement.

There’s enough educational content available today that I don’t feel the need to rehash the basics. However, I also enjoy writing about the personal finance topics or issues that interest me, or that we’re personally dealing with real time. If I’m going to spend all that time doing the nerdy research and analysis, I may as well share it to help others.

Additionally, as I’ve publicly confessed before, I really want to connect with other people in the Financial Independence and FIRE community. It was another primary motivator for starting this blog.

We’re going to retire early… very early compared to most people. I want more friends around the world who understand our lifestyle, that we can connect with on the journey and visit during our travels.

More things I learned during my first year of blogging…

• Creating blog posts takes way more time than I anticipated. I originally planned to increase blogging frequency to 2-3 times per week once our daughter went to school. However, now I’m leaning towards a 3-4 times per month schedule. There are too many other things I want to do with my time in early retirement.

• Writing an anonymous blog is insanely cathartic! I don’t rely on this blog for income, which is really freeing. It’s my little space of the internet and people can come and go as they choose. Either way, I get to write about whatever I want, when I want. Plus, I can be truly open and honest with you. It’s like free therapy!

• Even a made-up, self-imposed deadline can cause stress… especially for Type A personalities. Because I underestimated the time-to-output ratio of blogging, I’ve found it difficult at times to keep up with the weekly posting schedule I’d initially set for myself. It reminds me of the deadline pressures I used to feel on the job. I didn’t expect to have to constantly remind myself that this isn’t a job.

• If you write it, they will come… but only if you market it. Unlike many people who start their own blog, I kept mine a secret from everyone (except my husband) for most of the first year. Although I started an Instagram account last year, I haven’t spent much energy on it recently. Traffic was horrendous up until a couple months ago. I don’t enjoy the idea of selling myself to others, so I just didn’t do it. It wasn’t until I started finally interacting with other bloggers (whose blogs I was already reading), joined Twitter, and actively engaged with curators, that I finally started seeing some real blog traffic.

• Coming up with ideas to write about is easier than I thought. I was worried that I’d run out of things to talk about on the blog, but have found that ideas just flow out of me. Unfortunately, this happens at random times, like when I’m in the shower or trying to fall asleep at night. I can quickly “write” a killer blog post in my head. However, getting the idea down on paper always takes longer and never sounds as epic as my first head draft. Maybe I need to start dictating these to my phone when the idea strikes? I’m open to suggestions.

Plans for my second year of blogging

Remind myself that this is NOT a job

The overall plan is to keep going, but to switch my mindset.

Last year I spent too much time worried about increasing traffic, getting recognition, or making money (the lack of it, that is). It sucked most of the fun out of blogging for me, and turned this into what felt like an unsuccessful job at times. Not the early retirement I’d envisioned.

I took a fun hobby and put too much pressure on myself to “succeed”… whatever that means.

I purchased my domain name and hosting for two years, and committed to giving this blogging thing a try for that long. If the cons outweigh the pros after two years, then I’ll adjust further or give myself permission to walk away.

As for now, I enjoy writing, sharing, and connecting with others. And the parts of running a blog that I don’t like are getting easier and faster. I’m hopeful that next year will feel better.

Spend LESS time on the Blog

Yep, you read that right.

Because I’ve been approaching my blogging with a fixed mindset, I’ve been overly focused on the results, rather than the process. I spent too much time on blogging and related activities, which left less time to spend with my family and on all the other things I want to learn and accomplish in early retirement.

So going forward, I’m going to set time limits for blogging. Rather than sitting down to write a blog post until it’s complete (usually a couple days later), I’m going to allocate times of the day to work on the blog which better align with the value I get from it.

It may take some practice getting there, but I think this will eventually help me to remain focused and write faster. Tasks often take as long as the time slots we allow them to take up.

I’m hoping this strategy will not only push me to spend more time on the other things I want to do, but will also take the pressure off the results side of blogging so that I can enjoy my creative outlet and focus on getting to know more of you.

That doesn’t mean a decrease in quality of content. It just means that I might post a little less frequently. My new target will be three posts a month, though many months will still have four.

Make some money… maybe

In year two, I’d like to finally get a couple advertisements up to cover the costs of running this blog. I decided to monetize the blog a couple months ago, but haven’t found the time or motivation to go beyond adding a couple affiliate links.

So far I’ve earned a whopping $1.12 in commissions from Amazon. It shouldn’t be hard to beat that number in year two, but I’m also not in a big rush to get these up. Adding advertisements means more administrative work for very little pay off, and it may push me right back into worrying too much about blog traffic. I may ditch the idea altogether.

I’ll also spend a little more effort marketing my blog posts this year, but mostly as an effort to make more connections within the personal finance community.

Blogger friends… what’s your best advice for year 2?

While running a blog takes a lot of work, the initial process of starting was easy and affordable with Bluehost . If you’re thinking of starting a blog or switching hosting plans, please consider using my Affliate link above. I still highly recommend them. Thank you!

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