Blogging is so liberating, yet somewhat stressful. But good stress, not the stress that leaves you sick and frustrated. Kandace With A K has been up and running for exactly six months. While I am not new to blogging, there are so many new things that I am learning this time around that I had not been privy to in my previous experience.
To give some background, I previously ran an urban music blog for 3 years! I was doing it all by myself. It became to time consuming and I was not meeting and accomplishing set goals. As a result, I just stopped (Major error!). I truly missed blogging but knew I would do things a bit different this time. I wanted to be the focal point of my brand and not hidden behind a pseudonym, and so Kandace With A K was born!
Now that I have reached my six month mark, I am able to compare and contrast my new experiences with blogging to my previous experiences.
Authenticity is important.
For three years I hid behind a site name. I was working in a male-dominated field and many of the subscribers and followers thought a man was running the site. I truly hated that! Why could a woman not run this blog? As I said, I was changing that this time around. I am now writing articles that align solely to who Kandace (love to talk in 3rd person) is as a woman, academic, fashionista, blogger. I make a concerted effort to only produce content that I love and connect personally with. There may be time without new posts because I am not going to spend the time creating BS!
Networking is key!
A network is so key! Thanks to various FaceBook groups, I have been able to chat and follow fellow bloggers. This is so inspiring, motivating,and encouraging seeing others put in the time and effort to produce quality content. FaceBook and Instagram has also led me to various events where I have been able to chat with other bloggers. A network is important especially for the support.
Utilize your resources.
With blogging being a relatively new and emerging field, we are all learning and exploring this territory together. There are an infinite number of resources that are available that have helped me along this journey and can help you as well. The greatest resource thus far have been FaceBook groups. They are encouraging and cater to increasing engagement on various platforms. These groups hold an abundance of opportunity! YouTube is another resource that is so useful particularly for navigating WordPress, Lightroom, and other technical things. Most recently, I have also turned to Craigslist, believe or not. I have corresponded with photographers who are interested in doing free photo shoots to expand their own portfolios (I have yet to do a shoot, so the jury is still out on whether or not it is to be trusted). Everyone is looking to move ahead so when we rely on one another, we can make progress. In my previous blogging experience, Instagram was not as popular and blogs were a fairly new thing so the resources were very limited. Nowadays, there is no excuse!
Blogging is time-consuming.
Most people assume blogging is easy. WRONG! If you are looking to create quality, authentic content, it can be very time-consuming. It takes time to plan out your articles, write the articles, create graphics, edit photos, post on various platforms, etc. If it is something that you take seriously, you have to put in the time. This was the discouraging part for me in my initial blogging journey. I just was not interested in sticking it out for the long run. This time around, I am taking planning a whole lot more serious. I have my daily planner which shows me exactly when I will post an article, picture, or simple engage with my audience.
CONSISTENCY!
Where I went wrong previously was that I was not consistent which eventually led me to stopping all together. With the help of my planner, I am making sure that I hold myself to writing AT LEAST once a week. Life gets in the way and things come up but I try to hold myself accountable. This is something that I love to do and is currently a hobby that I can foresee becoming something more.
Since you have made it to the end of the article, maybe you are also looking for the guiding light through your blogging experience or maybe have many more years under your belt and want to be my guiding light. Share your experiences thus far in the comments! Let’s continue to build our network and learn from one another.
