When I hit 200 posts, I thought “wow, who knew this would become a thing?” and I shared my top 10 favorite posts up to that point. (I don’t even know if I could pick just 10 now!)
When I hit 500 posts, I shared how blogging had made me a better mommy and while I feel “tied down” by blogging sometimes, I do feel, overall, the time I have spent sharing my life has benefited my family in so many ways.
And then today happened, post 1,000 and it just seems unfathomable. I never would have guessed almost exactly 31 months ago that I would ever hit this point. I spent my life taking each day one post at a time and I don’t know that I even considered whether or not I’d be still at it 1,000 posts later.
But here I am, 942 days since I first put Beyond Mommying out there. My intention has always been to post daily and while that hasn’t always happened, I’ve never missed more than two days in a row and to know that I have shared more posts than days I’ve been blogging is pretty amazing to me. It just shows how blogging really has been my life, I’ve never taken a break, hiatus or blog-cation but I wouldn’t want it any other way (right now), I love sharing, interacting and reaching my readers.
I’ve shared nearly 500,000 words, over 3,000 images and countless moments, memories and milestones. And even though my style has changed and I’ve learned a lot through my journey, I still cherish each of those early posts as much as my most recent ones despite the fact that those early posts reached only a few people and I am now able to reach many, many, many more.
I started Beyond Mommying on a whim (read why), with no guidance, help or inspiration. I have bumbled my way through with the help of other bloggers, conferences and google and somehow made it, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things I wish I had known before I started.
I am by no means an expert blogger but if I had the chance to reach out to other bloggers just getting started, this what I would want them to know:
Get social!
I was never big on social media before starting Beyond Mommying. Prior to blogging, I had only joined Facebook and that is where I focused sharing my posts. It was waaaaay too long before I joined Pinterest, Twitter, google+ and Instagram and while I still don’t utilize every platform consistently, I do now see the importance of having a presence on each and it has definitely helped me with my branding (I’m lucky that I was able to establish @BeyondMommying on everything!)
Connect with other blogs and bloggers
Read other blogs that relate to yours, comment on posts that you can relate to, join blog hops and link ups (like my Share it Sundays!) Anything to get your name/brand in front of other bloggers in your genre and their readers is a good thing.
Make your pictures perfect
This is one that it took me awhile to get on board with. When I started blogging, I just threw in old family pictures where they were relevant and scaled them down to not be overpowering within the text. I’ve since learned the importance of big, beautiful pictures and while I still use a lot of old family photos, I edit it them to make them as high quality as possible and put them in my posts full-size. I also now know the importance of making images pinnable and shareable with explanatory texts and how important it is to protect my images with either watermarking or brand labeling.
Utilize SEO
I can’t tell you how long it was before I’d even heard of SEO, let alone start using it. I’m still no expert but have found using a SEO widget (I Use WordPress SEO by Yoast) invaluable and recently search engines have become my #1 traffic source (previously it was always Facebook) which I have to attribute to SEO. Unfortunately, I came late to the SEO game but see the value in going back to add keywords and meta descriptions to many of my older posts, though it would have been much easier to just start from the beginning!
Stay true to your mission and style
I have struggled a lot with who I want to be as a blogger and how important “success” is to me. I’ve finally realized that for me (right now) blogging isn’t worth it if I’m not enjoying it and I need to always stay true to my original mission and any time I’ve gone away from that mission and tried to “make it,” it’s ruined my motivation and desire to do what I do.
I’m not perfect, I don’t follow all of these “rules” all the time, but knowing what I do now has made a huge difference, I think, in the success of my blog having known them sooner might have helped me grow and develop a little quicker, but just like parenting, blogging is about the journey, not the destination.
Congrats, Melissa!
Thanks, Jennifer, for always being so supportive through this journey!
Congratulations!!! How exciting! It is great to be able to celebrate all of the sweat and countless hours you have spent on your blog. Think of how many Moms you have helped in 1,000 posts! Best of luck on the next 1,000+
Thank you so much, Tara! That is exactly the thought that keeps me writing, if today’s post reaches just 1 person, it’s worth it to me.
Congratulations on your 1000 post! That is such an exciting accomplishment. Love all your points, and as a newbie, will definitely be taking them along with me. Cheers to the next 1000!!
Thanks, Jaclyn! Hope my tips help you even just a little bit and make blogging easier and more successful for you!
That’s helpful information. I downloaded the SEO plugin you mentioned only now I need to figure out how to use it. LOL. Thanks for sharing this!
Glad my tips were useful for you, Michelle. Luckily Yoast is stupidly simple, you’ll see it below your main post once installed and all you have to do is pick your keywords and add your meta description.
Wow! I can’t imagine getting to 1000 posts! I’ve done 31 on my first (personal mom stuff) blog and 24 on my blog about my daughters, and I feel like there aren’t that many more possible. I know that mom blogging has daily inspirations, so I am very much looking forward to all those not-yet-written ideas and posts to come. Congratulations on your milestone. :D
Thanks, ModernMom! I don’t know that I would have ever guessed this day would come either but I find blogging somewhat addictive. I’ve always loved writing and storytelling so sharing has just become a part of my everyday life and inspiration comes from so many different, amazing places!
Congratulations!! Thank you for the great tips :)
Thanks for stopping by, Ros!