5 Lessons I Learned in My First Year Blogging

It’s officially been ONE WHOLE YEAR since I launched my blog! I’ve written 38 posts, designed probably 100 Pinterest pins, gone through 2 different themes, and only had 1 time where I messed everything up and nearly deleted the entire thing! 🙌 😅 Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot! Today I’m sharing the top 5 things I learned my first year blogging.

If you found this post looking for info about blogging, let me introduce myself real quick! I’m Liz, and I will admit that I’m a Disney adult. 😅 It took me years of thinking about it to finally start this blog, and I’m really glad I did! You can learn more about me and what I write about on my About Me page, but I focus on Disney vacations and Disney at home. If that’s something you might be interested in, I would love if you’d check out some of my posts! I think some of my best posts are in my Tips & Tricks category. 😊 Ok, now let’s get into the nitty-gritty—what I learned my first year blogging!

1. It’s not as easy as it looks.

I’ve been blogging in some capacity for YEARS. From Xanga to Tumblr to WordPress—I thought I knew how to blog! I love to write, and I love Disney. How hard can it be?

This was my first self-hosted, pay-for-the-domain-name, actively-try-to-get-readers kind of blog. And wow. It is a lot more work than I anticipated. It turns out, the writing is the easy part of blogging for me. Everything else was a steep learning curve! Installing and working with a theme that I liked (and getting it to work properly 😅), figuring out what the heck SEO was, researching keywords and how to utilize them, teaching myself how to edit photos and create Pinterest pins—all of that took time. For months, every time I would go to write a new blog post I felt like I had no clue what I was doing. I think I’m finally starting to figure it out after my first year blogging. 😆

The good news is, there are a lot of resources for new bloggers out there! I follow Spark Media Concepts on Instagram, and they are a WEALTH of information. They host periodic webinars about blogging and are always chatting about different topics related to blogging in their Instagram stories. I also did a mentorship session with Blair Lamb, a blogger and YouTuber that I’ve followed for years, which was insanely helpful. I also found lots of resources on Blogging for New Bloggers. Even just a simple Pinterest search will bring you some good info in your first year blogging!

2. Starting a blog doesn’t mean instant-money.

I didn’t expect this blog to be any sort of overnight success. When I bought the domain name and paid for my hosting, I said I’d give it a year and then see if I wanted to continue. I did hope I might make a few bucks from this blog over that time frame, maybe at least enough to cover my hosting. My dream was to make enough to contribute to a Disney trip.

You know how much I’ve made in my first year blogging? $0.00.

I know there are people out there that blog for a living, and I am in awe of them honestly! I think the amount of work it takes from conceptualization to actually making your first dollar is HUGE. The main ways bloggers make money are through ads on their site, affiliate links, and sponsored content. What you might not realize is that you need a LOT of subscribers and/or monthly views to be eligible for ad sites like Google AdSense or MediaBistro. And it takes a lot of time and marketing efforts to get your blog to a place where people will find it and read it! For a while, it WILL feel like you’re shooting posts into a black hole. But the more posts you write, the more you perfect your SEO, the more you grow your subscribers, the more success you will have!

I’m finally getting traffic on posts I wrote a year ago, which is awesome! 🙌 My monthly views are finally regularly hitting triple digits, and even that’s just over the past couple of months so it took me almost a year to get there. It might take a while (even more than a year or two! 😅), but it will be worth it!

3. Pinterest and Instagram are great supplements for blogging.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is super important—that’s how people find your blog through search engines. But lots of bloggers get traffic to their blog through Pinterest and Instagram.

I create a Pinterest image for every blog post using Canva. It took me a LONG time to find my style, but I think I’ve finally got a few templates that I like. Sticking with the same style (or 2–3 styles) makes it a LOT easier to create pins because you don’t have to start from scratch each time! It’s also helpful to go back and create new pins for old posts from time to time—it gives them a fresh look and can get them in front of more potential readers. 😊 Joining and sharing your pins to group boards will also get your content in front of more people! (Google Pinterest group boards, and you’ll learn all about it.) I also use Tailwind to create sort of a Pinterest “queue” that posts pins for me so I can set it and forget it! My Pinterest “strategy” (if you can even call it that lol) probably isn’t the best, but it works for me for now!

Instagram is where I started this whole thing, and I love IG with my whole heart! But I also think it’s important to own my own content (Spark Media Concepts taught me that!). And sometimes an Instagram caption just isn’t enough space for everything I have to say. 😅 I love having this space where I can elaborate and break down my tips and tricks and thoughts more. And if you came here to read my blog from Instagram—THANK YOU. I appreciate you more than you know. 💖

4. Networking with other bloggers in your niche is really fun.

When I was starting out, I read someone else’s blog post that said she didn’t follow any blogs that were in the same niche as her because she didn’t want to be inadvertently influenced by them (or something like that???). But honestly, I’ve had a blast making friends that love Disney as much as me! Mostly this happens on Instagram, but if you read my blog regularly you might have noticed that I occasionally participate in a Disney Blog Hop. These are my absolute favorite, and I’ve met some awesome Disney bloggers through this little blog hop group! Reading posts from other Disney blogs (and interacting with other Disney bloggers) has helped inspire me with my own blog!

It’s really fun to support others in your niche and get support in return! If you’re trying to grow your blog or your Pinterest account or your Instagram account, show support to others with likes, comments, shares, saves, etc. If you support others, they might support you back!

5. If you love it, you should do it!

It can be really tempting to feel like you need to have the perfect plan before you start. A new blog post every Sunday night, an elaborate Pinterest strategy, a perfect Instagram feed aesthetic. And if you want to do those things and they don’t stress you out, that is awesome! But if those things do stress you out (and they stress me the heck out), you just gotta do what you can!

My reality is I work a full-time job, and I’m a mom and a wife, and I only have so much time to devote to this hobby. And THAT’S OKAY. Blogging is like building a wall. Even if it’s slow-going, the more you add to it the more effective it will be. (Is that a bad metaphor? I don’t even know. 😂) I set a goal at the beginning of this year to post three blog posts per month, and I’ve barely been able to get out two. That’s okay! I’m really proud of the posts I have been able to write and post! I’m proud of all the work I’ve put in my first year blogging.

When you’re first starting out, it can feel like everything you want to write has already been written. Or that you’re not qualified to write about your topic. Not true, friend! There are eleventy-billion Disney blogs out there, but sometimes people choose to read what I have to say (I hope). If you want to start a blog about something because you love it, I really encourage you to just go for it! ❤️

Got a question about blogging?

Comment it down below, and I’ll see if I can answer it!