Place your seat backs and tray tables in their upright position and fasten your seatbelts, folks. Ok maybe this won’t be THAT exciting of a post but, for me personally, I had to prepare for this one.
I’ve been running this blog for almost two years now and I’m l o v i n g it.
This isn’t social media.
This is MY WEBSITE that I built on my own.
I worked on my SEO into the late hours of the night. I tweaked the coding and scripts until every aspect looked the way I wanted it. I may have skipped a meal or delayed a bathroom break when I was deep into writing a good post. My boyfriend suffered neglect when I was stuck troubleshooting a plugin. (WordPress aficionados can definitely relate to this paragraph).
All that work pays off when I see my views gradually rise and my email subscribers slowly grow. It’s SOOO freakin rewarding!
With all that said, I actually expected more traffic and blog growth by now! For a couple months I’ve been wondering what I could do to increase it. I took a closer look at the blogs I admired and realized they had something that I didn’t.
THEY ALL HAD A PERSONAL AND EMOTION TONE.
One of the things I struggle most with is sharing personal stories and real-life details. This blog is not personal but rather informative. And I feel like that has held me back from the blog growth I expected. People want to connect, they want to relate, they want to feel emotions!
Let me share a quick story.
Back in the day I had a tendency to overshare on social media without abandon. I spilled my thoughts and feelings into my LiveJournal, MySpace, and Twitter. (In retrospect, maybe I was a little inappropriate but I was young, social media was fairly new, and I was just trying to be candid and uninhibited). Anyways, one day I was attacked for it. About 8 years ago a bitter person screenshot things I had shared online. Then they printed and physically mailed those things to certain friends and family members of mine.
I put on a brave face but deep down it made me feel very ashamed and embarrassed. I don’t think I ever recovered from it. From that point I over-analyzed literally anything and everything I put online. I developed a cold and distant persona. Even writing about this is one of the most personal things I’ve shared on the internet in years.
The reason I share all this?
Because from this time forward I want to get more personal with you guys. I vow to be more vulnerable and passionate and heartfelt. I’ve invested so much time and energy into this website that I owe it to myself to continue growing it. The way to do that is by letting some of my guards down and opening up. I’ve been writing my posts with such precise, calculated, and proper tactics. So it might not be easy writing with emotion now but I’m here for the challenge!
If you’ve read this far, then you’re my tribe and I will show up for you as genuinely as possible. Thank you for being here.
Now I can’t wait to add more posts to the new “Personal” category in my sidebar! (Below if you’re on mobile).
OMG, I can totally relate to this! This is probably the biggest thing I struggle with when it comes to my blog and social media accounts. It’s scary being vulnerable and putting myself out there for the world to judge, but it’s something I’ve been determined to change recently as well. Good luck on your blogging journey though, you got this and you’re not alone. <3
Ohhhh I can truly understand this and relate. I truly believe those incidents happen as we are in our growth stage of defining who we are and who we will let into our lives. In order to be the great person you are and make any sort of impact, you have to experience these polarizing effects. It’s just people being people and having too much free time to tear others down instead of working on their own craft. Good for YOU for being bold and still continuing YOUR path. Beautiful story & thanks for sharing you with us! Keep shining! ⭐️
You are amazing and your blog is beautiful. You are so genuine and one of the sweetest humans I know. Keep posting because I’m here for you!
Very proud of you my dear!