Four Things I Learned in Four Years of Blogging

A lot of things happen in four years.

Some person goes from a regular Joe Average, to an Olympic champion. Hundreds of soccer players work thousands of hours in order to prepare for a new World Cup. And if my math is right, Bill Gates earns approximately $10,091,520,000, after all, he makes around $80 every single second of the day.

Four Years of Blogging

And as I’ve seen from my own example, a guy can go from a barely-competent writer, to an (in my humble opinion) above-average blogger in just 48 months. So what have I learned in these four years? Quite a lot actually. I’ve had my highs and my lows, but all in all, things are looking more than ok for me.

Honestly, I’ve progressed in a way that I never thought possible, and now, I could proudly look back at things I’ve written. And more importantly, I can help you become a better writer by avoiding some of the ill-advised, stupid mistakes I’ve made during my journey.

What Can You Learn From My Experience?

1. Keywords are Vital for Your Success

The first site I ever created was foolishly under my name. Because, the problem was – nobody knew what it was about. However, let’s say you’re a photographer, and you start a blog about photography, if you choose a name like Professional Photography, everyone will know what you’re talking about. You should also use certain keywords in all of your post titles, to make sure your posts show up in Google search results.

Every time you came up with a title, just think to yourself – would this rank well in Google. If you’re uncertain, lose the title, and come up with another one. Therefore, using the right KWs, especially when

it comes to attracting visitors to your posts is essential. And another thing, try not to use any ambiguous titles, because most people don’t actually read blog posts – they just skim through – and if the subject matter is confusing, most people just leave the page.

2.  Finding a Niche Matters More Than You Think

Always have this in mind – it’s always better to excel in one particular niche than to do ok in a few. I found this the hard way, when I was trying to grow my previous website. Because like most people, I had trouble coming up with interesting subjects in my niche, so I started venturing out. And after a while I was completely and utterly distracted.

Few months later, I discovered I’ve lost a good number of my regular readers. While I was surprised at the time, the situation makes complete sense from this perspective. So don’t make my mistake, find your specific niche, stick to a single thing, and learn to do it well. And only when you have a good, established following, start covering different content.

3.  Always Use a Reliable Hosting Service

Pay attention now, because this one is really important. In the past I had my site go down four times, when it shouldn’t have and all because it couldn’t handle the traffic. This set me back at least a couple of months. These four times, I had a record number of clicks but the number would’ve been higher, if not for the down time.

So you should definitely talk to your hosting company and make sure that your site is set properly. Trust me; it can make all the difference. Also, if you plan to do a lot of your writing from a local café, you should also get a reliable VPN to encrypt all of your incoming and outgoing data. This will prevent any hackers from accessing your device and taking your files, like it happened to me once.

4.  Better Content Doesn’t Equal More Success

Last but not least, someone has to face you with this sad reality. I mean, I almost have no doubt (you always have to be prepared for the worst) by the way my site has been growing, that in the long run, it will prove to be successful. However, it’s definitely not grown as fast as some of my competitors. Naturally, there’s a lot of room for content creators in my niche, but to be honest, all of us look at each other like competition. And as long as no one is ripping of someone else, it’s ok to share the same fans.

But no matter the reason (in some cases it’s the writing style in others, it’s just plain old luck), some sites and blogs expand faster than others. And even if you have the best content in the world, if you’re not doing everything you can to help your site grow, you’ll quickly see other people bypass you. This is a common occurrence, so you cannot let it get you down. The best advice here is to keep up your hard work and stick with it.

Bonus: There Will Always Be Negative People on the Web

Personally, if I don’t something, I don’t get too much worked out about it, I simply close that link, and read/watch something else. For one reason or another, millions of people on the Internet choose to share their negative views on a certain topic if they don’t like it. So you have to be aware that people will often leave negative comments and put down your work.

And if you’re just starting out, this will definitely bother you more than you think.

Whether you see comments like this on site such as Reddit (you are probably going to submit links on similar sites also) or a comment your blog, one thing is for certain – if you write for long enough, a certain amount of people will say something negative. But the thing is – there’s not much you can do about it – so don’t let it bother you too much. And don’t forget, when it comes to your blog, every comment needs to be approved by you before it goes up.

So if you think negative, unconstructive comments are unnecessary, just delete them and don’t worry about them.

Final Thoughts

All in all, a great thing about working on something of your own is that you spend practically every minute of your work day focused on you. Now, if you don’t have a blog, I guarantee, as soon as you start your goal will become to make a living from it. And once you start thinking like that, new ideas will pop up in your head 24/7.

I’m fortunate enough to be a blogger, because it allows plenty of opportunities to work on other projects. I’ve got some major plans for 2017 – and while we’ll see how everything will pan out – and can say with confidence that these plans are much bigger than anything I would’ve had from following my previous career.

By Adam Ferraresi

Adam (23, Dallas, TX) knew that everything connected to the internet was always appealing to him, which is why he opted out for a career of web developer. He’s been rather successful in his endeavors, so he can offer great insight in the world of internet through his articles published at wefollowtech.com.

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