My Blogging Journey || experiences, trials & regrets – the wordy habitat

(Last Updated On: March 25, 2022)

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This blog has received the attention of many new people recently. Maybe you’re one of them! Ever since going self-hosted, it feels like my circle has suddenly expanded. I’ve gotten many new followers and made new friends. I now interact with people whom I only followed quietly before.

I’ve been blogging for 6 years but few actually know my entire blogging journey. I always mention it in passing but have never explained my experiences.

So, I thought it was time that I share all the details and let y’all know a little bit more about it. Here’s my blogging journey with what I tried and what mistakes I made. If you’re a new blogger (or even if not), I hope this helps you feel better about your journey. And you can learn from my mistakes so you don’t make the same.

the first start

I started my first blog one random day in January 2016. I was posting a short review of a book on Goodreads when I noticed a small box on the right. It said, “copy/paste the text below into your blog.” I was a computer science student so I recognized the HTML block with my review and was intrigued.

I googled “blog” and WordPress came up so I signed up without having a clue about blogging. When it asked for a blog name, I thought for only a minute and entered one. And voila, a blog of my own!

My first blog was a literal playground for me. I posted whatever I wanted—journal entries, book reviews, and even POETRY—and had fun. I was blogging anonymously and didn’t tell my friends so I didn’t think about making it presentable. I didn’t expect people to read my words at all.

I was curious about other blogs so I found some by teens and followed them. My engagement with other bloggers was less and was mostly restricted to the teen blogger community.

For almost a year, I blogged anonymously and posted a LOT. Almost one post every day. It’s the only reason my blogging voice developed early. I posted frequently and experimented with my writing. While I’m quite embarrassed about my content from that period, I’m glad it happened because I didn’t have an issue with my blogging voice afterwards. It has refined since then but is largely the same.

I have many regrets about my choices from that time but the biggest is the blog name. I chose a bad name and it clearly affected the blog. When I finally decided to tell friends about the blog and started to interact with others, I realized that barely anyone remembered the blog name properly. Light Up The Shining Night Stars* is unique and searchable but isn’t a good name otherwise.

*yes that was my first blog’s name. it was bad haha. long and hard to remember properly.

the second start

I had enough with the bad blog name and the old embarrassing content so I decided to start over. The only thing I was adamant about was not sticking to a niche. I made a bunch of posts private and changed the name to the wordy habitat under the free WordPress plan.

The second phase of my blog lasted for 3 years and it was the time when I learnt the most. Especially the first year after the rebranding. I actively focused on improving my blog, engaging with other bloggers, seeing how others do well on the internet, and making sure that my content was worthy as well.

A few months in, I got a huge new thing to learn. My old posts were suddenly getting more traffic and I found out that it was through search engines. I knew nothing about SEO so the fact that I ranked without trying? I was shocked.

Wanting to understand how it works, I spent a lot of time researching SEO and making notes. It was overwhelming but I did it. Then I did nothing with it.

That is the only thing that I regret from the second blogging phase. I learnt so much and didn’t use the knowledge. With a cavalier attitude, I concluded that if I could do it once without trying, it will happen again without any effort.

When you put in effort in any area, it is SEEN. When I started actively blog hopping and commenting, I saw the difference in engagement on my own blog too. The fact that I knew about SEO and didn’t use it still rankles me. Who knows how far I would’ve gone if I started back then.

the third start

Towards the end of the second phase, I was feeling trapped with the free WordPress plan. It barely gave any freedom and I hated the .wordpress.com URL. So I decided that once I start earning, I’ll take the next step.

Once I had the income to spend, I looked into available options and became overwhelmed. There are so many options. I spent a while considering what to do and eventually went for the WordPress personal plan with a free custom domain.

I went for that instead of self-hosting because I did not have the time to set up a self-hosted blog. I was doing a full-time internship while also going through my last year of college. Self-hosting looked overwhelming to me.

I highly regret doing that now. First of all, WordPress did not allow me to get a .com domain because I’m in India. Secondly, there was still no freedom! I basically paid only to not show ads on my blog. The WordPress plan was such a waste.

If you are considering going for the WordPress plans, don’t. Self-hosting involves some work but provides much more for the same price. I wish I waited until I had the time to directly self-host my blog instead of paying for one year of WP personal plan. I felt restless and dissatisfied within months.

I was torn about what to do. I didn’t want to self-host halfway and waste money. I was also stressed due to internship + college + pandemic and didn’t have the brainpower for self-hosting. Hence, I decided to wait out the year and concentrated on my content. Things like finally trying SEO, blog post readability, and Twitter marketing.

A few months before the year ended, I was in a major blogging slump. The blog was too restrictive and I got frustrated because I had no freedom despite having a paid plan. So I decided to not wait.

the fourth start

Finally, I went self-hosted. This phase has been much better compared to all of the previous ones. I launched this blog in February and it’s been going great.

I started seriously blogging and putting effort into every part of this blog. Everything I learned so far is being used now. I’m also trying out new things like having a resource library and my own graphics. I’ve also been doing regular blog maintenance which has elevated this blog’s value.

I even started my own newsletter alongside this blog and set up a resource library with helpful freebies. Those two are things I’d never considered before because I didn’t have the flexibility and freedom that self-hosting gives. Not having restrictions is letting me expand my content and try new things.

This is definitely not the end. There is still so much to try out. Things like improving CTAs* in my posts, Pinterest marketing, email marketing, collaborations, using social media better and more.

This is why blogging works for me: it feeds the curious student in me. I want to learn and figure out how these things work and make them work for me, especially because they have so many variables. It’s very interesting.

I’m excited to try new things and see where this blog goes!

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endnotes

Every blogger’s journey is different. We start with different ideas and go through different phases. I find it very interesting to read about others’ journeys and learn from them. It’s personal but it is also informational. We can see how they ended up where they are today and try to do the same.

A couple of new bloggers (compared to me, at least) told me recently that they look up to my blog and wonder when their blogs will be good too. They don’t know the work and mistakes that went behind all of this. I wanted to write this post to give more insight into my blogging journey and also help newer bloggers with information. Don’t do my mistakes, haha!

Also, most bloggers don’t do amazing right from the start and it’s okay! Don’t worry about writing perfect content right from the start. It doesn’t work like that, and that’s a good thing. It means even if your first start isn’t good, you will improve.

be wordy with me!

How has your blogging journey been so far? Have you gone through multiple starts like me? What are your biggest regrets or things that you wish you did differently?

If you are an experienced blogger, do you have any advice for new bloggers? Things that you learnt through experience and hopefully they don’t go through the same? Share it in the comments!

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