{"id":9360,"date":"2015-10-12T14:15:41","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T21:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homeyohmy.com\/?p=9360"},"modified":"2017-02-12T13:26:54","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T21:26:54","slug":"how-i-grew-my-blog-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homeyohmy.com\/how-i-grew-my-blog-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Grew My Blog + Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog-6\"<\/p>\n

I’ve put off this post for so long because I felt like I had nothing new to add to what’s already out there. \u00a0After all, I followed the advice found upon Googling “how to grow a blog” or reading books about blogging (ok it was only one book).<\/p>\n

Still, it’s my most frequently asked question, made even more abundantly clear after the reader survey results<\/a>, and when I thought about approaching it as more of telling my story rather than writing out a guidebook, I was able to stress about it less and get rid of this fear that I might be disappointing people.<\/p>\n

I’ve gotten questions like how do you get people to comment on your blog, or how do you get featured on larger sites, and honestly, I don’t completely know how that all worked out. \u00a0When I look back on the past two years of blogging, it all feels like it kind of just happened, which of course isn’t the whole story because I for sure worked my ass off, but that feeling points out that there is a lot I still don’t know and need to learn.<\/p>\n

The bulk of what I know, and the thing that I’m most sure of, is that I\u00a0spent 82% of my energy on improving my content and 18% on promoting it. \u00a0<\/em>Everywhere you look, they’ll tell you content is king, and there is no getting around it. \u00a0Content is the value of the information you provide, how you present it, and your voice, and it\u00a0needs to be of highest priority.<\/strong> \u00a0If I only get one technical thing across, this would be it. \u00a0That’s why I bolded it.<\/p>\n

To stick with my plan of telling my story and to also satiate the interest some of you expressed on knowing this, I’m going to start with how I came to blogging. \u00a0I’m also going to put titles on sections of this post for better navigating- nice!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How I came to blogging<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

I shared this before, but I can share it again, no problem. \u00a0I previously worked in pharmacy. \u00a0I never called it a career because it never felt like one. \u00a0I pursued it because I was sold on the promise of a comfortable future, but it was a decision completely devoid of any intrinsic interest, and\u00a0I needed to get out of it.<\/p>\n

I always loved the idea of blogging, and I wanted to do what bloggers\u00a0were doing- be creative, share things I love, and do it alongside like-minded people. \u00a0I would have loved to do this through switching to\u00a0a creative job, but that was proving to be difficult due to my lack of experience.<\/p>\n

At that time, I had a friend successfully pursuing a career change, and she was blogging in her spare time as her creative outlet. \u00a0She encouraged me to start my own blog, recommended a book on blogging, and said Google will have all the answers to my questions, so I did just that: I read the book, Googled my questions, and spent about two months researching and prepping for the launch of my blog.<\/p>\n

Sure, I had hopes it would open doors and serve as a\u00a0portfolio\u00a0for those creative jobs I couldn’t get to notice me, but even more than that, it was my passion project. \u00a0I felt like I had forgotten how to access that part of me after years of being\u00a0a zombie at my job, so it was as exciting as it was terribly scary. \u00a0That’s one giant thing I’ve learned, by the way: if it’s scary, that means you should do it.<\/p>\n

Around this time, I had moved into a new apartment I loved (still here!) and it was tugging at me to share all the things I was going to do to decorate and DIY for it. \u00a0Was I doing any of that stuff before? \u00a0No, never, but I really, really wanted to. \u00a0That’s a great thing\u00a0about blogging- it makes\u00a0you improve\u00a0at your subject. \u00a0What I didn’t know at the time was that it would turn into\u00a0my absolute joy,\u00a0that it would grow into a deep love for design, and that clarity and focus would become\u00a0one of the best things that ever happened to me.<\/p>\n

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My plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

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There is no plan without a goal. \u00a0My goal from the very first day was to grow this blog with the hopes that I could go full time with it. \u00a0I don’t know if I ever said it aloud because frankly I was mad shy about it, but I did write it down in my notebook, which totally counts.<\/p>\n

So knowing that I wanted to take this seriously, I stuck to a regular posting schedule and\u00a0promised myself I’d do\u00a0whatever it took to get it done. \u00a0For me, that meant working most of\u00a0my nights and weekends in addition to my full time job. \u00a0I don’t mean to say that this amount of time dedication is necessary for blog growth, but when I get asked how I grew “so fast,” I’d owe a lot of it to those long hours.<\/p>\n

I came from zero design background and knew nothing about what goes into blogging, so the majority of those long hours for about the first year were spent learning the skills I needed to improve my content (remember what I said about improving content?) \u00a0I had to learn WordPress, basic coding, photography, photo editing, Photoshop, social media marketing, research equipment I’d need for production, research materials and techniques for DIY, learn blogging\/internet etiquette, keep up with trends,\u00a0how to find my style and voice,\u00a0the list goes on.<\/p>\n

There’s a million things to learn, and once there, those things need to continually be improved upon. \u00a0It’s what I love most about blogging, that constant learning, and keeping up with that will yield results, absolutely.<\/p>\n

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Yes, but how did you get people to come?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I didn’t do anything crazy, or at least not as much as I sense people think I do. \u00a0I don’t have any secrets or insider tricks on super boosting blog sharing. \u00a0I just stuck to the basics.<\/p>\n

–link-ups<\/em>
\nThese were so instrumental to the very early days of my blog when I was getting like 6 views a day. \u00a0A blog or multiple blogs host a weekly link-up where you submit your blog post through a widget and\u00a0everyone\u00a0can browse the submissions live. \u00a0Hosts would then pick their favorites and feature\u00a0them in the following link-up while also sharing them on social media. \u00a0Getting featured is what really helped bring more eyes to my blog, and it also connected me with\u00a0bloggers that I’m still buddies with today.<\/p>\n

–submission sites
\n<\/em>I only submit to Craftgawker or Dwellinggawker\u00a0because they have been the most successful in how much traffic they bring. \u00a0Other than having submitted\u00a0one of my posts to Apartment Therapy, this is it for me! \u00a0For a comprehensive list of submission sites for home, craft, and DIY content, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

–I<\/em>\u00a0posted regularly to social media
\n<\/em>There’s so much that can be said\u00a0about strategy for each platform, but I’ll touch on the two most important.<\/p>\n