Five Things I Wish I Would've Known When I Started Blogging

There's a first time for everything, right?

For me, first times are usually by trial-and-error, rather than a completely thought-out process.

When I first got a blog, I basically had no idea what I was getting into.

A friend of mine (now my sister-in-law) had graciously invited me to post a few times on her blog, but it wasn't exactly like having my own.

With allllll the responsibility.

5 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started a Blog

1. The Time

At the beginning, I basically saw blogging through rose-colored glasses.

Until I was at it for a few months.

Blogging takes time, y'all.  A lot of time.

For starters, it takes me a week—give or take a few days—to figure out what to post about.  Then comes the fun part of actually sitting down and WRITING the things as opposed to reading or playing music or some other worthy occupation.  And not being distracted by Pinterest.

2. The Coming Embarrassment

Yes, I said embarrassment.  If you're a fellow blogger that has been blogging for any significant amount of time, you can probably relate to the embarrassment of the writing of your first posts (if you can't relate, kudos to you, lucky person).  Here, let's look at a bit from my first post, 'long as y'all don't laugh too hard, 'kay?

I live in the beautiful, windy state of Kansas on a farm (Hence the address of the blog), and I wouldn't have it any other way. :D

My hobbies: I love reading, writing, reading, playing instruments, reading, singing, reading, photography/cinematography, reading, crocheting, and reading.  Oh, and did I mention reading??  I also love watching KC Royals baseball, and if you are not a Royals fan, leave this blog immediately.  Ok, just kidding, just kidding. ;)

...Really?  *Cringes* not exactly the best thing I ever wrote.

So, just to clarify, I'm basically one of those winning-season fans of the Royals.  That was back when they were actually pretty good.  They won, I tracked the games, life was happy.

I couldn't tell you half of the names of the players on the team anymore.  Oops.  (although I did watch a game with my grandma at her house recently and we were both pretty near screaming with shock when they got 10 runs in the top of the 1st inning.  That was pretty fun.)

Also, what's with all the 'Hi, People!' stuff?!  Did I think I was funny, or...? *Scratches head*

All this to say, I'll probably look back on this current post years from now and cringe... but my first post is cringe-worthy enough at the moment.

3. How to Make a Blog Actually Look Good

So, I like to think that my blog looks a whole lot better now than it did at the beginning.

I know it's not perfect, by any means.

I remember when I first created the blog, I thought it was beautiful.

Really, Kaitlyn, you had a simple template with a boring, Blogger-made header, with a Blogger background.  Now I know there's lots of blogs out there that do this, and they look fabulous.  But I also had cheesy gadget titles (oh, who'm I kidding; they're still cheesy) and... I just had no idea how to blog.

But it was a start.

Also, have y'all noticed that I'm starting to make post graphics that actually sorta kinda look similar?  I'm thinking about making them for all my posts (or a good amount of them, anyway) for the sake of uniformity... but it's kind of a scary concept.  Especially when young Kaitlyn had no idea what she was doing and didn't even make graphics to begin with.

(Well... she technically still doesn't know what she's doing.  But shh, don't tell her that.)

4. The Difficulty of Posting Regularly
As you may have noticed, this is a very big problem of mine.
Back at the beginning, I thought the blogging formula was so simple.  I had post ideas, and I couldn't wait to put them to use.  I was going to have a regular posting schedule of once a week or more, and it was going to work out just like a cute lil' movie, right?
Yeah no.  I don't think I've ever done something that takes so much effort to do regularly.
Except exercise.  But that's a different story.
I think the key to posting regularly is planning and starting to write the posts weeks or days in advance.  For me, at least.  Usually when I open Blogger, I stare at my list of posts, then chicken out and convince myself that I'll do it tomorrow.
Day after day.
And yes, that's probably why it took me two months to post once.

5. The Comments
Another misconception I had when I first started was that I'd be flooded with more comments on every single post than I'd know what to do with.
Welllll... it didn't exactly happen that way.  I read a blog post once that mentioned that replying to comments would increase your page views and encourage more comments by interacting with your readers.
I tried.  I really did.  But obviously not long enough, and it kind of goes in spurts. XD So when/if you do comment, I'm not ignoring you.  Promise.  I just... don't take the time to reply.  I suppose I'll have to remedy that...

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So, whether you're new to the blogosphere or a veteran, I hope you found this post at least somewhat entertaining, if not even helpful (no, don't laugh)!  Can you relate to any of these?