little white truths

Continuing on with my blog-iversary posts - which seem to be turning into a collection of posts that I've been meaning to write for a while (!) - I thought I'd say a few words on the lessons I've learned about blogging over this past year.

I have done a post on this before (see here), but I wrote that only three months into blogging and thought it was high time to do another one because I was still green to the whole blog thing then. Indeed, at one year I'm still green, just not quite as much - maybe more of a yellow-ish mossy colour hehe.

I won't write a huge list of all the blogging lessons I've learned because we would be here for ages; what I'll do is focus on the ones that are front-of-mind for me at the moment.

Sort out your tools

I'm still doing this, and I suspect it's something I'll continue to do over time. It took me a while to work out the different tools on Blogger, and there's still more I could do with the program.

But there's only so much time and energy I feel I can give to working out what the functions of Blogger are, since the main purpose of this blog is to have somewhere to write and I have a young baby - I don't need things to be fancy - but there's still plenty of room for improvement on this front.

I dedicate time to 'admin' each month. I should probably dedicate more, but that seems about right for me at the moment.

Keep improving

That's one thing I've tried hard to do. When I first came to blogging, the writing side of things was always going to be something that came easily enough because I'm a writer/editor by trade - it's the rest of it that I struggle with.

A good example is photos. It wasn't so long ago when I discovered that the photo program I have on my computer actually has more functions than I first thought (duh!). My photos have always dragged this blog down, but if I can improve them a little more as the months pass, at least that's something.

Don't rush

It's easy to get into the omg I have to write a post today mindset but producing huge chunks of writing that are rushed and full of errors isn't the way to go. I can't tell you the amount of errors I find in the blogosphere - even from seriously popular bloggers - and it makes me cringe.

A mistake or two here and there isn't a big deal (and it's not unusual that I'll find mistakes in my old posts), but when your opening sentence has two or more errors in it (yes, I've seen this a number of times), you're going to turn off more readers than you might think.

Write that post today if you must, but edit it tomorrow if you can't finish the process now.

What's your brand?

I'm still working on this one and I'm no expert on this side of things, but I wanted to mention it anyway because it's important.

It's worth thinking about your blog and what you want to say, what its message is, its theme, your personality and style, whether your writing is short and snappy, funny, whimsical etc - all those things should influence the look and feel of your blog and create a cohesive picture.

If you're just blogging for fun (and not to make money or send out a particular message, for example), this aspect is less important but I still think it's worth making your blog feel like a good place to be - for yourself, if no one else.

Are you playing up your strengths and minimising your weaknesses?

If you're better on the photography side, really capitalise on that and make your blog stand out for that reason. Let your creative side shine through - blogging is meant to be fun! The writing should still be good, yes, but you don't need to be amazing at everything - just good enough.

With littlewhitetruths, I'm aware that my photos aren't brilliant but at least they're better than they were when I started (gosh, some of the early ones are embarrassing - I should really remove them!). I've got them to a point now where they're passable, and I hope to lift them up to a better standard this year.

That's one of my blogging goals for 2015. I will never be a brilliant photographer, but at least I can get myself to the point where my photos don't stand out for being bad - they just become part of the story.

Have a voice

I've talked about this before (see the earlier post mentioned above) so I won't re-hash what I said too much. All I'll say this time around is that your blog should have a personality and a consistent voice - one that's yours and uniquely yours.

Your voice will adapt over time as you do as a blogger, so make sure that your blog grows with you.

Write posts with a pulse

Related to the above, I don't enjoy reading blogs where I can't feel something of the writer coming through. The best blogs are littered with posts that tell a story, something that gives you an idea of the writer and his or her personality and outlook on life.

You don't have to be funny, although that certainly helps. Even if you're writing in a professional tone, you can still bring personality into it. It's the character of your blog (and you) that keeps people reading and coming back.

Learn from your mistakes

This is an important one: we all make mistakes and we must learn from them if we're going to grow as bloggers, and therefore develop better blogs.

In my early blogging days, I was happy to put up substandard photos because I'm a writer and the words are what matter to me most. That was an error: this is a beauty-focused blog and people need to see decent swatches!

I won't just post any old photo these days and will re-take some shots if I'm not happy with them. Eventually I hope to go through my older posts and put up better photos where I can. I've made many mistakes as a blogger: this is one of them.

Market yourself

I haven't done this. I haven't done it because I come to littlewhitetruths to write, not to gain popularity. But this may change in future if I decide that this blog has potential as, for example, a small income stream to help pay some bills.

I'm not on twitter, instagram or pinterest. I should be. Watch this space!

Make friends, establish connections

I mentioned this in my first post, but I'll repeat it because it's important: