It’s late July 2018 and I’m working from my parents’ house in Georgia. At this particular moment, I’m hunched over my laptop in my Mom’s office while my butt starts to fall asleep from sitting in this chair too long. The day has involved an endless gauntlet of conference calls that haven’t allowed me enough time to take a break and stand up, let alone take a quick walk to rejuvenate my behind.
I’m fielding emails while calculating how late I’m going to have to work based on what needs to be done by morning. Current estimate: 8pm. A coworker that is basically my interim boss calls me out of the blue saying that I need to edit a 50 slide PowerPoint by tomorrow morning. Revised estimate: 12am.
If these long work hours weren’t enough, I had the genius idea to take my previously private blog public a few days ago, during one of my industry’s many busy seasons.
While on another conference call, I get a (wonderfully sweet, but terrifying) Twitter DM saying that my comments section is flagging everyone as a bot and blocking their comments. I have yet to receive a comment on my blog – how many people have tried and been turned away?! Crap – adding that to my list to figure out.
While waiting for a client’s email response, I refresh my blog in an incognito window randomly and realize none of my images are showing up unless I’m logged in – they just show up as broken image links. Have they been like that this whole time?!? I add the bug to my ever growing list. Revised clock out estimate: 1am.
Then I get a note from a blogger who I wrote a guest post for that they would like me to basically start over (a fair point given my newbie writing skills, but it felt devastating at the time). Latest clock out estimate: 3am. My head falls to the desk with a “smack.”
Welcome to blogging!
Now I’m not telling you the above story to try and discourage anyone from starting a blog – not at all. I just wanted to give a peek behind the curtain to see what my experience has been like. It hasn’t all been roses, but overall, taking this blog public has been the best and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. So let’s dive into the highs, lows (including the above scenario) and what’s next for this little section of the Internet.
The Highs
It’s been a whole year! 52 weeks since I pushed this former journal into the world. 52 weeks where I published at least every Tuesday, as promised, and I’m elated I’m still here! In case I haven’t made it extremely clear before: I’m still here because of all of you who take the time out of your busy lives to read my weird words, to leave a comment that makes my day or send me an email that makes my week. Thank you so much 🙂 !!!
Community & Support
The biggest high from this blog will probably be a surprise to no one: it’s the community I’ve become a part of. It’s all of you. Previously I had heard the mantra “find your tribe” and thought it was a great dream, but not one I would achieve. I had been a lurker in the personal finance and blogging community for over three years before making my words public. I didn’t expect anything to change when I became a public blogger, but literally everything has changed.
Taking my blog public has cranked the community aspect of personal finance up to 11. I still am not completely sure why putting my words out there has completely changed my social life, but I suspect it has to do with sharing a piece of myself with you all so that when we meet in person we feel like we’ve already ‘met’. Meeting people from this community in real life feels like connecting with an old friend instead of an internet stranger.
Previously all of my friends have been remnants from college or friends of college friends, but since taking this blog public a year ago, my closest friends – the ones I text daily, the ones I see weekly and the ones I vacation with – are from the personal finance community. I’ve met more people in the last year who I have instantly clicked with and developed friendships with, than I have in the previous decade. And no, I’m not joking. It used to be a serious rarity that I would meet someone and they would become a real friend. This community increases the chance of first meetings blossoming into real friendships by 100 fold.
One aspect of retirement that I was a little worried about was having a strong social network – people I could hang out with when most people are at work, people who aren’t just concentrated in Seattle or NYC. This community has given me a fantastic social circle of people all around the world that I want to visit and hang out with. I am no longer at all worried what my social life will be like in retirement – there are too many people to meet! My retirement travel plans now include stopping by cities to meet internet friends in real life (if they’ve asked me…I wouldn’t show up without an invitation…or would I😉?) I feel connected to a fantastic network of wonderful people who are all cheering each other on towards their goals.
A Love Of Creation
Working in Corporate America seems to have clouded how I see productive ‘work’. I thought being productive wasn’t for me because I always associated it with the endless meetings, revisions and inefficiencies I see in Corporate America. I always imagined the unfortunately common occurrence of dealing with the 50th revision of a document that doesn’t even make it better, but is used as a power move for someone to be able to point to one piece of a paragraph and say “that’s my contribution – I did that!”
The wasted time inherent in the group project that is corporate work scarred me. I thought that was the only kind of work that existed. Even entrepreneurs have to deal with the same nonsense from their clients. The leaders of public companies have to deal with their board members and shareholders. There’s always an aspect of other people with the option of them making work unnecessarily complicated and (for me) unfulfilling.
Enter: Blogging. To me, blogging is freedom. I have no boss that needs to sign off on my words, no shareholders to be accountable to and no one else imposing their goals on me. I have no deadlines based on other people’s incompetence – I’m only following a schedule I create myself. It turns out I don’t hate all productive activities, just supervised and inefficient ‘work’. Through blogging I have discovered that I actually love some creative pursuits if they’re not hindered by other people’s agenda.
I’ve become such a stereotype that this past weekend, I excitedly bounded out of bed, opened my laptop at the same desk that I use for work, and started happily typing away on this blog. Contrasting this scene to how I trudge out of bed on a weekday to angrily open my laptop and get to work at the same desk with a large frown on my face, is basically black and white. I’ve discovered something I’m EXCITED about even though from the outside it is identical to the work that feels like it’s sometimes draining the life out of me.
A Purpose For Random Hobbies
I have a lot of random interests that have never seemed to fit together. For example, I’m obsessed with documenting the world around me. I take copious notes, review everything (films, restaurants, campsites, you name it..) and take an insane amount of pictures at all times. I also love creating beauty when I can through calligraphy, watercolor and doodling.
All of these skills seemed to magically come together when I started a blog. I finally had a purpose for the thousands of pictures I take a year, an outlet for my love of reviews and a direction for my design pursuits. Recently, a fellow blogger Savvy History, even reached out asking if I could provide pictures of Seattle for an awesome post she published, and I was ecstatic. The wild amount of pictures I take now have a purpose! My love of creating beauty has also been channeled into creating fun graphics for this blog, such as the monthly net worth updates I publish every month on Instagram and on The Numbers page. All my hobbies have combined to become a Megazord hobby all under the awesomeness of blogging!
A Magical Distraction
This is something I really didn’t expect. Because blogging can involve so much more than writing, such as the hobbies above, it has been a magical distraction on my road to early retirement. I literally can’t believe it’s been a year since I made this blog public. It was the fastest year of my life. Because there was always something to learn and do relating to this blog (since the landscape of blogging is always changing) this past year seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye.
And in that blink, I have always had something to write, edit, research and look forward to. This awesome distraction has seemed to make my time to retirement pass in a quick, but happy blur and has been an unexpected benefit of all of this hard work.
I used to have 2 sections of my life: Work and Recovering From Work. Now I have an entire rich life outside of that – a life that I know I will look back on fondly in the future and will most likely eclipse any memories of relentless email pings. Instead of separating time by work milestones like I have previously, I look back and remember times that my heart sung and most of those were in some way related to this blog, such as the small accomplishments that I write down to make me smile on a rainy day.
The Lows
Now that I’ve barreled you over with my enthusiasm about everything this last year of blogging has given me, let’s dip our toes into the ‘lows’ since not everything is rainbows and sunshine.
Blogging Isn’t As Advertised
A giant number of blogs out there have a “How To Start A Blog” post and most of them talk about how EASY it is. I know that some of these posts are just a vehicle to push affiliate links, but besides that, in general, they’re not telling a completely truthful story. STARTING a blog is easy, but HAVING a blog is hard.
Starting a blog involves a few clicks of a mouse and parting with less than $100, but keeping a blog running is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and I wish more blogs talked about that and properly prepared new bloggers for what was to come.
Based on believing “How to start a blog in 3 easy steps!” posts, I was unprepared for what blogging involves. If I had known I would have NEVER pushed my blog public during one of my industry’s busy seasons.
Blogging is not at all what I thought it would be. I believed public blogging would be exactly like private blogging – I would type some words into a computer, press publish and be done with it, but that’s not at all the case.
Blogging Is So Much More Than Writing
I read on a blog recently that only about 20% of blogging is writing and that has proven to be true in my experience. I thought it was 100%, but instead the majority of the blogging pie is spent on things I didn’t even know existed, such as technical issues (hello broken images and comment sections), challenges with different platforms (“what do you mean I can’t pre-load Facebook with yet to be published post links because it only scans the site when you enter the info?!”), back end issues (like making sure one of my pages doesn’t take 2 minutes to load because I’m obsessed with crisp images), dealing with random weirdness (“WHY do I get so much spam now?!?”) and telling people your blog is out there (aka marketing).
Public blogs have WAY more going on than I expected. I went into public blogging thinking it would just involve toggling a button from private to public and it would be NBD. Nope – it was a BIG D….that sounds wrong. It was a Big Deal! In the first few days, I discovered the issues mentioned at the beginning of this post (and more) and I learned that taking a blog public adds a whole new layer of problems because of one thing: Interactivity! By definition, a private blog has no interactivity, no connection to other sites or people and therefore very little can break.
Actually writing is a shockingly small portion of what it takes to keep a blog up and running and the above list of things is based on what I actually spend time on, which doesn’t even include the many many things people say I should be spending time on.
These additional items don’t pass my “Is this fun?” test and so they remain untouched (such as search engine optimization). Obviously if someone else finds that stuff interesting or has a different gauge for what they want to do on their blog (instead of asking “is this fun”) we will have different approaches. I just wanted to warn anyone thinking about diving in, that while blogging is DEFINITELY worth it – it is not as generally advertised. Gird your loins.
Blogging Involves Self-Imposed Stress
I wrote recently about how I love the #SlugLife. Becoming a public blogger clashed a bit with my love of unproductivity and added some extra self-imposed stress to my life. I’m a bit of a perfectionist when I care about something, but trying to make every blog post mind-blowing + my full-time job + my social life was overwhelming at times.
Since I realized this, I’ve been erecting boundaries, which is where the “only doing something for this blog if it’s fun” rule came from. Other boundaries include not allowing myself to respond to any and all comments or emails immediately, which is what I WANT to do (y’all are the best part of blogging), but when I see a thought-provoking comment come through that I want to write a thorough answer to and I mentally add that (fun) ‘work’ to my list of things to do, it can create stress because despite wanting to do it, it is still ‘one more thing.’ So I’ve tried to separate my ‘blog time’ from my ‘work time’ and ‘social time’ in order to give everything the time it deserves and not allow (even pleasurable) tasks to cause additional stress.
My weekly post deadline has also helped curtail my self-imposed stress because I don’t have time to over think something or let self-doubt creep in. My weekly inner monologue seems to go something like this: “Oh this post isn’t a thought provoking, hilarious, tearjerker that will change everyone’s entire mindset?!? TOO BAD – IT’S MONDAY. PRESS THE DAMN BUTTON!” Having that set deadline that I must hit no matter what, has allowed me to push my words out of the nest before I think they’re ready, which I prefer to the alternative: radio silence until I write something that I think is ‘worthy’ of your attention (Spoiler: that will never happen).
What’s Next?
So I’ve posted every Tuesday without fail for a year. I’m extremely proud of that fact. I knew I could pump out a weekly post based on my previous testing for a year before going public, but I didn’t limit myself to a certain day in that test. I know that if I get lax on this goal, weeks or even months could pass without me writing anything.
But overall, in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t really have a ‘plan’ for this blog. My only goal is to write 1x/week and interact with you lovely people, so I’m going to keep doing that – even in retirement. Most bloggers after retiring seem to (understandably) fall off the face of the earth. There are not a lot of blog posts with information about how retirement actually feels – especially the transition, the (I imagine) messy first few weeks and months of a major life change. So I want to provide a raw account of that stuff.
I’m playing around with the idea of a weekly brain dump update for the first few weeks instead of the composed 1 month or 1 year posts we usually see. I want to be, like I said, RAW in case it can help others prepare for this change as well. So that’s the plan. Just keep at it and keep being as real as possible. Let’s see what the next year brings!
For More Info On My Blogging Journey Check Out These Previous Posts:
Omg Purple, I had the exact comment issue last week and wrote about it 😂 My friend tried to comment, but apparently the computer thought she was a ‘suspected bot’………….I’m like, she’s a what now? (The solution was to deactivate the Bluehost/Mojo Marketplace plugin btw)!
I also completely agree blogging is more than writing. In fact I spend the majority of my time fixing the functionality, design and marketing issues of the site. But that’s not to say I hate blogging though – I love it as well. Writing itself is extremely therapeutic, and it’s fun to design the website that reflects your personality. (I must thank you again for showing such an awesome theme exists 😉) My only issue with Karuna is that I can’t put posts in more efficient ‘blocks’ so that I don’t have to scroll all the way to see previous posts.
Anyway, I feel like I just read your ‘6 months into blogging’ a few weeks ago – can’t believe it’s been a year already. Congrats, and I look forward to your future posts! 🙂
Ugh I’m sorry that happened to you too! Maybe it’s part of this Karuna theme somehow? Since it was a year ago I can’t even remember what I did, but I’m glad you figured it out. Does the Mojo plugin come with the site automatically because I don’t remember installing it ever.
So glad you love blogging too! What marketing issues are you facing on the site? Just curious. Writing is so therapeutic you’re right – I wish I had listened to my Mom like a decade ago when she told me to write more. Oh well – better late than never! And no problem on the theme – glad you’re liking it (despite the comment issue). As for putting previous posts at the beginning of the page – I’m sure that’s possible. It might just require a plugin or some coding. Let me know if you figure it out (again – curious)!
I can’t believe it’s been that long either. I remember just writing that 6 month post! Thanks so much for your encouragement and stopping by!
The initial marketing plan (letting ppl know I exist) was commenting on other blogs related to minimalism, sustainability – except I couldn’t find much? Well this is mostly my fault because I have terrible research skills 😂 but it does seem more people are active on YouTube these days (except for the FIRE community, it’s great how they are so active and supportive of each other!).
I’ve always been a lurker on YouTube too, so I follow a lot of creators there. Recently though, I’ve realized that even though I leave comments, the people in that platform are in a mood to watch videos, instead of reading blogs. On the bright side, I’ve just discovered one of your friends Angela! She has a section on sustainability, so I’m happy with the find hahaha.
Glad you found Angela – when you said minimalism and sustainability I was going to suggest her 🙂 . Very interesting to hear which platforms different niches are most often using. I’m sure you’ll find lots of great blogs through Angela’s blog and her commenters. Good luck with your plan!
Congrats on your first year of public blogging! I love your work and I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for you.
Thank you!! That’s so nice to hear! I can’t wait to see what this year brings either – fingers crossed retirement lol!
Congratulations! You made it.
You’re so right about blogging. It’s easy to start, but really difficult to keep going. I should put that disclosure in my “How to start a blog” post. 😉
Haha – thank you! Yes I made it by the skin of my teeth 😉 . Excited to see that disclosure on your blog haha 🙂 .
Congrats on 1 year! I’m also continually shocked at how much non-writing time is involved with having a blog. Aside from the technical aspects, there’s the social media aspect which I’m pretty terrible at. Even still, I’m impressed by one post a week. That’s more than I can manage. 🙂
I just hit 3 months as a early retiree. I guess I should work up another post about the transition. I have a couple things in mind, and I wouldn’t want to let my #1 fan down. 😉
Thank you!! And right?! Who knew?? And you’re not terrible at the social media part 😉 – I think everyone should use each platform as they want to. For me that’s being on Twitter every hour of the day because it brings me joy, but I know that’s not the case for others. As for one post a week – I’m sure I’ll find it harder when I’m retired like you 😉 .
Congrats on 3 months of freedom!! And yes on another post please – I get so excited whenever a new one hits my inbox! Maybe I should make a t-shirt since I’m your #1 fan and all 😉 .
Congrats on clearing the one year hurdle!! Can’t wait to see what the next year and retirement have in store. Hopefully posting 3/4 times a week 😉
Thanks so much! I can’t wait to see either haha! As for 3-4 posts a week – who do you think I am?!?! Angela?? (If only I could tag someone in a comment…) I think sticking to my 1x/week guns will be a hard enough challenge thank you very much 🙂 !
Congrats on making a year! Blogging certainly takes more work than it sounds but it can be a lot of fun. Here’s to many years more to come.
Thank you!! It’s definitely been worth it. Cheers to many more for the both of us!
I am going to be holding you personally accountable to keep pumping out those posts after retirement, because I want to hear those thoughts! Beyond the daily text messages, of course 😉
You have encompassed here so much of what blogging has been for me these past two years, and I’ll admit I got a bit choked up reading some of it. So glad you’re my friend 😘
Uh oh😬! Stop trying to make me accountable to things Angela – are you forgetting which one of us is the #AccountabilityBeast?? I give orders, not take them🤣! Kidding aside – please do keep me accountable for it. I imagine it’s super hard or we would hear from our retired friends more often.
Aww lady that’s so amazing to hear – THANK YOU! But seriously you are amazing and I’m so grateful I can call you a friend…….at least until our camping trip this weekend 😉 🤣.
I am so glad you decided to go public! I love reading your posts and they motivate me to write more. Keep it up! I am excited for your retirement and it would be refreshing to hear a play by play of how the first few months go. I imagine it will be quite the change from all those hours of work you have been doing!
Me too 🙂 ! So glad you like the blog and happy to motivate you! If you want me to add ‘post more’ to your weekly reminders just let me know 😉 . I’m excited to see what retirement will be like too. I’m really curious who I am without all this work and tiredness that comes will it. I guess we’ll see together!!
I’m nowhere close to a bot, so this comment is totally getting through!
First of all, I love that you have a “public” blogging phase to follow up your “private” phase. You’ve definitely put in your time and it shows.
The world would be a lot less colorful if you wouldn’t have come out in the open for all of us! Congrats for never missing a self-imposed deadline.
You’re right – you’re the opposite of a bot 😉 . Glad you find my weird approach to this blogging thing (private/public) to be a positive 😉 . It is wild how much my writing has changed since I started 4.5 years ago…and I’m glad I didn’t subject y’all to that stuff🤣.
And aww thank you so much for saying that lady! I really think I would break into hives if I ever missed a deadline so I’m happy that quirk of mine is finally working in my favor (instead of my company’s 😉 ). Thank you for stopping by!
Amazing insight into your first year of blogging (publicly). I just finished my 1st year as well. Those self-imposed deadlines are vital and nice work sticking to them 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading your post-retirement articles.
Glad you liked it and congratulations on your first year! Totally agree – deadlines are key. Also announcing said deadline on every page of my blog definitely helped me stick to it. If only I knew the deadline I think I would feel differently. Excited to write those post-retirement posts 😉 . Thanks so much for stopping by!
Please do keep the thoughts coming😊 you seem to have the same amount of impatience with the time it takes to get to FI, and it is so nice to hear about someone else tacking the same monsters
You ask and you shall receive 🙂 ! And yesss so much impatience over here. I’m not glad you’re feeling the same 😉 , but I am glad we can help each other get through it!
You are so darn inspirational! I cannot wait to meet you and some other bloggers I worship from afar at #FinCon19. I was so happy when they highlighted you in the newsletter.
Thank you so much!! That’s so kind. And I can’t wait to meet you either – it’s going to be so fun! I definitely don’t deserve any worship, but thank you for saying so. And yeah that newsletter was a lovely surprise today! Happy Blogiversary indeed!!
Congrats on making a year (publicly) blogging.. I am still a few months away from that milestone. Keep putting out those perfect playful pithy purple posts 🙂
Oops I overdid the alliteration didn’t I
Thanks! And happy early blogiversary to you! This is awesome: “perfect playful pithy purple posts” and thanks so much for the compliment – I’ll keep trying 🙂 . Also I love alliteration and think there’s no such thing as overdoing it 😉 .
Congrats on 1 year of public blogging 🎉!!!! I absolutely love that you stuck to your schedule for 52 weeks and I love even more that you introduced me to the benefits of this concept. I’m looking forward to you sticking to it in the transition to retirement! You’re right, there aren’t a lot of accounts on that phase and I am so curious to find out more. Also, we can all use more Purple in our lives 😉!
Good on your for maintaining the brutally honesty with the lows you’ve included about blogging 😉. Having my own reply to a comment on my own blog flagged as a bot 😂 has been a good example of the never ending technical to-do list lol!
Yes to the freedom of creativity in this blogging thing & random hobbies fitting together, and even bigger yes to the benefit of finding this community! So excited for FinCon!
Thanks so much lady!! Glad I could brainwash you into doing things my way 😉 . “We can all use more Purple in our lives” aww shucks!
Anytime on the brutal honest – gotta keep it real or I guess “raw” lol! And that bot issue seems more prevalent than I thought. So silly.
Woohoo for FinCon and this awesome community!! It’s going to be a blast! My Mom recently asked “Wait so you’re flying across the country to meet people you found on the Internet?” – “Yes Mom. Exactly.”
Go ahead and retire and join the dark side of us lazy retired bloggers that rarely post any more 🙂
Don’t tempt me to the dark side!! I must resist 🙂 . I’ll definitely be lazy in retirement, but I think I can spare an hour to write a post per week while lounging on the beach 😉 .
hey, you made it. it’s good to be a blogger who doesn’t “need” the traffic for the money. i’m happy for the usual 8-10 people who throw a comment my way and they happen to be folks i respect. that makes it even better.
girded loins are a real concern as is having your butt falling asleep from sitting. it’s good you pressed onward and overcame.
Yes – phew! And completely agree – I think needing traffic or to make money from this blog would change it a great deal (and make it less fun for me). I’m with you on comments – they make my day!!! When you pick it that way a lot of my comments are about butts and loins. I think I’ve found a niche! Kidding aside, I’m glad I pushed through too. This journey has been amazing. Thanks so much for stopping by freddy!
First off, congrats! Sticking with it on a consistent schedule (with work craziness!) is a pretty big deal. That plus building all your readership/following over one year? Freaking amazing!
I can see where you’re coming from on the lows though, particularly with the self-imposed stress bit. Since trying to pseudo-actively blog (and gasp – start using Twitter – hello 2019), my anxiety and self-doubt have hit epic levels. As you point out, creating frameworks to try and contain it all helps – probably something I need to consider more seriously! 😊
Anyway – to may more great posts! 🍻🎉
Thank you so much 🙂 !!! When you put it like that it sounds impressive 😉 . I’m sorry you feel the self-imposed stress too. The guardrails do definitely help though! I can’t imagine how long I would go between posts if I waited until each one was ‘ready.’ Kick that self-doubt in the butt! Also welcome to Twitter!! Excited to see you around there. Thanks again for stopping by!
YES I love this! Congrats on your one year and writing thought provoking, hilarious, tearjerker posts! I love to follow your journey and I agree that there should be more posts in the transition from the 9-5 to early retirement – looking forward to those!
So glad you like it and thank you!! Guess I can’t back out on those weekly posts now 😉 .
Congratulations on reaching your first year of the blog! My blog is just a few months old and so it was very refreshing to read this post as it highlighted all of the efforts such as SEO and marketing required to maintain a blog. Such information is not always revealed, as you’ve said, in those blog set up guides!
Thank you and welcome to blogging! So glad I could help you be more prepared than I was on this path 🙂 . Thanks so much for stopping by!
A post every Tuesday for 52 weeks is amazing. I don’t think I will ever achieve that, although in aggregate I do wish I can average out to about once a week!
We’ll see about that on my blog’s anniversary! 🙂
Thanks so much!! And I think you can 😉 . Excited to hear about it on your blogiversary! Thank you for stopping by 🙂 !
Great post and congratulations on your first year of public blogging!
I recognize a lot of the things you mention. And I love your enthusiasm!
Definitely going to keep reading and I’m curious to see how your life is when you retire at 30 (Awesome at that age!!)
Thanks so much – so glad you liked it! And haha I’m glad the enthusiasm came through – I am often shocked by how much I love this blogging stuff. I’m not usually an enthusiastic person 🙂 . Thank you for reading!! I’m curious what it will be like too 😉 – I guess we’ll figure it out together!
Great post! Glad to know other bloggers face similar challenges. And Congratulations on the one year public anniversary of your blog.
Thank you!! Good to hear I’m not the only one. Thank you for stopping by!
First time commenting on the blog here. Nice roundup!
Blogging IS way more than just writing – one of the biggest myths I’ve found. There’s plenty of work to be had with making connections with other bloggers, figuring out what to write in the first place, responding to comments, fixing all of the problems (not to mentioning figuring out what is actually wrong), and so on.
I like the counter on the side bar. Less than 14 months to go!
Hi Andrew – Welcome! And thank you – glad you liked it and have had similar conclusions about blogging 🙂 . I like that counter too 😉 – let’s see what happens!
Wow, congrats on one solid year, especially keeping that once per week schedule – it’s a lot when one is working a full-time plus job. Pretty impressive! I’ve kept to roughly that pace but it’s been a bit more sporadic, though I’ve started to find my rhythm a bit.
I love the idea of #SlugLife – although I am a high producer I also need time for $%&$ing around, and I wrote a post on that a couple of months back. I think it’s important to have that down time, and not feel like one needs to maximize every second. It’s one thing I’m looking forward to more of when I hit FIRE.
Thank you!! That’s awesome you’ve roughly kept up that pace. It definitely takes a while to find a rhythm. And yesss welcome fellow #SlugLife-er! Downtime is so essential – I’m completely with you on that and looking forward to more post-FIRE. Thanks for stopping by!
Congratulations on your first year blogiversary! (Plus 1.5 months now.). I agree that the “it’s easy to start a blog” posts leave something out. For me, it’s how hard it is to get traffic! It’s discouraging to write something that no one reads. Any tips for a blogger at 4 months?
Thank you!! I don’t feel qualified to give traffic tips really 🙂 . People reading my blog seems to have happened by accident. I approached going public with the expectation that no one would read my words at all, which made it a pleasant surprise when anyone did. However, if you’re looking for tips to increase your traffic my friend Millennial Boss seems to know what she’s talking about 🙂 and has a mailing list with blogging tips: https://millennialboss.com/2019/01/facebook-ads-december/ Congratulations on 4 months and good luck!!