Monday 28 January 2013

12 months of Blogging - 12 things I have Learnt

I have now been officially blogging for an entire year!  I have recorded Dylan's and my life for twelve whole months and looking back at where I started, I feel I have come a long way!  I have learnt a lot, had some wonderful experiences and made some great friends.


I thought I would sum it up with twelve things I have learnt about blogging in the last twelve months:



1)  The community is huge and I mean HUGE! There are 5,000 parent blogs listed on the Tots 100 and there must be so many more out there that are not.  Turns out there are lots of parents who also think their children are adorable and worth shouting about.  Luckily there are so many different stories and different styles of writing that I feel I still have my place amongst them all.

2)  Bloggers can form amazing friendships without ever meeting.  They can come together to support each other and really make a difference when they want to.  

3) There are a million ways to promote your blog and if you did all of them it really would be a full time job!  From Twitter and Facebook to stumble upon and reddit everyone has a favourite.  My theory is to stick to the ones I enjoy using - after all blogging should be fun.

4) It is impossible to go an entire day without taking a photo.  When Dylan was a newborn I took hundreds every day to capture each and every moment.  Once I started blogging I had this passion back again and my phone memory card is bulging with pictures of my gorgeous boy.  I love the fact that I am not missing a thing about him growing up.

5)  The parenting world is a lucrative market and there are some amazing opportunities to work with both big and small brands.  I have been lucky enough to discover some amazing companies and products and love being able to share my finds.

6)  When bloggers do get together there is usually copious amounts of alcohol drunk and some level of devastation left behind.  I met up with 20 other blogggers at the wonderful Choccywoccydoodahs this week, and would be very impressed if they let us back in ;)

7) Blogging can encourage you to make the most of your time as a parent.  Sometimes it seems like a great idea to get out and do something new as I know it would make a great post, but it also means that my son gets some amazing experiences that I may not have gotten round to if I hadn't started blogging.

Our first attempt at puddle splashing

8) That you will never be satisfied.  There will ALWAYS be a bigger blog, one with higher rankings, better traffic and more followers and that can be a driving force as well as a deterrent   I am happy with my blog and where I have come in the last twelve months but I certainly have goals for the next twelve!

9)TV is such a small part of my life since discovering the online community.  It is often on in the background but I very rarely just sit and watch something, and I don't miss it at all! I used to watch programmes for the sake of it rather than because I really enjoyed them and it is nice to focus on something else every now and again.

10) How to get across London with a baby - We love attending events and they are very often in London so I have quickly learnt which underground stations are pushchair friendly and how to hail a black cab in a hurry!

11) I have learnt that in some situations there is a lot of respect for parent bloggers, and our influence and importance is known, whereas in others we are belittled.  We can be misunderstood, tarred with a bad brush and mocked, but the community continues to grow, and parents continue to find their voice online.  The fact that more and more people are reading blogs seems to be evidence enough for me that there is a bright future for the online blogger.

12) Blogging is fun.  I love sharing photos and stories from our lives.  I love sitting down at the end of a long day and remembering every magical thing that has happened - little and big.  I love recording our lives so in a few years Dylan and I can look back and remember how things were and the fun we got up to.  I love the communication with the rest of the world and the interactions that occur through blogging.  I love meeting other bloggers and learning about other ways of life and other people's stories.


Never too young to start!

So there we have it, 12 months of blogging summed up in 12 lessons.  My second year of blogging will see a second child join our adventure and I can't wait to look back on another year in January 2014!

10 comments:

  1. Lovely post! Congratulations on your blogaversary lovely, well done x x

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  2. Lovely post, and as someone who has just started its great to see the possibilities of where your blog could take you a little way dow the line. I hope i can get even close to this in a year! Well done.

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  3. Lovely post Hun and I totally agree with all your points. Here's to the next 12 months! X

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  4. Lovely post. Congratulations on your milestone!

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  5. Congratulations! The first year is a roller coaster ride and a steep learning curve and I agree with every single one of your twelve things. I've just passed 2 years, so it's more than possible. Same again in 12 months time?

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  6. Congratulations xx I wish I could read more blogs as there are so many out there.

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  7. Congratulations on your first year :) Love the list.

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  8. Congratulations on your first year of blogging and thanks for sharing what you've learnt along the way. I'm a year old blogger too! x

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