I’ve officially been blogging for one whole year. It seems like a lifetime ago that I started Uptown Oracle, but this year seems to have flown by so fast.
What have I learnt?
Over the year I’ve realised what I do and don’t enjoy writing about. I enjoy writing book reviews, my thoughts on make-up products and my time at university. I disliked trying to write about clothing and doing tag style posts. This was weird for me because I wanted to focus on clothing when I first started. I’m always buying new clothes and finding my next favourite piece. I just disliked taking photos of myself and writing about my outfits.
I’ve become a lot more confident in my writing. I find that I can write a book review fairly quickly because I now know I work better writing down thoughts as I read. This means my writing is often spur of the moment, honest but also well written because I’ve gone back to edit it.
I’ve learnt a lot about copy writing and SEO which was one of my aims of why I started blogging. I mentioned this in my Q&A post. I haven’t really learnt too much about affiliates, but I did have two months work experience in that beforehand so there wasn’t much more to learn. Book blogging has also helped me in my new job. During handover they tried to explain to me why they have special not-for-sale pre-release copies of video games and I could say yeah I get the same but for books. So I’ve been on both sides of PR requesting too.
I’ve learnt so much about community engagement. It’s not just about posting my links on social media, engaging with other bloggers really makes being a blogger. I love the fact I have regular conversations with people from all over. I was shocked when one of the girls I’ve ever spoken to online, knew me well enough to tweet back exactly what I was thinking! It’s so amazing how much having similar people in your life can help motivate you in all aspects of your life.
Another thing, I’ve improved my time management skills. Even though I wasn’t bad beforehand. I’m now meticulously organised about what posts will be posted when, months in advance. Like I have some content scheduled in November already. It’s made me think more creatively. I’ve started carrying a notebook with me just to jot down ideas. I regularly set aside time specifically to write posts.
Best posts of the year:
What’s Newcastle University Really Like
Who Inspired Me?
I was inspired by multiple bloggers in different niches but some of my main ones were:
From now I’m going to continue trying to better myself, better my writing and better this blog. Being more professional is a big thing for me. I want to be able to proudly show a future employer this blog as a show of what I can do. I also want to meet some people. Since I’m down south now, I think I’ll be able to reach out more since a lot of people I speak to are down here.
If there’s anything you want to see more of, please message me or comment below!
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Thanks for sharing your blogging experiences and thank you for checking out my blog :)