It’s been a year or more since I started this blog. I’ve read countless of blog posts from Twitter and Pinterest on how to be a successful blogger. Or how blogging can be a full time career. Many bloggers share how they build their blog and how much they make from blogging and the most discouraging part, analytics. Blog views, Twitter and Instagram followers; numbers that I have yet to achieve.

From the many blog posts I’ve read, to be a successful blogger, here are a few tips

  • You need to have the passion and set goals for yourself
  • Know who your audience are, find a niche
  • A successful blog requires time and effort
  • Be organized and plan ahead
  • Schedule your content so you can be more productive
  • Make use of social media, be it Twitter and or/Instagram and especially Pinterest
  • Engage, engage, engage!

I completely agree with these tips and I appreciate bloggers sharing it with us. So one day, out of the blue, I asked myself this question:

Am I half-assing my blog?

am i spending enough time on my blog or half-assing it?
Am I half-assing my blog?

And why did I ask myself this question? It’s because I was comparing myself. Which if you didn’t know, my 2019 promise to myself was to NOT compare myself lol.

So let’s start from the beginning,

Why did I start a blog?

There are different reasons to why one starts a blog. It can be a passion for writing, to make money, to inspire and help other people. Or even a hobby. I had two reasons for this blog. The first being to make friends (I’m not sure how well that turned out haha) and the second, to write about how i’ve been here in NYC.

After a year,

Nope, no friends.

But

I made great memories for myself. I’ve been exploring new places, trying out new things, enjoying my time in New York City.

Audience and niche for the blog?

Anything and everything. That’s what I want to blog about for myself, for friends, for people who don’t know me (not too sure if people who don’t know me want to read about me though haha).

I went for Broadway shows and concerts, I want to blog about it. I tried on new make up and I want to blog about it. Attended my best friend’s wedding in Malta and explored the beautiful cities there, I want to blog about it.

Sounds like this blog has got some identity crisis haha. Basically, I don’t have a niche. I’ve been thinking about a niche right from the beginning but I just can’t decide on one. And it’s exactly because I to write about how i’ve been since I moved across the world from Malaysia.

Blogging requires time and hard work

I truly respect bloggers who are so passionate and are willing to give up so much for something they really love. I met Grace from @colorandgrace months ago when she was in New York. She told me she used to be a teacher and she’ll spend every minute that she has working on her blog. And that is truly inspiring and motivating. Well, look at her, she’s doing good! Hard work does pay off!

Me, on the other hand

I choose to relax and give myself a break after work because really, tell me you’re not exhausted from your full time job. And because of that, of course I don’t get much done. I don’t have 10 blog posts ready to be published any time, I don’t have Canva images ready to be pinned, I’m not on social media as much as I should be.

with a laptop and coffee and working on my blog, am i half assing it or whole assing it?

Be organized and planning ahead

is extremely important. You know what they say; work smart, not work hard. There is so much you have to do in order to have a successful blog so planning everything in advance helps a lot. Not only does it save you time to work on other more important things but you also won’t get stressed out racing with time to publish blog posts and Insta posts and engage on social media at the same time.

Sad to say,

I suck so much at organizing my work, my time and planning my shit. This was actually another reason why I decided to start a blog, I wanted to show myself how important it is to be organized in order to achieve my goals.

I don’t know if I’m deceiving myself but I do believe I am more organized than I used to be. However, there will come a day where I’ll proudly announce that I am productive af. Have some faith in me 😉

Being out there but not literally out there

I hope that didn’t confuse you but I mean being on social media. Many people have different opinions about social media. One of it is how it can affect your self confidence by comparing yourself to other influencers. And I do feel that I’m always not good enough. But in order to have your blog out there and get more exposure, it is important to be on social media and engage, engage, engage!

This is tough for me because I’m not on social media all the time. Which means I don’t engage much, people don’t know me. I don’t get to make friends. And.. okay, I can go on and on and on so let’s move on.

workspace to work on my blog

And the results since I started this blog is that

I don’t see much results when it comes to blog views, social media following, social media likes; basically, numbers.

However

I do think it’s a blessing I started writing, I find new things to do and not just stay home and be a couch potato. In fact, I do not regret starting this blog. By doing a little bit of everything, I’m discovering what my passion really is. Still haven’t found one ugh but c’mon, I eventually will haha.

am i being careless with my blog?
Am I half-assing my blog?

So what do you think? Am I really half-assing my blog? Do you chase numbers like I do and get disappointed when you don’t see the results you want?

It’s nothing personal so you can be honest!

Related posts:

  1. Blogging in 2018
  2. 2019, promises to myself
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