staying true to yourself in blogging

 

  1. Remember why you started. Everyone starts a blog for one reason or another. For some of us the reason was to keep a journal of our life happenings so our family could be up to date. For others it is a creative outlet so we can post fashion and crafts. Someone said to me the other day, "It still makes me happy just to have a place to share my thoughts, ya know?" Yes. I do know! And that is refreshing to hear, because at the end of the day... having that place is the best reason for blogging. 

  2. Know your strengths. This ultimately comes back to why you started. None of us started a blog to share the things we weren't good at. We started our blog to share things we think our worth sharing with the people around us. Let me give you a quick example from my own life. Sometimes I like to do crafts... but at the end of the day I am extremely impatient and within an hour of starting I try to figure out a crafting shortcut. By no means is crafts a strength for me... so while I will share little things I am doing sometimes, I don't put focus there because no one wants to see instructions on how to craft a craft that is only halfway done. Ya dig? 

  3. Focus on your blog and not how you can achieve another blog's status. The moment I started worrying about how to grow and how I could be like (fill in the blank) and her blog... I lost all sight of what I was writing about. It was more of, what can I write that will get readers over to my little corner of the internet? And at that point not only did I loose myself, but I lost the readers that had been extremely important to me in the first place! The ones that had supported me since the very beginning. They are more important than a million of trendy followers. 

  4. Be honest. Don't pretend. From day one I made a promise to myself that I would never sugar coat my life. I have had some really awesome times but I have had some really sucky times too... and I do not want to be the person that makes other women feel like their life is less than perfect because they are not living on cloud nine all the time. So I share how hard it is to be away from my husband, but I also share how wonderful he is to me while we are apart. And I share that I lost my job, but I also share when I get a job I love. Don't pretend your life is hunky dory. Because eventually that will carry from blog life to real life and you will miss out on some of the greatest lessons in life. There is a lot more too my remaining true to yourself list... and you can read all over it over at Love, The Skinnys. I can tell you from my own time blogging that I have learned a lot about myself because I followed these steps. And I have fallen into the trap of keeping up with the next big blogger more times than I care to admit. But at the end of the day, the choice is up to you if you want to live a life for yourself or live a life to impress others. And the only way to become confident in the person you are, is to remain true to yourself... in your writing and in your life.