I am still in shock that I’ve been writing Life of Hayley for 5 years! This has been such a fun adventure and I hope to continue blogging for the foreseeable future.
One question I get asked is what are the things I have learned about blogging over the years. The blogging community is changing rapidly and it’s hard to keep up with all of the new influencers popping up every single day. I try not to take blogging too seriously which has helped me continue to love writing after all this time.
Here are five things that I have learned in my five years as a blogger:
- Not everyone needs or wants to be a professional blogger. I have no real desire to blog full time right now. I really enjoy having Life of Hayley be my hobby and because it’s not my full time job it’s okay if from time to time I need a break from it. If blogging was my full time job I would have to create a content calendar and stick to it. Some of my favorite posts are the random ones that I wrote when I was feeling inspired.
- The more time you put into your blog the more you get out of it. I have found that the more time and energy I put into a post the more views and comments it gets. The more I post the better my blog does but it’s important to remember that it’s not all about your blog stats! I blog because I love to and not because I like to see how many people are reading each day. I’d rather have one meaningful comment than one million page views.
- Being able to look back at your life is pretty cool. I’m terrible at keeping a journal and my memory isn’t the best. Being able to look back at blog posts over the last five years is really cool. I have been able to document my life and can see how much I have changed and how far I have come. I can be proud of my journey.
- You don’t have to be a web designer to have a nice blog design. When I was in high school I wanted to be a web designer so I took all of the web design/coding classes that my school had to offer. I am lucky to have a small amount of knowledge about web design but for the most part you really don’t have to have any prior knowledge to start a blog. WordPress is great because it has a ton of free themes and it’s easy to watch Youtube tutorials if you want to customize anything.
- Making connections is the best part of blogging. YOU are the reason I keep writing! All of my blogging friends and this community is what inspires me to keep telling my story. I love sharing my journey but I also love reading about your journey too.
What are your best blogging tips?
Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash
Life of Hayley 
Congrats on five years of blogging!! I feel exactly the same way about blogging. It doesn’t have to be something full time or stressful and while that’s great if it works for some people, it’s okay to do it for fun as well. If full-time blogging with sponsors and pay takes the enjoyment out of it, then I know it wouldn’t be worth it for me personally. And I couldn’t agree more–the community really is absolutely the best!
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Thank you! Yes, this is something that I want to enjoy doing. I love my real job but it’s not necessarily something that I look forward to doing everyday. I look forward to writing and interacting with everyone. 🙂
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Congrats! 🙂 I agree with what you said. I don’t ever see myself being a professional blogger. I really like my full time job and don’t have an interesting enough life to turn it into a full time blog. I also really like being able to make connections with other bloggers! I look at my blog as another form of social media where I can write about my life but also follow what others are doing.
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Thank you! ❤ YES! I just love being able to read everyone else's posts and finding connections from them. Just gotta keep doing what we are doing and enjoying it.
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Love all these, Hayley. I agree with every single word. I love blogging as just a hobby. 😄
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Thank you! ❤ Blogging is the best hobby!
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Auguri! Very nicely written. April 25 is my 5 year ‘bloghiversario’ as I like to call it. I could pretty much copy and paste your post ( but of course I won’t)! I plan to stick with simple WordPress so I can focus on great content and not have to worry about technical stuff. I also don’t like how ‘pro bloggers ‘ websites are so full of ads it is distracting to read. Here’s to another 5 fabulous years🎉🎉🎉ciao, Cristina
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Thank you so much! Happy almost 5 years to you 🙂 I do really love WordPress. It’s so easy to use!
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