1 Year Blogiversary!

My blog is one year old today, I can’t believe it!  How time flies when you are having fun!

I started this blog rather tentatively (understatement!) last year as an attempt to bring some creativity into my life and to have a place where I can indulge my love of travel – particularly whilst I wasn’t actually travelling!  I was so (underlined for emphasis!!) scared about doing it and publishing those first posts and I had no idea where it would take me.

As the months ticked by and I wrote and published more and got to know this community, I found I loved what I was doing… even in the moments of indecision, self doubt and writers block.

One year on and I am still loving it!   I have learnt so much in this past year, I had absolutely no idea how any of this worked when I started out. The learning isn’t over though, there is still so much I don’t know, but I have found that I have loved the learning curve (even with the techy stuff!) I’ve been on.  

Reflecting on the past year I think the main things I have learnt during my first year of blogging are:

Interact!  I was terrified starting out, I am a naturally shy person, so all of this felt so far out of my comfort zone it wasn’t funny! I was nervous about liking something, let alone commenting.  Slowly though, I plucked up the courage to start commenting on blogs, what’s the worst that could happen after all (lots in my opinion!!)?! As I commented more, I found the community to be so inviting and lovely that the fear began to fade.  So, don’t be afraid to interact, if you read a post you like, leave a comment to tell the writer so. Share the love, it will always be appreciated!

Consistency is great…but not always possible!  This was a theme that I saw pop up time and time again on other people’s blogs, when they wrote about what has worked for them. I have to say that I now see why!  It does pay to be consistent with your posting and it helps to keep you focused too. However, I do struggle with it. As we all know, life is busy and does get in the way sometimes (a lot of the time!)!  So I TRY not to get hung up on it too much, it happens and most readers are in the same boat, so hopefully they do understand!

There will be ups and downs!  I was surprised by what a rollercoaster blogging could be.  From the highs of getting my first likes and follows, to the lows of feeling like I had nothing to say, or the motivation to even try (see here where I wrote about losing my blogging mojo!), it’s been quite a ride! Blogging has brought me great joy overall, but there have also been moments of terrible self-doubt.  I have a very bad habit of comparing myself to others too and that can only lead to no good!! There always seems to be light at the end of the tunnel though.  If I’m feeling particularly down about it all because I have neglected it, or I feel a bit distant from it, a like or encouraging comment that appears out of the blue usually instantly cheers me up.  

Blogging is fun! Fact! And I had no idea how much fun!!  I never in a million years thought that I would get so much enjoyment out of it, but hey ho, life is full of surprises!

The blogging community is awesome (I’m not sure I can get away with using that word, but it does sum you guys up!)!  I have mentioned before how much of a positive community it is and it’s been a pleasure getting to you know you up to this point.  Thank you for being so supportive, encouraging, kind and generous…not to mention helpful as well! Unsure about something? Ask other bloggers, who are usually more than happy to help!  I love scrolling through the reader feed to see what my fellow bloggers are writing about today – and you never disappoint!  There is so much diversity out there and I love it!

So talking of posts, I’ve had a look back at the posts I’ve written in the past year. It was interesting to look at the stats and see how the posts have performed:  

The post with the least views:

Bagan – Sunsets and Sightseers

The post with the most views:

Finding My Happy Place

And my own personal favourite post :

Living the dream in Mawlamyine – Myanmar – Why I love it? Because it’s about realising one of my travel dreams and how amazing it felt to do that. It’s an experience that will live with me forever and I hope that I did it justice in this post.

So I can’t finish this post without saying a HUGE thank you to everyone who has read my posts, liked and commented on them and who has followed me.  I can’t begin to tell you how much it means – I honestly thought I would crash and burn doing this, but you have helped me make it to a year in and I look forward to the next year!  I hope I can keep it up!

So one year down, another…. who knows how many to go!

Happy blogging everyone!