What I’ve Learned in My First Year Blogging
On November 11, I officially celebrated the first birthday of THE HALLIE SCENE! It was such a milestone. Truthfully when I made this, I had no long-term goal.. and really no what idea what I was doing.
The biggest thing that has helped me was leaning into others. So, I opened up a question box and with all of the messages, I wanted to compile them into a blog post! Some questions were very similar, and I’ve condensed those.. but I hope I’ve covered it all! I will say I am by no means an expert in this, this has just been my experience. My experience is not also how it goes for everyone, so please just take this as a guide! Let’s get started:
Starting a Blog
Honestly I just went for it. I knew nothing about the blogging world, only the basics than anyone would know about Instagram. I knew nothing about hashtags, presets, time of day to post, engagement.. NOTHING! I just liked it, and I think that’s what’s most important. Also not to have any expectations. I know it sounds crazy, but just go for it because you think you would enjoy it. Not because of $ or wanting to make it a full-time job, because you genuinely enjoy it. Find your niche and how you can separate yourself from other people- is it your background, your style, your DIY abilities, your decorating, etc?
No! I am a full-time school social worker and also run this on the side. Super challenging to juggle two (feel like I’m always working), but this is what I love so it makes it worthwhile for sure.
I created a new one! I know some people will argue against doing that because you’re completely starting fresh vs already having your closest friends & family. However, for me, I wanted to start fresh and only have people who wanted to be there, not because I interned with them in college. Also- it made me not worry so much about what people thought, because I didn’t have my whole community watching.
Growing Your Blog
*small side note before getting into this topic, as this was my most asked topic.. growing a community is absolutely a huge excitement in this, but it’s truly not about the number. Appreciate the people you do have, because those are YOUR PEOPLE! And make sure to nurture the ones you already have.
Most will say it because it’s SO TRUE! I aim for posting 4-5 times a week/once a day. Come up with a schedule for you and it helps your audience know what to expect from you. My biggest tip though, is engagement and creating a community. That’s what this is all about anyway. Connect with other bloggers- send them DMs, comment on their pictures, but also connect with people who aren’t bloggers. Send THEM DMs, comment on their pictures.. let them know that you’re glad they’re there! I’ve had multiple people say that they’ve never had a blogger reach out to them before. Also, be genuine– in the things you say, the things you promote etc.
Note about giveaways: giveaways do help, but I absolutely would HIGHLY recommend staying away from big loop giveaways. You will gain “followers” but out of those 300+ followers, maybe only 30 will care about your content. I love giveaways, but I love doing giveaways with a smaller group of people (ideally max 6 for me) of other bloggers that I genuinely love and feel like people would like their content as well.
Also, I do think part of growth is just exposure. It helps to have other accounts talk about you, highlight you, etc. It’s basically like someone giving a recommendation that your profile is worth checking out.
I think that’s up to the individual blogger! In my experience, I’ve typically worked with bloggers who have a similar (not exact) audience as me at the time.
Honestly, I’m not sure I could even say that haha. There are times where my content reaches farther and I’m able to reach new followers better, and then there are times where I feel like it doesn’t reach anyone for a while. It’s an up and down battle, and I always think it’s better to grow slow and steady vs fast.
Honestly not sure.. I just really focus on connection. Answering DMS, responding to comments, sending DMS, making content that’s relatable. I genuinely care about my audience and want to know how THEY’RE doing so it’s not all about me. And also… being AUTHENTIC! People want to be able to look at your page and feel like you’re relatable (at least in my experience). Anddddd understand that Instagram might be on your side that week and show your post to more people, and sometimes it won’t.
Blogging Tips
Canva! Canva has a really great background remover tool if you pay for the PRO membership. You just upload the pictures, click background remover and it makes the image just the item. I also love their font options. However, I used the free version for quite some time- you can do so much with it!
For stories– add an image like you normally would to a story (either by taking a pic in the story or selecting camera roll in the bottom left corner. Then once you have your image (you can resize by pinching the image), click the stickers button (where gifs, music, location etc) is found. Scroll down to wear you see a thumbnail of the latest picture in your camera roll. From there you can select which image to upload to that story as well!
I do, but I’m honestly a paper/pen kinda person! Use a planner and then will also write out in my notes the next two weeks of content (usually book for the next 3-4 weeks out, but leave some room in case things pop up), just so I have it for reference wherever I am. I post everything myself, so I don’t upload anything into any apps that posts for me. I’m organized, but probably don’t have a system that’s anything better than what you already have 🙂
My angel of a husband takes all my pics for the most part! Occasionally have my bestie, or my sister in law take some. I’ve never tried a tripod but know a ton of people who have success with that! Especially if they don’t have anyone take pictures. Other than that, I do everything myself!
Absolutely, positively do not do this for the money! One, you will burn yourself out FAST and two, it’s essentially the same thing as building a business. It takes TIME! Making $ could be a lot faster if you just took every brand campaign that reaches out, but in my opinion, it’s better to turn down 98% of them that aren’t in line with your interests/audience, and make no money VS promoting anything just to make money. Your audience will trust you in the long run.
STICK WITH IT! Just keep pushing even through the times you want to give up. Be yourself + stay in your line. Do notttt worry about what other bloggers are doing or how fast they’re growing. Everybody has a different path. And if this is something you really want to do, do it because you love it. If you find yourself slipping from that, take a break. Instagram will always be there when you come back. But you absolutely have to take care of yourself. And lastly, remember, YOU GOT THIS!