Discover

What a week last week was.

For those of you who don’t know, my blog post “Reflecting on Four Years of Blogging” was featured on WordPress Discover last Monday.

I’d like to thank Cheri Lucas Rowlands for making it possible, and for making my heart skip a few beats when she sent me the email back in June informing me it was going to be featured.

There are goals I’ve given myself for this blog that I don’t really talk about. That being said, I’ll tell you one right now.

WordPress used to feature blog posts on Freshly Pressed. Somehow, I ended up on there three times. And then it went away and Discover took its place. When that happened, my goal became to be featured on Discover.

I didn’t know how I would do it, just like I didn’t know how to get featured on Freshly Pressed. I just told myself that I’d try and make every blog post better than the last and if it were meant to be, it would happen, somehow.

Well, this past January I was included in a post on Discover with other bloggers, to provide my digital diet for 2017.

That was great, but my goal still remained. I wanted to be featured on Discover for a blog post I wrote.

It wasn’t so much of an ego thing, as it was me setting a goal that would ensure I didn’t get complacent with this blog. I used it as motivation.

Also, I really wanted that Discover image on the side of my blog. It looks cool.

So then the 4th anniversary of my blog came up on June 23rd and I wrote a reflection of what the last four years here have meant to me.

Then I put it on Twitter and the rest is history.

Between the comments on the Discover page, as well as the post on my own blog, I’ve heard from hundreds of people.

To be told that I was inspiring other bloggers – especially new ones – to write from the heart, and not worry so much about being perfect, is still too amazing for me to comprehend.

When I started this blog, I had no one giving me advice. At the time, I wish I did. I wish someone told me I wasn’t tagging my posts properly.

I wish someone told me to relax and stop writing as if it were a university essay.

I wish someone told me that blogging would get easier and people would care, despite what the three views and no likes on my stats page told me.

I wish I knew that stuff and a whole lot more. But I didn’t. I was a fish out of water and two months in was featured on Freshly Pressed, still unsure of what I was really doing.

I wanted people to know my blogging struggles when I wrote my 4th anniversary post. I wanted to be the person that gave advice because I know how desperately I needed it and never got it.

This place isn’t about views or likes, it’s about the strangers that become friends.

If you’re a new blogger and are feeling discouraged, I’m here to tell you not to. Keep writing. People can’t read your blog if you don’t give them something to read.

Seek out other bloggers. Find people you connect with. Build that bond.

I love sports. I don’t really follow that many sports blogs. Of course, I like to follow blogs that are about things that interest me, but I like following blogs that are about things I don’t know about, just as much.

It’s a free education if you think about it.

Also, many people have told me that they’re struggling to find a niche/theme for their blog.

I had a niche. It lasted for two months and I got bored.

The theme of your blog is you. That means, you can write about anything you want. Even if you are a makeup blog, or a book blog, or a music blog, or a sports blog, or a food blog – if a day comes where you want to write about a funny encounter at the grocery store, DO IT.

You don’t need a niche, you need your voice.

More than I look for blogs that interest me, I look for bloggers who have a story to tell. I look for bloggers who are telling a story through their words.

I look for bloggers who talk so passionately about something, I can’t help but pay attention, regardless of the topic.

I’m not vegan, but I followed about four vegan blogs in the last week because they caught my attention and are teaching me things I never knew. Also, food pictures.

You’ll be shocked to find out your “audience” can be absolutely anyone.

So, where do I go from here?

The short answer – to sleep.

The long answer – I’ll keep writing. There are a lot more blogging goals to cross off.

When I was featured for the first time in September 2013, I struggled afterwards. Sure, I posted a bunch of things, but internally, I felt like I had peaked. I felt like nothing I ever wrote again would be as good as my featured post.

That bothered me for a long time.

And then I realized that the best blog posts I’m going to write are about things I haven’t experienced, or thought of, yet. I needed to give life some time to unfold, so I could know what to write about.

That’s why I don’t really know what my next blog post will ever be. Life needs to happen first.

I already know of about three topics for blog posts that I’ll probably write at some point over the next few years, but I can’t write them until then. I don’t have all the facts. I don’t know what the order of the words in those posts are yet.

Until then, I’ll be here trying to make you laugh, think, cry, spit water up, or cause a scene in public.

At some point this week, I want to share some “blogging tips” with you but they aren’t going to be the cliche things you’re used to. These are real tips. They are things I’ve noticed new bloggers do/not do, that are hindering them.

I want to help. So be on the lookout for that post. It won’t be called Blogging 101, but it might be called Blogging 202, or Blogging 307 because I like random numbers.

Lastly, welcome to those of you who are new here! Grab a name tag and a pizza slice and awkwardly join a conversation. Also, feel free to take your shoes off and stay a while, this is a Canadian blog after all.

Thank you for all your comments, support, and love. Thank you for making me feel like I’m making a difference, while I sit in a dark room and stare at a screen during the middle of the night.

I’d pinch myself to make sure this whole blogging thing is real, but I’d look like foolish.

Goodnight.

Twitter – @CappyTalks