Personal updates

A small change

Lotus Laura

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing okay!

To be honest, I’ve been feeling a little frustrated lately with blogging. I’ve been wanting to see more growth and at a faster speed. I hope I can say that without sounding ungrateful for all the growth I’ve made so far. And maybe my expectations are set too high. But I think I need to change a few things around if I want to see more progress.

Daily posting has been an awesome challenge that I’m proud to say I kept up with. It really forced me to focus more on my blog and get more practice writing. My greatest concern was running out of ideas about what to write, but that was never an issue. So now I’m in that habit of prioritizing blogging, which was really the main goal.

Still planning to write and “do blog stuff” every single day, I’m cutting back on posts to around 3-4 per week. (Can’t promise that there won’t be more than that on occasion though!) Whether you post daily or occasionally, I think it all depends on personal preference and there’s no right or wrong amount to post. It all depends on your own goals.

So this means that I’m letting go of the daily themes… At least for now. Instead, I’m focusing on categories. (Maybe each week or month will have a theme, not sure.) By removing this limit I give myself room to post more about specific topics instead of waiting a week in between. At first it was a great guideline for myself, but now I’m going beyond it.

What I would like to post more of:

  • Book reviews
  • Film reviews
  • Mythology / mysteries
  • Religion
  • Philosophy
  • The occasional rant (haha)
  • Goal setting
  • Health
  • Fiction
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Music
  • Animal caretaking (cats & other pets)
  • Spirit animals
  • Self discovery quizzes
  • 30-day challenges
  • Natural beauty tips

Daily posting had me falling behind on promotion (social media, etc.) And most of all, networking!

My email gets flooded with over 1,000-2,000 emails a day! It’s become impossible to keep up. I usually get so overwhelmed that I just delete everything. And then I end up missing out on my favorite blogs. I went through a phase at the start of blogging when I would follow every single blog I found without reviewing their content. So I’m going on an unfollowing spree — for people who don’t interact with me and also have content I’m uninterested in. If I accidentally unfollow you then I will definitely re-follow again, don’t get offended, just know that it wasn’t on purpose!

Since I set my intention to blog 40 hours a week, I have fairly kept up. My weekends are almost completely dedicated to blogging. Week days are hard with a full time job, but I seem to get in at least 2 hours, maybe not the full 4. I had really important family matters to focus on the bulk of last year, especially the past couple months, but things are more settled now. I just have been lacking on networking, which I hope improves once I weed out my following.

Tomorrow is a TBT, Friday is a post about the Cathars (a branch of Christianity that was attacked during the middle ages.) And then I’m writing more in depth about spirit animals.

Thanks for staying updated and reading about my small changes. That ended up being a bit longer than I planned. Anyway, happy blogging! 😁

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Published by Lotus Laura

37 thoughts on “A small change”

    1. Haha yeah I was doing that for a bit, but then I was missing the posts from my favorite blogs because I can’t be constantly checking the reader. Like every minute there’s ten new blog posts on my reader and many of them are spam, or another language, or innapropriate content, or something. So email is kinda nice when I don’t want to miss certain posts. Either way I def need to do some following cleanup. 💕

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  3. I have been blogging for 4 years but didn’t actually commit to blogging monthly until 2019. I started off with 20 followers in April 2019 and have accumulated over 900 followers since then. Personally, I do not blog daily as this is something that may lead to burnout and not something that I enjoy doing. Blogging needs to be enjoyable. Many bloggers feel the need to push daily content so that it shows up in the reader, but this approach may be counter-productive. I know someone who blogs 3+ times a day and I blog monthly (I try to aim for 1-2 times per month). We had the same number of followers for a while, but I passed him even though he blogs 3+ times per day. How is that possible? It’s about quality, not quantity.

    My #1 piece of blogging advice is to write quality posts that cater to a particular audience, and make it a niche or multiple niches that you enjoy writing about. My #2 piece of blogging advice is to respond to your comments; this includes readers who took the time to visit your blog and leave a (hopefully genuine) comment. I cannot stand generic comments, like “Great post!”, but will still reply to those people as well. Engagement with your readers is HUGE if you want to grow your blog, because they will remember you.

    Finally, there is a misconception that we need to be on 10+ social media sites to promote our blogs; it’s not true. Personally, I only use WP but I try to get the most out of engagement levels. I also visit my followers’ blogs and blogs I am following, which the reader is good for. Most bloggers only care about their own blogs and don’t take the time to visit other blogs, but engagement is about visiting other blogs too. It’s a 2-way street. Hope this advice helps! ❤

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    1. Thank you for your thoughtful comment!!! That sounds very wise to me. I totally understand the burnout feeling and how it can prevent proper editing and quality content. I can see the niche part, I feel like my blog can be scattered at times and would do better with more focus. When I started writing about astrology I made that a separate blog because I figure I have a lot of readers who aren’t interested in that. And yes! I like to stay engaged with readers and keep up with their posts. Of course I will miss a few and can’t keep up all the time but I don’t like to forget about anyone completely. And that makes sense about social media, I’m mainly just focused on Pinterest, but even just wordpress alone is great exposure. Thank you 😊💜

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      1. Looking at your follower stats, I think that you are doing well! Try not to be too hard on yourself. 😊 Tbh, I have about 10 different niches and that’s okay. Another thing I recommend is sticking to one blog (less burnout). If you like astrology, then I recommend making a page on your blog devoted to astrology-related things. Pages won’t show up in the reader but anyone who visits your blog will be able to find that page and check it out! ❤

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      2. Thank you!!! You’re right, I’m very self-critical with high standards. The good thing is that it pushes me to go further but the negative aspect is the impatience and burnout! And thanks, good idea, I’ll consider that!! 😊💖💕✨💛

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  4. Btw, there is an option to change your WP notifications so that you aren’t constantly flooded with emails. This was a rookie mistake I made in the beginning. Now, I only get emails when someone follows me or if I need to approve of a comment. You’re welcome. 😄

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    1. Ahaha yeah I did have post emails turned off for a while but then I felt like I was missing important posts so turned on again… But I’m not sure… Once I weed out the spam following I’ll see if it makes a difference!

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      1. There is an option to prevent people from commenting unless they have a blog; I noticed that it cut down on 95% of spam comments/spam emails. I find that it is impossible to read every blog post but I try my best with the reader. It sounds like you’ll be busy cleaning up your emails but I think it will be worth it in the end! Good luck! 😄

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      2. Ooohh unfortunately that would be cutting off all my family members 😹😹😹 but thanks!! Yeah sometimes I feel so bad that I’m not keeping up with everyone but that’s simply not realistic! It can be so overwhelming! But I think people are very understanding and they aren’t going to get upset if you miss a few. Like you said as long as you are responding to comments and also leaving genuine comments then it’s all good. 👍

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      3. I ended up cutting off my aunt from commenting (oops), so I get where you are coming from. It really helps cut down on unwanted spam though. I emailed her and told her the reason why she couldn’t comment. She sill reads my blog posts though and emails me occasionally.

        Agreed. Keeping up with everyone is very challenging and unrealistic. I tell bloggers to connect with me on WhatsApp or send a personal email if they want to chat outside of WP. It helps 🙂

        Trust me, bloggers don’t mind if you miss a few days of blogging. You don’t need to be apologetic for having a life outside of WP (I get the sense that you are an empath, and feeling bad about upsetting others/overanalyzing things comes with being an empath). 🙇‍♀️ Also, if you miss a few of their recent blog posts, leave a comment the next time you visit their blog. I’m sure they will appreciate the kind gesture! 😊💕

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      4. Hahaha that’s kind of funny! 😜 Thank you for that reassurance. I think I’m just realizing now how much pressure I’ve been feeling. Yes, I am totally an empath!! I get so worried about upsetting my followers. But you are so right. Because I personally never expect every follower to keep up with me. Even one genuine comment and then never hearing from them again is still appreciated. You made a great point about people reaching out because they care verses trying to gain attention. Thanks 😻😁💜✨🙏

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      5. I think that often times, we try so hard to impress others because we are scared that they might not like us. Even if they don’t return to our blogs for x, y, or z reasons, we may never know why they left. Maybe we are not meant to know the answer.

        Indeed, genuine comments are so powerful and I really do feel like they leave a lasting impression! (sorry I ramble a lot…I have a lot to say). 😄

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      6. Right, not every piece of content is for everyone, we all have unique taste. I think often people simply get distracted by other blogs and lose track without meaning to. I’m sure some people get picky about what they read (in that case, I don’t want to know, because you can’t please everyone!!!) but I feel like generally people just lose track. And no apologies, that’s how you know you’re a writer👍 I do the same 😉

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  5. I feel your pain. I think many blogger struggle with the same things. I did when I first begin blogging almost five years ago. And the thing I still struggle with is the fear of running out of things to blog about. That’s my first fear. But I want to tell you something. Your blog will grow, just give it time. And to make you feel better, I’ll tell you something that happened to me- for the first two to three years I blogged, I was so shy that my blog stayed at about 45 followers. What made my blog grow is that I finally took the focus off the blog itself and focused more on how I could use the blog to help others and that’s when things changed for me. But the most important thing is that I never gave up. So I can only give you this advice: Never ever give up. If you’re like me and blogging is what you love to do, don’t quit.

    You will have slow times, you may have times when you seem to be going backwards. I’ve had those times myself. But if you don’t give up, those down times will pass and your blog will flourish. I guarantee it. The trick is not to focus so much on the outcome and just do what you love to do.

    You’re going to do very well, sweetie. I promise you. ❤

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    1. Thank you for your sweet and generous comment! 💖✨ I definitely get very impatient and too hard on myself!!! It’s better to do what you love for the sake of loving it, and if it’s coming from a place of heart then I believe success follows. I am overly fixated on the outcome instead of enjoying the process. And I totally relate to the shyness part, I think that’s actually the greatest obstacle of blogging! Thanks so much 😊

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      1. You’re so welcome, Laura. Although I’ve gotten more outgoing. There are still times I too struggle with shyness. But always remember, we are a work in progress. 🙂
        Blessings!

        Liked by 1 person

  7. It’s really really good decision you made Laura, I must say!!
    You know sometimes we forget to analyze ourselves, which lately creates propaganda in our respective life.
    Once we done that, we can evaluate what should be in our life and where improvement needed, right?😅😅
    Wishing you the best for upcoming weeks!!😁😁🤗🤗

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