Scroll Top

Is Blogging Supposed to Be This Hard?

Is Blogging Supposed to Be This Hard?

If I had only known…

If I knew then what I know now…

Change is possible

I used to subconsciously think I was who I was, and I could not change.

Over the past couple of years, I have realized just how wrong I was.

I learned I CAN change.  I have changed so completely over the last two years, it is hard to recognize myself at times.

I continue to change as I learn more.  As I seek knowledge.  As I try to find ways to be a better version of the woman I was yesterday.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much better I can be.

The more I learn, the more I want to improve.

Above all…

The more I learn, the more I realize how little I really know.

And you know what?

It has been an incredibly humbling experience.

Each day I try to listen to a new podcast or read a part of a new book, or google something I do not know how to do, and you know what my first reaction is?

I feel like I do not know anything.

Then I take a deep breath and remind myself it is okay if I do not know x, y, or z.

I can learn.

Most likely, I can learn for free…thank you Google and YouTube!

On a Mission

You want to hear an embarrassing example of what I am talking about?

I started my blog a few months ago with zero website experience.  Honestly, I had ZERO website experience.  I only had a burning desire in my heart to share my story.

I had not even been on my personal Instagram account in almost a year and had no idea what hashtags were used for, what a “story” was, and no clue “IGTV” even existed!  Then I found myself creating a blog, and an accompanying Instagram account.

I look back at myself and think, “Oh, you sweet, naïve woman with a dream in your heart.”  I was simply a woman on a mission to share my story to try to help and inspire others and empower them.  I knew if I could change and get through what I had been through, ANYBODY could!  If little ol’ me could break years of bad habits and negative thought patterns and find wellness, ANYBODY could!

I hired a web designer to design my blog.  I loved the design she came up with.  She gave me basic instructions on how to do a blog post, and off I went.  Again, zero Word Press experience (I did not even know what Word Press was).

For months now, I have been posting a new blog post every week.  The writing process and the messages I want to share are the easy part.  In fact, I have pages and pages and pages of content written I have not shared yet that I cannot wait to share!  What is holding me up?  The technical side of things.

The School of Hard Knocks

When it comes to the technical side of blogging, I am pretty darn clueless.  Still.  I am finally realizing I cannot just post a blog post, and that I need to pay attention to my website speed, update plugins, optimize pictures, and on and on and on.  I did not know ANY of this until last week!  No joke…and I’ve had my blog for around four months.

You want to hear something else funny?  I learned last week that a website load speed should be around 1 to 2 seconds – maybe 3 seconds tops.  I had no idea.  I decided to figure out how to do a free test to see how long my website takes to load.

Confession:  it took me awhile to even figure that out.  If you are like me, let me save you the trouble.  Simply go to tools.pingdom.com and enter your website.  It gives you a whole wealth of information!  Of which, I understand very little.  Understanding it is on my to-do list.

I tested my website.  Fingers crossed, I was hoping for  a 3 second load time.  Guess what it came in at?  Over 20 seconds!  Seriously.  That is when I dug deeper and discovered I was supposed to be optimizing my images all along.  I had never heard of that and had no idea how to do that, so I googled and youtubed away until I found answers.  Which is when I learned about plugins, what they are, and how they work.

I have learned and worked and learned and worked to try to get my website load time down to 1-2 seconds for you guys so when I post a new blog post it does not take a year of your life to load.  Who has that kind of time?  After hours and days of making improvements on my website, I was able to get my website load time down to…drumroll please….6.84 seconds.  Womp, womp, womp.

Bear with me, I am still trying to figure it all out.  I am still learning and trying to get my load time faster.  I wish I had endless resources and could pay someone to do it for me.

If you are a blogger or web/tech person, let me know if you have any advice for me.  I greatly appreciate any tips you can offer, or resources you can recommend.  In the meantime, Google and Youtube and I are in a new relationship.  Status:  it’s complicated.

I am also finding incredible resources and blogging advice here.

I will say this, the more I learn, the more I realize I do not know.  It is quite humbling.

Thank you!

I so appreciate your support and readership while I get my ducks in a row.  Please hang with me, I have TONS of content that I can’t wait to share with you!

To read more about my story, go here.

Leave a comment