Growing my Blog, Growing my Heart

Hey Folks! Do I start every other post with salutation now? Oh well, I like it! Today I want to address where I am with the blog right now, or basically, a little recap of where 6 months of blogging has gotten me.

First off, I started this blog in July 2012. I had just finished a Multimedia Composition for course where one of my assignments was to keep a blog over the semester. I had to update the blog at least once a week, sometimes more. I got to choose any topic of my choice, for which I chose healthy living. I posted about doing Insanity for the first time, recipes, grocery shopping, and stuff like that. It was fun, but more than that - my professor showed me that blogging is a real media that people make jobs out of. Being an English Writing major, I always knew I wanted to write but I never knew how. Blogging gave me the how. So after my wedding in June when I got back, I took the plunge started my very own blog.

The first four months of blogging (July-November) were pretty stale for me. I was only blogging an average of about 9 posts per month. I always had ideas in my head for blog posts, but few of them ever came to fruition (which is so sad. Sorry blog posts I never wrote!). I wanted it in my head, but my reality wasn't making much happen.

But in December - just last month - everything kind of changed. My passion for writing and turning my every day life into blog posts grew something fierce. At first, it felt like a lot of effort. How many times do I have to break out my camera and then import pictures onto my computer, and then edit them? Ugh. How many hours do I have to spend formatting stuff and proof-reading? How many posts will I have that have zero comments? Groan. (If you've blogged for any amount of time, please tell me you feel my pain.) But it was all worth it because by the end of December, I had blogged twice as much in one month as I had in the last four, and my page views for the month was almost as much as I had had in four months as well. I saw a huge jump.

Obviously, the more dedicated I am to the blog, the more visitors and comments I get. It's not a hard equation to figure out. But because that "equation" has shown me the results I have now, I'm overjoyed and even more excited about blogging. But besides posting more and getting the hang of the take pictures, format pictures, write post, publish post to social media rhythm, the biggest factor in becoming more successful with my blog has been connecting with you guys. Yes, I know this is not a novel concept. You read it on every blog post about how to grow your blog. But I just have to attest to the fact that that tip is so true. It's the number one thing anybody can do: just connect!

Where Social Media Comes In

In the staler months of my blog, I was reluctant to use social media to my advantage. I have been a social media scrooge for a while now, wanting to quit it altogether and such. But when I ultimately decided I needed social media merely to grow the blog, and I started using it like I should, that's when I stopped disliking social media and I started seeing real results and relationships form. Just in the past two weeks or so, I feel I have really connected with some fellow bloggers. And maybe it's not a big deal to anyone else (or maybe it is), but I seriously feel a part of my heart growing for these people I'm encountering.

An example of this love is from some tweets that really made me smile this week from Caroline at The Trendy Trainer and Kacie at Savvy Sassy Me. Caroline's tweet was in response to me saying I hope to grow my blog as big as some of the "big bloggers" someday. Too sweet. Thank you, ladies for the encouragement!

And as Kacie has said, just be yourself and you will find success. She posted a great post about being your self and how that simple idea has lead to her great success (yes, I think you are widly successful! Congrats on getting into Shape!). It's so simple and yet so many of us bloggers are kind of not ourselves because, well, this is the internet and it's scary, and what the heck is my blog supposed to be like anyway?! 

Anyway, with all this said, I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone I've been connecting with recently. Our connections mean a lot to me and I'm so glad to get to know other people doing what I do. And this list is in no particular order, it's just the order my bookmarks opened up ;)

• Danica @ It's Progression
• Kaite @ Gettin' My Healthy On
• Abbey @ Finding My Forever
• Emily @ Perfection Isn't Happy
• Melanie @ Happy Being Healthy
• Caroline @ The Trendy Trainer
• Kacie @ Savvy Sassy Me 
• Toronto Runner

I'm really excited about where this blog is going and how much it has the opporunity to grow - not only in terms of numbers and posts - but in terms of friends :)