Post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess

When I started blogging there were so many things I thought I knew, but boy I didn't! Here are a few things that I wish I'd known about blogging (or writing in general) when I first put fingers to keyboard:

• You won't be an overnight success! Gasp! It's true we are not all Manny The Frenchie (Instagram superstar) Unless you make a video that goes viral, chances are you will be toiling away in the trenches with the best of us. You need to think of blogging and building an audience as "slow and steady wins the race." Remember, the more content you create, the quicker you will likely build an audience. I read a study that showed companies can see a close to 50% growth in traffic by blogging 21-50 posts a month instead of 10-20 posts a month. Do you have the capacity to post that often?
• Create content you will continue to be proud of. Just because you wrote a post on January 2 of 2001 doesn't mean that post is old and forgotten. Everything you create will work for you over time. Every post you write should be your best effort. You want to make them work for, not against, you. A perk about blogging is that once you make the post go live it toils away on your behalf.
• You won't run out of ideas... well, unless your niche is too focused. If you're a writer your ideas feed your next idea. If you're like me, you are a voracious reader and networker and those two activities help keep my idea notebook overflowing.  
• Content is king... but that's not all! When you're blogging you do need to be mindful of that pesky SEO. If you don't at least focus on some keywords your blog will not be loved by Google. Keywords are those that an individual would type in to find you and your posts. You can choose keywords that help you get found locally (Rochester, NY) or by your niche (pet blogger or time management guru) and sprinkle those into your posts. Simply writing and publishing a post won't help you become "famous" you have to do some work for it!
• Not everyone on the Internet is nice. There will be times when people will leave comments on your blog posts that are downright snarky. You need to grow a thick skin and either ignore those people or leave a comment that simply says, "Thank you for your comment" and leave it at that.
• You need to help your blog posts "get found." Simply writing a blog post won't make it automatically be found by readers. You need to be active on social media and share your content. This also means you will need to be SOCIAL on social media and that means you should be online sharing content of your followers and interacting with them. Organic growth will happen, but giving it a push to be found. 

 Has there been anything about blogging that came as a surprise to you?