Blog anniversary or bloggerversary just as the name suggests isn’t just a day to celebrate the start of one’s blog but a day to reflect back on the blogging journey and re-evaluate strengths and weaknesses, find more ways to improve the blog, tackle challenges and measure the blog’s success. A good way to start is to reflect back on the reason you started a blog in the first place, have you achieved that reason?
You, my blog readers are the reason the blog is still going strong 3 years after. I can’t thank you all enough for the support over these few years, i may not have time to reply to all comments or visit all your blogs all the time but i truly do appreciate every one of you. *Note that: the photos in this post are old photos from this casual outfit post, they reflect the way i feel and how much i crave the warmer months as this winter has been very unfair to me.
Few months ago i thought of doing something on this anniversary to appreciate you for all the support, perhaps a giveaway from me not sponsored by a brand towards a good cause or helping one of you redesign, customize or optimize your blog. Sadly, things didn’t quite turn out as planned. As some of you already know, i have been sick off and on since the ending of November 2015 and still currently receiving treatment at the hospital even though i’m no longer admitted in the hospital. I’m better now and hopefully these last set of treatments would be the last and i can finally get my life back. My appreciation giveaway will come later.
Between Last Blog Anniversary And Current Blog Anniversary
- I moved from blogger to self-hosted WordPress.
- I lost up to 70% of my blog traffic (which are organic- from search engines like google, bing, etc) after this move.
- I’ve redesigned the blog 4 times by myself (P.s. my current theme and my custom design will be the last in the next couple of years with a few more customization and touch ups when needed).
- I turned down a lot of brand/store collaborations because most of them think they are doing us a favor by sending over their items for us bloggers to advertise, therefore $20 worth of clothes is enough for 5 posts and sidebar ads that have to last up to 100 years.
- I adopted a more professional approach to blogging and tried to improve my writing skills while minimizing irrelevant posts just for the sake of fresh content.
- I introduced a guest posting section called Guest Saturday where bloggers and writers who have insightful ideas on fashion, beauty, lifestyle or perhaps some blogging tips to contribute to the blog can share with us on Saturdays.
- I focused more on quality content, photo optimization, page loading speed, SEO and blog design rather than follower count, then gradually started targeting new readers with these contents via bookmarking sites, social media, etc.
- I put in some extra time researching blogging and found out that a blog’s structure can actually affect it’s seo potentials, blog traffic and page/site loading therefore not all beautiful looking themes or so-called fashion themes are actually a good fit for your blog.
- I improved my photo editing and graphic designing skills as you can see in some of my previous posts to better improve the look of blog posts and further optimize it for pinterest which sends me a fair share of traffic.
- I decided not to be discouraged by any set back or challenge and just keep enjoying blogging!
I actually didn’t plan on doing a post today or even one as long as this, all i wanted to do after i got back from the hospital was to eat, lay in bed, see movies, rest/sleep till tomorrow when it’s time to go back to the hospital for my daily treatment but i changed my mind after resting for a while. This blog has become a part of me and i wouldn’t abandon it during a slight rough patch like this, even if i can’t take outfit posts yet, maybe i can inspire you in some other way. It hasn’t been a perfect blogging year, so what?
Some items i’m loving lately
Thanks for stopping by as always.
xx!
You can keep up with me on my Instagram – @modavracha
Great blog and post 🙂
http://chicglamstyle.com
Author
Thank you Rachel.
Congratulations dear.
I have always loved your picture quality and the fact that you design your blog yourself
Keep it up
Hope you get fully better soon
Stylebyenkay.blogspot.com
Author
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate.
What a great story to read. I hope its getting better with you!
Author
I’m getting better, thanks
Happy bloggerversary dear. Thanks for sharing this post. I was able to pick some things from it. your picture quality is amazing. How do you do it?
http://pretty-faze.blogspot.com/
Author
Thank you Bukky, I’m glad the post was helpful.
First, my lens is a 50mm 1.4 (which makes all the difference) secondly, I always reset my camera settings to suite whatever lighting I’m shooting in, make sure all photos are taken in Raw using either AV or M mode without exceeding 200 in Iso and ensure the person behind the camera uses only manual focus (I teach them if they don’t know how)
As for post-shoot editing, I use Adobe Lightroom and photoshop cc for both desktop and mobile.
Happy Blogversary.
Sowie about your ill health. Glad to know that you are feeling better now.
Congratulations Onyinye and so sorry to hear that you have not been feeling too well. You did such amazing things in the last year, good job.
http://www.stylediarybyosy.com/
So sorry to read you haven’t been feeling well. You did an awesome job with your styling and photos this year. Its been a pleasure having you link up and even co-host “Bloggers WHo Have Inspired Me” this past year. Happy Blogiversary!