My blog in 2021: 10 years of being online

Today I want to have an honest and open chat about my blog and how I feel about it in 2021. This year marks 10 years of being online, 10 years of writing this blog. When I created it in my university flat all those years ago, I never thought I’d be here 10 years later still doing it. But here I am. Today’s post is going to be a break from the well thought out and structured posts and more of a brain dump of where I’m at.

A lot has changed over those 10 years and inspired by both Jenny and Kayleigh’s very honest chats about blogging at the end of last year, I just wanted to get a few thoughts and feelings out about where I’m at with this blog not only in this new year but in the 10th year of being a blogger. It’s just a few honest point about where I’m at!

My blogging journey

One day in April 2011 I sat in my uni flat and decided to create a blog. It didn’t come out of nowhere as I studied journalism and English and we’d already been told to set up a professional blog to act as a portfolio. I’d had my uni blog around 6 months at that point and through that I’d delved deeper into the world of blogging and figured I’d quite like to set something up that was just for fun. So I did just that and my blog, Bits and Bobs, was born! I loved blogging so much. For me there were no rules, I just put my thoughts and feelings down on a page and hit publish.

For the longest time that’s how I continued, I blogged on Blogger and I didn’t even have my own URL. It was just for fun, no worries about stats or engagement it was purely for me. Somewhere in there I changed the name of my blog too and Bits and Bobs became Calico Skies. Same old blog just a different name. When I left uni in 2013 I was unemployed for 6 months. I wasn’t in a good place in that time and I truly believe having my blog was one of the things that saved me. It gave me something to do with my days.

Things continued the same for quite a few years. Happily blogging away as a hobby about whatever came into my mind. I fitted it in around work and other life things and all my blog ever was was something to fill my spare time.

I can’t remember exactly when the change happened but somewhere around 2016 I considered quitting blogging. I’d just bought a house and was working and blogging just didn’t seem to fit in with me anymore. It took up time and I got nothing in return. No money and very little views. Anyway I stuck with it and somewhere found my love for it again along with another name change to Laureny Loves… I also bought my own domain around this time too. I started focusing a little more on writing posts that my audience would enjoy rather than purely personal posts for myself.

2018 was the first time I made any money from my blog and that’s where I got a glimpse of what could happen with my blog. Since the start of 2019 I’ve made money from blogging every single month. For complete transparency there’s never been a month yet though where I’ve earned anything that could even equate to a part time wage. But the money I do get helps me to build some savings and I’ll be forever grateful for it.

So now we’re up to the present day and blogging is so different from where I started 10 years ago. My content is 95% focused on what my audience wants, what will perform well on Google and on Pinterest with just a sprinkling of personal posts here and there. I write with SEO and trends in mind. My blog posts require time, effort, concentration, research and scheduling. It’s no longer about typing out a post the second I think of it and hitting publish. I now run a self hosted WordPress blog too, which by the way is the best decision I’ve ever made.

I’m grateful for the opportunities my blog provides me with these days but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wholeheartedly miss the spontaneity and care free attitude I had to blogging 10 years ago. Sometimes blogging is tiring. It’s essentially a job on top of the job I already do and most of the time I love it, I wouldn’t keep doing it if I didn’t but sometimes it’s exhausting and I long to write those fun, personal posts of the good old days.

My blog in 2021

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking for around 9 months now with regards to my blog. I went self hosted with my blog back in April and I sincerely regret not doing that sooner. I threw myself into learning everything there is to know about Pinterest and I’m trying to understand SEO, though it’s really not my strong point.

My blog grew an enormous amount in 2020. My blog views went up 1000% compared to 2019 and I doubled my blog income too. That’s a huge achievement and something to be really proud of. But on the flip side doubt started creeping in. Why weren’t my stats as high as other people’s? Why am I not earning as much as other bloggers? It overshadowed everything I’d achieved because all I could think was that I’d been doing this for 10 years and I should be doing better. I know that’s something I need to work on though and while seeing other people achieve great things can be a healthy push to do better myself it shouldn’t be all I focus on. I think the problem is I’ve been doing this so long now that I’m desperate for it to work but at the same time I don’t have the time to dedicate myself to blogging fully with having a job too.

My content in 2021

In 2021 I really want to shift my focus when it comes to the type of content I’m creating and sharing too. Do you know what my favourite posts of all time are? My monthly Happy Lists. I just love taking that time to share something a little more personal, something happy and the comments I get on those posts are always so lovely. So in 2021 rather than purely focusing on content that gets me views on Pinterest and Google I want to take some time to write content for myself too, something a little more light-hearted and personal. I know that may seem like it clashes with the idea of growing and getting views but I need to strike more of a balance that’s going to make me happy. And a balance between content my audience wants to read and content that gets the loveliest, most genuine engagement.

Other content changes I want to make are around seasonal content. The two months where I was truly happy with the content I was producing were October and December and that’s because I absolutely love writing about autumn, Halloween and Christmas. So I’m going to be looking at a way to sprinkle that content in throughout the year not just in those two months.

Finally another change in content I want to make is bringing back some of my book stuff. I stopped writing books reviews in 2019 after starting them on here in 2014. I was no longer enjoying writing reviews and it’s not really something I want to go back to either. However last year I wrote quite a few book list posts and really enjoyed them. I absolutely love reading and I love talking about books, so instead of doing full on book reviews I’m going to try out a new style of post, a what a read this month post with mini reviews on the books I’ve finished throughout the month. I’m really excited to be bringing some book content back!

So that’s where I’m at with blogging and the changes I want to make this year. I’m looking forward to both seeing my blog grow but create content I love too with a bit more personality to it.

How long have you been blogging? Are there any changes you want to make to your blog in 2021? Let me know in the comments!