With more and more people looking to either blog full time or create a side hustle through their blog, the days of taking about what you got up to at the weekend seem to be dying out. Personal blog posts are very rarely money makers. As someone who has made the shift from personal posts to more advice based posts I’m going to discuss whether there’s actually still room for personal posts on blogs.
When I first started my blog 8 years ago it was very much just for me, it documented by life, days at, uni, special occasions etc and it continued like that for a many years. I’d say up until around 2015 my blog was predominantly personal posts and at the time that worked for me, I was enjoying blogging and it was only ever a hobby. Up to that point I’d sprinkled the odd money saving post in here and there and a few advice posts over the years but 99% of my content was personal. In 2015 more Disney and book content started to filter in with still the odd advice post. I was still living at home, going to work every day and didn’t have much else to offer other than what was happening in my life.
In 2016 I bought my first house and that’s where a shift in the content I wanted to create came, I suddenly had a lot of advice and knowledge I wanted to share with others and found that I loved creating home based advice and content for fellow first time buyers and home owners. Alongside that the passion of money saving that had slowly being brewing for years came exploding out. I’ve always been good with my money and it was a real light bulb moment when I realised I could actually offer practical, everyday advice to people looking to save money and be a bit more savvy with their finances. For the next couple of years my passion projects of home posts and money saving posts set alongside all my other content, most of which was still quite personal.
At the back end of 2018 I started making a very tiny amount of money from my blog for the first time. With a new year came a big rethink about the future of my blog and the direction I wanted it to go in. Writing personal posts had served me well for many, many years but I knew that to keep my passion for blogging and to grow I needed to steer my content in a different direction. It was time to focus more on content for my audience rather than content for myself.
These days I am very much still a lifestyle blog because I cover so many topics but my big passions are money saving, home advice, blogging, Disney and pets. I could never stick to just writing about one of those topics! On the personal side I still love sharing Disney holiday photo diaries, the Happy List feauture I’ve had on my blog for 7 years or one form or another is still around in the form of a round-up of my month and if I’ve had a particularly good day out somewhere special I’ll often share that experience too.
Personal posts vs writing for an audience
Whether you write personal posts or you write for your audience all depends on what you want from your blog. If it’s a hobby and you just want to connect with similar people then I 100% think there is still room for personal posts. If you’re wanting to grow your blog into a side hustle or even a full time job then writing for your audience is where you’re going to have to go. I’m not saying you can’t ever feature a personal post because that’s not true, I love personal posts from other bloggers because it makes the whole blog feel more personable and relatable. If you’re wanting to a make money then you need to offer your audience something in order to keep them coming back and grow your blog. People want to feel like you’re talking to them, like you’re helping them and like you’ve written content with people like them in mind. They don’t want to be talked at solely about your life.
Are personal posts on the way out?
Honestly in my opinion I think there is still room for personal posts. If you blog for a hobby and you’re worried that there isn’t room in the blogging world for your life ramblings then you couldn’t be more wrong. So many people just blog as a hobby, I did it quite happily for 7 years before turning it into a side hustle. There will always be people like you around! If you’re making money from your blog whether it’s full time or alongside another job like me then I’d still say there is definitely room for personal posts. People are fickle whilst they want to feel like you’re working for them, they also don’t want to read content that sounds like it’s been produced by a money making robot. We’re nosey, we want to know about the real person behind the blog! Striking a balance between writing for your audience and still being relatable can be hard at times but it’s what will keep people coming back and throwing the odd personal post in here and there will do your blog the world of good. My personal posts receive, on average, the same sorts of views as my content written for my audience so I think that firmly goes to show that there is still a place for personal blog posts.
Do write for a hobby or to earn some extra money? Do you think personal posts still have their place? Let me know in the comments.
Calling all blogging babes! I’ve created a Facebook group where we can all come together and discuss all things blogging, money saving and everything inbetween. It would be great to see you over there. So to be a part of a super friendly and supportive community, hop on over to Facebook and join us!
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I loved to read this. Mostly because I’ve been agonizing over which way I want my blog to go. Everybody says I shouldn’t post personal posts but … I want to!!
I know they won’t be as “shareable” as helpful blog posts but I agree that personal blog posts should get more “air time”. Who knows, maybe posting about personal struggles might help someone out by letting them know they are not alone.
You should post what ever you want to post. It’s your blog after all and it all depends what you want to get from your blog too. I agree, if a personal post helps even just one person out then it certainly hasn’t been a waste! x
I write both because I enjoy it and with the intention of monetizing it. That being said, my posts are largely informational in nature BUT I do believe that including some personal elements has been beneficial. I include short stories and connections in my otherwise information posts, and I have a blog series that is all about sharing funny stories about my pets and the pets of my readers. These help to create that sense of ‘community’ around the blog itself.
Yes definitely! When I changed direction and started moving away from personal posts it was great for monetizing however I find now that the personal posts I do write tend to get a lot of interaction on them which is really great!
I like how you describe personal posts here. I’ve always written personal blogs and still do (actually just recently revived that blog again), and I love personal blogs. Some people claim nobody wants to read personal posts anymore but that’s not my experience. Why would people have changed idea all of a sudden about that? But the trends about blogging have changed and many who used to write personal blogs now use Facebook or Instagram instead.
I believe there is room for both personal posts and tutorials/promotion/whatever type of posts. I just see them as different types of blogs, for different purposes and audiences, the personal blogs more as hobby projects as you say. I hope personal blogs will remain, because I really like to connect with people that way.
I write a personal blog and two whisk(e)y blogs myself, all of them are hobby projects to me, although the whisky blogs probably could help lead to a career if I wanted to. Not from making money off the blogs, but through connections in the industry. I don’t think I could make blogging a job, I just don’t enjoy that kind of writing.
Thank you. It’s interesting because I wrote this post a year ago and over the last couple of months I’ve been having a good think about my blog in the new year. My blog will be 10 years old next year and as much as I enjoy writing for my audience it’s the personal posts that are my favourite to write and I’ve found that over the last few months those types of posts have gone down really well too. So I think next year I’m going to make a little more room for a few more personal posts.
I enjoy writing and reading personal posts! I relate so much more with other bloggers that way x
erin | littlesipsoftea.com
I definitely agree, I think in 2021 I’ll be going back to adding a few more personal posts in.
I have been trying to weave personal blog posts between search engine optimized blog posts in my niche. I also use my email newsletter as my no-niche space, too. I definitely believe that there is room for personal blog posts. As you have mentioned, they help connect with readers, and they make me feel more authentic on my blog. I love your personal blog posts that have been popping up on my Twitter feed lately too. Keep them coming, Lauren! 🙂
Thank you! That’s definitely the plan this year, to go back to writing a few more personal posts because they’re just the ones I enjoy writing the most.
A personal post is always the best! Nowadays I’ve stumbled upon more posts about giveaways and there’s nothing to read.
I agree, it can be a little annoying to come across a lot of posts like that!