Hello everyone, I hope you are well! Since A Disney Obsession turned 4 on July 1st, I thought it would be a good time to share what I learned in my fourth year of blogging! I’ve been doing these posts since my first year, and in blogging I’m always learning. Okay let’s jump in!
don’t change blog linking structure
I made this decision this year, and I should have made it when I first started blogging. What I’m talking about here is the url structure of my blog posts. In WordPress (the blog host I use), you have different options for your link structure. You have options like: numeric 0123, month and day 2019/07/blogpostname, or just blogpostname. When I first started blogging I picked the month and date structure, thinking people might like to know when the post was published even though it says it on the post. I recently changed it to just blogpostname. But by doing that, all of the previous links between posts don’t work anymore. So it’s a lot of work to change it. I’ve installed a plugin to help keep track of that, but I’ve made the decision so there’s no going back. Maybe I shouldn’t have changed it at all, or maybe I should have made the correct decision in the first place! Either way, lesson learned!
you can’t be everywhere
Being a blogger means trying to do a million different things at once, and that’s simply not possible! In the last year I realized that everything can’t be perfect, and I can’t put the same amount of energy into everything. So I’m trying to let go of some things, and focus on others. There are definitely things that I want to put more energy into (like products and Pinterest!), so other things get less of my time and energy. It’s hard trying to find the balance, but I’m doing best!
set timers for focused work
I’ve really only implemented this a few times in the last few months, but when I’m feeling particularly stressed or need to get some work done ASAP, I set a timer on my phone, put it face down, and go! Short bursts of work really make me more productive, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing the results. I’ve done around 20 minute bursts, and even as long as 45 minutes. I will definitely implement this more just to get a little bit of progress on a post (or another project I’m working on), and if you are feeling stuck I encourage you to give it a try.
if you have a million ideas, you might need to post more
I reached a point last year where I had so many blog posts written down, it would have taken me years to get all of them published, so I came to the decision that I needed to post more! I’ve enjoyed the weekly posts for 3.5 years, and was used to that “work load”, so I was a little nervous about adding another post. I came to an every other week post and I’ve been enjoying getting more content out there! I would say that if your list of ideas is a mile long, you might need to increase your number of posts!
update old posts
Lastly, this is a big one I’m working on this year, specifically this summer with my Walt Disney World vacation planning series. I wrote all of these posts when my blog was fairly new, and later created my YouTube channel. Now I’m in the process of filming videos to co-ordinate with the posts, and updating the posts along the way. Because I post about Disney and things change so much in that realm I really should update posts more, but I’m getting in the groove of it now! Also if you are running out of ideas for blog posts, updating old ones is a good way to take up a slot, but update the information so it’s current.
It’s really hard to believe that I’ve been blogging for four years now, and I couldn’t even tell you how much I’ve learned! But there are some takeaways from the past year, and I hope you enjoyed them!
Other “What I Learned Posts”:
What I Learned In My First Year of Blogging
What I Learned In My Second Year of Blogging
What I Learned In My Third Year of Blogging
What I Learned In My Fourth Year of Blogging (you’re here!)
If you blog what was one thing you’ve learned lately? Let me know in the comments below!
Thank you so much for joining me today!
