Five years ago, I decided to start writing a blog. It was more like a personal diary where I wanted to share my thoughts and interesting pictures. And so far it seems it has grown into something else, something I hadn´t even think about in the beginning of its writing. In this post, I´d like to take you behind the scenes of my blogging journey.
Blogging college
Last year I didn´t even realize the fourth anniversary of the blog. But it was much more breakthrough for me. I began to think a lot about where I want my blog to go and what was its purpose. That’s why I started studying. There isn´t any college for bloggers, but the internet is full of materials. You just have to know what you are looking for and type the right keywords into Google. Respectfully into Pinterest, because it was initially the main source of information for me. Here I found tons of free materials from other bloggers: eBooks, email courses, tutorials or videos. I have to admit that I am constantly learning lots of things and I´ve expanded my knowledge on so many topics.
Little steps forward
However, I also became aware of the importance of social media for the blog. And so I, strongly refusing Facebook, has signed up for this social network (hello, welcome to the 21st century 🙂 ) and has set up a page for my blog (so far I didn´t even know that this was possible). I found out that the blogger community is enormous (please, show me someone who doesn´t write the blog, I would like to see the unicorn!). A community of bloggers exists even here in Switzerland – although we only know virtually, we support and motivate each other, which is great.
I also started with various blog edits. For example, I managed to put a button that allowed to switch languages not to mix Czech and English in one text (which might have been disturbing for someone). Still, I was not happy, even though blog traffic grew.
The big step
Just half a year ago, I decided to make the biggest step and biggest investment in my blog. I bought my own domain and web hosting and switched from the old good “Blogger” to “WordPress”. I’m still having goosebumps remembering those sleepless nights when I was worried if I manage to transfer the content of the old blog to the new platform. And all this was preceded by the hours spent watching videos on Youtube and doubting if I, a complete IT layman, can handle it. Fortunately, it all worked out well.
A little praise won´t do any harm
With the new layout of my blog that I am so happy with (and I hope you are too), I found the courage to step into “bigger projects” – I addressed the mayor of my hometown. This has resulted in a great interview for both the blog and the compatriot magazine, which I have been contributing since then. Or I wrote an article for an online magazine Newly Swissed on how children can learn a foreign language abroad.
At the same time, my blog becomes more visible and more and more people know it. Here I have to boast a little. I have recently been asked to write an article about Swiss traditional food for the American Traveler Community EcoTourLinQ. And the Swiss city of Solothurn used my Instagram photo for their promo materials. And the French city of Colmar shared my post on their Facebook page, making this post the most visited on the blog.
So far, the biggest prize for me was when I received an email that my blog was ranked among Top 20 “expat blogs” in Switzerland. They are just such small successes that are for someone only small steps, but for me moments when I that my writing makes sense.
Although, of course, I had many crises when I felt that although I was trying really hard it led to nowhere. Besides, I had the stupid jealous feeling that others have everything better than I without trying so hard. And I wanted to pack it all in because who really cares about my writing?
And what next?
Maybe you are wondering where I’m taking the time to write? Well, I sometimes ask myself that question that too. Everything just goes when you want. Most of the time it’s at the expense of sleep, but on the other hand, I have the greatest peace of mind at night or early in the morning. Or if our boys have an afternoon class at school/kindergarten and our littlest sleep after lunch and I have those precious moments for myself (unless I fall asleep with fatigue too).
Anyway, I’m so glad that my blog has found its readers and their “base” is growing. Thank you all for your support. It is very important to me and I very much appreciate it because it motivates me to write for you. I want this blog to be a place where I inspire you for your travels and help you discover interesting places. I also love giving you insights into our Swiss experience.
So keep your fingers crossed for my and my blog because who knows where it moves in the next 5 years 😉
And again thank you very much for being such a great audience!
