6 Months Blogging: Lessons Learnt So Far… and Anniversary Giveaway

Well for some, blogging for 6-months is no big deal but for me, it’s a huge milestone… When I wrote my first blog post on 4 January 2016, I had no idea that consistently creating quality blog content is serious hard work. Writing is my natural flair so when the vision for  a blog became clear to me last December, I was almost certain that dishing out weekly posts would be a walk over until I started… Then it heavily dawned on me that no matter how difficult starting is, continuing will always be more difficult! So even though I had a picture of what each column of the blog should focus us, filling in the needed contents have not been easy. I hardly read most of my posts after publishing them but in the past two weeks I went through most of them and I’m amazed, over and over, on how far God has sustained and brought this dream. And just like yesterday… www.distinguishedlives.wordpress.com is exactly 6 months today!

Reading beautiful and inspiring stories/articles is my hobby and I have always desired to inspire |Motivate |Challenge |Entertain |Teach |Encourage others with my writings, same way that of others have done and still do for me, which is part of the motivation for the blog. These 6 months blogging have been eye-opening, interesting and challenging. After the initial excitement, reality dawned on me that:

1. There may not be as much hits and applause for every post as the first blog post.
2. The inspiration and motivation to write won’t always be there.

But, have I enjoyed blogging so far? Yes, absolutely! Have there been challenges and discouragements? Yes and Yes again! Have there been positive feedbacks and encouragements? Oh Yes! Plenty, too numerous to count actually!!! Have I learnt any lessons from blogging?  Several! And I’m going to share some of them with you. So here are the top 5 lessons learnt from blogging:

1. Blogging has taught me to appreciate other bloggers/writers better, particularly those who post consistently on scheduled dates. It has made me to be more patient and understanding when a blogger I follow fails to publish an anticipated blog post on the scheduled date cause I have learnt that sometimes, against your wish, keeping your words to your readers will not be feasible/possible on the proposed date due to the cliché “circumstances beyond your control”.
2. Blogging has taught me that the Gospel sells. You know, I used to think a lot of people wouldn’t want to read bible references in my posts but blogging has made me realize that a lot of good Christian blogs have good readership and followership. And this opened my eyes to some truth – people actually want to read the good news of/about Jesus Christ, what matters more is how you serve it.
3. Blogging has made me more responsible, prioritize my interests better and be more conscious of the things I say/write because I need to lead by example.
4. Blogging has helped and challenged me to trust God better. Won’t really expatiate on this cause if I start e no go end today…
5. Blogging has taught me that Content and Strategy are twin keys to keep people locked down on your blog. Usually, emphasis is on having the right content for your targeted audience but you can be a good writer with beautiful contents, but if you don’t have the right strategy to attract and keep your targeted audience you may not have your desired results in terms of reach and readership. You need to constantly search and find strategies for retaining and increasing your readership, else very few people will know about/read your ‘wonderful’ contents.

 

Finally, these 6-months wouldn’t have been possible or worth it without you! I want to say a very big “THANK YOU” to everyone who has ever liked, read, commented or shared any post on this blog. I cannot reward you appropriately but my God will bless you abundantly and surround you with dream supporters. I also want to specially thank the TWTW ladies, they were the instruments God used to awaken my dream and God’s purpose for my writing gift. And I  will not forget to specially thank my whatsapp and bbm contacts for accommodating my weekly broadcasts and giving me encouraging feedbacks.

Finally finally, I want to specially appreciate No2Laff and Omobolaji for gifting the blog with free anniversary designs. No2Laff designed the image above while Omobolaji designed the one below.

Thank you, thank you both so much!

As anniversary giveaway package, I’ll give 2 free e-Books to the first 6 people to comment on this post.

Thank you all for your tremendous love and support.

I love you,

ChinyereDistinguished