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[quote author=humourandstyle post=69354064]N.B This article is intended as a source of information for mainly newbie bloggers so they don't make the same mistakes. Sit back, read along. You would learn a few things.

LESSON 1: Blogging is hardwork - POINT BLANK.

When I started out blogging, I didn't know if I wanted to do it long term. All I knew I wanted to do was "write" on things I loved. Little did I know, blogging was way beyond writing. If you jump on the bandwagon thinking it's only about writing articles. Then ON YOUR OWN (O.Y.O) is your case lol. I'll explain.

When i started, I would write an article and leave it on my blog expecting 1 million views lol. FOR WHERE? After 3 days, I'd come back to find only 5 views LMAO! I didn't know about SEO, social media sharing, use of tags and a lot of other things.

Now when I think of it, who did I really want to read about my articles? MY VILLAGE PEOPLE? lol. I only shared the link to people on my whatsapp you can imagine lol. So, dear newbie bloggers, Blogging entails research, writing, understanding of keywords and social media marketing. Use social media to your advantage. Also, SEO is key for organic traffic, I am still learning about it and hope to improve by God's grace.

LESSON 2: Awoof dey purge - Nothing good comes free. DON'T BE STINGY TO YOURSELF.

Infact, nothing good comes cheap. Don't make use of free blogging plans e.g if you intend to do this long term and probably monetize it.

When I started blogging like I mentioned in lesson one, I wasn't initially sure If I'd do it long term that was why I started with a free plan. Where I made a mistake was "not moving to a self hosted plan" immediately I knew this was a long term thing. Trust me, I paid for that silly mistake heavily because I lost all my stats (insert tears* lol)

It took me over a year to move from a free wordpress plan to my paid self hosted domain www.humourandstyle.com . Moving at that point made me lose all my blog stats. I had to start all over again and starting all over again is not funny, please learn from my mistake.

Now, if you are just testing the waters, it's acceptable to start on a free platform. But once you are convinced this blogging thing would be long term, please switch to a self hosted plan. You may ask, at what point will you know blogging would be a long term thing.

You should know by the 3rd month (maximum), I mean, if you have been doing something for up to 3 months and you enjoy it, that should be enough conviction. A self hosted plan would not only make your blog monetizable, it would also make your blog look professional.

People would rather take you seriously when you say your blog URL is www.nairaland.com than when you say it is www.nairaland. OR www.nairaland..com. 

So, don't be stingy to yourself. Spend your money on getting a new self-hosted domain. My dear, you won't die if you spend your money. Free things would cost you great loss in the long run. Awoof dey purge!

LESSON 3: It's not every e-book you should buy.

Before you rush to buy that ebook, make sure the information you seek is not available for free on youtube or google. There are a lot of ebooks and supposed self help guides currently for sale on the internet.

Just be careful because most of these e-books contain recycled bullshit you can easily have access to if you take off laziness and and do proper internet research especially youtube research. Two months back I purchased an e-book online from an Australian blogger with a large amount of following for a couple of dollars. It was supposed to be a 7-day guide to improve blog traffic and be an overall better blogger.

After reading the book, I discovered she didn't say anything new lol. All she mentioned were things I had already read about so it wasn't exactly helpful (atleast, for my level of blogging). Her e-book was informative but I strongly feel the information she shared was better off for anyone with no idea on blogging i.e beginners (how to set up a blog & blogging basics)

P.S IF YOU NEED THE E-BOOK, you can hit me up.

Anyway, I'm not saying you shouldn't buy e-books but always make sure the information you need isn't already on the internet for free. Make good use of platforms like YOUTUBE. There are a lot of self explanatory videos there for free that may save you small money.


LESSON 4: Submit your site to google & Bing webmaster for indexing

I just discovered this 1 month ago Lmaooooo. If you have a new blog, please you have to do this. Don't sit and cross your leg waiting for google and bing to index your blog post. This helps a little with traffic. Submit your site for indexing.


LESSON 5.  ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY - BLOGGING IS A PROCESS

Nobody told me this when I started. Blogging is a process. Your traffic, just like mine won't be what you expect in the start, but that's okay because Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm still trying to build my traffic. I know it is not an instant thing. So don't bother your head too much. Don't expect instant turnover.

If you intend on not being a copy and paste blogger like myself, get ready to go through writers block. On some days, you won't know what to write about. That's fine, don't beat yourself too much over it. However, don't leave your blog for too long for cobwebs to fill before publishing a new post. Try to write new articles weekly. It musn't be everyday. Just try your best so people don't forget about your blog.

LESSON 6. Blogging is a business and like every business, you must put in money to make money.

If you want to go far in blogging, you must be willing to invest in your blog. I'm not saying you should start blogging just to make money oo. But in the long run, you will come to a realization that blogging is a business and like every business, you must put in money and invest in order to make money and grow.
 
At one point or the other, you may need to pay for services of other people to make the best out of your blog. Nobody will sell their knowledge to you for free. Man must chop! Therefore get ready to do a little bit of investment for your blog to grow.

DONE SHARING REGRETS, THIS IS MY JOY ABOUT BLOGGING--- - My joy is that my blog is built on wordpress which makes tweaking, customization and general usage easy.

I have so much more experiences on blogging which I'd love to share here but let me give space to other readers to share some of their own knowledge. So we can all learn.

 
So, what were your early regrets about blogging and how did you try to make it better? Share your thoughts below. You can reach out to me via my blog www.humourandstyle.com or send me an email on humourandstyle@gmail.com  if you want to start a blog or need help with basic blog related issues. I'd love to help with my little knowledge.


P.S:  I AM NOT A  PROFESSIONAL BLOGGER NEITHER DO I HAVE A MILLION BLOG VIEWS YET LOL. I AM STILL GROWING IN THE BLOGOSPHERE AND HOPE TO GROW LITTLE BY LITTLE. I'M ALWAYS OPEN FOR REVIEWS ON HOW I CAN GET BETTER AT THIS BLOGGING THING.

Eudy Bassey
www.humourandstyle.com

Thank you so much sir, am a blogger, I started this year February, I opened the blog on , how can I move to self hosted plan? Also will I loose my contents if I move to self hosted plan?

[quote author=humourandstyle post=69354064]N.B This article is intended as a source of information for mainly newbie bloggers so they don't make the same mistakes. Sit back, read along. You would learn a few things.

LESSON 1: Blogging is hardwork - POINT BLANK.

When I started out blogging, I didn't know if I wanted to do it long term. All I knew I wanted to do was "write" on things I loved. Little did I know, blogging was way beyond writing. If you jump on the bandwagon thinking it's only about writing articles. Then ON YOUR OWN (O.Y.O) is your case lol. I'll explain.

When i started, I would write an article and leave it on my blog expecting 1 million views lol. FOR WHERE? After 3 days, I'd come back to find only 5 views LMAO! I didn't know about SEO, social media sharing, use of tags and a lot of other things.

Now when I think of it, who did I really want to read about my articles? MY VILLAGE PEOPLE? lol. I only shared the link to people on my whatsapp you can imagine lol. So, dear newbie bloggers, Blogging entails research, writing, understanding of keywords and social media marketing. Use social media to your advantage. Also, SEO is key for organic traffic, I am still learning about it and hope to improve by God's grace.

LESSON 2: Awoof dey purge - Nothing good comes free. DON'T BE STINGY TO YOURSELF.

Infact, nothing good comes cheap. Don't make use of free blogging plans e.g if you intend to do this long term and probably monetize it.

When I started blogging like I mentioned in lesson one, I wasn't initially sure If I'd do it long term that was why I started with a free plan. Where I made a mistake was "not moving to a self hosted plan" immediately I knew this was a long term thing. Trust me, I paid for that silly mistake heavily because I lost all my stats (insert tears* lol)

It took me over a year to move from a free wordpress plan to my paid self hosted domain www.humourandstyle.com . Moving at that point made me lose all my blog stats. I had to start all over again and starting all over again is not funny, please learn from my mistake.

Now, if you are just testing the waters, it's acceptable to start on a free platform. But once you are convinced this blogging thing would be long term, please switch to a self hosted plan. You may ask, at what point will you know blogging would be a long term thing.

You should know by the 3rd month (maximum), I mean, if you have been doing something for up to 3 months and you enjoy it, that should be enough conviction. A self hosted plan would not only make your blog monetizable, it would also make your blog look professional.

People would rather take you seriously when you say your blog URL is www.nairaland.com than when you say it is www.nairaland. OR www.nairaland..com. 

So, don't be stingy to yourself. Spend your money on getting a new self-hosted domain. My dear, you won't die if you spend your money. Free things would cost you great loss in the long run. Awoof dey purge!

LESSON 3: It's not every e-book you should buy.

Before you rush to buy that ebook, make sure the information you seek is not available for free on youtube or google. There are a lot of ebooks and supposed self help guides currently for sale on the internet.

Just be careful because most of these e-books contain recycled bullshit you can easily have access to if you take off laziness and and do proper internet research especially youtube research. Two months back I purchased an e-book online from an Australian blogger with a large amount of following for a couple of dollars. It was supposed to be a 7-day guide to improve blog traffic and be an overall better blogger.

After reading the book, I discovered she didn't say anything new lol. All she mentioned were things I had already read about so it wasn't exactly helpful (atleast, for my level of blogging). Her e-book was informative but I strongly feel the information she shared was better off for anyone with no idea on blogging i.e beginners (how to set up a blog & blogging basics)

P.S IF YOU NEED THE E-BOOK, you can hit me up.

Anyway, I'm not saying you shouldn't buy e-books but always make sure the information you need isn't already on the internet for free. Make good use of platforms like YOUTUBE. There are a lot of self explanatory videos there for free that may save you small money.


LESSON 4: Submit your site to google & Bing webmaster for indexing

I just discovered this 1 month ago Lmaooooo. If you have a new blog, please you have to do this. Don't sit and cross your leg waiting for google and bing to index your blog post. This helps a little with traffic. Submit your site for indexing.


LESSON 5.  ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY - BLOGGING IS A PROCESS

Nobody told me this when I started. Blogging is a process. Your traffic, just like mine won't be what you expect in the start, but that's okay because Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm still trying to build my traffic. I know it is not an instant thing. So don't bother your head too much. Don't expect instant turnover.

If you intend on not being a copy and paste blogger like myself, get ready to go through writers block. On some days, you won't know what to write about. That's fine, don't beat yourself too much over it. However, don't leave your blog for too long for cobwebs to fill before publishing a new post. Try to write new articles weekly. It musn't be everyday. Just try your best so people don't forget about your blog.

LESSON 6. Blogging is a business and like every business, you must put in money to make money.

If you want to go far in blogging, you must be willing to invest in your blog. I'm not saying you should start blogging just to make money oo. But in the long run, you will come to a realization that blogging is a business and like every business, you must put in money and invest in order to make money and grow.
 
At one point or the other, you may need to pay for services of other people to make the best out of your blog. Nobody will sell their knowledge to you for free. Man must chop! Therefore get ready to do a little bit of investment for your blog to grow.

DONE SHARING REGRETS, THIS IS MY JOY ABOUT BLOGGING--- - My joy is that my blog is built on wordpress which makes tweaking, customization and general usage easy.

I have so much more experiences on blogging which I'd love to share here but let me give space to other readers to share some of their own knowledge. So we can all learn.

 
So, what were your early regrets about blogging and how did you try to make it better? Share your thoughts below. You can reach out to me via my blog www.humourandstyle.com or send me an email on humourandstyle@gmail.com  if you want to start a blog or need help with basic blog related issues. I'd love to help with my little knowledge.


P.S:  I AM NOT A  PROFESSIONAL BLOGGER NEITHER DO I HAVE A MILLION BLOG VIEWS YET LOL. I AM STILL GROWING IN THE BLOGOSPHERE AND HOPE TO GROW LITTLE BY LITTLE. I'M ALWAYS OPEN FOR REVIEWS ON HOW I CAN GET BETTER AT THIS BLOGGING THING.

Eudy Bassey
www.humourandstyle.com

I am also interested in having the e-book on blogging you talked about. rosemaryokafor444@gmail.com

jusy 3 month old blog check and give me review bro