Why Start A Blog When Blogging Is On Its Demise (And How To!)
Once upon a time in my life, I worked a 9-5, or to be precise, a 7-9. My life was pretty much varying intonations of the phrase “I am so busy”. A day typically started around 7 for me. I would shower, prepare my breakfast and lunch for the day, sometimes a snack as well, do my makeup and then call for an Uber. I would arrive at work at 830, say boo to my colleagues, and get started. Work ended at 530, and I had yoga on two days, Muay Thai on one day and HIIT training on another day. Most of these sessions ended around 8 and I would reach home at around 9. I would then shower and have dinner with Netflix for company. Obviously, I can’t go to bed with a full stomach so I would spend about an hour or two travelling down the Internet rabbit hole before I decide to go to bed. Which then meant an hour or so of tossing around, having an existential crisis and a heaviness in my heart about not being who I want to be, before exhaustion finally takes over and the day is truly over. Weekends equated to time with family, brunches and dinners with friends, squeezing in a book and a movie, and other errand runs. Rinse and repeat. Both my yoga studio and gym were around 10 minutes from work, the only way I could commit myself to a healthy lifestyle, so on some days I felt like I was essentially going to work just so I could go for my yoga class or gym session later on.
Somehow, having a 9-5 ended up meaning that everything about my life was centred around my 9-5. This meant priorities shifted. And when priorities started to shift, I did. I had wanted to look into natural skin and haircare for the longest, but between catching up on my TV series for the week and researching ingredients, TV series often won. I wouldn’t exactly describe myself as minimal, but I don’t particularly fancy material attachment. Somehow, my 9-5, and my travels for it, gave me this sudden need to look good and important. Which in turn translated to my want for brands and a multitude of lipsticks and outfits. I have always wanted to write, but researching, writing manuscripts, collecting and analysing data just meant mental exhaustion to even think about putting words together to form a sentence, and least of all, writing something which readers could benefit from. The creative soul in me felt crushed, side-lined, and refused to conjure upon demand regardless of how much I cajoled it.
Was all of this my fault? Maybe. Having a main job, and a list of things I wanted to pursue, do, and simply look into on the side only created a “too much and not the mood”. When my contract was coming to an end in September, most of my projects were coincidentally also coming to an end. I thought I would just tie things up with a neat little bow and leave. Because had I signed my new contract, I don’t think I would have ever left that job, which meant the dream of writing would have just stayed in the pipelines. For the rest of my life. Ugh, I got goose bumps while I was writing/typing that. This website of mine, is the result of my journey in re-discovering myself. Often times, I write something because it was a question I had in myself, or a thought process lacked structure. Putting words on paper helped me understand said question or thought process. This website, for me, is a space to share knowledge.
When I was in school, blogger was actually a legitimate career. Controversial at that time, but still a thing nonetheless. And there were so few successful ones back in those days. These days though, there are so many blogs! That can monetise! So many for you to pick and choose from based on your taste! Sure, influencers and YouTubers are a lot more common now, but quite a few have blogs as a supplement to their careers. Blogs also continue to exist in the form of travel guides, lifestyle content, beauty content and various other listicles and articles you can think of. Blogging is still going on. And this is why I completely disagree with the statement that blogging is dying/on its demise. The blogging that is dead however, is actually the blogging that existed when blogging started out. Which is natural for pretty much everything. Blogging hasn’t died, blogging has evolved. “What I Did Over The Weekend” went from a blog to a vlog. Which has now gone to Stories on Instagram. The only problem with regards to blogging, that has sort of become the biggest problem, is comparing one’s humble beginnings with “successful” blogs. Everyone has to start somewhere. So here’s what I have noticed about blogging for the past 5 to 7 years and what I have learned myself:
1. Authenticity is key. Start a blog because you want to write and share written content. It’s going to be a place on the Internet from you so stay true to your voice. It’s how you carve out a niche – it’s what brings readers to your content, and what ensures that readers will stay for more of your content. Lose it, and your readers will pick up on it, and they will be so done with you.
2. Supplement with social media. Social media is today’s version of yelling about your blog from rooftops – and it gives you the amazing ability to amass like-minded people. Use it to support your written content, or use it to guide readers to your blog. Which is how quite a bit of you found me! Hello! But keep yourself updated on the different forms of social media, and keep yourself open to the different ways you can create and share content! Blogging will continue to evolve, because the way we all consume information continues to evolve.
3. Reader Satisfaction. While it’s important to produce content that makes you happy and satisfied, it’s also important to produce content that makes your readers happy (As long as you are authentic and it links back to your overall goal for your website!) I was so shocked by how many responses I got during my DIY posts on Instagram and this is why I thought I would create a space for it on my blog (sharing knowledge!) So that you guys can have a permanent space to refer to, rather than something as transient as social media (Yes! You need to consider the possibility that Instagram might not be here one day!)
So to conclude, if you ask me, if you want to start a blog, go on and start a blog. Life’s too short to keep wondering.
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