Post #50: What I've Learned So Far

A little over two months ago, I started this blog not knowing what to expect. There were times when I worried about not being able to produce enough content, unsure if anybody would ever read the blog, or if I would even have any interest in maintaining this blog. In a little over two months, here we are at post #50. (Well, #62 if you technically count my other blogs.) Here are a couple interesting highlights that have occurred in the past two months:

• Just this past week, I hit my 1000th view. (Granted, I bet a third of them are from me.)
• I now average about 12 views per post whereas I averaged about 3 per post in the beginning. (We all have to start somewhere!)
• I started a second blog focused on art called Engedi Artistry, which is quickly out surpassing the readership of this blog. (Even though I genuinely love both blogs equally.)
• My last album review of The Dear Hunter's album was liked by two of the actual bandmates from The Dear Hunter. (Neat!)

While most of these are very small milestones in the grand scheme of things, I am encouraged to continue producing quality content for not only my benefit but for you all, too.

That said, I want to share some of the big lessons I have learned so far.

1. Make sure your blog titles are clear. Earlier posts in this blog have somewhat ambiguous titles that I thought would attract viewership because of its cleverness. Very, very wrong. Those blog posts by far had the least readers. I suppose people like to know what they are getting themselves into. In any case, I've heard y'all loud and clear and seek to make the titles of my post as clear as possible.

2. Don't be afraid to use social media. Toward the very beginning, I really didn't use social media at all, but now I use it far more often. Granted, I purposefully throttle myself on given platforms. Whereas the floodgates are open on Twitter, I choose to limit how much I post to LinkedIn. I guess its because I'm currently of this mindset that not everybody on LinkedIn is interested in reading this stuff but... I don't know. Maybe that will change someday.

3. Know your audience. I split my content into a second blog for a reason: I use different tones across the blogs. While I am certainly not a robot on LYEATT, I purposefully choose a more serious and formal tone, whereas I choose to be more free on Engedi Artistry. This is because the content on each blog is geared to a different audience, and because I want LYEATT to be taken seriously as a business blog, I choose a serious tone.

4. People appreciate the use of media. Pictures, videos, and more, people just like consuming media beyond reading. I think this is partially why the readership of Engedi Artistry is taking off far more quickly than LYEATT. It's not that I purposefully tamp down using consumable content on LYEATT, I just don't find it appropriate to use as often. If I do find it appropriate, like in my post featuring the Nintendo Switch, I do use it.

5. You will never be able to maintain a blog if you are not interested in the content yourself. This one is probably the biggest on this list. In other words, if you're not having fun, then blogging becomes a job just like everything else. This is why I am pushing out content more frequently than ever. I have actively chosen to curb some things in my life like playing video games because I genuinely enjoy producing this content more than gaming. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a gamer for life!)

Thank you all for joining me on this journey so far! I am eager to see how this blog continues to unfold in the near future. Please share this blog with your friends. My hope is that I am able to help you in each of your own respective journeys, and I especially hope that the content I'll be coming out with in the next few days will be particularly impactful for you.