Blogging has changed a lot since I started in August of 2010. You can read my first post here. Sure, I could correct several spelling errors in my first post ever, but it wouldn’t be as “authentic”. So I leave it as my 2010 college self-wrote it.
If anything has remained the same in my blogging, it’s that I don’t have the best grammar or spelling. I spell check, but there is always something. If you have ever held a conversation with me in real life, you know I talk a mile and minute, and my blog is pretty much the same.
But Back to Blogging in General…
I feel like a crabby, old fashioned blogger even saying that blogging has changed so much. When I first started blogging, it was just that. Blogging.
There was no Instagrams, twitters and people did not make facebooks for their page. You just wrote stuff and hoped someone subscribed through email. After you posted an entry, you moved on with life.
Now blogging is more competitive and social media is far more advance. You don’t write something and move on. You write something, link it to all of your social media, multiple times, promote, promote, promote and maybe promote some more. By the time you finished pushing your master piece of writing, it’s time to promote the next one. It’s no wonder blogging can get so damn tiresome. The least time-consuming portion of blogging is writing the post. 
Hey you!!! Have you subscribed to my internet?
But here we are. I often reflect on blogging. Many bloggers who started much later than I did make a full-time income from blogging. They do the ten (thousand) step process of blogging, great content, and whatever else it takes.
That is their choice but blogging full time has never been mine.
Is it great to make money from something you work hard at? Of course. The majority of the money I now make through blogging pays for the 10,000 races I run each year with it…but that is really it. I don’t make a full-time income and I don’t spend hours on content creation and sponsored posts.
Part of the reason begins with I won’t promote products I don’t personally stand behind. I can truly say I’ve used and enjoyed every product I’ve promoted on this blog. Throughout the last 7 years, I’ve probably turned down close to 5,000 dollars worth of sponsored posts (whether money or product) because it doesn’t reflect my life or interests.
If you blog full time, you make more money by taking more sponsored posts. You can’t “love” everything so you cannot like and use every single product you promote. It’s a fine balance of blogging about product, life, and whatever else. Too many sponsored posts and you are a fraud. Too few sponsored posts and you eat ramen for dinner. That sort of balance doesn’t interest me.
Plus, to be honest I don’t sit still well. I don’t like sitting at home, I’m usually boring, and I don’t like to people, socialize, and network every moment of my life. I just like to run, eat at diners and talk about various topics that pop into my mind (like reflecting upon blogging).
So How Has Blogging Changed Since 2010?
First, as I just said I’m not a professional. Many bloggers, social media experts, and internet users know far more about “how blogging has changed”. I can tell you what I’ve noticed in the last several years.
From about 2010-2014 blogging thrived. Page views were high. There were months in 2013 and 2014, I would get 50,000 page views on LOLZ blog. I wasn’t even a popular, superstar blogger, so I can’t imagine what others got! But people were visiting blogs! Blogging was booming! There wasn’t a lot of excess social media. Just people and blogs.
I remember when I first started my twitter, I kicked my feet. Everyone had a twitter, but I didn’t find it appealing or necessary. I was finishing my junior year of college, barely staying afloat in Spanish class and dreaming of math equations and proofs. Then I started a twitter, and it’s still probably my favorite platform. You can follow people and things and not be creepy. There isn’t anything you really can’t follow on twitter at this point.
In 2014-2015, Instagram was starting to evolve and pop up. More people had instagrams, but the captions were short. I would Instagram everything. My coffee, flowers, dirt, a pineapple sitting on top of a cup. Then I would filter the $hit out of it pretending I was a professional photographer.
Now you can find Instagram captions that are longer than some blog posts. As Instagram continued to grow, blogging began to fall. My blog that once got 50,000 monthly views now gets about 20,000.
In the recent few years, several of my favorite bloggers shut down their blogs. Also, blogs that used to post weekly went to 1-2 times per month. Few people blog but more people used Instagram! My reader has dwindled for several posts daily to 1-2 per day that consistently update.
Now in 2017, the Instagram trend is still growing. With the addition of Instagram stories, which I occasionally use, it’s more fun and more live. As Instagram grows, I do find myself attempting to take more quality posts (all from my trusty phone). Personally, I like to follow friends and look at pretty photos. So I’m trying to mirror that. Will I ever take out a loan and buy some fancy camera. No…
So where does that leave the mother hen old lady LOLZ blog?
Will I continue to social media in year of blogging? Probably.
Will I continue to use all of my social media? Once again, probably.
Will I get a Strava? No, I can’t even remember to charge my Garmin.
I will continue blogging about life, running or whatever else happens. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, next week or next month (LOLZ to think about next year).
I don’t commit to anything. I don’t know what curves life will throw. I can’t guarantee, I won’t completely stop blogging for whatever reason but I have zero intentions today…not sorry I love talking too much.
Questions for you:
What is your favorite social media platform?
If you blog, how long have you been blogging for?
So I don’t blog or anything…but I’m so glad that you made the statement about being “boring” or not networking 24/7. I now feel like I am not the only person like that! 🙂 I enjoy running too…and really any other forms of fitness that I feel like doing that day. Spending time with family, friends, etc…I think I must be “boring” too 😉
It’s tough because big bloggers must always be out doing stuff for content. I like my relaxing and personal time too LeAnne. Spending time with family and friends is definitely a priority for me too.
I have noticed the exact same thing – MORE INSTAGRAM… LESS BLOG…. But I just embrace the change as I adore blogging so much, I would never stop! Congrats on your 7 year anniversary! Isn’t it insane how much as happened over the years! You can only wonder where you might be in another 7 years!
lol seriously. Sometimes I have no idea where I’ll be in the next 7 days ha ha
You were the first blog I ever followed!! 🙂
I tried blogging, but quickly found out I’m a better blog reader than blogger lol. My social media presence has drastically decreased in the last year or so, but I still lurk around the internet lol
I will say I miss your blog Lauren. Thankfully we can still chat and catch up ha
Ah, the days of 50k+ page views per month! The good old days. I was looking back through old posts of mine recently and I used to blog 5-6 times a week when I first started. That seems nuts to me now! I’m proud of myself if I get 2 times per week now. I do some promotion of my posts but honestly, it’s not really worth it to me. It’s too much time and energy and since, like you, I don’t make blogging my full time job, it just seems like limited reward for the energy expended. I am coming up on 6 years of blogging myself! I know I will stop eventually, but I’m not sure when that will be.
That’s how I feel too Danielle. Eventually the time will come to stop but who knows when that will be. I really enjoy your travel posts though
I started reviewing books by blog wayyy back in the good ol’ 2009 days, and it gradually transformed into my little family/wanna-be runner blog in 2012. Honestly, I love blogging because it’s my journal. It’ll never be my full-time income, and I’m fine with that. Also, I love your blog, and I wish I could run like you haha!
I really appreciate you stopping by Melissa and thank you for your support, it’s crazy how different blogging has become in the last few years.
You were one of the first bloggers I ever followed too. I know your blog and following have grown a lot but I do appreciate how real you are, even down to the sentence-level edits of your writing style. To me, I don’t feel like overly promoting posts is worth it. I would rather have readers who read because they care rather than people who see it and start reading. I’d rather have 5 well thought out comments than a bunch who didn’t. Above all, I write for me. I write to make money at my big-girl job but blogging is just for fun :).
I completely agree Amy. There was a time a few years ago when there was a big push to just comment, comment, comment. I don’t typically moderate comments but commenting when you clearly didn’t read is and will always be a pet peeve of mine. I’m always glad to read your training and life updates.
I do moderate comments, just to filter out spam. Once someone’s comment is approved, all future ones are. Makes it easy :). But you’re right, I hate when someone comments and it’s clear they did not even read…
I’ve been blogging on and off for almost two decades, and physically old-school journaling since elementary school. I’ve been a WordPress user for about five years and my favorite platform is probably Twitter. I get turned off by Instagram often, primarily due to the obvious fake-ness of many “influencer” users and regurgitated content. I understand their objectives in promoting content, but it all starts looking the same after awhile, which is a major snoozefest.
💗 your blog. I used mine for daily life and what goals I had. More of journal. I enjoyed it but I agree blogging has changed a lot. Maybe one day I’ll restart mine🙂
I hope you do. I always enjoyed reading your posts, you were one of the first bloggers I ever read!
I’ve never blogged (except sometimes my comments are mini-blogs! sorry…) My favorite social media is reading blogs. I had a twitter and instagram for a little while. And then I realized that I was NEVER happier after reading a tweet or looking at an instagram account. It just made me feel anxious. If I commented or asked a question on a tweet or picture, I then became OBSESSED over whether someone had “noticed” the reply or thought it was as witty as I thought. Twitter and Instagram made me unhappy. I get a lot of joy out of reading blogs.
It’s funny you say that Amanda, I have a pretty dry sense of humor myself and I always wonder if it comes across as witty or funny as I anticipate too.
I’m coming on nine year for my photography blog. Frankly, I surprise myself that I still have something to say. Social media, especially, IG, has definitely taken more of a hold and wrestled away some posts. I use my blog to tell the backstory about some of my photos/adventures, but also to keep connected with other people like me – not pros, but new freelancers and the like. I also have a photo “portfolio” site though sometimes I wonder why I have both. It’s funny though, I sometimes reread old JPS post and I’m like “oh yeah, I remember that!” So, it’s almost like an online journal for me. Of course, the nagging thought is always in my head: If I stopped, would anyone care?
Well I enjoy your photography (especially the diners) so please never stop. 🤐
Back when I blogged on BessBeFit, somedays I would post 3 times a day! 3!! That is crazy. But they were short little check in posts, sort of similar to how people use Instagram these days. So you’re probably right that IG replaced a lot of bloggers posting and also readers coming to blogs! I have been blogging now for about 7 years as well (I think we started around the same time!) with a 6 month hiatus in there because I needed a break to re-evaluate life 🙂 But I love it and now think it’s going to be something I always do! That being said, Instagram is probably my favorite social media platform right now and do my best to use it in conjunction with my blog posts and hopefully drive some traffic there! I’m posting about 1x per day now with the exception of Saturdays, but post 1-2x per day on Insta!
Congrats on 7 years!
Holy smokes, I remember posting 2 times a day a few times and that seems like a lot now. I will say I’m thankful that’s in the past.
I’ve been blogging for about four years. I’m on several platforms and it is still difficult to generate much interest.
I’m not a professional writer and only have so much time to polish an article.
I’ve been on hiatus for about 2 weeks and have no strong urge to sit down at the keyboard.
I enjoy your blog…I like the mix of running as well as your adventures and love of diners thrown in for a fun changeup. My blog/site is 2 years old this month (yeah, I had to go check!) but I don’t have a particularly large community. I write mostly about running with traveling and my love of coffee and an occasional beer thrown in for good measure 🙂 I’ll never put the effort into it to garner a large following or make $ as I could never justify it and there is never enough hours in a day to keep up. I try to post every week but it varies and is not consistent. I do enjoy interacting with the running/blogging community though and have made some great connections and friends. For social media, I also enjoy Twitter, I have practically no FB presence but I am getting ramped up on Instagram. Enjoyed your interesting look back at some of the history as you have been at this for a while!
Loved this post! I had a makeup blog when I was in college around 2010 when YT makeup gurus started getting big but I just wasn’t passionate about it. I did it on and off over the years but never got serious about it til recently and I’ve gone through probably 4-5 blogs since! Kudos to you for sticking it through, I love that this is a fun side thing for you!
I love your blog and that it’s stayed the same (like true to you). Really interesting points about Instagram becoming more popular than blogging-I think it’s so true! I’m trying to get back into blogging because I like it and like 100 people click on my post, but I still like reading some blogs. I have limited time so it’s very very few now, but it’s interesting to hear people say things. Also I love that you love Twitter because I love it too still, haha. I haven’t forayed much into Snapchat or IG stories because I find it exhausting. How can I Snap, IG story, and Instagram the same fun thing or same cup of coffee all at once lolz.
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