What I Learned in My First Month of Christian Blogging

I can’t believe I am going into my 2nd month of blogging already! It feels like the time flew by, but it also feels like I’ve been doing this forever — kind of a weird thing to be honest.  As I head into my 2nd month of blogging, I figured that it would be a good time to share what I’ve learned in my first month of Christian blogging!

But none the less, it has been a fun journey full of learning, mistakes made, redoing things, thinking of new ideas, dream building, and much growth.  

Since the launch of Sweet Surrendered Soul on January 1st, 2020, I have learned so much. With a little over a month of blogging under my belt, I feel like even though I had taken the time to prepare for the launch beforehand, once you go live, it’s an entirely different story!

Once you launch a blog, everything starts to be time-sensitive, and if you want to get traffic to your blog, you have to learn and do some work to get it. Which, in all honesty, can be tiresome, but rewarding at the same time. You start to see that there is more to it than just creating content for others to read and sharing it. There are strategies to be learned, tools to be used, collaborations to be had, and so many little things to be done. 

If you don’t have a blog or haven’t looked into creating/managing a blog, there is more work to be done than you may have realized. And as you’ll read below, time management and finding a balance between my life, work, family, responsibilities, and the blog is something I have been working on.

Confession time

It took me about a year before launching Sweet Surrendered Soul. God placed starting a blog on my heart at the beginning of November 2018. I spent about two months in prayer about it and then started the learning process and creation of Sweet Surrendered Soul on January 1st of 2019. And as you read above, I launched January 1st, 2020.

You may be asking, “why did it take you so long to launch?” Well, I am a bit of a perfectionist. When I do things, I like to do them perfectly, or as close to perfect as I can get. I want to learn as much as I can and be prepared in every way possible that way, everything would get done correctly. I want to master it. That’s just the way my personality is.

I also had seasons within that year of preparation that I was not working on the blog. There were weeks and months I would be creating and learning, and then others that I did absolutely nothing with it. 

If I had it my way, I would have launched a lot sooner than I did, but I genuinely believe that this was God’s timing, and His timing is perfect. If I had launched any earlier, I wouldn’t have been ready for it. I had a lot of unexpected challenges that I had to face in 2019 that I needed to learn and grow through first. So to launch earlier would not have been the most helpful thing for me or anyone else. 

Now let’s dig into what I’ve learned in my first month of Christian blogging.

What I learned in my first month of Christian blogging 

• Growth will happen in God’s timing
  • My prayer from the very beginning has been that even if Sweet Surrendered Soul reaches one person for Christ, then that’s a victory! Of course, my desire is for it to reach way more than that, but even just one is good for me. 
• Not everyone will be excited or show their support, and that’s okay
• It’s crucial to not have expectations at the beginning for how many people will subscribe to the email list, like the Facebook page, or view the site
  • I had no expectations of how many email subscribers I’d have or how many Facebook page likes I’d get, and because of that, I was just blown away by how many people did like or subscribed. I was blown away by all the beautiful people who showed their support by liking, sharing, viewing, or subscribing.
• Seeing the impact that sharing the Gospel with others is having in their lives!
  • I have had people that I know in real life and have never met before, message me with kind words, and share how God has spoken to them through the content that God has been speaking through me. 
• Learning the business side of Pinterest
  • Pinterest is a beautiful thing, but using Pinterest to receive traffic takes strategy, time, and lots of learning!
• Realizing that I need to learn to separate areas of my life and be present where I am. A blog can easily consume your thoughts, actions, and life. It’s essential to learn how to turn off those thoughts or save them for later and be present where you are
• It’s okay to make mistakes and expect to make some along the way
• Everything doesn’t have to be perfect
• Gaining email subscribers
  • Building an email list from the beginning is vital! 
• Learn SEO right away, that way you don’t have to go back and redo any posts
  • It took me a while to learn what SEO really was and gain a deeper understanding of it. After doing a lot of research, I had to go through all my posts and revise them to be more SEO friendly.
• Dream BIG
• I love creating
  • I knew that I loved being creative, but I never knew how much up until I started working on Sweet Surrendered Soul
• Seeing my content shared
  • One of the most encouraging things to me is when I see my content being shared by others! 
• Facebook Christian blogging groups have helped incredibly
  • I wasn’t apart of many Facebook groups before working on Sweet Surrendered Soul, but I can tell you that being apart of these groups has made an incredible difference. I have asked many questions to other bloggers, have learned from other people’s problems, and the support is fantastic.
• Trusting God for the words and ideas

What I am still learning

• Time management
• Getting more Pinterest traffic
  • I am looking into investing in Tailwind and developing a more profound, stronger Pinterest strategy through Pinterest.
• Trying to keep the blog in its right place and not having it become a part of my identity
• Finding a content calendar strategy that works well for me and sticking to it
• Still learning how to be present where I am
• How to find a rhythm and routine
  • This goes with having a content calendar and time management.
• Trusting God’s timing for growth

I still have a ton I need to learn, but I trust that God will direct my steps and fill me with His guidance in what to tackle first.  

I am looking forward to what God has in store through Sweet Surrendered Soul. Thank you for being apart of this journey with me!

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