Lively Lately #72

I’m bringing back my life updates series, under the name of Lively Lately, because I miss that cozy feel of blogging that life updates bring.

Sometimes, I don’t have much to say but don’t want to create multiple small blog posts. 🤷‍♀️ But I still want to say something, and I can do that, because I’ve created my own little garden on the internet. 🌱

I send sporadic life updates to my email subscribers that never make it to this blog. Subscribe below 👇

1. I saw the solar eclipse!

I almost didn’t see the solar eclipse, because I didn’t have glasses or the know-how on obtaining them. 😭

However, my housemate brought home an extra pair of glasses that I could use, so I got to experience it!

I’m sooo glad I did. It was definitely an experience. It felt kind of magical, but not in the superstitious kind of way. To have the sky go dim — because I live in the city — in the afternoon was so weird.

I’ve never seen a solar eclipse, and I’ve had three chances in my life — if you don’t count the May 1994 one when I was three.

I’m so glad my nieces six and under got to witness it! The next totality eclipse in Texas will be August 2045.

Experiencing something that so many other people in the eclipse’s path experienced at the same time, or within the same timeframe, was unparalleled.

Right before the totality, a large rain cloud interrupted our view. 😭 It sucks, but I still managed to take some photos. I even managed to get a star!

2. I’m blogging “wrong” & I don’t care anymore.

I miss the days of blogging that weren’t filled with click-bait titles and faux pain points, where bloggers shared ways to enrich people’s lives instead of shaming or worrying them about whether they were doing something right.

I miss feeling like I was getting to know someone through their blog; now, I feel as though every influencer is fabricating their luxurious lifestyle, while every online business owner monetizes their friends. 🥴

The posts I publish with zero cares about whether Google will like it, that focus solely on whether the humans searching for it will like it, have way more views than I’d expect to have considering the number of people who fret over Google algorithm updates those posts not being “right”.

Last month, I learned about digital gardening while researching to see if anyone else had equated SEO to gardening, for my course. The concept of “thinking aloud, publicly” and those thoughts flourishing over time instead of being one-time only? I like it. Not for everything, but for a lot of things. ✨

To start calling my blog a “digital garden” feels pretentious, since I still don’t fully understand the concept — not to mention the cozy web. However, I do like the idea of a cozy web full of individual gardens; it reminds me a bit of the old blogosphere.

Ways I’m blogging “wrong”:

• Not caring about word count. I don’t need to be verbose in order to get some things across. Especially without display ads?! There is no minimum word count required for SEO.
• Not writing for a 3rd grade US reading level. 🙄 My blog isn’t for third graders.
• Writing posts that interlink together and publishing them on the same day instead of spread out, so I don’t have to update them TO link to each other later.

3. I completely shifted my biz.

I mean, I had to. This is all I have going for me right now. 😅

Freelance clients and potential ones have been asking me for my process and SEO tips, and other blog-related tips. After I’d answer them, they’d ghost.

This is something people pay for 🤔 so I started charging for it myself. Now, I’m a blog coach (as weird as that feels to say) and have created a marketing plan for that.

I like email marketing as a concept and task. I deliver a lot to munch on in my blogging tips newsletter, and finding what to talk about is easier than what I thought it would be like.

I’ve set up a 3-day welcome sequence, which introduces me + my offers on autopilot. 👀

My emails are scheduled in advance, and I have a few in the drafts. It feels like I’m writing a letter to people or messaging a friend to tell them of some cool things I learned or found.

I wish I’d started earlier. I wonder where I’d be now, if I wouldn’t have struggled so much.

I didn’t start a newsletter and keep up with a newsletter previously because I’m terrified of success…and when I’m not, I feel as though I don’t deserve it. This is what I grew up being told, so it’s the voice in my head.

I intend to go all the way this time, even if I have to stuff my inner critic into a box and lock it in a dark, musky closet.

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Until next time. ✌️