I’ve decided to revive this blog! It is the new year after all and everyone, myself included, is full of enthusiasm for their new year’s resolutions.

I’ve done this before, of course, back in January 2016, when I made the resolution to write a weekly update about my writing progress. I did this for a few weeks but then, like with most resolutions, life got in the way and I lost focus. With all the best intentions in the world, I just didn’t have the time needed to commit to another blog, especially as I was planning my wedding, and that was all-consuming.

This year, thankfully, there is no wedding to plan for so I will have much more time to focus on my blog. I’m determined that this year is going to be different. I know it’s hard work and you have to put the hours in to make it successful, but when I think about my running blog Champion Running and how far that has come, I want to do the same with this blog.

My new blog will be a general lifestyle blog, including posts on writing, books and daily life (but don’t let that put you off). Basically, it’ll be about anything in my life that’s not running. You can find that on Champion Running.

Although my first blog was a disaster, I have learned from my mistakes. Here’s where I went wrong:

Not posting

For a blog to be successful you need to write blog posts. Surely this goes without saying, but no, this is where I failed. I did not post much, and when I did it was sporadic. There was no consistency. There was no plan. I just bumbled along, posting a bit here, a bit there and without any direction.

Not planning

I’d have an idea for a blog, write it, check it, and publish it, but that’s as far as my planning went. I did not think ahead to the next post, or the post after that. It was like my wedding-planning brain could only cope with one post at a time, and that really doesn’t make for good blogging. Planning your content in advance is the best way to make sure you don’t go for days, weeks or months at a time without posting anything, and your content will be much better too.

Not sharing

When I did write a post, I did very little to promote it. What was I thinking? How can you encourage people to read your blog if you don’t tell them it’s there? Sharing on social media is essential.

Not prioritising

When life got busy, I didn’t prioritise the blog. It went to the bottom of the list of things to do. And without posts how can you have a blog? You need to prioritise, and treat it like a second job, showing up every day and putting in the hard work.

Hopefully, unlike last time, my New Year’s resolutions will stay on track and I won’t lose focus by the third week in January. Wish me luck!

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash