WHY DID I CREATE THIS BLOG?

An existential crisis I hear you say? Maybe you’re right, maybe it’s the realisation that I’m almost mid way through my twenties and I feel I have achieved nothing (all you oldies, I know you think I’m young, but let me complain for a moment!). Maybe it stems from a need to detail my day to day life – a rambling documentation of my existence…

Well, joking aside, I have always wanted to create a blog; a proper blog where you own the domain, where you buy a host, where you treat it like your business, and most importantly…where you post regular and consistent content. I’ve tried to start a blog on several occasions, but always with little success. I think the key to a successful blog (if we’re looking for somewhere to start) is consistency and I am notoriously bad at that. As my friends will testify, I am flaky gal who writes when she wants and doesn’t give a damn for scheduled posts.  

But the thing is, you do have to be consistent in your blog writing to be semi successful, so that’s what I’m going to attempt to do in the next six months. I’d like to post an article every second week, but if I end up posting more then I won’t complain. 

As well as the essential mechanics of blog writing (engaging posts, consistency, and most importantly good content), every single resource on the planet tells me that you need to have a niche for your blog. Alternatively (as I don’t feel I have quite mastered my niche), I have come up with a mission statement: this blog is a documentation of my adventures and mishaps. I hear you whisper that’s the most complacent, vague mission statement I have ever heard. Touché reader, so let me state simply that this blog doesn’t t really have a niche or a mission statement. So instead I have pulled together a few KPIs (Key Personal Insights) for this blog – gosh, now it’s beginning to sound like a business model!

MY RAMBLING KPIs

1) First and foremost, I am attempting to climb all 282 Munros in my lifetime and this blog will act as a place to document and remember my journeys…my mind is supple and I am prone to forgetfulness. I’ll keep the tally of my Munros at the top of this page. 

2) Secondly, people make liveable incomes from blogs, so I want to see if I can successfully do this – and I mean the proper way e.g buying the domain, using SEO, committing to regular articles, and doing that damn keyword research. Maybe as my blog progresses and if I do become a success, I can share my knowledge with you. 

3) Thirdly, I’ve always wanted to be a writer and when you ask any successful writer for advice on how to write they say “just write”. So this blog is holding me accountable to my self-declared status as a writer.

4) Finally, this is a place where I can gather my thoughts, my fears, my rambles …. and maybe a few fellow listeners along the way.

The blog is not limited to the above KPIS, as I am writing a novel, working on a short film, and creating music, so I’m sure these projects will infiltrate my blog posts at some point, but the above KPIs are my attempts to conform to a niche!

SOCIAL MEDIA

I think it’s just assumed that social media will go hand in hand with blog writing and so it should. I hope that one day my ‘business plan’ will include an amazing Instagram account, a link to Pinterest, and a link to every social media platform under the sun, each platform exuding high-res beautiful imagery of my amazing adventures. But for now, realistically, I’d like to solely focus on the blog and getting good content posted regularly. The likes and the follows can come later, but right now I want to focus on telling my story properly.

Having said that, I plan to publish every second Monday at  11am, so keep an eye out for that and follow me on Twitter if you want direct links – this is where I will share my articles each week.