6 Months Blogging – How To Stay Motivated

Six months ago, I shared my first blog post. I was really scared that people would read it, but also scared that no one would read anything I wrote. Today, I’m happy because it’s been six months since I started blogging.

I can’t believe it’s already been six months, time flies when you’re having fun!

I’ve learned so much over the last six months. I know everyone says that but it’s true. Six months ago I started this journey with no knowledge about blogging and a passion for personal finance. I’ve set myself goals throughout these six months. I met a few and a postponed even more, but most importantly: I’m happy doing what I’m doing.

Happy that I am so blessed with this amazing blogging community and my awesome readers. You guys make me want to write and write every day. It’s extremely fun to interact and to help others with what I know. I love receiving emails or messages with questions about everything that I write about, so keep them coming!

To be honest, there were days where I wanted to quit and didn’t know where to start. But today I want to celebrate that I made it to the six months, by reflecting back on the last six months and sharing my experience with you!

Milestones And Statistics

In my six months of blogging, I’ve had 5.6K users of which 55% from the USA and 10% from the Netherlands. I’ve published 80 posts with my posting schedule – let’s see if I can hold that up!

6 Month Blogging Anniversary – How To Stay Motivated

Having A Fixed Posting Schedule

In the beginning, I started to write my posts as if I was writing my master thesis – lots of research, lots of work, and I didn’t really enjoy it. Things changed when I started to adopt a fixed posting schedule. In the beginning, there was a lot of stress and added pressure that I was leaving on myself. Why? Because I was writing posts only in the evening and spending 5-8 hours per post. If you consider that I’m writing 3 posts per week since January, you can count how fun my evenings were.

My fixed posting schedule forced me to be more efficient and effective – resulting in me getting up every morning at 6 am to write. Every day I write for 1.5-2 hours before I go to work, and I’m absolutely loving it. That way I can still spend lots of time on the blog – while also keeping up my social life (kind of) and working 40+ hours per week.

What I’m trying to do now is trying to schedule in advance any posts, it’s hard to stay ahead when you’re writing 3 posts per week but I’m getting there. It’s hard to put in more work as I don’t like working in the evenings when I come home from my day job – as I’m drained, want to work out, eat with my roommates and just sleep.

A fixed posting schedule motivated me to keep going – also when I wasn’t feeling it. I truly believe that how you do anything, is how you do everything. After all, I had committed to posting 3x per week so I can’t let anyone down!

No Expectations

I started out with literally no expectations. I didn’t even know how to set up a WordPress blog, so I’ve been winging it. The first few months I’ve been trying to set up my website correctly, doing a lot of research on how things are working – and after a while, I finally found the theme that I’m loving.

When I went into blogging, I told myself that I would try this for about a year. I had always enjoyed writing, but writing so many academic papers and theses during my university career lead me to think that writing was not for me. When I finished university and was thinking about what I liked most, it was writing obviously! With a far distance from any other form of creativity.

I started the blog. When I first saw people on my website, I was freaking out. People are reading my stuff! How do they like it? Can I help them more? These are the questions that I’m constantly asking myself. My very first comment, I remember that I was ecstatic. People actually want to comment!

Because I have low expectations, I appreciate everyone that visits my blog. When people are leaving comments on my blog, I’m still extremely happy and feel so honored that people take time to read the posts that I put out.

Interaction With Friends

The interaction that I have had with other bloggers over the last six months were amazing. Truly enjoyed connecting with my friends and my blogging family throughout the time.

I’ve been honored to write a few guest posts over at:

• Steve @ ThinkSaveRetire
• B @ FireTheBoss
• Ms. FOGA @ FromOneGeekToAnother
• Route 2 FI Interview

I’ve also been honored to be featured on the following awesome sites:

• Rockstar Finance
• Camp FIRE Finance
• The Money Mix

Sometimes You Need To Push Through

Like all things in life, it’s never fun 100% of the time. There have been weeks where I’ve been unhappy with my frequent posting schedule. I felt like I couldn’t deliver the quality I wanted, go in-depth as much as I wanted, or couldn’t take a breath from my day job as much as I wanted.

That’s part of life and that’s okay, but generally I’m not the type of person to be at peace with those funky moments in life. I want life always to be happy and joyful. While that’s a great standard to strive towards, it’s not always the reality. Blogging has taught me that it’s okay if things suck.

You can still continue when things suck. You will still get there.

If you’re blogging now and still finding it hard at times, know that we all do. We all go through those times. And that’s okay. Just know you’re not the only one!

I Truly Enjoy It

I started this blog to keep me motivated & keep me going on my quest to financial independence. Honestly, I can say that it has exceeded all expectations – well that’s not hard when you have none, but that’s not the point.

I enjoy writing, I enjoy getting up at 6 am, and I enjoy publishing things on my blog.  

This past six months have been all about figuring out if I liked blogging, connecting with fellow bloggers, and keeping track of my financial independence progress. So far, so good. I can’t wait for another six months!

Thank you all for your kind words and motivation of the last six months – you have made this journey an incredibly fun learning experience.  

Do you have a blog? What do you like most about blogging?