The following post was submited by Danae from Knickers Blog as part of our group writing project on the topic of ‘if I had to start my blog again’.
If I could start again, I would think bigger. Much bigger. I started Knickers as a little hobby to point out beautiful lingerie, and within a year I’m arranging sample sales, consulting, and jetting off (in coach) to meet designers all over Europe. The growth so far has been completely out of control, and I really wish I’d sat down and prioritised what I wanted before I got started. I find myself overextended on too many side projects to the blog, and end up having scant time to actually write at my blog. If I’d planned out some big ideas at the beginning, I could have had much clearer goals to work towards.
On a technical note, I wish I would have thought more about a proper structure and SEO at the beginning. Four hundred posts into Knickers, I’m trapped in a URL structure without any keywords and as indeciferable as ?p=394. I really wish I had bothered with the .htaccess malarky in WordPress to get proper post slugs, instead of just taking the easy way.
And finally, I wish I would have picked up the phone. I’ve found that actually speaking to people within your field of interest brings you ten times more information, opportunities and support than simple e-mail. I wish I would have not worried about how silly “blog” sounds, and would have started making valuable contacts early on.