What is a milestone?

Is it a number of likes, a number of followers or a number of hits on your website?

Or is it the feeling of appreciation and belonging that you get when you have fellow blogger-friends commenting on your works? Or when you have friends telling you that you inspire them?

The past week I have achieved 100+ followers on my personal blog and 500+ likes on my post on the other website that I write for, successinspirer.wordpress.com.

When I first started writing, I never thought that so many people would start reading and liking my articles. I of course wanted to attract a lot of traffic(way more than what I currently have) my way, which I didn’t know how to do, but I persevered. But I am happy and grateful for what I have achieved. I thought it easy to attract readers. It’s not.

What I really wanted though was to be heard and listened to. I wanted my voice, my words to reach as many people as possible. I wanted to share my experiences and my thoughts in the hope that someone would hear and enjoy them, and would be able to relate to it, and support and boost me up.

What I have learnt during these 4 or so months that I have blogged seriously is that first you need to be consistent. Write regularly at least at start, and by that I don’t mean once a month, but more like a few times a week, if not daily.

Second, write as long or as short posts as you like. At first, I thought that you needed to write around 1000 words per posts. But this doesn’t work everytime unless it’s an interesting topic or it’s well-written and persuades your readers to continue reading after a few paragraphs. Also, your readers unless they are bloggers would read while on the bus, on a break or as a time filler which means they don’t have time to go through the whole article. Of course, I’m not advocating for shorter posts. Write what you feel like and however much you feel like. But don’t try to conform to what others do. You will eventually know what works for you.

Third, write the way you speak. Write in the way you would speak to someone. This would make the reader engaged and make him enjoy your works. Also, I guess this is one of the reasons why you want to write. To talk and communicate to others. Writing in the way you speak shows a part of your personality, and makes others relate to you more.

Fourth, engage with other fellow bloggers. Read their posts and you will find a lot of instances where you will relate and understand them. They will become your friends and a part of your life. Comment when you find something interesting. Comment on their posts to make them feel heard and supported. I have found myself become more focused on the important things in life by reading other blogs. I have also learnt a lot about blogging, and other skills that I want to pursue. Remember, blogging is a give and gain relationship. The more you give, the more you gain.

Five, you can make use of websites like the daily post which posts a prompt every day. This allows you to get to know other bloggers, strike a relationship with them and attract more traffic to your website. There are other websites which have writing challenges and allow your creativity to come out.