KT 1yr Anniversary

One Year Blog Anniversary + Lessons Learned + New Goals | Kingteeuhh Turns 1

KT 1yr Anniversary

 

In 2016 I was asking you all to save the date (8-8-16) in preparation for my blog launch. I cannot believe that the earth has done a complete rotation, that a whole 365 days have passed, that my little space on the interwebs is one year old. It’s my blogaversary!! *cues Tony, Toni, Tone*

 

via GIPHY

 

It probably sounds like I’m talking about a baby, but that’s basically what it is! Last year I gave birth to it and now 12 months later it’s been crawling better and thinking about daring to walk. I spent the days weeks month just before launch running around like a chicken with its neck cut off and badgering my web/graphic designer to make sure everything was perfect. I’ve agonized weekly about what I could post next, post it, sigh with relief, only to repeat that tortuous cycle of emotions week after week for the last 12 months. I know my fellow bloggers feel what I’m saying. Keep in mind all of this took place while working and going to school full-time.

I’m not even sure what my first post was because when I was preparing to launch the blog my intention was to launch it with several posts published. So I started drafts for many of those posts actually in 2015 and those are the dates WordPress goes by, not the dates they were actually published.

Let’s get this one-year blogaversary reflection started, shall we?

 

Lessons Learned & Real Talk

Hard Work

Blogging is HARD[er] than I thought it would be. This sounds strange to me being that it isn’t my first-time blogging, but this time it’s all mine. EVERYTHING is my responsibility and that’s not only a lot of pressure, but a lot to keep up with. I’m a one woman show! Building a successful blog involves a lot of moving parts, some you know how to deal with and others you just stumble your way through.

Full-Time Job

Blogging is a full-time job that never ends. There is always something to be done whether it’s writing posts, taking pictures, pitching to companies, or publicizing yourself.

Real Talk

I’ve had to talk myself out of shutting it down and calling it quits more than once. It’s so discouraging when you spend hours putting together one post, followed by hours publicizing, only to realize nobody is reading it. I still struggle with this weekly and it’s one of the main reasons I stopped posting on Youtube. It’s such a vicious cycle though; you stop posting because nobody is reading or watching but people don’t read or watch because you’re not posting. I’m not really sure what I said to convince myself to keep going but here I am, 1 year in and kickin’ it.

 

KT Hard Work Blogging

Humbling

I never thought blogging was easy but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I thought I’d be further along than I am now. I didn’t think it’d be this difficult to get support and exposure. On the other hand, I really didn’t do much publicizing for the first 6 months or so and year to date I’ve managed to earn almost ten thousand page views, average one post per week (my goal), and publish over 35 posts despite my hectic schedule. Of course, there’s always the possibility that my blog just isn’t that interesting but who wants to think that?!

Time Management

Blogging has really forced me to take a hard look at how efficiently I manage my time…or not. I’m constantly asking myself how I can do better with my time, whether it’s by scheduling posts or planning out a content calendar.

Business

I’ve learned so much about the business of blogging. I had no idea it was so complex. Looking back I don’t think I started my blog with a specific end goal in mind, but after seeing some of the major opportunities available I know now the sky is the limit.

Branding

 

KT Branding

Branding is one area I think I can say with confidence I started out really strong in, at least visually. My branding is consistent across my social media and definitely works within the clean and crisp vision I had in mind. One thing I’ve been working on especially in the last few months is stepping up the quality of my images. I think it’s made a huge difference not only in how my accounts look, but also how you all respond to them.

 

KT_Branding

Perfectionist

I’ve always known that I’m a slight perfectionist (by nature and nurture) but this blogging venture has only highlighted it further. Real Talk: I think I originally intended to start my blog in January 2016. I launched at the beginning of August 2016. I thought I could figure out how to build my own site and get it done while working and going to school full-time. June came and I had to be real with myself. So I hired someone to design my site because with my limited time I knew I’d keep talking about it but it would never happen. The lesson is really that I don’t need to feel like I have to start and complete something in one sitting. Shoutout to the 50+ draft posts on my dashboard.

Sometimes you just have to set a hard deadline, do the best you can, and go for it. I don’t think I was truly ready to launch on August 8th, 2016, but if not then, when? I would never truly feel everything was perfect enough to launch.

 

KT One Year Celebration

Highlights 

Since I went over my lessons learned over the last 12 months, it’s only right to share the accomplishments and highlights of the last 12 months as well:

Launched the blog! – I suppose this part is important right?!

Took over the Black & Abroad Snapchat for Cropover 2016

Completed a guest post on Black Travelista

Hosted my first event/collab with Darker Berrie

Hit 3k followers on Instagram

Named among 10 Up & Coming Natural Hair Bloggers by Curls Understood

Organized a group trip abroad to Martinique with strangers

Been sent PR packages by companies to review product

Had pictures and reviews reposted by major brands on Twitter and Instagram

Launched #traveltuesday mailing list for weekly travel tips <<–Sign up! (tell a friend)

KT #traveltuesday Subscription

Named Beauty of the Week by Curls Understood

Modeled on live TV for the Curls Understood E-book

 

KT Braids

 

My 10 Favorite Posts:

NYE 2017 in Cuba

How to Get to Cuba

A Glitch Year — My 2016 Travel | Kingteeuhh

Collecting Moments & Passport Stamps | Why I Travel

12 Growing Brown Owned Brands You Should Know About

7 Things You MUST Do in Jamaica | Happy 55th Independence

8 Lessons From My Daddy | #FathersDay2017

T.W.N | A Guide to Traveling While Natural

Best Deep Conditioning Results Ever!

How to | Preserve Hair Products

 

New Goals

KT Blogging Goals Yr 2

As I mentioned before, I don’t think I started the blog with any specific goals in mind except getting it going. As far as new goals go, I think I’ve outlined new more defined goals for the next 12 months:

  • Move from one post per week to two
  • Monetize the blog
  • Have a featured post on a major publication
  • Average 10,000 page views a month
  • Get back on Youtube – I want to be invited to Youtube Black. This is normally something I probably wouldn’t share but some things you have to speak publicly into existence so people can hold you accountable. I’m charging you, my audience, with this! I think I heard you need 10 thousand subbies to go. I’m a long way away from that but it can happen! I’ve seen several channels I follow literally grow overnight. To be able to get together with other Black creatives would be the jam. What’s funny is that I never stopped recording, I just stopped editing and therefore stopped posting. But I’m going to do better. Make sure you go subscribe! #KTroadto10k

 

This isn’t an exhaustive list of my new goals but they’re definitely the main ones I want to focus on. Now that I’m finished with grad school I have a lot more free time to put into getting more posts out and to do a better job of advertising them. As many hours as I put into this blog on a weekly basis, it should be generating some coins on the side. Currently, I’m averaging far less than that in monthly page views, but I think I’m heading in the right direction now that I know more about how to market myself and am growing an email list. It’s an aggressive list of goals but that’s how I like it, it makes you grind harder.

via GIPHY

Ya’ll better watch out and be ready for everything coming your way.

One Last Thing

Before I get out of here I want to give a major thanks to all of you! To every person who has read a post, commented ON posts/pictures whether here on the site or on IG, FB, Twitter, or Youtube, for each one of you who has subscribed to a mailing list, shared a post on your timeline or with a friend in need–THANK YOU. To know that people actually value your opinion or look to you for advice on any given subject is truly special. I never really thought I’d have a squad of ‘riders’ but I like it. I have no idea where we’re riding to in year two but I’m excited to find out!

 

I’m still in disbelief that 12 months have passed by so quickly. August 8, 2016 I unleashed my “baby” to the world and my heart was beating so fast up until 12 pm when I hit “publish.” So many of you left me comments saying how much you loved the look and feel of the site, and although that was what I was hoping for, I was surprised at how well received it was. I only hope you’ll continue to rock with me and enjoy the content that I deliver. Thank you for joining me on this walk down memory lane and for celebrating my one year anniversary with me. Eat a cupcake or something.

One Year Blogaversary

Cheers to one year! See you back here next year, same date, same place, k?

 

Kingteeuhh One Year Anni

 

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34 Comments

  1. Congratulations on your 1 year blogaversary! This is definitely a great accomplishment. I agree with all you say about blogging. Blogging is a full time job in itself and is soooo much work. I have questioned why I got myself into blogging in the first place. However, it is so much fun and self fulfilling at the same time. Your photos with the sunflowers and the BIG #1 is so beautiful…great idea! Thanks for sharing your favorite posts and what’s to come. This was a great read!

    1. Glad to hear some of that stuff is normal lol! You’re right, it is fun and self-fulfilling despite the blood, sweat, and tears we put into it.

  2. This post made me smile the whole way through! First of all, congratulations!! I am so thrilled that your blog is 1 year old, and I am so happy that I stumbled upon it! Your writing is so much fun and I can hear your voice singing through! It’s so fun to hear about other blogging journeys and progressions. I just started my blog about 6 months ago and definitely have had some sweat and tears over it, but it is worth it and I am having so much fun creating something, and like you have so many more goals. You are an inspiration to me and my blog =) Cheers to you and all of your hard work, and here’s to another year!!

    P.S. Your pictures are adorable and so are you!!

  3. Congrats!! It looks like you had a pretty great year. This will be so good to look at in the future and see how much more you’ve grown! I love the pics with the sunflowers!

  4. Congratulations on reaching the 1 year mark – that’s huge! I just started my blog in June, so your post is both inspirational and helpful to me. I appreciate your honesty about the hard stuff – and can relate to a lot of the same frustrations. I also respect that you pushed through it all, despite feeling discouraged at times, and found success on the other end. That’s fantastic!

  5. So glad I am not the only one who questions blogging and thinks about quitting sometimes. I love it too much though! Congratulations on making it one year! I am six months in and hope I can make it to that milestone.

    1. You’re def not the only one! Thank you! You’ll make it to 1 year with no problems, it’ll be here before you know it.

  6. Congratulations!!! It definitely is hard work as it is but even harder if you work or go to school full time. I find it hard to be consistent and it’s something I really need to work harder at. Keep at it girl! ???????????

    1. Thank you so much! I’m with you, I find it hard to be consistent as well. I hope to get ahead with my posts some day.

  7. Congratulations on your one-year anniversary! You have some great information in this article about what you’ve learned over this past year! So great, that I’m going to have to save this to come back and make a list of what I need to pay attention to, since I’ve only been blogging for about 2 months now. Congrats again! 🙂

  8. Happy belated blog anniversary. Totally agree with everything you said. Blogging is hard. I haven’t even shared my blog with everyone yet, just a small community of people and I’m 6 months in. Maybe once I’m a year, I’ll do that to celebrate. It’s hard work though omg!

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