I’ve been blogging a LONG ASS TIME. It really hit me this year, when I wrote a blog post about my 10 year blog anniversary, that I realised quite how long I’d been keeping this gig up for. I’ve had my blog for a full decade of my life, things have change exponentially in that time. So how has my blog kept up? Here we’ll look at how to keep your blog exciting, when you’ve been blogging for as long as I have!
If you want to know more of the backstory behind why I’ve been blogging for so long, I’d recommend checking out this Instagram post, where I share more about my experience with being a book blogger at the start of my blogging journey.
I’ve not been a book blogger for some time now (although I do still post about books occasionally) and am more lifestyle based, focusing primarily on self-care, wellness, mental health and all that good stuff.
But the point being, my blog has REALLY evolved and changed over the years. Quite dramatically and in other, more subtle ways.
And although at the time, it might seem like nothing is really changing, you can look back a year or two and see that wow, SO many things are different. From your writing style, your photography, the topics you write about and more!
If you’ve been blogging a while, it can easily feel like things are getting a bit stagnant. Especially if you find your views and blog followers and the general “progression” of your blog is slowing down.
I will say, before we continue, that steady and slow growth is still growth and maintaining a loyal and engaged follower base is SO much more important than your followers skyrocketing over night.
Similarly to your views. Although we all want to get to that Mediavine level of page views (I’m still so far off I can’t even see it), steady growth is still a milestone worth celebrating. Especially if you notice that your efforts on Pinterest and SEO are paying off.
So if you’ve been blogging a while, you might be at the stage where you want to switch something up, add something in, take something out. Evolve your blog to a more elevated and exciting place – and here are some suggestions on how you can do that!
7 Ways to Keep Your Blog Exciting When You’ve Been Blogging a Long-Ass Time:
Introduce guest writers onto your site
An easy way to switch things up a bit and introduce a bit more excitement onto your blog is by introducing guest writers or guest bloggers. I do this every now and again and ask if any bloggers would like to guest post on my site. This can not only switch things up for your readers but will also help boost their DA score.
Here are some of my favourite guest posts I’ve featured by other bloggers:
- Stop Asking Women When They’re Going To Have Children
- Fibromyalgia Awareness Day: 5 Things To Do When You Receive a Diagnosis
- 10 Healthy Habits To Reduce Stress and Tiredness
- How To Support Someone With An Eating Disorder Over the Holidays
As you can see, the guest posts I publish here all fit within the general theme of my blog – none of them look out of place. It’s also a great way to delve into different topics that perhaps I don’t have the knowledge and expertise to write about myself.
Of course I could research Fibromyalgia and write a post about it but it’s not quite the same as having someone with lived experience of it sharing their advice. It gives a much more human aspect to these topics.
Switch up your theme
When thinking about how to keep your blog exciting, it doesn’t always come down to your content. You might have your content down to an absolute T but the thing that’s setting you back is your blog theme.
A new blog theme always makes a blog look and feel more fresh and exciting and can really give it a whole new lease of life as well as making you more excited than ever to create content, when you know it’s going to be featured on such a beautiful blog!
Start a new project
I’ve started MANY projects over the years. Too many to remember. Most of them didn’t work for me and went in the bin. And that’s fine – we need to learn that it’s okay to give up and throw in the towel when something isn’t working.
From courses to Patreons to Facebook groups, you name it, I’ve done it.
But this is a great way to keep your blog exciting and expand outwards, from your actual site and give your audience something new and fresh to enjoy. I’ll be sharing some project ideas for content creators soon!
Start writing shit you LOVE again
Sometimes we can get really caught up in blogging for SEO purposes that we forget to write about stuff we actually enjoy.
That’s not to say that topics we enjoy writing about can’t be written with SEO in mind, they obviously can. But it’s also painfully obvious when a piece of content is written ONLY with SEO in mind.
It takes out all the character and human nature from the post and the blog itself to the point where a robot might as well have written it.
Try not to fall into that trap but if you have, be aware and circle back to what you love the most. Whether that’s writing about days out you’ve been on, food you’ve tried, outfits you love or something else entirely.
Experiment with photography
Photography is a great way to expand your blog and make things more exciting. Whether that’s taking product photos, landscapes, photos for your website or Instagram photos.
You can do so much with photography these days. There’s so many beautiful places to photograph, great equipment to use and editing software to enhance your images.
Introduce a freebie library onto your site
I introduced a my freebie library onto my blog in 2021 and it was a great addition to my site to help my followers and readers get more value. If you’re interested in creating a freebie library for your own blog, here is a full post of how to create a freebie library!
Get personal
And the final pointer on how to keep your blog exciting is to get personal – which I think is truly underrated.
Of course we all have limits and boundaries on how personal we’re willing to get on social media, which is absolutely fine. But using more personal accounts and experiences is a great way to not only get readers but show your readers that you’re human.
We all want something to relate to.
I hope this post gives you some ideas of how you can keep your blog exciting, even if you’ve been blogging a long time.
Of course, if you’ve been blogging for such a long time then clearly something is already working. You know what they say, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it!
But sometimes we need a new challenge or a new zest for what we’re doing and if that’s the case for you, then I hope these suggestions help.
How do you keep your blog exciting? Do you often start new projects or do any of the above? Let me know!
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Loved this post Jenny! Some really great ideas here to keep things fresh. I do write about personal stuff, but that was the point in my blog in the first place. And freebie library was such an interesting read too! Thank you x
Thank you! Yes I think you really can’t beat personal anecdotes and stories in blogs !
As someone who has been blogging on and off since 2015, it can be so easy for me to get discouraged and quit my blogs. I really like the idea of writing things that I love again. With my current blog, I focus on 5 things (minimalism, travel, neurodivergent life, content creation, and general lifestyle) but that can feel pretty stale especially when I don’t have the means to travel full time, or when I get stuck on what minimalism tips I can give. I love the idea of writing about things I love again (I was a general lifestyle and beauty blogger before deciding to pursue a minimalist lifestyle). I also just had a small redesign on my blog as well, and that made me love blogging a tiny bit more.
Glad you’re taking those steps to enjoy your blog a bit more again!
[…] you’ve been blogging for a long time, you might want to mix things up every now and again, especially if you rely on your blog and […]
I’ve been blogging for nearly 7 years now and I’m trying to come up with new ways to be more inventive to keep my blog exciting! I love changing up the theme once in a while! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Yay! 7 years is amazing 😻
Changing your theme is a great idea. Lately I’ve been trying to add more personal posts to my blog without focusing on SEO for these types of posts.
Lisa
http://www.lovefromlisa.com
That’s great! I think we all need to find that balance 🙂
This is really helpful for me as I’m considering a few changes to my blog, so thanks for sharing. Excellent timing!
Exciting! Hope they go well!
I’ve been not as excited about blogging recently so this post came at the right time! I actually went the new project route and decided that I want to try something else and not hinge all of my expectations on blogging. So I’m apparently trying vlogging on YouTube now, haha. Strangely, it’s making me want to blog more. Congrats on 10 years of blogging!
That’s amazing and congrats on delving into the YouTube route. I absolutely couldn’t do that, I’m far too awkward in front of a camera 😂
Fantastic tips, Jenny. I need to reconsider this and rebrand my blog for 2024. Thank you for sharing.
Sounds exciting!
I love these ideas! I’ve been blogging for almost 3.5 years now and I’m hoping to have it running for much longer. Being more personal is something that I’ve been trying to do more, but it definitely is difficult!
Congrats on 3 years! Yes I think being personal is so underrated. People what to know they’re reading content from an actual person, not a SEO robot!
Thank you! I totally agree!
Great tips! I decided to go back to writing the way I like about the things I enjoy about a year and a half ago and it’s made so much difference.
That’s great to hear Kelly, it makes all the difference to your satisfaction levels, doesn’t it.
I have been blogging for 4 years and I love the topics I post, but sometimes I want to share more ‘fun’ ones. I’ve recently been posting book posts because it is something else I am passionate about. Love these tips, every so often I get sucked into browsing endless blog themes x
Yes you should definitely post more bookish content if you love it! Oh my good there are some beautiful themes out there isn’t there!
I will be celebrating a year the end of August for my blogging journey. I have already been implementing some of your strategies and am excited for more growth. Thanks for all your tips and sharing your freebie library information!
Congratulations on a year! Here’s to the next one 💖
This post gives me so much hope and ideas about my blog. Blogging is a forever evolving process. For me, blogging has become a type of self-care where I found empathetic, friendly, and fun friends from all over the world.
Thank you for sharing this helpful post, Jenny. 🙏
Amazing that you’ve found so many benefits from it!
I’ve been blogging a long time too (started 2009) and it certainly can be a bit of a challenge to keep the enthusiasm going. I love your ideas and tips; I found redesigning my site was a game changer for me. It boosted my motivation so much and I’ve felt refreshed by it. I will bookmark this post to refer back to as it’s so useful!
Amazing! A design change (even in a small way) can really have such an impact!
I really resonated with the point you shared about writing on what you love. Most of the time the SEO focused topics that will do well [SEO] wise are usually not what I want to write about. I think a balance between the SEO focused topics and what I wat to write about is how I keep blogging exciting for me. I also love changing up my themes when I feel out of it.
Yes yes yes I love that and think that’s what all bloggers should do, in my opinion. We like personal, we like reading things we can relate to and the way you have to write for SEO doesn’t always allow that to happen so finding a good happy medium for both your own benefit and the readers benefit is really important!