Happy 1st Birthday, Wayward! This site went live one year ago, and I still can’t believe how quickly time has flown. Since I did a check-in at the six-month mark, I thought I’d do one now as well. Today I’m going to look back on the past six months, share what I’ve learned, take a look at the most-viewed posts since launch, and look ahead at what’s to come.
Looking back
Blog-wise, not much has changed in the past six months, and I think that’s a good thing. I’m still blogging in a manner that I consider to be “organic” – I’m not chasing down brands for sponsorship, selling ad space, or buying engagement. I still haven’t even shared this blog with my friends and family.
Due to Instagram’s somewhat creepy follow suggestions, one friend has managed to find our account, despite making sure to keep my personal account entirely separate (I’ll cop to getting a little anxious when someone from my hometown shows up in my site analytics; at some point, I’ll share this blog with those I know, but only when the time is right!).
I’m also definitely not traveling just for the sake of the blog; Michael and I are traveling for us and sharing after the fact. Although all of these things have stayed the same, I’ve still learned a lot in the past six months, and have a few things I plan to work on in the future. What I’ve loved most about this whole process, though, is the community of fellow travelers (and future travelers!) I’ve formed connections with along the way.
What I’ve learned
Blogging is (even more) time-consuming
After six months of blogging, I realized I needed to spend more time creating content and taking photos if the blog was going to grow organically. While I’m fortunate enough to not need to generate income from this space to live or travel, working a traditional full-time job takes up much of my week.
Coupled with all of the other day-to-day goings-on (cooking meals, going to the gym, and spending time with friends and family), I’m not left with much time to work on the blog on weekdays. And of course, we’re often traveling on the weekends (and I absolutely refuse to bring work with me while traveling!).
Trying to find pockets of time to write is difficult, and it’s been a bit hard for me to get ahead on posts. I suspect it will always be a bit of a struggle, though, but I’m pretty good at making time for my passion projects!
How to get more comfortable in front of the camera
Notice I didn’t say, “How to get 100%, totally, perfectly cozy-comfortable in front of the camera.” Completing three 10×10 Challenges has been a great lesson in stance and body awareness. I’m more aware than ever of stances that look better than others, though I still feel a little nervous and awkward in front of the lens and there are plenty of outtakes.
Link etiquette
While you’ll probably never see an ad in this space (you get enough of those in other places and they’re quite ugly; I don’t want this to be a source of visual clutter and stressors so I choose not to use them), I do occasionally use affiliate links to offset the site hosting costs. These links generate a super small commission for me, but they don’t add anything to the price of an item if you decide to shop through them. I’m playing around with the most polite ways to use these links by trying to keep them as sparse as possible; I hope you don’t find them intrusive.
Photos are everything
Since my last check-in, I’ve focused a lot more on photography. Our world is more image-focused than ever, and our attention spans are getting shorter. Michael and I have been toting our dinosaur of a DSLR camera around on our local trips, but I think it’s time to upgrade to a smaller camera for flyaway weekends.
I read a lot about the “importance” of having a consistent Instagram feed, but I don’t think I’ll ever get to that place. The world is diverse and our lives are chaotic; no two days or photos will ever be the same. Instead, I want to do my best to capture a particular place or moment, not worry about whether the space is a certain color because all of the photos on my Instagram feed are that color.
Most-viewed posts
These were a little surprising to me, though I should take into account that older posts have the means of being viewed more often because they’ve been up for a longer period of time, but you’ll see why:
- Home Page (okay, that’s not surprising)
- Winter 10×10 Preview
- Page 2 (look at you read, you awesome reader!)
- About (this was revamped recently, btw)
- Fall 10×10 Preview
- Holiday Gifts for Him (you all are so giving!)
- Winter 10×10 Days 1-3
- Winter 10×10 Days 4-6
- Fall 10×10 Wrap-Up (Oh… okay)
- Nashville Packing List (oh thank goodness, a travel post)
Future Goals
I’m happy to say that a lot of the site’s features will stay the same, like packing lists, recipes, and trip summaries. I am still looking forward to adding some of the items that I mentioned at the six-month check-in, such as a map showing my travels, quick lists of good coffee and restaurants in different cities, and more home/life posts.
I also would really like to create an all-in-one post for travel planning (or at least how I do things), with everything from choosing a destination to booking a flight to creating an itinerary to preparing for leaving your house. The biggest battle I face with these permanent site feature posts is time. I’ll get there, though. Promise.
Thanks for joining me on this journey!
Enjoyed this post? You may also like:
- Blogging Organically: Six-Month Check-In
- Blogging Organically: Five-Year Check-In
- Why I Changed My Name at Age 32
- How to Find Cheap Flights
- How to Have a Slow Christmas
- I won a trip! (Now what?)
- How I Afford to Travel
- Why I Use Airbnb
- The Importance of Keeping a Travel Journal
- It’s Nice to be Nice… (or “How we survived over 24 hours with the most miserable people ever.”)
What else would you like to see featured here on Wayward? Let me know in the comments below!
Congratulations, Krystal! I can so relate to time being your biggest issue. With a full-time job where I actually have to do stuff, plus a family, time is a premium. And then there’s the pressure to post multiple times a week, too. Sometimes I see people posting three times a week and wonder what my problem is.
Anyway, I’d love to see posts from an end-to-end perspective. For example, how do you plan for trips monetarily? Probably because I’m a money nerd. Might not be your audience, but just a thought!
I’ve just come to accept that I’ll never really be able to post more than twice a week without the quality suffering. And I don’t think you have a problem at all – your posts are always so thorough and polished that if you tried to rush things it just wouldn’t work.
We’ve shared a little about trip finances here but it’s something I want to delve in to a little more as part of a grand-scale “this is how we plan for a trip” post. I’m also mulling over sharing real costs of each trip in my recap posts, but I’m usually lazy about tracking expenses when I’m on vacation!
Finding time to write posts can be so challenging. I started my blog a few months ago and was convinced that I could pump out content like it was no big deal. Turns out taking photos, editing photos, then writing a post takes a lot of time.
On a less complaining about time note, I’m going on vacation in just over a month and I’m ready to dive into some travel prep posts!
It’s definitely not as easy as it seems! What looks like a few quick snaps and paragraphs is actually hours worth of work. I’m still working on finding my balance.
Hooray for traveling! I love the anticipation of a trip as much as I love the actual travel-aspect. Where are you headed?