After 2 years of blogging I have learned.. (Also a giveaway at the end)

Always respond to your comments. Your readers took time out of their day to visit your page, read your post, and share their thoughts. Over the past 6 months I have severely lacked in this department and it really makes me feel badly. I let down my readers by putting them off for a week rather than getting back to them within a day. Don’t make the same mistakes. Readers don’t forget.

Visit fellow bloggers pages. This is a common courtesy. It helps the community and yourself by being supportive. Sometimes we all get caught up and reading and not commenting. This isn’t a bad thing per say, but dropping a comment regularly is a nice way to show your support for their blogs.

Always let your readers know when you are taking a break. If you just drop off the radar for a few weeks, it often leaves your readers hanging and in time if they don’t hear from you they stop coming back. Everyone deserves a break, but announcing it is always going to work out better than just going M.I.A.

Do take risks. But when you do take risks, make them risks you believe in. Don’t get caught up in what everyone else around you is doing. What works for one person may not work for you. If you are passionate about something, then take that risk.

Don’t be afraid to fail.

Not every idea is going to work. Not every post will go viral. Heck most posts won’t even come close to going viral.I have had so many ideas that have tanked, but you know what? No one criticized me. No one laughed and said “I told you so”. Life went on.

I’m still here.

Build community. Having support in blogging is just like having support with your job. There are people out there in the same boat as you with the same questions. Find each other and help each other out. Be cheerleaders to keep each other going. I have found friendships that extend past blogging through blogging. It’s an amazing thing.

I have been blogging now for 2 years and I still don’t know everything. I will continue to learn and find out new things every day just like someone who just started blogging. No one knows it all. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like they do know it all. Even that blogger making six figures doesn’t know it all. They just know what works best for them.

Find what works best for you and you will be golden. This is my advice to you as a 2 year old blogger. It has taken me these short 2 years to learn what works for me and it will still be a work in progress.