Things I Wish I Had and Hadn't Done As A Beginner Blogger

So a week or two ago (depending on when I set this post live) I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a domain. This was after a little conversation with the lovely Alex from Champagne & Lemonade where she asked me (in a very nice/thoughtful way may I add) if I had ever considered getting myself a domain. Now I had considered it previously (around the time of my new blog design) but the thought of it petrified me (difficulty/commitment) so I always put it off. However, when Alex said this to me, I had a lightbulb moment and thought that if it was being commented on I must really pull my finger out and sort it! Within about 5 hours I officially had a brand new domain!

Now I'm not sure what happened that day but I swear my determination levels upped majorly and I felt that bit more confident about my blog! I decided to go back through my old blog posts (every single one of them) and make sure there were no broken links or anything that majorly stuck out to me as wrong. In doing this is created a list of all the things I wish I'd realised sooner in blogging! So here it is. (These aren't necessarily wrong or right, just things I personally like and dislike in a blog)

• NO - Centring posts. Why did I do this? It doesn't particularly read well or look very nice. There are some exceptions for example, I do like my images to be centred but not the text! Queue going back to every old post and aligning left!
• YES - Large images. Another thing I did was have all my images on small and it just doesn't have the same effect! Large images always - it looks amazing!
• NO - Photos with flash. Obviously this depends on what you are blogging about but I looked back on some product posts and can clearly see I used flash and that each bottle has a massive glare over it! Natural light and a bit of editing goes a long way!
• YES - Domain! I wish I'd got my own domain from the very beginning but truth be told I had no idea what I was doing! It looks good and it really isn't expensive at all!
• NO - Posting for the sake of it. When I look back over some old blog posts I just know I was writing them for the sake of getting a post out there. It shows. It should be done because you are passionate about what you are writing about and really want to share it!
• YES - Have a schedule. Having that stability has done my blog and my confidence the world of good! Twice a week, Wednesdays & Saturdays mean I know exactly what to expect from myself.

So there were just a small amount of things I noticed when I look back at my blogging journey so far. Remember though, there is no wrong and rights in blogging, you own space can be anything you want it to be! However, there is nothing wrong with a bit of self improvement and this is mine.

Are there any things you have (or haven't) done on your blogging journey which you regret?