Holy cow, I did it! One year of blogging!

Howdy, everyone! I’m a little behind on this one-year anniversary post, okay, approximately two months behind. But it’s better late than never, right? So, I completed one year of blogging on November 29, 2021! Yayyyy! 

As I was trying to figure out why my Google Adsense ads completely disappeared for the past few days, I was logged into WordPress and thought I might as well start this post.

All I can say is that I’m pleasantly surprised I’m here more than one year later, still writing, still chugging along, and still thinking about Native Mommy Lawyer. I’m feeling so many positive emotions right now. The struggles I faced, in the beginning, were absolutely worth it. I am grateful beyond words.

Now that one year of blogging is complete, where do I go from here?

Prior monthly updates

one year of blogging

If you’re interested in reading about my blogging journey over the last year, I’ve linked my monthly blog updates below. I made plenty of mistakes and blunders along the way and I share openly and honestly about it because why the heck not?

Reflections from one year of blogging

As I sit here with my 37-week pregnant belly writing this post, I am truly humbled by this journey. I always thought that becoming a blogger would be this easy, romantic, idyllic job and I envied people who could do it for a living.

When I started writing, I had no clue what to write about. I didn’t know anything about my writing style or how to make a blog article flow well. Heck, I still don’t know, but I’ve come a long way since Day One.

Since the inception of Native Mommy Lawyer, I’ve published 94 articles with a total of 121,688 words, which averages 1,295 words per article. I’ve written on topics ranging from oryx meat to marriage to traveling with a toddler, and so much more.

Maintaining Native Mommy Lawyer has been eye-opening for me. As the year progressed, I noticed that I became braver, stronger, and more willing to share and disclose vulnerable parts of my life. Writing has always been very therapeutic for me. As a little girl, I always kept journals and wrote about my thoughts, feelings, and experiences, so in some respects, blog writing is no different.

In my last few articles, I wrote about issues that are near and dear to my heart, like how I view my identity as an urban Indian living off of the reservation. My most recent article about my family’s history and struggles with alcoholism ripped me apart emotionally. I started that article in October 2021 and didn’t finish it until Christmas 2021.

I have started to unearth and discover myself during this one year of blogging.

Overcoming doubt

one year of blogging

I started this blog mostly due to the pandemic and finding that I had a lot of extra time on my hands. The nation was isolated and quarantined for months. Everyone was sent home from work to start the teleworking era and my work actually slowed down A LOT.

So, with all of the extra time on my hands, I started looking into what it would take to start a blog. It turns out it isn’t much. I wanted to keep my starting expenses to a minimum, so I purchased a domain name from Google for $12.00 and a 2-year shared hosting plan from Namecheap for $33.00. I also spent $8.00 and purchased a business e-mail, which I never even used!

I spent roughly $53 on starting expenses and I told myself that I often blow that amount at TJ Maxx on a couple of items, so it wouldn’t be a big deal if I lost it.

The main key to overcoming doubt was to keep my expectations low, especially in the first year.

I decided not to have any expectations in terms of traffic. My only blogging goal was to write 100 articles within the first year (didn’t quite meet that goal but oh well). I told myself that I should focus on the writing aspect only and worry about traffic later. It definitely paid off because I didn’t get traffic for months on end. If my goals had been tied to traffic, I would have quit a long time ago.

Honestly, I had doubts about Native Mommy Lawyer for the first 9 months of blogging but I kept chugging along anyway. Over time, I started to see small changes and improvements in my website and traffic. Soon enough, I started to make money through Amazon and Google Adsense, even if it was just enough to cover my expenses.

It’s important to take in and relish all of the little wins because blogging is a long-term game. For some, it even takes years to see any sort of payoff. My advice would be to lower your expectations or, better yet, eliminate them completely in the first year.

Here are some additional tips from another blogger relevant for one year of blogging.

My life changed in the past year

When I started Native Mommy Lawyer, I didn’t realize how much would change for me in one year of blogging. That’s the beauty of life, right? We never know what is just around the corner.

Shortly after Native Mommy Lawyer launched, I lost my cousin and grandfather on the same day in December 2020. Due to the amount of grief I experienced, I started therapy, which opened up this enormous self-discovery journey for me. It’s a journey that I’m still on today.

In the summer of 2021, within a 24 hour period, I found out that I was pregnant with Baby #2 and that I was also recommended for a career-advancing promotion within my Department. It’s been a whirlwind ever since!

In a couple of weeks, my second daughter will be joining us and I’ll be on maternity leave for a few months, which will be another big change.

So, where does Native Mommy Lawyer stand in the midst of all this change?

What’s next?

one year of blogging

Now that one year of blogging is over, my greatest challenge is finding the time to write and maintain Native Mommy Lawyer. Although I’ve been pleasantly surprised that my monthly traffic keeps increasing despite the lack of new material, I know that won’t last forever.

I need to keep coming up with content and posting it. But how? There are some viable options that I can explore further, including paying for articles or taking in guest articles. I recently had an inquiry about a guest article for my site, which was amazing but also a little scary. Am I ready to share Native Mommy Lawyer with other writers? I don’t know yet.

All I can do is take steps one day at a time and see where I end up. Hopefully, it’s a great place for Native Mommy Lawyer because I would love to keep writing and sharing with readers!

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