How to be a Blogger? (or someone in life)

Let’s keep this real and quick.

Doubt.
Some one rightly said that doubt is the biggest thief in your life. It has stole more dreams than failure ever does. You will face this thief multiple times in your life. Whether it is when you are starting something completely new, out of your comfort zone or even when it is something routine that you do. It can ruin you, easily. Failures help in firing up your doubts and then what do we do when we are totally consumed by those self-doubts and even with the doubts from other people? We call it quits.

But I will not let you do that. Not today.

Hey everyone! My name is Aanchal and I come from a small town called Meerut (yes, in UP). Schooling done from an all girls school, pretty simple life. I was considered very average by anyone and everyone who knew me. Okay in studies, zero in sports, okay in crafts, just okay. I was bullied multiple times in my life because of my weight. Ashamed of the way I was, I never posted anything on social media because I taught, I will again be laughed at. (Yes, when I was in my first year of college I was 0% active on social media).

I was clouded by self doubts, scarred of what will people think of me, always shy and quite. I was anxious most of the time. Even locked myself up in bathrooms to cry in peace. I was not living my life right. Worst, no one understood what I was going through, so there was no help.

It was hard for me to push myself out of that comfort zone and to finally work towards a better me. I started exercising, eating clean and teaching my brain to be healthy with uplifting thoughts of encouragement.

You must be thinking ‘stop the madness. Talking to yourself helps?’ Yes, in my case it did. I lost upto 15 kgs, I felt healthier as a whole.

Now, this blog post is about ‘HOW TO BE A BLOGGER or someone in life!’ Then why all this rant about past?

My motive for this story was to tell you that it is okay to feel shit and that you can easily overcome that feeling without anybody’s help. Never be ashamed to work on a better you. You are here, reading a blog post from a social media content creator, who once posted nothing anywhere, ever.

If I can come so far, leaving my self doubts behind, then so can you. I still face times when I don’t love myself that much but it only lasts for a *spoof* . (See how I didn’t use the word ‘hate’ here, hehe)

Coming to my second year of college, I was a completely new person them (in a good way, of course). More confident, chirpy, happy and active. All that from just treating myself nicely.

It is important that you love yourself. Work out, read books, learn things, keep on working on yourself. If you do not keep yourself well then how can you keep up your work (or blog) up notch?

 

 

 

Learned Lesson one: Kill them doubts. Always improve and Love yourself.

 

From a younger age, I was very found of writing, stories, poems, just my thoughts. I filled up journals and journals with stuff like what happened today, my learnings and other random stuff. Writing always made me really happy and I can do it any and all the time.

There was a phase in my second year, during which I felt very, very useless. I used to call up my best friend, very night and go on a rant, ” yaaaar, life kitni boring hai. I am doing nothing significant with my life. Koi purpose hi nhi hai. Mujhe na novel lihkni hai, pta nhi when will it happen ki I become a published author.”

To which he replied, ” Aese hi bann jaati h novels? Behte behte, rone se? Acha, why don’t you start from the bottom. Start a blog, write, you will know if people like the way you tell stories.”

“Baba re. Na na. Start a blog and let everyone judge me openly?”

“Whats the worst that can happen? People won’t even read your blogs, right? At least you will come to know that you suck and need to improve.”

I thought to myself, “sahi keh rha h. Try kr lena chahiye. Rone se kya hoga.”
And then,

 

 

 

The Gypsy Panda was born.

I started a blog because I wanted to improve myself as a writer and see if what I create is actually liked by people or not. If you will check out my older posts on this blog, you will find *mid night scribbles* , posts containing my personal thoughts. I was laughed at by my friends when I told them that the blog will also have a fashion segment. Coincidentally, fashion is now the most popular segment on my blog. But I never lost my motive and that was to create content which inspired and made you feel emotions. I starting blending fashion with own twist of stories, poems and thoughts.

 

 

 

 

Learned lesson two: Whatever is it that you do, a business, a blog or studies, do it because you want to. Because it makes you happy. Because it serves a purpose, fulfilling your heart’s motive.

 

Do not start a blog because it seems fancy or for the free stuff. This is short term. You will never be fully committed to your blog, if it is there for the wrong motives. Start a blog because you think that it is what you need. This is how and where you can kick ass with your content.

Both of my roommates started blogging, seeing me getting work from brands and all. One of them once came up to me saying, “I want free stuff”. They did their ‘blogging’ for a while and now have called it quits. I am still in the run because I discovered my motive a long time back. Now, creating content is the sole thing which makes me happy. If I am not creating or working, I feel agitated.

 

 

Blogging, steps and tips:

 

1) There is a lot of competition nowadays, in every field. What is your USP? What is so unique about you that you will stand out from the competitors and shine?

2) Find your unique point, it can be anything, maybe you are a great writer, artist, video/film maker, poser. Find that, work it.
I think my usp is the way I create content.

3) After that, please do not go for copied names and work like ‘styledrug, fashionguru, fashionista’ please noo. Come up with something original. The internet is crowded with cliched stuff.

4) Now that your name is decided, let’s come to the blog. I suggest that if you are very serious about this then from the start go with your own domain name. You can buy it from godaddy and then easily use that domain with sites that you can create on WordPress, Blogspot, Wix, etc.
You will have to pay for this. If you can’t then that is fine too, you can run a free blog on WordPress just like I did.
There are tonnes of posts on the internet that can help you on how to customise your WordPress, Wix etc websites. I am linking few here.

https://en.support.wordpress.com/customize/

https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.wix.com/blog/2016/11/10-wix-essential-tutorials/amp/

5) Now, your blog is ready. What to post? I am not going to tell you that. If you are starting a blog then I bet it must be because of stories that are in your head waiting to get out. Go wild with your imagination and create.

6) Please do create. I get very upset when I see profiles claiming that they are a ‘Blogger’ but they rarely or never post anything on the blog. “QUIT EATING INTERNET SPACE”

7) Just posting pretty pictures is not called blogging. You are just a social media star and the brands sneakingly approach you to place their ads on your profile because you have a huge following. If you are just happy with free products then hey, enjoy buddy.

 

8) Another thing that I want to discuss is that you do not need to be rich to be a blogger! This is a huge misconception. If you are smart and creative with your content, nothing can stop you. Take for example, Bhuvam Bham, he is the actor, editor, writer and director of his videos and there is fancy set but the content is just so good that no one can miss it.

Start off with the available resources that you have, be creative with that and then gradually, save and invest in upgrading your work.

Short cuts: Keeping in mind the point above. When starting on social media, you will want to reach a high number of followers in a short time and you might fall in trap of those ‘increase your followers with a tap’ apps and links. Yes, you will get 5000 followers in a gify but since those followers are fake bots, you will never have enough engagement on the posts. You will never get verified anywhere for this sneaky trick and you will just be posting for a bubble audience, that soon will burst into no fun in work.

 

 

 

Learned lesson four: Everything takes time. Be patient and keep on working hard.

It took me a year to get to 20K+ followers but at least they are all genuine, who are with me because they like me and my work.

BRAND COLLABORATIONS: Ahhh, the real fight. Do not expect big collaborations just after two blog posts. You really have to create your base here first, you know.

A) Work on consistent and good content

B) Have a genuine following (however, there some brands who just see the quantity of followers. Don’t worry you will reach the number but then there are some brands who only see quality. So, work on that first)

C) When approaching a brand via email or message for a collaboration, prepare a strong pitch. Give them a reason for why you are suitable for a campaign, tell them how you can create content around their products. Give them no option but to say yes to you with your brilliance.

D) There is only after a certain time and content that you start getting paid for collaborations. Believe me, it is tough to get money out in this work.

Speaking about the money issues, let me tell you about the later issues that you may face in blogging.

Last month, I got done with my under graduation in business management (aka BBA). My next step is to grow my blog and store to newer heights. However, I haven’t been able to do well for a while.
I have struggled with keeping up with posting content on time because I was either busy studying or facing a creative block. I lost a lot of engagement and bit of my audience too because of it. But I didn’t quit, I started again and kept on going.

No one will get your ‘excuses’. This is something that you will have to deal with on your own.

Being consistent is very improtant in blogging (actaully, in ever field) 

I had a huge complaint of not getting enough paid for the blogs I do for brands. A lot of times it is free of cost. I hate when people (and sometimes brands too) not get the hard work that goes down for just one blog post; Thinking of a concept, arranging everything from photographer, shoot location, costumes, travel, editing, writing, promoting it creatively and then preparing for the next one, doing everything again but with a newer vibe. All of this takes time and effort. Most of us ‘content creators’ never get paid enough for this work. Honestly, this has been demotivating to me many times but again, I do what I do because it makes me happy.

I will surely reach a level when even the pockets are happy.

You will be a one man/woman team. From creating to replying/dealing with hundreds of different people, only you shall be taking care of it.

There are a lot of roadblocks on this path. It all comes down to how badly you want something.

Don’t just have *kinda* dreams. I kinda want to be a blogger. I kinda want to be a star. I kinda want to loose weight and you will only ‘kinda’ achieve your dreams.

Light that fire inside you and never let it burn out.

“Discover who you truly are and fully give every aspect of your uniqueness to the world. This is your path to an extraordinary.”

If you want to live an extraordinary life it is imperative that you know who you truly are, and to do so you must explore who you truly are.

It is always good to have an inspiration but that never means you need to follow it. It is always a good idea to build a team of your own rather than joining someone else’s. Shed away your fear, make yourself stand with your creations, innovate and try to lead.

 

 

 

THINK BIG and START SMALL

This would be the smallest and most powerful idea for all those people yearning for success.

Generally, people get it wrong by merely setting goals which are hard to achieve and then they feel paralyzed instead of being motivated. Undoubtedly, you need to dream big in order to be inspired, but it is more important to initiate with small steps and start at the present moment. To act small in the beginning and focus on small action each day, takes you closer to success.

To achieve the greatest success, you have to embrace the prospect of failure.

Your mind will want to pull you back in a comfort zone whne you fave failures. Do not go there.

The sweetest victory is the one that’s most difficult. The one that requires you to reach down deep inside, to fight with everything you’ve got, to be willing to leave everything out there on the battlefield.

Let’s fight for our dreams.

Hope you learned something from my learnings.

Keep on supporting this goofball and I will continue to share my experiences and stories, like this! I, too, have a lot of work to do and dreams to achieve.

Let’s do it together.
Like, comment, share and subscribe, if you loved this.

Love,