20 years of blogging! What worked and what didn't!

On 22nd May, 2006 the first post of this blog was written. Today my blog enidhi.net completes 20 full years of existence, two decades of content writing, influencing and providing insights mainstream media doesn't care and what other bloggers might have missed.

Stats:

• Number of blog posts published so far: 3435 (Averages 14 posts per month over 20 years)
• Comments so far: 24200
• Views: 25.5 million and counting (averages 7500 per post)

Some highlights of my 20 years of blogging

I would say blogging was at its peak during 2010 and 2020. Later Instagram and youtube took over.

#1 Got opportunity to work with leading brands such as Tata Motors, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Changi Airport, Malindo Air, Indonesia Tourism, Malaysia Tourism, Hospitality brands such as Suryagarh, Narendra Bhawan Bikaner, Orange County (Evolve Bank) and more.

#2 Club Mahindra post was first to go viral- even got legal notice from Club Mahindra

#3 Had attended lots of events when Indiblogger was active, made several blogger friends

#4 Multiple awards and speaking opportunities related to travel & blogging

Blogging gave me an identity and satisfaction when people say they got benefited from my review or inputs.

As I look back, I would like to share what worked, and what didn't work for me

What worked for me:

#1 I kept going. I kept writing because I wanted to. I didn't stop because no one was reading, I didn't stop because comments were few. I had an experience, observation or a warning to share-I wrote. Lots of influencers and bloggers lose interest and momentum within months if they don't get followers, readers or money they were hoping. I kept going. 

#2 I stayed focused on end user and not brands - I highlighted limitations in products and services that customers should be aware of, I listed drawbacks or risks or alternation options. I believe this help end consumer, though brands wouldn't like to highlight all these and prefer bloggers to hype their products as best.

#3 Got early mover advantage - I was one of the very few travel bloggers back in 2007-2012 period. Had opportunity to work with various tourism boards, hospitality brands, automotive companies etc. Later every 3rd person is an influencer, crowding the market, many people faking things to get to limelight and too much competition for every small opportunity.

What didn't work:

#1 I missed focusing on video early on. While I had youtube channel long back, I didn't fully focus on Video. I focused on writing text content on my blog. Over time people are not having patience to read long posts and prefer videos- even in that short 1 minute videos. If I had pivoted to video long back, I would have probably some money there- but I am not good at creating drama, shooting lots of videos, editing etc hence didn't do much.

#2 Didn't praise or create hype: Lots of influencers got famous and made money promoting brands- often creating unnecessary hype, making false claims that what these are the "best thing in town" and hiding information that are critical to customers but won't suit brand's purpose (such as known issues or limitations, better competitor products etc)

#3 I didn't take it full time: Many bloggers and influencers have gone full time- some are successful, some are struggling but most are doing just fine. I am still with my full-time day job which gives me a salary and hence I don't have to depend on social media for any income. This also meant job is first priority, so frequency of blogging has gone down over time.

#4 Didn't fake: Stayed away from buying followers, views. All my readership and follower are organic.

#5 Didn't do marketing: My readership, follower count etc are not spectacular numbers. I have few good followers who follow for the content. I didn't spend on marketing campaigns, PR stunts to get publicity, ads and promotions etc. Some spend on SEO, promotions etc might have got me better reach.

#6 Hard to compete with insta influencers: Many do not have patience to read long blog posts now. People prefer short videos, instagram reels. Attention span is very less- no one wants to read multiple sources, do research etc- They would rather ask chatGPT for answer, and then post chatGPT response in facebook groups and ask people to confirm if it is correct. 

Brands also prefer short video makers and instagram reel influencers. I have about 10k followers in Instagram but that is too little.  Small town of Udupi doesn't have any PR events so collaboration opportunities are very less now. Anyway, as I am not full time into it, I don't have to chase brands. If anything comes my way I consider.