Why Did I Start a Blog?

This is a question that I get all the time from family and friends after they hear about my blog. The reason I blog may change over time, but the reason I started is simple.

I had wanted to start a blog for years. I loved the idea of having my own space and being able to write whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. The attention that can come from having an internet presence is not something that bothers me much at all. I also wanted a platform that inspires other people and helps them through different life changes.

In 2020, I spent a lot of time on TikTok and at one point, grew to having 21k followers on the app. Later on, someone at college recognized me, but that’s another story.

So why a Blog?

I wanted to have something that was mine and something that I could build from the ground up. Growing up, I had many ideas surrounding being a YouTuber and having a website promoting all the fun things I enjoy. Being in college, I decided that starting a blog would be the way that I could pursue this with less stress. It also seemed to be the option that met more of my desires outside of the engineering degree I had already started.

Way before college, I had joined an email list of a very successful blogger, and she had a 6-day email course to start your own blog. After a year and a half of college, I came across her again. I read some of her latest emails and decided, yeah, I’m going to do this.

I can't believe it took me so darn long to get started. And that was the easy part!

It started off great. I was motivated, I had ideas, everything was good. But then it became very difficult to keep up with the blog while being a student in college.

The Blogging Struggle

2-3 months in, I stopped finding the time in my day to work on my blog. The motivation was gone, and writing blog posts felt more like a chore than the fun hobby I wanted it to be.

I was dedicated to getting one post out each week. Then it turned into every two weeks. By April 2022, my blog came to a halt. My website stayed up, and I still thought about picking it up again, but I had so many other things on my mind.

Nearly nine months later, I made a blog post in time for Christmas.

Starting a blog in college is HARD (definitely harder than I thought it would be). I learned this the hard way, but I also learned what I needed to do differently to continue blogging. Most of the changes I could make would help to limit the amount of stress I am putting on myself.

Finding Motivation

This past summer, 2023, I found motivation again. Only this time, I started by taking a much more organized approach. Something I started as soon as the Spring ‘23 semester ended was a content journal. I’ll go into more detail about content journals another time. Basically, I kept track of everything I wanted to post and when I wanted to post it. The journal did WONDERS to keep me motivated and excited about blogging.

When this past fall semester started, the time I had for blogging disappeared, and my priorities shifted. Now that finals have ended and the semester has finished, I am able to find time to work on this again!

Using different resources, I am trying to get back into the groove of writing and creating a happy and helpful place for you. One of my blog goals for 2024 is to get ahead on the work for my blog so that I can continue working on it through the semester.

I have gone through so many rotations of having time to work on the blog and not having time. I'm so ready to have the ability to maintain a solid and consistently updated platform that can be helpful to you.

I wanted a place where I could write about things I found engaging and the things that I thought would be helpful to anyone who read it. That is what allthingssusanna.com has turned into for me.

My Blog Goals

I have thought about the future of ATS a lot. I will be graduating college soon and starting a full-time job, which means I will have more time outside of the workday to work on my blog. This will be very similar to how this past summer went!

However, there are some things that I want to change.

While blog posts and Pinterest posts are great, I want to find ways to become a better resource for you. I have many ideas for templates, checklists, and other printable items that I want to share. This will require more work and time outside of just writing posts. I have been enjoying the simplicity of that for the last 2 years, but it is time to expand off of my posts.

I have learned from writing that while longer posts do better on Google, most readers don’t want to read through 1000+ words on every post unless the topic is fully applicable to them. This is where the printables would come in. Posts could be an introduction or a how-to for the printables that I produce to help you.

I have always wanted this blog to be a way to help others and be a good resource. That is my motivation to continue it, and it works! There will never be anything on my site that I don’t think will be helpful to you.

Whether you are drawn to my college posts, my food posts, my traveling posts, my DIY posts, or just my personal posts, my goal is and will always be to help you.