I have been writing for a very long time. Dating back to 2015, I started blogging under the website name “Mad & Glad”, a play on words (considering my name is Madeleine, I felt particularly clever when I thought of that one). Through the years, I have tried many different blogging approaches. From writing niche-specific content (religious, camping, short story, and yes, even environmentally based content) to writing general content in hopes that the hobby would turn into a business. All the while I was dreaming that the blog at the time would gain a reach much greater than my little world.
Looking back now, I realize I made many mistakes in my previous endeavors. Four of my biggest mistakes were 1) I didn’t clearly define my why, 2) I didn’t self-host, 3) I approached the website like it was a hobby and not a business from the beginning, and 4) Personal time management did not factor in the website.
Clearly defining your why
The concept of defining your “Why” when pursuing anything in this world is not new by any means. However, this is something I never did in the past. It would always be a plop into the world of writing and hoping this time it would stick. When I started this website (Simply Living Aloud), I understood that I would have to approach the experience differently from what I have in the past. If I was going to make a success of the website, I would have to get to the crux of what I was going to do and why I wanted to do it.
I approach it with a few core questions: What are my interests? What do I want to write about? What topics do I have knowledge of? What do I want the end goal to be (I.e. what is the vision of the website)? It all came down to this:
This website will be a safe space where life experiences, cooking adventures, environmental wonderings, and short stories can be shared with like-minded individuals. I want this website to become an established, highly profitable space that would allow me to be a full-time writer.
Importance of Self-hosting
As a new blogger or website owner, you too have thought it was not a big deal to have the worpress.com or wix.com suffix behind your carefully curated name. “It will build up and once I have x amount of followers, I will upgrade to own the domain…” To purchase a domain through WordPress and Wix, you are required to upgrade to one of their membership programs. This method is technically easier than self-hosting, but still has limitations in terms of the plugins, themes, and functionality of your website. This is what makes WordPress.org superior to WordPress. Through WordPress.org you are afforded with the ability to customize your website to perfectly fit your vision.
Chosing your hosting service provider. If you do a quick Google Search of “Best hosting solutions 2025”, you will be bombarded with 10s of pages of people comparing the best of the best hosting solutions across the internet. No doubt if you have ever looked at any “How to start blogging” website, you have come across BlueHost. It is the most highly recommended hosting platform on the market. Based on what I have found, is also the most competitive and has built-in functionality have yet to see on other platforms within the competitive lower bracket market range.
Hobby vs Business Mindset
Through the years I always thought about writing (whether it was blogging, article writing or fictional story writing) as a hobby rather than something that could potentially turn into a business. In saying this, my Pinterest is filled with ‘How to make money blogging’ posts, but never have I ever approached the website and the legacy thereof as a business.
There is a stark difference between treating the blogging as a concept versus treating it as a business. I think the one relies on the other to move forward. On the one hand, having writing as a hobby ensures that more often than not, will there be a comfort and a joy in doing it. However, looking at is as a business, brings a formality thereto that would be lacking in approaching it as a hobby. Both approaches are valid, but a business mindset is what will keep me writing, even when I don’t feel like it. It keeps consistency in check.
Importance of Personal Time Management
This point relies on poor time management. The ‘I don’t have time to do it’, ‘With work and all my extra curriculars, there is just not enough time in the day.’, and the ‘I was going to do it, but then I got busy.’ There is an age old saying in the dating world. ‘If they wanted to, they would’ This can be applied to writing, or anything else in your life as well. If you have a passion, a desire and a drive to do something, even if you have moments when you don’t feel particularly creative or motivated, you need to push through.
Set up a schedule for yourself during which time you have to devote time to your writing or whichever you are looking to progress in. Make a list of all of the ‘time-stealers’ you tend to blame for not making time and block out specific time in your schedule for these items. This can be daily, a couple of times a week or once a week, whatever you need to feel a level of accomplishment that you can handle right now. the key is to stick to the plan. If you do falter one or two times, push through the slump and continue moving forward according to the schedule. Think about pianists, when they make a mistake whilst playing, they don’t start at the very beginning of a song every time, they continue past the mistake without skipping a beat.
These observations and notions can be applied to any situation in life. Understanding and knowing your ‘Why’ helps provide clarity in moments when you doubt yourself, being self-sufficient will allow you to manage your assets better, treating hobbies as businesses (if you are planning on making money from them) advances the longevity of your cause, and allocating time to the things you want to accomplish, harbours consistency.
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