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As a lot of you may know, I have been blogging on and off for over 4 years. It was kind of just a hobby for me as and when I felt like it, and it wasn't until the coronavirus lockdown until I started blogging regularly. After regular blogging since April 2020 and putting in more hard work, I am proud to announce that I received 10,700 blog views for July 2020. This is a massive success for me since in April, I had just over 1000 blog views for the month. Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading and supporting my blog over the last few months.

How did I achieve this?

I still wouldn't call myself an expert when it comes to blogging and I know that there are people out there with a lot more views than this. I am still always trying to learn more about it, but I'd just like to share with you how I got to 10k monthly views in the hope that I could help some current or aspiring bloggers. 

It's also important to keep organised and you can do this by using The ULTIMATE yearly blog planner from Of a Glasgow Girl.

Sharing my blog everywhere

After writing and publishing a blog post, I would promote it over every social media channel. I will create an Instagram story of the post, prompting people to click the link in my bio to see my blog. I will also share the blog on my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and sometimes LinkedIn if it's relevant to my audience on there.

Twitter

The main source of my blog traffic comes from Twitter. I will share 3 blog posts a day on Twitter, including new ones and old ones. I schedule these posts using Buffer. Make sure to tag in retweet accounts when tweeting blog posts as the blogs will be retweeted and will reach more people.

Here are some of the blog post retweet accounts I tag:

• @bournemouthbloggers and @sotonbloggers - make sure you use your local equivalent of this if there is an account for it. 
• @bloggerstribe
• @cosyblogclub
• @BloggersHut
• @theclique_uk

Some extra blogging resources

This post is an interview with Robyn Moss, third year Psychology student at the University of Lincoln. Before her degree, Robyn was living in Salisbury, Wiltshire, but decided to move 3 and half hours away to Lincoln for university. Read on to learn about her experience of moving away from home.

1. Why did you want to move far from home?

Originally, I wanted to move far from home for university to have a fresh start and push myself to be independent, not having the option to easily escape my problems and go back home. Of course, I also wanted to reinvent myself and explore a totally new place.

Lincoln, however, was a very unexpected choice of mine as I only picked it to fill in my last choice for university.  I couldn’t think of anything else and I’d never actually heard of it before, but when I went to visit all of my uni choices, much to my surprise Lincoln happened to be the only uni that really felt like it was for me. If you have never visited, read all about how to spend 48 hours in Lincoln.

2. Were you worried about moving and why/why not?

I wasn’t really worried, I was more excited. The only thing in the back of my mind was, if there was an emergency, I wouldn’t be able to get home easily. Other than that, I didn’t really have any worries. I already knew I vibed with the city and any doubts I had were overruled by excitement. 

3. How long did it take you to settle into your new place?

I was pretty much settled the moment I moved in. Of course, it was hard for the first five minutes of watching my parents walk away, and not knowing when I'd see them again. However, you snap out of that pretty quickly due to not having time to dwell on it. You have to unpack, decorate your room and get to know your new housemates, so there’s no time to think about anything else. 

You and your housemates are all on the same boat and it’s exciting for all of you and you support each other. I got on really well with most of my housemates to begin with which helped my feel settled initially but after a few days living with them, I realised they weren’t for me which was a struggle and did lead to me needing to change apartments. However, as soon as I found my group and created my own uni family, I felt settled again. 

I believe that the people you surround yourself with at uni are the key to settling and you won’t always be lucky at first, but there’s no harm in moving apartments if you don’t vibe with your initial flatmates. Most people manage to get on just fine though, it’s unlikely that you won’t get on with at least one person in your apartment.

4. Is there anything you would have done differently?

Not really. I’m grateful for the lessons I have learned, and any issues I had were out of my control. I do wish I’d been to more parties and gone to freshers events, but that wasn’t possible due to my job. I feel that I would have benefited a lot more if I’d have socialised more during freshers week as it took me a while to find my group of friends. Once I’d found them, my uni experience became 100x better.

Where to find Robyn

Instagram: @robynmossx

Thank you so much to Robyn for sharing her story. Have you ever moved far away from home? Let us know your experiences!

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Related Read: Top Tips for Starting University

Wool of the King

This post is a collaboration with Planning with Em. This post also contains affiliate links so I will earn a small commission if you buy through my links. Please  see my disclaimer for more information.

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*Image 1 from Pixabay.

*Image 2 from Engin Akyurt on Pexels.

Just a little update on me - I have now finished my year marketing internship ready for starting my final year of university in September. I am trying to get a little bit of a summer by doing things before I go back to studying. The first thing I did after finishing was visiting one of my friends, Robyn, who lives up in Lincoln and goes to university there.

It was very hot there and I had to put sun cream on because of how pale I am so it kind of felt like a holiday, we’ll call it a staycation as that’s where it’s at at the moment! If you want to read more about travel, see my favourite travel destinations. I am living in Wiltshire at the moment so it took about 3 hours and 20 minutes to drive there, but I felt like it went pretty quickly.

Day 1 in Lincoln

After arriving in Lincoln, we had a walk along Brayford Waterfront and took some cute pictures. We then walked up the steep hill to the cathedral. There is a reason why it’s called steep hill and it is not an exaggeration! But once you get up there the views are pretty good, and there are lots of cute, independent cafes on the way up.

It was quite a hot day, so we had to go back to shower and get ready before going out for the evening. We booked into Zizzi for dinner and it was a Monday so we got that Eat Out to Help Out discount! After that, we went to the Slug & Lettuce for some cocktails. That was the first time I had been out for drinks since the lockdown and it was actually a lot less scary than I thought it would be.

Bars do seem to be closing earlier now than what they used to. So, after leaving Slug & Lettuce we got some end of the night food from a chip shop. I had to try the cheesy chips and gravy because I’d never had it before being a southerner and they were so nice even though they looked kind of gross. Proper comfort food. I have to say, the north does takeaways better.

Day 2 in Lincoln

Day 2 was a chill one after a busy first day. We had a lie in and went to McDonald’s, classic after night out food. After that, we went to Boultham Park, which was really nice. We sat by the river and saw lots of cute ducks and swans. Again, I had to put on sun cream for this.

Once we had sat there for a while, Robyn wanted to show me round her uni so we walked around Lincoln University which was quite cool, it was really quiet though due to it being summer and Covid-19. I like nosying around other universities so I can compare them to my own.

In the evening, we just chilled and watched some TV because I was getting up early to leave the next day. It was one of the hottest days when I had to leave and my car has no air conditioning so I left at 8am to try and get home before the hottest point of the day.

I really enjoyed going to Lincoln and really want to visit more places in the north as I haven’t been to that many places up there. It is such a pretty place and I hope to go there again soon.

Where is your favourite place to visit in England? Let me know in the comments! Special thanks to Robyn for letting me stay with her and looking after me so well.

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Looking for more day out ideas in the UK? Read all about my trip to Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset.

Wool of the King

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Guest post from Liz Loves. This post includes affiliate links so I will earn a small commission if you buy through these links. I have put asterisks next to the products linked. Please see my disclaimer for more information.

*Women don't owe you pretty, Florence Given 

I pre-ordered this book nearly a year ago because I am obsessed with Florence. If you don’t already, I would highly recommend following her on Instagram. She is so empowering and inspiring and her book talks about how a lot of society is often designed for the benefit and gain of men. She explains how women are often criticised for their behaviour and actions in a way that men aren’t, and essentially, we can’t win, therefore we should do whatever we want and whatever makes us happy regardless of what other people say. There are also lots of reminders to support each other as women and to build each other up so we can all be the best that we can be. 

How to break up with fast fashion, Lauren Bravo

This book has really spurred me on to my decision to stop purchasing clothes from fast fashion brands. I have talked about it in my blog post about sustainable fashion, but she essentially explains the negative effects of the fashion industry without making you feel bad about it, and also provides options to limit your own fast fashion purchases. The environment is something I am really passionate about and I am always looking to learn more about what I can do to help, and the fashion industry has a huge impact on the environment. 

*Notes on a nervous planet, Matt Haig

Everything Matt Haig writes is amazing, his book The Humans is one of my favourite novels, and Reasons to Stay Alive has been talked about for changing people’s lives and helping cope with mental health and depression. For me personally, Notes on a Nervous planet really explains the disparities between our human nature and the world we now live in filled with social media and technology. It really helped me deal with obsessing over my phone and after reading this it was the first time I put in place some boundaries with my phone and social media use. 

Everything you need to know about love, Dolly Alderton

I read this book on holiday last year, my friend actually let me borrow it and I read it in a few days. This is like a laugh out loud book, there were so many relatable stories in there and I think it is just really nice to hear about other people’s experiences and relationships to know that we are not alone in the things we experience or the feelings we have at certain times in our lives. I do think most people have already read or at least heard of this book, but it’s definitely worth the read if not. 

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Website - Liz Loves Blog

 

Instagram - @lizhartley04

 

Twitter - @lizziejhartley