How Blogging Is The Perfect Personal Project

Blogging is the ultimate personal project that I’m extremely grateful to have found.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted a personal project to constantly work on.

I wanted an interest that I could completely dedicate myself to, and I needed it to be a craft that I could perfect.

For whatever reason, there was always this individual, portable nature to this dream too. I wanted to be able to work from anywhere, whether it was the local coffee shop or on a beach while on vacation.

In my younger years, I thought others shared a similar dream. But the past few years have caused me to realize that my views are unique compared to anyone I’ve ever met.

[bctt tweet=”How Blogging Is The Perfect Personal Project” username=”reversethecrush”]

Finding Suitable Work That I’m Passionate About

Slowly but surely I’ve watched people I know let go of the visions they used to have. They might not remember their clear visions for the future but I sure as hell do.

To be honest, I struggled to accept the dilution of their personalities at first. I simply don’t have the ability to replace my need for a personal project with passive activities. For example, I would be miserable if my weekends were not used to improve my craft. I just couldn’t handle someone demanding Netflix time from me all the time. I’d feel utterly unfulfilled if my free time was used for nothing besides spending and socializing.

Over time I’ve come to accept that everyone is different, even if they fail to understand or accept my differences as well. That’s ok, though. Because if you have the self-awareness to realize a situation requires someone to be the bigger person, you always have the responsibility to do so.

Regardless of whether I agree with someone else or not, I try my absolute best to offer support and encouragement. I understand that they might be just as passionate about their interests as I am about blogging and dividend investing.

Nevertheless, I’ll admit that there’s a time and place for winding down.

But when it comes to motivation, it has become fairly obvious that I’m wired differently.

I’m not motivated by status, money or tradition, I’m motivated by suitable work for my skillset that I’m passionate about.

Enter Blogging—the ultimate personal project.

Though it was obvious that I enjoyed blogging immediately, it has taken years to find the most appropriate topic to blog about.

I wanted to find the most meaningful topic possible (dividend investing). But I needed it to be an authentic topic for my progress orientated nature, and it also had to be the most perfect topic for my skillset.

I guess I’m chasing perfection, which is the reason that blogging is the ultimate personal project for me.

Again, it comes back to the way I’m wired. Part of my interest in blogging is because it’s a process of continuous learning.

In my case, I let blogging decide what to blog about for me instead of the other way around.

Many bloggers select a topic, study a blogging course, and then chase monetary results. The personal project side seemingly does not exist. Frankly, I don’t understand why you’d want to be a blogger if that’s the case, because blogging is a lot of hard work.

On the other hand, the process of figuring out how to blog is what appeals to me.

Once the purpose of blogging was determined, I was finally able to begin working on the ultimate personal project.

Why Blogging is the Perfect Personal Project

It hasn’t even been two months since I published the blogging goals for 2018. However, I already feel like I’ve learned so much more about blogging since then.

I also wrote about how an upgrade to your blog theme can create a refreshing challenge, and I wasn’t joking when I made that claim.

Since then, I created a static home page and added a separate page to track dividend income updates. Furthermore, I completely rebuilt the footer and have been categorizing posts more appropriately.

To be honest, the accumulation of experience and all I’ve read about blogging over the past 2 years has suddenly clicked. Everything I was trying to understand just seems to make sense now.

In short, the never ending improvement of writing better, analyzing better, designing better, and optimizing better is why blogging is the perfect personal project.

---

Goal-setting for my Personal Project

Likening blogging to a personal project has caused me to reconsider the goals that I set for the blog in January.

To put it bluntly, two of the goals are not specifically actionable.

With that said, I have developed more actionable goals that are focussed on the perfection of my personal project.

Properly Categorize Blog Posts

Back when I started this blog, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing in terms of categorizing and tagging posts.

Admittedly, I just assumed it was similar to hash tags on Twitter. I would add every tag that was even remotely related to the topic of the blog post.

More recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time re-categorizing posts for better organization.

Simply put, categories are for organizing the main topics covered on the blog. On the other hand, tags are an extra layer to organize content and are intended to make it easier for readers to find what they want to read.

Correct Broken Links & Finish SEO Optimizing Posts

If you are familiar with Google Search Console, you would know that it helps you optimize by identifying broken links.

Over time, links that have been included in posts have changed, or the blog they were linking to no longer exists. This leads to a bad experience for readers because they end up getting notified that the page they are trying to visit no longer exists. Moreover, it is also not helpful if you’re trying to index your blog for Google search engines.

For a number of reasons, correcting broken links is a task that I’ve been putting off. Mainly because it’s boring AF. But since I’m viewing this blog as a personal project, this is becoming a higher priority.

I have occasionally corrected links as I categorize posts. However, as soon as I’m finished categorizing, correcting links is the next task on the list.

Improve About Page

I have actually tweaked the about page several times now. But it’s been at least 1 year since the last update which makes it long overdue.

Although the general story is there, the purpose of the blog has been refined.

Frankly, the purpose of the blog is more clear on the home page now than it is on the about page.

Nevertheless, I plan to expand on the story, make the purpose more clear, and to update the disclaimer information to be more in line with the footer (see the bottom of the blog).

Pinterest Work – Join 25 to 100 Group Boards | Implement Posting Schedule | Improve Board Images

Since I started to put more effort in to my Pinterest images, I’m happy to report that the last few months have seen an uptick in Pinterest traffic.

More recently, I switched over to a business account, and I finally verified my website through Pinterest.

Now that I’m starting to grasp the potential of this platform, it’s time for the next steps.

First and foremost, I need to join more group boards. Joining more group boards will provide more opportunities for readers to find the blog, and it will allow me to connect with more personal finance bloggers.

Using a service like Tailwind will allow me to implement a posting schedule. Furthermore, it will provide the opportunity to Pin during the most optimal times of the day.

Lastly, I need to further improve my Pinterest images and group board images. Similar to my thoughts on the logo, this will help to make RTC a more recognizable brand.

---

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, it feels great to have such a specific purpose and suitable direction for the blog.

I can honestly say that I don’t envy bloggers that are continuing to flip-flop around with the purpose of their site. I’ve been there and done that, and I know how confusing it can feel to visit another website and feel like you’re not moving in the right direction.

Fortunately, this kind of confusion will never be a problem for me again. I am pursuing financial independence through dividend investing. This blog exists as a creative outlet to analyze my portfolio and document the journey to FI.

In turn, I truly believe that have discovered suitable work that I am passionate about.

As I alluded to in my recent post, it’s easy to break down your plan in to steps once you’ve found the most fitting goals.

In my opinion, blogging can be the perfect personal project for anyone.

Moreover, your personal project can be created in 3 simple steps—find your passion, match it with your skillset, and start a blog about it to perfect your craft.

Questions for the readers: Do you view your blog as the perfect personal project? Do you feel as though you’ve found the perfect topic for your blog?