This year marks twenty years since I published my first blog post.
When I started blogging in 2006, Facebook was still finding its feet, Twitter didn’t exist yet, and nobody was talking about algorithms, content strategies, personal brands, or AI.
We simply wrote about our interests. Some of us spent an inordinate amount of time writing about our special interests because nobody else wanted to listen to us harp on about them. Looking back, perhaps that should have been my first clue.
Then we wandered around the blogosphere reading what everyone else had written and leaving comments.
The internet felt smaller then. More human.
Twenty years later, I find myself launching yet another website and reflecting on what blogging has given me over the past two decades.
These are some of the lessons that stand out.
1. Blogging changed my life
This sounds dramatic, but it’s true.
If I hadn’t started blogging, I would never have built the business that followed. I wouldn’t have met many of the people who became friends. I wouldn’t have discovered so much about myself.
A simple habit of writing online altered the course of my life.
2. Authenticity is not a marketing strategy
These days, authenticity is often discussed as though it were another branding technique.
People can tell the difference.
I have written thousands of posts. The posts that resonated most deeply were rarely the ones I carefully optimised. They were the ones where I was simply telling the truth or asking a question that others were curious about, too.
3. You never run out of ideas if you stay curious
All these years, people have repeatedly asked how I keep finding things to write about.
The answer is that ideas are everywhere.
Questions become posts.
Books become posts.
Conversations become posts.
Tarot readings and spread ideas become posts.
Life becomes blog posts.
Curiosity is an inexhaustible source of material.
Not worrying about whether other people will find it interesting helps, of course. It’s the writerly equivalent of dancing as if nobody is watching.
That is honestly how I’ve been writing my whole life.
Autistic much?
4. A blog can become a spiritual practice
Long before I recognised it as such, blogging became part of my spiritual path.
Writing helps me clarify what I think, what I believe, and what I am willing to question.
Many of my most important spiritual insights arrived while trying to explain something to someone else.
Then there is the light trance that sometimes settles in while I’m typing. Time disappears. The words seem to arrive more quickly than conscious thought. It feels less like constructing an argument and more like receiving one.
I’m curious whether other writers experience this too.
Whether we call it flow state, inspiration, or channelling, some of my most meaningful writing has emerged from that space.
5. The internet remembers everything
This can be comforting and horrifying in equal measure.
I’ve published things I’m proud of and things that make me cringe.
Both remain part of the record.
I’ve learned to make peace with that.
When I happen across the cringey bits, I think, “Phew. At least I didn’t turn that into a book.”
6. Starting over is not failure
I’ve started over more than once.
New websites.
New directions.
New beliefs.
New identities.
Every reinvention taught me something.
The willingness to begin again may be one of the most valuable skills I’ve learned.
7. Every successful blog is built one post at a time
It’s easy to look at an established site and imagine it appeared fully formed.
It didn’t.
Every successful blog begins with a blank page and a single post.
Then another.
And another.
Sometimes, the Tower strikes. Twice, I’ve had websites simply vanish overnight, without explanation (WordPress.com both times). Gone forever.
Yet the foundations remained. The projects that were meant to last kept growing gradually.
8. Community matters more than follower counts
One thoughtful comment is worth more than a hundred anonymous likes.
The relationships formed through blogging have often been more meaningful than any traffic statistic.
These days, thoughtful comments are like gold dust, but they are still what keep me going.
9. The comments section used to be the social network
I miss this.
Before social media took over, bloggers visited one another’s sites, left comments, and built genuine communities.
The internet felt less like a marketplace and more like a village.
Part of me would love to see that return.
10. Burnout can disguise itself as ambition
This is one I learned the hard way.
At one point, one of my websites was attracting thousands of visitors per day and generating an excellent income.
From the outside, it looked like success.
From the inside, I was exhausted.
At the time, I didn’t know I might be AuDHD. Looking back, what I called dedication may have contained a substantial amount of burnout.
Achievement is not always evidence that something is sustainable.
11. Making money from blogging is still possible
People have been declaring blogging dead for at least fifteen years.
Meanwhile, bloggers continue to build businesses.
The landscape changes. The opportunities change. The methods change.
But valuable content remains valuable.
My prediction is that genuinely personal writing will become even more valuable in the age of AI. Facts and information are becoming increasingly accessible. What remains scarce is lived experience, individual perspective, and the courage to share both honestly.
12. SEO is a tool, not a purpose
SEO helps people find your work.
It should never become the reason for creating it.
Whenever I worried more about search engines than my readers, the writing suffered.
13. Your blog grows as you grow
Every website I’ve created is a snapshot of who I was at the time.
Looking back through old posts is like opening a time capsule.
The blogs changed because I changed.
14. Writing helped me heal
Blogging has accompanied me through spiritual transformation, religious trauma, grief, joy, reinvention, and countless periods of uncertainty.
Sometimes the writing itself became part of the healing.
15. Some of my biggest breakthroughs happened in public
Not because I intended them to.
Simply because I was documenting the journey as I went.
There is something powerful about allowing people to witness growth rather than presenting a polished version after the fact.
16. Plagiarism hurts
There is no point pretending otherwise.
Seeing your work copied without permission is frustrating.
Over time, I’ve learned not to dwell on it.
The original source of the work remains with the creator.
17. Social media is rented land
This may be the most important lesson of all.
Platforms come and go.
Algorithms change.
Accounts disappear.
A self-hosted blog is still one of the few places online that genuinely belongs to you.
18. To AI or not to AI?
As Dr Angela Puca writes in an excellent essay on Substack, the question is not if we use AI, but how.
Used carelessly, AI can regurgitate information and platitudes.
Used thoughtfully, it can help us brainstorm, organise ideas, edit drafts, and explore new perspectives.
The challenge is remaining human while using increasingly powerful tools. I shared my own thoughts on how to use AI without losing my voice in this article.
19. My blog became the foundation of a business
When I published my first post, I had no business plan.
Years later, blogging became the foundation of the work I do today.
Not because I set out to build a business, but because I kept showing up and writing.
20. Twenty years later, I still love blogging
That may be the lesson that surprises me most.
The platforms changed.
The technology changed.
The internet changed.
I changed.
Yet somehow the simple act of sitting down with an idea and turning it into words still feels like magic.
Twenty years ago, I started a blog because I was curious.
Twenty years later, despite all the algorithm changes, social media platforms, SEO updates, AI tools, successes, failures, reinventions, and false starts, the reason hasn’t changed.
I am still curious.
At the crossroads,
🌹 Lisa