Happy TWO years to AntoniaConduah.com! Firstly I want to say thank you to you for supporting my blog, reading my posts and liking my content.

Over these last 2 years I feel like I’ve grown so much, I started this blog whilst I was in university – I’ve since graduated and shared how I’m coping with all that comes with adulting. I hope you’ve enjoyed my content and I’m so excited to share with you all that I’ve planned for my future content – especially my birthday content! (One week left!)

Things That I’ve Learnt Over These 2 Years of Blogging:

• How To Be More Confident 

Having a blog has not only allowed me to grow in confidence when shooting but I’ve also got this confidence in myself to create content that I enjoy and love – not being so shy or being embarrassed, thinking about what other people think about it. When I first started blogging I was constantly worrying about other people’s opinions, I had a lot of anxiety that stopped me from starting this blog earlier. I was always thinking that people were going to laugh at me, questioning am I going to be the joke of someone’s group chat – But now I honestly don’t care! It’s taken a while to work through my anxiety but doing what I love and focusing on that fact that this is what I love to do helps me to keep going.

I’ve done a post on tips for being more confident taking pictures – Here

• How To Spot A Scam or Bad Deal

On Instagram I get so many comments and emails saying “Hey babe, message us to be our ambassador” and it goes on to say “You’ve been specially chosen to be our ambassador, here is 40% off, you can earn commission plus free items and have a chance to be featured on our page! Does this sound good to you?” No this does not sound good to me babe! When I first started blogging I was so excited when one brand contacted me, I thought blogging was all about working with blogs and my success came from working with as many brands possible. I didn’t pay closer attention to the fact that they wanted me to pay for their products with a discount code, pay for shipping and create content to promote their products for free. A bad deal! – My fellow bloggers reading this, our time to create content is valuable!

Have a look at @InfluencerPayGap on instagram for some transparency and guidance on brand deals.

• To Not Get Caught Up In The Numbers and Remember Why I Started

It’s so easy to get caught up in the numbers – how many followers have I gained and lost a day, how many likes and comments I’ve got on one post, constantly looking at my engagement rates. Comparing my blog/instagram to others, questioning and wondering why I’m not growing as much as this person and why I’m not getting as many likes as that person.

But when I do get caught up in all of this, I feel like I lose the enjoyment and forget the reason why I started blogging. I do it because I enjoy writing, creating content, taking pictures and sharing my opinions, views and tips. To me what’s important, especially when I’m sharing my tips for example, is that my blog posts is helping at least one person or with my travel content it helps you get inspiration and plan your next trip.

• There is a wonderful and supportive blogging community

I’ve recently found through engaging with other bloggers on instagram that the community of bloggers is very supportive and amazing. I love finding new blogs to read and new content creators to support.  I’d love, love, loveee to create my own community like a bloggers support group – let’s connect, message me on instagram (@antoniaconduah) or leave your blog in the comments here and I will check out your blog or instagram.

I really want to connect with you! It doesn’t cost a thing to be kind and show love to people in your community!

• Not Everyone Will Like My Content and That’s Fine!

This is something that I’ve found quite hard over my two years of blogging is dealing with negative comments and not being disheartened and demotivated by it. Often times it’s dealing with the feeling that I don’t feel supported from looking at low engagement rates. Getting over this feeling I often look to my biggest supporter, my boyfriend, Connor – who reminds me that there are people, friends and family who support me in all that I do.

It’s important to remember that you can’t please everyone and you don’t NEED to please everyone!

Here’s a little throwback to my first shoot day, 2 years ago and my latest home photoshoot!

Thank you so much for reading!

Here’s to more years!

Hope you all are well and staying safe!

Antonia

xoxo