Wonderlost Turns One!

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I started Wonderlost on February 10th, 2015–exactly one year ago today. I had written in two different blogs before that (one when I studied abroad, and then another after I came back). I decided to pick things up where I left them in 2012, and rebrand my blog to become strictly about travel in February 2015. I had no idea how far my blog would come, but one year later so much has changed! Here are some of the highlights:

Branded Wonderlost

I created the name for my blog and the tagline/theme “Wandering the world through curious eyes.” I customized my blog’s design and created a logo (which my friend Eva and I improved a few months later). I started up social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and, most recently, Pinterest to help promote Wonderlost and grow followers–and boy has it worked!

Added an Author

In June of 2015 I asked one of my best friends if she would like to contribute to Wonderlost. In my mind, I thought she would be interested in adding a few posts here and there because I know she used to maintain a blog herself. I was blown away by her response. She has truly become a blogging partner! We draft ideas together and she helps with posting great content on social media. I am so grateful to get to share this exciting experience with one of my best friends! Check out her posts under her series’ “Eva’s Lens” and “Knock Knock.”

Started a Newsletter

A few weeks ago I was thinking of ways I can improve the delivery experience for my blog. We promote all of our new posts on social media and our email followers get an email for each new post. But I was thinking of ways to make it more fun to read and less invasive (an email for each new post is a lot). So I looked into MailChimp. It was easy to use and fun to create. I was able to brand the newsletter to look like Wonderlost and each week new content is delivered to our ever-growing newsletter email list. Thank you to those of you who have signed up! Here is a link to our latest newsletter if you would like to check it out!

Nominated for an Award

I had heard a lot about bloggers nominating up-and-coming bloggers for awards to help promote their blog and gain followers. I spend a lot of time connecting with other bloggers via Facebook groups, but I thought getting an award was a longshot. Much to my surprise, TWO bloggers within 48 hours nominated Wonderlost for the Liebster Award. This award is given to new bloggers with less than a thousand followers to help promote their blog and recognize their hard work. We are still seeing the benefit from receiving this award with all the traffic being directed to Wonderlost now. Thank you again Arzo Travels and Travel.Blog.Repeat!

Grew our stats

Wonderlost has readers from 50+ countries around the world! There has been a huge increase in engagement with our posts and an increase in followers across all of our media channels. Some of our most popular posts can be seen on each of our bios.

Writing for and maintaining a blog is a lot of work. I spend hours resizing images, posting content on social media, drafting new ideas and formatting posts. I am almost embarrassed to say how much of my time I spend working on my blog. But it is so worth it. Connecting with other bloggers, joining travel groups on Facebook, and co-writing with my friend Eva has been such a joy this past year. I look forward to expanding the blog even more this coming year by adding new destinations, interviews, guest posts, and more useful travel advice.

I am by no means an expert, but this past year of blogging has taught me a lot about starting a travel blog. If any of you out there have thought about starting your own blog, please feel free to reach out with any questions. I am always happy to help in any way I can!

Thank you to our followers for keeping up with Wonderlost. It feels so nice to have our content being read and appreciated by others. It is what makes blogging so much fun!

Happy Travels!

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If you enjoyed what you just read we would love to have you join the Wonderlost community! Click here to subscribe to our newsletter for even more travel tips and inspiration.

 

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  • andy1076February 10, 2016 - 8:53 am

    Happy blogversary Erin 🙂ReplyCancel

  • vishtoday2bbetterFebruary 10, 2016 - 9:52 am

    Happy Anniversary 🙂 Keep up the good work!

    Happy Blogging!ReplyCancel

  • MintAndCopperFebruary 10, 2016 - 12:27 pm

    Happy anniversary! It’s so nice to see how everything has turned out so greatly for you and your writing partner. Plus, thanks for sharing your development. There are some inspiring hints hidden in there. Especially the newsletter, I might consider creating one myself later. Your Blog is fantastic and I’m always happy to find new posts on here. Us travel aficionados have to stick together ;).
    Lots of loveReplyCancel

    • Erin SchererFebruary 10, 2016 - 1:00 pm

      Your words made my day. Thank you so much for reading. I always love your posts as well and I am so happy to see a community formed around travel blogging. Makes it that much more fun! If you decide to start a newsletter let me know and I will sign up 🙂ReplyCancel

  • Gretchen KristinaFebruary 10, 2016 - 12:35 pm

    I subscribed to read more! Congrats on the anniversary. I’m new, too, and I hope I can look back in a year or so and know that I’ve established an audience that can enjoy or be inspired by my posts. Happy Travels!ReplyCancel

  • JoeFebruary 10, 2016 - 1:44 pm

    Happy anniversary! Here’s to many more years of travel blogging for you. Reading about how your blog has developed in its first year has been an informative read, and gives some very useful pointers to those of us who are just starting out. Thanks for sharing! 🙂ReplyCancel

  • Kaylene ChadwellFebruary 10, 2016 - 7:51 pm

    Congrats! That’s a lot of awesome accomplishments! Happy traveling 🙂ReplyCancel

  • MollyFebruary 10, 2016 - 8:37 pm

    Happy Birthday! What a wonderful accomplishment!ReplyCancel

  • Liz PetersonFebruary 11, 2016 - 2:48 pm

    Congratulations on the milestone! I’ve been blogging for 5 months and sometimes it feels like I’ll never hit the 1-year mark and others like it’ll be here tomorrow! I can absolutely understand just how many hours if takes ;). Hitting a year is huge – as is getting an award. Congrats!

    If you’re interested in checking out what I’ve been up to, it’s here: http://www.california2catalonia.comReplyCancel

  • LizFebruary 11, 2016 - 2:49 pm

    Congratulations on the milestone! I’ve been blogging for 5 months and sometimes it feels like I’ll never hit the 1-year mark and others like it’ll be here tomorrow! I can absolutely understand just how many hours if takes ;). Hitting a year is huge – as is getting an award. Congrats!

    If you’re interested in checking out what I’ve been up to, it’s here: http://www.california2catalonia.com (http://www.california2catalonia.com/)ReplyCancel

    • Erin SchererFebruary 11, 2016 - 8:44 pm

      Thanks for reading Liz! I’ll definitely check your blog out! Happy travels! ReplyCancel

  • DrifterHannahFebruary 12, 2016 - 5:20 am

    Wow, congrats on this milestone! Good luck with the year ahead!ReplyCancel

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