The Journey of Life of a Blind Girl so far

I remember the day that I created Life of a Blind Girl like it was yesterday, it’s hard to believe that I’ve been blogging for almost three years, where does time go? I started my blog in the hope to share my experiences of living with a disability, raise awareness of sight loss, educate others and support people in any way that I can and that still stands today.
When I first created my blog and pressed publish on my first post back in January 2015, I didn’t really know what would happen, I knew that I wasn’t going to be the next famous blogger overnight but I also didn’t have any aspirations for blogging, I just enjoyed the moment. My blog was a place where I could write freely without being judged by others, it was also something that I enjoyed doing. The main aim of my blog has always been to educate people on disability and help others living with sight loss, but it never crossed my mind that so many people would read my blog posts or stumble upon it for whatever reason.
So much has changed since I first created my blog and published my first post back in January 2015, so I thought I’d write a post on my blogging journey so far.

Where it all began
As I have previously said, I created my blog back in January 2015 to try and help, educate, inspire and motivate others. I didn’t know if anyone would stumble across my little corner of the internet, let alone read my posts or subscribe to my blog.
I didn’t publish posts regularly when I first started blogging as I was in my first year of university and wanted to get to grips with blogging but as time went on I started to publish more posts on a regular basis.

Gaining a readership and connecting with other bloggers
As I published more posts, I started to gain a small readership and connect with other bloggers through social media, these included some blind and visually impaired people. It never entered my head that I would gain followers, or even make friends through blogging.
Two of my closest friends are Elin and Sassy, two people that I couldn’t imagine my life without and it’s all down to blogging that I know these girls.

Blogging isn’t all about the numbers and statistics but having a readership is truly a special feeling. It’s extremely humbling to have people read your posts and actually find them interesting. I know that there are many of you who have subscribed to my blog, and read all of my posts, that means the world to me that you’re a part of my blogging journey with me. Some of you will have just stumbled upon my blog one day and it’s so lovely that you’ve continued to read my posts and support me.

Having new experiences
Blogging has given me the opportunity to have new experiences, gain valuable skills, collaborate with organisations and be recognised.
Over the last couple of years I’ve wrote guest posts for some well known sight loss/disability charities and organisations such as Scope, Ability Superstore, OrCam, Through Scarlet’s Eyes, Aidis Trust and RightHear to name a few. You can check out all of my external work in my portfolio.
I was most recently asked to take part in the RNIB’s #HowISee campaign to raise awareness of the various levels of sight loss. I was asked to make a short video about my eye condition and how I see, this was something that was out of my comfort zone but let me tell you, I absolutely loved taking part in the campaign and recording a short video. You can watch my video here.
These opportunities keep on coming and I can’t explain how privileged I feel to be given such wonderful experiences. If it wasn’t for your continued support then I wouldn’t be where I am today in terms of blogging.

Making a change
When I first started blogging I didn’t put much (or any) thought into the design of my blog, the photography and visual element of blogging, but as time went on I started to realise that these are crucial. Although they often don’t mean much to me as a blind person, I know that they are appealing to sighted readers.
I have struggled with these aspects of blogging as I don’t have any useful vision, but I am incredibly lucky that my Mum or Dad will take photos for me and help me with the visual side of blogging. I now often add photos to posts so that they look more appealing and break up blocks of writing a little bit. I could probably make them more visually appealing but I do try my best.

When I wanted to start blogging, I did some research into the best blogging platform to use and decided that wordpress.com was the platform that I wanted to use, and continued to use this platform for over two years. I found it fully accessible and was able to do what I needed.
However, I felt like I needed to make some changes, I wanted to make my blog my own and make it that bit more professional.
So I decided to go self-hosted. Going self-hosted is something that I’ve wanted to do for many months and have done some extensive research into it. It was a big decision to make and I’m not going to lie, the thought of it made me feel both excited and nervous and I did put it off for a while. I finally made the plunge and decided to go self-hosted a few days ago, and I am so glad that I did!
My blog has a design which I really like and something that I am proud of. I was worried that it wasn’t going to be accessible for screen-reader users but apart from a couple of minor issues which have been resolved, it’s been a success so far. Let me know what you think of the design of my blog, I’d love to know your thoughts.
I also didn’t want the transition to be a waste of money, as I don’t earn any money from blogging so wanted it to be a worthwhile purchase which I definitely think it has.

Changing from wordpress.com to wordpress.org was a really easy and accessible process for myself as a blind person and the support from my host SiteGround has been fantastic. If you would like me to write a post all about going self-hosted then please do let me know as I would be more than happy to do so.

Going self-hosted has been such a huge turning point for me in regards to my blogging journey so I wanted to write a post reflecting on my blogging journey so far. I’m so proud that I’ve been able to expand my little corner of the internet.
I would just like to thank you all for your continued support, I can’t explain how much it means to me!
Don’t forget that you can subscribe to my blog over on my homepage and receive emails every time I publish a new blog post, it would be great if we could grow the little blogging family.
I am very excited to see what the future has in store for Life of a Blind Girl!
If you are a blogger then let me know about your blogging journey so far, I’d love to hear from you.
Thank you once again for supporting me.
Holly x