One year into blogging and 150 posts later, I've learned a lot. And you know what? The biggest lessons I've learned have come from personal experience, not from the countless blog posts I've read trying to figure out what I was "supposed to be doing" with a blog.

That being said, this essay will help you avoid some of the major things I wasted time on and give you a jumpstart towards writing a blog that matters.

Beyond blogging, many of these lessons go into the disciplines of entrepreneurship, perseverance, and building relationships.

And don’t worry, none of them have anything to do with hipster glasses or fancy mustaches.

1. Relationships Mean Everything

If you want to get your first readers, fans, or heck, anyone other than your mom to just look at your site for 10 seconds, you need to connect with real people. No amount of linking to yourself on Twitter is going to build a thriving audience for your site.

You need to email, chat on Skype, or talk in person to as many "bloggers" as you can. Find the people you most connect with, make a massive list, and start reaching out to them.

2. Continuously Pushing Publish is Half the Battle

After launching my blog at the end of 2010 I published a post every single day (including weekends) for 50 straight days. I've since scaled back to two or three times a week, but I committed to the first 50 days because I wanted to make publishing a habit.

Some of those 50 posts are super short, but I published them. Sometimes you need to push publish even if you think your blog post will suck. If you don't keep pushing publish, you cease to have a blog.

3. It's Smarter To Earn Income First, Then Start a Blog

If I needed extra income a year ago I wouldn't have started blogging. I would have tried to freelance using skills I already had (such as web or graphic design), gotten a second job, or offered to do things on Fiverr. Luckily, I wasn't in dire need of side income when I started this site.

Think of it this way: if Pat Flynn started Smart Passive Income when he was making zero dollars a month, no one would have cared. Instead, when he started writing on SPI he was already making almost $8,000 a month selling e-books online. People instantly had a reason to listen to him because he was already successful.

I didn't start this blog to make money. I started Pocket Changed to help people positively change their lives. I have accomplished this on a small scale, but I also changed my own life a ton too.

4. Make Sure People Know What Makes You Different

It isn't easy to "stand out" online, but there are a few surefire ways to do so. Some of them include:

Do something no one else is blogging about (e.g. visit every country in the world like Chris Guillebeau or walk across America like Nate Damm)
Create a kick-ass video with the potential for going viral.
Put hours into your about page explaining why you and your site are different from the rest.

Explain or show people how you are different. They won't know unless you tell them.

5. Money Doesn't Just Appear, You Have to Earn It

Before I started blogging I just assumed you could put ads up on any site and as long as you got enough traffic, you could make money from it. It wasn't until I actually started to research the way ads work that you need a serious volume of traffic to make a living off ads.

On top of that, websites with a ton of ads are usually both annoying to visit and ugly to look at.

If you want to make money online you either have to offer tangible goods, services that people need, or provide them with actionable guidance. If you can't deliver any of these things, rethink your business model.

6. Create & Follow a Plan

Whether you lay out your own plan to follow or you invest in a step-by-step plan like Chris Guillebeau's Empire Building Kit, make a plan and stick to it. Without a plan in place, you won't know which direction to head in.

Your plan can be fluid and change occasionally, but it needs to be detailed and consistently followed for you to be successful.

7. Celebrate Milestones

On my 50th post I published a big "what I learned" post. On my 100th post I wrote a popular essay after attending the World Domination Summit. My 150th post was the "Best of 2011" post from earlier this week. At each milestone I reflected back at the progress I had made and the lessons I had learned.

Do things that celebrate your progress. It will remind you how much work you've put in.

8. Start Your Social Media Outposts Early

It takes a long time to get those first 100 fans on your Facebook page or your first 100 followers on twitter. Start early and ask your friends to do you a favor by helping out. Owe them a beer.

Oh yeah, and make it easy for people to connect with you by including things like this:

8 Priceless Lessons I Learned From One Year of Non-Stop Blogging