Back in the early days of blogging, we didn't have social media — not like we do today. Stories didn't spread as quickly, and when they did, you knew someone had something important to say.

You couldn't tweet out links to your blog to thousands of followers or like your own post on Facebook in hopes that others would, too.

In those days, if I wanted people other than my immediate sphere of influence to read my blog, my best bet was to get another blogger to link to my post.

And that meant becoming friends with that person. Which required time and work.

There were some important lessons to learn in those early days of blogging:

1. Blogging was about relationship — period.
2. If you had a blog, you were rare and different, already remarkable.
3. The goal wasn't to “go viral.” It was to be consistent.
4. A slow growth to success was the only way.
5. People were less concerned with being polished and more concerned with being real. Transparency was a must.

I miss those days.

What do you remember from the early days of blogging? Share in the comments.