Chilihead has started a carnival dedicated towards people sharing about how they got their start in the blogging world. It has been interesting to read everyone’s story and their tips on how they began their blogging journey. If you are a blogging momma, I encourage you to take part in this and read the entries! What could be better inspiration than that?
Here is my story…
How did you start blogging?
This is a tough question to answer, but since I had probably never heard of the term “blogging” before, I am sure that my techy hubby had suggested it as another outlet for us to get our site to be more known.
I had wanted to blog about motherhood and my children, but found it too creatively challenging and also didn’t feel that it was very cohesive with our website efforts. I made the decision to turn it around and make it focus more on saving money and it seemed to mesh better with my personality and was a great way to share some quick tips versus writing an entire article on a subject.
Did you intend to be a blog with a big following? If so, how did you go about it?
No, I never expected to have anyone really reading it except for my friends and family. It was quite the shocker that anyone would read it, as I really don’t think I am all that interesting! I was just hoping for a few people so it was an incredible surprise that anyone was actually reading it.
What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?
My goal has been to inspire people to be creative with their money. I try to focus on not what you can do WITHOUT, but what you can do WITH. I want people to know that they don’t have to live a life of sacrifice, just because they are trying to live within a budget, but that they can learn to be creative so that they can have everything they have ever wanted without spending money they don’t have.
I am not an extremist and I hope that appeals to people. I try to be reasonable with my ideas and let people know that I am actually going through the journey myself with them. I am learning right along with everyone else and constantly discovering new ways to save. They might not be for everyone, but I hope that in some small way, it can have a positive impact on your finances.
I do feel like I am reaching my goals because the emails and comments I receive from my readers helps me feel validated. Your comments do mean so much…more than words can say. For me, I try and have a conversation with people. I want them to interact with me. If you are having a conversation with someone and all you hear is silence on the other end…well, sometimes you just want to hang up. I try to keep talking, but it does mean a lot to hear something back!!
What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you started?
I think I was trying to hard to retain my audience and was not trying hard enough to redirect people to other blogs. The blogging community can be very supportive of one another. It is important to share what you read with your readers, and redirect people to other blogs that have great posts.
Once a week, I do a Notebook entry where I share great things I have read throughout the week. I learned that by sharing these links with others, that blogs found out about me and started linking to me for other things. I started to gain traffic through my efforts and also developed some really great friendships with some fellow bloggers. I wouldn’t trade any of that for the world!
Being stingy with my readership was not beneficial, but sharing the love has been an incredible way to get more readers and to keep them coming back to our blog.
Do you make money with your blog?
Yes, I do receive money from my blogging efforts. Our website has advertisements throughout and we receive revenue from our advertisers. The money I bring in does fluctuate depending on the amount of page views we have or how much particular campaigns are paying out each month. I feel very blessed to be able to contribute any money towards our household income and to be able to do what I love AND be home with my children is more than I could ever ask for!
Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?
Yes, I tell everyone and their mom about my blog. Because I just write about money, I don’t feel like I need to have any real sense of privacy on that topic. I don’t think they necessarily read it, but they know it is out there!
What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?
1. Festivals and Carnivals can be a great way to get more exposure and new readers coming to your site. If you go to Blog Carnival, you can see all of the carnivals and festivals that are taking place right now. Set up an account and submit your entries to these. You can also contact the Festival or Carnival owners and find out if you can host one week. This can be another great way to build up your traffic.
2. Don’t write a post just to have something up for the day. I think it is far more important to put out one good post rather than three posts that will not be remembered. I try and approach my blog entries as mini-articles. People expect a certain style of writing from me and I try and make the posts actually have some good meat to them. If you write well (don’t forget your spell check!!), people will appreciate that and want to read more from you!
Be sure to check out the other entries and thanks to Chilihead for putting together such a great carnival!!
Very neat! I love your blog. Interestingly, yesterday I read that if you make 33k a year, you are among the world’s richest people! LOL Now that’s a feel good story, eh? It’s not just how you look at the glass- empty or full- but also how you drink from it, right?
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Thanks for sharing, Amy!
Blogging about blogging is a fascinating topic to me as a blogger (say that sentence three times fast!). I was just thinking last night how great it would be to ask a bunch of the bloggers I “know” the same questions you just answered! I’m off to read the carnival entries!
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