If you are thinking about quitting, here are 10 questions to ask yourself before you quit blogging.

It may be easy to start a blog, but blogging takes focused hard work and never-ending learning. Because you have to do so much work BEFORE you see any proof you are going to be successful, it’s tempting to want to quit.  

October 2023 Update: I began My Think Big Life about eight years ago. I didn’t make any money for the first several years but I loved writing and I poured my heart into my blog.

At this point, this blog and my cooking blog, Granny’s in the Kitchen provide substantial income as well as being the place where my life coaching clients find me.

Writing and publishing this blog, literally changed my life in all the good ways. I created a life I love and eight years later, I am so grateful to my past self that didn’t give up or quite on myself!

Current speculations on the number of blogs out there number in the millions; I read that there were about 4 MILLION blog posts published a day. However, while many people start blogging, most quit, I would say, within a few months.

If you are thinking about quitting, here are 10 questions to ask yourself before you quit blogging.

10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You QUIT Blogging

1. Why did I start my blog in the first place?
2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much effort did I put into it?
3. Is there something that I’m stuck on, that I could hire out?
4. Have I sought out blogging support?
5. Am I producing content on a consistent basis?
6. What have I learned from blogging so far?
7. What successes have I had so far?
8. Have I lost my passion for blogging or just for my topic?
9. Were my expectations unrealistic?
10. Do I really want to quit, or do I want different results?

Why Did I Start My Blog in the First Place?

Really, why did you start? Was it

• to make money
• have something to do
• learn to write
• create content to eventually go into a book
• become an authority in something
• because it’s fun
• to connect with other people

There are no wrong reasons to get into blogging and often times, you may change your reasons.

Here are 10 Reasons to Blog Besides Money!

Whatever your reason, just because you haven’t achieved it, doesn’t mean you won’t. Spend some time thinking about why you started a blog and if that isn’t happening, then spend some time thinking about the why.

Sometimes you start a blog for one purpose and you get side-tracked by what other people are doing and then you feel your own reasons aren’t valid. Or you see lots of bells and whistles on other blogs and you start beating yourself up.

Get back to YOUR why and concentrate on that.

Have I Put Enough Effort into It?

Many people begin a blog to make money. In my experience, to get to this level often takes years. While a few people can do it in under a year, it takes a laser focus and time to do it. When I say time, I mean actual hours put into your project.

While someone may blog for two years, they may only be creating a couple of hours a week. Another person may work on it 40 hours a week. Big difference!

Measure time in the effort you put into it, rather than months or years. I’ve seen blogs where people only post every month or two. That effort will not get the effort of posting multiple times a week.

If your time is limited by a job, kids, and other commitments, decide how much time you can put into your blog and schedule that time.

Even five hours a week, will allow you to grow a blog if you use those five hours for creating content such as blog posts, social media posts, and products. If you are using those five hours unproductively or not on specific blogging tasks, then it will be difficult to get some traction.

Is There Something I am Stuck on that I Could Hire Out?

It might seem crazy to hire someone to do something, when you are not making that much money. But sometimes, it is the right thing to do. If you find yourself stuck for a long period of time—consider getting some help.

When I was first setting up my opt-in and newsletter, I just couldn’t get my brain wrapped around it. So, I hired a Virtual Assistant VA to do it. She was reasonably priced and came recommended. It only took her a few hours to set the whole thing up.

After it was set up, I could do the weekly work of writing and sending the newsletters. It took me from thinking about an email list to actually building one.

Right now, I am getting some website help. I’ve taken it as far as I can in terms of design. This has been a huge decision, but I’ve felt stuck about it for over a year!

For some reason, bloggers tend to use the words, I can’t afford it a lot. Or we insist we have to be making money to spend money.

Yet, we all spend money on things in our lives that don’t demand the same angst. We go to movies, we take trips, we go to restaurants.

My blog is a huge source of satisfaction in my life and I consider an investment in it, an investment in myself. I’ve put the work in and I really believe we as bloggers need to put spending money on our blogs as an okay thing to do.

Even if you blog for a hobby, you still want a nice place to do it and have all the functions working that you want. We spend money on other hobbies and crafts. Why not your blog?

Have I Sought Blogging Support?

Facebook is full of blogging groups. I belong to 3 that I really get a lot out of. I even pay to be in one of them! One is my own that I run with my daughter. And the 3^rd one is for “moms” but it has some of the best blogging help out there for ANY kind of blog.

The first blogging group I joined was closed about a year into my joining. It was still a great experience and I met bloggers there, that I am still in contact with. In my own group, I’ve made friends in my own blogging group that have become friends in all ways, except meeting them in person.

Facebook groups are a great way to get support in your blogging journey. You are likely to connect with people at about the same experience as you, as well as getting advice from more experienced bloggers.

I can’t over emphasize the importance of finding other bloggers to connect with and Facebook groups are perfect for this.

Am I Producing Content on a Regular Basis?

It’s easy to want to quit something that you aren’t actually doing. I see bloggers take breaks for months and then sheepishly try to get started again.

Blogging is like exercising—the more you do, and the more regularly, the easier it gets.

If you quit writing or creating content; it is so hard to get back into it. You won’t feel motivated and you won’t be getting regular bursts of inspiration.

You’ll sit there with nothing to write about!

But if you create content consistently, you’ll find it easier and you’ll get new ideas that will be fun to explore.

As you build your body of work, you’ll feel a sense of pride in you work and you’ll want to keep adding to it. Action begets more action.

Challenge yourself to create at least one new blog post a week, no matter how you feel. If you are already doing that, go for two a week. Put it on your calendar and just get it done. Do your best with them but don’t try for perfect.

I find that writing consistently is the best way to get new ideas. If you get an idea, don’t overthink it, just write it up, create your graphic, publish and move on.

What Have I Learned from Blogging so Far?

It may not always feel like it, but you’ve probably already learned a lot about blogging. It truly can feel overwhelming to contemplate all that we still need to learn. Yet, it’s important to stop and take stock of all we’ve already done.

This is proof that you’ll learn the rest eventually.

Let’s see, you’ve set up a blog. You’ve chosen a theme. You’ve added a few plug-ins. You’ve learned to edit and publish. You are navigating social media in a new way. You are creating graphics and learning a little design. Maybe you’ve made some printables, an opt-in, a newsletter? You know what SEO stands for. Add to this list, all the other things you’ve learned.

This is big stuff!

Give yourself some positive thoughts about how far you’ve already come. You really have.

What successes have I had so far?

I remember the day when I had my first success. I had been blogging for about six months without much happening. I wrote a post that told how I lost weight after 50 and made a graphic for it. One day in May 2016, I was sitting out by the pool with my granddaughter and I was checking my site stats. Suddenly they were going up. That afternoon I had my first 100+ views in a day.

Other successes can be your first ad income. Your first affiliate income. Hitting certain numbers on your social media. The first person that writes you to tell you that something you wrote, helped them. The first comment on a blog post. Your first “viral” pin. The first month, you wrote a blog post every single week. Heck, writing your FIRST blog post is a success.

Have I lost my passion for blogging or just for my topic?

Sometimes we think we’ve lost our passion for blogging, when really, we are tired of a topic. Many of us start blogging with an idea of the things we want to write about. Or we constrain ourselves to a few topics in an effort to stick with our niche.

Blogging is a creative process and I believe there is room for your niche and to sometimes write outside of it. I can honestly say, that my blog posts that bring in the most page views were all written as something new. Something that I hadn’t been planning to write and then there was this idea. And I went with it.

When I started blogging, I was already a grandmother. But I had no intention of writing about that. I geared all my posts to women of any age. Yet, when I finally allowed myself to write about being over 50 and being a grandmother, my blog started growing and still is.

How to Let Blog Posts Choose You

If I hadn’t moved on from topics that weren’t working and tried out new ones, I would never have discovered that I could connect with thousands more women that way.

Were my expectations unrealistic?

I think many bloggers would be happier if they simply gave themselves permission to blog for a year without worrying about making money. It takes 6 months to a year for a blog, and I mean a blog that is being cared for, to get serious traction.

You can’t just write a few blog posts and expect to be earning money.

Blogging is a craft and a job, and it works best to consider it in this serious sense. Every job or craft you learn, takes time to not only learn, but to gain competence. I see so many bloggers just starting out and feeling desperate because they aren’t making any money yet.

Of course, there are exceptions and a few people do this. However, this is not the norm. It just isn’t. Those that do it relatively early (within the first year) are usually fairly driven people.

I am not one of them! But I can spot them and it’s fun to watch them go with it.

How to Get Unstuck in Blogging

Just because you aren’t bringing in serious income right away, doesn’t mean you won’t. Part of it is mindset. Eventually, your mind will decide to start making money and you will figure out the best way.

Of course, it’s great to start with the intention of making money. In fact, it’s probably more effective to start thinking like that as soon as possible. Just give yourself credit for what you are doing when you are building the foundation for your blog.

Do I really want to quit, or do I want different results?

If you really like blogging but there’s an aspect that you don’t like, then you can do one of two things: change the thing or change how you think about it.

Yes, you really can just change how you think about something. I’m hoping this post has helped you think of your blogging differently.

You can even reframe the results you want.

For example, you might not be able to totally control page views or income from the blog.

You totally can control your commitment to writing each and every week and promoting your blog on social media. Make the results you want, something you can control!

As much as I love hitting pageview goals, I can’t always control that. However, I can schedule regular time to produce posts and I can schedule time on social media to promote my work.

How Blogging Changed My Life

That feels awesome too!

And it usually leads to the results that are less out of our control too.

10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Quit Blogging

If you’ve made it to the end of this post, I am sure you are seeing your blog and your work in a new way. Heck, I am seeing my blog and work in a new way by writing this today.

Blogging is hard and often lonely work and we need all the support and affirmation we can get from each other.

If you are seriously thinking of quitting, give yourself another month. Write four new posts. Try out at least one topic you’ve never written about yet. Interact in a Facebook blogging group.

Take the time to ask the ten questions to ask yourself before you quit blogging.

I hope you don’t! There are people out there waiting to read what you write or hear what you have to say.

The post 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Quit Blogging appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Blogging is a super effective way to improve your life and learn tons of new marketable skills! Here are 10 reasons to start your blog TODAY!

There are so many amazing reasons to blog that have nothing to do with money. Since you don’t make money for a while, so it’s a great idea to have other motivations to blog to keep ya going! Here is some inspiration to start a blog today.

If you can get started on your blog; you can build a foundation that will eventually allow you to monetize. The most important thing is to get started and learn as you go.

10 Reasons to Start a Blog

Plus, if you have 10 other reasons to blog besides making money; you have 10 other reasons to stick with it in the months or years you aren’t making money!

For me the number one reason I started a blog was because I had all these ideas in my head and I needed a way to get them out into the world. They weren’t all connected but they needed to be written. Creating an active blog had been on my mind for years!

This post has affiliate links for products I personally use and recommend. Read my full disclosure here.

Your Blog Can Help Others

You have things inside you that could help others. In my three years as a blogger, I have seen women write about all kinds of things. I have seen women create new lives through their blogs. Reading the work of other blogs helps me and keeps me motivated and inspired.

What if they had kept all their good stuff to themselves? The body of knowledge and ideas has expanded because of bloggers like myself and you too.

Your Blog Can Help You Make New Connections Around the World

Being a part of a community is life-giving. Blogging gives you a new and expanded community. I connected with other women early in my blogging journey and we are still friends and keep in touch.

Some I have collaborated with and others have even provided support during discouraging times.

Bloggers are real people with real lives! Because many of us work as well as spend hours writing each week, our blogging community is important to us.

No one else quite understands blogging in our real lives. While they may be supportive, they don’t understand the constant struggles to grow as a blogger.

Other bloggers too. They also understand the everyday struggles of parenting, working, relationships and everything else you have going on.

Build New and Marketable Skills with Your Blog

Blogging is so much more than simply writing an online diary. You learn to set up a website and eventually so much other technology as you go along. In fact, right now, it’s probably hard to imagine the things you’ll discover you can do.

Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve set up the website, customized it, set up contact forms and an email list.

I’ve learned to design graphics, use social media to promote my blog, and have improved my writing. I can do demonstration videos and live videos.

Right now I use Bluehost and have been with them for three years. They are a great value for a new blogger! It’s the cost of a cup of coffee or two a month and you have access to an amazing place to learn and grow.

Here is a partial list of the things you will learn if you spend time in the blogging world.

• Website creation
• Writing with strength and purpose
• Graphic design
• Social media promotion
• Newsletter writing
• Making videos of yourself or your recipes or crafts.

I have used every single thing I’ve learned through developing my blog in my job. It has made me better at everything I do.

You Build a Body of Work You Can Use for a Book or Course

If you have every thought of being a writer or putting together a cook book or a craft book, then blogging is a place to build your body of work.

By committing to a post or more a week, you not only get better at your writing or sharing your skill, you create a stockpile of your work. This can later be the basis for a bigger project.

I believe that we all have thoughts and ideas inside us that need a way to get out. By blogging, you are accessing these ideas piece by piece. You are literally mining your own gold. You have so much inside you already that you don’t even know about.

I am continually surprise by how much I already know. Sometimes, I need to do a little research, but 99% of the time, everything I need is already there. Blogging is a great way to gather your ideas and to write them up.

By committing to writing about it on a regular basis, I’ve built up, categorized pieces of work that can be used for the creation of a book or class. Plus by getting it all out of my head and articulating them, I take these vague ideas that are there and turn them into usable pieces on content.

You Discover Your Own Creativity Through Blogging

Blogging is a creative process that requires discipline. When you begin blogging, you really do wonder where your ideas will come for the next few months and the next few years.

Yet, it is in the act of creating, that we get more creative. Creativity is like a muscle; you have to use it, to build it. This muscle may be rusty in you. If you haven’t created for a while, you may even think that you aren’t creative.

Yet, every person is creative. That’s what humans do—they create!

It can be almost scary to face a blank page. Yet, all you have to do is start and keep at it. I get asked, where my ideas come from. They come in different ways. Read here to find out How to Let Blog Ideas Find You!

Sometimes, I just get a title. One phrase to start with. Sometimes, I may be walking or doing something away from my computer, and a post begins to write itself in my head. Either way, when I get to my computer, I type as much as I have.

Then the challenge is to fill out the idea. The best way I’ve found is to set aside a couple of hours and challenge myself to complete it the best I can.

It is AMAZING what you can write, when you give yourself the space and time to do it, with the commitment to finish out the post. The more you do this, the more you trust yourself to be able to do it.

You Understand Yourself Better Through Writing a Blog

The more I write, the more I understand myself better. You don’t realize, until you start writing your posts out, what you already know about yourself.

Writing forces you to articulate the things you understand and the things you’ve learned about yourself.

I don’t care what you are writing about—writing helps you understand it better. And even better, you have a written record of it.

I have brilliant thoughts all the time. But unless I get it written, those thoughts usually evaporate into the ethers.

They fade away. Maybe not totally gone but gone enough. Writing captures your insights, AHAS, and really good ideas and processes.

You Become a Better Writer Through Blogging

I’ve always loved writing. As I write blog posts I write better in all ways. It not only helps me write better blog posts, but I write better at work as well.

The trick to becoming a better writer is to write consistently and continually try to improve. The more I write, the easier it becomes to write.

The blank page is nothing to be scared of. When you are getting started, it’s easy to be intimidated. Yet, we all have to start somewhere without any assurance that anyone is going to read what you write.

However, if you commit to writing, you will attract readers who are eager for your information. You have a perspective, knowledge, and experience that no one else has and writing is a way to get it out there.

You Gain Confidence and Become an Authority Through Blogging

As you write, you’ll settle into subjects that you know a lot about. You probably don’t even realize how much you know about some things.

I’m continually surprised by how much I know about different things. The more I wrote, the more comfortable I became with the subjects that I was writing about. One post would turn into several more!

After three years of writing, I feel confident about the things I’m writing about and am enjoying growing with my blog.

You Learn Commitment and Discipline By Blogging

If you are going to have a blog that somebody reads, you will have to create and post on a regular basis. You’ll have to write when you don’t feel like it and you will need to keep at it for enough time to build a foundation.

When you have a blog, to have any kind of growth, then it requires discipline and commitment to take it to a level that provides satisfaction. Let’s face it, if we’re going to blog, we also want people to read our blogs!

Blogging goes beyond a personal journal. Your posts have a purpose and you are sharing knowledge with others. It takes time to have enough blog posts and enough content to gain readers and a place on the internet.

You Have Fun and Learn New Things

Blogging IS fun! In addition to writing, creating, and developing your blog; you make friends and participate in groups.

You might make videos or you might be making recipes or crafts. There are so many facets to having a blog that you can choose the direction that is most fun for you.

Being a blogger is being part of a culture that is unlike any other.

Many bloggers are introverts who love working on their own but still love connecting with others. It might seem like it would be lonely but in its own way, it opens up your world.

If you are a life-long learner, then blogging provides non-stop opportunity for learning. Once you master something, you see something else you want to learn. This keeps you feeling smart and young!

Remember, that when you are at the beginning, it can feel overwhelming. The best way to deal with this is to jump in and take it in small steps.

10 Reasons to Start a Blog Besides Making Money

There are probably more than 10 reasons to start a blog besides making money! Blogging is the most satisfying thing in my life besides my family and my job.

I’ve made friends and I’ve learned so many skills. Not only that but I swear it keeps me young. I feel involved with a profession that constantly inspires and challenges me to keep growing in my life.

In addition, I feel like I do some good in the world. I share my knowledge, experience, and skills with others. It’s incredibly satisfying to create my own body of work that may one day be the foundation for a book or other endeavor.

Don’t let worrying about how to make money blogging, keep you from blogging. There are so many reasons to blog that are worthwhile and great motivation to get started. So, have fun and get writing and creating.

Love, Sara

Want More Blogging Help?

How to Start a Blog for Profit and Fun
How to Write Your First Blog Post
How Blogging Changed My Life

The post 10 Reasons to Start a Blog Besides Making Money appeared first on My Think Big Life.

These days a lot of people are trying to learn how to make money blogging. Yet, they get stuck on the actual blogging part. None of the blogging help or blogging tips seem to help when you are get stuck. You can’t do anything with your blog if you are stuck!  So here’s how to get unstuck in blogging.

Have you have gotten stuck somewhere in your blogging journey?

Maybe you never got started? Maybe you started but quit actively blogging after a few weeks? Maybe you still post every month or two but can’t quite get it going? Maybe you are writing consistently but still feel stuck at a certain level?

What were your goals when you started? And where are you in relation to those goals?

So, what happened. How did a journey that started with so much promise, get derailed?

If you haven’t even started your blog, I suggest you also read this post, Ten Reasons You Haven’t Started Your Blog Yet.

I do know that many people start blogs and for some reason they quit blogging, sometimes right at the beginning of the journey or even a year or two into it.

How to Get Unstuck in Blogging

Blogging isn’t for everyone. It sounds so cool—just jump online set up a blog and start writing. What we all find out very soon is that there is way more to having a blog than simply writing about stuff we like.

Whether we want to blog for fun or to make money, we all write in the hopes that someone will read our words. So, part of the job of blogging is finding ways for our blog to be found and read by the people we are writing for.

And that’s that is just one of our tough lessons. We learn that we have to make our blog attractive. We learn we have to write blog posts that provide value. We learn we have to master at least a part of social media. We learn that there are millions of bloggers out there that are all clamoring for their part of the blogosphere.

Why I Care

I care because I have seen bloggers that had so much potential just disappear. And I always wondered what happened. A couple of years ago, I started a Facebook group for new bloggers because I wanted to help other bloggers get past that.

Yet, I see the same thing happening there. So, maybe that’s just how it’s going to be. Many people start and only a few stick with it. However, after talking to bloggers for two years, I’ve come to see that there are some common themes about how bloggers get stuck.

If you are a woman that is stuck in your blogging journey, then read on. There is no magic pill to be a successful blogger—only you can do the work involved. However, sometimes a little extra encouragement can help you get unstuck in blogging.

Creating a Blog is GOOD for YOU!

The other reason I care is because I know that creating a real blog versus having an online diary is a way to learn how to write with focus, create a body of work you can use towards a book or class to teach, and a way to learn valuable marketable skills. In addition, you can gain confidence and make new friends.

As you can tell, I love blogging and really believe it helped me create a better life.

Why Blogging can Seem so Hard

I was recently at a meeting with some financial advisors. And I had to explain that the equivalent time of a part-time job was going to my blog that was not paying like my real part-time job.

That definitely seems dumb to some people. Those are not people whose opinion I want to hear. I cannot over emphasize this: blogging has helped me grow, not into a new person, but into the real person that I was always meant to be.

It has provided so many incredible benefits to me, but it was not without effort. I have put the time and hours into this work and I am incredibly proud of what I have made of it. Read about How Blogging Changed My Life.

Blogging can seem difficult, because well, beyond just writing about your life and such, there is a lot to it and there are so many people telling you to do this and that.

I have no idea why people think they can pop on their computer and in a few weeks start producing income to replace a job that perhaps they went to college to get and have put in years of work. There are a handful of people that have perhaps done that but for the vast majority, it takes longer than a Nano second to get established online and earn an income.

Below are the reasons I that bloggers give about why they are stuck. Sometimes they don’t know the reason, they just aren’t writing or posting. This turned into a really long post, so feel free to skim the headings to find your stuck place and find out how to move on.

You Started but Gave up After a Month or Two

The first few months are difficult. It truly is overwhelming to figure out the technical side of blogging. Add not being sure about what or how to write and you’ve got a perfectly good reason to give up.

Everyone says it’s going to be easy.

They are lying when they say that. Blogging is hard and at no time is it harder than in the first few months.

It’s hard because you are truly on your own. You haven’t crossed over to the “real” blogger stage. You don’t know what the heck you are doing. And worst, the people in your real life, not only don’t understand but they can’t help you out at all.

The feeling of overwhelm and being alone and unsure of yourself is REAL. It’s real and it’s totally normal.

If you blog with purpose and you continually try to grow your blog, you will cross through this stage to feeling like a real blogger and getting some real traction.

Your Blog Sucks Compared to Other People’s

Everyone, even successful bloggers had to be a beginner and start somewhere. Everyone has gone through the ugly-duckling new blogger phase where your blog posts just don’t quite work, and your graphics are clearly a beginner’s.

Let me stress again—everyone has been there.

No one likes being there and some people work like crazy to push through that stage. Some people write a few posts and abandon their blog because they feel they will never be as good as the successful bloggers.

Let me remind you again. Every successful blogger has been there.

Here’s the thing. You do have control over how long you stay there. It takes work and commitment to get out of that stage. And the only way to get out is to write, learn from what you write, and write some more.

You Hate Being on Social Media all the Time

You get over your resentment that you spend so much time on Facebook or Pinterest and accept that it is a part of the job or hobby of being a blogger. I’ve read some people say spend 20% of your time writing and 80% promoting.

But promoting isn’t scrolling Facebook or Pinterest. Promoting means learning the ins-and-outs of both and really spending constructive time promoting your blog posts.

Successful bloggers create social media posts and graphics and schedule to go out day in and day out. They don’t just make one pin for a post and call it a day; they make a few and try different ones out and see what works best.

Successful bloggers see a new way of doing something and they give it a try. I was talking to Stacey @ thesocceermomblog.com last week and she had a video going viral on Facebook. It’s not her first video to go viral but this was the most successful so far. Stacey is a six-figure blogger who has been trying to perfect her Facebook video game for well over a year.

Why? Because the people that pay her to write posts or put advertisements on her blog like big Facebook followings. And so, every day she doesn’t just post content she finds from other people; she actively creates engaging original content as well.

Being on social media is part of the job.

Early in my blogging career, a successful blogger told me that you need to spend time pinning to Pinterest and posting to Facebook like it’s your job—because it is your job.

Like it or not, spending significant time creating content for social media is a significant part of a blogger’s job.

About a year ago, another blogger said something along the lines of that she didn’t want to sell her soul to Pinterest.

You don’t have to sell your soul to anyone. That being said, you are going to have to accept that Pinterest is hugely important to any blogger’s traffic strategy. It just is. While SEO and Facebook are important too, it’s Pinterest that sends the largest percentage of traffic to most bloggers.

Accept it and learn to deal with Pinterest.

You Gave Yourself a Goal to Make Money in Six Months and You Didn’t

This is a huge area for getting stuck—putting a goal on making money in a certain amount of time. Blogging is not an exact science though there are certain things that work in a fairly predictable manner.

However, there are so many variables. What is your niche? How many times a week do you post. How many hours a week do you put into your blog?

All of these things matter. Do not be fooled by people who say they only work a few hours a week and make six figures. Full time income requires full time work. Part-time work takes longer to make a part-time income.

It can easily take six months or more to gain enough traction to make some income. For almost every blog, you have to have significant page views to make ANY income. Even when you hit the magic 30K page views, the income is still minimal. And getting to the really magical number of 100K is daunting to say the least.

Some of this is out of your control. It’s not realistic to start a blog and expect to make money a few months in. It’s just not.

In any industry, there are always superstars. These are people that seem to do it without effort. Yet, they put in a lot of effort. These are the people that get up earlier than the kids to work, get support so they can write during the day, and stay up late still working.

If your goal is to earn money with your blog; you’ll have to put in the hours to earn that money. If your goal is to earn money within a year—then you will probably need to take some blogging classes to speed up your learning curve.

Money doesn’t just happen.

For the record, you probably won’t make money for some time if you just want to write about your life and such. You really have to have a strong blog focus, a target audience, and a money-making strategy.

What is your money-making strategy? If you don’t have one—money won’t magically come to you. Making money with ads and affiliates often takes lots of page views to generate real income. But there are other ways. People make money with products, books, printables, you name it.

My point is, that you really need a strategy to make money online and work consistently towards it. You can’t have a “I hope I make money someday” dream and expect that to work. It just doesn’t.

My Family Doesn’t Support Me as a Blogger

This is another big one. Many people expect that the people that are important to them will be supportive of their blog and will take an active interest in it.

They most likely won’t. Best case is that they won’t actively try to discourage you. A blog, even when it’s going great, can take a good six months to a year to get established. Even working on it part-time, you are going to need to spend at least 10 – 15 hours a week on it, every week.

So, let’s see. You are spending 10-15 hours a week on something for months and it’s not paying you more than a few dollars a month. Not too many people understand that. They just don’t. It will appear to other people to be a very time-consuming hobby.

Not only that, but most people in your day-to-day life, will not be that interested in your writing. Many people that you tell about your blog will not every read a single post. Ever.

Do NOT let this stop you. One of the most powerful shifts in thinking that I had about my blog was not expecting anyone in my real life to read or follow my blog.

There are things your family won’t see.

They don’t see that I have consistently worked on and have grown a blog out of nowhere and made it an established part of the online world. I have given up so many endeavors but not this one!

While my face-to-face tribes don’t get blogging, my online tribes do. I’ve made real friends and connections through my blog and my presence on Facebook as a blogger.

Blogging enriched my life beyond measure! Read here, How Blogging Changed My Life.

I can’t get page views!

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that from a brand-new blogger! Page views are what we all chase in some form or another. They are important to an overall money-making plan.

Getting page views is tough though It’s a noisy world online with millions of places for people to spend their time looking at interesting content. Not only are you competing with thousands of bloggers, who are perhaps writing almost exactly what you are writing about, but you are competing against professional writers as well.

Yet, you will see posts on Pinterest and group leaders on Facebook telling you about their massive page views each month.

Yes, people get there or have gotten there. Some quicker than you. Again remember, all those bloggers out there. These are people that have pushed through the noise. You don’t see them because everyone is doing it, you see them because somehow, they got their blog in front of your eyes.

Most bloggers who do that work really hard and really smart to do that. They pump out content and they work hard at mastering social media. Sometimes there’s an element of luck as in timing. There are bloggers who jumped on the Pinterest train early and built up followings before everyone was trying to do it.

However, even with a great niche and hard work, it’s still challenging. So, when you are reading and comparing yourself to another blogger that is successful, take a step back, and realize that they have worked incredibly hard to get where they are at.

It takes time and consistency for your content to cut through all of this. I don’t say that it’s hard to discourage you but to give you a better idea of what you are facing. Quit being so hard on yourself!

You Can’t Get Motivated

As much as I love my blog, I have to force myself at times to continue. And I do because I cannot over emphasize how proud I am of this achievement and how much it has contributed to my life.

Accept that you won’t be motivated all the time, especially in the beginning when it’s all new and it doesn’t make sense and you aren’t sure about any of it.

Find at least two hours a day and work at it. If you’re still setting it up, spend those two hours working on that. Write for two hours. Learn to make Pinterest pins. Use part of that time every day to work on your blog posts. Get one or two blog posts up, each and every week.

Take motivation out of the equation and just do the work every single day. If you are working on your blog at least two hours a day you will make progress.

It takes time to build up momentum on a blog. You are kind of working in the dark at the beginning, plugging away at something where you don’t really know what you are doing.

As your blog becomes a thing and you learn the ins and outs, you’ll always have plenty to do.

You Can’t Figure Out a Step

A year or so ago, I got stuck because I wanted to have an opt-in and a newsletter, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it all. I felt stuck because I had come up against a wall and I just didn’t have the time or energy to figure it out.

In the end, I hired a VA for a few hours to set it all up. Once it was set up, I could write my newsletters and schedule them to go out.

Many things I am able to figure out if I set aside the time and make it a priority to learn and do. Sometimes I ask another blogger for help. And once in a while, I pay for some help.

There’s no right answer, except to not stay stuck too long.

You Want to Change Directions

This happens, blogs evolve and that’s why I advocate giving yourself a few months to figure out what you DO want to write about. It doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch. After you write posts for a while, you will discover the topics that you are passionate about.

It took me six months to find my direction. I had to really pay attention to ideas that came to me and follow up with writing a post.

The idea for my most popular post ever, came to me during a walk. I got home and wrote it up quickly. It was different than anything I had ever written. It does well, still, two years later and got me writing about what I was really passionate about.

I changed direction for by blog and have never looked back. Stacey @ thesoccermomblog.com started writing with one focus and after a few months changed her tagline and the direction of her blog without changing the name either.

In the beginning not too many people are reading your blog, so write whatever you want and that is the best way to learn and discover what you want to write about that also resonates with readers.

How to Get Unstuck in Blogging

It is possible to get unstuck no matter what the reason is. In fact, it is in overcoming any of these stuck points that will cause you to grow as a blogger. You will get better at blogging by getting unstuck and moving beyond that point.

I LOVE blogging and love to write about it. Here are my favorite posts to help you become a real blogger.
How to Start a Blog for Profit and Fun
How to Write Your First Blog Post
How to Let Blog Topics Find You
How to Go from Beginner to Blogger
How to Use Pinterest to Grow Your Blog
How Blogging Changed my Life

Some day you will look back and even wonder why you let something hold you back. Here’s what I know. It takes writing and posting consistently for months or years to build traction, presence, and authority in blogging.

If you are putting eight hours a day into your blog, you will grow faster than someone putting in an hour a day.

If you only have an hour a day to blog—go for it! It’s still a really cool outlet and hobby. You will grow your blog, but it will be somewhat slower than someone who has more hours to put into it.

The KEY is commitment and consistency. Remember, commitment and consistency will move you through and beyond ever place you could possibly get stuck

The post How to Get Unstuck in Blogging appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Are you scared to start a blog? Here are 10 common fears and 10 reasons to stop being afraid to start a blog. Blogging is an amazing adventure and I’d hate for you to miss out because you are scared to start a blog.

I’ve noticed over the years that many women want to start blogs, even have great ideas, and yet they never get started. Because I love the craft of blogging so much I was curious what was keeping people from even starting and talked to women who wanted to start blogs but hadn’t.

Real Women Reveal Their Real Fears About Blogging

These are the actual reasons women gave me for not starting a blog. Do any of these statements sound like you? These are REAL things that women have said to me about why they haven’t started their blog yet. 

• “I’m struggling with what feels like every aspect of it” 
• “I think I’m scared to start writing because I don’t want to fail?” 
• “I wanted to be confident in what I was offering.”
• “I feel like I am having such a hard time trying to narrow my focus, my mind is really all over the place.”
• “I don’t have full-time hours to devote to blogging at the this moment.”
• “I am still trying to figure out a name for my blog”

Don’t be Scared to Start a Blog!

After two years of working with new bloggers, I keep seeing the same reasons over and over. To help all of you who want to be bloggers but for some reason haven’t, I’m going to help you face your concerns about blogging so you can get started right away.

Most women don’t regret starting a blog but they often regret not starting it sooner!

Why Start Right Blogging Right Away?

The reason to start right away is because you truly learn blogging by BLOGGING! It doesn’t have to be perfect from the get-go. And the best way to get over all the things holding you back is by creating your blog.

I LOVE blogging and love to write about it. Here are my favorite posts to help you become a real blogger.
How to Start a Blog for Profit and Fun
How to Write Your First Blog Post
How to Let Blog Topics Find You
How to Go from Beginner to Blogger
How to Use Pinterest to Grow Your Blog
How Blogging Changed my Life

As a member of several groups and as  an active blogger, I know that a lot of the things that hold people back from starting are mostly in their minds. What I mean is, that the REAL barrier to starting a blog is something that you tell yourself about starting a blog.

10 Reasons Women are Afraid to Start a Blog

To help people get past those limiting thoughts, I’ve created a list of 10 reasons you haven’t started your blog yet. If any of these reasons are stopping you then I hope you will reconsider and just get started.

Here are my Top Ten Reasons Why You Are Afraid to Start a Blog

Blogging Fear One: You Can’t Decide on a Name for Your Blog

Yes, a name is important but if picking a name keeps you from blogging for months, then you are going to just have to get over picking the “perfect” name.

In general, to pick a name you play around with some ideas. Then you run them through a domain name checker to see if the name is taken. If it is, you try again. It can be frustrating to have your first choice not be available. It’s a good idea to go for a .com name since most people are used to that.

That all being said, what if you just can’t decide on anything? Do your best. Domain names themselves aren’t very expensive. If you change your mind before you start your blog, you can always pick something else. A friend of mine did that.

Yes, there are some really great blog names out there but you don’t have to have the perfect name to be successful.

Here’s something most new bloggers don’t know. Very few people come to your blog because of its name. Most people find your blog because of a specific post that they’ve seen promoted on social media or Pinterest.

Eventually if they visit more times or you get really big-time, people will know the name. And if that happens—no worries. They connect your name with a great blog!

Start with the best name you can and grow your blog into something that makes your blog name AMAZING.

Blogging Fear Two: You’re Not a Great Writer

You might think this is a perfectly good reason to not write. You’d be wrong.

Let’s face some truth here. Most people are not going to read your early stuff when it’s written. This is your time to try out different topics and practice your writing. By writing, you will learn what subjects really resonate with you and with your readers and you will get better at writing them.

Writing is a skill that is best developed by DOING. You can’t become a great writer without writing. As you network with other bloggers and get involved in social media, you’ll read more blogs and you’ll learn better ways of organizing your thoughts.

Best of all—you don’t have to be a great writer to be a great blogger. Many popular and successful bloggers are just okay writers.

Blogging Fear Three: You’re Afraid of the Technology

The technology behind a blog can be kind of scary and at points in our blogging journey, all of us have to learn new things.

Yet, the basic technology for starting a blog is not that difficult. You can find a how-to post that will walk you through it to get started.

For the first few months, it’s enough to write a new post or two each week, create a graphic for it, and publish it. If you concentrate on creating good content, you will be putting yourself in a strong position for everything else you’ll need to learn.

Once you are doing that consistently and confidently, then go to the next thing. Many bloggers are trying to do all kinds of things when they are still writing poorly and making bad graphics. Trust me here. You really don’t want to be promoting your early posts before they are ready.

But when you are doing them relatively well, then it’s time to master the next thing. People might try to scare you about having to do this or that but stay the course and get a good foundation under you.

There will ALWAYS be a next thing and you will be ready for it.

Blogging Fear Four: You are worried what people will think?

Almost everyone worries about what people will think when they first start blogging. Start your blog anyway. And by “people,” I mean people in your real life: spouses, parents, siblings, children, friends, and co-workers.

You don’t have to tell people in your real life. Don’t worry, the real people in your life aren’t going to be that interested anyway. You might think you need them to get a few eyes on your posts but you don’t.

Your real audience will develop organically. Some people that love you dearly will NEVER even look at your blog. It’s more common for people to not care about what you write than for people to care about what you write.

As you progress and you write about what you need to write about, you will care less and less what people you know think. Why should you? You have thousands of other readers that you are helping and that will be your focus.

Blogging Fear Five: You don’t know what to write 

Start writing anyway! When I started, I had some ideas about what I wanted to write about. It was difficult in the beginning because I wasn’t sure about the right topics. However, I just kept on writing.

Eventually, some topics I had never even thought about began to come to mind. And fortunately, I wrote about them. Over my first year or so, my topics seemed to center around five categories. Some categories from the beginning just didn’t work out and I let them go.

Some of my best performing posts just came to me and I wrote them without having thought about them before. That’s inspiration folks!

Yet, I know from experience that inspiration needs regular feeding. When I get inspired, I write down as much as I can on the topic. I will usually have a few open posts that I’m working on. Sometimes, an idea is so strong, I can write the whole thing in one sitting. Sometimes I work on it over a period of time.

Inspiration will get you started but the commitment to writing daily is what will get posts finished and published.

In the beginning, try any topic you want—even if it feels different from what you were thinking your blog would be about, this is how we develop our true writing voices.

It’s great to have a plan but the greatest writing sometimes comes from when we are willing to write something we hadn’t planned.

Blogging Fear Six: You think you don’t have the time

Here’s something that every blogger feels: There is never enough time. I’m a part-time blogger and I never have the time to do everything I want to do. Yet, because I’m committed and I work on my blog and/or social media almost every day, I’ve built a blog that I’m extremely proud of.

It is seriously, one of the greatest joys and achievements of my life.

My daughter at The Soccer Mom Blog writes full-time and supports a family of four with her business. She started part-time with a school-age child and a newborn. Again, she never has enough time to do everything she wants to do.

That’s okay. Learning to manage our time is part of the process. Every morning I do some of my social media work. Weekends and days off are when I do most of my writing. In the evenings, I will do a little of whatever needs doing.

By being consistent and committed, a blog grows and earns its place in the world. You don’t have to be fulltime to make it work but you do have to be consistent.

Blogging Fear Seven: You’re afraid you will fail

You won’t fail if you don’t start that’s for sure. You also won’t fail if you remain consistent and committed and you keep stretching to be better.

Who decides if you fail or not anyway? I have seen good bloggers decide that when year is up, if they aren’t making money they will quit.

To be making money by the one year mark, is a totally made-up and arbitrary indicator of success. Some people are making money at the one-year mark; it’s not impossible. But for many people that is just not going to happen. THAT is not failure—it’s simply that it hasn’t happened at that point in time.

Blogs and bloggers are different. Only you decide if you succeed or fail. Don’t let anyone decide for you and never compare your progress to anyone else’s.

It truly is sad to see someone quit because they don’t think they have succeeded by a certain date. It’s even sadder to see someone not try at all.

TRY!

Blogging Fear Eight: You Can’t Narrow Your Interests

To some extent, you will need to narrow them down so they fit under one umbrella. However, it can be a big umbrella and you can change it if you need to.

Some things you think you want to write about just won’t feel relevant after a while. New topics may come up. As you write, you will naturally settle on a few general categories that make sense for you and your readers.

Here is a very important thing to know. Blogs are not an online diary. You will be writing posts to have a specific focus and to provide specific information for your readers.

Your posts will be written to help someone with something. No matter how many things you are interested in; there aren’t going to be unlimited subjects that you can help people with.

Don’t worry about narrowing it down-think about what you know enough about to write about in a helpful way and start writing.

Blogging Fear Nine: You think all the good ideas have been done

Don’t ever fall for this one! Of course, other people have written about your topics before. However, no one has ever written about them the way you will. Your voice will be unique and you will say it in a way that appeals to readers.

One hundred people can write about the same thing and they will all sound different. Your slant will be different than anyone else’s.

Occasionally, I will see a post with the same name as mine. When I go check it out, expecting to see it look the same, I am always surprised by how different another blogger has tackled the subject.

Have you ever visited the cookbook section of a bookstore? Food is food. Take a potato for example. Google how many recipes there are for a potato. Millions.

Don’t worry that all the good stuff is already taken; there is always room for one more voice if you have something to say.

Blogging Fear Ten: You don’t think you are confident enough

Of all the reasons, don’t let this one stop you. Feeling confident when you start will not make you a better or more successful blogger. However, building and growing your blog WILL make you more confident.

No one knows for sure if they have what it takes when they start. The difference between those that eventually feel confident and those that don’t, is that the confident bloggers keep at it until they feel that way.

You can become confident through the process of blogging. It’s difficult to become confident simply by reading and thinking about blogging.

Quick Start List to Get Blogging Today

It can seem overwhelming all the stuff you have to do. Again, don’t let this stop you. You don’t have to know everything at once! Give yourself time to learn one thing before you move on to another.

This is a list of resources including posts I’ve written (free information!) and one paid class. Bluehost is an affiliate link. You can read my full disclosure here.

Four Steps to Become a Blogger

Set Up Your Blog

Take a day when you have some time and set up your blog. That’s it. Just get it set up. Here’s my tutorial. I have BlueHost and one thing I really like now is that Word Press is automatically installed for you now.

Setting up your blog sounds worse than it is! It doesn’t have to be perfect or “professional” yet. In fact, give yourself permission to NOT be perfect!

Then once that is done—write your first blog post!

Write Your First Blog Post

Write your first blog post. Here’s my guide for doing that. Or just write whatever you want to write about. I wrote a guide because blogging is not writing an online diary. There are some good habits to learn early and I share them here.

Make Your First Pinterest Graphic

Learn to make a Pinterest Graphic. This one is huge. Pinterest is the leading referrer of traffic to blogs. Page views are how most (but not all) bloggers make money through ads or sponsored posts. More page views = more money.

If you are handy with graphic-making programs such as PicMonkey or Canva, then start making your own. If you need extra help, I have a class that can really help, Pins that Produce.

Get Support and Help

Once you’ve got started, come join us in the Banking on Blogging Facebook group where you can learn the foundations of blogging that will set you up for success.

Are You Ready to Start Your Blog?

Feel free to stay in these first four steps as long as YOU need! Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. As I said earlier, it takes commitment and consistency to make it as a blogger. If you take nothing else from this post remember that.

Don’t let anyone tell you how fast you need to go or set artificial goals for you. And please, do not let any of the above reasons keep you from starting a blog.

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging my friend!

Love, Sara

RELATED Blogging POSTS

How to Start a Blog for Profit and Fun

How Blogging Changed My Life

How to Write Your First Blog Post

How to Let Blog Topics Find You

Grow Your Blog with Pinterest

The post Are You Scared to Start a Blog? appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Are you a blogger that just can’t seem to get the hang of Pinterest? Is it confusing? Here is a straight forward guide to maximizing your success with Pinterest as a blogger. Here is how to grow your blog with Pinterest.

If Pinterest isn’t sending a significant amount of traffic to your blog, then you need to learn some Pinterest secrets and strategy. You need to learn how to use Pinterest to grow your blog!

According to Pinterest, “Pinterest reaches 83% of all women 25-54 in the US, That’s more than Instagram, Snap and Twitter.”

It’s All About Effective Strategy 

Pinterest is a hotly debated topic in blogging groups. It seems like there are hundreds of opinions. Within blogging groups, I see bloggers chasing one idea after another but many do not get the results that they are hoping for.

It’s time to quit hoping for results on Pinterest and it’s time to develop a solid, effective strategy for Pinterest that will give you a solid foundation, no matter what is going on. To go pro with your blog; you have to use Pinterest strategies that work.

Pinterest IS the strongest blogger-driven social media right now. It is composed almost completely of blogger content and that content is being searched, saved, and shared by a huge audience of non-bloggers eager for that content.

How Pinterest Compares to Other Social Media

To make the math easy, I’m going to say that I had 1000 visitors yesterday. Here’s percentage-wise what my referrals look like.

900 page views were a result of Pinterest
100 page views were a result of Facebook, Twitter, and search engines combined.

Of course, I want the other referrals to work better. But I can’t ignore the referral source that actually is working great. And neither can you!

Pinterest Isn’t a Magic Wand

It can be confusing. I’ve seen so many bloggers, even experienced ones say they need to learn how to use Pinterest. There’s lots of content out there. There are a lot of Pinterest Headlines.

We’ve all seen them.

• Triple Your Traffic
• Explode Your Traffic
• Get a Gazillion More Pins with This One Secret!

This isn’t that kind of report though.

I’m sharing my experience plus that of other bloggers who work consistently and sanely to use Pinterest to get traffic to their blogs.

The Truth About Pinterest

Many new bloggers attempt to jump into the Pinterest game without having a firm blogging foundation. It’s not that you can’t use Pinterest when you are a new blogger; it’s that you won’t use it the same way as an established blogger.

The thing to keep in mind is that every piece of advice you read online, may already be a little out of date. Because Pinterest is always a changing.

However, a consistent presence and plan never changes and you can weather all of Pinterest’s updates if you just stay calm and carry on!

The other truth about Pinterest is that you can’t pin poor posts or graphics and expect to get great results. If you aren’t creating great content and you are trying to pin below-average content and pins, then it just isn’t going to work.

Build your foundation first!

Pinterest For New Bloggers

As a new blogger, your biggest tasks are these: Write great posts, learn to make great pins for your posts, and build up your own Pinterest Account. This will all help you grow your blog with Pinterest.

Remember this. While Pinterest content is created by bloggers, most of the searchers are not bloggers. They people that will follow you, look at your pins, go to your blog or website are regular people looking for information or help.

So, your pin must stand out among millions of other pins and provide enough visual information that someone will click on it to see if you can deliver.

If you feel that you are writing great content that is genuinely helpful but you aren’t getting any traction on Pinterest, then you’ll want to work on your pins.

What About Pinterest Analytics?

While it’s nice to see the number of followers growing or large pin impressions, the important thing is the number of referrals to your website that come from Pinterest.

You might have a bunch of followers and large numbers of pin impressions but that does not always translate into website page views. Advertisers and Influence networks want to see page views on your blog.

Even the number of repins on a pin doesn’t alway indicate the number of page views a pin generates. People don’t always pin your pin, but they might still be visiting your website.

The analytics to really notice is your Google Analytics. You can see what posts are performing and where your referral traffic is coming from. A pin may only show a few hundred repins but might be generating thousands of page views.

Why Use Pinterest?

Every blogger needs to understand and use Pinterest. The main reason is that it IS blogger driven. Think about it, all the content on Pinterest is created by other bloggers. Pinterest NEEDS bloggers and their supply of content. But just as great, is that there is a HUGE audience of non-bloggers who are hungry for the content you are sharing.

Pinterest IS the perfect social media platform for bloggers to use, to send traffic to their websites. Some people seem to have mastered this (or at least for this month) and others are just getting started. No matter where you are on this continuum you have got to have some strategy.

How to Grow Your Blog With Pinterest

Pinterest seems to react well to strategy and consistency. Work something out and stick to it for a week or two and see if things start moving. One of my early strategies, before I had much content was to pin 2 or 3 of my posts to different group boards every day and pin others content to my boards. Back then I was pinning way more of other’s content in an effort to grow my own boards.

If you aren’t already tracking your blog and social media metrics, you can access my tracker here. It’s really important to know your numbers and see how they react to your strategies and actions.

Blog and Social Media Metrics Tracker

If you see your numbers going up. Hooray! You’ve got a good strategy going. Don’t fall for thinking you have to do what some other blogger is doing, just because. However, if you read about something that really resonates and you commit to it. Go for it. Again, your numbers will tell you what is working.

Grow Your Blog With Pinterest: Strategies

Pinterest Strategy #1: Each Post must have an image optimized for pinning

Having an optimized image for pinning is non-negotiable. I am actually surprised by the number of bloggers who don’t do this. It’s such an easy fix. If you don’t do this—you should consider this your first order of business. Pinterest is too important to blog traffic to not do this.

Success on Pinterest requires a good image to pin. Every single post you publish must have a good/great/solid image optimized for pinning. There are lots of guides out there for this. In general, though, it needs to be VERTICAL, EASY TO READ, and ATTRACTIVE.

Horizontal or square pins are not cool. They are fine to sprinkle through your post if you so desire but include at least one image that will work on Pinterest.

I’m not a graphic designer, nor a great photographer. For most pins I use PicMonkey. I’ve also used Preview a program that came with my Mac computer. If you understand what makes a good pin, you can use whatever program you like.

A pin does not have to be fancy to be effective

In fact, in some ways, simple is better when it’s eye-catching and easy to read. Though don’t make it so simple it’s boring. Pinterest is visual and you have to differentiate yourself with your pins.

Browse Pinterest and look for great pins. Try to develop an eye for what works well in pins. Doing this can be crucial to using Pinterest to get traffic to your website.

Pinterest Strategy #2: Get to know Pinterest 

You’re in a relationship. Spend time manually pinning. Be a hands-on pinner! At least some of the time. Spending time looking at pins, choosing pins for your boards, and pinning your own pins teaches you how Pinterest works best for you.

If you like a pin and want to pin it, always click through to the website. You want to confirm that the content is good and that the pin actually goes with the content. Unfortunately, there are people that steal pins and link them to other content.

I promise this isn’t the waste of time. You’ll develop a better understanding of what makes a pin attractive to searchers.

Understand that schedulers such as Tailwind or Board Booster are not magic. I suspect the reason that people have such great growth with them, is that they are finally pinning on a consistent basis and that’s the real reason for growth. There are very successful bloggers who swear by manual pinning and still make time to do it manually and in real time.

It is worth the time and effort to improve your Pinterest game.

Pinterest Strategy #3: Understand the Anatomy of Your Pins

There are three parts to a Pinterest Image

• The title, the actual words you use
• Font and color combinations
• Photograph or graphic background
• Description

These are all important. Not only do individual pins need to attract pinners but they need to reflect your overall look. While you want to have a look, the most boring thing is when every pin on your board (the one devoted to your own blog posts) looks alike.

Give each part some attention and try to make it look as good as you can. Ideally, you will improve the quality of your pins as you practice.

Pinterest Strategy #4: Pin Often Throughout the Day

You don’t have to pin a bazillion times a day.

I have it from a pretty good source (okay I read it on Tailwind) that up to 50 pins a day is the most effective. Over 50 doesn’t seem to produce any extra return.

I’d go crazy if I had to pin more than 30 a day. Here’s why. I like to pin other people’s content and I swear that this is one of the reasons I get my good results. Looking for good pins and content takes time. My rule of thumb is at least one other piece of content pinned for each one of mine. There are differing opinions on this but this has worked for me.

More pinning is not always better. It may seem like that as you are getting started but it’s not. It’s much better to be a smart pinner.

Strategy #5: Be Adaptable and Ready to Try New Things

Keep alert and keep adapting as needed. If something is working—keep doing it! If something goes off, don’t panic, but start looking at how you can modify. I pinned manually for months. It was a free trial of Tailwind that got my started with that.

At first I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t know that much about it. I do know, that it allows me to decide what I what pinned for the day and pick when and where I want them to go. I now have a fairly efficient system that gets the job done.

Pinterest Strategy #6: Play nice

Part of the job of blogging is sharing your content and the content of others. Blogging is one of the most collaborative types of work out there. You really can’t succeed on your own without the help and goodwill of other bloggers. Nowhere is this more evident than on Pinterest.

Spend time pinning manually in real time. Get to know the boards you’re pinning to and the kind of pins your followers like.

Pinterest Strategy #7 Join Group Boards

 There are lots of group boards for bloggers and more starting every day. Some are only open to bloggers in specific niches and others allow any types of blogs. Some are huge and some are small. In general, look for boards that have a robust number of followers and pinners.

Join several. Read the rules of the board since each board is different. My favorite board only allows one pin a day. Other boards allow unlimited. When you come across a board that looks like a good fit, try to join. If the board is accepting contributors, there will be directions in the board description.

In my experience, if a board is accepting, you will get accepted. Not always but it’s always worth a try.

If you are a new blogger and your Pinterest boards are sparse or nonexistent, it may be difficult to get onto good boards at first. Concentrate on building up your own boards and curating good content.

You also have to have good pins on your own content. I have a board that does really well as a traffic source and I’m very careful to only let people join who make good pins. When you ask to join a board, you need to understand that the board owner wants people that bring value to their board, not just people seeking to get something from joining the board.

Pinterest Strategy #8: Get to know your Group Boards

I don’t visit all my group boards every day but I try to make the rounds a couple of times a week to all my boards. This is where I scout for new pins and new content. I like finding newer bloggers with a fresh outlook. It makes me so happy to see pins that aren’t the same old tired stuff.

That being said, there are other bloggers who I will usually check out their stuff because I’ve enjoyed their writings in the past. (Reputation is important!)

I really count on my group boards as a way to find great content that I want to pin. I look for pins that have some traction but not something that you see every time you go onto Pinterest.

They only way I’ve found to find them is to go through my group boards and read a few posts from each. Then pin appropriate content to your own boards!

It is the ultimate win-win. You find great content you can pin, you help another blogger, and maybe as a distant third, they check out your work.

Pinterest Strategy # 9 Keep in Mind that Tools Are Just Tools

Tailwind and BoardBooster are tools. A hammer is a tool. A screwdriver is a tool. Their effectiveness is dependent on the skill with which you use that tool. In themselves, BB and Tailwind don’t make you magically become a successful blogger.

But they can definitely help you keep up with the never ending task of pinning. It feels kind of grueling sometimes and a scheduling tool can help with the work.

I’ve only tried Tailwind and it seems to work for me. I schedule some of my posts to be pinned on group boards and then I schedule pins that I’ve found the day before to be pinned to my own boards in between my pins. One pin of Sara’s to group board. One pin of someone else’s to Sara’s boards. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Grow Your Blog With Pinterest: Secrets

Pinterest is also full of secrets. I had no idea that it would be so important to my blog traffic or that I would spend so much time focusing on it.

Secret #1: You cannot predict what pin will go viral

You can’t predict what Pin will take off and do well. Even having had some success, I can still be surprised by what people will actually save or share. And that is part of the fun and it also keeps me motivated to keep writing and trying.

You create pins, develop your look, and your pins start getting repined at a modest rate.

You do this over and over, and with time you see all your metrics improve steadily. Then you hit the Pinterest lottery and one of your pins goes somewhat viral or even really viral. You rejoice. Ideally, you take note, and get back to work on the awesome content you are currently developing.

I usually go into some kind of coma where I mistake checking my stats for actual work. For the record it’s not. But that’s beside the point. When stuff is “happening” I get very distracted by it.

After a day or two, traffic may drop. That amazing pin and post,  will start to lose some traction. You see the numbers decrease. This is not fun. It is however, very normal. The good news is that you have shown yourself that you can do this. And you will do it again.

It’s so cool when you see a pin take off. One weekend, I had a pin go crazy and get pinned a couple of thousand times and that translated into 9000+ page views over two days. It was crazy. And I’d love to see it happen again.

After that event, overall traffic has stayed up. Once you come down from one of those highs, your overall traffic is usually higher than it was before.

Secret #2: Pins have a life cycle

When you first create your newest blog post, you also create your graphic that is optimized for Pinterest. This is the graphic that will represent your blog on Pinterest. It is the graphic that you hope will capture enough interest, that people will feel compelled to check out your blog.

The first step is to pin this pin to your blog board on your own profile. Your very first board should be a board, created just to hold your blog post pins. I send new pins there immediately. On the next day, I start pinning that pin to other boards. Each day, I send it to a new board until it has made its appearance on all my group boards.

Besides pinning my pins to group boards, it is just as important to pin your own pins to your own boards that it fits into. Pinterest also allows you to assign a pin to sections. Both of these activities help Pinterest understand what your pin is about.

You can and should redo some of your Pin images. If it’s not working as is, just make a new one. Try a new graphic. Put a new title on the pin. I have many pins that got new life this way. One of my most popular posts to-date, didn’t take off until the third version of the pin image.

Secret #3: There is NO EXACT formula to make a pin go viral

No matter what we say.  There is no 100% method that makes this happen for each pin. If there was, EVERYONE, would be able to make this happen to every pin or post. If all the advice you were reading was true, then everyone could replicate it and we’d all be Freaking Pinterest Bosses. All the time.

How boring would that be?

No, when you read about great success on Pinterest, especially big jumps it’s usually a matter of getting consistent, improving quality, or the luck of having a pin that goes viral. That doesn’t mean that the advice you read is bad—it just means we’re all trying to stay in the game and tend to get excited when it seems like something is working well.

Secret #4: Gaining momentum on Pinterest takes time

You have to build your own boards and followers and you have to build a pinning strategy. Success builds on success. There are days when I wonder if I’ll be pinning daily forever. But then I remember that taking the time to do that is part of the job of blogging right now. I get 95% of my traffic from Pinterest, so it is not just necessary to pin, it’s vital to the lifeblood of my blog.

Occasionally, I use Tailwind to schedule. But I control what posts are going to what boards when. I don’t send all my pins out to all my boards every day and I look for good content from other bloggers to pin.

You can complain that you hate spending time pinning but without spending the time, it’s difficult to build a solid foundation on Pinterest.

How to Get the Most from Pinterest

Getting traffic from Pinterest comes down to these things:

• Creating great content
• Having a catchy title
• Making an attractive Pin
• Developing a pinning strategy
• Pinning most days, throughout the day

If you are missing any of those, you just aren’t going to see results that make you happy. Even if you are doing all that, you will sometimes feel frustrated about your traffic for the day.

But keep at it, and you will see your traffic increase and you will get more confident about working with Pinterest. At times it is tedious but there is nothing else that provides thousands of visitors to my website every week. It is worth the effort to keep this referral system going.

If you want more of My Think Big Life, follow me on Pinterest where I love finding and sharing great content.

I LOVE blogging and love to write about it. Here are my favorite posts to help you become a real blogger.
How to Start a Blog for Profit and Fun
How to Get Unstuck in Blogging
10 Reasons You Haven’t Started Your Blog
How to Write Your First Blog Post
How to Let Blog Topics Find You
How to Go from Beginner to Blogger
How Blogging Changed my Life

The post Grow Your Blog With Pinterest appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Blogging is an amazing way that you can create a life you love, Here are 7 ways that blogging can change your life.

When I started my blog, I had some vague expectation of it being fun to do and maybe it would make some money at some point.

What I didn’t know was that it would make my life so much better. Here’s how blogging can change your life in unexpected ways.

Here I am, 10 years later. When I first wrote this post, I wasn’t even making any money! Blogging was a way to combine my lifestyle and passions in one place and use my platform to reach other women.

Since then my earnings have grown and I have made the transition to being a full-time entrepreneur. Not only do I have my own blog but I also collaborate on a second blog and have a thriving life coaching business.

During this time, I have provided expertise and resources for women over 50 so they can create a life they love too.

My Blogging Journey

My blogging journey started at a time when I was trying to figure my life out. My kids were grown and out of the house, I had moved to a big city, and I was navigating a lot of things including becoming a grandmother, living on my own, and trying to begin a new career.

Blogging literally changed my life. When I wrote my first blog post, I was not in a very happy place. But the internet provided a place for me to explore, share, and grow. 

However, even when feeling my worst, I always believed that I could have the kind of life I wanted and I optimistically named my blog, My Think Big Life. I was ready to try new things!

Since that time I’ve learned how blogging can change your life in wonderful and unexpected ways. 

To experience these changes though, you have to not just start a blog, you have to work it consistently. It’s so worth it though and I hope my experience will encourage you to think about starting a blog.

Build Confidence with a Blog

In the early months, my life was everything but “Big.” I had imagined my blog would be about my wonderful adventures in the big city. I’d be cooking, entertaining, and having loads of fun adventures.

That’s not what happened and I was more lonely and bored than having adventures. So, I started a blog, something that I had attempted twice before but always gave up on. I started by writing about the things I was doing to help me move forward.

These posts were about losing weight, walking, forgiving (lots of forgiving!), getting unstuck, letting go of toxic people, and lots of self-care.

The first six months was a time of writing and trying to learn to make graphics to go with my posts. It was right around the six-month mark that I finally had a post get some traction. It was exciting to get as many page views in a day as I had ever gotten in a month.

At that point, I knew I could get page views and I renewed my commitment to writing. During the next six months, I wrote and worked on improving my graphics for Pinterest. I had a lot of posts do really well and they were chronicling my journey with losing weight and feeling better emotionally.

This gave me confidence in my abilities as a blogger and a writer. Through writing and building my blog and finding my voice, my confidence naturally grew and I began to feel better about myself.

Create Positive Change by Blogging

I was writing about and sharing what was working in my life. Every time I wrote a post, it contained parts of things I’d learned through being a counselor but also what I’d learned from the experience of living life. I wasn’t telling anyone to do anything I hadn’t done myself.

Post by post, my life began to get better.

Post by post, I became a blogger and a writer.

Post by post, I built a body of work that I was proud of.

In the meantime, as my life got better, I started having really cool experiences.

Over the years I’ve been blogging, I have created so much positive change in my life. I don’t think this would have happened otherwise. 

How I Wrote My Way Into an Amazing Life

A while back, I wrote about the power of saying YES. With that fresh in my mind, I said yes to a couple of experiences, I might not have otherwise. These experiences changed the trajectory of my life in a big way.

I wrote about not letting toxic people steal my joy. After writing that, I was finally able to let go of a couple of painful relationships. My life improved in a profound way and a short time later, I met the man I’m now engaged to.

When I wrote about procrastination, I finally broke the code of why and how I procrastinated.

I could go on and on about how each post changed my life in either an incremental or profound way. Because they truly did. I wrote my way into a new life and good stuff started coming to me easily.

When people see me now they comment on one of several things: how young I look, how happy I look, and how they are amazed at all the things I’m doing now.

And that was all with a creative outlet that wasn’t even making money yet!

How I Found New Relationships Through Blogging

In addition to creating a new life, the craft of blogging taught me so much and enlarged my life with new connections and friends.

I used to be an extremely private person, probably too private. By blogging, I began expressing who I really am. It was scary at first.

Yet, the more I did it, the more comfortable I became. My blog is not a diary of my life. It’s a curated collection of experiences that I am able to share in a way to illustrate helpful ideas.

Through social media, my Facebook groups, and my newsletter, I’ve met people online that I would have otherwise never crossed paths with.

It’s a different kind of friendship than people I see face-to-face but these are real relationships that bring enjoyment to my life.

However, the change wasn’t just in gaining new online friends. Because I was more open and having new experiences,

I became more interesting to people in the REAL world. Being an active blogger has helped me attract new friends and rekindle older friendships!

Eventually, I even met some of my online connections who I now consider friends.

Learn New and Marketable Skills with a Blog

If you’ve already started your blog, you know that there is a lot to learn! Learning is good for us and blogging has pushed me to learn new technology and new skills.

Let’s face it, being a blogger is about learning one new darn thing after another. No matter what mountain you climb, there’s always another peak to get up. Setting up my domain and Word Press was just the start!

Since then, I’ve created opt-ins, an email list, a Facebook group, instructional demos, videos, and a class on how to make Pinterest pins.

I’ve learned to use graphic editing programs such asPicMonkey and Canva. I’ve used automated mail systems Mail Chimp and Convertkit. I have an online class and I even created some guided meditations combining audio with video.

Trust me—I never expected that I could learn most of that but somehow I did.

And if that all sounds scary, don’t let it intimidate you. I didn’t do any of that in the first few months. But eventually, you’ll get an itch to do something with your blog and you’ll either learn how to do it or hire some help to do it.

Blogging Can Change Your Life by Creating New Opportunities

Blogging created opportunities for me to coach others, write for pay, create a class, and so much more.

I also credit blogging for helping me become a more positive self-confident person and that has helped me get a job I love, find a partner, try new hobbies, and build new relationships.

Eventually, I became a life coach as well. My blog gave me a successful way to connect with clients who could find my work through their Pinterest and internet searches.

How to Make Money with Blogging

It’s funny to me now that when I first wrote this post, I loved blogging so much I wasn’t even concerned about making money.

That has changed!

I love and enjoy the money that my blogs earn. That makes a big difference in my life.

As your blog grows you can make money in different ways:

• Ad revenue
• Working with brands and sponsors
• Selling your own products
• Selling your services
• Affiliate marketing

I’ve made money in each of these ways but right now I rely on my ad revenue and selling my life coaching services.

What is Blogging?

Now, I want to take a moment and clarify what I mean by blogging though. When I say that I’m a blogger, I mean that I am serious about the craft of blogging and I have consistently and incrementally been developing and improving my blog since I started.

My writing style has progressed and improved over the years.

I write quality content on a consistent basis in the forms of blog posts, newsletters, and Facebook posts.

In addition, I use social media, especially Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to promote my work. Besides all that, I connect and network with other bloggers. Finally, I am always reading and researching ways to improve my blog and my presence.

Putting up a blog and writing once in a while and not doing much else is not being a blogger and won’t bring the same rewards. It’s the act of working and building your blog that brings the rewards.

Consistency in writing, publishing regularly, and promoting your own work make you a blogger.

How You Can Use Blogging to Change Your Life

If you haven’t started—get started. 

Starting a blog is relatively inexpensive. You don’t have to do anything fancy to begin. You can set up a basic blog with a host.

For the first few months, really all you have to do is write blog posts and get comfortable with your writing voice and your message.

Facebook groups are great places to learn and socialize with other bloggers. I learned so much by interacting with other bloggers and I made several friends that I talk to online to this day.

Only you have your unique perspective on things and only you can say it in your way. Many people are able to use their blog to build a business as well as create an amazing new way of life.

Being a blogger is pretty cool and I feel proud to call myself one. Admittance to this remarkable group does take some work and time but it is totally worth it!

The post How Blogging Can Change Your Life appeared first on My Think Big Life.

From being an unemployed stay-at-home mom to being a career professional, I’ve learned several powerful ways to keep yourself in the game, even when you aren’t working. By using some of these suggestions, you can always feel employable.

When you aren’t working, whether by choice or by circumstances beyond your control, it can feel uncomfortable to say the least. You may even wonder Am I unemployable now? That’s probably not the case and I can show you seven ways to always be employable.

I can remember times in my life when I felt so worthless because I didn’t have a job. I loved being a stay at home mom. But when I wasn’t making a financial contribution, it was hard to maintain a feeling of being worthwhile. I even began to wonder if I was unemployable.

Later, as I trailed my husband when he was transferred, I wondered how I would get back to work in a new place—yet again. Eventually I was able to take the steps I’m sharing with you now and turn this into my area of expertise. For 8+ years, I’ve been a career advisor and a professional resume writer.

Because of my own experience with being unemployed, I’ve been able to help thousands of people get better careers!

After my divorce and move to a new city, it seemed like it would take forever to find a good job.

Yet, each time, I was eventually able to find not just work, but meaningful work. And oddly, each job has been better than the last.

For many reasons, you might feel you are unemployable now or you might become unemployable if you stay out of the workforce too long.

Sometimes staying at home is a choice: we want to raise our family, we want to take care of an ill spouse or parent, or we might even need the time to take care of ourselves. Other times, we are unemployed because we’ve been laid off, we’ve moved with a spouse that has been transferred, or some other reason that wasn’t our choice.

I wrote a guest blog pos for stay-at-home moms here.

In this fast-changing world, it can be easy to wonder, “Am I unemployable now?”

What I’ve found out and what I know to be true now is that very few people are truly unemployable. Over the years as the coordinator of career services and in my own resume-writing business, I helped hundreds of people find jobs. Often, that feeling of being unemployable, is just that. A feeling.

Unemployable at First Glance

Here’s a true story that recently showed me that even if we and most of the world thinks we’re unemployable, we probably aren’t.

My mom is 85. She retired about 20 years ago. At that age and without an adding any new skills to her work repertoire, many people would consider her unemployable. She’s older. She hasn’t had paid work in many years. She definitely has not been going to school or seeking additional training.

Yet, last year and more recently, a few weeks ago, my mom was offered paid work. (Not just offered but actively recruited!) She definitely isn’t seeking a job but she still finds it flattering that someone wants to hire her to do something professionally. It also showed me clearly, that being unemployable can be a state of mind rather than an absolute truth.

However, I can see that my mom definitely did some things that kept her from being unemployable. As a young stay-at-home mom, I also did things to keep myself employable. So, if you are concerned that you might be unemployable at some point, here are my favorite ways to proactively overcome that feeling.

My Top 7 Ways to Stay Employable

One: Volunteer

This is my favorite recommendation to keep yourself employable. Find something that you care about and start volunteering on a regular basis. Volunteering is a fantastic way to get experience, references, and new job skills.

Experience is experience. After many years as a stay-at-home mom, I used all volunteer experience to land a full-time job, with benefits, and a staff of 12! The key to using a volunteer position is to stay with an organization for a while (just like with a job) and to do job-like things.

Another tip is to pick a volunteer organization with name recognition. It doesn’t take a lot of time each week. But the commitment and consistency can translate into a valuable reference. Sometimes, volunteering can result in a job offer as well.

Two: Learn

I went to school and got my counseling degree while my three children were young. Each semester I took one or two classes. Eventually, I got my degree. I loved going to school while raising the kids. It gave me time out of the house and I was able to feel my own sense of accomplishment as well as some valuable job skills.

Yet, college isn’t the only way to get valuable skills. Since that time, I have made good use of the internet to learn new skills. I’ve become a certified resume writer. Online classes allowed me to learn word processing. I’ve created two websites. The internet has an endless supply of high quality virtual classrooms.

Three: Read

If you’re a reader like me, books can teach you so many useful job skills. No kidding! Remember the job I got with a staff of 12? I learned to supervise and manage by reading, while getting on-the-job practice.

My passion for nutrition and health is kept up-to-date by reading. The books I’ve read over the past twenty years feed the knowledge base I use in coaching, writing, and advising.

I am so appreciative of all the expertise that is available and easy to obtain through libraries, bookstores, and ebooks. As well as teaching valuable skills, books also helped me stay motivated during the times when I wasn’t working. Sometimes, the learning needed to be different ways to think and look at the world.

Four: Take Care of Yourself Physically

Looking and feeling good can help you maintain a sense of employability. Remember my 85-year old mom? She’s energetic and active and apparently no one worries that her age is any hindrance to her being able to work.

Maintaining a healthy weight and physical fitness helps preserve vitality and energy. These are underrated qualities to feeling employable. When you are active and energetic, you will naturally do things that keep you feeling that you are making a contribution, no matter what you are doing.

Sometimes people worry that they are too old to get a job. It’s rarely age that is the real issue. It’s the youthful energy—not the youth itself that’s missing.

Five: Blog

I have to add blogging to the list of ways to stay employable. Depending on what you blog about, you will be forced to continually come up with content. You will be forced to network. You will be forced to put yourself out there. If that isn’t all enough, you will be forced to learn more technology, more social media strategy, and more internet stuff than you ever dreamed you would be capable of.

This doesn’t all happen overnight. Blogging is the gift that keeps giving as far as having to learn new things and develop new skills. You no sooner feel mildly competent in one area and then you have to grow into another area.

In addition to learning the mechanics of blogging, all that writing builds your knowledge base and your expertise in your blogging niche.

The blog itself might become a source of meaning and income or it might be the path to feeling like you are employable.

Six: Stay Connected

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own lives, we forget to keep up with our connections. Now with email, Facebook, text messages it is easier than ever to keep up with former co-workers and bosses.

Seven: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

I believe that when we stay put, as in not pushing ourselves to grow or get out of our comfort zone, we can stagnate and begin to feel as if we don’t have a meaningful contribution to make.

I do want to clarify something here. Not working does not in any way make you a less valuable person at all. Yet, even knowing this mentally, we can still feel that if we aren’t working, we aren’t valuable. So, by actively pursuing the feeling of being employable, we increase our feelings of well-being and value.

It’s easy to settle into life and to do more of what gives us comfort. That’s not 100% bad. In fact, we need a certain amount of this. However, when we quit seeking out experiences or ideas that make us uncomfortable, we lose some of our edge. Not only that but life becomes less pleasurable and we don’t operate at our optimum.

Getting out of your comfort zone keeps you pursuing new ideas and activities that can lead to miraculous journeys, experiences, and relationships.

How My Mom Made Herself Employable at 85

The part I didn’t tell you in my story about my mom was that up until my dad died two years ago, she had pretty much been housebound taking care of him. She wasn’t doing a whole lot except keeping him at home and as healthy as possible.

After he died, she became active in her church, she began volunteering (tutoring daily at the grade school), and she began getting out of her comfort zone by participating in new groups and activities.

Within one year, she got her first paid-job offer. After two years, she got another offer. She actually accepted a job for the upcoming school year, just a few months after turning 85.

What to Do if You Are Wondering Am I Unemployable Now?

The most important thing to remember is that your value is NOT dependent on having a job. Even if you don’t do ANY of the things I suggest, you still have incredible value.

However, if you feel stuck and want to do something to shift that feeling, any of the above can help with that. As a bonus, you will make yourself employable for the time when you are ready to rejoin the workforce.

The other thing to be aware of is that the above tips are also things that can increase your feelings of competence and well-being. It really does feel good to learn and experience new things.

Enjoy your Unemployed Time

Looking back, I wish I had been able to enjoy my times of being unemployed more. Without a formal job you have the flexibility and time to do many things you can’t while you are doing a 9 – 5. It really can be a time to develop new skills and spend time with family.

I look back and think of all the things I missed out on because I felt I didn’t deserve them because I wasn’t working. Sometimes money was the issue but it certainly wasn’t as much an issue as how I felt about not working.

So, use this time to enjoy life AND increase your employability!

Keep showing up my friends.

Love, Sara

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The post Am I unemployable now? appeared first on My Think Big Life.

Here is a blog-writing process that will help you create blog posts that are professional, searchable, and attractive to readers right from the start. Once you learn how to write your first blog post, all the rest will be easier!

When I tell people that I blog, so many tell me that they would love to start a blog. I always encourage them to give it a try.

I first wrote this post in 2017. Here it is October 2023 and I am still writing blog posts following these same suggestions. 

Starting a blog is relatively inexpensive and it is a great outlet to express your opinions, develop your voice, and connect with your creative spirit.

Yet, getting started can be scary and for whatever reason, something most people do not do—however much they express that they want to.

Setting up a blog is fairly straight-forward. However, getting to the writing part is where a lot of people get stopped in their tracks.

They spend a lot of time thinking about what to write. In fact, they spend so much time thinking about just the right thing to write about; that they never get around to writing.

I don’t want you to be one of those people.

You Want to Write Your First Blog Post Right from the Get-Go

Writing and posting is how you learn to blog and from what I’ve heard from every blogger I’ve talked to—there is no other way.

So, the first thing to do, is accept that it takes time to develop a blog and to grow into your blogging presence. It just does. You have to write blog posts to learn how to write blog posts.

At first, not many people will read your blog. This is normal and expected. However, you don’t want to stay at this stage forever.

Trust me on this—as much fun as blogging can be—it starts to be NO fun if no one ever starts reading it. You want people to read it; that’s why you started writing in the first place.

To make that happen faster, I’m going to teach you how to write your first blog post so that you’ll be searchable and attracting readers from the beginning.

Not sure where to get ideas? I’ve got you covered here!

It’s true it takes time to gather a following. But it doesn’t have to take forever, does it? No, you want to write like a blogger from the get-go!

Getting Started

Most people have some general ideas about what they want to write about when they start to blog. Try to settle on about 4 to 5.

You can change or narrow your focus later as you get deeper into your blogging journey. But it’s a good idea to give yourself some direction without narrowing it too much at first.

These will be your categories. For examples, I have categories on weight loss, grand-parenting, and blogging.

For your first post, let yourself write about whatever you want to write about. There are usually some stories you’ve been wanting to share or you wouldn’t have started the blog in the first place.

This is really the first thing. If you aren’t sure of how to come up with a blog topic—read this first.

At the beginning because you may not be 100% sure of what you want to write about. You have lots of general ideas floating around and you might not know where to start or even where it will go.

That’s okay. These things will work themselves out.

But they won’t work themselves out magically. You work them out by writing and then writing some more, and writing even more.

I’m giving you the tools I use for every blog post in the general order that I use them. At times I may do things in a little different order. You may do that too.

If you follow this blog-writing plan; you can write a blog post that is more professional, searchable, and attractive to readers right from the start.

To begin your first blog post, you will need to settle on something to write about.

Pick anything you want and I’ll help you turn it into a real blog post. After you have a general idea of what you want to write about; follow the following ten steps.

Ten Steps on How to Write Your First Blog Post

1. Write your post in Word
2. Write and write fast—aim for 750–1000 words
3. Decide whether the post is going to entertain, inspire, or educate
4. Pick one main point that you are going to get across
5. Go back into your blog post and edit with #3 and #4 in mind
6. Add Keywords and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
7. Write in short paragraphs
8. Use headings to invite skimmers to read
9. Group things into lists
10. Create graphics that attract page views

Write your Post in Word

I always write all my posts in a word processor. I especially like Word but you can use any processor that you enjoy.

By writing in a word processor, I can really watch my spelling and grammar as well as easily look up synonyms. In the end, I have the document saved to my own files.

If something happens when I’m putting the post up on my blog—no problem because I have my own copy I can retrieve.

Plus, it allows me to really edit and fine tune my posts.

Write and Write Fast

Don’t overthink your writing at first. It’s a good idea to get as much of your inspiration down on the page as possible.

It’s much easier to clean up a big post than expand a short one. If you think too much, you’ll stop the ideas from coming out. Let them come and write them.

The more you write; the more confident you’ll become. Writing is an art and a skill. And it’s something indefinable as well.

There is a mysterious part of it that calls forth ideas and words as you go along. That’s why I am a fan of writing as you feel inspired at first.

Honestly, sometimes you will get it right on the very first go around. Other times, you’ll have to clean it up a bit. But write and write whatever comes up.

I usually consider this part of the process, the rough draft. But often it’s surprisingly good.

Writing a blog post isn’t the same as writing a novel. Whatever you write can be edited and changed at any point. For example, I am editing this three years later!

You can always go back and improve what you write. But you have to write something first.

Decide the Purpose of Your Blog Post

Your post needs a purpose. You’ve written it with the idea that you want to share something with other people.

Most people are not interested in your day-to-day goings on. They come to blogs to either be entertained, inspired, educated, or have a problem solved. They are looking for a purpose.

You will attract more readers by having a purpose for each and every blog post you write.

Blogging is not writing a diary

Most new bloggers start with the idea that they’ll write about their lives and share that journey, whether it’s motherhood, travel, saving money, or cooking, with others.

And you will be…

BUT, and this is a BIG but. No one, at the beginning, knows who you are or why they should read you. They won’t come searching for you, because frankly, they just don’t care about your life. YET.

However, your story IS important because it is what you will use as a backdrop to whatever it is you want to write about.

So, you decide on the purpose of this blog post and then you use the story to illustrate it.

Let’s say for example, you’ve written a post about how crazy your mornings can be and somewhere in your post you talk about the ways you’ve made your mornings easier and you now get your family of five out the door on-time every day.

Looking at that story, you could decide the purpose is to entertain and you make this story as funny as possible, hoping people will laugh and share with their friends.

Or you decide it will inspire. You describe how life used to be and how it is now, with the purpose that it will give others hope.

Finally, your purpose could be to educate or provide information. You have a system that you want to share and teach others. Sharing that system or process is the main focus of the blog and you use your personal story to illustrate how effective your system is.

The other reason most people come to a blog post though is to solve a problem. It could be what to cook for dinner. It could be how to lose weight.

Choose a Focus: Pick One Point You Are Going to Get Across

Another place a blogger can get lost in is by trying to get too many points across.

Maybe in the example above you talk about the breakfasts you make in the morning, your beauty routine, your kid’s calendar, etc. You put it all out there! However, that is a lot of information for one blog post.

So, instead of writing about everything all in one blog post; you can pick one area to focus on. That will make writing, titling, SEO, and graphics much easier.

Delete everything else from the post. Save the other ideas in another document and you have the basis for your next blog post or two. (Another reason that writing in a word processor can be very helpful.)

Even when you only have one focus, you will be able to find lots of ways to write about it.

Go Back into Your Post and Edit with #3 and #4 in Mind

You’ve got the bones of your post written. Now go in clean it up a bit. Pick your purpose and your focus. Cut everything else out. If you’ve got another strong focus or two in there, be sure to save in a new document for a future post.

This is important because each and every blog post needs a reason for existing. Random thoughts, musings, and diary-like writing don’t typically do well. Because you don’t want to write just for the few people that care about your specific life.

You are writing for a potential audience of thousands. You need to write something that has the potential to attract many many readers. If your blog post isn’t designed to do that—what’s the point of writing it?

There isn’t.

So, when deciding your purpose and your focus, remember this post being written to appeal to thousands of people—not just people who know you personally.

Divide and Conquer—Smaller Paragraphs, Headings, and Lists

When you write a blog post, you’re going to be writing a little differently than how you wrote for English composition classes.

You’ll still follow basic grammar rules and use good spelling. However, you will divide your blog post differently. You’ll be writing for modern readers and you’ll want to use some tricks to help them read your post.

The next three tips deal with the structure of your post and making it easier to read: Headings, paragraphs, and lists.

Write in smaller paragraphs

Now you need to make your post readable to the modern reader. We do that by dividing our writing into small blocks of text.

If you have big long paragraphs, go into them and see if you can divide them into shorter logical chunks. Blog paragraphs should be short, about three sentences at most.

Sometimes I will even do one or two sentences.

Use headings

Headings do two things: they allow readers to skim your post and decide if they want to stay and read and they break up the text so that it is easier to read. Both of these things are very important.

Headlines allow you to inform readers about what good stuff they are going to get from your post and they allow you to create some curiosity about what you’ve written.

Your headlines are the first thing potential readers see. Make them good. Try to capture the essence of the section without giving it all away.

In addition to providing a glimpse into the post, when a visitor to your blog decides to stay and read; headlines make the actual reading easier. I love a well divided post!

Group things into lists

Lists are a great way to organize and present information. You can use bulleted or numbered lists, or you can just use your headings to separate list items. Lists can also serve as on outline as you think about the information you want to write.

In this post, I decided beforehand that I wanted ten list items. I came up with them and I used that outline to write the rest of the information.

Sometimes, if I’ve been free-writing, I will see how many points I have and form the post into more of a list format.

Adding Keywords and SEO Components

To help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), I use a free Word Press plugin called Yoast SEO. I highly recommend this plugin because it will make your blogging much easier.

It not only helps with SEO, it integrates with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. It even helps you write better!

Now that your post is taking shape, it’s time to pick a keyword or short keyword phrase.

This is a word or phrase that you will use in your title, in headings, in your meta-description, and within your post. It is a short phrase that is searchable and will hopefully bring folks to your blog.

For this post, I’ll be using, “How to write your first blog post.”

Create Graphics to Attract Page Views

We live in a highly visual world now and the graphics you use in your posts will make or break you. If you are doing food, craft, or decorating posts, you already know that your graphics are essential.

However, to get shared on social media and especially Pinterest, you have to use a great looking graphic.

You are putting a lot of time into writing a good post and you want it to get shared as much as possible.

Since this post is primarily about writing, I am not going to go into a lot of detail here. But trust me on this—this is huge.

You want one primary graphic that is specifically tailored to Pinterest. Pinterest is the biggest driver of traffic to most bloggers. Right now the style on Pinterest is vertical pins. Use attractive graphics, and easy to read fonts.

How to Write Your First Blog Post

While there is much to learn as you progress in blogging, the most important thing at the beginning is to consistently create content, your blog posts.

No other activity is as important. Concurrently, you’ll be getting acquainted with social media and growing your presence there. But this information will give you a head start.

You have to start somewhere! I’ve seen too many potentially great bloggers either give up or worse never even start. Don’t be one of those people!

I do hope if you feel the pull to start blogging that you give it a try. Blogging is rewarding in so many ways and well worth the time and effort.

If this post helps you write a better blog post–please put a link in the comments below. I’d love to see what you are working on!

The post How to Write Your First Blog Post appeared first on My Think Big Life.

You started your blog. You picked a name. You found a hosting plan. You installed Word Press. And you picked a theme.

Now what? How to go from beginner to blogger?

How to Go From Beginner to Blogger

Starting a blog is exciting, fun, and confusing. Most of us start a blog with the idea that it’s going to be us…writing. And we love writing, right? Very quickly, we discover that there is much more to blogging than just writing posts.

It’s so easy to give up when it seems like there is so much to do and often it seems like we are getting nowhere. I wrote this post to encourage any new bloggers out there to not give up. Blogging is more difficult than I ever dreamed. But you can get to a point, where you do feel like a REAL blogger.

What is a REAL Blogger?

How do you go from being a complete newcomer to feeling comfortable calling yourself a blogger?

Becoming a blogger is easy and relatively inexpensive. That’s the good news. But it’s also kind of difficult and that is why, the blogosphere is littered with millions of abandoned blogs.

They are easy to start but oh so difficult to transition into feeling like a real blogger.

First, let me define a real blogger.

By this I mean your blog has some kind of presence. You may or may not be making money on it. You have an increasing number of page views and you are posting on a regular basis.

Here are 5 signs you are a real blogger.

• You’ve claimed your Blogger status—you’ve told people you are a blogger.
• You are consistently creating content for your blog. Whether it is one post or three a week, you are meeting creation goals and publishing posts.
• You are networking and connecting with other bloggers. You’ve joined some groups to learn and also to share what you’ve learned. You consider yourself a blogger and others see you as a blogger as well.
• You are meeting some or most of your own blogging goals. Maybe not as fast as you’d like, but you are getting there. Some common goals are posting a certain number of times a month. Making some income. Increasing page views. Getting exposure on social media. Increasing followers. Growing your email list. There are countless blogging goals! The important thing is to be aware of some of them and to begin meeting them.
• You are aware of and using social media to grow your blog. Most people have one or two favorite referrals of blog traffic. It’s great to have a presence on several and to work at growing them. However, you are really diving deep into at least one to provide traffic to your site.

None of these goals are about having a million page views a month nor do they demand you make X amount of money. These are basic goals that take you from being a blogging newbie to being able to comfortably being able to call yourself a blogger.

Now how to get you there? How do you go from beginner to blogger?

Don’t Hold Back

I’m working with enough new bloggers to know, there is a desire to not publish until you have everything just right. I’m going to encourage you to just get in there and publish with your baby, oh-so-not perfect blog.

Because guess what? Not too many people will read it at the beginning anyway. You might as well get it out there and get into the groove of posting.

This is good news in a way. I cringe at some of my early posts. I was all over the place and my graphics were not very good. However, each time I wrote and published, I got better. I found my voice and subject and I discovered what readers were interested in. And it was in writing more that I kept getting ideas.

Your blog will grow and develop by the act of blogging.

There is a huge difference between producing content that you don’t publish and content that you do publish. If you write something and just let it sit there, it gets “stale.” Your writing ideas need to get out there. If you sit on it, you might be missing the perfect opportunity to get it out there at the right time.

When you write for your readers (even if they are imaginary at this point) your blog posts have more juice and more power than if you are writing to put into a folder or into draft. Your writing will be different and get better when you write for an audience.

You get better by doing. (If you need help getting started, check this post out.) I’ve gone back and cleaned up some of my old posts. But I’ve purposely left a few, just the way I published them back in the beginning. The graphics are cringe-worthy! It’s like the one pair of old pants in a size that I hope to never wear again. They remind me of how far I’ve come.

How did I get better? I kept writing, making graphics, and posting. Then as I got better, I’d go back and improve older posts. As well as improving my quality, I also got faster and more efficient.

Instead of aiming for perfect, I aimed for doing the best I could do at the moment. I didn’t need to be perfect. I just needed to do the best I could.

Then an interesting thing happened. After a few months, a few of these not perfect posts began to get some traffic. That was exciting. Yet it took several months to get that first post that took off.

So, it’s import to…

Give Yourself Time

Depending on your niche, your style, your productivity, and your personality, the time it takes to become a successful blogger depends. There is NO one timeline that fits everyone. However, no matter how talented you are or how hard you work; it takes time to establish yourself as a blogger.

Even if you come out with the most beautiful blog and write wonderful blog posts, it does take time for people to find you, get to know you, like you, and share your work. It can take anywhere from several months to several years.

All relationships take time. The relationship between you and readers and you and other bloggers take time to develop. It takes time for you to create a body of work that you are proud of and it takes time for you blog to develop some substance.

Consistency of producing and promoting is key. It will seem like not much is happening, until it does.

Write Blog Posts

That seems so basic that it doesn’t need to be written. Right? Yet, not getting posts written and published on a regular basis is a problem, especially in the beginning, when NO ONE is reading them. It’s really hard to write for an imaginary audience. How do you keep writing and putting it out there when no one is reading?

You just do. You have to. In the beginning, you have to write on a consistent basis to learn to how to write your blog posts. You will get better and faster. And you’ll write some stuff you think is really great. And still not very many people are reading.

However, someone will. If you feel compelled to write—there are people out there looking for it. And there are many ways to find them. For now, just keep writing and building up your blog.

The more you have on your blog for readers to read and do, the better. It takes time to build up your body of work. So build and get it ready for all your wonderful readers who are eventually going to find your blog.

Make your blog a destination that people want to visit and explore. Have attractions, and lots of fun and interesting stuff for them. Don’t worry if they aren’t here yet, they will be. And you are going to be ready!

Join Blogging Groups on Facebook

Join blogging groups on Facebook. I can’t even remember how I found my first FB group, but joining it made a huge difference for me. I was in a group with other bloggers and they just accepted the fact that I was a blogger! I began sharing my work within the group and I got some good feedback. I am still blogging “friends” with people I met right at the beginning.

There are different kinds of blogging groups. Some are strictly promotional. You post something of yours and then you share a specific number of other people’s work. Some are really strict! But it’s a great way to get your posts out there and to also find good content to share.

Some groups are informative and supportive. I’ve really benefited from participating in different Facebook blogging groups and I give them total credit for helping me feel like a real blogger.

Once you find a group or two that interests you, read the description carefully and see what you need to do to join. In most groups, you have to be approved. Approval is usually based on making sure you are a real person rather than someone that is going to spam the group. So, don’t worry too much about getting in. Most groups are happy to have you.

Promote Your Blog

Some days this is my favorite thing to do and on others, it bores me. But promoting your blog is part of the job description of blogger.

My favorite way to promote my blog is on Pinterest. That consistently, month after month, sends me solid traffic. Pinterest has changed some since I wrote this article, but it still is my best referrer of blog traffic.

If you are writing great content but not attracting readers, you might need to learn how to create pins that attract readers.

Another way I promote my blog is through my Facebook groups. This is a good way to share your work with other bloggers and get to know theirs. I also have a Facebook page that is tied to my blog.

Other social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and StumbleUpon can be a part of your social media strategy as well.

Keep Track of Your Numbers

I remember a month early on, when I set a goal of getting 500 page views. That number seemed so HUGE to me. I couldn’t even imagine that happening. Then I wanted to get that many in a week. Then in a day. Eventually, I went beyond that on a daily basis.

About a year ago, I really started tracking my numbers.

Each month, I would record

• Page views
• Subscribers
• Facebook Followers
• Pinterest Followers
• Twitter Followers

The best part of doing this is that I could see that every single month, these numbers all increased. Some, not by much. But I could see growth, each and every month. When you get discouraged, it’s helpful to see where you are growing and where you have opportunities for growth. (As far as I can tell—no matter how big you get, the opportunities for growth are always there!) 

Finally

No one but you gets to decide when you are a REAL blogger. I accept people as bloggers the minute they share their work with me. No matter how you feel inside, most people are going to accept you too.

The steps I shared with you are to help you FEEL like a REAL blogger. And perhaps by doing these, they will help you get there quicker.

The more you put yourself out there, the easier it becomes. I’d love to hear from bloggers!

And if you just want to say hi here in the comments, I invite you to do that to. The more places you can speak up and introduce yourself, the more comfortable you’ll feel in the blogging world.

The post How to Go From Beginner to Blogger appeared first on My Think Big Life.

The Rules of Blogging are the things I’ve learned that helped me create a successful blog. Whether this is your first, or like me, your fourth blog, you can do things that will help you reach your goals. Leave the heartbreak behind and create the blog of your dreams!

I wrote the Rules of Blogging because there are a few things I’ve learned over the past year that I wanted to share. Prior to this blog, I had three “failed” blogs before I finally put the time and effort into doing one right. One thing to keep in mind is that blogging really is more of a marathon, rather than a sprint.

Yes, some people have quick success but in general, it is those people that build a good foundation who have success in the long-term.

So by rules, I really mean some insights I’ve gleaned during the past year. I break so many blogging “rules” it’s not even funny. Who makes these rules anyway?

I guess people like me! I’ve finally crossed a few thresholds that let me know that I can do the professional blogging thing. I still have some ways to go to meet more of my goals but I know they are just a matter of time now. Feel free to follow the rules or break them as you see fit.

The RULES of Blogging

Writing Good Stuff Is Worth the Effort

Writing a good blog post takes time. By the time I’ve wrung a whole blog post out, I’m wiped out! Writing is hard work. If it doesn’t feel like work at times, then you might not be writing deeply enough. Sometimes magic happens on the page easily and quickly. More often, you have to put some effort into it.

When you think about it, if you write something good enough, it could be around and getting shared for YEARS. It is worth the effort to do your best on each and every post.

Don’t whet my appetite for a good topic and not deliver. I hate clicking on an intriguing title and there is only a scant few hundred words that don’t deliver.

You Have to Build Solid Foundations

It’s too common to see bloggers write a few posts, try to promote, and then moan about how they can’t get any traffic to their site. What’s missing? The fundamentals:

• strong content
• a good reputation
• using social media correctly

The thing is—none of these are built overnight. It takes time to develop good content, for others to become familiar with your work, and to learn how to use social media. I can tell you that if you take this part seriously and build with an eye towards having a long-term business, you will grow and you’ll have work that you are proud of. But none of these three things happen the minute you put your blog up.

You Can’t Tell What Will Go Viral

The collective desires of your readers will surprise you at times. You will write your best post ever and sometimes no one will read it. Or maybe your mom and best friend will but otherwise, it languishes despite your best efforts to to put it out there.

On the other hand, that crazy post you wrote in 20 minutes at midnight, goes on to get thousands of views. What can I say? It’s part of the life of a blogger.

I have posts I absolutely LOVE and they have no fans. I will usually re-do the title and graphic and put it out again. Sometimes that does the trick, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s best to keep writing and creating new material.

Every post you write does not have to attract 1000’s of readers. But your collective body of work will bring in readers. And if a few of your posts can bring in large numbers, then you will grow. Keep writing what you need to write. If it’s good and you promote it right, your readers will find you.

Don’t Give Away Your Good Stuff

Here’s where I go against common blogging advice. Don’t give your good stuff away. I’ll talk about ways you can share and be generous, but seriously QUIT giving your good content away. I don’t know about you but I only have so many hours in a day. I can’t afford to spend a week creating a course or post, only to give it away.

This includes guest posting. Guest posting helps the blog where the post is posted. That’s who gets the page views. If you’ve written an amazing post—put it on your own blog and promote it!! Believe in yourself.

A lot of people get all excited about Huffington Post. Not me. As cool as it might sound, the HP is using your great (and free) content to make money. To my way of thinking, they are taking advantage of bloggers and making us HAPPY that they are doing it.

Just think, if everyone quit giving them free content, they’d have to actually pay for it. Think about it. This is a quote from Huffington Post. I found it so disparaging of bloggers and the WORK we do.

“Now, people often wonder: why would anyone blog for free, at a place that pays other contributors? Please note, that part of what “free” entitles you to is a freedom from “having to work.” No daily hours, no deadlines, no late nights, no weekends. You just do what you like when the spirit moves you.”

Really HP? We do what we like when the spirit moves us? We’re free from having to work? This thinking is so disrespectful to all the bloggers who are supporting themselves and often families. And it shows ignorance about what the profession of blogging entails. (full article here)

And I don’t care if I’m sitting in my bathing suit, by the pool, sipping a cool glass of wine while I write–writing is work. And it isn’t the kind of work you get paid for by the hour. There are thousands of hours of education, practice, and experience behind each post. Your writing is valuable.

Quit giving it away! You deserve compensation from for your work. Period.

Be Generous

Be generous with your comments, your likes, your advice and support, and your genuine appreciation of your fellow bloggers. I love to seek out good content to like, share, and comment on. Build up your fellow bloggers. Don’t expect a follow for follow. Like the people you like and be thankful for the readers that connect with you.

I occasionally will read a blog where one blogger tears down other bloggers. That was difficult to read. Even though we all share the name “blogger,” we express it in many ways. For the most part, I believe that if you have nothing good to say to or about another blogger, then don’t say anything.

However, if you’ve got something good to say—then say it! There are a few bloggers out there that make it a point to comment on my blog posts and to share them. I cannot express enough how much that means to me.

Your positive words can make a huge difference to another blogger. So be generous with them!

Take Care of Yourself

I think I’ve already said it, but blogging is hard work! Sitting at a computer for hours on end is horrible for the body. My mind is always thinking about the blog, what I need to do, what I need to write, or what can I go back and fix. The to-do list truly is never-ending. It’s exhausting.

You can always do more. Always. It’s so easy to not take care of yourself. I’m a huge believer in taking time to rest, recharge, exercise, play, and connect with others. Go for walks. Meditate. Go see a movie. Sometimes, no matter what is on your blogging plate, you need to get away from it once in a while.

Take breaks. Move. Don’t let blogging make you sick or crazy!

Try Something Different

When I started this blog, my idea was to write about food, entertaining, and dating. I tried, I really tried. The problem was that none of these early posts had any real energy. They weren’t horrible but they weren’t great either.

No one was reading them anyway.

However, other things wanted to be written. It took about 6 months and 20 posts before I opened the door to what wanted to be written. Once that door was open, the whole direction of the blog changed and I began to write with passion and enthusiasm.

And that’s when things began to happen. My page views began to double each month. I gained followers on Pinterest. Over a period of a few months, my page views went up 8000%. For real.

Just because you started with an idea doesn’t mean it’s carved in concrete that you have to stick to that one idea. Go with your inspiration. Sometimes this is where you find that something special that puts you on the blogging map.

Be Yourself

There’s that saying, be yourself, no one else can. That is so true. When we try to be like other writers either in our content, titles, or even graphics we usually come off a poor second.

I had a fairly short time in writing that I tried cheesier titles. They didn’t feel good and I’ve been going back and cleaning those up when time allows.

My graphics were really bad at the beginning. Then they got better. At times, I felt like my graphics were so different than everyone else’s. I loved them but I worried that they looked amateurish and silly. And they featured faces—a big Pinterest no-no.

As much as I wanted to fit in, I had to be myself and I always feature faces in my graphics. I sometimes spend hours looking for just the right face to express my feelings about what I’m writing.

Sure they look different. Now, I feel like it’s my thing—they identify me by their very uniqueness.

Have an Overall Goal for Your Blog

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to monetize my blog. There are different models for doing that and what I decided to concentrate on was increasing my page views. I did this by consistently creating content, building my Pinterest presence, and connecting in Facebook groups.

I knew that I would need page views to attract ad networks and sponsored posts opportunities. So, before I even tried to monetize, I built the foundation that would allow me to monetize when the time was right.

One of the great things about connecting with other bloggers is that I’ve seen other ways to monetize a blog that are different. I’m looking forward to exploring some of these as well!

Let Go of Perfection and Just Go!

My blog is imperfection in motion. Everything I do is done by me and I am just winging it most of the time. I see other bloggers who put months into getting their blog ready to launch and I’m impressed.

Me, I just got it started and did the best I could as I went. I wouldn’t trade those ugly early posts for anything! They allowed me to find my voice, to practice writing, and to discover what I really wanted to write about.

Those months were not in vain!

Here’s the thing. You don’t have to have the perfect blog, the perfect graphics (though do try to match industry standards), the perfect titles, or the perfect anything.

Perfection is not necessary for growth and success!

What is needed is commitment, consistent effort, and courage to trust yourself.

The Rules of Blogging

I hope you realize after reading this post, that I don’t think any rules fit every person all the time. The title is a little riff of the famous dating books, The Rules. As with the dating books, some people swear by them, some not so much.

I really want you to succeed with your blog. There is so much opportunity right now for people that are willing to get in the game. I hope these “rules” help you or at the very least encourage you to keep playing.

I have a new baby Facebook group open, Banking on Blogging. It’s pretty darn scary to work hard for so many months without pay! But we know that there is the potential to make money. My daughter Stacey, who is a successful ($100,000+) blogger and I opened the group to provide support for bloggers who have the goal to monetize and are interested in filling in the missing pieces on how to do it. Request to join then introduce yourself.

Banking on Blogging Facebook Group

Keep showing up my friends!

Check These Out!

I wrote a post On Why Blogs Fail and How to Beat the Odds, that is one of the FEW guest posts I’ve written. There is a printable Blog and Social Media Metrics Tracker (whew–quite the name) that is available for free in this post. Tracking my metrics really helps me stay on my game. I can see at a glance what is working and where I need to improve.

I seem to have a never-ending supply of post ideas to work on. At any given time, there is one up on my computer and one or two hovering in the background, waiting to be written. Here’s my how I do it.

The post The Rules of Blogging appeared first on My Think Big Life.