8 interesting facts I have learned as a new blogger this past month

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New blogger sucking it big time – at least this month but still learning!!

Disclosure – this post may contain affiliate links.  I may receive a commission if you click through my link at no additional cost to you.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

At this point I have been blogging steadily-ish since January of 2021

I have had major successes and some setbacks.

I have a tendency to think more along the lines of what I did NOT accomplish because my “to do” list is sometimes unachievable stupid long.

A few things that I have learned as a new blogger:

Shiny Object Syndrome

– As I navigate the blogging world and pinterest posts, I am truly distracted by Shiny Objects. The “How you can”, “What you’re not doing”, “What you should be doing”, “Sign up for my” …………..and so on and so on.

I’m a freebie hoarder. #truth

Pinterest is my frenemy

 – For as much as I learn, there’s so much more.  Circle back to Shiny Object Syndrome. 

The latest things that I have added are Pinterest Board Covers (since I discovered this so late, I have over 100 Boards to cover so I just take care of a few each day)

My pins were in alphabetical order because I thought it looked uniform and would go well with my Board Covers. What I had since learned is that your boards should be listed in order of importance. So I am rotating my boards around every few weeks.

As of this writing, my Mother’s Day board and Gift Guide board are the first 2 listed after my KSI (all my pins) board. After Mother’s Day, I will move that board down the list and move Memorial Day and Father’s Day in it’s place.

This will happen routinely throughout the year.

I created this and all of my board covers through Canva.

I’m still really confused on how to add an invisible Pinterest tag on my pics.  That’s a work in progress.

Content, Content, Content

– Write and then write some more. 

But with that, make sure it’s worthy of being read. 

I honestly didn’t start off being a blog about blogging – I still don’t think that I am, I just like sharing what I learn while I write about other stuff. 

I like the idea of helping others.  The once a month blogging update is a way for me to remember everything as well.

My other posts that do really well was by accident and I’m kinda rolling with it. 

Once I am ready to be in the home decor division full time, I will have to make the transition slowly to my posts being mostly about what we are making.

Don’t be afraid to learn new things

– When I changed my website from last year (wix) to this Bluehost/Wordpress one, I was ready to give it all up and was just in the “what was I thinking” phase for a little while. 

But I took some time, read and reread, watched videos and now I think I can handle my website pretty well. 

I continually see elements on other’s blogs that I think are so cool and want to add something similar to my site, but then OH LOOK!  Butterfly!  I mean, seriously.  SO SHINY!  See what I mean??

Don’t skimp

– Short posts just won’t cut it.

On page SEO is super important. Especially as a new blogger. The longer your post is, with excellent SEO, Google sees you as being more relevant.

Be sure to write RELEVANT information – don’t just ramble. If you need to have a slightly shorter post to be consise and to the point, then do it. You’ll write more posts that will be longer.

Shoot for 2000 words. At this point of this post, I’m not even at 800 words. It’s all good. I still have relevant things to say.

But don’t expect to be relevant to the world instantaneously. It takes up to a year for you to start ranking closer and closer to the first page of Google – especially if you are in a competitive niche.

(I will tell you in every post – STAY AWAY FROM ANYONE THAT TELLS YOU THEY MADE 10K THEIR FIRST MONTH BLOGGING!) It’s a load of crap. I don’t care how hard you work.

You actually need to put in the work – writing and advertising – in order to be relevant.

And if you want to monetize your blog – it’s going to be even more work.

Keep reading…….

Content scheduling

– I have made so many pins for my posts and I add them to Tailwind. 

I add to as many communities that they fit into (I’ll get to that in a moment) and then I go through and manually move the pins around and spread them out over 2 weeks time. 

That way I am ALWAYS pinning something. 

I try stay relevant to pinterest, you know, my FRIEND. 

Canva is a huge help in helping to design the pins.  If I have a pin that does really well, then I will use it as a template to make a new pin and change the pictures and words, etc. 

Colors and fonts remaining the same almost becomes a signature style for you.  

Tailwind communities, I actually signed up for powerups.

I joind Communities Max for $120/year. I can join unlimited communities and can have  200 pin submissions per month.

Now I that I have unlimited communities to add my posts to that are relevant (This particular post will end up in several “how-to” communities as well as social media and affiliate groups) I rotate between how-to, affiliate sharing, and etsy communities.

  Look below for a list of my favorite Tailwind communities here that I always get a few shares out of weekly.  

• Best of Etsy Products
• Pinterest Friends
• Gift Guide Extravaganza
• Perfect Gift Guides
• Gift Guides & Product Round Up Guides For All Seasons
• Affiliate Pinterest Pinning for the Holidays, events and gifts
• Online Content Creators
• Bloggers Killin It on Pinterest | The Art of Better
• Blogging Tips and Tools
• Business Blogging Tips- Promote your Blog
• Blogging, Digital & Social Media Marketing Pros
• Business Blogging Tips- Promote your Blog
• Online Content Creators

resources page

– Having a resource page is something of value that I recently learned.

I added the page to my blog because I feel that having all my favorites listed in one place is good business. I can’t list all my favorite people and websites in every post, but I can refer to this page as a jumping point for you to see who is the best of the best in my world.

My blogging resources section starts with my two favorites!!

I quite often fan girl over Sasha Lassey Everyday She’s Sparkling because her resources and courses have helped me out so many times in the past several months. The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit for Beginners is a wealth of free information that I return to use again and again.

Cate Rosales of Sweet & Simple Life is also someone that I fangirl over. Cate is a blogging coach. Her blog also shows you how to grow traffic and monetize your blog. She also has an incredible library of free resources that I go back to as well.

Cate and Sasha got together to do a Masterclass to Scale Your Blog Business. Holy moly – in the past 2 months I have learned SO MUCH MORE about myself, my blog and my business venture because of the tasks they present. Live Q & A twice a month and then live training twice a month as well.

These two lovely ladies pretty much make it to my posts every month mostly because of my fangirling (is that a word?) Honestly, they just have this easy breezy approach to teaching about blogging and the behind the scenes stuff.

These are definitely ladies that in real life, I would want to be friends with.

Back to the resource page, I have a few different categories. Obviously as stated above, I have a Blogging Resources Section.

I also having shopping resources with discount codes and money saving sites.

And lastly (for now) I have an Investments and Saving Money section.

Most importantly, when listing these sites, give the WHY. WHY should I be trusting what you are recommending? Possibly give a mini review next to each recommendation so the person knows what they are clicking through to.

Finally……………

affiliate marketing

– Yup – I learned A LOT about affiliate marketing. This past month was the first time that I actually invested money into learning with 2 different groups.

First, I already told you about Sasha and Cate’s new group Scale Your Blog Success.

Then I invested in Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Of course, it was MONTHS of seeing her name suggested all over the inter-webs that made me FINALLY invest in her course.

However, she DOES offer a FREE Ecourse that you can check out here

This is a FREE course that she offers. I learned so much and when I invested in her paid course, there were plenty of A-HA!! moments. It made so much sense.

Because I already had done so much research before buying her course, making sense of affiliate marketing, the first few chapters were a brief glossing over for me. New bloggers will benefit well from it.

But then she got to the meat and potatoes of it all and, I am so happy that I bought it. I have a new approach to my affiliate marketing.

I know that I am getting the link clicks. I’ve made a few dollars in affiliate sales this past month – not bad, not bad. Better than the beginning when I made .03

Yes – you read that correctly! 3 pennies. And now I’ve made over $10! It’s definitely a start and I cannot wait to see what next month brings.

I am motivated and trying to stay focused (SQUIRREL!)

I am already looking forward to recapping next month!! I already know we are going to have more news to share.