My Blogging Journey
For those of you that are thinking of blogging, or for those of you who are just curious to know a little more about where I’m coming from, I thought I’d tell you my story.
Let’s Take it Way Back
I went to college to become an elementary school teacher. I thought I was destined to become Miss Honey from Matilda. But, as we have all learned, God had other plans.
After college, I began subbing and working as a paraprofessional while I worked on my Masters. Because, that’s what I was told, you HAVE to get your Masters Degree. Due to some unforeseen circumstances (which is a long story for another day), my college wouldn’t let me take the last course I needed to complete the program. To take the course, you had to have a teaching job, and every job I applied for they said I needed to have my Masters… a vicious cycle.
After working in a special education classroom as a paraprofessional, I discovered my love for special education. After many years of waiting to finish my Masters, I ended up just giving in and going back for a different Masters degree. While also, getting my licensure for special education.
I ended up getting placed for student teaching in an eighth-grade inclusion program, and once I finished my student teaching, one of the teachers surprisingly quit right before Christmas. I was hired to fill her position for the rest of the school year and then hired to take the position permanently.
It’s amazing how things start to fall together once you’re where you’re supposed to be.
Trying to Be an Adult
Fast-forward two years and now I am in my second year as a full-time teacher. Making the big bucks (I wish), and now I am trying to save to finally put on my big-girl pants. I was trying to move out of my mother’s house and buy my own place.
I was looking for ways to make some extra money to save up for my down payment. side jobs were doing tutoring on the side, and taking on after-school programs, but I felt that I should be doing more. My schedule did not allow for me to have a typical second job, so I was looking for things that I could do from home.
Teachers Pay Teachers
My journey led me to open my store on Teachers Pay Teachers. I had made so many different resources for my students and the general education teachers that I figured why not put some cool fonts and pretty covers on them and put them up for sale online.
So, I really dove in and began creating so many products; I felt like I could go on forever. After a few months of a lot of patience, my sales began to climb. And now, after finishing up my first year selling on TpT, I have made $771.53 just from my store!
For some stores that is not a lot, and I know that, and for some of you, you’re probably unimpressed, but that was so much more than I ever expected. I put in all the time and effort but was not confident that this plan would actually work. 2018 is going to be exciting, and I can’t wait to see how I grow!
Onwards and Upwards
After working diligently on my store and networking in Facebook groups and message boards, I thought that maybe it was time for me to start a blog. I began on Blogger; I chose Blogger without much thought. Blogger seemed like the easiest because I already had a Google email for my store. I wrote a couple of blog posts that were not well thought out and really just seemed like I was venting for 500 words.
I couldn’t figure out why my traffic wasn’t growing! (Shocker) So I posted sporadically and did some minimal promotion on Pinterest. After a few months of this, I decided that this was not going to work.
Let’s Try That Again
I decided that if I wanted to do this right, I needed to put in the proper effort. I did some research, started following some teacher blogs, started following some blogs about blogging and found a few people that I liked.
Everywhere I read talked about WordPress, so I went on WordPress.com and started up my new blog. I was able to create a URL that I liked, I signed up for a paid subscription and got going. Now it was time to learn how to build traffic.
I found this course that sounded awesome. Pinterest Traffic Avalanche from Create and Go.
I loved everything about this course; it was easy to follow and so informative. My store already had a Pinterest for my store and blog, but this taught me how to really build traffic to my Pinterest and then to my blog.
One Last Snag
As I went through Pinterest Traffic Avalanche, I realized that I was still uninformed when I started my blog on WordPress.com. I should have started my blog on WordPress.org. Who knew there were two different WordPress websites and that they were so different!
I did some research and decided that I wanted to make the switch now before I got too deep and it was even more challenging to change. I found out that I could cancel my paid WordPress.com subscription and be reimbursed for the part of the year I didn’t use it (Woohoo!). And this is where Alex and Lauren from Create and Go made another appearance. I purchased their Launch Your Blog Biz Course and used their step by step instructions to set up a professional-looking blog on WordPress.org.
After setting up my blog, I did give in to temptation and purchase the other one blogging course on Create and Go, Six-Figure Blogger. Through these two classes, I have learned about how to use affiliate marketing, set up ads, creating digital products, eBooks, and eCourses that are being incorporated into my plans for 2018.
And one month into my blogging I made my first commission on Amazon Affiliates, it was a whopping
$1.17
Alright, it’s not going to buy me a new car. But, it was the most exciting $1.17 that I think I have ever made.
Are you are thinking of starting your own blog? Go for it; I really think you won’t regret it. Are you looking at the Create and Go courses that I talked about, I highly recommend them. If you like it, you can learn from my mistakes and save some money and check out their bundles.
Thank you for reading my blogging journey. Do you have a great journey that led you to your blog? I would love to hear about it, leave me a message in the comments or send me an email!
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