My Journey: What I’ve Learned from Three Years of Blogging

A few weeks ago, I was reflecting on why I started this blog and, to be honest, I asked myself, “Should I quit?”  As I challenged myself with this tough question, my passionate self chimed right back, “No!” I have decided to keep blogging because I am still passionate about writing on personal finance and helping others learn about it. In today’s post, I will take you on my blogging journey and reflect on what I’ve accomplished to date and what I have learned along the way.

Blogging is more time consuming than I had imagined it would be and it requires learning a lot of skills. Thus, I have been super inconsistent with writing over the years. Instead of quitting, I’ve decided to commit more time and give it more focus. As a result, you may have noticed more posts from me over the last few weeks.

This week I was watching a video on YouTube by a creator who recommended documenting your journey. I contemplated this idea and decided I would do this and do so in a public way on my blog. There are so many benefits to journaling but for me it’s the act of self-reflection that I love most. It also helps me grow and it can help others too who are on or are considering a similar journey.

My Journey

Now, let’s take a look at my journey! I’m going to play catch-up and document some of what I’ve learned since I’ve started this blog. I also plan to write more reflection posts just like this as I continue to explore and learn.

The ideation phase of starting a blog.

I contemplated starting a personal finance blog for about five years but never took any action. I am a visionary and tend to have a lot of ideas. Part of my challenge was that I couldn’t decide on a direction as I had so many ideas. 

I started my blog – Conquering Cash – on May 13, 2020.

During the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, I decided to give it a go. In May of 2020, I started my blog and began my blogging journey. Read my first post, “Why I Started Conquering Cash“.

I had to pick a domain name to start my journey. 

Picking a brand name is not easy! It actually takes a lot of time to come up with a name, and then to only realize many other people already came up with that same domain name, so it’s not available! This phase took much longer than I had expected.

I learned how to use Bluehost. 

To start, I signed up for a three-year subscription with Bluehost. I decided I would begin with the goal of writing 10 posts. At the time, I didn’t tell too many friends that I had started this effort. I was not very confident in what I might create or what I had created. 

In about four weeks, I had successfully complete the following:

• I signed up for the blog with Bluehost.
• I started using WordPress and set up the theme.
• I wrote eight posts in one month.

I created a brand identity and logo.

I created a logo using Adobe Illustrator. Plus, I created some basic colors to use for branding. Then, I used the WordPress theme editor to apply those same colors to my site.

My WordPress journey.

Learning WordPress was pretty intuitive for me. I already had knowledge of web tools and HTML. Back in the late 90’s, as a high school student, I self-taught myself web development and built a website of my own for fun. I maintained it in high school and college. Plus, I built websites for friends and family. In my mid 20’s I had a personal blog just because it was fun.  I also have my Masters in Instructional Technology and I have a corporate background in building online courses, creating content, and managing Learning Management Systems. You could say I have a fair amount of technical skills.

I furthered my knowledge of WordPress and explored the various plug-ins to install.

While learning WordPress was pretty easy to start, it became more complicated as I explored the various plug-ins. Here is what I explored in more detail as time went on:

• I switched to a new theme.
• I tried various newsletters plug-ins. I just installed the Newsletter Plugin and I hope I am going in the right direction. I also tried Jetpack. I would seriously appreciate any help in this area!

I’m learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy and tools.

Search engine optimization is a skill in and of itself, and it takes time. Just writing a blog post does not mean that anyone can actually find it! In the past few months I’ve grown in this area, but there is so much more to learn. 

I’ve had to learn how to use the following tools:

• Google Console
• Yoast plugin

I’m learning all about social media marketing strategy and tools.

Before, I was relying on Facebook as my main way to notify every one of my new posts. However, this is where I am at today:

• I use Meta Business Suite to post my feeds. It has taken me a while to get to this point. I am just now actively posting in bulk. 
• I am using Pinterest to post. I had used Pinterest a little bit over the years but not too heavily. I used it mainly to find ideas for kid birthday parties or inspiration for activities for school parties, since I am a homeroom parent. The realm of creating content for Pinterest is a whole different area of expertise. I am just starting to work in Pinterest for my blog and creating pins. There are different design best practices that I am currently exploring to increase the design of my pins. YouTube has been a good resource for me. I’ve started watching these videos while I do my evening walks on the treadmill.
• I started an Instagram page. I’m also exploring Instagram but I’m just getting started here.

I’ll be the first to admit  that I don’t have a clear strategy here, and I’m learning rapidly over the past month as I explore other content creator posts on YouTube. I actually think I may be overextending myself into too many social media platforms. I’d love to find out more about where my followers are in terms of social media. 

I’m learning the most efficient way to create graphics for blogs and social media platforms.

I know how to use many graphic design tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, but they are expensive to buy for my personal use. I started off creating my logo with a free trial of Adobe Illustrator and then never purchased it. Up until last month, I was creating all of my graphics in Paint. Yes, that is really hard to imagine but it’s true!

Right now, I’m really enjoying Canva. Last month, I really started exploring the free version of Canva. Then, I decided to dabble with the free trial to get access to the premium content. The designer in me really didn’t want to go in this direction since I have so much experience in Adobe design tools. However, after giving it a try I’ve realized how fast I can create content and it’s a much less expensive option. Plus, Canva allows me to create content and then resize it and redesign it quite easily for different platforms. For this reason, I’ve been able to create more graphics over the past two weeks. 

I’m also making use of Pexels, Unspash, and Pixabay for free stock photos.

I’m learning it’s hard to get followers and get engagement.

The main reason I wanted to start a blog was to have connections to other people and really have an impact. I’m finding it very hard to connect to others. I am not yet at the point where I feel like I am having an impact. I hope that this will come with time as I continue to learn and build out more content.

Thank you for coming on my blogging journey with me and for reading!

I still don’t have the confidence to really open up and share with all of my friends, family, and acquaintances about my blogging journey. However, I think that this post is the beginning of me doing just that! I am a writer, a creative, a content creator, and a connector. I must say though, after writing this post, I’m feeling pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished to date.

Please like and share my posts if you find it helpful, or think others will find it helpful. This is what will keep me energized! If you’ve made it this far in this post, I would like to thank you for the support and for listening to all of my words. It’s been quite the journey. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

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