First thing, I am very intimidated by all of the technical things that need to be done. I decided to use Wordpress instead of Blogger. This way you are able to make money off your blog and it is a lot more professional.
November 8th, 2014:
I decided I was going to start a blog. This is a thought that I had in the back of my mind for a few months but never made a decision. Right now with my husbands job we are making just barely enough to pay all our bills and living expenses. Which I am SO grateful for because just 4 months ago we were needing to dip into savings every single month for the last year. Do you know how fast that can add up? Let me just tell you that we depleted our savings by 50%. Not good. So we decided to pray about our situation and figure out what we could do to improve it. Since I quit my job as an office manager for an orthodontist about 2 years ago it has been super tight financially but it is important to us for me to be home with the kids. Thats just what works best for our family specifically. So long story short, after thinking through a few other options, a blog is what we decided. Tommy came home from work today and I announced that I had done a little more research and I was going to start a blog.
November 9th, 2014:
Today is a Sunday and I have made a promise to keep the sabbath holly. So I had to restrain myself from doing anything related to the blog process. This was really hard because it would be so easy for me to just do some research. Thats not blogging right? Well, I made it through the day with just a few thoughts scribbled on paper or typed in my phone. I count that a success.
November 10th, 2014
I purchased a domain name! penniesintopearls.com I wanted something a little girly but gets the point across that the blog is all about being frugal and thrifty but still having things that are cute. I also had to decide what host to go with (BlueHost) and figured out that I would also need a "framework" and a "theme". I decided to use (studiopress.com) to help with this. It turns out that for the domain and host you pay for 2-3 years up front and frame work and theme you pay a one time payment. Around $200 later I think that should be most of the costs of starting the blog.
November 11th, 2014
Deciding on a theme is tricky. At this point I think you kinda need to know what the general look and feel of your blog is going to be. I decided on it being chabby chic / rustic / fancy and wrapped up into one. Again trying to get the idea of turning old worn down things into something fantastic. The blog will also have some recipes that are focused around being low in cost but high in flavor.
I did it! It only took me three hours but I finally chose a theme! Then since I have a Mac I had to figure out (thanks Google!) how to download files but keep in it in a "zip" format. https://www.nutsandboltsmedia.com/how-to-install-the-genesis-framework-on-your-wordpress-site/ Then went into Wordpress and changed the title and now its actually starting to look like a REAL webpage!
November 12th, 2014
Feeling a little lost today. I uploaded my theme but its not looking how I really want it to look. I want a lot more customization to it. Like a wood background, different font and color of font. So now I am going through a step by step on Wordpress. http://codex.wordpress.org/First_Steps_With_WordPress The following is an activity they ask you to write:
This website will be dedicated to helping others live frugal
through transforming the worn out into the wonderful, creating inexpensive
delicious meals, and making a thrify and thriving home. The audience will be
women who are looking to spend little money but still want to have a cute home.
I will be adding posts 4-5 days a week about a different topic each day (food,
diy crafts, home décor, diy cleaning). I am doing this because I thrive on
being thrify and need extra income.
Categories: Fabulous Food, Chic Crafts, Homey Home Keeping,
DIY Decor
Subcategories:
Fabulous
food: Main coarse, dessert, side dishes, breakfast
Chic
Crafts: sewing, kids,
Homey Home
Keeping: diy cleaners, cleaning tips
DIY Décor:
wall art, furniture, kids
Pages: Contact Me, About Me,Was having a hard time with this tutorial. I made categories and sub categories but went to view my website and the posts said where they were categorized but I didn't see the menu to display the pages where the posts should be found. Well I then stumbled onto a setup with StudioPress http://my.studiopress.com/setup/lifestyle-theme/. So far very helpful!
It turns out that with StudioPress there is an option to download the demo to your website then they have pretty detailed tutorial that walks you through editing your website to make it more of your own. Still being a very novice blogger there were several topics that I really had know idea what the tutorial what talking about. What I would do in this case is Google what my question was but always included the words Wordpress and I could find an answer pretty easily.
November 13th, 2014
After I put the kids to bed last night I started to work on the blog again after already have worked on it for 4-5 hours earlier. Well after about an hour of working I got stumped on how to correctly set up my menus. I decided I was super tired from only getting 5 hours of sleep for that last 3 nights in a row. Closed the laptop, grabbed a bowl of popcorn, leftover halloween candy, and turned on Gilmore girls. It didn't take long at all before I found myself waking up on the couch. So I went to bed. I think in this process it is going to be important to take breaks when needed. I will work very hard but I will also takes breaks. (I have to remind myself to do this sometimes)
So I woke up this morning with a lot more energy and went to work. I read a little bit on some forums in regards to editing your menu and within a few minutes I figured it out! I am starting to become a little familiar with Wordpress and I am learning to not be afraid to try something. Note: I do take screenshots before I change something. This way if after the change my page gets messed up I can change it back. Ideally...
Working on my contact page. Just learned that as you are Googling make sure if you end up on forums to make sure you pay attention to the dates. I installed an old plugin for my contact page and ran into some problems. Re-Googled my search and found some Wordpress suggested plugins for Contact Forms.
November 14th, 2014
I wrote my first page! It is my "About" page. I think I did a good job at making it sound like me and I also figured out (on my OWN no Google search thank you) how to insert pictures into the page. In the future I will figure out how to make the picture look nicer by changing the shape or something like that. But for now my goal is to get my blog looking pretty nice and hopefully in the next few days I can start making posts! Once I have about 10 posts then I am going to be starting to post on my social media and start getting some advertisers (hopefully). Then once I get it rolling then I will go back and start to really dive into the ascetics of the blog.
November 15th, 2014
This is starting to be really fun. I drafted my first post which is about all of the freezer meals that I prepared in order to have more time to blog. Now that the blog is somewhat aesthetically ready to go I am now going through Pinterest and finding websites that have tips on how to make your blog better and slowly checking things off. I think this probably will be an on going process.
November 17th, 2014
Okay! I have two posts live on my blog! I have learned a little about editing and taking photos from a several different websites I found through a Pinterest search. I have also installed Google Analytics on the blog and found how to to do that here. So now I am going to keep writing posts to build up content before I start sharing my blog with the "world". In the mean time I am trying to decide if I am going to wait to follow other bloggers social media through Pennies into Pearls or wait until I have a little more of a content foundation on the blog. Probably wait... I will also be searching Pinterest on ideas to improve the look and usability of the blog.
November 18th, 2014
I am getting closer to being ready to launch the blog. Here is a website that I used as a launch checklist of things to look over before I launch. This launch checklist really has great content and ideas on things to do to have a great launch. I have set a goal to "launch" my blog on Monday the 24th. Right before Thanksgiving and Black Friday. I will be posting about sales I am finding and maybe setting up a social media chat thing to keep in contact and see what everyone's is finding.
November 24th, 2014
I just finished posting links on all of my social media and Pennies into Pearls social media! The word is out. Now I need to work on creating awesome content and getting more people to read and follow my social media.
What I have been doing is writing posts and reading any other blog posts I can find on how to improve/market your blog. Here goes nothing! I also need to figure out how and who to connect with, as in other bloggers and blogging groups or conferences. It's a little harder than I thought. I have found a few groups but they were active for the past few months. I will keep looking.
There has been several times in just the last 2 weeks that I have had the thought that, "Maybe people won't like this" or "maybe I can't/shouldn't do this". It is a TON of work. But I think as long as I keep making it fun and I will have the drive to make this blog successful. I decided that I am going to have the outlook of the blog as, I just want to share my experience in doing things on the cheap with my friends and family. If other people want to follow along then that is even better! Here it goes!...
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