Table for Four or More

This post may contain affiliate links and we may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

I started blogging 18 months ago after thinking about it for years. It started as an outlet, as a way to help others achieve balance through cleaning and organizing tips, simple recipes, and relaxing family getaways.

Writing for me has always been an outlet. In third grade, my only Christmas wish was to get an electric typewriter. That was almost 40 years ago before the world was taken over with technology. I thought I hit it big.

I loved the whirring sound of the motor when I turned on the typewriter and the ease of barely touching a key and seeing the letter appear on the paper. It was my dream and I was in heaven.

Fast forward many years later and although my typewriter is now a laptop, the desire to put words to paper is unchanged. That is where blogging comes in.

So what makes blogging Practically Perfect? Let me explain.

What Makes Blogging Practically Perfect?

You Make All the Decisions

As much advice as there is about blogging, it ultimately comes down to doing what you think is best. You can read hundreds of blog posts about SEO, setting up your site, choosing the right domain name, picking the perfect niche…the list can go on and on.

What happens is you wind up reading everyone’s post on what to do about everything blog related and you end up doing nothing at all to your own blog. It certainly has happened to me and I wound up feeling like I wasted precious time on someone else’s blog when what I really needed to do is work on my own.

With that being said, I definitely have my “go to” bloggers that I reference on a regular basis to keep me on the right track. The trick is knowing where to find the information you’re looking for and when to stop reading.

Being in charge of my own blog means I take ownership for the bad decisions I make and the good ones. I have a lot to learn on this journey but I’m willing to learn and pick myself up off the ground when I’ve been knocked down. Also, not all blogging advice is good advice. I’ll give you an example.

Monetizing your blog early can be a smart decision for some new bloggers if they already have a following. However, it is not wise to apply for some affiliates early on (such as Amazon) until you have a solid group of followers. If you don’t meet your sales goal within 180 days they drop you. Just like that. You would think that making 3 sales in 180 days would be simple. For some, it very well may be. For others, not so much.

Just because you can apply to most affiliate programs doesn’t mean you should. Focus on one or two while you build your audience and then apply for more. Some of my favorites include:

• ShareASale
• CJ Affiliates
• VigLink

You Decide on Your Niche

Just as I mentioned above, there was so much information to read when figuring out what my niche was going to be. So many times I read to “niche down” so I can attract and retain my perfect audience. I know, I know…if I try and write to everyone, I end up writing to no one. The goal is to find my audience. My audience will be made up of people who will learn to trust my blog over time as I establish myself as a credible expert in my area.

There just seems to be one teeny tiny problem with that. I haven’t been able to niche down at all.

I am obviously not a full-time blogger. I am an early childhood intervention specialist. That’s a fancy word for preschool special education teacher. You can’t niche down much more than that. My passion for blogging has to be very different from my everyday reality of teaching.

I thought for just a second of starting a teaching blog. I soon realized that I had to have something different to focus my energy on if was going to continue to have fun with blogging. It was not going to be teaching. Teaching has been a part of my life for 27 years and I certainly have the knowledge and the credentials to prove myself an expert in the field. However, I would much rather think about the topics on this Lifestyle blog.

Teaching already consumes so much of my time outside of blogging. For now, I would rather focus on helping others find a happy balance between working and having a family.

So to niche down right now is not in the plans. I’m enjoying myself doing something completely different but still writing about things I love. Simple recipes, organizing tips, family travel, and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

**Update**

Now that I’ve been blogging for a few years, I am able to identify who I write for (working moms) and what topics they enjoy reading about (cleaning & travel). Although I still haven’t officially niched down on my blog, the majority of my new content has been on the topic of cleaning and travel.

As life would have it, my teaching went down a different path with the start of the pandemic and I soon discovered a new way of teaching using the Boom™ Learning platform. I found that I absolutely loved the resources I could find on Boom™ and quickly learned how to create my own. As a result, I have published a few posts on the benefits of using Boom cards. Whether this new way of teaching will inspire me to start a new blog is yet to be known. 

Niching down took me more time than most, but I feel that all things happen for a reason. I enjoy writing and sharing information on cleaning, travel and Boom™ cards more than any other topic I’ve written about. I feel that I have valuable information to share and it helps me to create new material on a regular basis.

When I started to write for a specific audience, I was able to create posts that were of value to them and this has helped me to grow my little blog.

Time Management is Up to You

When I started my blog, it was July and I had about six weeks before my school year began. I made the decision to launch my blog by August 1st, this gave me two weeks to get everything up and running. I used Bluehost as my hosting site and I love it. I was able to install WordPress with one simple click and within weeks I launched Table for Four or More with only three posts. I wanted to have a few weeks to make changes before I got knee-deep in preparing for my school year.

Just recently, Bluehost added a FREE service for all new Bluehost customers called Blue Spark. This service will help guide you through the process of building your website. To access, simply purchase Bluehost through my link and contact the Blue Crew team at 844-741-1192 and ask about the Blue Spark Service.

Let me add by saying that the first few months of starting my blog I would have really appreciated having the additional technical support. Learning how to navigate the Bluehost and WordPress dashboards took some time, patience, and a lot of YouTube videos to figure out. I’m so happy they are now supporting new bloggers in this capacity. This feature is priceless!

Those first few weeks were not easy working on my own. I had little to no knowledge on how to even begin. I followed the advice of Cassie and David at Living Low Key for setting up my blog. I found their writing style easy to follow and their advice spot on. The hardest part for me was setting up Google Analytics. I wanted to pull my hair out on several occasions. I stuck with it though and figured it out.

Thank goodness for YouTube and the google search engine!

My days and nights became a blur. I worked tirelessly into the early mornings while my family slept. I knew once the morning came I would have to shift from blogger to mom-mode. It wasn’t until the evening came that I would be able to work again. I loved every single minute of it. I felt a renewed since of purpose. I was excited to be doing something completely out of my wheelhouse. I was responsible for what I did or did not get done. The opportunity to write and share helpful tips and information to others made me feel like I had a purpose.

As the school year began and soccer season kicked (literally!) into full-gear for both of my kids, I knew I had to do a better job of managing my time. The thing is, I love blogging so much that I would sacrifice hours of sleep to work on it. I could possibly keep this pace up if I were about 20 years younger. However, since I am not 20 years younger, I had to learn how to prioritize my “to-do” list.

It helps to have a personal planner. I created this one for myself, to help with my daily and weekly tasks. This planner also has a place to track emails/phone calls and a weekly meal planner.

I also love my Coffee-Inspired “To Do” lists to help keep my day on track and get things done.

Prioritizing my “to-do” list is the key to my time management. Some items get moved from one day to the next for multiple days in a row if necessary. I try and dedicate 2-3 hours each night to work on my blog but that is often not enough to get everything accomplished.

Sticking to a schedule and taking advantage of unexpected pockets of time (think snow days) is what has helped me to continue writing even when blogging takes a back seat to the rest of my obligations.

Pinterest Helps You Grow

I have a love-hate relationship with Pinterest. I love looking at my home feed and pinning new ideas to my boards. I love finding out that one of my pins is reaching over 20k impressions (as a newbie blogger, those numbers are exciting). I love that I am slowly but surely gaining followers and getting clicks to my website. Again, this number is small but growth is growth. I love that I have discovered bloggers who I trust will give me good advice because every time I utilize tips from them, they work.

One of my absolute favorites is Elna from Twins Mommy. She’s down to earth, relatable, and her strategies are easy to implement. Her advice has always proven to be very effective. If you sign up for her email, you will get a free copy of her 2019 Blog Traffic Planner. After just two days of using the planner myself, the activity from my website rose from 643 impressions to 35,838 impressions and my website viewers rose from 438 to 34,423! Serious difference. Thank you, Elna!

**Update**

Elna from Twins Mommy has updated her Blog Traffic Planner to also include a FREE Traffic to Money video course. She once again proves why she is one of my favorites!

So for all the reasons I love Pinterest, I also loathe it. I hate not knowing why I lose thousands of monthly viewers over a course of a week and regain them the following week. I have no idea what I did during that time to lose viewers (or gain them back for that matter) . As a new blogger I look at every number, every piece of data, every area of my analytics to find growth and discover what works or does not work. Watching my numbers drop was disheartening and made me anxious.

I have to wonder, was it the result of having some of my pins stolen? Was it someone I followed? Was it someone who followed me? Was it my choice of pins? Was it my few days of inactivity when I got sick? One thing for certain is the Pinterest algorithm is complicated at best. For that reason alone, some of these questions I will probably never get answered.

Pinterest sometimes feels so needy to me. If I don’t pay it the right amount of attention it acts like a petulant child. So. Frustrating.

I started using Tailwind, the Pinterest scheduler from almost the beginning. I stopped when I reached the end of my free trial because I didn’t want to invest a single cent more in my blog without seeing any return on my investment. Well, remember how I said earlier that I take ownership of my bad decisions? That was one of the biggest. Once I paid to continue my use of Tailwind and joined more Tribes, I no longer had to worry about being active on Pinterest every day. I schedule pins for 2 weeks in advance (some bloggers do this once a week or even once a month) so I don’t lose out on opportunities to grow my traffic.

The first photo below represents data after I started scheduling pins with Tailwind and utilized the power of Tailwind Tribes. This is the best investment I made for growing my traffic. I can and still do pin manually just because I enjoy spending time on Pinterest. However, I always have Tailwind to pick-up the slack when life gets really busy.

The second photo below is a snapshot of my Pinterest Analytics today. With the help of Tailwind and Tailwind Tribes, I’m now reaching 182.72 k people per month (up from 15,545) and my daily impressions have gone from 2,798 to 230.39k!

Click here to begin your FREE Tailwind trial. You’ll be happy you did!

Updated Pinterest Analytics

Pinterest drives me crazy but it’s what drives traffic to my blog and it’s the reason for my growth. Love it or hate it, I can’t grow without it.

Please note, if you are thinking about starting a blog, there are a few things you need to do before you can see check out your Pinterest analytics.

• Claim your Website
• Sign-up for a Business Account
• Apply for Rich Pins

Click here for help with any of the above.

Finding Comfort in Blogging as an Introvert…Most of the Time

Blogging gives me an opportunity to bury myself in my thoughts and hide from the world. It brings me sheer happiness to work alone in the stillness of the night when everyone is asleep.

I don’t have to talk or be social. I can be as a quiet as I want to be. I can hide and no one will ask where I am. I am in utter bliss when I sit down at my computer and begin to write.

However, there is a feeling that is hard to describe when you hit the “Publish” button. Your thoughts are out there for all to see and judge. In an online world, people are not afraid to tell you what they think. It does make you very vulnerable to everyone who reads your post.

I’m also not very good at opening up to others about my blog. The few friends I have told are the ones who inspired me to name my blog Table for Four or More. It was only right that I let them know about their positive influence on me and my new hobby. You can read more about my amazing friends on my About Me page.

Some aspects of blogging that are out of my comfort zone include things like creating a YouTube video explaining one of my blog posts, joining Facebook Live Chats, asking to post as a guest blogger, or hosting a webinar. In time, those things may not feel so daunting. For now, I’ll stick with what I can do comfortably and wait until the time is right for everything else.

** Update**

I have now created a YouTube channel for my blog and posted my very first video a few weeks ago. I have found “my people” and feel more comfortable sharing information than I did when I first started blogging. As I stated above, I just needed to wait until the time was right.

Blogging for me is a journey, not a race. If it doesn’t feel right, I don’t do it.

Is Blogging Practically Perfect for You?

There is so much to gain from taking a risk and putting everything you’ve got into creating something fresh, unique, and wonderful for the world to enjoy. Blogging is not perfect and it’s full of ups and downs. However, the imperfections of blogging can be managed by the fact that it is a perfect side hustle for anyone looking for a creative outlet. It’s perfect because it is your blog. Your decisions. Your mistakes. Your success.

It’s perfect because it’s from a place within you that has a story to tell. Your story. Let your voice be loud enough for all to hear. Your blog is waiting.