When I think about my journey with blogging it really makes me laugh.
I remember in 2012 when my boyfriend (now husband) and I started dating I decided to start a blog called Diaries of a Dance Teacher. I was working part time teaching dance and part time working with my dad’s company.
Jacob (my now husband) worked at a running store and we were honestly just living and enjoying life.
I blogged. I did videos on YouTube. I remember searching high and low for ‘home business opportunities’ and saw things like Mary Kay, Tupperware, etc.
The idea of working from home sounded amazing, especially because I knew I would marry this guy and want kiddos, but what I didn’t realize is that blogging could become more than just something I did for fun.
After about a year of playing around with blogging and youtube-ing, it fizzled. Ugh.
Fast forward to 2017 and I started again. But this time with a new idea. I revamped my blog to be my name and shared things like recipes and other things I did around nutrition. I had no plan or guide. I was totally guessing and it wasn’t pretty.
I didn’t know HOW to make money or build a business blogging so I stuck with it being my landing page.
I KNEW growing a blogging business was possible but didn’t think about it again for myself.
In 2018 I (FINALLY) landed on a brand name that I felt really good about; Realistic Plant-Based Mama and with this new name, I started seeing things happening. My social media profiles changed and over the months, I was landing deals with brands, gaining followers etc.
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At THIS point I thought nutrition COACHING was the direction I wanted to go in. I was working one-on-one with clients here and there via Facebook and my (very small) email list. But it didn’t feel totally right.
So in early 2019 I created a new website (this one!) called Realistic Plant-Based Mama as a refreshed landing page for my coaching services. I also moved from Blogger to Squarespace.
PS: Moving from Blogger to Squarespace was the BEST decision at this point in my business. It’s so easy to use and makes blogging much more enjoyable.
The funny thing is as I set up my new website I had this ‘i don’t really want to do one-on-one coaching’ feeling.
I had this new site and had a BLAST getting it set up. I transferred some of my old posts over to this new site but hadn’t started learning the ins and outs of blogging…yet.
These posts were meant to be supplemental to my coaching business. You know, something that does get updated since the rest of the site will be pretty static.
I joined some blogging related Facebook groups and started asking questions.
Some blogging related Facebook groups I like are Blogging for New Bloggers, Blogging Like We Mean It, and Blogging Babes Collective.
I realized how much I LOVED learning about blogging. The analytics. The challenges. Figuring out what works and doesn’t work. I love the idea of trying to make things better and doing better.
Then I had my miscarriage and this was the post that showed me the potential of blogging. You can read that story here if you want.
In one weekend I hit 3,000 pageviews and I was floored. How did that many people read my blog?!
Friends, family, and strangers told me that they enjoyed reading my story and they thought my writing was great. This was the reassurance I needed especially because although I liked writing, I never thought it was very good. (We are our toughest critics though, right?)
In June of 2019 I officially made the switch from nutrition coaching to nutrition blogging.
As of today, it has been 10 months since I started my blog. In 2019 I did not have a plan or a schedule. But now, in 2020, I have goals, a posting schedule, and finally feel like this is my future.
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Since May of 2019 my blog has reached 30,000 pageviews. Over 14,000 of those are from 2020.
3 REASONS I CHOSE TO START A BLOG
Here are the main reasons why I decided to start a blog instead of focusing on my nutrition coaching.
1. Time
To be totally honest, I didn’t have the time to be coaching. I work full time in the non-profit sector plus have two kids. I substitute teach at our local dance studio and just didn’t have the energy to also work with people on their nutrition.
The nice thing about blogging is that it can be done at ANY time of day (or night). I can work on it when I am available and my kids are asleep. I can bulk prep posts if I want and schedule things to go out.
Will I do nutrition coaching in the future? I’m 90% sure I will. But right now I don’t have the time.
2. Creative Freedom
I LOVE to be creative. I love to test things through trial and error. I love seeing what works and what doesn’t and watching my work pay off.
Blogging allows me to explore different topics, designs, tools, etc. It allows me to have creative freedom and it is 100% dependent on me.
3. Long-term results
Content on a webpage lives forever on the internet. The time I put into something today will continue to work for me 2 months or 2 years down the road. By utilizing a search engine like Pinterest, I also see things from months or years ago working FOR me now. Without any effort on my part.
As a mom, I need to use my time and efforts wisely. Sure coaching gives me quicker paid results but once that client is done, that’s it. Not residual income.
Although I haven’t received any paychecks from blogging yet, I know I am getting close and I HAVE seen payments from things like affiliates which is AWESOME and exciting.
I am focused on long-term goals and results especially while I am still working full-time and don’t need an income from the blog. #PlanToSucceed
WHAT ARE MY 2020 BLOGGING GOALS
These are my goals for 2020 without sharing my exact amounts or dates because to be honest, I’m reevaluating those now since my blog is growing faster than I originally anticipated at the end of 2019.
- Apply for an ad network to help bring in more steady income
- Increase social media (mainly Instagram) following to help allow for more sponsorship opportunities PLUS to meet more amazing plant-based focused or curious mama’s!
- Launch nutrition program on Teachable
- Be more efficient in content creation so I can spend more time with my family.
Not sure where 2020 will take me but I am loving the momentum I’ve had these first two months. Woohoo!
I think this is all I want to share for this post. Hopefully you enjoyed the story – although slightly scatterbrained! When I started this blog I had NO intention on blogging about blogging but I thought this might be an interesting read – I hope you enjoyed it!
Did you enjoy this post? Do you want to see more posts around blogging? Let me know if you enjoyed it by leaving a comment below or by sharing on Pinterest!
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