Becoming a Blogger

I must admit, even writing it now I kind of cringe, because I’m still such a rookie, can I really say I’m a blogger yet? Ever since I was young I’ve enjoyed storytelling. I love to write stories, and I love to share stories. Often they would be for school and so probably not the most entertaining. But I never majored in English, or journalism. I’m in no way a good speller or articulate. But I do have a voice and I found that it actually helps me when I’m feeling stressed. 

So how did I start? Well honestly when I became a stay at home mom I always wanted to help out more or do “more” but I never had the free time. There was always something else and I never found the right way to even make time for myself. When I decided to give it a try anyways, my cousin is a robotics engineer and also very website savvy. He was trying to help teach me how to build my own free website. I was actually trying, but it fell through and I never attempted after my computer stopped working. Fast forward two years and my good friend said her cousin runs a larger blog/website call San Francisco Moms, and they were looking for writers. You don’t get paid, but sometimes you can get perks for being a writer. I thought why not? I’ve wanted to get into it. So I did it for a year, sent them two articles a month. And I enjoyed it so much I decided to create my own website and post those blogs. 

You might say, well how did you find time? Nap times! So I’m not going to get too deep off topic, but I’m a contact napper, my kids have to nurse and be held. So often I am in the dark for a couple hours and that’s when I write. 

The tricky part was finding what company to use to make the site. I’m an not a techy person and even on this article I’m sure I’ll say the terms incorrectly! But my only experience with creating a website was with wix.com. My friend was updating her website for her cake business and needed help. So I researched and helped her set it up. But when I went to try it this go around it wasn’t working the way I hoped. So we did some google research to find a well rated program, and there was a lot of buzz going for Wordpress. So I took the plunge. 

When picking a name for the site I wanted something unique, but fun, and my husband and I have always liked my middle name, Leigh. And so I wanted to use that somehow. So I came up with My Lileigh Pad, something that’s my space and about me, and I thought it could also represent whatever I wanted it to be because it’s my pad. I also hoped that after I got all my blogs on there I could start selling things from this site. No clue what, but I wanted that option later. So I went to namecheap.comand bought the domain, you can search so many options there. Purchased and then you have to tell them where to direct your website to, who will host your website. Since I picked Wordpress I sent it there and started editing my website.

That’s where I got into trouble. Often I get excited about something and dive in, but it’s too soon and I hit a lot of kinks. Wordpress may work great for some, but it’s so tough for me! I had a horrible time figuring out what theme, and then each theme edits differently. And they don’t explain well enough for me how to edit my content. I didn’t want anything too fancy, I just wanted a clean looking site. And I thought there would be a template I could easily edit and create. So I’ve had the site for a few months now, because we already spent the money on it. But I really want to try my best to make this blog more than just another website, I’m hoping I could use it to provide some income to help with my family. And also I want to promote my writing so maybe I can get writing gigs, who knows!  But my site is nowhere near where I wanted it to be. 

I asked my husband to take a look at it, and he dived in. He is a lot more tech savvy than I am. And even he felt annoyed and stressed by figuring out how to edit Wordpress. So thankfully he gave me the green light to find a different option. I almost went to wix again, but decided to try square space. I heard about it and thought well I just want to check it out. To my surprise it’s SO much easier! Like wow! I found a template and I just click on it and edit it, boom. You’d think why don’t they make all websites like this? But they don’t! Within a few days I’ve already added most of my old blogs and they have free images to easily search to add. My hope is to finish it up and transfer over to them for good.

How do I make money from my blog? No clue! Everything I’ve checked on says to build your content, get people to visit, so sharing as much as you can. Have regular content, and ads. You can put ads on your pages to help. I don’t mind a few but I don’t want to overwhelm people. Also, my content has always been about being a mom, which is great but I need to find out if that’s my niche or maybe I can do other writing? I’m trying this all out one step at a time and before I overwhelm myself I just want to at least have a site that I’m proud of and is functional. I’ll keep sending updates, but hope this motivates you to start your next step as a blogger too!