Warning: today I’m going to get a little emotional on you guys.  I typically try to keep my feelings at arm’s length on this blog, but today’s going to be slightly different.  I will be back to sharing projects later this week, but hopefully you’ll humor me for now.  This post is for all of you who have big dreams – maybe even scary dreams – and who may be feeling a little lost in the process of making those dreams a reality.

Three years ago, after I’d scaled back my hours at my lawyer job, I sat down on the couch one night and started this blog.  The idea to start a blog had popped into my head earlier that week and I just went ahead and jumped in.  During the process of getting started, I made every single mistake a blogger could make (if you’re curious, you can read about those mistakes here), and I never imagined that I’d still be writing three years later.

And then, last week, I found myself at The Haven Conference – an annual blog conference for design and DIY bloggers – in Atlanta, Georgia.  I was a nervous wreck.  Even though I enjoy talking to new people and making friends, I am actually quite introverted, and networking scares the you-know-what out of me.

Adding to my stress of being a first-time Haven attendee was the fact that I was teaching two classes at the conference on copyright and trademark issues for bloggers.  For the first day or so, I felt like I was going to throw up at any moment, and I think I over-compensated for my nerves by talking waaaaay too much to anyone who would listen.

Luckily, I had a great group of girlfriends there with me.  These girls are my tribe: they just get it.  The ups and downs, the highs and lows of both blogging and life – they are there for it all.

They helped put me at ease as we visited the amazing brands at the conference, as we tried to “play it cool” when the mega-successful bloggers that we idolize came anywhere near us, and as we compared notes on all of the things we’d learned during our sessions each day.

And of course, they helped me put to good use those drink tickets from our Saturday night party hosted by Ryobi.  Not that you could tell from these photos or anything. . .

Don’t let me near a selfie stick again please.

Now all of this brings me to the point of this post – even for those of you who are not bloggers.  I learned a lot at Haven about ways to improve Average But Inspired, but more importantly, I learned that if you have a dream, you need to be relentless in your pursuit of making it happen.  Do not give up.  There are going to be bumps in the road and major hurdles thrown up from time to time.  Your success is directly tied to your ability to find a way around those roadblocks and to persevere.

A huge part of that is surrounding yourself with people who support you and what you’re doing.  It is imperative that you have a network of people who will provide you with feedback, both positive and negative, and help you define your goals, and in turn, your dream.  Find your people and be there for each other.

Now listen, compared to many, I am by no means a “successful” blogger or author.  My eBook for bloggers on copyright and trademark law is an absolute flop.  I mean, sales probably could not be much worse.  That has been a tough pill to swallow, but because of the joy that I get from blogging and the relationships I’ve built during my time in this community, I’m going to keep trying. I may need to try something new and take a different path from time to time, but with good people by my side (or at least on the other side of my computer screen), I know I will keep on planning, creating, growing, learning, having faith, and working to make my dreams a reality.

If your dreams aren’t taking shape the way you planned or at the speed you want, try to have patience as I am also trying to do.  Have faith that even if the dream you THINK you want isn’t working out, something else that you may not have even thought of yet WILL.  I heard variations of that same story from so many at Haven, and for that, I’m grateful.

Don’t give up.  Don’t lose hope.  Don’t quit your daydream.

-Bre

 

It is astonishing to me that as of this week, Average But Inspired is two years old.

I started this little blog on a whim.  I literally sat down on the couch one night, made a WordPress.com account, wrote a post about fruit kebabs and hit publish.  I kept Average But Inspired a secret for a few months and NEVER thought I would still be writing here two years later!

But I’m totally hooked.  I love almost everything about blogging.  The creativity, the friendships I’ve made (probably sounds crazy if you’re not a blogger, but I have made real blogger friends that I have never met in real life!), the fun opportunities that come along with blogging, and probably most of all, the CONSTANT learning that goes on.

And let me tell you, I have LEARNED so much, especially because I have made some of the biggest blogging mistakes during this two-year journey!  Mistakes that, I believe, have caused me to miss out on a lot of traffic and growth.  Don’t get me wrong – I am grateful to be where I am today, but I also can’t help but think where Average But Inspired might be now if it wouldn’t have been for these serious missteps.  

Since I have never written a blog post about, well, blogging, I’m not really sure why I decided to now.  I guess reflecting on what I’ve accomplished over the past two years brought all of this to the surface, and I thought that sharing some of my missteps might help others in Blogland not make the same mistakes.  Note that while this post contains some affiliate links (denoted with an asterisk), these are sincere recommendations of products or services that have helped me correct my mistakes – not included in a cheap attempt to make a buck off of anyone.

So here goes – I’m putting it all out there and I hope it helps at least one person.  Otherwise I wasted a whole lot of time drudging up the past and exposing my blogging stupidity.  🙂

1.  I Ignored Pinterest.

Prior to March 2015, I essentially ignored Pinterest.  I would, on occasion, pin others’ content, and I hardly ever remembered to pin my own content.  In January and February of this year, my average Pinterest daily viewer numbers were in the mid-hundreds and hardly any of my blog’s page views came from Pinterest.

And then in March, everything changed.  At the recommendation of my friend Tasha at Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body, I joined Board Booster*, which is one of the several pin scheduling services available these days.  I joined lots of group boards on Pinterest and then set up my Board Booster account to pin my old blog content to my biggest and best group boards on a recurring basis.  (Note: the awesome thing about group boards is that your Pinterest followers do not see your pins to group boards unless they also happen to be following those group boards.  So you do not need to worry about spamming their feeds because they likely will not be seeing your pins to these boards.  Instead, the thousands of followers of those group boards see your pins to those boards – giving you access to Pinners than you may otherwise not have reached.)

You guys.  I cannot even tell you the difference this has made.  Now over half of my blog’s daily page views come from Pinterest, my Pinterest daily viewer numbers have skyrocketed, and I am gaining new followers every single day.  I would definitely call this a game changer.  And I am KICKING myself for not utilizing Pinterest until four months ago.  I really feel like a total idiot.

Bottom line:  Even if you don’t subscribe to a pin scheduling service, make sure to become a contributor to group boards and pin your content there regularly, following each board’s rules, of course.  I promise you’ll see a difference.

2.  I Moved My Blog Myself.

As I mentioned earlier, Average But Inspired started out on WordPress.com – the free version of WordPress.  About four months into my blogging journey, I decided to move to the Blogger platform because I thought that if I ever wanted to run ads on my site, I needed to be off of WordPress.com.

Instead of researching the pros and cons of Blogger vs. WordPress.org (the version of WordPress that requires you to be self-hosted, but allows you to run ads), I sat down one night and exported all of my content over to Blogger.  It was free, so I figured why not.  I promptly shut down the WordPress.com site and congratulated myself on a job well done.

. . . until a few months later in 2014 when I went to apply for Google Adsense.  And the Googlebots couldn’t find my site.  And Google Webmaster Tools couldn’t find my site.  And I realized my site was no longer even listed in Google.  Average But Inspired was basically invisible on the world wide web.

So not only could I not get approved for Google Adsense, but I could not get ANY search engine traffic at all.  ZERO.

I tried everything I could to figure out what was wrong, but nothing worked.  I even hired an internet development company to figure out what was going on.  A rather hefty fee later, they were able to get Average But Inspired back into Google’s Webmaster Tools, but my site still could not be indexed in search engine results, which meant I was still invisible on the web.  That was money well-wasted.

Finally in September 2014, I bought a new domain name, got an internet web host, and had a professional (Laura Nicholson at Pixel Me Designs), transfer Average But Inspired to WordPress.org.  Almost immediately everything changed.  My site and posts were suddenly appearing in Google search results, and my stats started showing visitors that were arriving to Average But Inspired by way of search terms.  I cannot even imagine the lost visitors over that one year and two months period of time during which Average But Inspired was known only to those who sought it out directly.

Bottom line: Make sure you know what you’re doing before attempting any technical “stuff” with your site.  You can do serious damage.  Also, pay attention to SEO because visitors will come to your site through search terms!  That’s like easy, free traffic!

3.  I Deleted Posts.

Early in my blog’s life, I had a lot of posts that were really embarrassing.  They were poorly photographed, bad projects that I was not proud of.  So I deleted them.

You guys, this really screwed things up for me.

I have no understanding of why this is, but apparently, if you delete posts, it creates bad or dead links in your site.  And then when the little Googlebots crawl around your site, they come across these dead links and they get mad.  (This is very technical, I know.)  And from what I understand, if you have a lot of these, they penalize you!  So much so that your site’s rankings can be harmed and your site can even be removed from Google.

I have a hunch that my deleting posts somehow tied into all of the problems I experienced in connection with point number 2, above.  I just never got a straight answer of why or how.  But even if I had deleted posts without moving the site myself, I’m pretty sure I would have run into some nasty problems.  No exaggeration – I had pages upon pages of crawler errors and NO idea how to fix them.

Bottom line: Deleting posts can lead to dead links, which can cause your site to be penalized by the Google Gods.  Tread carefully.

4.  I Didn’t Have a “Tribe.”

For about the first year that I was blogging, I had so so so many questions and nobody that I could turn to for help.  I literally felt like I was floating alone in the middle of the ocean.

And then one day I got invited to join small groups on Facebook of bloggers with blogs similar to mine.  And my world changed.  I suddenly was part of communities of women who were facing the exact same issues/questions/joys/frustrations as me, and it was glorious.  No question was too dumb, no victory too small.

The support I have received from the women in my “tribes” is incredible, and I am totally sure that I would not still be blogging if it weren’t for them.  Seriously.  I wish I would have known to seek out a tribe of similarly-styled bloggers, as it would have been one of the first things that I did.

Bottom line: If you don’t have a support group like this, find one or create one, pronto.  You may feel weird reaching out to other bloggers to see if they want to form a tribe, but you should get over it.  They will probably be flattered that you thought to seek them out.

5.  I Didn’t Set Any Goals.

All along I’ve treated Average But Inspired more as a hobby than as a business.  And because of that, I never set any real goals for myself or the blog.  In retrospect, I think that was very shortsighted and foolish.

Setting goals, no matter how small, pushes you further.  Goals make you work harder and hold you accountable.  I really believe that if I would have set some goals or benchmarks for Average But Inspired, I wouldn’t have spent as many nights watching The Real Housewives, and instead, I would have been working with a plan and doing things to network, learn about blogging, improve my skills, and more.

As Stacey Roberts said in this great post on goal setting for bloggers, “how can you get where you are going if you don’t know where that is?”  Goal setting is key to having a blog that gets noticed.  It’s time for me to set some.

Bottom line: Don’t be scared to push yourself.  If you want to make something of your blog, you absolutely have to set some goals for yourself.  They might change along the way, but that’s OK.  The goals keep you going in a forward direction.

6.  I Used Sub-Par Photography.

Blogging — especially in the DIY/Craft/Lifestyle niche — is SO visual.  Traffic is driven by Pinterest, and readers are looking for gorgeous photos that tell a story, just as much as compelling writing.

Taking grainy photos with my iPhone, and later a point-and-shoot on automatic mode, did not do anything for my blog photos.  Case in point, this AWFUL photo of macaroni & cheese in one of my earliest posts.  Honestly, why would anybody want to visit my post with a photo like that?  (Trust me, nobody did.  Well except for maybe my mom.  Thanks mom.)

After having every.single.submission of mine to CraftGawker rejected, I finally decided that I could not get away with sub-par photography anymore.  So I’m doing something about it.  I saved up and invested in this new DSLR camera* (it’s a total entry-level model, but that’s OK with me!), and I’m taking an awesome online photography class through Shoot Fly Shoot.  I’m actually learning to use my camera and how shoot in manual mode, which is giving me so much more control over my photos.

My most recent project post (Newspaper Flower Pots) is the first post where I’ve used my new camera and the manual shoot skills I’ve learned so far in Shoot Fly Shoot (I’m not even halfway through yet!), and I think the difference in photo quality is REMARKABLE.  Apparently the people at CraftGawker did, too, because for the FIRST TIME EVER, my submission was accepted!  Hallelujah!

I am thrilled with the progress I’ve made in learning to use my DSLR in just 15 minutes a day.  If you’re interested in learning more about Shoot Fly Shoot, just visit their website or click this image to be taken there.*

Bottom line: Try as you might, you cannot get away with photos that are not bright, clear and compelling.  Every blogger needs to also have a basic understanding of manual photography to truly make it in this visual world.

OK, wow.  We’ve reached the end of my blogging confessions.  I feel so exposed.  But at the same time, I feel relieved to have worked through, or to be working through, many of these issues and to see good things beginning to happen.  We’ll see where Average But Inspired is at two years from now.  But until then, I really hope that this post helps somebody, somewhere at some time.

Thanks for reading.

– Bre

I am SO excited and have been practically bursting at the seams to share this exciting news. . . .

I am finally a “real” blogger who has a “real” newsletter to stay in contact with you lovely people who read this blog. No more automatic RSS feed posts that are impersonal and (let’s be honest), annoying. Nope.  I now have an actual newsletter that will sprinkle your inbox with a dose of inspiration around once a week.

And to thank those special people who actually subscribe to the newsletter, I have been busting my hump (lol.  Who says that?), to make a special gift that is only available to subscribers – The Beginner’s Guide to Furniture Painting.  It’s filled with information on how to to get started using chalky-finish paint for furniture refinishing and many other projects.  If you’ve ever wanted to give chalk painting a try, this is for you.  And even if you’re a seasoned pro, you might find something interesting in here!  All subscribers are automatically e-mailed a copy as my way of saying thank you for reading Average But Inspired!

Regardless of whether or not you subscribe, thanks for reading.  I really appreciate it!

– Bre

P.S. You May Also Be Interested In The Best Products for Chalky Finish Painting!

On Average But Inspired, I strive to inspire regular people, like myself, to be creative.  I believe that inspiration is the root of action.  With a little push in the right direction, amazing things can be accomplished.

Today I’m asking you to indulge me in my quest to inspire you on a different level; on a more important level.  A humanitarian level.

That’s where The Kipsongo Project comes in.

The Kipsongo Project is a non-profit that aims to transform the Kipsongo slum in Western Kenya into an economically viable and self-sustaining village by employing Kipsongo women in the design, creation, production and sale of fashion and home decor products.   All profits are returned to the community for nutrition, health, economic, and housing development programs.

Teach a man to fish, right?

The products these women have designed and are selling are beautiful, and range from table runners to placemats to clothing and jewelry.  My favorite piece is the Meredith bangle bracelet.  Not only is it a gorgeous piece made of traditional fabrics, but it’s named after my sister.  

[Read more…]