To be very honest, I began this blog with little to no preparation. I sometimes have things I want to 'share with the world' (granted my world is quite small with regards to who actually sees it) but I didn't have a specific topic that I felt was so amazing that I could talk about it over and over and over again.
Along comes the reviewing situation and one of the sites I belong to requires that you have a blog. So, now if I want to participate, I have to commit... Hrmmmm.... Can I just say that this is probably one of the best things that ever happened to me?
I don't actually mean the freebies I get from reviewing. I used to love to write and always thought that one day I would be a writer. Unfortunately, my big dreams were a big dud since I couldn't seem to hunker down and put words on pages. I can't blame anyone but myself on that and take full responsibility. But... I am very motivated by the word FREE! So there begins my blog which has morphed from just being about budgeting to including things like product reviewing, and will soon cover a lot of other 'financial' topics as I think of them. BUT, I am still having fun and I feel like writing these reviews, and this blog, has allowed me to let out my inner voice a little and I'm enjoying it very much!
Now that you have the background on why this blog really came about, I decided that I wanted people to actually read it! It was more than a platform to receive goodies. It was me genuinely wanting to share information that I've learned over time through the "School of Hard Knocks" and perhaps tips and tricks that others might not know. You might know a large amount of what I share, but I hope you will glean something new every now and again.
In the spirit of wanting to succeed, I applied to review an audio book called "
Brandon Colker's How To Make Big Bucks From Blogs". Now, the reality is that I'm a little fish in an even smaller pond and my goal is actually not financially driven at all. What I did want to learn was how to be a 'successful blogger' where people actually took the time (and had the desire) to read what I had to say.
I believe that Brandon did a solid job of laying out how to go about becoming a better blogger and hopefully increase my readership. I actually downloaded the book the day that I was approved to review it. I listened to it immediately and have really let my thoughts percolate while trying to figure out how to apply this to me. The audio book was read quite well and wasn't a long-listen even. It was like 60 minutes or so an I really appreciated Brandon's writing style.
I want to use some of the techniques he laid out but I don't read other people's blogs so finding someone in the same niche and then asking to write a guest blog would be difficult at best. However, I'm not going to let myself get in the way so research is going to have to be front and center. I also have a bit of ... let's call it lack of confidence... that anyone would want to read what I have to say. What's so special about me? Then I decided, why not me? I do have some valuable information to share, I'm told I am fairly easy and entertaining to read, so I'm going to give it my best shot!
Thank you Mr. Colker for giving me some ideas of what I can do to make my blog successful! I really look forward to the journey ahead of me and hope that along the way, someone will want to read it!
