My blog is just beginning, which is clear with its constant changing and bare bones look, but I am learning as I go which is 1 interesting and fun, and 2 frustrating because I just want it to be in its finished state where I just add to it as I please.  (I'm an impatient person when it comes to my own goals apparently)  But, I figured since I am learning so much I'd pass some on to you in case you get the nifty idea to make your life more public than it may already be thanks to social media, because, I care :)


Blogging takes time AND money

Making money online blogging
Takes money to make money
So far I have learned that having a free site such as my "weebly" domain is not as credible or desirable as a ".com"   I'm not quite sure why that is, but since I am just starting out, and a poor single mom I'm going to stick with this for as long as I need to, heck I might be here for the long haul.
"A rose by any other name.."


What's in a name?

A LOT!  Haha, seriously though I'm not even confident that I chose the best "type" of name for my site after all I have read.  Your domain name needs to be memorable, not too long, and EASY TO SPELL.  Because you know, again with the social media thing     We all abbreviate and misspell horribly now a days and so, yeah it needs to be simple.  I sure hope mines not too rough around the edges when it comes to that.

SEO or More abbreviations we don't know

Or was I the only one that DIDN"T know that this means "Search Engine Optimization"   yup, you have to do more than just have good content, amazing pictures of awesome quality, etc etc.  Much more in fact, you have to spread the word about your site or blog, inform Google for example that your site exists, use key words and meta tags, and whew there's a ton more really but I don't know enough about it yet to write a good blog on it.  

Suffice it to say, this is something I feel I could have been and possibly should have been schooled on.  Hey, there's an idea, maybe a new high school class can be created to teach everyone how to do this stuff so it doesn't take months to build a site or blog that's barely mediocre.

What's that, you want to make money too?

Well, I can't say much on this point other than I clearly would love to make money from this and that I really haven't much of a clue yet on the "best" way to do so.  I know you can like with affiliate sites which I do one at the moment, this does little good though unless you have great traffic and they click on the adds.  You can always sell something you made yourself, which I am considering doing, as one of my goals I hope to begin soon is to actually do the things I pinned on my pinterest boards haha.

There's a wealth of knowledge out there on this stuff though, and ebooks galore, I have plenty. Basically, it takes time and work. So, I beg you, bare with me as I work to make my little spot here in the blogosphere easily accesible and a super fun read with topics you are chomping at the bit to come and read about.  Baby steps remember, baby steps.


-Heather
 
If you've read the "start here" page you have an idea of what I'll be doing on this "journey" I keep mentioning. And getting this blog set up, and FINALLY writing a post that I will be able to publish when I am done was one of my first goals.  I wanted to have this public forum to keep a record of things I would need to do to accomplish my dream of starting the non profit organization I'd thought about constantly for the past nearly 10 years.  Also, a place to keep record of things I need and want to change in my life to better things for me and my family, and some of those things spill over into the greater goal.

So, I realize this is going to be a short post, but hey, I did it, and I feel good about it.  It had to start somewhere and sometime so why not now.

To attempt to build new habits, and figure out a format for setting goals and keeping track I am going to list just a few of my smaller tasks that I have for tomorrow. Start small, I've learned, I am the type of person that can get overwhelmed quickly if things are chaotic and give up at times. I don't want to repeat that. 

My to-do-list for tomorrow::
    -Concerning home and family:    1: catch the house cleaning up
                                                           2: spend some much needed, peaceful, fun                                                                 time with my kids.
                                                            3: work out a schedule to encompass                                                                     home, school, internet endeavors, and                                                                 sleep most importantly.

                                                            4: Check on the dates and assignments of                                                              my upcoming elective online courses.
                                                            5: Call my school and make a plan to                                                                     hopefully get all required paperwork in to                                                              start this semester.
                                                             6: Pick one of my free kindle books I                                                                    downloaded ages ago and begin reading                                                          for pleasure, (I miss reading for pleasure)
   
 
-Concerning steps for the organization:
                                                        To be honest getting this and all the social networking sites I have thus far I feel like I need to now do some research into the step by step process of beginning an organization such as this. I know I will need a business model, mission statement, board members; oh there's a lot.  and the thing is I don't know how to do those things necesssarly, and I certainly don't now the step by step process to take.  So for the next little bit I will be researching the process, and if I feel like I can effectively put some of those things together now I will.  I may find I need some more skill sets and knowledge, which is why I'm returning to college to finish. Changing majors, but I haven't been in school for 8 years or so now so the change of majors is not really a shocker. Especially since when I went straight out of high school I had no clue what I wanted to do the rest of my life.  Now I do, so I'm already better suited to take on school. 

Well, in writing it doesn't seem like much of an undertaking, but add in 2 kiddos, and a ME that gets distracted easily in research or reading, and that is a pretty full to-do-list.

Do you write to-do-lists daily or weekly.  Or are you better suited to keep tasks in your mind and be flexible? 

Heather


I'd love to hear from readers :)