Who Me? A Blogger?

I am a blogger. How on earth did this happen? I am no blogger. I am just entertaining. I may be a professional Facebook poster, but writing blogs is a whole other level. I want to talk about where I am now in all of this, for those who have been with me from the start.

Some of you reading this right now are to blame for me having a blog. Remind me to thank you later. I started out as a casual Facebook user. I would post about my daily grind and the funny things that my kids did. People would leave kind comments and say how funny and entertaining I was. Then my posts started getting more frequent and more detailed. I would be sitting at dinner and something funny would happen and I would grab my iPad. The world HAD to know about this. As if the world was sitting there, waiting for me to give them another little nugget to brighten their day. They could laugh at me and feel better about their own dinner-time trauma

Then people started saying I should write a book. Well not many can jump from Facebook chatter to a book. So the idea of a mommy-blog was pitched. Me? A blogger? I didn’t even read any blogs. How in the world did I know what these women were talking about.

Then one day, I just did it. I took the leap and I locked down a www. address. I even had help with the name. I went to the people for everything. Someone suggested Bell On Heels because of my propensity to have on an entirely too-high shoe, in any given situation. I loved it. I was now officially www.bellonheels.com. Oh crap. Now I had to write something.

Suddenly all of those eyes were on me. Entertain us! Now I HAD to write things. I am no quitter. I couldn’t just write anything though. I had to write in such a way to entertain people enough, to make them want to come back, again and again. I got this. That would be the easy part.

I have learned very recently that I enjoy writing. It is therapeutic. There is no greater gratification than having the ability to make people feel emotions with my words. Whether it is someone telling me a post is hysterical or touching, when compared to their own personal story. It all means so much to me.

So that is it. That is everything you have to do to be a world-famous blogger. Right?

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!

Wait……..

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!! Still laughing!

What did I know! Now that I have delved off into this world, I have realized just what a task it really is. First things first, this girl who knows nothing about web pages had to design one. That was no easy feat. Thank goodness WordPress knows about people like me. It helped me create a decent, workable page.

After writing a few posts and realizing that I was in-it-to-win-it, there was a few other things that I had to work on. First thing I set up a Facebook fan page. It is all about exposure. You can be crazy-entertaining, but if no one knows that you write, what good is that? Facebook is nothing if not free advertising. People like your link, their friends see it and maybe check you out. Sure, it is a SLOW, painful process but eventually the numbers build.

Next I had to dust off the old Twitter account, that I could never quite figure out what to do with. Let me tell you, it is crucial for anyone trying to blog in today’s world. I mean look at how many people call themselves bloggers? If I stopped to think about the actual number, I would probably cease writing, from discouragement. Twitter is where you find all of the bloggers in your area of expertise and follow them. Then you read their posts and retweet or respond, you know, make conversation. If you are lucky, someone responds to you. Now most times I go all day without anyone talking to me on Twitter. But that one day when someone actually does? Score! Someone with more followers, just tweeted my name on their page. More people will see who I am now. Building followers takes time. It is painstaking.

The best is when a well established blogger starts following your twitter account and checks out your blog. Then if the stars are aligned just right, they give you a shout-out tweet, telling the world that you rock. I am learning that the key to being successful in this, is to work together with other bloggers. They often share each others content. I am not there yet, but maybe one day. I spend hours a day now trolling Twitter, trying to find ways to grow my very young brand (keep in mind, I want a reality show and a shoe line one day). It is exhausting. The queen of social media just admitted that.

Next I changed my Instagram, Pinterest and everything else I could slap it on, to the Bell On Heels name and added links to my blog. I am basically begging the world of social media to love me, ALL DAY LONG. This is certainly taking away from my time to post blogs, but I have to let people know that I am writing, right?

When I am not trolling or replying to social media, I am reading other blogs and commenting on those. This is another way to try to get exposure. I learn so much from all of the other women who do this. They already know these lessons that I am learning. Their tips are invaluable. Maybe one day I can even pay someone to set me up a fancy page (and a proof reader).

I have signed up with numerous women-blogger websites in an effort to get my name out there. BlogHer had featured two of my post on their site so far. It is a nice feeling. I can get opportunities to review products through these sites as well. Companies send me a product, I try it out and tell my readers what I think about it. There are bloggers who make good money doing this. Of course they all had to start somewhere, just like me.

I was contacted by a company called Zazoo asking me to try one of their new children’s clocks. They will send me a free clock of my choice, and all I have to do is try it out and discuss it on my blog. That is a win-win. I was thrilled because they chose me after reading my blog. I am not getting paid for it but I am getting a free clock, that looks like a pretty cool item. You have to start somewhere. I’ll be sure and let you know later what I think about the clock 😉

So this is where I am now, knee-deep in the strange world of bloggers. It is very much like having a job, except I don’t get paid. Oh wait….but I do! Every time someone tells me that I made them laugh or made them cry. Whenever someone takes the time to tell me what a good job they think I am doing. It makes it all worth while. You people, who take the time to come check my page, every time I throw something up here, mean the world to me.

I am just a mama of four trying to raise my kids and have a little something for myself as well. I want to publicly thank everyone who encouraged me to do this. It has already made such a difference in my life. I feel like I have a voice again. As a stay at home mom, it is easy to feel lost in the shuffle.

Who knows, maybe my next blog update will talk about all of the cool opportunities I am getting. Maybe my blog will have 100 subscribers one day soon. Maybe my Facebook fan page will be up to 300 fans. Everyone who is huge, had to start small. If I don’t believe in me, then I wouldn’t expect any of you to either. Either way, I will be here, doing what I enjoy. I hope you will continue to accompany me on my journey 😉

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