Coffee Talk Tuesday with Cindy from My Romantic Home

Debbie asked me to share with you some of the things that blogging has done for me personally.  

I must say that I never imagined that when I started my blog in June 2005 that it would change my life the way it has.

I still remember hitting "publish" on my first post and wondering "who is going to ever want to read about me and my life".  

I was just a single mom, living in a rented apartment with a rather boring life!

Although I started in 2005, I really didn't do much with my blog in the beginning.  It was probably about a year later when I saw other blogs on home decorating that really got me excited about blogging regularly.  It also got me more excited about decorating my apartment. I had always been into my home but it really took off when I got inspired by what I was seeing on other decorating blogs!

  

Next thing I knew I was decorating and blogging about decorating with passion!  I think that is what is so magical about blogging...we are all inspiring each other through our blogs and through our passion!

Speaking of passion...I think passion is what sets some bloggers apart from others. I know the blogs I was drawn to in the beginning were the ones where I could feel their personality and their passion come through on their blog.  I felt like I knew them even though I only knew them through their written words.
They were my friends but they didn't even know who I was!  Now that is powerful!

  

The first really big thing that happened to me as a blogger was to get an email from Fifi saying that she wanted to feature my blog in Romantic Country Magazine!  I never in a million years thought I would be in a decorating magazine. I really thought I would have to win the lottery first and have a big beautiful home before that ever happened. That doesn't happen to people that live in 900 sq. ft rented apartments or so I thought!
Next I was contacted by HGTV about being on the TV show Rate my Space. Being on HGTV was a dream come true! Last year I was featured in Romantic Homes Magazine and on the front page of The Home and Garden section of the San Jose Mercury News.  I'm not telling you this to brag (actually Debbie asked me to share this with you), but to let you know that so many great things can happen when you start a blog. Trust me, I never ever thought anyone would even read my blog and now I get thousands of visitors a day and have had all these amazing opportunities.

So, I want to let you in on a little secret.  If you are a blogger and you really want to grow your blog, you need to find something that you know that other people want to know. Why is this important? Google searches, that's why.  If you have something written on your blog that people "Google" then it will bring a lot of traffic to your blog.  I found this out by chance when I did a tutorial on "Painting Furniture". A lot of people do web searches on this and that's how they find my blog.

So if you can, do a tutorial on something on your blog and watch your traffic grow!
People are always searching on "How to____" (fill in the blank with your expertise and increase your visitors)

My goal was never to get my blog big though. I blog because I love it and to me if my goal was to get bigger and bigger it would become more like a job and I didn't want that.  By nature, I'm a very competitive person but surprisingly blogging has never felt like a competition to see how popular I can get.  I realize early on that there will always be bigger and better blogs out there than mine and constantly trying to keep up would take the fun out of it.  I'm just enjoying where I am and thankful that I have such wonderful readers that come back regularly.  Keep it fun!...that's my blogging motto!

After years of blogging a coworker of mine convinced me to put ads on my blog. For the longest time I refused to this but now I'm happy I did and I never imagined that you could make so much money blogging. I'm not going to share how much I make but I will say that it really has helped me out financially over the last few years!  Once that money started coming in I never regretted it. I know that is a personal decision and some bloggers refuse to do it but for me it's been wonderful.

And finally, my advice to bloggers...

KEEP IT POSITIVE! Sure there are things every now and then that we can rant about on our blogs but really no one wants to read how depressed you are, or how awful your husband is, how bad your finances are, etc. every time they visit your blog. I think you can keep it real without unloading everything on your readers. I think most of us come to blogs to inspire us not depress us!

Wow, I guess I talk more on other people's blogs than I do on my own...sorry I never intended to go on and on so much!

 Thank you Debbie for allowing me to chat with your readers!

Thank you CINDY!!!!~

NOW if that does not inspire newbies, oldies and everyone in between, I really do not know what will.

What a great story and so very inspiring! Thank you Cindy, thank you so much for taking the time to do this for me, and more importantly, my readers.  Everything I have been putting out here for the past month has been for you my friends  and I to learn and grow.

This wraps up the end of my coffee talk series with featured seasoned bloggers.
I will be taking the series in a new direction and am open to any and all suggestions.
What would you like to see or talk about? on Tuesdays...

NEWBIE party still going strong HERE

I will be announcing the winners for the Scentsy and my personal giveaway on 2/2/11