Livinglovingandexploring!

What. The. Heck. It’s been awhile since I published a new blog post and today I said to myself, ‘OMG GIRL what are you doing with the waiting?!’ I’ve been so overwhelmed lately with all of the things I need to do and remember that goes into blogging itself! It’s definitely NOT just go out and post something every day!

For example, gain Instagram followers, gain Twitter fans, make sure your Pinterest is set up CORRECTLY! Those are just a few of the zillion (or so it seems) things that have to be done! I’m still trying to figure out how to get my site to show as secured (apparently for whatever reason the SSL certification I have isn’t working properly?!) Which is yet another reason why I’ve been avoiding my actual blog!

I’ve been taking a blogging course, which I actually am an affiliate for, so more to come on that later, but there’s literally an entire chapter dedicated to blogging every day! It’s crazy! I mean, I knew this was going to be work, but dang! Not to mention how everything has it’s limits – don’t like too many people on Instagram too fast or they block your account; don’t follow too many folks on Twitter or they disable your account for a while; and Pinterest – well, Idk if they even have anything like that, but if I could figure out how to get it connected to my blog and other platforms in the first place, I’d probably know by now LOL!

There’s certain keywords/phrases and SEO words to use. Special plug ins for every single thing you want done. I had NO idea I’d learn so much about building websites from setting up my own blog! Also, there are NOT enough hours in the day….I mean, how do you all do it? I have a full time job at a bank – my day starts at 4:45 AM with my first alarm; have to leave the house no later than 5:45 AM to take the kids to daycare. Be at work by 7:00 AM – work until 3:30 PM. It takes about 30 minutes to get to daycare, and another 30 to get home – assuming I don’t sit and chat with Courtney when I pick up the kids, and also assuming there is no traffic. I’m home by 5 PM. Then there’s dinner, play time, bath time, bed time (just for the kids). I’m lucky if I have 20 minutes to myself in the evening, let alone time to figure out this whole blogging thing!

That all being said, I’ve found this latest venture of mine quite challenging – and I do actually enjoy it. Mainly because I like to talk lol. Every day that goes by gives me several more ideas to think about possibly turning into a new blog post/article! I’ve been super focused on my Instagram and Twitter pages – my Instagram *almost* has 1,000 followers now; Twitter not so much but I haven’t fully figured Twitter out lol. But it entertains me and I’ve met so many awesome people doing this! There’s definitely a few bad seeds, if you know what I mean…. but those are few and far between considering the amount of real and awesome folks I’ve met!

I’ve been taking notes, brainstorming, writing more travel articles and just chug, chugging along – it may be slow and steady at first. But at least it’s going. I refuse to give up. I WILL make this blog successful. I’ve already gotten a few advertising “jobs” if you will through Instagram, so I’m getting better with that social media platform. They’re not paid or anything like that, but it’s recognition, and in the beginning, that’s really all I can ask for!

Here’s to more blog posts, better content (that’s a big keyword right there, even if you may not realize it lol) and more traffic to my actual blog! My Facebook page for my blog is doing excellent – way better than I thought it would! Every new like or follower, or friend request that I get gives me the inspiration to keep going. I am very much so the, ‘What do you mean I’ve been on this diet for 3 hours and haven’t lost a pound?!’ kinda girl! So, the fact that this blog has been up a few weeks yet – and there are no subscribers kinda bums me out. But, all that means is I just gotta keep on keeping on!

I know I have what it takes to do this – and this post is really a point I’m making to myself to keep going and not to give up. It’s all too easy to throw in the towel when things get hard. I’m just not one to do that, no matter how hard it gets!

Much love to you if you’ve taken the time to read this!

Kelly (and Declan – as he’s playing with his beads and watching ‘Transformers’)