What starts as a fun little hobby to try out for the writer at heart can easily turn into something undesirable to do if you allow it. Here’s what I’ve experienced in over one year blogging “for fun”.
Why start a blog?
For a few years now, I jumped on the Instagram reels train and made stupid, silly, funny, and sometimes informative reels about gardening and eventually homesteading.
Took me some time to accept that last one: homesteading.
I considered myself an imposter for a long while because in the beginning, I didn’t have any chickens and certainly not any livestock. I barely had land! How could I be a “homesteader”??
Turns out homesteading is a mindset and lifestyle; not how much land or how many animals you have.
Those, what I considered funny, reels slowly turned into quick how-tos for my recipes with the full thing attached in the caption.
For free, I was giving ownership to Instagram and the metaverse for my recipes and creations. Once those are there or on YouTube, it’s not my property anymore.
Yes, I realize the “grid” could go down tomorrow. At the click of a button, the internet can be wiped (if they so chose to and could do the same for obscene video and photography involving minors, yet and still it remains on the interwebs. Make THAT make sense!). And many other technological scenarios.
BUT, with this blog on a server I rent and a website I pay for to own, it is mine for now. I own it.
I still don’t get paid to run this blog but I’m still here giving out free tried and true recipes and things I’ve learned from others because I do believe sharing is caring and gatekeeping is ridiculous.
Why start a blog? To own my writings.
Where’s the fun in that??
All this work and no pay for it!?!
Yes, it’s true. You’ve got to invest money to make money. Same with any business.
Many of your favorite blogs have advertisements on them. Those are generally a paid-for ad service allowed on their blog. Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours kind of thing.
And if you’re lucky, you may make more in advertisements on your blog than you pay into the service monthly.
I’m not there yet. So, by all means, enjoy my blog without commercials for as long as you can! HAHA! I’d one day love to contribute to my family’s income a little with some blogging commissions. For now, though, if you shop any of my links, I can make a teeny tiny commission. THANK YOU for that!
Disclosure Caveat:
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I will always encourage shopping local and small FIRST. Johnson Home NC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and links to Amazon.com. As part of this Amazon Associates program, the Website will post customized links, provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. And I thank you for using these links!
Why are recipe blogs SO LONG?!
I get it. You do not care to hear the long drawn out details of Aunt Linda’s Buttermilk Pie recipe of the World War II era.
But did you know that for a writer to “own” her words, there needs to be 1,000 words in her blog post? Yeah, me neither when I first started blogging.
So that’s why you get the backstory for the best way to grow the most tomatoes in your summer garden.
I’m TRYING to always remember this and make sure the Jump to Recipe button is immediate and the “extra” information is AFTER the meat and potatoes of the blog’s intention.
I want to write but you’re telling me I also need to become a photographer?!
It’s enough to make me want to quit writing!
In order for a blog to get some search engine attention, it needs well-researched keywords (I’ll touch on that in a moment) and great photos.
Yes I have a DSLR camera from 2010 that is not easy to use (because I don’t have a desire to learn photography), not easy to upload photos (corded to a computer), and not the best lense.
I’d much rather snap photos on my iPhone because it is always the closest and most easily accessed camera.
So, off I go to YouTube University to subscribe to iPhone tutorial channels to get better at taking photos of my recipe creations AS I am making them…
Make sure the background isn’t too cluttered. Stage the main objects. Use the odd number principle. Be sure to use the grid lines on your iPhone camera and the rule of thirds. Get Lightroom or some other software or app to edit the lighting.
Oh and while you’re at it with writing and now photography, you may as well learn video because people are wanting to watch; not read nowadays. And be sure the video is crisp, clear, and edited properly. Also, get a tripod, microphone, and learning video editing ASAP….
…shew!
Keyword optimization
Apparently your words really do matter.
Like a lot.
There are BLOGGERS making money off paid courses to teach me how to use the right words in my blog posts so they’ll “rank higher” in search engine results on a particular topic.
It’s an actual science… maybe even an art.
Did I learn all this non-sense from actual blogging experience?
Nope.
When I decided to put my recipes and kitchen hacks learned on my own website, I had the idea to try to do it the right way.
So I paid for a course, naturally!
Who else to learn from than a woman who has made blogging her career for the last almost decade and her streams of income have brought her husband home from his job… Blogging being the most profitable stream of income for her family. Yep, the WRITTEN WORD pays her the most.
Lisa Bass from Farmhouse on Boone (social medias) and the podcast, Simple Farmhouse Life. She has a blogging course sharing ALL her learnings called Create Your Dream Blog. That’s exactly what I wanted to do.
I have no doubts if I had followed her exact course to a T, www.johnsonhomenc.com could be a paid blog right now. However, I haven’t had enough drive to kick it up a notch and do ALL of the things. There’s a lot of homesteading and homeschooling children that comes first.
Her course did teach me a LOT and got me on the right track and helped explain things in the blogging world in a way that was easy to understand, do and implement right away. Especially the setting up of a blog properly.
I highly recommend her course.
Blogging, in summary
It’s not as easy as you think it is.
Or as easy as I thought it would be.
Most bloggers just want to write about what interests them, share an idea or thought with you, something they are passionate about. And yet…
It takes consistent effort (2 new posts a week with rich keywords), good photos, a Pinterest account, a Jump to Recipe option right out of the gate, 100 posts in your first year or less, and so much more.
If your goal is to just write, HAVE AT IT! Go for it. Type to your heart’s content.
If your goal is to one day make money to match your creative writing efforts and course payments and server fees, you’re gonna want to do everything Lisa says to do immediately. Don’t skip a step, do not go to sleep. Kidding. Maybe.
You’re also going to want to invest time every week (like at least 4 days a week) to writing, creating, photography, and research for your blogging.
How to keep Johnson Home NC blog alive
Or any blog you like for that matter…
How many blogs do you actually keep bookmarked to refer specifically back to? Likely none.
Which is why most blogs are also on social medias for you to follow, pin, and share. Doing those brings new faces BACK to the original blog. And keeps your attention too.
Following Johnson Home NC on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube is generous of you.
Even a step further, commenting on the actual blog posts on the website boosts that post in the search engines because it sees the blog content as helpful and interesting to like-minded readers.
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR COMMENTING!
Would I like to see this blog make money? Absolutely. Who wouldn’t want to get paid a little for the time they invest into creating something? Naturally, I don’t want YOU to pay for this blog or recipes but if advertisers want to pay me by affiliation, I am all for that!
Your interest in my blog writings can help give it credibility which, in turns, lets advertisers know this website is a good source of people to see their adverts.
Blogging regardless…
I will continue to blog and have my recipes I get asked for often in a place that’s easy to access by you and easy to share by me.
Blogging is a creative outlet for me especially during the winter when the garden is at rest and my family is enjoying the fruits of our summer labor from the neatly stacked jars in the pantry.
I’m grateful you read my ramblings, subscribe to my newsletter, use any of my LINKS, like and share on social media.
It means someone else is possibly being encouraged to try something new, get in the kitchen, start a garden, raise some chickens… just the very same way I was encouraged and inspired to take back traditional skills once upon a time, too.
FOLLOW ALONG
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