End of a Great Year. Start of an Even Better Year.

The ending of a year. An earmark of great accomplishments for me. Yet starting another blog, I feel just above level of square one again.

“Hang in there”, I tell myself. I know what it takes to grow a blog. Persistence is definitely one of them.

Yet, at the same time I have not been able to anchor myself down to this blog. Like a baby giraffe just being born – this blog is just gaining its steady legs. Which route do I want to go? Do I know enough to show you how to do the same?

Yes, I do. I know what needs to be done to set solid blogging foundation. What took me two plus years to learn, I can show you how to do in a nill fraction of the time.

That is the whole reason I started this blog. During my time as a personal finance blogger, readers continually asked me to show them how I grew my blog. Despite the zillion of sites out there that will show you how to do it, people were asking me.

The Start of My Blog Journey

People start blogs for various reasons. I started MoneyFunk.net as a hobby site. In 2007, I started a personal finance blog on Blogger. Tracking my family’s finances. We started a journey to become debt free.

There is such a great community of people out there in the personal finance niche. Readers alike supported eachother – all vying to become debt free and build wealth. I wouldn’t have made such great debt free strides if it weren’t for such a community of great people.

Then I started toying with putting ads on my site. It started with Google Adsense. I thought it would be great to make money to pay down my debt while I was blogging to pay down debt. “If I could just bring in $100 month while blogging”, I thought. It would be great extra income to push up my debt free date.

“It was more like single digit pennies. This wasn’t working.”

Then I heard the virtual voices in having a WordPress blog. The oohs and ahhs. So, I signed up for a wordpress blog. Logged into that dashboard and… was utterly confused. “Where do I start?” Installing themes and adding blog posts via the dashboard seemed like rocket science. I didn’t get very far. I went back to my Blogger blog and continued posting there. But… I’m never one to give up easily.

Few months later, I decided to figure this rocket science stuff out. Found the various intructions, forums for some help, started to learn CSS, and increased my HTML knowledge (w3school.com is a great resource – I resort back to it frequently). Google search also became my savor for information. I integrated my Blogger site to WordPress. It was a monumental moment successfulling integrating my site over without losing any data.

By now, I was about 2 years into personal finance blogging. I constantly struggled with hobby site versus income site. I’d put up Adsense, then take it down. Some people were on a No Ad zone. I didn’t know which way to go. Plus I didn’t want to become that site that is all about making money with tons of ads.

Because of this conflict I never really delve deep into finding out how to become a problogger. I was more interested in coding with html and CSS. Always tweaking my site. You’d probably laugh if you saw how many time MoneyFunk changed its look. Yet, my readers stayed with me. And I was now a pro with site building, too.

Then I hit a fork in the road with blogging. Tracking my debt-free journey was becoming stalemate. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, but I needed something new.

This is the ‘fork-in-the-road’ where you see bloggers grow or shut down there blogs.

I mapped out my options for making MoneyFunk a side business. It would offer me growth and I could continue writing about my debt-free journey. Finding out how to make money while people were paying off debt was not an easy task. The products had to benefit my readers. There was no way I was going to sink people into more debt as I blogged about the pain of debt most of us shared.

After researching and networking with my virtual friends, I found an opportunity that would be a win-win situation for me and my readers. Now it was time to build up the MoneyFunk name into something memorable.

“Once I made up my mind – it was success here on out.”

Having the mindset, creating a name

I don’t remember how long I had the free WordPress blog, but it wasn’t long when I discovered the pixie dust – wordress plugins. They were the tools to help improve my site’s visibility. But I couldn’t use them on a free WordPress site, I had to take the leap. But I only took the leap because now I was on a mission – a mission to help and support people to become debt free.

I bought the domain, MoneyFunk.net and a self-hosted account with Bluehost.com. It was the biggest purchase I made to date. In fact, the only purchase. But I was a girl on the go, it was time to build the site up.

Friends and family told me I had a great site. Readers found the site’s information useful. Yet, I was struggling to find my name. It was all in front of me but I couldn’t see it. Why?

I didn’t know my edge. What great successes or leaps did I have to show for? I was a renaissance of things, but knew I needed to narrow down my niche. I need to beable to explain who I was and what I did in about 1-4 sentences. Create the elevator pitch.

So, I sat down and took the time for to write out what MoneyFunk.net was about and my goals for the site. What I was about.

What was my goal: To help people get out of debt. To be an inspiration to people getting out of debt.

This meant that I would need to make sure I was following the advice I was preaching. I had to make sure I was on track with my debt free journey.

What was my edge: I was on my own debt-free journey and making strides.

This confirmed that I was practicing what I preached. I had debt-free strides that I shared with my readers. And I worked extra hard to find ways to make more money to pay the debt down faster. Once I completed this mini-exercise, I was able to put myself out there.

Growing up to big blogger

In Novemer 2009, is when I really made the transition to building MoneyFunk and its community of friends. I mentioned to my readers the changes I was going to make. That I was going to start hosting reviews, include advertising links and banners on the site. Luckily, most people were supportive and stuck through my growing pains.

Growning pains like putting ads up, taking them down, and moving them around. Trying to find the best place to put them, finding the balance of just the right amount, and finding the right kinds of ads that would benefit readers; not hinder. I didn’t want to be known as the sleazy car salesman of sorts, littering my sites with ads to make a buck.

Then I started to learn about Search Engine Optimization. Writing posts that were keyword rich, yet keeping that personal balance. I had difficulties with that process – not sounding automated and like everything else that is out there. And I still do have difficulties. But I hope practice makes perfect, or at least better. I did however make some nice calamities with a few keywords – that still bring in a source of constant high traffic.

I also started using Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. They helped me understand what content my readers found useful on my site. It also helped me find a mess load of 404 errors. Man, was that a long clean up effort to redirect all those links! But I learned my lesson well.

I utilized plugins – my pixie dust – to help promote my website’s online visibility and help ease my blogging efforts.

Next came Social Media Optimization. Commenting on like minded sites was habit. I enjoyed connecting with my personal finance blogging friends. Then I expanded those efforts to conversing in forums related to money like, Mint.com, Wisebread.com, Fool.com, and Get Rich Slowly. I also joined networking groups where people worked together to reach like minded goals; like increasing online visibility. Used social media tools actively with Twitter, Digg, and Stumbleupon. Traffic to Money Funk was increasing at a fast pace and so did the second income.

I also began to host challenges, contests, and promotional giveaways.

The time between November 2009 til I sold the site was exciting. My Alexa ranking was in the top 60K. Advertisers were writing me to host their ads. And they were from big financial sites with big bucks. Publishers were contacting me to do book reviews. I received free books for my enjoyable reading and to give away, too. Large financial websites were sending me emails asking to come write for them. In fact, not long ago, I was writing for the American Express Currency site – personal finanace for Gen X and Gen Y.

The right opportunity at the right time

June 2010. My personal relationships were facing hardships. I was spending lots of time on my site and holding a down full-time job. I was a workaholic now facing my marriage falling apart. Because my family is important to me, I made the choice to put them first.

The blogging, writing, promoting had to be second. My writing went down from three times a week, to two times a week, and now down to once a week. My freelance efforts slowed down, too. I started to consider the choice to sell. There was still alot of potential for the blog. I didn’t want all those efforts to end just like that. Someone with experience could easily grow that blog bigger.

It was as if the universe heard me. I received an email, that week I started considering, requesting to buy my blog. And it was sent from a well-known site. People I knew could grow the site and give it TLC (tender loving care). I contemplated with my husband the pros and cons of selling.

It was a very tough decision for me. I grew this blog. I nutured this blog. It was my baby. Out there was my audience. My friends. My readers. But, with much consideration, seven months after I decided to ramp up efforts on MoneyFunk, I decided to sell. The exchange was made. And I felt lost. Take a blogger away from his blog and watch them freak!

But you know what? After crying it out. Pouting. Feeling lost for a few weeks, a couple months. I discovered it was the best decision I ever made!

Not only did I put my marriage back together with the help of a therapist and making the time to nuture it. I realized just how much of a bubble I was in.

I was stuck in the personal finance sphere. Not a bad thing. But moving away from it made me realize how much more I could expand my efforts. I needed to start thinking like an entreprenuer and not just a blogger. Sounds simple right? But it made such a profound difference in the way I viewed blogging.

My Next Move – Think like an Entrepreneur

Think like an entrepreneur. Schedule your time. Build a business. Nuture your family.

I started putting together this site, Christine.Biz. Building a solid foundation for the site. Laying down the efforts that took me 4 years to learn. Like I mentioned, I can show you how in a nill fraction of the time.

Christine.Biz would a place to show people the ‘trade secrets’ of blogging. All the little steps that take place between the big steps. “Put up a site”, a big step will say. I will show you the checklist or the series of steps to get that site running.

The difference, I realized I didn’t need to be wrapped up in blogging. Didn’t need to be a workaholic. I discovered that I can make the same strong efforts with shorter durations of time. Utilizing blocks of time. Putting the whole Tim Ferris, 4-Hour Work Week into play.

2011 Here I Come!

No doubt, 2010 brought a lot of growth. It was about making bold steps for personal growth. In business, I learned to grow my blog at a rapid pace. My personal life, I learned to love my husband even more than I thought I could. At the closing of 2010, I found out that I can nuture and grow both with time to plenty of time to spare.

There is no doubt I plan to make this year the movement of pushing past the comfort level. Its time to become the strong individual I was meant to be. I want to expand my small biz to utilize efforts I have not tried before – teleseminars, webinars, increasing video efforts, and more.

This year I plan on making it the best. It is my plan to work as a full-time entrepreneur by June 2010. So I can spend time with my children. More time with my family. Travel. Start living the life I’ve truly been wanting to live.

This coming year will be better than 2010 because I learned a lot and plan to keep learning. And to keep learning I took a big step today…

Just like MoneyFunk grew with the guidance from personal finance big dogs in my networking circle. Just like my marriage was saved with the help of a therapist. Christine.Biz needs help in making it the best year possible.

I signed up for a mentoring program!

While I could write about how I constantly tossed the idea of hiring a mentor. Or how I grew this year becaused I listened to my intuition and made the necessary moves. Or how I researched and researched to find a mentor perfect for me. I’ll save that for another day. After all, this is a 2,000+ word post.

I will make every effort to prosper and push boundries to become the woman like those I am influenced by every day. And I am grateful that you are a part of my wonderful journey!

Happy New Year’s to you and your family! ♥

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