Your Blog Keeps Changing...a Philosophical Reflection
If you regularly click on my blog links, you'll notice it keeps looking different. Sorry about that. Since I don't have the energy or money to renovate my house, I'm playing with my blog instead. Here's the backstory:
I had the privilege last fall of teaching a Financial Peace University class with my brother and his wife as students. As a result of paying off their student loan debt and being ridiculously excited for the future, they started listening to a podcast called ChooseFI - the FI stands for Financial Independence. Bro sent me their way, and I listened to an awesome podcast about building a blog into a business. I was inspired! I briefly envisioned quitting teaching when my incredibly viral popular blog spawned me thousands in monthly affiliate and advertising revenue! I'd land a book deal. They literally said the line, "I can't think of anyone who has been blogging regularly for six years or so NOT finding some success." Well hey, I've been blogging for six years. Me! Me! Me!
Long story short, I'm not quitting my day job. Let's be honest, if I quit teaching, then I'd have nothing to blog about! But listening to Brad and Jeff on this podcast talk about how to solve problems and engage communities with a blog inspired me to revisit the quality of my own site.
I played with a new theme a few weeks ago after my post on our school's walk out/memorial walk went locally viral. I wanted to make sure my blog was the best it could be with new eyes on it. But after using it a bit I wasn't thrilled with the interface.
I'll be honest - even though I've been writing for the better part of six years, I still don't know that much about blogging. I don't know what SEO is. I haven't bought the domain name. I read a bit about affiliate links, but haven't been brave enough to sign up for a program. I know some of you actually receive my blog via email, but I can't for the life of me figure out where I can access that email list. Maybe I'll play with Google AdSense just to see how it works, or affiliate links, but for now I settled for creating a store on Teachers Pay Teachers, which is sort of an Etsy store for curriculum design. But that's another post.
Basically, I have never quite been sure what my blog is. Is it a journal I share with strangers? Is it a way to keep my mom up to date with my life? Is it a place to learn about teaching? Is it for sharing my kids' lives when I sometime in the future decide to give up Facebook?
I still don't know quite what I'm doing. But after seeing my AP juniors make really cool blogs on Weebly, I've been playing with my own blog over at Blogger. It's not as pretty or professional-looking as Weebly, but with six years of posts the idea of migrating seems way too big with six weeks left in the school year. So if you're a regularly reader and any changes annoy you, please let me know! I'm not entirely certain who my audience is anymore, so feel free to introduce yourself if you're not, you know, my mom or my husband.
I had the privilege last fall of teaching a Financial Peace University class with my brother and his wife as students. As a result of paying off their student loan debt and being ridiculously excited for the future, they started listening to a podcast called ChooseFI - the FI stands for Financial Independence. Bro sent me their way, and I listened to an awesome podcast about building a blog into a business. I was inspired! I briefly envisioned quitting teaching when my incredibly viral popular blog spawned me thousands in monthly affiliate and advertising revenue! I'd land a book deal. They literally said the line, "I can't think of anyone who has been blogging regularly for six years or so NOT finding some success." Well hey, I've been blogging for six years. Me! Me! Me!
Long story short, I'm not quitting my day job. Let's be honest, if I quit teaching, then I'd have nothing to blog about! But listening to Brad and Jeff on this podcast talk about how to solve problems and engage communities with a blog inspired me to revisit the quality of my own site.
I played with a new theme a few weeks ago after my post on our school's walk out/memorial walk went locally viral. I wanted to make sure my blog was the best it could be with new eyes on it. But after using it a bit I wasn't thrilled with the interface.
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| My new "business" venture...sort of. |
I'll be honest - even though I've been writing for the better part of six years, I still don't know that much about blogging. I don't know what SEO is. I haven't bought the domain name. I read a bit about affiliate links, but haven't been brave enough to sign up for a program. I know some of you actually receive my blog via email, but I can't for the life of me figure out where I can access that email list. Maybe I'll play with Google AdSense just to see how it works, or affiliate links, but for now I settled for creating a store on Teachers Pay Teachers, which is sort of an Etsy store for curriculum design. But that's another post.
Basically, I have never quite been sure what my blog is. Is it a journal I share with strangers? Is it a way to keep my mom up to date with my life? Is it a place to learn about teaching? Is it for sharing my kids' lives when I sometime in the future decide to give up Facebook?
I still don't know quite what I'm doing. But after seeing my AP juniors make really cool blogs on Weebly, I've been playing with my own blog over at Blogger. It's not as pretty or professional-looking as Weebly, but with six years of posts the idea of migrating seems way too big with six weeks left in the school year. So if you're a regularly reader and any changes annoy you, please let me know! I'm not entirely certain who my audience is anymore, so feel free to introduce yourself if you're not, you know, my mom or my husband.
Where does an aunt fit in?
ReplyDeleteHi Margaret!! Aunts are THE MOST awesome! Happy Spring to you!
ReplyDeleteI love me my aunts! Thanks for keeping up and being faithful readers :) Love you!!
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzy :) this is Jonathan from ChooseFI - we are going to talk about how to monetize your website and I would love to use this post as a setup for that conversation. Would that be ok? The episode will go live this upcoming friday and we will link to your article in that episode and I will give you my thoughts on what your possible next steps could be
ReplyDeleteJonathan, I would love to be a part of that conversation! My email is helariouslizzy@gmail.com. I will look forward to hearing the podcast if I didn't miss you!
DeleteHi Lizzy! I'm Lizzie, too! I found you through ChooseFI. I'm also a teacher! I teach French in New York, and I've been contemplating starting a blog for so many reasons - journaling, how to teach smarter and better, etc. I love that you've been blogging for so long and haven't given up on it! I've just subscribed and can't wait to read more from you!
ReplyDeleteMerci beaucoup mademoiselle! I have LOVED tracking my teaching journey; I've been going back through my earlier posts and marvel at how much I've learned and how I would approach the same situations differently with a few more years of experience. Thanks for following, and I'd love to connect more with you when you launch your blog!
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