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My second month of blogging ended a couple of weeks ago. A large part of my second month was spent taking care of sick kids and then being stuck in bed sick myself. I got behind on everything, so there were very few posts in the month of February.
I did not get my first month of blogging diaries done until early March (click here to read that post), so I am trying to get caught up with my blogging diaries without overwhelming you all with them in the same week. My start date was the 7th of January, so I consider the 7th of every month my blogging anniversary and hope to complete my blogging diary post closer to that date.
Here is a review of my goals from last month and a summary of how I did.
- Pinterest-I have a personal account and one for the blog. Decide if I really need two separate accounts.
- One of the few things I was able to do while sick was work on my Pinterest account. I decided to link my personal Pinterest account to The Resourceful Mama, so I worked on creating meaningful and organized boards. My boards were not very user-friendly. For example, I had everything from brownies to pot roasts to fruit salad in one board titled Food. I divided these up, so now if I am looking for side or salad to go with a main dish, I go directly to that board.
- Look into other social media. Facebook is the only one I have used, so another learning curve.
- I have not done anything with other social media. I have not made it a priority. I do have a Google account and occasionally I am prompted to use it, but I really have no clue. I have a personal Facebook page and I set up a Facebook account for The Resourceful Mama early on, but I have not been back to utilize it. I am not sure if I should have a separate account or combine The Resourceful Mama with my personal Facebook account. I think I remember reading that I could combine the two without blog followers have access to my personal information and feeds. I would love to hear what other bloggers do with Facebook.
- Gain a better knowledge of how my camera works.
- Improve my pictures and graphics on blog.
- I have combined the summary for these two goals since they are interrelated. For some reason this is the goal that I avoid the most and it probably should be the top priority. I think I am still stunned by how much photography plays a role in blogging. I was very naive about this going into blogging. I keep thinking I have a professional photographer who takes pictures of the kids and does our family pictures, so why do I need to become one! There was a digital photography class nearby that I intended to take, but illness prevented me from attending. I am learning PicMonkey to improve my photos and signed up for a Royale because the fonts, overlays, and graphics I wanted to use always seemed to be Royale.
- Look at other templates and assess whether I should change.
- I initially bought a template off of Etsy, but never really loved the template. I did some research on templates and found that most people recommended a child theme on Genesis framework. I found Pretty Darn Cute Design through Studiopress and purchased Modern Blogger Pro. I love this template and my husband has found it easier to work with in terms of coding.
- Organize passwords, logins, and other pertinent information.
- This is a work in progress. I know there are several online programs to help you get organized, but I am an old-fashioned paper and pencil girl. I have a notebook where I jot down ideas, thoughts, and pertinent information, but information is randomly put into the notebook and I find that it is not at all user-friendly.
Goals for Next Month
- Continue to organize Pinterest boards, join collaborative boards, delete Pinterest account I had initially started for the blog.
- Decide whether to use my personal Facebook account or a separate account for the blog. Learn how to use Google+ in conjunction with the blog and utilize it.
- Read the book that came with our camera.
- Customize my template. Right before working on this post tonight I was at a link party checking out what others had linked up and saw three others that had the same theme. They had all done a little to personalize their Modern Blogger Pro template giving me some inspiration.
- Revamp welcome image and profile.
- Market & Monetize The Resourceful Mama using what I am learning from an eBook ( How I Made $40,000 My First Year of Blogging)I purchased.
Goals for the Future
- Sign up for Instgram account. This may require purchasing a smartphone (just goes to show you how much I have to learn).
- Sign up for twitter account.
- Purchase and learn Photoshop.
Click here to see where I linked up.
