Picture by miss_rogue
Since I started blogging in June 2008, I’ve registered many domain names. I guess you could say “I fell for the lines that blogging gurus spew out about making lots of money on blogging.” The main blog that worked for me was this blog. I blog to share the stories of my family’s experiences, good or bad. I blog about the dumb stuff. I blog about the successes and the failures of the stuff we’ve tried. I blog because I want to help people, either by saying ” look I tried this and it didn’t work”or by saying “hey…this worked for me…maybe it’ll work for you”.
This blog has become a part of me and while I may not write everyday, I’m constantly looking for ways to adapt the things that happen in our everyday lives into a post. The Frugal Hubby gets a little bent out of shape every once in a while because his supper plate has to wait until I take a picture for a post or because I blog about the dumb thing that I’ve done…like the recent Pepsi bath that my Blackberry got. He sometimes wonders if you really care. But I keep telling him…if it helps one of my readers…it’s worth it and I’m going to write about it.
Everywhere I’ve signed up I’ve always signed up as The Frugal Housewife or Frugal Housewife. It’s like a second persona. I don’t blog for the money (there isn’t a lot that comes in with blogging, at least not yet!) But we do have a plan together that we call our “5 Year Plan”. It involves the merchandising, the branding, and the writing outside of this blog using my blog persona, The Frugal Housewife or just plain Frugal Housewife (sometimes the sign-up doesn’t allow “The”). We are in Year Two of the Five Year plan ( June 2 will be our two year anniversary!). We’ve lasted this long and we aren’t going anywhere! We are starting to build the merchandising and advertising , improve our writing, and plan our posts a little better. It’s a slow growth but a good growth. We’ve pledged to Blog with Integrity and defend this persona and what we write on here or outside of here on our other outlets. We’ve pledged to take a stand and speak up if we feel we are being infringed upon in any manner. The Frugal Housewife is here to stay and it’s a part of our life now.
There is something I want to confess before I close this post… it is the first time in my entire life that someone has believed in me and what I’m doing to the point that he doesn’t care if I’m making money on it or not, he doesn’t care how much time I have to spend on the computer (it’s a laptop and in the family room while he’s watching baseball!) he only cares if I’m happy doing this and I am so happy writing this blog! Thank you Frugal Hubby for believing in me and my dream that much!!!
I’m getting to live out something that I dreamed a long time ago and few people ever knew … to write and be read. Thank you, my readers, for living out that dream with me!
Till next time,
JT Locke
The Frugal Housewife
About The Frugal Housewife
Your story touches home with me. I just started on this blogging journey last September. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a plan or a niche. I just wanted to get my stuff out there, whatever “it” was at the moment. It has been a learning experience, especially since I didn’t know squat when I started. What I have learned is that blogs don’t write themselves and they don’t grow unless carefully tended, and the importance of reaching out and connecting with other bloggers.
What you are doing is essentially the path I’d like to take. I am taking a serious look at the direction of my blog, eliminating some things, and trying to do more actual writing. It does my heart good to hear your success story, and maybe if I persevere I may reach my dreams, too.
What a great post! I can feel your excitement. What you do IS important and worthy and helpful. I just know you’re going to get a lot of thanks for explaining how you saved the Blackberry
I popped by here because I’m about to put some advertising funds in your coffers. I started advertising more myself. You’re right, we won’t make a mint, but it’s good to take in some extra income for the hard work we do.
And yea for Frugal Hubby! Having a supportive spouse/family is probably the difference between some bloggers keeping it up and some leaving blogging. Give him a high five from me!
I feel exactly the same way that you do about blogging. I have yet to make money off of mine but I enjoy doing it as a type of therapy. It’s like writing in a journal except that I’m sharing my thoughts and knowledge with an audience from all over the world.
I love this post! I’ve been blogging full time since January and I think I’ve made all of $5. Maybe. Lol. It would be great if I had an in house support network but my friends often pitch in with an encouraging word or two because they grasp the concept that any new business takes time to build.
Good Luck on all of your future endeavors!
The first year the Frugal Hubby constantly asked me when we were going to start making money like the “blogging gurus”. At the beginning of the second year, he was glad that readership had increased but was still wondering if we were going to make any money at all, then the LinkWorth kicked in. I probably have the price too high on it but it brings only serious links. We just recently started the advertising on the sidebar. I had a friend that started a couple of months before me…they got mentioned in a couple of big papers. Their blog took off after that and he’s making a decent side income off it. Come on papers….mention The Frugal Housewife!!!
It is important for us to love what we are doing in our life. Thanks for sharing your story.