The Breakthrough Journey Of My First Year Blogging
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One year ago today, Mommy Gone Tropical came to life with this very first post.
I could not believe I am still here blogging away taking all of you guys along on a breakthrough journey of my first year blogging.
Truthfully, I had no idea what I was doing. On a whim, I decided to purchase my domain name, http://mommygonetropical.com and started working on it. I did not know that there were a lot of ‘rules’ and specific ways to grow. I assumed I could just start a blog and everything will fall in place. Boy, how wrong was I!
I would not have survived the first year without my fans. Without people encouraging me to continue. Without people reaching out to me and letting me know that they had learned something from my blog.
Only three months in, I had thoughts about giving up. The blogging world was so intimidating because there were so many things to learn. It was overwhelming trying to think of new ideas, writing blog posts, taking pictures, creating a consistent presence on all the social media platforms, and then promoting all over the place. Simply maintaining a blog was a LOT of work.
I got burned out, so I decided to take a hiatus from blogging.
I told myself it was not worth it. All this hard work was for nothing. I thought blogging would have been easy.
Know what? Only a small percentage of blogs survive their first year.
Many bloggers felt the same as I did. Many of them made the decision to stop blogging. Because it had always been my dream to start a blog, I aspired to be a part of this small percentage of blogs. I wanted to achieve a year of blogging and say, “I DID IT!”
So, I adjusted my expectations and told myself not to give up. I put my big girl pants on and stopped feeling sorry for myself. What would have happened if I decided to push myself to just write? Just write something. Anything!
When I took that leap of faith, I was so thrilled. Soon after I made the decision to come back, I got featured in The Mighty with the posts like this and this… I also got featured in The Limping Chicken, The Good Mother Project, and then the famous Huffington Post!
I stepped out of my comfort zone by sharing personal things that leave me vulnerable to the public.
By doing so, I connected with so many wonderful bloggers, brands, and especially my followers. Some wonderful online communities invited me to join their community. They encouraged, collaborated, supported, and helped me to grow Mommy Gone Tropical.
I would like to take you on a little trip down the memory lane by sharing the 5 popular most-viewed posts I wrote in the first year:
- Top 8 Decluttering and Organizing Tips for Kids’ Rooms
- Surviving Postpartum Depression/Anxiety
- Think You are Cut Out to be Deaf? PROS & CONS
- The Shock of Raising a Hearing Child
- 10 Best Tips: How to Interact with A Deaf Mom
After a year of blogging, I have some big upcoming plans in the near future! (Psst, there might be some exclusive videos of learning how to sign with Coral and I that will only be shown to the subscribers 😉) Mommy Gone Tropical will also be redesigned with a brand new logo and will have a fresh new look.
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Congratulations on making it to one year!
Thank you so much! I am looking forward to see what year two will bring.
Good for you to keep at it. You are right about most bloggers giving up after a short amount of time. There’s no magic formula for success because it varies from blog to blog.
I too started about a year ago but never really found my focus until about a month ago. It was just a matter of figuring out how to identify myself as a blogger instead of doing what everyone else was doing.
We do need more deaf and hard of hearing bloggers, especially those who sign. Not just vlogging but blogging as well because it allows for a greater reach. After all, I found your blog because I was looking for something to read. I’m glad to see you are not giving up.
Keep at it and feel free to reach out to connect and bounce off ideas, feedback, etc… if you need to keep your mojo going.
Thank you! I am glad I didn’t give up 3 months, 6 months and maybe 8 months in. It is HARD! It is amazing when you find your focus/niche and get on working! What is your niche?
I am glad you found me and we can connect! I would love to chat with you some more. Where would you prefer to communicate through? E-mail, through FB, or even IG DM?
Reach out to me via email. It’s the easiest way to coordinate things for me. I have an idea that I wanted to ask you about.
As for my niche, bottom line is that I am focusing on improving accessible and inclusive tourism for the deaf and hard of hearing people everywhere.
However, because that is such a narrow niche, I am using my blog as a social brand platform on a select few topics that benefits all of us because in some unexplainable way, they all relate to each other.
That way, I don’t pigeon-hole myself into a specific niche.
Accidentally put a link instead of my Twitter name… @ase7enx!
Good luck continuing your blog and congrats on 1 year!