Tag: SEO

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A High-Five To Myself

I have to high-five myself at this point. When I started this blogging gig, I knew there would be some “techy” things I would need to learn about. I don’t consider myself very “techy”, but apparently, I can Google instructions and follow them in order to make things work which has saved my butt on this blog.

As time has gone on, I’ve surprised myself along the way. Learning throughout this past year about graphics, widgets, headers, footers, HTML code,affiliate marketing, SEO, crawling bots, and so on was really beyond my reach. Or so I thought. BUT, I got most of it figured out and set up the way I wanted it on my blog. AND I can even carry on an intelligent conversation with my colleagues about, say, SEO and what it is.

Fast forward my learning to February, 2018. This is when I realized the way I had my blog set up was limiting. I couldn’t do certain things I wanted to do, I couldn’t use the theme that I really preferred (how the blog looks to you), and soon, I would have more traffic than it was set up to handle. stop-1013732_1280From what I could tell, I would need to move to a self-hosted platform.

And guess what? I did it!  You may have noticed recently, that my webpage looks different. Not drastically different, I still have the same logo and same pics used in my header. The coloring is still the same so I think it still has the same feel. But, I now have a side bar menu instead of dropdown at the top, a different layout and blah, blah, blah. Not to bore you with the details, let’s just say that I’ve re-vamped this blog literally from top to bottom and had to learn so much in order to do so. presentation-1454403_1280Thank you for your patience as I’ve transitioned over to the self-hosted platform. I’m still waiting for my domain name to be released, so you will see something besides “box5501.temp.domains…” in your address bar when on my blog.  Once the domain privacy on my previous platform releases my domain name, tlcpostcards.com, everything on my blog will be fully functional again and I will be able to proceed as usual and hopefully probably learn some more “techy” things. I hope this results in you have a better experience with my postings. Thank you for following!

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Beginning 2018

When I first started this endeavor called blogging, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I just knew it made sense to write about something I knew something about that would (hopefully) interest others. After 7 months of blogging, and learning, and learning, and blogging, and learning some more, while I don’t feel like I have this mastered, I do feel like I’m accomplishing some goals and am now striving towards even loftier ones.

Based on what I thought were solid growth numbers, I was hopeful I would grow my blog followers to 200 by the end of 2017. (And I thought that was setting the goal bar pretty high). Thanks to fellow bloggers, my followers, and never-ending research I’ve actually went over 1,000 by the beginning of this year. For 2018, I hope to surpass that number. Since I know 1,000 is possible in less than a year, I should probably attempt 3,000 to keep me on my toes.

I’ve also begun learning more about SEO and affiliate marketing. This allows me to (potentially) earn cashola from blogging. While I have watched those numbers grow and can see some patterns as to what works and what doesn’t, but still haven’t earned anything of substance yet, for 2018 I will attempt to generate more clicks/views/sales which will hopefully come along with increased traffic. If nothing else, I would just like to earn enough to actually receive a check for one month. (Most affiliates don’t cut you a check until you’ve earned at least $100.)

Finally, I am committed to continuing to publish quality content. It’s hard to look at other travel blogs and see all the wonderful locations they write about and realize I have a lot of ground to cover. I’m hoping time will allow me to broaden my wings and check out some of the more exotic and cultural places. Now, if I can just learn to develop the patience to take a flight longer than 4 hours that should be easy to do, right?

Above all else, I’d like to send a thank you to my blog followers. I know in today’s time-crunched world it’s sometimes difficult to commit to reading anything. I just hope that I can continue to hold your attention in this ever-speedy world long enough for you to get a bit of enjoyment out of it.

For 2018, onward and upward really will be my mantra!