One huge thing I learned on our financial freedom journey is that dreams really can come true. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s so true.
When we were just starting out in our journey, we dreamed about all we wanted to accomplish with our finances. We dreamed of paying off all our debt before we had kids, and being able to buy a house and travel. But people thought we were crazy.
We were told by many people in the beginning that “debt was a way of life.” And “you’ll pay it off eventually. Don’t rid yourselves of any experiences now to pay off debt.” We’re thrilled that we didn’t listen.
When we started sharing our dreams more openly (especially in this blog), we began seeing huge success. My readers, followers, family and friends have been extremely encouraging to us in following these dreams. And the result? We paid off $87,000 of student loan debt faster than we initially thought possible.
Dreams really can come true and I think that this is even more the case when you share them with others.
The Magnolia Story
I’ll admit, I haven’t read a book for pleasure since middle school. But during our debt-free cruise in the Caribbean last week, I started and finished Chip and Joanna Gaines’ book The Magnolia Story
If you haven’t heard of Chip and Joanna Gaines, they are HGTV stars with their home renovation show “Fixer Upper.” They have become a household name in just a few years and are known for their gorgeous design, and #relationshipgoals (they are the absolute cutest).
In their book, Joanna shares all about how her dreams were realized. Before she became a mom, she dreamed of owning a home decor store. She shared her dreams for her business to her husband, Chip, her family and friends, and even to God. As more people heard about it, the greater support she gained. And her big dreams came true and bigger than she imagined years later.
After reading about Joanna’s dreams, I have felt compelled to do the same. I want to share my dreams with those around me to keep me accountable. And I truly think that greater opportunities occur when you share your dreams with others. People get excited when you get excited.
So here are my hopes and dreams for my blog:
My Blogging Dreams: Reaching a Full-Time Income
My biggest and scariest dream for the blog.
I began my blog in May 2016 and never thought that it could be something that I could make money off of. Then I slowly began to see the potential. I bought my own domain in July so that I’d be able to monetize, and have really gotten serious about it in the last 2 months.
As of today, I have made a whole $43.50 off my blog. ha! But this has been the result of me actually working at it for the last month. This income has come from Amazon affiliate links and Erin Condren planner referral codes (get $10 off your first awesome purchase here 🙂 )
I have learned a lot from other bloggers in the personal finance realm: Millennial Money Man and Making Sense of Cents, just to name a couple. They have grown their blogs into a sustaining business that has replaced their full-time jobs. They have inspired me to give it a go at this whole blogging-as-a-business idea.
Could you imagine if this could actually be full-time source of income? Don’t get me wrong, I still truly love my current 9-5 job. But what if I could have the option to stay home with future babies or even work part-time if I wanted? That is such a freeing dream. Not to mention, I absolutely love every minute of time I get to put into my blog. It is truly my passion to share financial encouragement and advice to my readers.
So What’s Next?
In the last couple months, I have done some serious research on how to grow a blog. I have been more intentional with my social media marketing strategy to post regularly, use relevant hashtags, and engage with people who meet my desired demographic. My plan is to continue these strategy to reach more potential readers.
I have also been learning more about SEO (search engine optimization) which is basically the strategy used to get posts to rank on Google. This sounds silly, but I truly never thought about this until about a month ago. Understanding and using more SEO will bring more readers to my site, and therefore would potentially create more income. I want to continue to grow in this skill, as I feel I have just learned the tip of the iceberg.
Lastly, I want to be able to take more time to learn. When I started my blog, I spent 95% of my time writing content. While content is majorly important and is going to be what drives readers to your site, you also have to run like a business! In the last month, about 30% of my blogging time has been actually writing content. The other time has been spent developing a social media marketing strategy, networking, web development, learning more about SEO, and doing some strategic planning.
Now that it’s all out there in the open, I’m excited to see where my blog will be in 1 year, 2 years and even 5! And I’ll be sure to update you guys on my progress. Thanks for following me along on our journey to financial freedom, and now the journey to hopeful blogging success.
Marissa
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