I have started and restarted writing this article about 50 times, mostly because it’s always so hard for me to articulate what I want to say without writing far more than I’m sure you want to read.  However, this is my “aanniversary post” and I have a few things I want to say before I start a fresh, new blogging year which I am hoping will far surpass Year One. So here goes.

It is the official end of the first year of my entrance into the blogospere!  Well, I guess I should say that it has been one year since I purchased my domain and hosting package.  After months of talking about it with my husband, I decided that I had to have something to do with my life.  I can’t work outside my home due to certain health issues but I can’t let my brain atrophy either.    The blog title was something I toyed with for awhile, but let’s face it.  Not a lot of things in life make sense.  I’ll never quit trying to make sense out of some things, but I have much better luck making cents out of the daily things in life.  Whether it’s getting something for free, getting a steep discount on something, or finding a coupon for later use, I can make “cents” out of almost every day in life.  Life is not about how much money you make or save but if you’re in a financially unstable place, or just need to ramp up your savings, finding ways to make “cents” out of each day can make a huge difference in your life.  Voila! Making Cents Out of Life was created.   A new role in my life was created, and I had something to look forward to after such a long time of having very little going for me.  I have a wonderful,  amazing husband and family, don’t get me wrong, but my work was my last shred of independence so quitting was especially hard for ome.  Somehow creating my blog, even though I did a lot of things wrong, suddenly gave me a sense of hope and excitement thinking of all of the possibilities out there.

My friend Kristin from Couponing to Disney gave me some good advice a few months ago.  She told me that I should treat my site like it was the only source of information on saving money that my readers were going to get, and provide them with the most and best information I can.  It took me a couple of months to get a good start with my posting,  call it cold feet or writer’s block but it’s all the same, but after I got over that Ii did try to write as nuch useful content as I could.  However, being a faithful blog reader myself I know there’s a limit to how many posts youre going to stick around for.  Some of you want as much as I can get, some of you want it kept to 3-5 a day, others have no opinion.  Other days when I’m not feeling well, I’m lucky to get online at all. 

I started blogging for other reasons than a hobby, but believe it or not money wasn’t a top priority because I had no idea that there was money in blogging.  My biggest reason for blogging was to help those peoplel who need help learning how to live a great life without spending any more moeny than they have to.  I want to teach others the things I’ve learned through the years so that they can avoid making the financial mistakes I have made, and so that they can see how wonderful and fun it is to live a full life on less.  My only financial goal was to someday start some sort of freelance writing projects down the road to get a part-time income for our home.  I’m just hoping the website makes enough cash flow to cover the cost of running the site.  Would I love to make a part-time income from blogging? Heck yeah, and I do put affiliate links on the site but again, that covers the cost of running the site.  When I self-sponsor my giveaways5p.,I’m just not focusing on the money.  I’m focused on my readers.  God will take care of the rest.

Having written all of that, I know that there are some of you out there who are starting to blog or who are thinking about it.  When I was at that stage, I looked for some how-to’s on blogging and I was overwhelmed at all of the information available.  What I needed tips on were things I couldn’t find, but I found out over time that there was a reason for that: blogging is unique to each person, or it should be because you don’t want to copy everyone else.  But there are some things that I learned the hard way that I should have done differently, and I’ll share those mistakes with you.  These are just things that make life easier if you have a certain subject you’re wanting to blog about, like frugal living.  

• I did not set goals.  I started my blog as a hobby, but given the fact that I intended on it being a blog tha tothers were going to see and hopefully come to on a regular basis I should have set goals to give myself something to work toward.  You don’t really know what to set for your first year, of course, but small goals like getting 100 readers in 6 months, for example, would be a place to start. 
• I didn’t prioritize my time.  When I got started, I Twittered, and I chatted in forums, and I blog hopped, and I wrote posts, and by the time all was said and done 8 hours had passed and I hadn’t gotten much done.  I have to set a schedule that includes all of the social media activities and networking as well as writing so that I can plan my personal time and errands around this.
• I never had a clear plan for writing.  I write reviews and type up giveaways and schedule those for the days I want them to be published, because sometimes I’ll have time to review a product on a Saturday but I’ll have so many posts that I won’t have room for it until Wednesday because I’ll want it to get enough attention without competing against so many other things I write.  Just an example. But I’ve addressed this before and I need to do this for ya’ll: I am going to come up with some kind of routine schedule so that you’ll know what you’ll find when you come here on certain days.  Not every post will be scheduled because freebies and coupons pop up but for instance my Ten to Win or Six Talk Saturday are series that i need to schedule.  This way if it is something someoneo is intrested in, they’ll know to stop by on that day!  A lot of my favorite blggers do this and I like it.
• I need to schedule a set time to blog.  This is my main obstacle because of personal issues.  Most of my blogging gets done late at night and early (as in 4 AM) morning.  I have a weird sleep schedule, due to chronic pain and some other things, that’s just when I am awake.  I often need my afternoons for personal errands and for family time so I find msyelf not being able to get you the best deals and the quickly ending freebies.  My goal now is to get my personal sleep schedule back on track so that I can be around all day, during the actual daytime, so I can be a better blogger.
• I need to gain more confidence in approaching people so that I can get more opportunities for our site.  Confidence is something I have never had in myself, so that’s a big struggle but a successful blogger or a successful business person in general has to have the confidence in themselves to succeed.  If I don’t have any confidence in myself why should anybody else have any confidence in me?  That is why I started putting the little bit of money I made from the blog, which so far has been under $100 not counting the fund raiser for my mom’s school,  back into buying giveaway prizes to gain readers.  Having readers come by and sign up, and comment or e-mail me gives me confidence that I’m doing at least a little bit of something right, and gives me the confidence to continue to do it and not quit when I get frustrated. 

Keeping in mind that I wrote this with an extremely awful lack of sleep, I hope it all makes sense.  One of my general goals in blogging, as with this article, is to tell you what I do wrong so that you can learn from it and possibly do the opposite, or adapt it to your own situation.  Not everything this past year was bad.  In fact, I LOVED this last year of growth in my life.  I learned so uch from seasoned bloggers who don’t even know of my existence, and I’ve met some wonderful friends online whom I may never meet in person but they are still friends in real life because this here is my real life.  My real life because it plays such a part of my life at home, and wherever I go I’m always searching for blog-worthy material.  sometimes just a story, sometimes something I saw on sale, or I get on my soap box.  But the simple fact is that this is my “real life” because it has changed my life by giving me something to look forward to during a phase in my life when I was not sure i was going to ever again have something of my own to look forward to.  I was content happy with life before blogging, but I have gained so much from it that I didn’t even realize was missing from my life. 

I know I put the word “regrets” in the title, but I honestly have to say that I don’t have any.  I made the mistakes I told you about, and probably more but I’m considering those as stepping stones for Year Two.  I’m not going to regret these things because they have lead to personal growth and knowledge; regrets should be left for those things from which nothing good can come.  I’m not a top blogger, or a “big deal” blogger or any kind of person you’d want to take much advice from but I’m going to give you one big tip anyway:

Be yourself and be true TO yourself.  Don’t sell out to make a buck.  In the end, you’ll have ot be the one who sleeps at night and even if that doesn’t bother you one day we all have to answer to our Makerf for our actions.  Will it be worth it?  I have had to ask myself that a lot.  There have been opportunities I have had to advertise certain things on my site that would have made me a significant amount of money (in our meager budget, a lot of money is different to us than a lot of others) but it was to advertise check advances, which I am strongly against and you owill never, ever see an ad for one on this site if I can hekp it.  I can’t control my Google ads but if I were to see one of those I would definitely make sure it was removed.  A quick buck isn’t worth selling my soul.  Blogging takes a lot of hard work, sweat, tears, and sometimes yes, blood shed.  Paper cuts, coupons…you get the idea.  Blogging is one of the most personally rewarding things I have ever done for myself.  Just learn, like I always tell you, from my mistakes and you can do anything your heart desires. 

Thanks for puting up with me for a year.  I know a couple of you have been around the whole time and I appreciate it more than you know.  You’re good friends who lift my spirits when I need it; let me know if I can ever return the favor!  I hope you all have the best of luck and a wonderful week!  I appreciate each and every one of you!