The upstairs of our apartment is clean!
Truth be told, Ryan and I have more to do today than we initially thought. We left behind a good two car load’s worth of stuff that wouldn’t fit in the Uhaul and it’s the kind of stuff that is hard to box up and organize. Random office things, CD players, craft items… random stuff!
About an hour into cleaning we developed a plan: Tackle each room and then move onto the next. Now our living room is full of stuff that we plan to bring to Ocala on Sunday.
The rest of today will be spent cleaning the downstairs of our apartment (kitchen, bathroom, room of shit), before we pack up Ryan’s car and head to my parents’ house in St. Pete for the weekend to celebrate my mom’s birthday.
I am so over this whole moving thing. Blah!
Lunch
Lunch was assembled on the fly using food we had on hand.
Peanut butter and jelly tortillas. Hey, it works!
Just ask Sadie…
Sneaky little devil.
I also consumed several spoonfuls of peanut butter throughout the morning. I’m really feelin’ the nutty stuff today!
Back to the grind…
I’m seriously going to do flips when I can concentrate fully on blogging again! I feel like I’ve been so frazzled throughout the past few days. I’ve had a million different blog posts pop into my brain that I’ve wanted to write but just haven’t had time to sit down and hammer out. Soon!!!
Blogging Questions Roundup
One of the blog posts I’ve been meaning to write f-o-r-everrr is one about blogging since many of the emails I receive relate to blogging, how to start a blog, promote a blog, reach out to companies, etc. I am thinking an informal post that is more Q&A in nature might be fun!
I would love to do a Q&A post all about blogging to address some of the questions you guys may have out there, so if you have anything you’d like addressed, please post your question in the comments section below. If I see a lot of the same question and think it would make a great post on its own, I may divide up topics and go from there.
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Enjoy your Friday night!!! I’ll see ya after dinner… and after lots of birthday cake. 
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Hey we did that too….keep moving junk to the last room to clean. Moving is NO fun, but it feels good to move on with life and start a new chapter 🙂
Have a fun party with your fam! I love how family oriented you all are, because so am I! Have a safe drive.
pb and j works on anything… including right out of the jar 🙂
My blog question: Do you seek out freelance work or do people find you? If you reach out, how do you choose who to approach and how do you approach them?
I second that question!
I ‘third’ that question!
YESSSSSSS i’ve been wondering this same thing!!! Thanks for asking 🙂
mmm that PB and J does look good! Best wishes with the packing.
I’m also wondering about the freelancing whether it’s something you pursue or whether magazines contact you.
Also are they usually online magazines or another type of publication?
EXCELLENT! I am in the process of moving blog in a direction that I can ‘market’ and am desperate to know how to reach out to vendors for product reviews, giveaways, advertising etc!
Nothin’ wrong with a PB&J quesadilla!
Good luck with the room of shit & the rest of your moving adventures =)
I totally feel your pain. I’m in the process of packing up my apartment and the stuff is just never-ending. Good luck with the move!
I would love to hear more about your freelancing experiences!
That said – I did write that post on switching from Blogger to WordPress. Please spread the word so that people switch and I can comment on their blogs 🙂
http://crazyrunninglegs.com/2011/07/20/confession-wednesday-i-am-a-wordpress-snob/
Moving sucks! Once you get down to the little things and cleaning it feels like it never ends! Have fun with your family this weekend!
Best of luck with the move! It will be over before you know it. Hang in there. 🙂
Julie – I asked Gretchen at Honey, I Shrunk the Gretchen these same questions the other day…but I am most interested in your process behind your content creation.
Do you brainstorm restaurants, events, workouts, etc. to specifically blog about, or do you let your life happen organically and then blog about it?
I’ve totally been there with the peanut butter and jelly tortillas while moving haha. It absolutely DOES work 🙂
Good luck with accomplishing everything!
My question is, how do you get your blog “out there” I try to post on other people’s pages and things like that, but how do I REALLY become “popular” in the blog world??
OoOo sounds like you have lots of interesting posts coming up~Julie, I hope your day goes smoothly and peacefully! Or at least, that no matter what, you’ll maintain your peace? 😀
i love the idea of a q&a post. i would definitely be interested in how to grow your following. my blog’s been growing steadily, but i would love to know if you have any “tricks” or suggestions : )
have a great weekend!
Hey Julie!
This is a great Q&A for me because I recently started a blog and have so many questions and concerns!
1. I don’t have as much time as I would like to devote to blogging, so I’ve only been able to do it once to twice a week…will I still get a following?
2. How DO you get people to follow and regularly read your blog?
3. What are the most important things about first starting a blog? Pictures? Content? Promoting it?
I can’t wait for your Q & A post!
My question is how you started getting freelancing writing jobs. I would like to do the same but I have no idea where to start!
I have a few blogging questions. How do you start a blog and give it the look and feel that is you. (I am not super great with computers and I imagine its not the easiest thing) And how do you find and connect with other bloggers in your area?
I love PBJ — the perfect meal!
I’m looking forward to your blogging tips post — I just like hearing about why people started them in the first place.
I HATE MOVING! I am moving in about a month so i definitely feel your pain.
Something I always wonder is how you felt about telling your friends and family about starting it. I think everyone would look at me like I lost my mind if I talked about telling the world what I eat and everything. I think that would be the biggest obstacle to starting one.
I just started a blog 2 weeks ago and love the idea of a Q &A !
I agree with some above questions – including how do you get into freelance exactly, and how do you get a following & your name out there (aside from commenting on other blogs.
Also, do you host thru wordpress? or something else?
oooh, here’s a good one.
How do you make money through your blog? I’ve figured out the whole “companies will contact you to send you free stuff to review,” but I would love to figure out how to actually make money.
I second this question!
Just think that it will all be worth it once you find the perfect place for you, Ryan, and Sadie and you get all settled in!
I HATE moving! I feel your pain!!!
Blogging questions: How do you reach out to companies? How do you carve out the time to blog and comment on others sites?
I really do feel your pain. I despise moving, and I’ve only had to move in and out of college dorms. I may be moving for a job soon, which I already have knots in my stomach about. It is just so stressful and draining– physically, emotionally, mentally. Hang in there and look at the bright side– you’ve got a cute, fit husband and adorable & energetic dog to help you through it! (Ok, I’m not sure how much help Sadie is besides her adorable face, but still). Keep us posted! 🙂
Good luck with all of the moving this weekend! It seems like you have made great progress.
I read through all of the questions so far and I’d love to learn more from you about each of them. Specifically freelancing, getting your name out there more in the blog world, and to reach or not reach out to companies.
Hi Julie,
My blogging question is: what exactly does it mean to be self-hosted? You talk about making the transition from wordpress or blogspot to a self-hosted site, but how is that done? And once your URL changes, do older links within the blog still work?
Yay for the blogging post, I love hearing how bloggers I like turned their blogs into what they are today.
My main question is how your readership developed? Over time etc. and what did you do to encourage this?
Thanks! Nice to see Sadie appreciating your lunch equally, little monkey 🙂
Hi Julie,
I want to start blogging, but I’m having trouble deciding exactly how to structure it. Why did you decide to include a ton of details about your life? Instead of just writing about healthy living, workouts, recipes, etc? Do you think that this level of personal detail gives readers a better opportunity to identify with you?
I’m having trouble choosing a name, mostly because I’m not sure how much personal detail I should include in my blog!
My question is an offshoot from blogging. How do you get freelance work? Do you contact people or are they coming to you?
Good luck with the rest of the move!
you two are quite the cleaners 😉
& have so much fun with your parents!! I know you guys are probably dying for a break!! It is much deserved after all that you have done!
You share a lot of your personal life on this blog–from your wedding, to your high school and college, to your friends and even where you live. How do you still make sure that you are ensuring your safety?
I was too afraid to even show pictures of myself and I don’t share things like my name, where I go etc because I am not 100% sure that I know I am not giving too much info out there.
I second this question! I’d be interested to hear how you maintain a level of privacy and anonymity but still show who you are and what’s happening in your life.
When did you decide to make the move to being self-hosted?
Also, a list of resources — people or companies you’ve worked with to develop/create/maintain your blog would be helpful!
Have a fun night celebrating your mom’s bday!
You must feel a bit nostalgic when seeing the empty aparment! But a little pb is just perfect to relax and enjoy something good. You question section is a great idea!!! I’d like to know more about how your blog evolved since I didin’t know it at its beginning, how did it start, how did you acquire your regular readers and such a popularity?
I know it’s too late to help you with this move, but maybe it will help in the future: movers can be really reasonably priced (and oh-my are they worth it!), and work-related moving expenses are tax-deductible. Enjoy your weekend and try not to let the moving get you down too terribly much!
Eww…please tell me you did not eat that after Sadie licked it?!?
Quite the timely post for me, Julie. 🙂 I just started my blog a couple weeks ago to coincide with my move. So my main question is, how do you get traffic OTHER than by commenting on a lot of blogs?
Question #2: How do you make money from a blog? Is it ads? My baby blog is nowhere near making any money and that’s not at all why I started it, but I am curious. 🙂
Have *fun* with the move! As fun as it can be, anyway. Cheers and happy Friday!
Love that you’ll do this!! I just started a blog so my main question is how long after you started blogging did you get your blog onto a self hosted site? And how was the whole design (i.e. header, widgets, etc.) of your blog developed?
I blog through WordPress and bought my domain through them as well. Down the road I’d like to transfer to self hosting to have more flexibility with the design and nature of my blog so that it’s more “me”. I understand this costs money, but would love as much info as possible to go about doing this. Thanks!
I have a random question on commenting…
As a relatively new blogger, I’d love to be more involved in the online blogging community – not to promote my blog (I mostly write for friends and family), but as an outlet to share and improve with other people who truly enjoy blogging as I do! I follow many bloggers, some of whom I know personally and some I don’t, and comment on other blogs because I like to let bloggers know when I really relate to or enjoy something in their post… but with all these “promote your blog” tips out there, do high-traffic bloggers like yourself enjoy comments from people you don’t know, or are you ever concerned that it’s just other bloggers trying to direct more traffic to their own blogs?
That might sound cynical – I don’t mean it to be! I ask the question mostly in regards to myself, because I sometimes worry when I leave a comment on the blog of someone who I don’t personally know that it somehow seems creepy or insincere! So I jumped at the chance to pick your brain as a much more experienced blogger than I am 🙂 Thanks for being open!
I know this question is for Julie, but I just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE when others comment on my blog! Whatever their underlying reason may be, I just like to get the conversation going.
I also comment on blogs of people I do know, and those I don’t know. But I only comment when I actually have something I want to say…umm, like today! 🙂
Sorry to “butt in” – just thought I’d share my opinion!
Not at all, I’m happy to hear anyone’s opinion! Thanks! 🙂
I have been packing up my apartment this weekend as well. Blahhh.
I’d love to hear more about your freelance experience!
Julie, that is such a wonderful offer. I would love to know what to say when I reach out to companies, and basically how to get my blog out there. Sharing my tips on saving time and money with as many people as I can, is all I want to do! Good luck with the move!
Cleaning is so much easier when there’s nothing there, right? I will gladly clean over pack any day!
I would love to hear about blog promotion and how you started using your blog to get other little side jobs (like your posts for Shape magazine).
How much do you weigh now?
Good luck with your move!
I’d love to hear more about getting readers to comment. I get lots of views, but not many comments!!
Any new blogger tips will be helpful. Good luck with the move…keep on truckin’!
Hey Julie, so I have started blogs before, but never was able to put in the time needed to make them successful. I actually have a couple questions for you…1) what made you want to start blogging? 2) how to you make money from your blog? 3) how do you make yourself known in the blogging community? Thanks!
Monica at RER will be doing a blog safety lecture at the Healthy Living Summit, but I will ask you the same thing that I asked her (especially since I won’t be at the HLS). How do you feel about safety regarding having your full name on your blog? What are some safety tips that you have to avoid people finding out where you live (especially when they know that you will be gone on vacations/honeymoons/etc.)?
Glad your gettin everything organized! it will be done in no time! my dog is the same way when I eat sammies haha 🙂
Any tips or tricks for downloading pictures? It seems to take foreverrrrrr.
Hey, I was wondering how you narrow down the main theme of you blog and add relating topics. I have a lot of interests and I can’t seem to put my focus into one, and write around that idea. What did you do to decide the main focus for your blog?
I”m most interested in the technical side of blogging. Did you start with a free blog and move over to a self-hosted one? Is it hard to self-host? Any recommended resources to make the move? Looking forward to you answers! Thanks!