12 Days Of Christmas (Blogging) #beautiesonfire Link Up

Attention Beauty Lovers. Welcome to the next Beauties On Fire themed link-up. If you don’t know about Beauties on Fire, make sure to check out this post. Our next theme was decided via a Twitter poll. Anyone could vote and our winner was…”12 Days Of Christmas.” All the AMAZING #beautiesonfire members have written posts with their own spin on the 12 Days Of Christmas theme.

If you haven’t joined the Beauties on Fire Facebook Group yet, where have you been? Note: You DON”T need to take part in the collab to be a part of the group. We have become a total fashion and beauty blogger support group! We would totally love to have you!

I wanted to take a fun spin on this theme! I love the 12 Days Of Christmas song so I decided to write my own spin on it. I created a 12 Days Of Blogging Song. Christmas is a time for happiness and laughter (and totally giving). I hope this post brightens your day a bit and puts a smile on your face. Let me know if you can relate to any of these days! WARNING: A song is included below in which I am singing. I AM NOT a singer so don’t judge my singing ability. This song is purely for fun and to hopefully make you laugh. So let’s get to the 12 Days Of Blogging. I am sure many of you can relate.

Check out this fun blogging version of the 12 Days Of Christmas Song
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Also, make sure you check out all the links below and show some love (come back often to see which bloggers have posted). They are seriously so amazing. I know you will love reading them as much I have. Also, we are always accepting new members and anyone can join (see post above or rules below). Make sure you check out the previous week’s #beautiesonfire “Forgotten Favorites” link-up if you missed it.

12 Days Of Christmas (Blogging) Song:

This page may contain affiliate links (marked af.link). Each time a purchase is made through these links I receive a small commission from the sale without any extra cost to you. Purchasing through these links helps keep my blog up and running. I appreciate your support so much! You all mean everything to me! CLICK HERE for more information or to read my full disclosure.

Note: Warning…My Singing Is Terrible!!

1.) First Day Of Blogging…A Self-Hosted WordPress Site

Going self-hosted was the best decision I made for blogging. There is so much more you can do being self-hosted. I totally wish I would have been self-hosted from the beginning! It was a pain to move everything over from WP.com to WP.org. However, I don’t regret my decision at all! I love being able to customize everything!

I have also learned so much from being self-hosted. A quick word of advice: If you are thinking about becoming self-hosted, DO NOT go with Bluehost or any other EIG companies. Many bloggers recommend them because they have an awesome affiliate program (if you sign up with their link, they will earn a lot of money). You will have to purchase a premium Bluehost plan (way over priced) in order for Bluehost to be any good. I learned this by mistake. I was with Bluehost for 3 months and my site went down 20 times. One time it was down for over 8 hours. This killed my SEO and Google was not happy with me. Learn from my mistake!

I am currently hosted through A2 Hosting (I have their premium plan) and I love them. However, most bloggers recommend Siteground. I totally stand by them too as I have worked with many bloggers who use their services. Most of those sites you see recommending Bluehost are actually hosted through Siteground.

2.) Second Day Of Blogging…Sponsored Posts

Sponsored Posts are so much fun and a great way to earn extra income or free products. As your blog grows, so will the amount of sponsored posts you are being offered. Be sure to only accept offers that you would be proud to write. Don’t accept every FREE offer that comes your way, especially if it doesn’t align with your audience. It will actually hurt you more than help you.

You want your audience to trust you and love the products you are writing about (so you will have to love them or at least be honest about how you feel). Note: Don’t be afraid to write a negative review. Let the company know ahead of time that you didn’t enjoy their products. They can then choose to accept the negative review and critique or ask you politely not to post it.

Be sure to research the company and get all the information before accepting an offer. There are many legit companies; however, there are many companies that take advantage of bloggers. Be sure to watch out for these. If they are asking you to write about their products and not offering you anything in return, RUN. If they are giving you a discount for review of their products, RUN! I actually run a Facebook Group and we totally help each other determine whether or not a brand offer is legit/acceptable. We would love to have you!

3.) Third Day Of Blogging…Posts Posting

I am sure many of you can relate to this! It feels so great when your posts are finally finished and ready to post. I love seeing all my hard work go live!

4.) Fourth Day Of Blogging…Drafts Pending

Oh, the pending drafts! How many of you are like me? You have so many unfinished drafts. You have a great idea and draft it up. However, you totally forget about it or start working on another idea. Which totally reminds me, I have a few sponsored posts and a new HELP! series post that I totally need to finish! I swear I have a never ending list of drafts!

5.) Fifth Day Of Blogging…Sleepless Nights

Due to all the sponsored posts, posts posting, and drafts pending…there are many sleepless nights in blogging. Many people outside the blogging world have no idea how much work goes into running a site. Many of you also work a full-time job. Therefore, you have to schedule blogging duties around your job. I totally feel your pain because I was right there with you. I still lose many nights of sleep because blogging is totally my passion.

How many of you can relate to sleepless nights due to blogging?
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6.) Sixth Day Of Blogging…Affiliates-A-Linking

Affiliates are a great way to earn money through your blog. Companies will pay you a commission of the sale every time someone purchases their products through your link. I am an affiliate for a few companies and it is a lot of fun. You even get information (product releases, sales, etc) before it is available to the public. Some companies will ask you to become an affiliate personally or you can join affiliate networks and apply to be an affiliate.

Here are a few affiliate networks that I am a part of:

Viglink: This one even adds affiliate links automatically for you (af.link)
Shareasale: This is one of the most well-known affiliate networks. They have a ton of companies! (af.link)
Rakuten Marketing: Love the layout of this site (af.link)

7.) Seventh Day Of Blogging…Unread Emails

I never knew you could get so many emails. I seriously have over 100 emails everytime I wake up in the morning. Keeping on track with emails is a never ending battle. I have created folders in my Gmail account to help me stay organized. It really helps!

8.) Eighth Day Of Blogging…Subscription Payments

The saying is true that you have to spend money (sometimes) in order to make money. It really does cost money to run a website. I feel like I am always purchasing new software for my site. And, of course, I can’t forget all my subscription boxes that I am subscribed too. Let me know if you would like me to do a post on all my blogging expenses. I can totally do that or add it to this post.

9.) Ninth Day Of Blogging…Plugins Updating

I am a huge fan of plug-ins (for self-hosted sites). They make your life easier and keep you protected. And they are always updating with new features. Here are some of my favorites:

Better Click To Tweet (for adding tweetable phrases in your posts)
CommentLuv (for commenting)
jQuery Pin It Button (for adding a customizable Pin It button to your blog photos)
MailMunch (for email marketing…popups & embed forms)
MiloTree (Instagram and Pinterest follow popup)
Pre-Publish Post Checklist (for making sure I don’t forget to add things to my posts)
SumoMe (for increasing social shares and building an email list)
Ultimate Nofollow(for adding no-follow links to sponsored posts)
UpdraftPlus (for backing up my site)
Yoast SEO (for SEO help)

10.) Tenth Day Of Blogging…Photos Taken

With blogging, comes a never ending amount of photos. I love writing, but I hate taking photos. I am not the best photographer and I only use my phone and iPod. I really need to up my photography game and actually purchase a camera. That is my next goal!

Also, the amount of time it takes to edit photos is insane. I am sure you will all agree! You can’t just take a picture and be done with it! Nope, you have to take a million shots…pick the best shots…and use at least 2 or more apps to edit them. And don’t even get me started on finding the right light to take them in!

The never ending joy of taking 100s of photos and editing them.
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11.) Eleventh Day Of Blogging…Tweets Tweeting

I seriously love Twitter. It is a great place to interact with other bloggers and share your content. It really is so important to network in blogging. It is also equally as important to share your content across the web. I constantly tweet, Instagram, and Pin all my content. I could go on and on about the importance of social media marketing, but I will save that for another post. For now, just do it!

12.) Twelfth Day Of Blogging…Spammers Spamming

And finally, the annoying spam comments. Thank goodness for plugins like Akismet that keep spam comments at bay. However, sometimes they still sneak through. I also have to check my spam box because sometimes it spams legit comments.

And there you have it! The 12 Days Of Christmas…blogging style. I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, I would be honored if you shared it. I am sure we can all relate to many of these days. Let me know which days you agree with or what valuable information you have learned from blogging. Share all your thoughts in the comments below.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Keep blogging and let’s rock it in 2017!

Link-Up:

Please make sure to read all the linked posts below. We would love for you to show some love and spread the word. Also, share the posts to any of your social media accounts if you enjoyed them. We would love to have you join Beauties On Fire and grow your beauty/fashion blogs with us! Note: You don’t need to participate in the link-up to join Beauties on Fire. Learn how to grow your online presence with new topics every week (in the Facebook Group). Come Join Us!

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