The 24 Best Blogging Resources {Link Roundup}

Okay, can I let you guys in on a little secret? All right, maybe not that little. This winter will be my 3 year blogiversary! When I started this digital journal back in December of 2010, I had no clue what I was doing. Absolutely none. All I wanted to do was inspire people with my story and who wanted their dream job {read my first ever post here. Man, I had a lot of excitement over being laid off}. I also had no idea how big blogging really was. Then I stumbled into a close knit group of amazing bloggers who I networked with, studied what they knew and who I still look up to and connect with.

Today I am sharing with you my personal resources for blogging. Many of these fine people are good friends, some I stalk weekly and others I want to get to know better. Truth: I haven't read ALL of these {yet}. Most of them, yes, and they have helped shape my blogging brain. Others I'm including as a bookmark for the future because when you run a blog, you should be evolving, growing, being more awesome daily. And I want to be more awesome. I know, it's hard to believe right?

Blogging Secrets / Wifessionals
Blogging Photography Tips & Tricks / Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles
SEO Basics for Bloggers / Wonder Forest
Can You Actually Make Money Blogging? / Living in Yellow
Lessons I've Learnt | Blogging / Here Comes the Sun
Build Your Blog's Framework With These 4 Pages / Independent Fashion Bloggers
58 Ways to Get Noticed as a New Blogger / Blog World
How to Add a Pinterest Mouseover Button onto Your Blog / Kevin & Amanda
How to Make a Media Kit that Rocks / The Blog Maven
DIY Blog Design: The Drawing Board Printable / The Flourishing Abode
How I Make Money Blogging / Addicted 2 Decorating
Cleaning Out Your Blogging Closet / CEO of Me

How to Use Twitter for Your Blog / Build Your Blog Conference
How to Make Money Blogging / I Heart Nap Time
Blogging Goals {And Why We Need Them} / Essentially Ecclectic
How to Grow Your Blog / A Royal Daughter
Tips for Your About Page / Simply Clark
Grow Your Blog Series ~Recap~ / Live Laugh Rowe
5 Knows of Advertising on Blogs / Rags to Stitches
3 Tips for Sponsoring Blogs / Julie Ann Art
5 Tips To Use Google Analytics More Effectively / Framed Frosting
Blogging At The Next Level eBook / Crowley Party
10 Mommy Blogging Tips / Remodelaholic
10 Ways to Support My Blog {or any blog} / Bella
 

So enjoy my beauties. Read, absorb, learn, grow...you can make your blog a success!

Speaking of success, have you heard of Taylor from Pink Heels Pink Truck? She is a sweet friend of mine and shares great blogging advice. She has a fantastic post about product review disclosures {here} that I've included in my new eBook "10 Blogging Etiquette Tips for Newbies" {available here}. Taylor is hosting a giveaway on her blog today for one lucky reader to win a free copy of the eBook! Please show her some love {here}.

Also, don't forget to enter to win a FREE CUSTOM LOGO on my FB page {right here yo}. Only two entries so far, so there's an amazing chance to win. I think that's enough link vomit for now. Feel free to share your favorite blogging resources in the comments, I'd love to grow my list! Peace out sprouts!

Still That Girl

“You were young, you were free and you dared to believe you could be the girl who can change the world. Then your life took a turn and you fell and it hurt, but you’re still that girl and you’re gonna change this world…”

Britt Nicole {“Still that girl”/Gold}

If there is one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I love a good song. Not just any song. I’m talking about a song that moves your emotions to new depths and gives you instant goosebumps all over. You know what I mean?

The above quote is that song for me at the moment {another thing to note: I love Britt Nicole. Not only can she sing her socks off but you can tell she loves the Lord..and that rocks my socks off.} When I first heard “Still that girl”, I didn’t think too much about it. I mean, I liked the song, but it was just another tune on the playlist. Until I really listened to the lyrics one day while cleaning my studio…I love blasting music while doing that! Suddenly, Britt’s words pricked my heart and brought me back down memory lane…

When I was growing up, I was a dreamer. Surprise surprise. I always dreamed big but I never planned big. There is a difference. So when I started my first relationship and went away to college, those “big dreams” suddenly took a back seat to life. They didn’t have to but I made certain choices that this could not have been helped. Fast-forward to years later, I was heartbroken, sinking in guilt and shame for the life I had been leading.

Besides the details that I share in my book, another important thing haunted me. I went from a “dream seeker” to a “dream doubter.” What I mean by that is, I went from striving to reach big, to talking myself out of my desires. I made up excuses why I couldn’t live life as an artist {“I don’t have a degree!”} and why I could never write a book {“I am an awful speller!}. I started looking at all of the bad I had done and felt like none of it could be erased, so therefore, I could never change the world.

False! I totally lied to myself! I had let all of those negative things that had happened to me be in charge of my destiny. God had a plan for me all along, and though I had dug myself in a deep depressing hole of lame, He knew exactly what I needed to get out! And I did! Here I am, a work at home wife and mommy, living my dreams. I can officially call myself an artist and even an author. Whoa...

I am still that girl.

I am still that girl who loves to stare out of car windows and daydream.
I am still that girl who doodles on scrap paper, notebooks and cardboard boxes.
I am still that girl who laughs at the dumbest things even if I’m the only one!
I am still that girl who loves forts, lemonade stands in the summer and a cold slushy.
I am still that girl who gets butterflies when she sees him {but now he’s mine forever!}
I am still that girl who tries to be positive even when life hands you razor blades.
I am still that girl who believes there’s a God bigger than anything else, and it will be okay because He has all power and control over it all!

The question now is, who are you? Are you still that girl? Do you still dream big, aim high, seek the best out of every situation or have you let the situations of life steal that away? I want to tell you don’t let your past take away your dreams! You can still be that girl, only wiser {like me! uh kidding}

Nothing can hold you back unless you allow it. No one is going to do it for you; you have to be not only aware that you can change the world, but you have to believe it. Don’t be a “dream doubter”, you are better than that, always have been and always will be!

 Linking up @