Heart to Heart: Reality Check Rant

I know how much you all just love my life updates,...riiiight? .-. I must admit, that I feel a bit discouraged lately. Nothing is really going as I had hoped since the beginning of the New Year. I started out with such motivation and positivity and needless to say, it's slowly going down. 

I guess in a way, I compare myself  too much to other successful bloggers and youtubers, even instagramers, to the point where I almost envy their success. It's something I want so bad. You, know I've read so many quotes that make me think it's meant to be, and somehow I can achieve it. But to my misfortune reality is telling a different story. There is always something that prevents me from doing a task or project I've set out to complete. Maybe I'm just making excuses for myself or maybe it really isn't meant to be...?

I don't consider my life to be hectic or busy in the sense that I have to go "here and there," it's more like...I have to do "this and that." My husband works two jobs, so I'm left most of the time alone tending to my kids who are toddlers, and my wifely duties and chores. At the end of the day, I'm exhausted wondering how time flew by so fast. Not, to mention the fact that I'm 36 weeks pregnant. I'm as big as a whale and feels like one too. So, you tell me..how am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to do what makes me happy, and still tend to my family responsibly? I mean, I have the equipment, I have the materials, I have the ideas, I have the determination... but no time? 

Some would say, make a schedule, have a routine. Great Idea! If I didn't already have one,...that changes constantly because kids are unpredictable. Nap time is at noon, well Jacob doesn't want to nap and wakes Sam up. Okay, let's try free play while I go and do chores... kids decide to make a mess I just cleaned up. While the kids sleep at night, film.... well, turns out you're now exhausted from the whole day and just want to sleep. Just this week, my kids caught a pneumonia! Yay, sick all week tending to them pretty much on my own...nothing got done and I'm a zombie. At this far along in pregnancy, staying up soothing kids or waking up at certain hours of the night to administer medicine sucks. So, I don't have the energy to even get up. This month alone, I'm having to tend to the kids, be a wife, pack my entire house, and move to our new place while awaiting the timely birth of our third child any day now. A lot to get done for the end of the month isn't it?

I try to fulfill projects,...I honestly do. For example a few weeks ago I filmed a simple makeup tutorial. I haven't had time to edit it for uploading to my channel. So it's rendering useless in my computer. 

Time isn't even the half of it. I know it takes a lot to build a strong genuine following. I want to be a successful youtuber, a successful blogger- even make money off of it...but it seems no one supports me. Although I get many visits, no one subscribes or even comments on my content. My facebook page is a ghost town,... Why? Am I boring? Does what I post not interest anyone? I do this because I like it, and I want to make my passion my pay check...but how if nothing is working out? Maybe I have to endure this hard slow start. But, the truth is,...it's very discouraging. So the question is, do I endure in hopes of achieving a following, and success or stop because it's only time wasted since I have yet to see the fruits of my labours? 

I set out this year to be my year to shine. I got accepted into college, we are moving province, we are awaiting our little addition to the family, I have so many hopes for this blog and youtube channel..but I'm caught between being realistic and facing the music or chasing after what seems to be a far fetched dream. I have the potential, I have the determination...but there's just something missing. Do any of you feel lost or unclear what path you should be on right now? Stay strong...

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How I Reached 10,000 Facebook Likes in One Year

As many of you know, I have put a pause on blogging and social media every since I had my kids and things slowed down. Before then, is a completely different story. You may be asking your self what it is I was doing and posting about. So, how was it that I reached 10,000 #Facebook likes in 1 year? Let me tell you,..

Background Story:

 I used to be very into a Korean Fashion style called "Ulzzang." It literally means to have the "best-face." So, as a young teen I not only had the monetary resources to afford this style, but also the time and energy to live it. I made a fan page for myself that focused on this style and how to apply it to daily life, posting tips and tutorials I would create. I entered and won many online contest, submitting my photos and gaining internet popularity in this subculture. After seeing myself getting stuck and not really progressing (getting more popular) peaking at about 1,000 likes, I switched to promoting myself and creating my content for a Spanish speaking audience. This is where I boomed.  I went from 1,000 likes to 10,000 likes in 1 year. At one point eventually averaging to about 1,000 likes a month. Now that may not seem a lot compared to other internet famous blogs or people but in this particular niche, it was.

Now, that you know a little bit of how I started getting involved with social media and the internet, I'll tell you exactly what I did to "boom."

Steps I took:

1. Brain Storm & Define your Niche:
Decide what kind of page you want to be. Now, I had to brainstorm a lot! I wanted to be the go-to page for this kind of style in the spanish speaking internet world. I wanted to provide reliable, quality information and be 100% legit about it. I simply wanted to be #1. It was something I loved and was very passionate about. Now in order to be #1, I had to "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk." So here is where step number two comes in.

2. Research your Niche:

You know what you want to write or post about, now learn everything there is about it. I can't tell you how much I read, watched and searched for answers to the questions I had about this niche. I'm not Korean, and I have never been there. So, I was influenced and guided by what I saw online. Doing this made me question so many things that where contradictory in the style, and so many opinions of "how-to-be Ulzzang." I wrote to many influential bloggers in this niche, and commented on many videos and forums, simply asking. I obtained good feedback and I went by "majority opinions." The more I dove into topics the more I learned about the style, its origin, South Korean culture and so much more. If someone had a question for me, I had the answer.

3. Goal Setting:
I began with minimal knowledge of my niche, but as time went on I became the "wiki-pedia" of it all. I sat down, and vaguely planned month to month the content I would be posting throughout one year. I had a vision and with that vision came the desire to obtain a huge following. I told myself that no matter what, I had to be #1, and be the first page of this niche to reach 10,000 likes.  The competition already had a good head start away from me at about 3,000 likes each, I knew it would be hard, but I had to beat them, mainly because they content they posted was terrible. I began the first of January of 2012 and so I had the opportunity to remain organized in my planning. Although I didn't have specific numbers set to try and reach weekly or monthly, my goal was the end of the year number and quality of the content. It wasn't until much later into all of this that I really began planning weekly posting schedules. So, set realistic goals that you believe you can accomplish.

4. Create Content your Audience Wants:
This is I think the hardest part of it all, creating good content that not only show cases your quality and vision, but also providing what your audience wants to see. I started off with basic essential posts such as style must haves, beauty tips and tricks, the photography aspect of the style and other basic info. After that, I hosted polls and questionnaires asking our followers what they liked, wanted to see more of, or if they had any questions that needed answering. This made it a bit more easy to brainstorm ideas for content and fulfill my mission. I also tried very hard to be different than other pages, innovating the way pages of this niche would operate. I constantly was introducing new ideas, and concepts keeping my content fresh and constant. I created giveaways, themed contests, monthly challenges, and much more to help others grow and progress in this style. I must say though, that not only the content was important but obtaining a professional look as well = Branding your style. My pictures were high quality images that attracted my viewers attention. I was always constant in the look my social media channels portrayed. I never bought any kind of software to edit images with text or anything. I simply used an online photo editor called #picmonkey.com It had everything I needed to create the visuals for my page. The best part of this site, is that it's free!

5. Keep yourself Motivated:
I can't stress this one enough! Motivation is key here! When the page was first created, many people mocked and laughed at me. They would say really mean things, and discourage me. Even my family would tell me to grow up and be a normal girl. Although all of this hurt at times, I never gave up! I would tell myself, that I would be the best, and I could do it. I needed to prove to my family and all of the other haters that I could be the best page out there. It was a big struggle. Not many people would visit my posts or click like but I kept posting regardless. Slowly, I noticed people would begin to do so without me having to do anything. This made me feel excited and I continued doing what I was doing the whole time. It was about 5 months into managing this page, that I saw real progress. I went from about 1,000 likes to 3,000 and each day it would grow faster and faster. People finally noticed my quality and work. By 6 months I reached 5,000 likes. 

6. Promoting yourself and Social Media:
About 5 months into managing the page, I decided to branch out into different social medias and for this I needed help. I recruited reliable internet friends to help me out by each of them managing a branch of social media.  I created a blog, twitter, youtube, and tumblr. I found the the most successful channels of social media were the blog, tumblr and youtube. So after a while, we just focused on those, also keeping up with our principal channel which was the Facebook page. I also joined many Facebook groups of this niche and promoted new posts or events there. I would say to shamelessly promote yourself and your content. How will anyone know you're there if you don't open your mouth?

7. Sponsors & Affiliates:
Part of what gave my page such great credibility were the sponsors I obtained. Though they were few, I ensured that they were reliable, famous/popular companies. I didn't get a sponsor until I reached at least 5,000 likes. Which is the average minimum for most companies related to this niche. I obtained sponsors such as #pinkyparadise #lenscircle #speciallens #choies.com and several others for that year I was most successful. For most of them, I had to personally contact the company and ask if they had any sponsorship opportunities available, and for a few others I was contacted by them with an offer. From these sponsorships, I would host giveaways and contest prizes, instead of keeping the products for myself. People loved that I would give back to them for their support, in this way. As for affiliates, I partnered up with other pages related to this niche that I felt were just as good as mine, and around the same number of followers I had. We would support each others events and cross post each others content making stronger friendships and gaining useful benefits from one another.

8. Interaction:

I always made time to answer questions, reply to comments and interact with my followers. It would make them feel closer, more relatable to me and in a way more special if I gave them individual attention. I would seem less like an internet celebrity and more like a regular girl like them.

All of this contributed to a fast growing following for my page. By the end of the year, I did reach 10,000 likes and blew my competition out of the water. It took determination, knowledge and the desire to accomplish this. 

After that year, I got married and had my kids, and well here I am now, trying to get things going again. I no longer practice Ulzzang fashion and lifestyle but I do love it. I've matured and changed these past few years. Growing into the style and life I have now. I know it will be a slow journey but one I'll enjoy. I love blogging and I hope this helped you all try and figure out what it is you want to accomplish. Currently, I have about 13,100+ likes having been inactive for about 2 years without posting a single thing. The best advice I could offer you is to not give up no matter how discouraged you are. On days you don't feel like posting anything, do it anyway, you'll thank yourself later- TRUST ME.

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