Five Bloggers that Inspire

Thanks to Trop50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 Fabulous Wishes. Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous!

When it comes to running your own blog, we’re often told not to compare ourselves to other bloggers. And in a sense, that’s right. We shouldn’t look at other blogs and be envious or look down upon ourselves because we aren’t like they are. We all have our own blogging paths and our own blogging growth rates. However I do think that it’s important for us to gain inspiration and learn from bloggers that have forged a path and have helped to inspire the blogging community. In that spirit, here is a list of five fabulous bloggers who have in some way, shape, or form influenced me in becoming the blogger I am today.

I think the first blog I ever started following was Angela from The Suburban Jungle. I’m not sure if it was the cute squirrel in her hand or the bright green color, but Angela’s blog was the first that started the notion in my head of monetizing my blog. I have always appreciated her honesty when it came to monetization and she does a great job of balancing sponsored posts with both reviews and personal stories (such as when she made home-made catnip mouse toys.)

When I went to the Relevant conference last year, I had the opportunity to hear Crystal, of Money Saving Mom, speak. I’d frequented her blog before as a resource for finding savings and freebies, but it was at that conference that I was inspired by seeing how much her faith played a part in the blog. Hearing her share her journey highlighted a critical aspect for blog success that I try to hold on to each day. “Lord, Your will be done.”

And now we come to the ever touchy topic of charging for posts. In this case, I have two bloggers to thank (or to blame) for my new blogging policy. It first started off several months ago when Carrie of Springs Bargains first planted a Twitter seed that time is money. As bloggers, we take time to review, test, write and publish our thoughts and words together. Our time is money and your time is worth more than a $3.99 bottle of shampoo. I guarantee it. Follow that up with an email dialogue with Angela from Mommy PR, who kindly gave guidance and that final push I needed to take that plunge into *whispers* charging for posts *stops whispering*. Both of these women are successful at what they do. Carrie has created what I consider a franchise for Colorado savings and Mommy PR was just listed in Cision’s list of top 10 influential bloggers. Clearly they know what they’re doing and I’m happy to learn from their success. (Case in point, even this post is a sponsored post. 😉 )

In a world where bloggers update their blogs anywhere from 3 to 5 to more times per day, it can make you second guess yourself for only posting one post a day. After discovering Dear Crissy a few months ago (remember that whole faux Toyota paid post fiasco?) I started to follow her blog and realized, “Hey! She usually does just one post a day too!” Crissy runs a blog that has a similar “business model” (if you will) and after a few email exchanges, I was confident that while I might be walking to the beat of a different blog posting drum, my path can still lead to success.

I know that recently blogging has been painted out as a cut-throat community where everyone tears each other down to catch that big sponsor. But there are still many bloggers out there who are very helpful and supportive when asked. The ladies I mentioned above have all been a positive support to my blog – whether they realize it or not. I’ve emailed or messaged several bloggers with random questions – some sensitive and some not so sensitive – and virtually every single one wrote back with suggestions. A strong blogging community is one where bloggers help each other out and encourage and challenge each other to grow. I think that’s what these women do and that’s what makes them so fabulous.

Don’t forget to enter the 50 Fabulous Wishes contest for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous. I was selected for this Tropicana Trop50 sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do. I received compensation to use and facilitate my post.