Today we’d like to introduce you to Jill Frier.

Jill, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Ladybug’s Blog is a labor of love. It represents a never-ending quest to find fun things for my family to do in the great state of Arizona. We love to travel, see the sights and experience nature, science, sports and the great outdoors in every corner of our state and our city. So, I decided to write about our experiences and share our research and knowledge with other parents looking for ways to get their kids excited about getting out of the house and learning new things. I take pictures by the thousands, so I also share photographs of the fantastic places we visit and activities we experience.

I started Ladybug’s Blog about two years ago, after leaving a full-time job in the corporate world to stay home and care for my home and family full time. As a freelance writer and consultant, I was looking for ways to dynamically display and publish my work. Thus, Ladybug’s Blog was born! I was already researching the and writing about the content – sharing information with friends, family, visitors and colleagues. Putting the information, research and photographs into a blog was simply the next step, and a better way to share the information with a broader audience.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has not been smooth or easy, but I always say that life is a journey, not a destination. If your path were perfectly smooth, it would get pretty boring.

The biggest challenges I have faced are the challenges of learning all about the ins and outs of blogging. You read. Your research. You experiment. You fail and forget and miss the boat on certain things because you can’t figure them out. You skip posts because you just don’t have time and you re-read posts and rewrite them over and over. And you hear about people who make lots of money blogging and wonder what in the heck they are blogging about that has people so interested. And you learn that many of the blogs that are making money and driving traffic are blogs about blogging – because people will pay money to learn how to blog and make money!

What I have learned is that the real key to having a successful blog is this: if you want to make a living blogging, you should be prepared to commit 8-10+ hours per day to work on your blog. Treat it like any other full-time job and that will help you to drive traffic and earn money. The majority of successful bloggers are in this category – and they work very hard for their success. I don’t earn money from my blog at this point because, frankly, I just don’t have that kind of time to commit.

My advice to anyone starting this journey is to blog about topics you love. There are no shortcuts or magic strategies to earn a lot of money – you just have to be prepared to work hard. Instead, focus on the content of your blog. Be proud of your writing, your photographs, the information you provide. Love what you write about and the little successes will pave a path to larger ones. Just be patient and keep moving forward.

I am still on the journey and continue trying to figure out which path is best. But what I do know is that as long as I am writing about the things I am interested in and have a passion for, I can keep the momentum going and slowly build a body of work that will have substance and, I hope, stand the test of time.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Ladybug’s Blog – what should we know?
My specialty and my passion are writing about travel and family-based entertainment in the great state of Arizona. I’ve lived here for 20 years and still marvel at its beauty, history, charm and majesty.

Ladybug’s Blog is, at this point, a labor of love. I make virtually no income from blogging at this point, although I am working on strategies to eventually build up the business side of my efforts. For this reason, I also do freelance writing and website consultation. I work with small business clients to help them improve their online presence and create great content – through their website, social media, email or any other type of business documentation or media they need.

Do you recommend any apps, books or podcasts that have been helpful to you?
I do so much research, reading, note-taking and thinking that I’m often overwhelmed by the amount of information and digital resources available for all aspects of what I do: writing, blogging, running a business, finding clients, and even relaying information. I use my Google Calendar for all of my planning and scheduling and have started leveraging Evernote for collecting information and drafting articles. I use QuickBooks for accounting and currently love UberConference for webinars and live meetings.

All in all, though, I’m still a pretty old-fashioned note-taker and rely very heavily on a good mechanical pencil and my trusty Moleskine notebooks!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ladybugsblog.com
• Phone: 623.826.7392
• Email: info@ladybugwriter.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmfrier/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ladybugsblog/
• Twitter: @jladybugsblog
• Other: http://ladybugwriter.com

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.