If you got 500 bucks to spend on your blog, what would you buy?
I have been growing a list of learning resources for blogging that is chock full of e-courses, ebooks, services, and tools that I would love to utilize on my blog. The thing is, that comes up to a grand total of well over $5000 and even more if you consider the perpetual expenses of monthly/annual services. Yikes!
Since it’s almost Christmas (and my birthday!), I’m considering what do I think I would want to invest in for my blog as a gift from my family. I also sold something near and dear to me so that I could have some extra cash on hand to invest in blogging.
Here’s what I’ve got so far.
Monitor
A new monitor. You read that right. I bought a monitor. It’s big and beautiful and white! Yes! White! My desk is in the living room so I can be with my son all day, so my desk has to look lovely all the time (okay, most of the time). And the monitor I’ve been using is 10 years old. For real. His buddy already died, so he was definitely on his way out. I adore my new white monitor for my home office.
I’ve got tons of space or “real estate” to work with and can have multiple things open at once. 
I am continually making printables and graphics for this blog (like my tutorials organizer sheet), so a bigger screen has been an awesome asset the past few weeks.
Keyboard Drawer
A keyboard drawer! Yes, I know! You didn’t see that one coming! Here is my desk.
It’s beautiful, but it sits high (even with my chair at the highest level), so I’m always straining my wrists and shoulders. My keyboard drawer is going to fix all that. It’s taking forever to get here, but it’s one of the things I’m most excited about.
Blogging Training
Training. The very first thing I did to begin my blogging journey was to enroll in Ruth Soukup’s Elite Blogging Academy. Enrollment for EBA only opens once a year (around February), so that gave me plenty of time to be sure that’s what I wanted to do. I researched and read reviews. In the end, I decided to go for it and haven’t looked back yet!
EBA will walk you through upping your blogging game. It covers everything from content creation to promotion. Ruth is a great teacher, and just having all the content in one place is an amazing time saver.
But, the absolute best thing that I’ve gotten out of EBA has been my mini-mastermind group. We’re a tight group of EBA’ers who encourage and teach each other. We all serve different audiences but are always sharing new tips and tricks to master this blogging thing. I wouldn’t have this group if it weren’t for EBA.
I’ve also recently picked up Abby Lawson’s Building a Framework. I’ve been wanting her course for a year (ish), and I finally got it! I’m going to be honest here. I spent a good chunk of change on EBA, but I believe Abby Lawson’s Building a Framework is a great starting point for a fraction of the price for how to learn to blog. Had I done it all over again, I would have started with Building a Framework while waiting for EBA to open and then followed it with EBA since Ruth recommends having a blog in place before taking EBA.
There’s a ton of training offered there, and if you choose Abby’s Framework or another source for your blogging training, keep it all straight with a free printable tutorials organizer sheet.
Tailwind
I’m still not sure if I like BoardBooster or Tailwind or both, yet. I’m still going through some training to find out, but it is already saving me HOURS every day. And I am seeing my blog traffic go up after only using it a few times. And I’m still learning it!
A Planner
Do you know how much there is to keep up with when you’re a beginner blogger? For real. It can engulf your entire day (and night, ahem) if you don’t set priorities and action items. The truth is that I wanted to pay for a printable blogging planner, but I couldn’t find a planner that was made for real bloggers, so I made one. I asked a bunch of blogging friends what they wanted/needed in a planner, and I made it. I love mine, and I wouldn’t want to do this blogging thing without it.
Save for Blogging Services
I am saving a little of the leftovers for some monthly services after my trials expire. I’ll definitely be continuing Tailwind and I am loving ConvertKit at the moment, too.
There you have it.
This is how I’m spending my extra cash. If you don’t have any extra cash from blogging, you can find my favorite tip to get some extra cash to launch a blog at the bottom of this post about the Blogging Toolkit. Or you could sell something like I did. Just don’t sell the kids. That would be weird, and you’d miss them.
Pin this image to help another blogging mama get her blog off on the right foot with this Blogging for Beginners Series. <3