Somebody asked me the other day what my plans are for our Every Day is a Holiday project.

I don’t have a specific answer, really. It’s all a big experiment. I am used to generating content on a regular basis, which is why I started this blog, and I thought this focus on holidays and family activities would give me plenty of fun things to write about. I also wanted to focus on bringing positiveness to the world, as opposed to politics or hard news, and create something that could be used as a way to help others, whether it be by promoting their business, highlighting people’s innovative efforts or even providing a few minutes of entertainment. So this is what I’m doing.

Isn’t life pretty much a big experiment anyway? I feel it in my songwriting efforts, working on my songs note by note, learning from experts and trying to improve my craft.  I feel it in my parenting efforts, stumbling through each new challenge. I wish I could say I was an expert in something, unequivocally, no-questions asked, I know for sure. But I feel like there’s always something new to learn about everything and honestly, that’s OK, it makes life interesting.

So, these are the steps I have taken so far (in case there’s anybody out there ready to take on this kind of experiment of their own):

1. Started a blog. I joined a Facebook group “Start a Money-Making Blog,” which is run by husband-and-wife team Pete and Heather Reese who have a very successful blogging career and now want to help other bloggers get started.
2. I joined the Freelance Writer’s Den, which was started by Carol Tice, a successful freelance writer who wants to help other freelance writers get gigs that make money.
3. The Freelance Writers’ Den offers so many incredible resources, such as setting up your writer’s website, which I did, and webinars, networking opportunities, forum discussions and I admit, so much more that I haven’t explored yet.
4. Through the step-by-step lessons of the Reese’s free 10K Challenge course, I followed the steps of setting up my blog, as well as social media accounts for my blog on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. The course also introduces you to ways to start building up your readers/networks.
5. Became an affiliate – so far I’m signed up with Amazon, Google Adsense and ShareASale, I’m just getting started with all of this, but basically you get a commission of the sales generated from the ads on your site. I haven’t generated any income from it so far, but I’m in the very beginning stages of figuring it all out.
6. Learned new programs, such as Canva and MailChimp.
7. Started a newsletter. I signed up with MailChimp and sent out the first newsletter this week. The plan for the newsletter is to feature some of the upcoming holidays that fellow bloggers can use for content ideas or that parents can use for fun activities for their kids. The newsletters also includes monthly observances, which are usually educational in nature. The newsletter also includes links to some of my blog posts that highlight some of the previous holidays. In the big picture, it will also include me sharing the work of other bloggers  that relates to the holiday (such as a recipe for ice cream on National Ice Cream Day) on social media or having sponsored content on my blog. Here’s my first newsletter (click on it to see the full newsletter):

So there you have it, the story behind the Every Day is a Holiday project (in case you were interested).

If you’d like to join me in my experiment, please subscribe to the newsletter and let’s see how it all works out. If you are a blogger or an organization or a business that would like to participate, contact me here.