This is one of those rare posts on this blog that I post that is more about the blog than writing. I was going to write a nice email to tell all my subscribers, then thought that, hey, I might as well use this as my post for this coming week. 😉

You ready for a bit of a story time?

I am very late onto the scene concerning Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. I have been waiting for a very long time for it to come to DVD, then come in from the library.

There was a very long line.

But, at last, it arrived. We sat down and watched it, pausing several times to take care of my youngest sister. It was during these intermissions that we first mentioned sweaters.

My sisters have Marvel themed sweaters and shirts. Three out of four are Spiderman themed. Obviously, I need one for myself. And what better time to get one than after watching this movie? (duh)

As soon as we turned off the TV, I scampered upstairs to my computer and flipped open a few tabs like some professional FBI-super-spy-person (if they ever, you know, want a Spidergwen sweater and are acting professional whilst getting themselves one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) I jumped onto several websites, quickly looking up and scanning through some sweaters. There were quite a few that looked exactly the same but were different prices, but I quickly zeroed in on one:

Except it was $37.

I was lost in thought as we travelled to my Grandparent’s house for dinner that evening, and ended up talking it over with my sister, Mary. (thanks for listening to my random ramblings, Mary, especially when I should’ve been letting you do art homework)

For the past two years, I have been blogging on Julia’s Creative Corner; for the past year and a half, I have been here on this platform for it. If you remember, I moved to this platform to escape the ads on my old WordPress.com blog. And, as I mentioned in this post, I have a huge bill to pay for it. Every year, I have to pay $15 for the domain name (juliascreativecorner.com) and $8 a month for hosting. In American dollars.

As I talked to Mary about that sweater, she mentioned that I should just buy it. I then laid out these facts concerning why I cannot:

• I have my blog bill to pay
• I cannot get it for my birthday, as I already have requested a tablet (something I’ve really wanted since last year in July, but that’s another story)
• After I have enough for my blog bill, I need enough to get the physical cover for my book, The Storm Inside (I already have a front cover, but that’s for e-books. I need to get a spine and back if I’ll ever be able to print it physically)
• And I need to get copyrights for the book itself, which is about $45. (Canadian)

Being a teenage girl in high school with no job to provide an income, I therefore cannot afford to buy said Spidergwen sweater.

“Maybe you just need to do something new,” Mary suggested.

Those words stuck with me, wriggling in my head and then bringing up one of the few quotes that I actually have memorized:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

-Albert Einstein

What was I doing now that was wrong? What could I change that would let me finally have different results?

I spent 6 months at the old platform, and I had around 80 followers there by the time I finally deleted it. As of this moment, after a year and a half I have 22 subscribers on my email list. I love each and every one of you very much, and appreciate you. However, these numbers just don’t add up.

Where I am now isn’t helping me closer to where I want to go.

If I’m trying to get a head start and build a business where I can help people while I’m still in high school, I need to actually be growing.

I need my audience to grow.

And I need to not be thinking about that blogging bill constantly for the entire year.

What I’m going to Change

I went back to my original intentions for even moving my blog. They were all to just get rid of the ads. I wanted a nice blog, though, so I went looking for a theme. (I’d heard how horrible the themes were for WordPress.com blogs when you’d updated) But so many of those themes said that they were for WordPress.org blogs that I finally went into that realm of things.

And now here we are.

Paying over a hundred dollars every year for a blog that hasn’t grown.

Therefore, we’re doing the only logical thing.

We’re moving.

By moving to WordPress.com and paying the lowest amount available (so as not to have those ads) I’ll be paying half of what I am now. It’ll still be me blogging, and I should be able to figure out how to move over my posts and comments this time, now that I have more experience.

I’m going to miss this blog platform. It’s been a year and a half, but I still love how it looks. But, as it doesn’t currently suit my needs, I need to leave it for now. Maybe someday I’ll be able to set it up again, since I own the theme. But yeah.

This move scares me a bit, even though logic says that it’s the right next step. I’ve been stuck for so long, and this is what I have to do.

But I mean, hey, who knows where this will take me now?

Make sure to keep a look out for me in 2 weeks! I’m waiting until July 1 to begin the switcheroo, so that I won’t get charged a month’s worth on WordPress.com for 1 week. Also, I have finals coming up, so I don’t want to deal with the stress of switching my blog over until that’s over. 😛

The next time I post, it’ll be Camp NaNoWriMo again, and we’ll be at the new location! I’ll see you there!

Want to make sure you still will get my emails after the move? Make sure to subscribe here to my email list! You’ll get a free course on how to defeat writer’s block. 😉

Are you excited about this?

Did you enjoy the story?

-Julia

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash