To start with, I would just like to point out that I do not work for any blog building websites or promotional companies. This is just me and my experience.

When I first started Glitter In The Darkness last year, I didn’t know that much at all about setting up a blog. I had started to look into it a few times and then chickened out when things started to look scary. Because of this I decided to just go for a free website and see how it goes. I have these great ideas every so often of new things to do, and I never stick to them. So I didn’t want to pay for a year’s worth of website and get bored after a month. Actually I really enjoyed the creative process of it and choosing what I wanted for my website. Looking through fonts, colours, themes and all of the disign options was really fun. The problem was, I didn’t know how much work was involved with each theme. Whether some were harder to use than others, or whether you have to have a creative flare to put things in the right places to make them look attractive. I haven’t got that creative flare so I went for the most simple looking one I could find, just while I found my feet and figured it all out. After a while I realised that all I have to do is enter the right information onto the blog, the theme then puts it in the right place. So I don’t actually have to be that creative. I really got into it and as time went on I learned new skills and played around with it more. I actually stuck to it and really enjoyed using it to express myself. It was my thing, all down to me, my writing, my choices, my blog. It was my creative space.

I kept getting these emails badgering me to upgrade and pay for a website. To start with I was fine as I was. I had a lot of other things going on in my life and I didn’t have the time to do anything more than writing when it came to the blog. As we came into the new year, I had a lot more time on my hands, so I decided to look into this upgrading stuff. Well firstly, before I upgraded I decided to give the website a funky new look. I spent ages trying to make it just right image wise and hopefully easier to use. Then I got thinking, I want people to see this. I want people to see all of the hard work that I have put into this. I write about some pretty tough subjects and I want strangers to come across it and find that it helps them in some way. I was forever sharing my blog on social media, but it still wasn’t really getting anywhere out of my own friendship circles. They say on the upgrading info that upgrading gets you more views. Also having a descent domain helps and you come up higher on search engines. I wasn’t really convinced about that, but I thought maybe it is worth a try.

The process of upgrading confused me a bit, because it sounded like a better domain was a part of the deal, actually and it wasn’t. When it says custom domain, it’s not as good as it sounds. Even the free domains are custom ones. To be able to get a descent domain I had to upgrade onto the premium plan and even then I had to pay a fifteen pounds domain registration on top of the plan. When I say a descent domain, I mean ones that end in .com or .co.uk like most professional websites. A more memorable domain. My free domain was glitterinthedarkness.home.blog which isn’t bad, but it just looks like I’m playing around at it. It doesn’t look smart and professional which is the look I was going for. My new paid for domain is myglitterinthedarkness.com . So I’m not saying don’t upgrade at all, just be careful with how things are worded and compare the details to the free plan.

After i had paid for this upgrade and domain change I was really nervous that I had just thrown my money away. However, the first week of my upgrade was the most popular my blog had ever been. I upgrad at the beginning of January this year and when I look at my stats graph, everything from last year just looks empty. This year I have had more views, more likes and more followers than ever and I am really pleased that new people are actually seeing my work. I keep getting app notifications saying that I have new achievements and this feels brilliant. Last week I broke my own record of most likes in a day, today I have beat that record again! I’m not exactly the most popular blogger in the world, no where near. I doubt I ever will be, but the stats have improved a lot. Today I have actually reached one thousand lifetime views! Between May and December last year, I had around four hundred lifetime views. So I have more than doubled that in just over a month which I am thrilled about. 😀

My advice would be, if you are wanting to keep your blog fairly quiet and for mainly just friends, then there is no need to upgrade. But if you are wanting to get your work out there into the big wide world then maybe it could work for you. Just be careful with how things are written and compare them to the free plans to see what it is you are actually paying for. If you’re still not sure whether it’s right for you, you could just sign up for a year and take it from there.

Thank you so much to all of my new likers and followers, your support really means a lot to me. Thank you. ❤

xx ❤ xx