Hi, It's me Ronda! I wanted to stop by BuckeyeMomsMeet.com and give my apologies, for I have stepped away from my office for a bit. I will start by saying, I love being a blogger! I started blogging a little over a year and a half ago because I LOVE writing! I have always kept a journal since I was a young child. Writing has always been an escape for me, an escape from the thoughts stuck twirling around inside my mind. I have almost every thought documented since the age of eight.
I started out blogging sharing some of my old poetry and writing fun little creative pieces about random things such as lost socks. I was then introduced to some opportunities where I could sample some free products and write reviews about them. I thought this was fun and I got some cool free products in the process. Blogging was still very much a hobby for me.....and then I went to my first blogging conference!
I love attending blogging conferences! I mean what is there not to love!? You get treated like royalty at fancy places all over the US. You get to learn so much from very talented people. You walk away with a ton of knowledge and new friends, and don't even get me started on the swag! I have had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful people at the top of their game, leaders of this industry! Everyone is always so very nice and forth coming of their knowledge. Every person I have met at these great events have been very supportive! You make friends and acquaintances, you follow each other on social media sites, it really is like one big blogging family!
I attend these conferences like a big sponge. I am eager to learn! I started taking all the little advice and new found knowledge I had heard and learned, and started trying to apply it to my blog. So here are the thoughts twirling around in my Brain. You need recipes! You need pinnable images on your posts. You need to monetize your blog. Ad placement. Subscription pop ups. Hashtags. Videos. Better picture lighting. I need to invest in a better camera. Do I need to re brand? What is my niche anyway? Am I helping people? What kind of products can I sell? I need to charge more, raise my price. Don't work for free. You are worth it. How is it I get more followers. numbers. numbers. numbers. numbers.....
Some of these women and men make a lot of money at what they do! They have this blogging thing down to a science! How are they so successful? Why? Because their blogs are their passion! They write about what they love! The moment I started writing about bladder leakage just to get paid, I sold myself out! I was no longer writing because I enjoyed it, I was writing to try and keep up. I was trying to make a dollar, rather than just doing what I am passionate about and enjoy. My blog was becoming work that I hated. I was worrying about who liked me and how many followers I could get so I just might get picked for a high paying campaign. It became about money. It became about competition.
Blogging is not easy! It is not a way to sit at home on your butt and make easy money while getting lots of free things. It is not for the weak at heart. There is a lot of applying for campaigns and pitching brands. There is a lot of being turned down. There is a lot of feelings of failure. There are deadlines and contracts. It is a lot of work, which takes a lot of time...and a lot of PASSION. Without passion you have just another forgotten page lost out in the cloud.
This world is driven by the dollar sign. I refuse to sell my self short and cause myself to hate what I am doing any longer. I stepped away for a while to get back on track. Life is not about numbers, or followers. I am not defined by the number of opportunities that pass me by because my numbers don't add up.
I am taking back my blog. I will not work for my blog any longer! My reason, that old wonderful quote that says, "if you choose a job you love, you will never work a day in your life" :)
Thank you for understanding my need to take a step back. I am excited to bring all the things I love back to BuckeyeMomsMeet! Have a beautiful day!
Love! Love! Love! Hope you find your passion again.
ReplyDeleteLove! Love! Love! Hope you find your passion again.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Hun! Never truly lost the passion, just had a major detour. I believe I am back on track and am excited for a new year :)
DeleteI agree! I think it's a common misconception that blogging is easy and sort of a way to just chill at home but I always tell my family I work harder and more hours now than I did when I worked a traditional 9-5!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I think it's so easy to think that the most important thing is to make money and win the best or most opportunities but it ends up taking away from what we love. It's just not possible to tie EVERY opportunity into our lives and no matte how organic we try and make them feel.
ReplyDeleteGood for you to take a break and to decide what is most important to you. I think we all need to take some time to figure out what we really want and then go from there.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I too feel overwhelmed, but while I do love writing my blog, I did make a choice to do it to supplement our household income as well. Having said that, it has not been easy at all. Most nights I am up until midnight, but there are so many aspects of working on my blog that I enjoy, so staying up all night doesn't bother me either.
Yes, it is always nice to step away from the blog every once and a while! You can definitely get burnt out! There are time I want to take a break! I work full time and blog so I am going to be super late every single day to head to work the next day. Its exhausting but I love it!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very insightful post. As someone who also runs a blog, we do need to take a break once in a while as it can get really tiring! But indeed, it really helps to not treat it as a money-making machine since sometimes the sincerity rubs off.
ReplyDeleteI used to review almost everything and then one day I decided never to do that again. It is so hard to write a review about a product I am not passionate about. Now I think about what I want to write about and then I pitch a company. It is so much easier that way for me. I look forward to your comeback. I no longer feel bad for telling a company no or not responding to an e-mail.
ReplyDeleteThere isn't a day that goes by that I don't think the same thoughts or want to write a similar post. It is getting super competitive and some times frustrating but I go back to the basics of the live of the written word.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you need a break! And you are right, blogging isn't easy. I just hit a few blogging conferences this year for the first time (and spoke at a couple) and there is so much to learn!
ReplyDeleteI tell you, God, the Universe, chance (whatever you believe in) puts things in your path right when you need to read them. I needed this because I have been discouraged by the amount (or lack thereof) blog readers I have had at my year and a half of blogging. I love blogging, it has really reawakened my passion for writing but I feel and have felt all the things that you have stated here at some point, I wish there was an easy answer, I am afraid if I step away I may never get those followers i do have back or I may lose the relationships I've created with brands. It's hard to gauge but I wish you the best on your sabbatical.
ReplyDeleteDeep post and you just gave me life! This is an honest blog and I too have fell into the money trap sometimes. Oh I passed that bladder leakage campaign that wasnt for me. Although bloggThere does need to be a balance and I am still learning how to do both while making money and enjoying what I do!
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