I saw a FB post today from a friend, Nicole, that said something to the effect of “You are a blogger if you write about your life online. But, the more life you are living, the more of an unblogger you become.”
I look back at some of my recent blog posts, and they appear to be sporadic and predominantly sponsored in nature. That is never how I intended for my blog to be. Of course, I do my best to weave my personal story into my sponsored posts, but there has been a general lack of non-sponsored personal storytelling on my behalf. I really began to realize it as I am part of yet another group giveaway and to enter, people have to comment on your blog posts. I can see that people are struggling to find some meat on the bones to comment about.
My life has become so busy, that it seems I only post when I have to, for some obligation or another. I have not had the time to really delve into my writing and telling the story of my life. I do look back though at these past few months and see that I have been doing a whole lotta’ living. I have been expressing myself via social media, especially instagram as of late. People have been following my journey, each trip I take, each event I host or attend. It’s like they are living vicariously through me and the images that I share. Instagram allows me to share things in the moment and move on to continue living and experiencing new moments. It’s almost like blogging lags me down, because I am forced to slow down and craft something. As a perfectionist, slowing myself down, makes things take so much longer to complete because I reiterate my phrasing 500 times before I post.
To be honest, I actually enjoy video. But, I am working on getting the right equipment to be able to vlog professionally. Being that #MyMister is good at graphic design and video editing, I am sure we can combine my spirit of living in the moment, with his craft of visual storytelling, to create better content for my followers to consume. I love sharing my stories, I just need to focus on how to do that more frequently in less time.
I have learned through social measurement tools that I am highly influential when it comes to travel, parents and marketing, so I plan to do more family travel blogging and vlogging. I think that this would be a good path for us to take as a family, as we are all blogging and vlogging now. When I took the passion test, I discovered one of my passions in life was to travel the world with my family and this would be the perfect opportunity to fulfill that passion.
Truth be told, before I even started the mom blog, Eddie and I already agreed that we wanted to travel the world. In fact, one of the things we connected on via my MySpace blog was my survey that said I wanted to travel to Italy. Plus, we are very transient people. Since we have been married, we have lived in 6 places, and we are about to go on 8 years of marriage. Eddie supported my mom blog, because he always felt it would be an opportunity to facilitate us homeschooling the kids. Being that we reside in Florida, our kids can attend public school virtually, meaning we could travel and blog, without affecting their education. In fact, travel would allow us to bring their education to life.
Of course, these are just my inner thoughts on the direction I will be taking in the future in regards to my personal storytelling. It is my effort to make my blog not only fit into my life, but for my blog to facilitate it.
I am not not trying to be rude. I have a daughter that has a popular blog. Maybe it’s my age, I can’t understand why people put it out there for strangers to read, and show their kids too. The way the world is, I don’t know.
Blogging has facilitated so much in my life and my kids have joined in because they tell me they want to be a part of it. I used to never post pictures of my kids, but now they ask me to take their picture and share.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to read this and know that a Blogger is thinking about quality content. I see so many Blogs that are nothing but reviews and contests, nothing else.
I enter contests but I am disappointed that there is nothing else on these blogs to read and enjoy, no substance what so ever.
I think that some of us get so busy that our blogs suffer because we end up posting things that pay us first, rather than things that don’t. But, I do realize that this can also cause our audiences to drop off, which hurts us financially as well. Readers want to read content with substance. They want to feel what you are feeling.
Such a great post, and I understand where you’re coming from. It’s so easy to get caught up on monetizing your blog that you forget why you started writing in the first place. I love to divide my week and I just started posting more times during the day this way if I have a sponsored post, it does not take the place of more personal ones.
I have always enjoyed being more personal in my posts. I hate anything appearing as if I sold out. I write about things that facilitate my life, but I feel that some things should not be sponsored. Some stories should just be ones I write for my readers, and myself. Yes, as professionals, we need to earn money to keep these things going. But, that should not sacrifice the reason we are blogging to begin with.
Heather- I am somewhat new to all this, and have been directed by a giveaway, that is complicated to enter, but now that I started I am trying to support each blogger by leaving a comment. I had never heard of a “vlogger” until your post, and I am thinking that must be blogging about vacations? It does seems that a lot of the bloggers have just started posting things for the sake of getting hits on Top Mommy Bloggers or Klout or whatever. I think that undermines voting for quality blogs. What a strange balance.
Jennifer, Thank you for supporting us bloggers. A “vlog” is a video blog, but I could see how I confused you. Thanks for pointing out that not everyone who reads my blog speaks “bloggerspeak.” As for getting more hits, I believe that it can be so unpredictable what could be a hit. Sometimes, the more you try to make it go viral, the more it fails. Sometimes posts could get a ton of traffic out of the blue, and you had no idea it was going to spread. But, the ones that spread are usually the non-sponsored posts that seem to be more natural and true to the individual’s voice.
As a blogger that does mostly reviews and giveaways I have to say I truly am living while I am doing this. I have frequent people come back. There are dry spots from time to time but I don’t like how some bloggers who are just review and giveaway blogs are looked down on because they do not have all kinds of content that is just their own. In all honesty, the reviews that are written are the bloggers writing about their lives. They’re putting more time and effort into the review posts than anything else. They have to be honest. Reviews are very, very helpful. I rarely write any original content because it’s difficult for me to find my voice and what I would like to post. Every piece of original content I have written (even recently) gets absolutely no views. So it’s not helpful for me in any way. I think those who are reviewers and post all kinds of giveaways with little to no content should be given much more credit.
Heather, I am not trying to discredit you. When you are reviewing the product and putting effort into reviewing it, that is much different than joining a group giveaway and posting some code. Also, I am personally exploring my own blog’s path as I did not get into blogging just to do sponsored content for every posts. I personally find that I get better and more authentic engagement by readers who get to know me beyond the giveaways, etc. The point was that the more life you are living, the harder it might be to create the original content. I was exploring a way to create original content while living my life and financially supporting our family.
You bloggers are great! Keep em coming 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Laura
That’s okey. The most important thing in life is LIVING. Blogging is nice and fun and good for others to read, but you shouldn’t worry that you live and don’t blog about everything. Life is not that long to document your every step.
But still it’s wonderful to read and see what others are doing 🙂
Thanks for your support Eva-Marie
Thanks for the information about your blog. I’ve been wanting to start my own blog, however, I have a million and one questions. I get frustrated when entering a contest on a blog and they direct you to go and make a comment on a non-giveaway post on their blog. I literally have to search and search to find something I did not already comment on before! It takes up a lot of my time searching for something to comment on. I was supposed to comment on a posting tonight under a giveaway, I went to that blog and the first thing listed was from July 2014! I think there is only 1 blog that I go to that there is always something different to comment on! You can do what a lot of these other bloggers do and have someone else type your review for you. I know that I visit the same blogs all the time for their giveaways and I pretty much feel like I actually know them (even though we’ve never met). I don’t mean anything by this, but if the blogger does not have the time to write a review or comment on something that is meaningful to them, my question would be then why blog? I can see that it’s very nice to get products for free and that you have to make money to keep your blog, but if you’re too busy, is it really worth it? Thanks again for all the information you have shared with us! I really do appreciate your honesty! Oh, and speaking of honesty, I have already read reviews in blogs wherein the product they received is the best they’ve ever tried and they will be using this product for a long, long time and then the next time I read a review, it’s almost the same product, however, a different company and they say the exact same thing! It just makes me wonder, that’s all! Thanks again, I appreciate it! Michele 🙂
I like reading blogs! They make me feel not so alone in so many aspects of my life! I have always considered having one just to get my thoughts out there but I honestly never would have time and have so much respect for you blogging mamas who do have time to make us readers feel not so alone!
thank you for writing this. i have a blog i never pay attention to, and i struggle with it, because part of me realyl wants to share my epxeriences and another part is worried i will be experiencing less…
I think there is that struggle amongst many of us Molli.
I really appreciate this article. I know it has to be hard to live your life and blog but some of these articles are so fascinating. I really enjoy reading them. Keep up the good work. God Bless
great post!
Thanks for visiting Rhodalyn!
i am no a blogger, but i dont want my life on the web. you have to worry abt things like jobs, what you say, lawsuits, etc. i do think blogs are hard work though. i spend too much time on the pc now, i am an outside person so i dont think i would like having a blog and having to post things many times a day and write abt my life….writing abt my dogs okay, but not my life
Blogging is not for everyone, but for us it has allowed for so much. In fact, I met my husband on my myspace blog many years ago, so I can’t really speak ill of it.
I too worry about pics of my grand kids and family on any social media. You hear so many horror stories. But to get back to blogging is more than saying something on FB. Some say powerful things on it, but mostly it is just fluff or slamming. Blogging is different. It is harder than most people think to take a stand without saying too much. I give you credit! Thanks for all you do!
Thanks for your support Dee! Yes, blogging is not the same as posting on social media. FB is like a party and your blog is like your home. You don’t take everyone home with you.