You guys… I am blown away. I received SO many responses and so much wonderful feedback after my reader survey last Wednesday. This blog has certainly had it’s ups and downs and good and bad times. Sometimes I’m completely overwhelmed with sponsored posts and sometimes I don’t have any at all. Sometimes I have so many c/o items that I dread posting about them and it becomes work. Sometimes I’m excited to hit publish and sometimes I’m afraid to. But my biggest concern? That if I talk about myself and my life, no one will read.
Over the course of the years, blogging has changed significantly. I began to hear that personal posts were on the outs and that if I did them, I wouldn’t captivate my audience. That no one cared to hear about my day-to-day life or my kids. That if I wanted to be a “successful” blogger, I needed to solve a problem for people. Not just share about my life.
So I believed that. I began most of my posts with a “pinnable” image because that’s where I was told people were getting all of their traffic from…Pinterest. I did more fashion posts because I love fashion and styling, but never wanted it to be like “look at me and what I’m wearing, k bye”; I’ve always tried to incorporate them in what I was doing/what was going on at the time. I wanted to share my love for it without only talking about that.
I began talking and showing less about my kids because it scared me to share so much about them on the internet. I watched other women have pictures of their kids stolen and that scared the living crap out of me.
The responses in my survey really made me realize who a large chunk of my audience is and what they like. You guys made me feel so great; a lot of you mentioned my honesty, realness, openness, and ability to tell it like it is without sugar coating things. Some of you mentioned too many sponsored posts and I promise, I try and keep a balance. As a military family, it makes it really hard to get a job outside of the home when my husband’s job is so unpredictable. He gets called in at the drop of a dime and these sponsored posts help supplement our income since I can’t work. And trust me, a military income is a complete joke.
I learned that a lot of you do care about my life. You miss seeing my kids and knowing what our family is up to. So many of you said you would love to see more posts about my life, family, and parenting. That it helps to be able to relate to someone else who is riding the Hot Mess Express too (no one really said that but I know some of you were thinking it…;)). But you guys gave me insight to why so many of you have been around here for so long and why so many of you read my blog on a daily basis. Some of you said you feel like I’m your BFF and that I’m talking to you rather than at you. That you’ve never talked to me or emailed me but that you feel like you could come to me for advice. Do you know how that makes a girl feel? Good. Damn good.
I never want this place to feel forced. I think we can all tell when bloggers are writing “because they have to” or “because they have a post due”. I’ve been there. It’s no fun, and it’s certainly not fun to hear people don’t like it. But that’s the truth. If I see a sponsored post I’m not interested in, I skip over it. But when they start to become more frequent and I’m skipping over that blog time and time again, I’m going to stop checking back. So I get it, trust me. And I promise this place will never be like that.
I’ve turned down plenty of opportunities because they weren’t things I felt were interesting enough to share. They weren’t things you guys would care about or fit in with my niche. So I can promise you that anything I write about it something I’m interested in learning about; I don’t always know if I’ll like it or hate it or if it’s silly or not until after I use it. So sometimes yes, I wish I could leave some sponsored content off this place. But once I accept it, I can’t. So please know if it’s something I can leave off here I will. But I will always be honest with you and won’t ever say I like something when I don’t. I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me so I would never do it to you.
This survey helped me learn a lot about who I’m reaching everyday. It made me sit down and think about what I really want this place to be.
I want it to be a creative outlet. As a mom I’m sometimes the last person I take care of. This blog helps me stay on top of that with fashion and beauty posts because it’s something I enjoy and have a passion for. However it will always be affordable and relatable fashion and something I would actually wear.
I want it to be a place where I can share about our day-to-day experiences and document our lives. My kids are growing SO quickly and I want to find a way to write about them where I feel comfortable yet still get to share them with you. My hope in doing so is that you can relate to the ups and downs of life. No one’s life is perfect and why should I only share the good things? It’s easier to face the bad knowing you’re not the only one.
I want it to be a place where I can talk to other women. Relate to the good, the bad, the real. No one is perfect and we shouldn’t have to pretend it is. Meeting and getting to know other women in this community has been such a blessing over the years and I want to maintain those relationships and form new ones.
I want to supplement our income without bombarding you with sponsored posts. My intention is never to be a saleswoman but rather incorporate the content into relatable topics. I want you to read it and know it’s something I would have written on my own regardless of whether or not it was sponsored. A lot of the time I save sponsored content for later in the afternoon so if you don’t want to read it, please just skip over it. Like I said, my husband’s job is very unpredictable and because of it, I am unable to work outside the home. There have been times when my income has helped keep our family afloat and because of that, it’s really important to me. I appreciate your understanding and willingness to support me… it means more than you know.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so supportive. For being honest and real with me and letting me know how to improve this place. I’m certainly not perfect and neither is this blog. But with the help of amazing readers and a support system, I can only go up from here
