As my kids get older, I have a lot more free time. I still have a toddler, who needs supervision, but I’m not really doing that much at home. Just sort of watching her and going about my daily chores. Now that the older kids are back at school, I spend her nap time on my iPad, reading, or staring out the window.
All this has made me think maybe I need to be a little busier. That maybe I should try to turn this blog into more of a business. I have never made an effort to promote it, but I start thinking that maybe I should. I begin to wonder how I can increase my traffic, maybe even to a level where I can get significant ad revenue. Maybe I would feel more productive if I could accomplish that.
So I turn to to Pinterest, where I am bombarded with blog income reports, advice on making $100,000 a year while blogging, and how Sally made $300 her first day online.
The advice is always as follows:
- Sign up for web hosting using their affiliate link to this amazing host.
- Promote your posts on social media.
- Ask to join Pinterest group boards and pay for a service to constantly pin your pins.
- Build your email list.
To which I think:
-
- I am fine with this free hosting and I have no idea how to operate a real website
- No one follows me on social media
- I would rather die
- I don’t know what that means.
And then when you look into the site that Pinterest has brought you to, this other blog that has had so much success, it is always about something like “branding”, or “webinars”.
This reminds me of one of my favorite James Howard Kunstler quotes. He is mocking the idea of the post-industrialist economy when he writes: “The townspeople will sell hamburgers to tourists…perhaps these tourists sell hamburgers where they come from…in an endless circle of hamburgers.” He was close. Now is it bloggers, blogging about blogging, to other bloggers.
And after reading all these blogs about blogging, I admit that I do start to feel like a failure. I started this blog as a place to save recipes with my changes to them, like a little online cookbook. I was happy to get one view a day, because I had written it just for me. As I started getting more views, I was happy that (a few) other people liked my writing. But now, because I am not able to sell blogging tips, I feel like maybe I should not be so happy after all. And that is very silly.
So I’ll still be here, thinking and writing, taking mediocre pictures and posting boring recipes. But I am not going to do any of the things that it takes to be successful in the blogging world. This will never be a career for me. My post with a nifty graphic will never come across your Pinterest feed. But I’m very glad you’re here.
Thanks for reading.
I really enjoy your site!! I look at it alot! I live it because it is NOT like the others. It feels like it comes from your heart which touches my heart. You be you! Trying to be like everyone else’s blog, will ruin your blog. I like the Simplicity if your blog fantastic! Keep up it up, dont change. Focus on being a great Momma and wife, that pay off reaps the best rewards!!
Hi! So I actually did find your blog in Pinterest and have been poking around for a few days enjoying a peek into your life. I’ve really enjoyed reading everything. I’ve toyed with the thought of writing a blog for years but all those blogging articles make it look exhausting and as a mother of 7 who is now helping raise 2 grandkids while still raising my youngest I’m already exhausted. Its so nice to read your blog without pop-ups every 2 seconds.
Hi Melanie!
Yes I have definitely changed since I wrote this post. I am trying to grow my blog even though I never really thought I would. I thought about taking this post down but I’m leaving it up because it was true at the time. I took a blogging course from Lisa at Farmhouse on Boone and I highly recommend it if you’re interested.
Thanks for saying hi. ??
I hear you. I like to think that bloggers are the old-school, underground semi-hipsters of the internet. We’re just here to write about Truth. If all of that other stuff (money, social media following) happens, great. But it’s not why we are here!
Right, it’s not like I’m opposed to people who seek that or are successful. And sometimes I think… whatever it was that made you successful, keep doing that, not talking about your page views!
I wrote a post abotu this ages ago. Well… Specifically abotu “shit pro-bloggers tell newbie bloggers they absolutely need in order to monetize their blog, but which they don’t actually need at all”. I can sum it up with the words “it’s all complete bullshit”.
I wonder how much longer it can possibly last before the masses rise up and say please stop it.
Here’s to ad-free modest-scale blogging! I love reading your thoughts!
I love your blog. Here’s to modest ad-free blogging!
Great, I’ve got you down as a yes for my webinar.
But seriously thank you and I love your blog.
I will be at the front of the virtual webinar classroom!
I’m right there with you sister! I strongly dislike going to a blog that is full of ads. I especially dislike blogs that have popups to follow on social media or pinterest. I will almost always exit out without bothering to read the content if I am bombarded with too many distractions. I refuse to monetize my blog, and like you, blog basically for myself. Keep doing what keeps your heart content!
Or the pop ups to sign up for the email list that you can’t even close. Well now I’m just closing the tab.
The title of your blog is Heart’s Content and this post tells me you’re living that out. That’s what is important.
Yes, I am definitely happier in life than in blogging. ????
“Now is it bloggers, blogging about blogging, to other bloggers.” Eugh. It really is!! And there is so much of it out there, and it does make you feel like a failure if you dwell on it. But if you write about what you enjoy and you do it when you want to, and you meet like-minded people, then it’s all good.
So true. I don’t consider the rest of my life a popularity contest, so why this?
This made me giggle. I feel like all I see and hear are constant promises to make me a good writer, blogger, or make my books sell if I’ll only buy or course or webinar for a couple hundred bucks. And all the free ones are is circle talk where you’re guaranteed to find the real secrets of success in the paid course.
I am pretty sure that i will never participate in anything called a webinar.
You’ll be saving yourself a bunch of time!
THANK YOU! I feel like everyone is trying to monetize a blog as some side-gig that they can do from home, but I am intentionally NOT trying to make money, which frees me from the stress and hassle of making blogging into a job. Glad I’m not the only one ????
It’s funny, I don’t mind when people monetize a blog, except when all of the sudden the voice changes and what was so initially appealing about it is lost.