When I decided to blog about my everyday life and the wonderful struggles I encountered as a first-time mom, I never thought there would be a whole community of other moms interested in what I had to say.
And that was dangerous.
Dangerous in the sense that I began to lose who I was and why I started my blog.
Once I knew that it was no longer just my family and friends reading my posts, I focused more on the type of content I thought my newfound readers would enjoy, and not once did I think about what my audience really came to see on my blog.
Getting Back On Track
When I gave up trying to create a brand for myself — selling ads, t-shirts, etc. — I knew there was more to this blogging adventure that I really needed to explore.
But first, I needed to regain focus. I needed to remember what led me to blog about motherhood.
The answer was family.
Whenever I think back to those first blog posts I shared, I recall all the feelings I went through.
Hitting publish is scary, more so when you’re starting out. You question whether you crossed your T’s and dotted your I’s several times beforehand. You wonder if your message will reach the right people.
And it did.
No matter how boring those posts may have been, they were read by the people who matter the most.
Finding What Works
With research (and lots of chatting with other bloggers) I discovered my voice. A better understanding as to why I was getting followers came to mind.
Even when I would almost fall back into the salesman mentality, I tell myself to think of blogging as the way NPR tells their news:
They’re informative, and have earned the right to advertise to their audience because they provide their readers with the type of content they want to read.
And that’s when I look for new ways to reinvent myself.
The blogosphere is always changing. There’s always a new platform to promote your work, and so many innovative ways to do it. Research is key, but so is creativity.
To help me stay focused, I often do the following:
1. I jot down ideas.
Whether I decide to go through with an idea or not, I rather write them down. This way, I have something to come back to while I go off and focus on my family.
2. I plan to attend events.
I’ve always been a sucker for events that include everyone. I never like to leave anyone out, and that’s why I always like to look up things for our whole family to try.
Attending family events makes it easier to just focus 100% on my family, snap a couple of photos for my blog and put my phone away.
3. I work with brands who value my time.
You will run into companies and people who will want you to jump through hoops for less than what your time is worth.
Don’t waste your time, even if you desperately need the cash, it’s better to say “no thank you” than to deal with the headaches.
4. I always take time to just get away from it all.
Being able to blog from anywhere and everywhere through the use of my smartphone has been a challenge. But after months of doing it, I’ve learned to balance my time with family and the time I dedicate to blogging.
You have to balance more for family because if you don’t you’ll be missing out on important things, like family time.
Good ole quality family time.
6 responses to “4 Ways I Place Family First, Always”
I think every blogger goes through a time where they lose their original focus for a bit, I know it happened for me. There is SO many people out there, telling you what you 'could' be doing or 'should' be doing, but what works for others wont always work for you. Once I realized that, blogging became fun again. But it is always a bit hard not to compare.. I am always working on that! ๐
Yes! I have more fun just sharing my day-to-day than forcing myself to write out a recipe or my thoughts on something. It has to come natural for me to work with a brand.
Slowly, everything is falling into place with my blog.
Basically everything Lauren said. I remember when Ruffles talked about finding your Target audience. When I finally narrowed down who I was writing to, I have felt so much better about the content I put out there. I will never be a big name blog and I'm okay with that. I have an amazing group of women around me who support me and that's who I write to. My family comes before them, though and that is always okay. No apologies.
Exactly. You have to realize who you're hoping to attract. And yes, your support system is all that matters.
Great post! I agree with the fabulous WorkingMomMagic and Jules Ruud above ๐ We all go through moments when we loose focus and have to find our way again. For me, I always fall into the trap of trying to do it ALL! I have so many ideas, so many things I want to learn and try and whenever I start feeling like I'm trying to win the rat race I know I have to take a step back. I'll often say to myself "I am my own boss". I don't have to do what others are doing. I don't even have to do what others might ask me to do. I can make my own rules! I find that taking a step back and just focusing on my family helps me too! So I might only have one blog post up this week or maybe I'll skip a week. That's fine, cause family is #1 in my book! ๐
I agree. I would go through a major meltdown when I didn't post at least once a week. I felt I was letting myself down. As a blogger, we work hard to gain our following. It's important to let our readers know we're human and need a break.