Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes…

Changes

Ch-ch-ch-changes…That song never fails to run through my head when someone says “changes”.

 I know, I’ve been missing in action lately. I took a break. I needed it. I was having a mini-meltdown over trying to blog and accomplish things in real life, and keep my perspective about this whole blogging thing. I was feeling uninspired and worn out. Projects have come to a screeching halt. My house was beginning to look like a thrift store with all the stuff I was buying for future posts, but had no place for in the house. I was slowly losing my mojo and my love for blogging.

As a blogger, I needed time to to decide if I was going to keep the blog going. And whether I was going to try and make money off my blog, or just keep it going for fun. And although that doesn’t seem like a big decision – I mean yes or no, right? – it is. It determines how I blog, how much I blog, what I focus on (social networks, promotion, etc) and how much time I will let it take up in my life. I decided to keep blogging (yay!) but to do it for me, and for you, my readers.

Let me explain… Since I am a blog reader, like you, I found that some of the blogs I once read because they had cool ideas, and interesting families and great adventures, were now blurring together in my mind. They lost their voice, the thing that makes them special or interesting. Before, when I read them, I wanted to know what was going on with them, around their house, with their kids, etc… Not in a stalker kind of way, but in a blogosphere friend kind of way.  I wasn’t really interested in what they had to say about (insert product name here)  and how it was life changing for them (and the other 30 bloggers that were doing the same campaign) – unless it really was. And as a reader, we can totally tell the difference, right?! I felt like I was constantly being sold something, and that just wasn’t my thing.

I have worked with a few great brands, who have been so fabulous to supply me with products that I’ve loved. But more and more, I was getting offers from brands I couldn’t recommend or didn’t have luck with. And rather than tell you what my experience was, I just didn’t blog about it. And when I did find something that worked for me, I always felt like people would think I was saying the good things about the product because they were sponsoring the post.

And as someone whose blog is about what I’ve found on Pinterest – well, let’s just say that I’ve almost hit complete burnout status there too. It seems so overrun with spammy pins, people stealing other people’s work/ideas/photos, and just way too any amazing ideas for one person to really appreciate. I was trying to come up with new ideas that would inspire you, and what ended up happening is that I always felt I was falling short. I felt like a loser when my posts would fall flat, or wouldn’t receive any comments or “likes”.

Speaking of “likes”, don’t get me started about reaching readers on Facebook! I think my reach is about 12 on every post. It’s hard to put energy into something that seems like it will never give anything back. And regarding Twitter and Google+, well, they don’t do much for my readership either.

There are some bloggers who blog for a living. They depend on the money their blog will bring in. They work their arses off to create amazing projects and take beautiful pictures and write amazing prose about said projects – and then they promote the devil out of them. I don’t have that fire in my belly. I do this because I liked sharing what I did. Realizing that, I re-evaluated my options and decided to make a few changes.

When I started my blog, I just reported on what I used, and the experiences I had, with different pins from Pinterest. I didn’t have to worry about Big Brands wanting to work with me, or making sure to not offend any of those companies when their product didn’t work. And I think that’s what people liked. So, I’m going back to that kind of blogging.

I’ll write about what I’m doing, pins and projects I’m trying, places we go and products I TRULY find to be fabulous. And maybe a few that I find to be not so great – because I think it’s just as important to know what doesn’t work, as it is to know what does. And although I’ve stopped trolling Pinterest on a daily basis, I do still use it for specific ideas and recipes, so I’ll still include posts about pins I’ve tried and ideas I’m working out, like whether to go with dark wood floors or marble-ish looking tiles for the main part of our house. I’m not sure how often I’ll post, mostly when something interesting is happening over here. Which is often. I mean, come on, have you seen the adorable kittens we are fostering right now?

I’m also thinking that a change of name might be in order. Anyone have any catchy ideas? The best I could come up with was Diary of a Recovering Pinterest Addict. Yeah, not really catchy. Help me!!

I will be keeping the ads on the sides of my blog – it’s all done through a third party. But as for sponsored posts, I’m going to be reeeally picky about who I choose to work with. It might come down to working with only the vendors that I solicit because I’m working on a specific project, not the other way around. For example, if I’m working on the bathroom and need a sink, I might reach out to Moen, who I know has great products, and ask if they would want to work with me. It will save me from trying to come up with a project that is unnecessary in my life right now, like another china cabinet – one can only have so many, right?! I might consider working with sponsors to do some giveaways of products that I love, but I’ll have to think about that.

I want to be able to be proud of the work I do here. I want to go back to the days when it was all for fun. I hope you will still follow along. Sorry this has been so wordy, but I wanted to explain what has been (not) happening over here.

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Thanks for your continued support and readership. It means a lot 🙂

Eliesa