My Blogging Silence

As most of you know, I started blogging regularly again early this spring. I un-earthed my old "A Journey Thru Pictures" blog that I had started in 2012 when my main focus was to use blogging as a way to share my life with family, and maybe some friends, too. (I think it was just my family that read my blog back then, though.) I blogged using a lot of photos of the adventures and trips that I went on, photos of everyday life such as going climbing, snow-boarding, food I made, my great hauls from the "Bountiful Baskets" produce co-op, and just life in general sometimes. One of the things I had been working on was documenting my photos and experience in Australia on the blog. After a few years, though, I started slacking on the blog. I went back to college to get my bachelor's degree and I did not maintain blogging as a high priority. So it was pretty close to silent for a while, although I did manage a random blog post here and there.

After I finished my online degree, I tried to resume the blog and kind of succeeded. For a little while. I think it was mostly blog posts about our new house that we had bought, remodeling it, painting it, discussing ideas for it, and not so much about travel or fun outing experiences. And then we had Little Pumpkin. That in itself seems like a good excuse for blog silence. And then we moved. And I did not do anything on my blog for over a year.

I'm not exactly sure what made me un-earth my old, silent, "A Journey Thru Pictures" blog earlier this year. Maybe I was looking for some purpose to my life. I think a part of it, though, was to start back into it and see if I could take it in a direction in which I could garner a part-time (or
more) income. Other people make money blogging, so it has to be possible. Right? I had some biggish plans for the blog, as far as blog posts and how to get my blog more "out there." I began researching professional blogging, how to monetize a blog, how to publicize a blog, how much it costs to blog, etc. And, I learned some things. Then I got a part-time job in retail.

I tried fairly hard to maintain regular blog postings after starting work. Some weeks I think I did pretty well. But after a while, with being part "stay-at-home-parent/wife/chief-cook-and-bottle-washer/maintenance-man" and working 25ish hours a week elsewhere, I pretty much was only doing "Review" blog posts. Whether it was reviews on recipes, products, or books, that was pretty much all I was getting done on my blog. And that wasn't quite what I thought I wanted my blog to be solely about.

Then August came and we had our two full weeks of guests, along with our lovely sewer issues, and I decided to not try and blog during that time. And, that time turned into the entire month of August. And then into September. During that time, though, I was still researching the whole "monetize your blog" idea, and trying to pinpoint what I wanted my blog to be about. A few things I have discovered is that the common ways blogs make money is through running ads on their blogs. You know, those annoying ads in the middle of the text, or that pop up on the screen while you're trying to read, or that cover the side and bottom bars of your screen. Personally, I don't like having that happen and it deters me from visiting that blog. So I don't think I'll be monetizing my blog via AdSense, or whatever those ad running applications are called. I want my blog to be something people enjoy reading, perusing, and come back to, and I want it to be real and authentic to me.

Some other things that I did figure out is that I want to purchase my domain name and have a more "professional" looking blog site. (I've been researching that quite a bit.) I've also been feeling like my blog name, "A Journey Thru Pictures," is not really that relevant to my blog anymore. We, or I, don't travel like I used to, and I don't take near as many photos as I once did. With that being said, I've been trying to come up with a relevant blog name, or title, that is also available as a domain name. I have polled my family, and some friends, and gotten some ideas, but nothing official as of yet.

As for my blog "purpose?" I'm still not sure about it. I know I want to have the freedom to write about a broad spectrum of topics, or thoughts, as I think of them. But, I have also really enjoyed doing recipe reviews (we're trying a lot of new recipes with this!), book reviews (it's forcing me to take the time to read books again, and I enjoy reading, so...), and product reviews (I just think it's kind of interesting). I still want to include lots of photos, as I personally like looking at photos, whether it's my photos or someone else's photos, but not all of my blog posts have photos anymore. And, I still want to try and generate an income from this in some way without losing my ability to be real and authentic. (I recently read a blog post about "How to make money blogging without selling your soul," or something like that.) I have not figured out exactly how I might end up making this work, but a few methods that I believe I can be fully OK with are:

• selling ad space on my blog to businesses that I am comfortable with promoting
• getting reimbursed for product and book reviews
• creating something that people would want to buy

Also, when I finally take the leap and get my own domain name, look for an update letting you know to where my blog has moved. I will provide the web address, for sure, and my goal is to take every blog post from this current, free blog over to my new one. It looks like that may be a lengthy process, so bear with me when that happens.

I've shared all of this to try and explain why my blog is sporadic these days, just in case you are a faithful reader. And, to ask for input from you all. You are the ones reading my blog- what are things you like and don't like about it? Do you have any blog name/title suggestions? Is there a specific marketing niche I haven't thought of for monetizing a blog? Is there a specific blogging niche that you think I would be great at? 

Feel free to comment below, or on Facebook, with your thoughts. I look forwards to reading them!