Lately I have been having a long think about blogging and my blog, whether I wanted to keep it up or not, how I felt about the direction it has been heading in, stuff like that really and yesterday came to the conclusion that I was going to knock it on the head. Not to be attention seeking or so as to have people beg me not to and massage my ego but just because I genuinely felt like I wasn't doing this site justice anymore and was neglecting it. Plus, it takes up a lot of time not just writing the posts but then promoting them on social networking sites. To be a true 'hard-core' blogger and get yourself noticed you really have to put yourself out there, you have to interact with other bloggers, read their work, interact with companies, join up to various blog promoting websites and promote yourself on them, join as many social networking sites as possible to promote your profile as well as writing good, original, imaginative posts that people - your audience - want to read. Lately I have felt that I just can't do that as much.

 

 

 

 

I go to work, then go get dinner, go home and do all the tidying and housework because my husband works much longer hours than me , I cook the dinner then clear up plus now in my spare time I am also making up stock for my online Etsy store that I want to open next year as well as reading parenting and baby bibles cover to cover which is lastly followed by me falling asleep shattered on the sofa at 9pm! I am not complaining, I love my life and am excited to be starting a family and making all these fancy new accessories to sell but unfortunately I am not wonder woman so can't do everything!

 

 

 

 

After a long think yesterday though I realised that the whole reason I started blogging in the first place was because I loved writing and wanted a little place of my own to do that. Stretch my writing skills, share my thoughts on every day life and news and even perhaps keep a bit of a diary about my life. When looking back on very early posts I realised that even the simplest subject was written with such passion because I was enjoying it (and fair enough was off work so had more time to write!). I wanted to go back to that. There are fabulous opportunities out there for bloggers and the blogging community is serious business but because I was working so hard at trying to get myself noticed and worrying my writing or profile wasn't good enough, I lost sight of why I was doing it and therefore lost the enjoyment.

 

 

 

 

So, the long and short of it is I am not leaving the blogging world, far from it but I am putting my blog first and writing for pleasure and pleasure only. I hope to write a book while on maternity leave because imaginative and creative writing is my ultimate favourite type of writing and while blogging helps me fulfil my writing desires, I would so much love to write a whole book and see if I could get it published! If I were endlessly trying to promote my blog 24/7 too I don't think I would ever have time. Plus, being a new mum means I won't always be able to go to every event I am invited to and I normally feel bad when I have to decline an invitation but seeing my blog in this whole new way makes me ok about it. There are plenty of fabulous bloggers I can read about fabulous events through who aren't starting a family (I know some bloggers do have children and I of course am not saying you can't do both I just feel personally that I am unable to). I have already started being really picky about reviews because I don't want to just write review after review on my blog just for the sake of being asked and feel great about that step. I feel my blog and my writing is much more 'true' and I guess 'believable' because of it as in all honesty, I don't want my blog to read like a journalism article or a review site. That is just my preference. I will always still review products or places I like of course, but not about something I would never use / buy.

 

 

 

 

So from now on I am taking the pressure off of myself and writing whenever I feel like it and promoting it as and when I can and enjoying it. If I don't blog for a week then so be it, if I can't get on Twitter for a week to chat with other bloggers then so be it and if I can only promote it once a day not ten then so be that too! I will have more time to think up better posts and more time to interact with other bloggers and read their blogs a bit more because I am not stressing over mine which is lovely. The bloggers I have met both in person and online are wonderful and it is a great community so it will be nice to have a bit more time to interact with them all properly again!