Welcome, Life Update, and Why I Quit My Other Blog
Welcome! I'm glad you're here. If you are reading this first post, I guess that means you've found your way here from my other blog. I feel as though I owe you an explanation for why I'm no longer blogging there.
But first, a bit of an explanation on my absenteeism in general. Quite a few weeks ago, my husband was in the hospital over night because of complications with his asthma. The following week, my youngest was hospitalized for several days with pneumonia. In addition to those things, we've had several vehicle breakdowns, a temporary decrease in income, a camping trip, several family get togethers, and we began out new homeschool year. So, while the thought of blogging often crossed my mind, I just wasn't able to make it happen. Now that I am able to begin to devote some time to writing again, I won't be going back to the old blog.
It's not JUST about money, but it is about money. When I started sweetsimplicitymom.com, I spent money to do it. To be honest, it was money we didn't really have available to spend on such frivolity. My thought was that I would blog and build up a readership and begin earning money from it. But here's the thing...I don't want my readership to spend money. I did everything I set out to do. I blogged regularly and I increased page views. THe day after I hit 600 views in one day, I applied for adsense and received the instructions on how to install it on my website. They've been in my inbox for months. In the meantime, I've made a little bit of money on eBay and I've thought a lot.
I've thought about my goals, my values, my passions. And I've decided that life is too short to follow someone else's plan...to live out someone else's vision. My goal in blogging isn't to make money anymore. I'd have to push a lot of products and display a lot of ads just to pay for the hosting of a paid website. That is against my values. I want to blog as a way to connect with other women; to encourage them and to be encouraged by them. I want to blog as a way to share what a simple, slower paved life is like. I want to share the joy I find in my passel of kids and my wonderful husband because sometimes it's easy to forget that life isn't about the next purchase or the next vacation....the best of life happens in the everyday moments. When I get a great deal of create something fun with my own hands, I want to share it. But I don't want to make money from sharing my life.
That being said, our family does need to increase our income. I will continue to try to sell some things on eBay. (I've finally broken even and I hope to see a real profit in the coming couple of months). I also plan to reopen my etsy shop. But that's another thing that I'm going to do my way. I've done my research on the perfect formula to sell stuff and make money, but I'm going to sell the things that I enjoy making and I'm going to take photos the way I like, and if it works out, great! If not, at least I'm staying true to myself (and I'll have a head start on Christmas gifts!).
Our family lives a simple life in the mountains of western Maryland. We're not fancy people, but we are abundantly blessed. I hope you will continue to follow along with me here.
But first, a bit of an explanation on my absenteeism in general. Quite a few weeks ago, my husband was in the hospital over night because of complications with his asthma. The following week, my youngest was hospitalized for several days with pneumonia. In addition to those things, we've had several vehicle breakdowns, a temporary decrease in income, a camping trip, several family get togethers, and we began out new homeschool year. So, while the thought of blogging often crossed my mind, I just wasn't able to make it happen. Now that I am able to begin to devote some time to writing again, I won't be going back to the old blog.
It's not JUST about money, but it is about money. When I started sweetsimplicitymom.com, I spent money to do it. To be honest, it was money we didn't really have available to spend on such frivolity. My thought was that I would blog and build up a readership and begin earning money from it. But here's the thing...I don't want my readership to spend money. I did everything I set out to do. I blogged regularly and I increased page views. THe day after I hit 600 views in one day, I applied for adsense and received the instructions on how to install it on my website. They've been in my inbox for months. In the meantime, I've made a little bit of money on eBay and I've thought a lot.
I've thought about my goals, my values, my passions. And I've decided that life is too short to follow someone else's plan...to live out someone else's vision. My goal in blogging isn't to make money anymore. I'd have to push a lot of products and display a lot of ads just to pay for the hosting of a paid website. That is against my values. I want to blog as a way to connect with other women; to encourage them and to be encouraged by them. I want to blog as a way to share what a simple, slower paved life is like. I want to share the joy I find in my passel of kids and my wonderful husband because sometimes it's easy to forget that life isn't about the next purchase or the next vacation....the best of life happens in the everyday moments. When I get a great deal of create something fun with my own hands, I want to share it. But I don't want to make money from sharing my life.
That being said, our family does need to increase our income. I will continue to try to sell some things on eBay. (I've finally broken even and I hope to see a real profit in the coming couple of months). I also plan to reopen my etsy shop. But that's another thing that I'm going to do my way. I've done my research on the perfect formula to sell stuff and make money, but I'm going to sell the things that I enjoy making and I'm going to take photos the way I like, and if it works out, great! If not, at least I'm staying true to myself (and I'll have a head start on Christmas gifts!).
Our family lives a simple life in the mountains of western Maryland. We're not fancy people, but we are abundantly blessed. I hope you will continue to follow along with me here.
I feel the same about blogging. For starters, there are so few bloggers that have consistently good content without all the clutter of ads and overly obviously product endorsements. Secondly, this homeschooling mom of 7 is a full-time job! I do enjoy writing and reading and all sorts of things, but the wife-Mommy gig takes precedence.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can help create a little community of like-minded folks here :)