Posted by How to on Tuesday, June 2, 2015
KBG asked:
What is your vision for the blog? Is it still a place to share your thoughts, or do you hope to grow it into a more commercial model? Do you think there is a business in the art of living well?
Hi KBG, and thanks for your great question. When I first started my blog it was simply a blog. I didn�t have advertisements and I turned down emails wanting me to do commercial posts (not that there were tons of those but I didn�t want any). I would tell them �it�s my hobby, so thanks but no thanks�.
One of my very favourite blogs from the early days went from being a place of feminine inspiration to one now that is barely recognisable. Every single post is a sponsored one and it isn�t fun to read anymore and I knew I didn�t want to end up like that.
I am the Queen of Black and White Thinking though so I obviously thought I could have a blog like I do, or do what this other lady did. And she is making a good living for her family so I admire her for that. But the place in the middle of Black and White � Grey, is where I am now. I have to keep reminding myself (in many areas of my life) that the middle ground is a calming place to be.
I�m enjoying keeping my blog as my own space, and also testing the waters of becoming an author. Plus, as you might have noticed, I placed advertisements on my blog starting about a month ago.
So I don�t have a business plan for my blog and I don�t know what sort of commercial model it might lean towards, but I am willing to step further forwards and see where it might go. I love the thought of writing the kinds of books that inspire me such as those by Alexandra Stoddard who has written so well on the art of living beautifully for decades. I have many of her books and treasure them.
Some of the things I was teased for in the past, such as being too dramatic with my daydreams, flowery in my style of living and �too organised� I can amp up and enjoy through my writing. I�ve discovered that the more I am myself, the happier I am, and the higher reads those posts get. When I censored myself for fear of alienating someone, those posts read so dull.
And I know for myself that the blogs I love the most are where the author is being authentically themselves. So that is my plan for this blog. Write more and be myself. Plus be an author. It sounds so simple, and it is. Sometimes I overcomplicate things and then I remember, there is no need to.