I have a confession to make, something that I’ve generally kept to myself for the past 21 months: this blog means a lot to me.
I started Beyond Mommying as a way to feel relevant, to share a bit of my parenting experiences and professional experience with the world. I’ve never cared if I make it big or not. I’m not looking for a cult following or hoping to make a living at blogging, I just want to reach other mommies and share a “we’re all on this crazy ride together” mentality.
I try to brush it off as something that I just do for fun and that it isn’t a big deal to me. But that’s not really truthful. The truth is, I write and keep up Beyond Mommying, putting in the time and effort because I like to do it. Because it IS a big deal to me.
I love writing and sharing my stories. I love hearing from my readers and friends. I love knowing that I’ve reached other mommies and hope that I’ve made a difference in their days or even given them hope and encouragement in their lives.
Truthfully, I wouldn’t do it if it didn’t mean a lot to me. I wouldn’t have spent the past 648 days sharing 686 posts and writing over 275,000 words if it didn’t mean something to me.
I wouldn’t spend every morning searching for and uploading pictures to illustrate my words if I didn’t really care.
I wouldn’t spend nearly every nap time (my only down time in a day) writing new posts, updating posts, researching posts, sharing posts and responding to my readers if I didn’t love it.
Beyond Mommying certainly hasn’t made it big, yet. But it has grown significantly over the past 21 months. I reach nearly ten times more people per month now than I did when I started and that’s a pretty awesome feeling. To know that I’m reaching mommies who I don’t know and that I have regular readers I’ve never met is still astounding to me.
But the past two months have not been the best, changes in how some social media sites direct traffic have changed and my daily views are half of what they were this summer.
And I have to admit it’s starting to wear on me and my motivation to put the effort in. It’s easy to write and create when you’re making progress and seeing growth. It’s hard to find the motivation when you’re tired and busy and don’t see the results.
But I DON’T want to let it knock me down. I DON’T want to give up. I DON’T want to slow down.
I want to keep it going because I love it. So maybe you can do me a favor and if YOU love it too, help me keep going. Share it. Pick your favorite post and tell people about it. If I’ve touched you or supported your journey, share it with other mommies who could relate too. If I’ve made a difference in your life,it doesn’t take much for YOU to make a big difference in my life.
I have 5 days to get 20% more views in order to keep October from being my worst month ALL YEAR. Help a mommy out?
While numbers aren’t everything, I totally understand the stress. You need to join as many blogging networks as possible. Mom Central, Mom it Forward, BSM Media, Global Influence, Clever Girls, SITS Girls, Collective Bias, Linqia, etc. Sponsored posts are what increase your reach (and bank account, of course). Also, join some of the Facebook groups that help promote your posts. While asking your readers and friends will help, there’s a greater audience to reach out there! Oh, and one thing that has definitely helped me, is to improve my photography. People like to look at pretty photos :-)
Hope those pointers help!
Thanks so much for the help and advice, Carrie. I already do many of those things but can always do more, time allowing. The hardest part is figuring out where best to spend my limited time as every little thing can take a lot of time!