Celebrating 17 years of blogging!
Happy 17 KERFday!
Today is my blog’s 17th birthday! I was recently on a zoom call and told the person my site was “16 or 17 years old, I lost count.” Afterwards I looked it up – 17 years it is!
Some of you have been following me since those very, very early days. You probably remember bowls of oatmeal with a peanut butter spoon floating on top before I went to my PR job, the RD days when I wrote blog posts between classes, the Great Harvest days, the BERF days.
If you haven’t been around long, check out:
In that 10th anniversary post, I had written 6844 posts. As of today, that number is 7935 posts plus 382,493 comments and 265,000 photos shared. GEEZ!
In honor of 17 years, here are some thoughts / fun facts / reflections about blogging into the teenage years.
17 Years Of Blogging
Variety Is Key
For me, writing about a variety of topics is such a key component of keeping things interesting. Long-time readers know that I go through phases based on what is happening in my life. I went through two big baby phases, plenty of Home Neat Home phases, some entrepreneur phases. What I love most about my blog is that I am not limited to one niche topic. The experts would tell me that is hurting my traffic and they are not wrong. So it’s a good thing maximum traffic is not my end game. But writing about the topics on my mind means I’m writing creatively and not forcing it or getting bored, which I do think creates the best reader experience.
Build A Lifestyle, Not A Company
When I started my blog in 2007, I was only looking for a creative outlet. I had no idea it was possible to make money on the internet, and I scoffed at the idea of doing so when my dad brought up putting ads on my site. (He encouraged me to look into it, and I’m glad I eventually did!) Of course, as time went on, generating income to cover my hosting costs and maybe some groceries became a bit more appealing.
A few years ago I listened to a podcast interview for another blogger who started around the same time as me. In the present time, she had dozens of full-time employees working for her and a fancy office. For a split second I had a twinge of jealousy over how much money her site must be making to support those things, but then I had a fast reality check that going to an office everyday was exactly the lifestyle I didn’t want. What has always been most important to me is to be able to put my creative energy and time into something that could help or inspire others while also earning money to support my family along the way. I am eternally grateful for the flexibility this job offers to let me greet the boys when they get off the bus each day or take a trip when the invitation arises.
Learning to Pivot
Throughout the years I’ve pivoted and branched out in ways I couldn’t have predicted coming. When my ad network contract with Foodbuzz ended. When brand sponsorships moved from blogs to Instagram. When I joined Beautycounter. When I created Digital Clutter and Bloom. When Beautycounter closed. And many more ways. Having diversity of income, platform, and revenue channel means when something is down, something else is often up. Who knows what is next!
Blogging Has Gotten Much More Complicated, But Also Much Easier
A contradictory sentence? Adding the above branches has certainly complicated things. Blog friends and I often reminisce about the days when we “just had to blog” three times a day. There wasn’t all the social media amplification and so on. But in many ways things have gotten so much easier. I used to take all of my photos on a Canon Mark II that I haven’t touched in years now that iPhone cameras are so great. Apps like Asana and YNAB have made tracking tasks and accounting so organized. Canva is the best app/website EVER INVENTED!
Flexibility Is Always Top Priority
Long gone are the days when I would come home from an event and stay up an extra hour to write a post post about it. Since I value flexibility more than anything else, I’m working at least a month ahead on seasonal / evergreen content. And then I write more time sensitive posts the week of or the week after the event. I also have the world’s best virtual assistant, Hillary, who helps me behind the scenes in so many ways, so I am able to take time off to travel or if my kids are sick. (I wrote this post in 2018 when I was thinking about going back into more real-time posting.)
Leaning On Blog Friends
Conversations with other bloggers are always so inspiring. I appreciate Anne, Brittany, and Teri for their willingness to share ideas and resources throughout the years. In the earlier days, I was part of a group called “KABU: Kick Ass Blogger Union” (haha) and we supported one another rather than compete. The best colleagues are open books. We all do things a little bit differently, but we all learn from one another.
Stay True To You
^^ This super corny phrase really does sum up everything about running a blog for almost two decades. At the end of the day, you have to do you. Not everyone is going to like you – and that’s ok! You can’t worry about what other people are doing or force their style onto you. You can’t worry about what the trolls are going to say because anything you do is wrong. You have to be genuinely you.
Thank you
Thank you for following along with our family’s story. Thanks for showing up to read posts, click links, leave comments, and write personal emails and DMs. The times when you have reached out have meant so much to me. Thank you KERF family <3