Summer here is a time of at home chaos. Our family doesn’t have a lot of money for summer camps for the kids and the one car thing does tend to limit our day trips too. Not to mention how crappy the weather has been. So indeed, summer days have meant me losing my mind once or twice a day as I try to keep everyone busy and engaged for longer than five minutes at a time.
My blogging world has gone to hell.
My inbox is a disaster.
I am not presenting a professional image to prospective clients or review partners.
For that I am sorry.
But YOU try to blog when three kids are trying to tell you three different things at the same time.
This has led me to do a bit of thinking about my social media world. And no, I won’t be giving up blogging. I love it too much as I do the rest of my social media networks. What I am having to do though is really think about what is important to ME when it comes to blogging and networking. Not what is important to others, but me.
I have been working really hard at trying to see how my experiences online can be turned into a career path. Hence my creation of SAHMedia and hence my enthusiasm at networking with all the many career and entrepreneurial women I have met online and off. This has met with some success, but not yet as much as I had hoped.
I have also been thinking about why my blog doesn’t get the same attention as other blogs……yes, there are MANY reasons….I will freely admit that I am not the best writer out there. But I think the main reason is my blog is a bit ‘generic.’ I don’t have a focus. I am not a full on review blogger. I don’t participate in many ‘group mind’ type of blogging like the Wordless Wednesday’s, for example. I am also not a big cause follower. I tend to not leap into the fray of whatever big issue is online at the moment. And I am not a ‘type’ of mom. I don’t fit into a category where other like minded moms can agree with me on whatever stance I may be taking.
Niche blogging tends to give you a nice focused group who will happily read you and link you and so on.
I guess I should have thought more about that.
Mom blogging – as much as it is about personal sharing – is very competitive as there really is only a finite readership. You really do need a ‘tribe’ to keep your blog alive in peoples minds.
I think Crunchy suffers from not having such a tribe. Due to geographics and demographics, I can’t call myself a Vancouver Mom. I live right on the Burnaby/Vancouver border and so the many family and child oriented activities available in Vancouver are either too far away, too young focused for my kids, or too expensive for me. I am also one of the few out there who don’t have childcare. I manage my kids, my work and OUR lives with no help except from the husband or grandmother units.
I am neither young nor hip. I read sci fi which keeps me out of the many mom focused reading groups online. I also tend to not watch The Bachelor or any other reality based shows that people tend to group around.
I don’t bake and I don’t make photo inducing meals to share on my blog either.
Is there a tribe for over 40 slacker moms?
I sure hope so 🙂
Perhaps if I am more focused on sharing ‘me’ on the blog and my issues in a reader worthy way, I will develop my own large and lazy tribe.
In the meantime the only person washed and dressed is the toddler and she is napping so that doesn’t really count.
catriona says
One of the things that drew me to your blog was the fact that you sounded like someone I could relate too – frazzled running about after your kids and not uber-jugemental about things like video games.
Blogs that show baking pictures and serene, picture-perfect houses or co-operative toddlers participating in elaborate crafts do not appeal to me! So I say more “you” on the blog would be a great thing! Product reviews are ok, but I think it’s the personal that draws people back again and again…
Parenting is chaos! 🙂
Dan says
Like catriona said what’s compelling about your blog is that your writing is very illustrative of what appears to be your hectic, never stop running around the house life.
pomomama says
i hear you about the over-40 mum stuff – there is a big difference between over forties mums and the younger crowd, in attitude, fashion and parenting. until i realised it, i was causing myself overmuch angst.
ditto the niche blogging thing too. my blog is firmly ‘niched’ into the mid-forties late-starting expat trailing spouse in therapy mums of singeltons (it’s a huge market – insert eyeroll here). recently it’s morphed into the ‘expat mum goes travels solo with her kid taking in five european capitals’ type of blog – again a huge audience 😉
i still like blogging though. i’m happy when someone stumbles onto it and even leaves a comment. i don’t think i’ll stop
and yes, it’s difficult once school’s out for the summer. hooray for bedtimes
Amber says
I call myself a Vancouver Mom and I live in Coquitlam, so you totally can. But I will admit I don’t do a lot of quintessential “Vancouver” blog posts.
At the same time, my traffic has been steady for about a year. I think that I could do some things to increase it, but my blog is about me so it presents something of a conundrum. Maintaining a sense of the personal, while also attracting hordes of people. I haven’t exactly figured it out, either.
Grace says
I’m from Burnaby and I identify myself as a Vancouver mom, and I’m proud of it.