What It’s Really Like Writing a Blog

First off, I love writing this blog.  It’s a creative outlet for me, it keeps me in touch with adults and other creative minds while I’m inside with baby, and it’s so much fun hearing from readers.  I spend hours at this thing.  HOURS.  And it’s worth it for me because it’s enjoyable.

I often read other blogs and wonder though, what is their life really like.  What’s blogging really like for them.

So, I’ll respond from my end.

Yes, I do try to paint a positive picture.  I am never lying on this blog but somedays I just want to write a post full of swears and I force myself to look on the positive side of life.  I think this is probably a good exercise to do all the time, in all of life.  It drives me nuts when bloggers portray a totally beautiful perfect life and I think for me it makes their posts a little unbelievable.  I try to find a balance between using this as my personal rant fest and portraying something that makes my readers want to throw up from too much rainbows and unicorns.

Posts come easily to me.  Too easy.  I have a never ending list of ideas and I think that sometimes I shove out posts a little too quickly without really crafting them.

I lack focus.  This is something I am working on very hard.  Somedays I will just think – what the hell did I just do on the computer the last hour.  I need to write myself to-do’s and focus on them.

I compare myself to other bloggers.  This usually creates negativity from my end, as in, ‘what am I doing wrong?’  I am always shocked when I see (what I consider) totally crappy blogs with so many followers.  But then sometimes I see AMAZING blogs with few followers and I realize that what a lot of it comes down to is social media savvy.  I need to work on this.

I don’t love photo editing.  A huge part of blogging these days is visual which means great photos.  I’ve come a long way but taking and editing photos is probably my least favourite part of the process.

Most of my photos are taken on the fly.  I keep my camera in my kitchen and snap when I can.  Most are taken in the bay window (the white background you always see) because the light is good.  There are very few actual set-ups.

I love hearing from readers!  An interesting fact – many of the readers that write to me are actually moving to Montreal and looking for personal recommendations.

I feel that sometimes people forget I am a human being.  I get asked a lot of questions by email and nearly no one ever replies with a thank-you.

I feel self conscious taking photos of myself.  I really don’t feel that I am very photogenic and it feels a bit bizarre to me to post so many pictures of myself on my blog.  I need to really get over that.

I still don’t feel totally comfortable sticking photos of my children on the blog.  I do it because I feel it adds a personal interest to the blog (and it’s easier than taking photos of myself) but sometimes I feel a bit weird about it.

I wonder where it’s all going to go.  I’d like to earn income from my blog but it feels kind of like wanting to win at Wimbledon or be a super model.  There’s actually very few people who earn a living wage from it.  I often wonder how others work it financially to blog full time.  Ideally, I’d like to write content for a company and work on the blog in my free time.  (Anyone hiring?!)

I decline PR requests all the time.  You’d be shocked at how many big multi-million dollar companies want bloggers to work for free, for exposure (which usually turns out to be terrible) or for a coupon worth 40 cents off a can of soup.  It’s pretty depressing.  Having said that, 99% of the time the companies that you are seeing on Roasted are being promoted for free because I love them and feel it’s important to support other entrepreneurs.  Whenever they aren’t, I mention it.

I have met a lot of people through blogging which I’ve actually gone on to make in-person relationships with.

I still feel weird telling people I have a blog.  Even though I spill my life here, for some reason I feel a bit embarrassed promoting it in real life.

I don’t tell you guys everything.  There are just some bits of my life that are private.  I am not an open book.

ps This pic was supposed to be for a post on 5 Essentials Before Heading Out the Door… but I thought it was a crap idea… plus look at my nutso hair!

(Photo credit: above The Author)