BLOG LIFE: Starting A Lifestyle Blog Sucks

BLOG_LIFE_starting_blog_suc

Okay, let me clarify.

The idea and thought of starting a lifestyle blog doesn’t suck. Actually, it can be very fun and tap into your creative side. Also, depending on purpose (i.e business and branding), blogs can be very beneficial to your company.

However, the work behind the scenes of actually molding a blog with content, design, and overall management can be very daunting and tedious. That is very true when you have absolutely no clue on how to do anything related to running a blog. Keep up with me, now.

When I bought the domain StainedCouture.com all the way back in 2006, I was not very happy. I was a disgruntled freelance writer and graphic designer who bought the domain to harbor samples of my work for potential graphic design and writing ops. However, I had an abundance of bandwidth left from my hosting which made me decide to create one of those new things that all the kids and millennials (read: recent college graduates and sparkly pre-teens) were making….a blog. Tah dah…Stained Couture was born.

Back then, the majority of the blogs out there were gossip/celebrity news site and fashion and beauty blogs were slowly picking up. Therefore, I wanted to create a website that provide readers with the outfit deets of their favorite celebs and/or similar items and looks. However, I didn’t want to focus on just fashion, but I wanted to do beauty (I’m was a hardcore beauty junkie). So, I decided to ultimately make it a hybrid of fashion and beauty WITHOUT the celebrity twist. A simple fashion and beauty blog and it was my baby.

Just thinking back to all those amateur graphics and self coding looks I created makes me cringe and slowly rock in the fetal position in my chair. We’re talking bright colors, crazy fonts, and sidebars full of garbage. However, at the time, I loved it! It was awesome, because I was able to create, write, and design so many things that I loved and was passionate about….at the time.

Blogging was fun and presented me with so many other opportunities that I didn’t expect, including events, free products, writing for other respected blogs and sites and of course, you can’t forget money. Ah, yes, money.

It took about 6 months for me to get my first ad revenue, which I about $100 for sidebar ad for a month. At that time, that was unexpectedly amazing. Remember, back then, blogging was more about sharing your interests with a community of people that were interested in the same thing. Making money from blogging was barely a thing, let alone expected.  Blogging, in it’s purest form was for the love of loving things, not love of making money. Hey, but I’ve never been one to knock hustles, especially in these internet streets.

However, once people starting finding out you could make money by writing about your new overpriced mascara or the ‘it’ socialite on the scene, blogs and bloggers were everywhere. Therefore, the content and creativity started to get diluted and it ultimately became really hard to come up with fresh content. Eventually, I, like most bloggers lost the passion and interest. Bloggers started to abandon their blogs or move on to create other blogs are become professional bloggers for corporations and brands…including yours truly.

My life away from my blog got a little hectic. I had a full-time job (a real salaried job with benefits and direct deposits) and even stumbled into a few relationship (Hey!!!), which lead to less blogging and more blabbing about how I was creatively drained. Then there was family problems and issues that completely rocked my world off it’s axle.

Now, that I’m single (it’s complicated. TMI.) and I’m looking for a new job (4 years can go burn you out), I’m starting to tap into my creative side and get a passionate about life and new things and the desire to share them online. Therefore, I’m starting to explore blogging again and I have so many ideas in the pot and it’s beginning to bubble over.

Also, I’m reeducating myself about the management and business of blogging and it’s so interesting. I’m anxious. I’m excited. I can’t wait, because, once again, I don’t think that blogging sucks.

Stay Stylish!

 

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