Breaking the Blogging Rules

Martie Hair, Makeup and Beauty, Sound Off! blogging as a job, blogging for fun, Blogging rules, monetize my blog 19 Comments

This is my blog and I’ll do what I want.

I’m developing an attitude, y’all. Not against people, necessarily, but just against what I’m supposed to do. I’m kind of burned out on “supposed to” at the moment, so I’m breaking the blogging rules and writing what I want!

Take this blog, for example. It’s mine. I own it. I pay yearly for hosting, my domain, and storage to hold the backups. I am an affiliate for Amazon, so I also have a tiny little drop of income to help offset the costs, but most of it comes out of my own pocket. A Hair In My Biscuit belongs to me, but I’ve consistently done nothing with it. Why? Because I got tired of doing what I was “supposed to do” with my own blog. Blogging rules made it not fun anymore.

blogging rules

 

I started blogging because I needed a creative outlet, and it was fun! I was myself, I was silly, I showed off my cooking and my crafts and my hairdos and my drawings, and people read it and I got comments and it was SO MUCH FUN!! I communicated with other bloggers, made some friends, and decided to earn a little money while I was at it. Plus, you know, the whole “I quit my job to be a handmade seller” saga. I needed income! 

Blogging as a Job

That’s when I started learning about how to monetize my blog. Boy howdy, is there a lot of information out there about that! But I found some amazing folks along the way who helped me learn the ropes, and I started working it more like a job. As you can imagine, blogging as a job lost its luster really quickly. I had a little bit of success, but not enough to motivate me to go against what I believed in and change the entire focus of my blog, just to make a buck. I just stopped blogging altogether, and didn’t pay much attention to the little bit of revenue that trickled in from some of my affiliate posts. 

I went back to work, and A Hair in My Biscuit floated around on the internet, patiently waiting for me to nurture it and bring it back to life. For close to 3 years now I have thought about the blog, talked about the blog, but done very little. I’ve gone months without even visiting my own blog, y’all. I didn’t want to write what I was “supposed to” and post when I’m “supposed to” and pay for keyword relevancy tools and make sure I follow all the blogging rules and spend days and days on a blog post. I just wanted to show off my cooking and my crafts and my kids and my hairdos and my silly real life. (I know, I’ve admitted to being a show-off twice now. At least I’m self-aware.)

blogging for fun!

So, guess what? I’m back!  Martie is blogging for fun again! There are some other things I need to get back in my life, too. I still cook, I still make beautiful hair dos, but I haven’t made a craft, drawn a picture, or played my guitar in a loooooooooong time. I’ve had nothing to show off, y’all. Sure, you see my food pics on social media, but it’s just not the same. (Let’s face it, we bloggers like to tell a story when we share a recipe.) I have to work on getting my life back, so I have content worth sharing again. 

I could write a whole saga about 2020 and how it derailed my plans, and I actually have considered it. But quitting all of my favorite hobbies had nothing to do with 2020, and everything to do with losing myself while raising kids, being a wife, and trying to hold down two jobs. It had everything to do with getting my whole existence back on track, finding my joy, and not blaming my lack thereof on any circumstances other than my own mindset. We all know what 2020 brought, and it wasn’t pretty, but I didn’t have to let it get in my head.

If you read this, and you’re happy to see the return of A Hair In My Biscuit, please comment and tell me so. If you want to see more hairstyles, or makeup, or recipes, or less of something, tell me that, too! I’m excited to be back, and I’m planning a life update soon! So much has changed….

X,O,X,O  Martie