My 3 Favorite Things about Blogging

I started this blog one day in July in 2010.  It has been a crazy ride since then and I have to say that I really do love blogging.  I do take breaks here and there to get my mojo back but I don't know if I'm ever going to quit blogging.  Social media and an online presence is such a second nature thing now that I don't think I can give any of it up.  I love creating, I love sharing, and I love looking back on this little part of my life from year to year. 

There are three things, though, that I absolutely love about blogging:

Pants are Optional

I don't have to wear pants (or a shirt!) to blog.  I love it.  I love that blogging is a way for me to be myself.  Not only can I share what I want to share, but I can be me behind the screen.  I don't have anyone to impress I just have a voice to express. This may sound weird but I feel like blogging has given me a feeling of empowerment.  People head to this blog and read my voice.  I can choose to share things that are important to me - sometimes it is frivolous things, but I really want to use my blog to voice things I care about.  I've posted before a few things I'd tell my teenage self, and that is about as much as an advocate for anything as I get.  But I want to use my blogging and other social media presence for more.  I am able to use this space as a reflection of me.  And that is the best.

Blogging is not my Income

While that may not seem like something that you'd expect, I love that I don't make a living blogging.  It is a small source of income but it is nothing major.  It is not even enough to keep this blog going.  Because I don't make a significant income blogging, I don't have to worry about creating content on a time line.  I create my content for myself, for my own agenda.  But if I worked with a network or sponsors or anything like that I'd have to create so many odd posts, in such and such amount of time, using such and such links.  I like to have total control over the monetized content I share.  Working with sponsors isn't always like that - deadlines, serious stuff, etc - but if you're trying to bring in X amount of $$ a month to sustain your blog and your life (buy groceries, gas, house payments, etc) there is a lot more to it than just blogging when you feel.  I would love to blog full time but I also know that really isn't for me.  I tried it, loved it, but my life wasn't steady that way.  And I do like predictability and control.  A steady pay check from someone else does that for me.

My Blog Changes with Me

As I change interests my blog can change with me.  I used to want to fight that, but everything changes.  I started this blog to focus on home decor.  I was in college when I started this blog.  How was I going to do anything related to home decor in college?!?!  I grew to be a crafty documentation of my life.  It grew to involve fashion & What I Wore type of posts and now it really doesn't.  I got really into make up so I started posting a lot of make up stuff.  Now I'm really into planning and organizing. So I blog about that.  Somewhere in there I realized this blog was really a reflection of my interests and if I had something to say about a topic, I should say it.  The tag line of my blog is 'living a creative life' and I really feel that I do.  Everyday I try to be creative and I love trying different things.  My favorite part about myself is that I am creative and I want to continue to express this creativity no matter what the topic is.

Blogging has been a big part of my life for the past six years and I hope to keep it going for another six!  I make time to do it as if it is a job because it is rewarding - not monetarily, but in personal growth.  Sharing what I've learned is important to me (like in this post on why I use my blog to teach), I like to connect with others.  I also like to produce content that I'd like to interact with.  I didn't find a lot of videos or blog posts I liked so I thought I'd make my own (and I watch my own content on YouTube...is that weird?)

Anyway, those are the three reasons I love to blog.  It's an expression of me, when it boils down to it, and I love that.

Do you have a blog?  Do you blog for different reasons?

xoxo, Moe