It’s been about 6 months since I committed to my decision of shedding the book blog label and becoming more of a ~lifestyle~ blog (aka really a mismash of books, motherhood, and other stuff). I kind of wanted to sit down and talk about what it’s been like for me!
What Has Been Great
1. I feel free: I always did let myself talk about other stuff even as a book blogger but always in the back of my mind I felt like TOO much other stuff didn’t “fit” and the focus of my niche was books. I have felt free to talk about WHATEVER I want. I feel like it helped me a lot when Riley was very little because I NEEDED an outlet to really begin finding myself as a mom and working through some stuff.
2. I have loved connecting with some long time readers on a different level: What has been amazing has been talking motherhood and other topics with readers who I already knew or those who came out of the woodwork saying they’ve read my blog and it’s the first time they are commenting. I have LOVED talking books and the bookworm life with y’all but it’s been great finding other ways to connect and starting to talk to people who I hadn’t really before because of the ways we’ve connected.
3. I’ve felt supported: I have felt so, so supported in this shift in focus of my blog. I love that so many of you, even if you aren’t into the motherhood stuff, are still here and engaging with me. I have felt SO supported when sharing some of this more vulnerable stuff when it comes to motherhood and I truly feel like the dialogue I’ve had with SO MANY WOMEN here on the blog and on my blog Instagram has been life-changing. Some of the harder feelings I’ve felt during this motherhood journey, where I’ve felt SO ALONE, were able to be worked through thanks to so many women saying “OMG ME TOO. You aren’t alone.” Especially when, through the grapevine, you hear that someone has been saying you are too negative about motherhood. Sharing my journey and hearing that I’m not alone in some of these other things that people don’t talk about, that sometimes feel icky to say out loud, have made me feel so supported through some of these harder moments.
4. I feel invigorated: I really was on autopilot on the blog for the past couple years. I loved what I built her but I wasn’t feeling excited and that SPARK. I feel invigorated when it comes to learning and growing again and discovering new things to use that have helped me grow (you can see some of those things in this blogging essentials post where I talk about some of those new must haves for me). I feel invigorated when it comes to creating and I have so many ideas running through my head which feels great since, after almost 8 years of blogging about books and book-related things, that I felt like the well was running pretty dry.
5. I’ve loved exploring other topics: Before I had Riley I wrote about how I didn’t want to really talk motherhood and WHAT DO YOU KNOW…I am really enjoying talking about it. It’s just what is flowing right now. I have loved being able to finally feel free to talk about things like beauty and fashion. I have so many other topics I want to explore and that are in the works and I’m excited. It feels exciting to have many larger topics I can pull from to talk about.
The Struggles
1. I feel like I’m still thinking like a book blogger: I have a million of OTHER ideas but the content that comes most easy to me is book stuff. But I don’t want to write about just book stuff. I think a lot of this is HABIT — I’ve done THIS for 8 years. It’s hard to switch gears and it’s EASY to do what I’ve always done and sometimes I think I fall back on what I know best and that’s book content — because I love it and it’s easy for me. I realize with Instagram I was so used to thinking of ONLY posting book pictures that I’m having such a hard time coming up with OTHER content. Like what do I do if I’m not posting a book?? lol I need to remember to step out of my comfort zone because I AM so happy talking about the other stuff, too. I need to get out of a book blogger mindset but that’s HARD when most of my audience is the book community and I still not as confident posting that “other” stuff because the majority of my current audience probably doesn’t CARE about my favorite things for Riley in 3-6 month age range.
2. Old but new: It’s SUCH a weird feeling to have blogged for 8 years and then change direction and have that new kid feeling. I’m trying to find a new audience for the OTHER stuff I’m posting about but I’m like OH GOD HERE I AM STARTING OVER AGAIN. I forget the hustle it takes in the beginning. It’s a lot of work and I feel like a new kid trying to gain readers to this new content. The silver lining for me is that I DO have lovely readers who are interacting with me unlike feeling like I’m just talking to myself. Starting over again is hard nonetheless.
3. Break-ups are hard: I feel this mostly on Instagram because you can SEE a number but, even though I know I’m not entitled to anybody following me (and that people unfollow for a VARIETY of reasons like self-care which I agree with), it does hurt a little bit to see how quickly the unfollowing happened as soon as I started posting other stuff especially mom stuff. And like in my LOGICAL brain it’s like “okay they came here for book posts so DUH maybe they aren’t into motherhood or whatever” but the very emotional PLEASE LIKE ME OH GOD I’M SO BORING NOW WHAT WAS I THINKING part of my brain doesn’t get this. I know that, at the end of the day, it’s better if the people who don’t want to be a part of my community anymore simply aren’t and I can bring in people who ARE here for what I’m all about now. But whew those growing pains are rough.
4. Identity Crisis: I feel like my blog has no focus now. It feels scattered and I don’t know WHO I’m trying to attract to my blog. Before it was really easy to picture my ideal blog reader — someone, probably a woman, who loved books and wanted to connect with someone to get recommendations, talk about bookish things and more. Now? It’s really hard to picture an ideal blog reader when I’m talking about things so vastly different from one another. I’m in a blogging mastermind type group right now and their ideal reader and who they are trying to help is so clear and concise — things like “I want to help women juggling a busy family learn how to meal plan and provide quick and easy meals” or “I want to empower female solo travelers” etc. I’m like BIG QUESTION MARK IDK??? I don’t want moms to be my focus. I don’t want book lovers to be my focus. I feel like I have no clarity. I always hear “niche down” and now I see why…easier to attract exactly who you want to find your blog. I’m all over the place.
5. Nothing ~new~ to see here: As I’ve been delving into these new topics and have been feeling excited about them, there has been this “who cares what I have to say about this” feeling. Like I keep thinking “oh there’s a million posts about what you need for your newborn so why does anyone care what I have to say on the topic.” I mean, I KNOW you could say that about anything but I never really felt like that about book-related topic and book reviews. Like theses topics are all so new to me and I’m excited to write about them but then I realize I’m like 1 out of 5 million bloggers to talk about them. The book world felt a little smaller at least.
What I Plan To Work On
1. Finding some clarity and focus: I think that I need to figure out a way to make this all feel cohesive to me rather than chaotic. It’s the big thing that’s been bothering me and maybe it doesn’t see terrible to anyone else but I’d like to hone in on what it is I want to do here. I’ll keep exploring and having fun with different topics but I would like to, even if it’s just for myself, make this feel more TOGETHER in my mind. Basically I need to find my identity again as a blogger. I’m getting there!!
2. Behind the scenes I need to finish my blog redesign. It’s just been at the bottom of my to-do list because it’s all function right now.
3. NEGATIVE SELF TALK: yeah, that needs to stop.
Have you ever changed your blogging focus or direction? Any insights? I’d love insights on it even if you haven’t from a reader perspective!
[Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which means that if you click on a link and purchase something I’ve talked about or recommended, I’ll receive a very small percentage of the sale. Please see my disclosure policy for more info.
Annemieke says
I think you really appeal to the reading mom right now. The ones that have new-borns. The ones that struggle. So I don’t agree that your blog doesn’t have any focus.
Especially when, through the grapevine, you hear that someone has been saying you are too negative about motherhood. <- Who said that and can I kick them for you? It is not true. I think you know that but I just want to say that. You are not too negative about motherhood. You struggled and that is okay. But I've always seen you as someone who is realistic and tried to find the postives in your situation. You love Riley so much and it shines through in your phots and blogs when you talk about her.
Tizzy says
Yes, I totally agree. You are brave enough to ‘keep it real’, Jamie. I really appreciate your honesty about topics that mums feel they can’t talk about because of a stigma.
Erica Robyn says
I love seeing the new direction you’re going in! 🙂 I can’t wait to see where you go from here!
Kristin says
I disagree with the scattered. I’ve read your blog for a long time. I like the new direction. It feels like it’s for the reading mom…the Mom who loves books and reading and is trying to juggle it all. I’m glad you aren’t a parenting…fashion blog but you dabble in both. You are a favorite of mine!
Tizzy says
I’m glad that overall you’ve enjoyed the switch over to becoming a lifestyle orientated blog. I don’t think you should worry so much about having no focus-the vibe I get from this blog is that it’s a place for both mums and non-mums who have a variety of different hobbies, which is most of us, right? I mean, how many of us are just interested in one thing? I like that this blog doesn’t just focus on parenting because I get bored of blogs that don’t acknowledge that I have other interests outside of motherhood. For those that want to narrow the focus to books, motherhood or lifestyle posts, you have a simple navigation at the top that I think really works.Maybe your goal could be something like “I want to empower all women (whether mums or not) to embrace the rich variety that life has to offer’.
Lisa @ Reading, Writing, and Random Musings says
I’m not sure if this is helpful, but I kind of enjoy the variety in posts you’ve been providing. I sometimes feel like I start to skim blogs that always talk about the same things, but I find myself really tuning in to what you are writing because it’s different and I love that!
Emily says
I’m sort of in the same situation… but also not really. I blogged for awhile and it was just a lifestyle blog. Then I switched to BookTube, and now I’m back to blogging and I’m calling it a “writing lifestyle blog.” So I can talk about writing and what I’m reading, but also throw in some general life updates too. It’s been really rough. I never had a HUGE following or anything, but I feel like I’m starting form scratch and it’s hard to get that momentum going.
Amber @ The Literary Phoenix says
Negative self-talk absolutely must stop. 🙂
As a reader (and book blogger… which occasional “other” posts) I actually PREFER to read a book-themed lifestyle blog rather than ALL BOOKS. I think that the people behind the blog really make the content interesting, beyond the subject themselves. Instagram and Twitter followers come and go, but the blog followers tend to stay. Which is lovely. 🙂
Jo says
I’ve never really felt comfortable talking too candidly about my personal life on the internet, I’ve stretched into doing the occasional personal post on my blog but it’s not something I do often. Having said that, four years in, I’m definitely feeling like I need to expand my blog and talk about different things. I had initially intended to talk more about my student life, but my first year of Uni was really hard for me personally and I didn’t necessarily want to tell the internet all about that, and then when things got better, I was just too busy to talk about it! I’m expanding into talking about my writing now, and I’d like to venture into movies and music as well. I definitely get feeling like you want to change things up and your blog felt like it was heading in a lifestyle direction before Riley anyway. I actually started out book blogging four years ago because I saw your blog and thought it was awesome, so keep doing what you’re doing!
Sam@WLABB says
It must be sort of sad to see some of your followers not wanting to grow with you, but your pros are so much bigger than your cons. My co-bloggers have not really been blogging much, and I have been given permission to branch out from YA, but I am afraid to change the focus. I commend you on taking that step you wanted to take, and I hope all your ideas come to fruition.
Alexandra says
Exactly what Tizzy said above!
When I’ve talked about stuff you’ve written on your blog to my Mum, I’ve described you as having a “whole self” focus. As Tizzy mentioned, none of us are just one thing. We all have multiple roles and interests and dreams, and your blog reflects that. Sure, some of your posts (here or on Instagram) won’t connect with some people. But the reality is, even if you were still a book blog and you stuck solely to book reviews & talk, there would be some posts that some of your book blogger readers wouldn’t connect with. Like, back when I was reading a lot more book blogs, if there was, say, a sci-fi review, I probably wouldn’t read it. It didn’t connect with me, even though I was the target audience for the blog. (Maybe I missed out on lots of great sci-fi that way, but I figure by this stage I know what I like and I’m happy with that). And I don’t know if this is helpful, but maybe also something to note…tastes and seasons of life change, so while your content is primarily for now, as you write it, it’s also possible that there are readers for some of your posts who are yet to find/read them, but who will down the track, when that does become relevant for them.
But having said all that, change IS hard, and it’s been a pretty huge year for you, and this is one of the few things you do have complete control over. So it makes sense that your brain would be questioning and second-guessing itself over each decision!
StephTheBookworm says
YES YES! I changed from book blogger to lifestyle blogger in 2013. I have been so happy because book blogging was burning me out and becoming redundant. I’ve had some of the same struggles as you though. I felt like I needed a niche but I’ve never had one and it’s working well for me. I do a combination of daily life posts and more creative personal essays. I talk about everything: motherhood, books, marriage, finances, debt, clutter, home, weight, etc. Sometimes I feel like I’m too all over the place, but in the end, I enjoy the freedom of being able to write what I want to write. It’s been a challenge going from having oodles of book-ish readers to having to kinda start over, but I’ve made some amazing connections and friends and have ZERO regrets. A lot of my book friends have stuck around too, which has been nice.
La La in the Library says
I did try to change my content some. Last year I re-started my music “career” (I’m not going to call it my career yet because I’m still working to get back up to speed with my playing), so I tried doing a Monday Music post with music related book reviews, updates on my musical progress, music tags, and maybe a band suggestion or two; and it flopped. I then added a music section to my Sunday wrap-up post because my guitar tabs and lessons guy has a popular YouTube channel and I was posting a vid of his every week and a progress update for me. Do you know three people actually emailed me to tell me not to have so much music content in my wrap-up posts! That has never happened to me before. It was weird because one of the people who emailed basically only talks about her kids and work in her Sunday posts. Ha ha.
Anyway, I finally cleaned up my unused personal blog and have been posting the music content over there and linking the posts in my wrap up. I don’t think any of my book blog readers even go over because there are never any comments. Oh well. 😏