You guys may be aware that I have been sharing my life, thoughts, passions, and struggles on this site for almost 15 years.
Running this site and creating content has changed my life. The intention of this site was never to earn money or to aid my career, however, those two things are exactly what happened. This site propelled my life in a direction which I didn’t know was possible at the time and I could not be more grateful for the opportunities and how it has benefitted me, my family and my career.
For some time, I have been considering whether or not I should continue to run my site.
At face value, I understand that it may look like it doesn’t take much time at all to run a site such as this one. I thought the same thing when I first started. However, I am not the kind of person that can half arse a task. All of a sudden, the small blog, which I thought would be a hobby which I would pick up here and there, began to explode and expand. When I knew that this was something that I enjoyed, I created a five-year plan. I drafted what content I wanted to write at a specific point, and from there, the planning and execution kicked in.
Over the years, what I have gained from my blog has been life-changing. When I initially sat in my bedroom with my old dial-up computer, I never imagined that I would strike global brand deals, earn money, share sponsored content and be gifted some incredible PR. Each time my site reached new heights, the work increased tenfold. The site quickly transitioned from being a hobby into essentially an additional full-time job, which I had to manage around my professional career.
For a long time, I thrived with the extra workload. I think there was a part of me that was incredibly proud to be working full-time and running this site on the side. As a girl who grew up in a household which was incredibly tight on money, I couldn’t believe my luck. It is for that reason that I kept going for so long, punished myself in terms of the hours that I worked and strived to create something that I was proud of.
As time has gone on, blogging has changed. The traffic which I once obtained began to reduce. The advertising and sponsorship deals which I used to obtain have switched over to be allocated to platforms such as TikTok or Instagram. And the levels of engagement that I received from my audience have dwindled. It is a conversation that I have had with many other blogging creators over the years. We have all noticed the change, and we have all tried to fight against it, but ultimately, the landscape of blogging has changed forever and at this stage and I am not sure that we will ever relive the glory days which we once had. How people consume their content has changed.
Even with these changes, for a long time, I decided to continue sharing online. I adore writing; it is one of my great passions, and this site is what has led me to draft my own novels. Aside from that, it was also advanced for my personal and professional career in ways that I never imagined. And for a while, that was fine. I didn’t need the money, the brand deals or even the engagement; I was doing this purely because I enjoyed it.
Years have passed by, and there have been many occasions when I have questioned why I am doing this. I no longer earn which I want it, it takes up a huge chunk of my time, and sometimes posts can fall flat. That is why, for a period, my site was named The Reluctant Blogger, because I was always one click away from deleting my site.
But I stuck at it. Before I knew it, I had quickly passed my 15th anniversary of sharing content online.
There is a part of me that wants to continue running this site forever. However, since becoming a mother for the first time last year, I cannot deny that my heart is elsewhere.
Throughout the first year of motherhood, my husband has given me time to myself to create content and to run this site. However, with each hour that I spend sitting at my laptop, I can no longer see the worth in dedicating my precious free time to my blog. Any free time that I have away from my full-time work, I want to spend making memories and having quality time with my son.
With that said, this will be the final post that I upload to this site. It is not an easy decision for me to make, however, I think that as this has been a recurring thought for quite some time, it is the right decision.
For those of you that visited this site, those of you that have given me work, those of you that have supported me and for the people that have made this experience truly wonderful, I cannot thank you enough.
