This last week I have had a wobble when it comes to my site. Sharing content online has become such a huge part of my life and more than anything else it has become a gateway to my other online freelance opportunities. However, as I sat this week to draft some new posts, I began to wonder why after all this time I am still dedicating so much time and effort to sharing my thoughts, opinions and reviews online with you guys.
More than anything, taking that time to really consider why I share online, I began to wonder if there are other online creators out there who also sit and reconsider things in the same way that I do. The same way I currently am. I hope by sharing this and asking you the question, it may reignite that spark inside me and I may stop questioning, why we blog.
To give you guys some context, this last week I have been on annual leave from work. After working all through COVID and having furloughed staff underneath me, I needed this break. Almost every day this past week, during my week off from my full-time job, I have crawled out of bed at 6am to try and get ahead with my content plan. I grab a drink and then sit at my desk, plan ahead, draft new posts and begin to plan photography shoots. Obviously, if you are a fellow blogger, you will know the work that goes in behind the scenes. My entire week ‘off’ has been consumed by trying to get ahead with my online venture.
Normally, when it is my average working week, I will fit in all of the blog work around my normal 9 to 5 job and it can be back-breaking at times. I write for my blog and upload posts because I love reviewing items, helping people out, and having an outlet where I can write my thoughts and have a discussion. But, I do have to wonder how this is benefitting me at the moment.
I did used to have a blog previously which I had for many years and I loved writing for it. One day I was pretty overwhelmed, and I just deleted it completely on a whim. Even though it was what I needed to do at the time, I did feel like I was missing something in my life and before I knew it, I was starting up another one and starting from scratch. It has been a fight to get it back to where it is today, but I feel like I have gone full circle again and I am right back to where I started, at questioning why I do this and if I should delete it again.
Some people say that we do this to earn money. Granted, the money that I can earn from content can certainly outweigh the negative impacts, however, I find that this depends on how much you value your downtime. As I get older, my downtime is growing increasingly more precious. I would even go as far as to say that the return that I get from my blog is minimal for the amount of effort that I put in. I know that it is not all about return. If it is good for your mental well-being and it gives you something to do, but I work hard in my life to see something for it and with my blog, the amount that I get from AdSense is barely enough to justify what I am spending on items to review, I then have to do my tax returns and it is just a whole effort.
I guess that with this blog post I just wanted to know what you guys think. Why do you have your blog? How long do you see yourself blogging for? Have you ever thought about closing it all down and recouping your free time again? For you do you write and share online for the love of it, or do you have an expectation on the level of return that you expect?
