How I Became a Blogger {Part 2}

I began this series yesterday, check out Part 1 here.

Yesterday I talked to you about the how I came to the conclusion that working from home was my only option if I wanted to have the flexibility I needed for my family.

I was determined that I would find something that I could make decent money doing from home, but I struggled with what that things would be.

Years ago I had toyed with the idea of blogging but I really had nothing to offer anyone.  I worked, I hung out with friends, nothing extraordinary.

I have noticed a funny pattern emerge throughout my pregnancies.  When I get pregnant, everything ceases to hold it's place of importance.  I am only Mama.  I lose the ability to form sentences, I become forgetful and writing takes a back seat.  My brain really struggles to function as a person, it only wants to be Mommy. But then, after the birth of each of my children there is a surge of creativity.  I have always been a creative person, but once the Postpartum Depression fog clears and I gain my footing again, I just want to create something.

I looked in to freelance writing when my daughter was 6 months old and decided that I should try it.  I have always been a writer and been good at it (according to any teachers or professors that I had) so I though this might be what I was looking for.

Right after setting my mind to it, I found out I was pregnant with Little Man.  The first trimester kicked my but, as it always does, and gave up for a while.  I focused on caring for Princess and getting through my pregnancy and put writing on hold.  I still researched things and tried to put together a portfolio, but I didn't get anywhere.

The more I looked around, the more I thought that blogging was something I should be doing.  It felt like it kept pulling at me.  I felt like I finally had something to share that maybe others could relate to.  After I had Little Man I had my creative surge and began writing for whoever would let be jump on board.  I joined local blogs and offered my services for free.  Through this I was offered the opportunity to win a free blog design and set up which was exactly what I needed because I had zero website experience at the time - and I won!

In February of 2011 I launched mamaZEN.  It  was a mom blog where I talked about whatever popped into my head.  I wrote about kids stuff, family stuff, couponing, random events in my life, weird science articles that I had read, book reviews (mainly paranormal romances which I adored at the time), etc...

mamaZEN launch in 2011

There was no real focus and I floundered a bit.  I decided that the name mamaZEN didn't fit anymore and I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer/blogger. I already had the domain name WorthingtonLower.com and if felt more professional to be using my real name.

In June of 2012 I met a couple who were right in the middle of major growth with a local website that they had launched for families in our area.  They had a few bloggers on board that filled other niches, but none were family oriented.  After meeting I gave the site some consideration and I contacted them to see if they would be interested in my work and a partnership.  It turned out to be one of my best "business moves," if you can call it that. We are working together now on even bigger things ;)

Worthington Lower in 2012

It was a blessing and a curse when Wordpress fell under attack by hackers in November 2012 and my entire body of work was lost.  It hurts to think about it.  So much time and energy wasted.  Despite my niche-less efforts, I had a decent Google Page rank and I was "out there."

At that point I thought long and hard about whether this was really for me.  I had made limited money and I hadn't created the community that I had heard would build itself around my content.  I didn't feel like I was connecting with readers the way that I should.  I was VERY pregnant with Booboo and feeling the strain of the pregnancy, losing my blog and the impending changes ahead.  I didn't have it in me to start fresh.

I thought about it for about a month and I still felt compelled to write and if I wanted to write I needed a landing pad for people to see who I am.  My blog had become necessary, not just my outlet.  I reopened my blog with a simple layout on Blogger.  I didn't want to write randomly anymore and I didn't want to fill my post schedule with junk just to increase traffic.  I just want to share me and my work.

This was my first post on the "new " blog.

More to come ...

How I Became a Blogger {Part 1}

     

How I Came to Blog {Part 1}

Over the years I have accumulated streams of income in hopes of retiring my main source - the horrible Full Time Job.

I am not there yet.  There is a learning curve.  Times and needs change and you grow with it.

When I was pregnant with Princess, I was outraged.  Outraged by how little I could really be supported so little by our county as an expectant mother.  While other countries that we consider "less" than us offered 9 months or more paid maternity leave, I was left with a measly 6 weeks at 70% pay (and it got worse with each additional pregnancy).  I was terrified of leaving my daughter for the entire day even though she would be with her grandmothers who love her just as much as I do.  At the time was what you may have considered "Crunchier" than I am now.  Attachment parenting was not going to work if I was in an office all day!

I scoured the internet and library looking for solutions to my problem.  I even reached out to women I knew were successfully doing what I wanted (which is way out of my comfort zone!)  I wanted to know what other mothers had done. I couldn't be the only one feeling this way!

Indeed, I was not.  

Many women feel this way when they have a baby, even if it comes by surprise.  But few had answers for me.  Women who needed the second income either gave in  (like I eventually did) and went back to work, made deep sacrifices to stay home with their children (sacrifices that we could not afford to make at the time - or so we thought, anyway...) or they worked from home.

Working from home became my goal.  

But what would I do?  The options seemed very slim.  Other women suggested making things for money. Making what?  I always wanted to have a handmade business, but I couldn't see myself talking a baby with me to never ending craft shows to sell my wares ( I had not yet discovered the brilliance of Etsy or other handmade venues online).  I also thought that the type of money to be made from a business like that was going to be very little.  

Then there are the call center and transcriptionist jobs.  They would be ideal for someone who didn't have a screaming infant and had a quite place to conduct business.  That's wasn't me...that still isn't me.  These jobs can be very lucrative and I definitely think you should look into them if you are looking to make decent hourly wages from home.  It just would not work for me.

If you haven't read about it here before, we share a home with my husband's parents. We are the new multi-generational family type that has come from our suffering economy. It's a nice sized home, but space is quickly dwindling.  When Princess was born we were in the process of converting the office from which the family business was run from into her bedroom that she didn't even live in for almost 2 years.  The business (that my mother and father in law run) headquarters has been shifted to another room downstairs. 

Our bedroom is our bedroom/office/storage/catchall.  When my husbands sister moved out after having Little Man, we moved into that room so that Little Man could have a room to himself.  Now the older two children have their own rooms, we have a room that Booboo shares with us (for now) and my in-laws have a room. 

There isn't much space beyond that that isn't living space.  

We are currently looking at consolidating any storage and extra stuff to see if we can renovate the basement to be storage/office area/ playroom, which would open new possibilities for us, be we are also not a point where we can afford renovation.  

My husband just graduated from college for the second time and is currently interning with a very nice financial company.  The job search is on, but it's tough.  We also have been living off of my small incomes and student loans so we are in a huge transition financially.  It feels like we are always fighting at least one uphill battle.  

We get tired.  

We ARE tired.  

back to the search...

The other option that seemed to float around on forums was creating streams of income for yourself.  But who wants to do that?  Who wants to scatter their talents, time and attention over many different projects? It always sounded so chaotic to me.  I wanted ONE thing that I could focus on and make it work for our family.

I had toyed with the idea of blogging for years.  I had originally considered it in 2006-2007 and I kick myself for not jumping in then.  It is what it is, but bloggers who started before 2009 had a huge advantage and I didn't have kids yet.  I could have poured my heart and soul into it...but what would I have written about? My life is my husband and children and our family.  I would have had nothing to talk to anyone about.  

Things happen the way they do for a reason.

This has been long and turned into a jumble of feelings and explanations.  However, it has lead me to the point I wanted to make all along.  I wanted to tell you how I became a blogger and how it has affected myself and my family.  Good and Bad, because there is both.  Always.

In my next post I will tell you how I became a blogger and I will discuss how that has been a launchpad for other endeavors which also turned in to the dreaded streams of income I was looking to avoid (but it isn't bad like I thought).

{Part 2}