My Site Is Up and Running, Plus Some Musings on Blogging and Alpha Males

Well, friends, it looks like my site’s transition went fine. I’m currently learning all the quirks as this new set-up is a bit different from my old one. But it appears that my email subscribers were transferred like they were supposed to, so please, let me know if you are having trouble receiving new posts. Ditto for feedly followers. Update: It looks like many are having issues accessing posts via feed. Sorry! I was told those should be resolved within a day or two.

In the next few days I’ll be working on changing fonts (tried for an hour yesterday and wasn’t able to  figure it out) and doing minor tweaks to the website. If you have any suggestions  on improving blog’s user-friendliness (a word?), don’t hesitate to speak up. I can’t promise I’ll be able to implement it due to my limited knowledge, but I will try.

I hate to say it, but even after three years,  I hardly know what I’m doing! I’m referring to SEO (search engine optimization) as well  as IT side of blogging. I keep telling myself that I need to learn all these stuff in order to compete, but so far, I haven’t found a good way to manufacture time.

Speaking of, I wanted to share some thoughts. When I first started blogging, I saw a few articles saying that having your own site is an excellent form of networking. The blog itself may not make a lot of money (or any, for that matter), but it may open  doors to a career that is totally unrelated to what you are writing about. But I never in a million years  thought it would actually happen to me.

But it did. A few weeks ago I was approached with an offer to work from home, doing something I’ve always been interested in (unrelated to miles and points). The hours would be flexible, and I would make decent money per hour.

Life is so ironic. I used to dream of working in this particular field, but wasn’t sure where to start. Then I got into miles and points blogging, which is an all-consuming task at times, and the job came to me. At first, I thought maybe I could do both. After all, the kids are now in elementary school, so my life isn’t quite so crazy. But the thing is, I have other important weekly commitments which I don’t discuss in my blog. Those take up a huge amount of time.

Sure, I could try to write on weekends, but what about spending quality time with my family? My husband works 50-60 hours per week, and hardly has time to rest. I can’t just ask him to watch the kids while I’m taking care of my multiple projects. Trying to write with kids around? It’s a nightmare. I did it this summer and I’m seriously thinking about taking several months off next year while they are out of school. I found myself aggravated, unable to concentrate because they would interrupt me every five minutes.

Do you sometimes see these images online, portraying stay-at-home-moms happily blogging away with their kids playing on their lap? They are a lie directed at desperate women who want to bring in extra income without leaving home. Usually, those articles are accompanied by a sales pitch to sign up for a blogging course (only $300 or three easy payments of $100!)

Pay it and you’ll be making $1,000 per month in no time, with virtually no effort!!! The reality is much different. Blogging is darn hard and requires commitment. It is NOT for the faint of heart, not if you want to do it long-term and post quality material 7 times per week.

After mulling it over, it was clear that I could only choose one gig. I simply can not handle several jobs, plus other non-paying commitments and still properly take care of my family. After all, isn’t it why I became a SAHM in the first place? To devote more time to my family? I did walk away from a part-time job that paid me $34 per hour, didn’t I?

I could tell that my husband wanted me to dump the blog and do a gig where I can actually make decent money. No more “monkey performing clever tricks for tips,” aka relying on  affiliate commission. No more thinking: “Is this the month where I make $80 in exchange for 80 hours of my time?” No more reading ridiculous rants about how it’s so terrible to have credit card affiliate links, written by selfish individuals who have no clue how much effort goes into running a blog.

I wouldn’t have to transfer my site (and pay money for someone to do it for me), or cover new hosting fees. The blog would become a hobby, a place to rant a few times per month (or year). I could just go for the sure thing  where I would be compensated without worrying about my affiliate company dumping  me for non-performance.

It was a dream gig and I turned it down.

The thing is, I love what I do on this site. Yes, it’s hard sometimes and yes,  I do want to make  money in exchange for all those hours I put into it. And I definitely want to compensate Nancy for all of her hard work and wonderful posts. But in the end, more than anything, I want to write words that matter. Words that can improve someone’s life just a little bit. I want to help  poor families take a vacation that they thought they couldn’t afford.

Obviously, I don’t consider my site to be irreplaceable. In fact, according to traffic and Google search, there is very little demand for my brand of content. It’s a “loser” business no matter how you look at it. Majority in this hobby are simply not interested in what I have to say. But few are.

Right before I got this offer, I received an email from a fellow SAHM. She told me how much she appreciated my posts. That person also said she knew that eventually I may decide that blogging is no longer worth it, but she will be reading for as long as I keep on writing.

So I guess I’ll just keep on writing…for now. Plus, I think this industry is full of Alpha Males and testosterone in general. I consider it my duty to bring balance to the force!

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Click here to view various credit cards and available sign-up bonuses