Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Just checking in!

Good morning! This is me this morning right before I got up from bed, sent the boys to school and the playground, and had breakfast and devotions alone and in peace.

After my devotions, it was impressed on my heart that I should really blog with a higher purpose. Aside from sharing my life honestly and aside from earning money from it, I also ought to meet the desires of my readers (I'm calling you Loyal Readers from now on!), and that is they want to leave my blog with nuggets of wisdom and inspiration. I struggled with this request before, but I realized shortly thereafter that your request isn't a bad thing. It could possibly help me become a better wife, parent, human being! So let's do it!

Thing is, I'm struggling with blogging. Period.

First, two blogs. Keep both? Keep one? Make an entirely new one? I'm not updating Topaz Horizon regularly anymore. With my life now more focused on motherhood, it's my parenting blog Topaz Mommy that gets updated. It also gets more visits, obviously, and this blog's stats are on the decline. It's still high enough to attract sponsors but the numbers are definitely not up there anymore. I feel sad about this but I don't know what to do.

Second, my life is consumed by parenting so Topaz Mommy is what I enjoy updating. Should I just focus on parenting then and give up lifestyle blogging altogether?

Third, I also used to turn on my computer and just blog here when the writing bug hits me, but now that I'm older, I feel that that isn't wise anymore. I don't want to react to news anymore, to say my opinions while issues are developing. I've realized that many times I don't actually have an opinion because the issue doesn't affect me but because everyone is talking about it on Facebook, I'm forced to think about issues that seriously do not matter to me. What a waste of time and brain cells! And if I blog about my knee-jerk opinions (for page views since what's current will always attract more readers), then what a waste of time and energy, too!

So what does this mean? I don't know haha. I still like writing about current events, especially about entertainment! But then there's also a lot of concern now about images, and that putting credit and linking to source just isn't good enough. (In fact, I am slowly going through both blogs deleting pictures, even posts!, that have images I just grabbed from Google searches.) So if I can't afford to buy images of celebrities, then it's so corny of me if I talk about them and there are no nice photos!

So anyway, a few months ago, I asked on my Topaz Horizon Facebook page what I should do, and my readers said I should just keep one blog. Easier to maintain for me, easier for them to follow. Everyone said to ditch Topaz Mommy and blog about motherhood on Topaz Horizon because motherhood is on my horizon anyway. I'd do that except Topaz Mommy is so high up in the stats game so it doesn't make sense to me to give up the blog with the high stats! My friend, blog coach Martine de Luna, says that shouldn't be a problem. In fact, she says I can even start a new blog—new name, new look, new brand—and trust my Loyal Readers to follow.

I love my Loyal Readers!

Will you follow me when I create a new blog? Yes, when not if. The only thing stopping me is I can't come up with a name!

Then again, I'm so scared!

Anyway, I'm working on it. I'm thinking of a new name, a new look, a logo. I'm talking to someone about migrating all the content of Topaz Horizon and Topaz Mommy to that new blog. I'm also still setting aside money for the great migration and I don't exactly have a budget for that right now.

So no budget means I shouldn't do it haha.

Maybe I can just keep Topaz Horizon and move the Topaz Mommy content here, right?

I can't decide! But definitely I want a new look. Something cleaner yet happier. Wish me luck, Loyal Readers!

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6 comments:

  1. If you do decide to keep both, keep one or make a new one, I would still follow your blog! I love the way you write about your life and your perspective on things. :*

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  2. Maybe miss frances you can come up with a new domain name like francessales.com? then combine both topaz horizon and topaz mommy in the new site and have them redirect to it? :)

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  3. Good luck! And I'll still be following you anways.. :)

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  4. Hi Frances! Don't worry we readers will follow you for sure :) God bless :)

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  5. Migrating everything from Topaz Horizon and Topaz Mommy to a new blog sounds a great idea!!! :) I have been following both ever since you are pregnant with Vito :)

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  6. I'm a late reader and been going through your past posts. I get sad whenever I see a Topaz Mommy post I want to read because I know it's not there anymore. That's the nice thing about ancient blogspot sites that aren't updated anymore. If not taken down, people can still read the old content. Maybe I'll stumble on a post that will tell me why the mommy posts haven't been archived...

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