Blogging is hard work but worth it.

*This is a collaborative post sharing why blogging is part of my life and always will be*

This blog is now almost 11 years old and I have been blogging for a long time. It’s almost like my third child, having started writing as a way of getting my feelings out when motherhood felt really really hard and sleep was something other children seemed to do, when mine didn’t.

There are a lot of blogs around these days and there are so many topics and areas covered by many talented writers.

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I think I still fall into the category of Mum blogger and it’s a growing space and many women join the ranks of UK Mummy Bloggers to share about their journey and make a living from blogging successfully.

For me, it’s a mix of loving to write and having my own space on the internet where I can share, and also the privilege of being able to work with some fantastic brands and companies which has meant my family has had some great opportunities and things come our way.

I am not an expert, but if you asked me today, how I work with brands, my top tips would be things I wish I had known when I started out thinking about making my little space a going concern. Sometimes it can be frustrating working with brands or companies but the benefits far outweigh those and if you approach things well, you can succeed. I tend to work partly by looking for opportunities for myself, approaching from the basis that I like a brand or idea and think they would fit for my blog and that our family could promote them well, but I also use some very helpful blogger outreach platforms that help find me work that fits in with blogging life and takes some of the work and effort off me. I have found Get Blogged a particularly helpful place over the past eighteen months. It’s a great space if you are starting out but also if you are keeping your hand in and looking for blogging work, and want to work with people who know blogging, and source companies and pitches for you. It’s worth signing up with platforms like this, and if you work well with them, it’s a reliable way to learn about blogging, put yourself forward for work, and also meet other people in the growing blogging community.

If you are a brand looking to work with a blogger, it’s often easy to pick the same bloggers to promote or work with you but I always say sometimes it’s good to pick smaller bloggers and branch out. I would also say that appearances are not always everything and that choosing a blog that is authentic but not always perfect is often a better way to reach people. I don’t read blogs for perfection, I read them for views on life and for being real.

I would also say to any brand approaching a blogger, particularly a parent blogger, is to remember we are parents and that we juggle a lot. I once had a brand ask me to review something and get work live the day an item they had sent me had arrived. On that particular day, I also had an unwell child and a boiler playing up. I had to be very polite and firm with the PR who was working with me, who didn’t have children that it would take a little longer than that. So expectations need to be realistic. However, I will say that bloggers also need to be reliable and stick to deadlines if at all possible, because that’s important and professional. I won’t take work if I don’t think I can complete it in time.

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My last piece of advice to any brand or PR approaching a blogger is to check the blog before you approach it’s owner to work with them. Get their name right, the title of their blog right. Make sure you have checked their blog. I was approached recently to promote, ahem, adult items. Not something I have ever written about here, or plan to, because we are a family blog (and also my mother in law and Dad read my blog, there are just some things that don’t need to be shared and read by family on the internet) and it can be really frustrating when you are approached bu someone who clearly hasn’t done their research before they contact you.

I love blogging and plan to continue for as long as people want to read what I write. It’s a fun, cathartic but also rewarding career to choose and it’s helped me meet and become a part of a community that I hold dear and value.

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If you asked me what other bloggers I read regularly, these would be a few of my favourite parent blogs to read, when you have of course, had a read of mine…

Emma Reed – sharing family life but she’s also an amazing eco parent blogger.

Make Do and Push – for her wonderful photography and view on parent life

Life as Kim – family, food, real mum life

Mama Prada – Italian, with food, reviews and motherhood

Musings of A Tired Mum – mum life, book reviews, and vegan food.

Blogging has become part of who I am, and part of our life. I am glad that almost 11 years ago, I opened the computer and started writing. I don’t think I thought it would ever last this long, I am glad it did…

Posted in Everything else.

One Comment

  1. It’s funny, I never started out as a blogger but my blog has given me so many opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise 🙂

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