Why I Rebranded My Blog
Two years ago I decided to start blogging; I was blogging for myself with no real goal, purpose, or focus, had little engagement and was writing whatever came to mind without any specific direction. I was in need of a blog overhaul. With only having 7 months left on maternity leave it's now time for me to kick my blogging butt into gear. It’s a little bitter sweet to have to retire what I worked so hard on to accomplish, but I'm very excited for this new venture.
When first started I would write about anything that interested me; anything that came to mind. Now that’s great for keeping more of a personal journal, but not great for establishing a good reader base (other than a few faithful friends and family), so I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted. More recently I've been honing in on finding my niche and learning that to be a successful blogger you have to narrow your field and find your target audience. So with much debate, I've said goodbye to the old and hello to the new. I've changed my mission statement and brand elements (such as colors and fonts) and my blog is already becoming exponentially more successful. I’ve been working on a new website - which should be ready for launch in June - and I have already implemented changes in my posts and social media.
To be a successful blogger you have to narrow your field and find your target audience.
Hopefully this post is enough of a heads up for my regular readers (if you haven't already noticed) that there are some big changes happening. I hope it won't come as too much of a shock the next time you check in and everything looks completely different.
My blog and I have gone through a lot together and now it's time to shift into something that works for me instead of me working so hard for it. Some of the content will remain the same, like updates on how my little family is doing and personal posts here and there, but the majority will be geared towards the people I've come to know through this whole experience - bloggers.
Over time I've finally begun to find my niche. I started out by interviewing and featuring small businesses and bloggers because have a passion for independent creativity. I was writing business features for next to nothing and sometimes doing it for free and I started to burn out. I was doing to much work for so little reward so now I'm still supporting bloggers and small businesses but I'm doing it in a different way so that I don’t get burnt out and so that I am able to continue blogging and create a successful blog.
Your passion should turn into a business you shouldn't have to work to turn your business into something you're passionate about. With this new direction and rebranding I have to force myself not to work on weekends. I'm so excited and passionate about sharing what I've learned blogging and helping other's succeed
For all my blogger and small business/entrepreneurial readers SIGN UP HERE to join hundreds of others who want to grow their blog and rock their business. Now, I truly, truly hate asking you to sign up to receive my posts, but I genuinely want you to be able to continue to see the posts YOU WANT to see. For example: my family loves to read how Jane is doing or to see silly photos of our hound dog Hank. For someone who has stumbled onto my blog interested in learning how to start a blog, grow their traffic or read tips about how to improve your blog, I'm fairly sure they don’t want to sift through posts about how my boyfriend and I are "Surviving Colic" or read about our "Baby Shower". They want the posts that have to do with blogging and business.
I hope I don't lose any of you super, awesome, followers. However the audience who follow my blog are the people I'm writing to anyway so I hope you're as excited as I am to grow your blog and your business. I'm looking forward to writing helpful content, connecting with and helping bloggers and business owners succeed. I've got some great stuff planned and have a course coming this summer that will be super helpful, so keep an eye open for that. I'm really looking forward to the future of Thistle And Oak. I really hope you like the new look and direction and if you have any feedback I’d love to hear it!! Let me know in the comments below.
