Welcome to the new Writing Out Loud!

 

When I first began blogging, I had no idea where it would take me. All I knew was I wanted to write. Almost two years later, I’ve made new friends, done lots of new things and been to different places. I have a lot of respect for bloggers and love reading their stories each day, gaining an insight into their lives and their reality.

There is a lot of talk in the blogging world, about blogging. How often should you post? Where should your limits be? How authentic are you? Will you monetise your blog? If so, does this make you a sell-out? If not, are you silly for missing out on opportunities? What is your niche?

All these questions, these little dots, are in the air and they’ve recently joined together enough for me to (finally) decide what’s right for me.

I know by now the blogging rules that don’t work for me, and those that do. Blogging is at its best when each person does it their way.

After trialling blog monetisation (such an ugly term), I’ve realised that I enjoy the opportunities that working with brands is opening up to me. It presents writing challenges, amazing experiences that are worth sharing, and the chance to learn new things. When the fit is right, I really enjoy it.

And I don’t want a niche – that just isn’t me. I do lots of things in my life, and I have lots of interests. I spread my time between parenting, baking, travelling, working, writing – and after a long time trying to force myself to decide on the one thing I want to do in life, I’ve decided that just isn’t what my life is meant to be. What makes me me is that I have a weird unique group of interests, that I can be in the corporate world one minute and spilling all on my blog the next.

Here, I’ve made Writing Out Loud a site that I can take to the next level. You’ll find writing on all sorts of topics that interest and inspire me, and I hope you’ll join in the conversation so we can share stories and learn together.

A few navigational tips if I may:

All the categories I write about have their own special spot on the homepage – take a look!

Did you notice my fancy new domain name? The old one will redirect you here but it’s best to come straight to this one if possible.

You’ll notice the links to my Twitter, Facebook and other pages at the top right, and I’d love it if you came and joined me on those.

I have a button in the right-hand sidebar, so feel free to grab the code and add me to your site.

Check out my new blogroll, and click through to read some inspiring, informative and hilarious people.

Last but definitely not least – a HUGE thank you to Kristyn at MummyK. I decided very recently to redesign my blog and move it to Wordpress and was anticipating it taking weeks, if not months. When Kristyn offered to help, I jumped at the chance to work with her, and she had the site up and running within a couple of days. What a star.