I just wanted to take a minute to apologize for my blog posts lately. I know I said that I wouldn't apologize again about the blog, but here it is. I'm not apologizing for missing days between posts, because life happens. I'm pretty much useless from Tuesday to Thursday because I have grad school classes. What I'm apologizing for is the nature of my posts. Because I wanted to have daily posts, I've been doing almost nothing but giveaways. I thought that would drive traffic to the blog and that it was what my readers wanted. While I have gotten some traffic due to the giveaways, is that real traffic? Are those people going to keep coming back to my blog? Probably not. And while giveaways are awesome, I know that my favorite blogs are the blogs that tell a story, or let me into their lives. So that is my new goal. Instead of just giveaway after giveaway, review after review, I'm going to be posting more personal stories, more humor. I'm a funny person (to myself anyway) and I don't think that gets across very well here on the blog. I want to make more of an effort to showcase who I am here on the blog. So bear with me as I go in that direction.
There will of course still be reviews and giveaways. I'll probably only do one or two a week. I'm going to stop saying yes to every single company that is looking for a review, and only say yes to things that will help me my family and yours.
I will get back to the books. When I started off, this was primarily a book blog, but books have taken a backseat to everything else. I want to bring them to the forefront again, showcasing great children's books as well as books for adults. Mostly, I want to read great books!
So there you go, that is where I hope to take the blog in the next few months. I've got a few gift guides coming up next month that I hope you'll find useful. Let me know what sort of gifts you are looking for, like who you are having trouble finding the perfect gift for. I hope you'll stick around as we go forward.
I also would like to change the name of the blog. I don't think that the signs part is fitting anymore. We still sign, but I'm not teaching it because of grad school. If you have any ideas about a name let me know.
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Can't wait for changes! Good luck with new direction.
ReplyDeleteI've gone through various blog changes over the years; some have involved blog name changes, while others have been adding blogs to the fold. I now have eleven, although at one point, I had twenty. Too many!
ReplyDeleteI also have started turning away review books, and now vow only to choose books I am pretty sure I'll enjoy.
Here's MY SUNDAY SALON POST
Lindsey, I recently decided the same thing too. I used to mainly blog about our life for family members who didn't live nearby. The reviews and giveaways have taken over not only my blog but also my time. So I have done the same thing. Scaled back. Only accept things that my family will use. {Great minds think a like!}
ReplyDeleteYep, the reviews & giveaways can overwhelm your blog. Good luck with the changes!
ReplyDeletefeel free to send any products you cant review my way!http://moresavings4u.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteTotally agree... my blog is a weightloss/family life blog but I get so business with post I "have" to get out that I don't have much time to blog about what I really want to talk about.
ReplyDeleteNewest follower via The GFC blog hop!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your changes. I like seeing ideas for books so that is a good topic. For the name thing, how about something that fits with telling stories of your lives. A synonym for story might work to make it more interesting.
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