Blogging is Harder Than it Seems

Even babies have a hard time writing about babies!

The Mommy Whisperer is not my first attempt at blogging. Being a member of the "millennial" generation, blogging is a term and a concept that I have grown up with. I honestly cannot remember when the term first appeared or a time before there were blogs, but that doesn't mean they come to me second nature. Truthfully, it requires a lot more work and effort than anyone (including me) would initially think. Some of it is obvious; you need decent writing skills and an ability to type without using "text-speak", but some of the difficulty lies in areas you wouldn't initially consider. The parts of blogging that you expect to come easier than they do are readers, topics, and time.

Time (for me) is the most surprisingly difficult one. When I started The Mommy Whisperer I felt that I had a decent amount of semi-free time in which to pull out my laptop and write a great blog post. After a couple of weeks in blog land I've come to redefine "free time". In a great example of Murphy's Law, since starting this blog my contract clients have doubled (or tripled in the case of last week), and my down-time during overnights has been cut out by babies who have decided sleep is just not their thing anymore. When I do find time where I am neither working nor sleeping, remembering to type up a blog post never seems to happen. Add to this timing issue the fact that when I do have the time to write, I always want to write about something that demands a good deal of research (There's no way I could allow myself to write a "quick post" about Postpartum Mood Disorders) and that is just going to take up more time that I do not have.

Topics tend to compound with time, but certainly do not take the top spot for blogging blues. For me (and for most bloggers I imagine) topics tend to come out of what I am dealing with at the time. For example, because of what my clients and friends are currently dealing with I have plans to write posts on Postpartum Mood Disorders, Can Infants Have Nightmares, Hard-to-Find Nursing Bras, and I seem to think of a new one every time I work. The problem with this kind of topic selection is that it is definitely research intensive. Opinion posts are so much harder to come up with. I want to provide good, readable, evidence-based information to parents, but there are a lot of topics available that tend to make you pick a side. I'm not interested in the "Mommy Wars" and I don't want to alienate a parent who could potentially benefit from some of the information I share. I know that a central part of blogging is allowing your own personality and opinions into your writing, but it seems that I have a way to go before I can comfortably proclaim whose side I'm on.

As I've already said, I don't want to alienate potential readers. I do believe that as time goes on and this blog matures (and hopefully attracts more readers), I will be less concerned with alienation, but while I'm still trying to attract readers its an issue. Most of the advice you can read on blogging tells you not to worry about readers - they will come if you are writing something worthwhile. While I don't think I would be so concerned as to write only posts that will attract readers, I do want to know what readers are interested in. Writing it down makes it seem even sillier than I thought at first. I have the whole internet of people to appeal to. I guess this would go better in a post on "Why I Started Blogging", but writing is notably cathartic and often times once you put something in print it is easier to think about rationally. So, ignoring my comments about appealing to readers, just attracting some can be tough work! I'm having to learn how to write a decent title and how to make my posts "pinterest friendly". I tried posting on reddit only to discover; A - a lot of reddit users don't like you posting your blog posts, and B - reddit is a wonderful and addicting community. A lot of leg work goes into finding readers and making your blog available to be found.

So, when compared to my initial expectations (or lack thereof), blogging is tough work. I can see how it really could be a full time job maintaining a blog if you consider all the research and legwork involved (even more if you try to monetize it). There are a lot of positives to blogging too, though. I've remembered how much I love writing and extended my reach to help educate parents way beyond what I am capable of in person. I'm sure that as I continue blogging, it will get easier. I'll attract more readers and get better at finding time and topics. Even since the beginning of this post one difficulty has lessened and because of that I think I might just start an opinion piece.