Reclaiming My Blog

This topic is something that has been on my mind for quite some time now, and I'm finally getting around to sitting down and writing these thoughts out.

I've done a lot to make this blog successful, including joining a lot of linky parties to put it out there, hosting giveaways and reviews, paying for advertising on other blogs, hosting advertising here, etc.  Also, I try and make sure I am posting at least five days a week (with the occasional missing day here and there) even when I have nothing really to say.

Let me start by saying there is nothing wrong with any of that.

What it all comes down to is content; or lack there-of.

My intent when starting this blog was to write from the heart and be honest; be real.  To fill it with who I am; with my thoughts, hopes, dreams, and experiences.  I wanted to chronicle my life and the crazy things that happen to me (because there are some craaaazy things, I promise) and stretch my writing skills.  I've always wanted to be a writer, and a blog seemed like a great place to start.  

Sometimes I feel like I get so lost in the shuffle of trying to gain more followers and become a big name-brand blog that I lose track of what really matters.  I lose track of why I really started this blog in the first place.  It's when I start to feel this way that I become sad, and have to stop and re-evaluate where I'm going with this blog.

I brought this up with my roommate the other day.  He said "To be honest, I've talked about this with other friends and we've all kind of stopped reading your blog because we miss Angie.  The blog doesn't seem to be about you any more... I don't want to read just reviews-we want Angie back..."

That made me very sad.  How could this be my personal blog, yet not reflect me any more? 

Then I came across Lena's post about this very same thing. She also linked to a few other posts, including Absolute Mommy's post where her husband asked her "Would you rather have 1000 followers or be published?" and she was struck surprised.

Now, I love my followers.  I love that the number has gotten up to 766+ followers now.  That makes my day, and I'd still like to see that number go even further.

However, I don't want that number to keep going up just because people are entering giveaways and then never giving this blog another thought.  I want people to follow me and keep coming back because I write posts that are interesting and well thought out.  I want people to keep coming back because I engage them, and we communicate and become friends.  That is what matters here in the blogging world.

No, I'm not going to stop taking sponsors or doing giveaways and reviews, however I am going to make some changes in that area.  It doesn't mean I'm going to stop linking up or participating in blog world things either...

So what does this mean?

It mostly means I'm going to work on writing more meaningful posts (which I've already started doing again) and not just posting to post.

I'm going to focus on the making sponsor program on my blog better. Fine-tune it and make it really awesome. I really love supporting and being supported by other real people, blogs, and small businesses/artists.  That is the kind of advertising I want to promote here on My So-Called Chaos.  I love my sponsors, and I can pick and choose who I approve to advertise here on my blog.

I'm only going to review products/services that I have personally tried and/or can support.  I don't want to do a review or giveaway just for the payout or the traffic it brings in.  I only want to write about things I can really write about.  Same thing with giveaways.  They will still be done for my sponsors, or for really cool items that I can support and review properly.   I still want to bring in this kind of traffic for my sponsors and blog, but it all has to come with more me.