Let me tell you a little story. I’ll try to keep it brief. I want to tell you a little bit about where I’ve been. I’ll dive into when my blogging “career” began, how, why, and then get into the current times.
I’ve seen a growing rise of the blogger and entrepreneur.
Anyone can publish a book, my oldest and I did publish a book in 2012 together.
Anyone can start a blog to make money, I actually share more on that topic over on BlogBig.net.
The world is no longer thinking that one has to work a 9-5 job, clocking in at the beginning of the day and clocking out at the time clock when the day is over. Working for less than they’re worth and feeling crappy. You no longer have to work that way.
While we still need the workers outside of the home, truckers, plumbers, manufacturing and similar fields need to stay afloat, those that typically work in an office environment or are just not equipped to work those type of jobs can begin a new path; the path of being a blogger, influencer, and entrepreneur!
My Start as a Blogger and Entrepreneur
As I said at the start of this article, I’m going to keep my story somewhat brief. I won’t touch on every minute detail or get into some of the personal aspects of why and where and when. Rather, I’m going to share a synopsis of how I started in this world back in 2006 and where I went from there. I was working as an administrative assistant at a job that I LOVED. After becoming pregnant with our second child, I just couldn’t handle going to work. I was sick. I hated pregnancy. I was hormonal. I gave my letter of resignation and came home at some point in the middle of 2006.
From mid-2006 until approximately December 2008, I was dabbling in direct sales and eventually met my now long-time friend, Dwan who currently runs Life Family Joy. This Texas woman and I became good friends while I was working to help her with her online boutique. We both were in the direct sales industry (if memory serves me correctly) and we both have a similar mindset that fits with the entrepreneurial spirit. We were/are motivated, dedicated, intelligent, and strong! She eventually introduced me to blogging and I started a Blogger (Blogspot) blog for my direct sales companies, and that’s when blogging became a large part of my life.
This was around late 2007 or late 2008, forgive me about dates as I’m horrible with dates and memory. I’m sharing this based on the tidbits I do recall and the dates may be slightly off.
[azonpress template=”list” asin=”171993939X”]I had my blogger blog, which I believe was called Writings of a WAHM at the time. I promoted direct sales companies, mostly candle companies, and wrote about the products, and working from home. Eventually, I transferred to a self-hosted WordPress blog and continued my path of being a blogger.
When my husband and I were married, this was during our first marriage as we divorced 2009-ish and reunited 2019-ish, we had our two sons and my oldest daughter together so we were a “blended family”.
I rebranded to HappilyBlended.com, a blended family lifestyle blog.
I wrote on and ran HappilyBlended.com from late 2008 until I sold it in mid-2016 or mid-2015, again dates are blurry to me.
After many changes, multiple blogs, and finally around 2017 or 2018 starting my freelance writing business, I’ve learned that there is a rise of the blogger and entrepreneur. Bloggers have a voice and retailers are starting to hear us, they’re starting to understand the impact of influencers, and that, my friends is my short story of how I entered into this world that I’ve called “home” since 2006.
How The Influencer Circle Has Changed
Over the years I’ve obviously noticed some changes. Just like the world evolves as time moves on, so too does the influencer circle and blogging world. Times seem to have moved towards social media, that instant gratification of having followers see your every move, lifestyle choices, and personal opinions are heavily floated out there on the web. This causes a ruckus and causes many people to rise to almost celebrity level just by living their “life” virtually.
While I have started to pull away from the personal storytelling lifestyle blogger I once was, it’s still something that influencers opt to do. They tend to do it on social media and use their blog to showcase products, spotlights, and more details about the brands they feature on their social media profiles. When I first started blogging in 2008, I can’t recall social media being as prevalent as blogging. While I know we had Twitter and I believe I used that to promote my first blogs, Facebook was there and we had profiles, but the “business page” bloggers, influencers, and entrepreneurs use today didn’t really become a “thing” until the end of 2007.
So during the time, I started blogging between 2006-2008 things have wildly changed. Search engine optimization is very important so that we can rank higher than the thousands of other bloggers out there in the influencer community. We have to be more unique and find a niche that helps us build and retain an audience. While some influencers can get that personal connection still, I feel that the switch has gone more so to brand marketing.
Blogging and influencers have become more like the commercials from my 1980s childhood, and while entertaining, they’re more vibrant and can reach anyone instantly with so many consumers binging social media.
[azonpress template=”list” asin=”1119628857″]In fact, I think that bloggers, influencers, and entrepreneurs have to be more focused, driven, and aware of what it takes to build a blog that ranks. Businesses and brands are starting to hire ghostwriters, such as myself, to develop unique content for their blogs because they know a blog helps boost a brand in search results.
The reality is that a blog has become something more than just a parent or professional talking about their life everyday, blogging has become a valid form of advertising and it’s only going to get bigger from here!
The Rise of Bloggers, Influencers and Entrepreneurs
Fast forward to the year 2020 and our world got hit hard by something that no one expected. We didn’t see it coming. So many families were hit financially. Kids were sent home to attend remote school, others started homeschooling (like we had been doing for 2 years), and others lost their jobs or had to work remotely for their job. Many businesses closed down or were forced to adjust the sails and work in a virtual setting.
The year 2020 certainly created a lot of change in our world, and we’ve learned more about how one can work from home as a blogger, influencer, and entrepreneur.
I believe that the year 2020 has opened more people’s eyes to how much freedom they can have when they work from home. More people have made a commitment to become a blogger, influencer, or entrepreneur this year. They decided that they want to be in charge of their income and they want to make sure that if things get completely shut down again. More people want to have a way to support their family, without relying on someone else’s business. This is great because brands and retailers are on the same page as they’ve realized how influential bloggers are to their brand messaging and product lines.
While I do feel the blogging and influencer world has changed a lot, I still stand firm that if you want to make it in this world you truly need to have the team mentality, building a team of pros to help you, and dedication.
You must wake up each day knowing that you will manifest success and abundance.
You must work every single day to build a brand that others start to follow and trust.
It’s going to take work, but it’s so much easier to get out there and get known today than it was back in 2006-2008 when I first dove into this industry.