Because this picture makes me chuckle. Gracie is like "no more pictures, ma!"
Happy third of January, my friends! Hope you had a fabulous week-after-Christmas as we're all easing back into regular life. My office is still a bit chaotic here, but I've cleared off a nice little space for myself, and I'm mostly back in business. :)
I've been wanting to outline the changes you'll be seeing here on SOML in the coming months, most notably to how I run my advertising. To cut to the chase, I will be majorly scaling back the advertorial content on this blog - to the tune of no more Friday Features and less sidebar ads in general. The content on this blog will be purely my own, with the exception of a (maybe) weekly giveaway, occasional courtesy-of items worked into style posts as usual, and very occasional reviews if I'm offered an opportunity I think you'll enjoy hearing about.
Why am I cutting back on advertising, you ask? For a couple main reasons, really. One, my attention has turned a great deal towards my photography business (which has much more income-earning potential than this blog), and I don't feel I have the time and energy to run a really booming blog-business anymore. I don't like to half-ass things, so something had to give. I was previously running giveaways on Tuesdays and Friday Features on Fridays, which put a lot of pressure on me to put up lots of other original content in between those posts. That isn't sustainable for me anymore, as my clients and my business have to be my #1 priority. So, no more Friday Features.
My second over-arching reason for this is because blogging has not felt fun for me in a long time. I started this blog way-back-when in 2010 because I love to write and I love to connect with people, and then it morphed and changed into something else for a while (more of a business), and that was totally OK while it lasted. I have zero regrets. But that way of running things doesn't work for me anymore, and so I'm changing it. I'm going to get back to my roots a bit and blog because I love to write and I love to create good content that comes from an inspired place - a place I haven't been in far too long.
So what does that mean for you? Not really a whole lot, I guess. You'll just see less advertorial stuff (which, let's face it, no one really loves as much as original content anyway), and probably a little less posting in general. I'm going to aim for about three times per week.
Also, if you have been thinking about advertising with me, here's a little more info on the changes now in place for my sponsors:
+ there will now be no more than 20 sidebar sponsor ads at a time (where previously there were 30-35)
+ sidebar ads are now more affordable to reflect the fact that blogger-sponsors will no longer receive a
"feature," however I didn't drop the prices TOO low because I still expect you'll receive a lot of good
traffic since there are about 33% less sidebar ads to compete with on click-throughs.
+ Shop sponsor ad spots cost a tad bit more because they also come with an individual giveaway,
which brings a lot more exposure to your business than just the sidebar ad alone.
All pricing info and more details HERE. I will be accepting new sponsors beginning in February, as I am still currently phasing out some sidebar ads to bring my tally down to 20.
On a final note, thank you all for sticking with me as this blog (and me! and my life!) has changed bit by bit. I don't know where I would be right now without this supportive community and how it's helped me to come into myself, so to speak. I am forever grateful and indebted. I am still about two solid months behind on emails, so if you've written me a personal note lately, I WILL respond sometime in 2014. Hehe. Thank you again for your patience.
HAPPY FRIDAY!
