For those of you who know me, I’ve been struggling as of late. Struggling to find meaning in the madness brilliance of the blogging world, struggling to find inspiration, struggling with struggling. My stats have taken a dip, my followers (I hate that word!) perhaps have taken a trip and I’ve been wondering whether it’s all worth it?
Well, guess what? It’s time for a new attitude! I’m tired of stressing and struggling. I’m tired of my mood mirroring the Google Analytics graph for my blog stats. I’m tired of waiting with bated breath for indexes and kudos to bolster my confidence. Enough! Because, you know what? I’m good enough! I’m smart enough! And gosh darn it, people like me (well, I think they do)!
Cafe Bebe has been a source of pride and an emotional roller coaster. I want people to read what I write…who doesn’t? Why would I have a public BLOG if I didn’t? It’s nice to have comments from people who feel moved to comment. It’s confidence boosting to know that you’ve made a difference or have made people laugh.
What Cafe Bebe shouldn’t be is a replacement for living my life and being a brilliant mother, wife and me! As an extremely wise blogger told all of us at Cybermummy, life is for living, not blogging. Get out and live it and the content will follow.
I have the supreme honour of being a stay-at-home-mum to a truly amazing and precocious Little Miss. She’s the light of my life and makes my life better every single day. Cafe Bebe is my place to share her story and our adventures together. It’s time for me to regain control of myself and not measure my worth or lack thereof on the stats and indexes and honours. I give you my New Attitude Promise:
- I will not focus on the stats unless asked directly for them. I will instead revel in the few (or many) who come to Cafe Bebe and enjoy what I have to say. I will be pleased when a few more visitors stop and will not fall into a blue haze when they don’t.
- I will continue to wear a Tots badge but I will not tap my toe waiting for the index to come out each month to see who’s higher or lower than me. If I manage to stay in the Top 100, I’ve done well. If I don’t, eh…no worries. I’ve established relationships that will not end just because I don’t have a double digit number on my badge.
- I have done a mega-cull on Twitter. I realised that A LOT of people were “following” me that NEVER interacted with me (or me them for that matter). I realised that quite a few followers had not tweeted in months so obviously they weren’t REALLY following me. I culled about 600 followers. I had been at about 1200 followers. WHO REALLY CARES IF 1200 PEOPLE ARE FOLLOWING ME IF THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT ME? Twitter is a brilliant social media opportunity to promote your business. But if all you do is follow people in the hopes that they will follow you back and click on your site, you’re not really embracing the fun of Twitter. So, if you follow me on Twitter, interact with me a bit or I won’t follow you. There’ s just not enough time in the day people.
- I will utilise my NEW SMARTPHONE TECHNOLOGY (OMG, thank you Natalie of Sophie 4 Sophie) to free me from the laptop and get out of the house with my daughter. I will happily accept other gifts of technology to free me even more!
- I will use the prophetic motto from the 80′s: “Don’t worry…be happy!” I have an amazing husband, gorgeous daughter, lovely friends, supportive family, success in writing…I’m grateful for everything I have. It’s time to stop sweating the small stuff and start enjoying everything I have. Life’s too short.
Who’s with me? Time to break away from the Google Analytics graphs? Time to be happy that ANYONE reads what you write? Time to free yourself from the Blog/Rat Race?? Start writing for you and only you. I believe good things will follow.
Thank you for tuning in to another post from Cafe Bebe. Come back when you can…I’ll always be here whether I’m blog number 48 or 95 or 7131.
Good for you hun as I said last week on my cybermummy post Live first, blog last x
The magazine came today what a great piece thank you Karin
Good for you! Enjoy it!xx
Hear hear!! Good to make a fresh start and believe in yourself and your blog. I thought you were inspiring to carry out that cull last week! I don’t get many people to my blog except on Gallery posts so I am always thinking up ways but you have a great blog here and I enjoy my visits! X
Well done you. I have to confess that I don’t even know what Google Analytics is (I’m not techno-minded), but I’m totally with you – enjoy blogging and your friends and go with the flow, dude
xx
Good post, as always. Good to know I hadn’t offended you on Twitter. Was slightly surprised at being blocked, nice to know I’m not the only one but one of 600!
Fab post, as always. Good to know I haven’t offended you on Twitter (Worthdogclc). I was slightly surprised to see I’d been blocked. I feel better now I know I’m not the only one but one of 600!
HOORAH!!! Another ditching the stats. I have no idea how many visit my site – couldn’t tell you if it’s 2 or 2,000.
And even though the badge is right there on my blog, I have no idea what position I’m in for the tots index 700 greatest parent things thingy.
It’s not about numbers. It’s about YOU.
xxxx
YAY I love hearing this!! Be true to yourself and you can never go wrong! xx
Great attitude…who has the time to worry about all of that anyway? I’m barely managing to read other people’s posts at the moment and the house is going to pot with all of these distractions and yet I’m still not achieving anything ( I mean regarding house work etc)xx
YEAAAAH! Viva la Revolution!
Behind you ALL the way my dear. Your friends aren’t going ANYWHERE and that’s all that matters.
Life is far too short (and stressful!!) to worry about all this silly stuff
Much much love xxxxxxxxx
P.S. One day hoe incredibly NOT wise I am will come out and my lovely rep will be ruined
I love you for thinking so though, thank you xxx
Hurray! Makes sense to me. Blogging is something to be enjoyed not a chore. Taking a more relaxed attitute towards it will make you enjoy it even more, trust me.
OOh…sorry love…I’ll find you again. I was on a roll! Will remedy it!
I only check my stats when someones asks, I dont care, dont know where I am on the tots and ill not get many comments at all over the summer, as I will be blogging sa a reminder of the things I have done with the boys. Dont stress, I will still comment!
Count me in…. in fact, on seconds thoughts don’t count anything. But I couldn’t agree more.
Everything in moderation! Enjoy life, write for you and dont compare yourself with others. x
I only ever check my stats if I’m asked for them. I do my blog for myself and so my family can see Blondie Boy and I don’t really give a rat’s what anyone else thinks!
I wouldn’t worry about stats taking a dip lately, it’s because of the sunny weather!
Do what you enjoy and don’t worry about the rest.
FAB news! I am so happy to hear this. Here’s to you, and your lovely friends (me included) and to blogging because you can, about whatever you want, whenever you want. And to living life. xxx
Well done! I don’t read your posts every time, but when I do, they make me smile. Please keep it up. I also have a lovely Little Miss at home and she is the light of my life. Sx
Ditto everything English Mum said… except the bit about Google analytics… I know a lot about that. Thanks for not culling me as a Twitter follower, as I enjoy your snippets from Cambridgeshire. I was married in Cambridge as Teacher Mum (@henriettami) is from there and so I know it well. Looking forward to visiting again at Christmas en famille as gapping daughter Alice will be ending her year long stay. I will continue to tweet with you every now and again despite opposite timezones making this hard sometimes. Steve
Thank you very much Steve! I’m happy to have an antipodean follower who tweets occasionally!
Oh Karin, that is so great to hear. I have never watched my statistics that much, unless asked for them, but was always checking the badge number….Then before going to Cybermummy conference when looking for a sponsor that became a problem, everyone just wanted the statistics…At the end i got a sponsor thanks to my product reviews. I think you are absolutely right, we should be living our lives and the rest will come. Hope to chat more on twitter @Kahanka
Good on you – only do what you enjoy, and then make sure you enjoy the rest of your life
Good for you. I had a similar revelation in October last year and I think my blog is much better for it. I join in with the things I like, if I don’t have time to post I don’t worry and I only look at my stats if someone requests specific information. Blogging is such a huge part of my life, but for all the right reasons. Because I LOVE it!
Good for you Karin.
xx