I don't know if y'all have noticed it but there has been a lot of negativity in the blog and twitter world lately. Seriously, every time I log in to blogger there's a post about how to blog, what to write about, what not to do, etc. I don't know about y'all, but my blog doesn't have rules. I will write about whatever I want. Same goes for twitter. Unfollow someone if you don't like what they're tweeting. Trust me, it'll make your timeline and your day a whole lot better.
So, that leads me in to me, my blog, why I do it every day....
What Makes Savanah Smile started in January of 2010. It started as a Project 365 blog where I just posted my picture of the day every day. I never read blogs before I created my account. I just thought blogger was a good domain to organize everything and I could send family the link. In May of that year, I decided I couldn't keep up. At my sisters graduation party at the beginning of June, several people asked me why I wasn't posting anymore. The more I thought about it I decided I should just post whenever I could, whatever I wanted. I wanted to keep my family and friends up to date about what's going on down here in Houston since we're 5 hours away from them. I should also mention that during this 6 months of blogging I had probably 5 followers. And usually when I posted I had 0 comments. But that's not what I started for. People would comment on the link I posted on facebook, people would text me... that's what mattered. They were reading. That little follower button didn't mean anything.
July 19th was the day I decided to change my blog to a "real" blog and I wrote my first post.
But, if you've noticed, I've never changed what my main focus of blogging is. ME. MY LIFE.
I get a text from my mom every day that I don't blog. My blog posts on my facebook feed every single day. It's not all about all the people out there in the interwebs. My main focus is me and keeping my family in the loop of my life with pictures and stories that wouldn't necessarily come across over a text or phone conversation. And don't get me wrong, it thrills me that so many of y'all who have never met me follow along every day. The comments I get, the support that's given, it's amazing. But I also have to keep it real. I'm not going to post something just because I think someone out there might find it interesting. I'm going to post things that I will want to remember next year when I look back at my blog. I love looking back at my blog from when I first started and seeing the pictures I took, the trips I went on, and my stories about my day.
Yes I do link ups, yes I do sponsored posts and yes I do giveaways. My weekly linkup I do, I was doing before I started having a link up. I got comments about it so I decided to let people link up if they wanted to. I post my cell phone pics every week anyway, so why not? IT's ME! No, I can't always comment on every single person who links up but that's life. I have a job, I'm planning a wedding, I have a family and 2 cats to take care of and I just can't always do it. And if you've ever linked up and I haven't commented on your blog, I'm sorry. It just can't happen every week. And yes, sponsored posts happen here in my little piece of the internet too. If it's something I use and actually like, why not get paid to write about it? I'll never take money from someone and rave about a product if I don't actually like it. Sorry. And giveaways. Yup, those happen too. Again though, all the giveaways I've done are with products that I use and bought myself previously. Even incorporating these things in to my blog, I still keep it real. Real life. Whether it's for It's OK Thursday, Wedding Wednesday, or giving away a Vera Bradley makeup bag. It's all ME.
Let me clarify and say, that if any of you reading this don't blog like me, it doesn't mean you are breaking rules. There are no rules. If you want to do a giveaway every day, do it. If you want to link up every day, do it. It doesn't bother me. I may not read every day, but you may not read my blog every day. And let me just throw this out there too... Just because I don't comment, doesn't mean I'm not reading. A lot of times I read from my phone and follow twitter links.And just because I don't respond to every single comment I get, doesn't mean I don't appreciate them. Like I said before, we are all busy. My job consists of being in a car most of the day so I'm not at a computer. When I get home, I want to spend time with my fiance'. Not in front of a computer responding to emails. I think everyone can understand that, right? What's more important for me is actually getting a post up for the next day. After all, that's what I'm here for anyway... Blogging my life.
And let me just touch on the little follower button over there on the right. That number doesn't really mean a whole lot in my situation. Don't get me wrong, it excites me to see it go up and is disappointing to see it go down. But I know that so many more people are reading this blog than that number suggests. I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't even know the button exists. And I was at a wedding this weekend and 2 people came up to and told me how much they love reading my blog (Shout out to Lindsey and Shaudi!). They're girls I know in real life and have met through John and his friends. They aren't "followers" of my blog, but they are reading every day. That's what matters.
Something that I've learned about blogging over the past 2 1/2 years is there will always be people who will try to tear you down. You'll get rude comments. You'll see people try to tell you to follow their rules. You'll see the mean girls and cliques. I've seen it all. And all I can do is continue to remember why I started blogging way back when. It wasn't to have 1000 followers, have 50 comments every day, or even to make friends (even though I've made some best friends from it). It was for me, to be my scrapbook of my life.
