I think of my site as a cute little site that is used to share giveaways, which everyone loves. I also feel it is my personal online space to help share smiles, giggles and shake your head moments. Happily Blended and Moms Vacation Land are just glimpses into who I am as a person, a mother and a woman. There is no real niche here other than a positive parenting, mother of three who knows that ME time is important too. No matter how many times I reply to people letting them know I have an insertion fee, let’s face it, to get your article noticed in a magazine or newsletter you have to do something to have your name out there. Unless, you are a writer being paid as a columnist for that paper or magazine.
I know this is my site and my site goes by my rules.
Lately I have been deleting email after email because it is as if everyone wants something for free. Believe me, I do share guest posts for free no insertion fee on a case by case basis, that means it doesn’t hurt to ask but when I reply with my answer do not come back 3-5 months later or even a day later, asking the same thing and getting all huffy because I gave you the same answer.
The blogging income has changed in the past four almost five years I have been blogging and I found out through hard work that there will be new bloggers hopping online thinking what we do is easy, that they can sit back and just get free things all of the time. I sure hope they are paying taxes on those free items, didn’t know you were suppose to? Well maybe you should research a bit on how the blogging business really works with taxes and what income you claim with this business.
Last but not least, it feels GREAT to just delete emails. I used to feel obligated to reply to every single email I received but no longer am I that woman. If I can tell the email is not of importance to me, not from a contact I work with frequently or has zero to do with my blog I first pass along to MomDot VIP Forum {if applicable} and then delete it.
Feels good to click that little delete button. It has freed up more time than you can imagine! Cheers for that little DELETE key on our keypads!
Good for you! I am doing the same thing. Like you I have two blogs and get contacted by the same PR reps over and over again. Sometimes they will pitch me something that I had already said no to. I also get tons of requests for guest posting. I used to charge a fee for guest posts because I got so many requests and they were all from SEO companies building back links for clients. So I charged for each back link. After doing this for a while my Google page rank went down and Google was about to pull my site out of their index because I was selling too much “link juice” with all the guest posts that I was publishing with back links. To make a long story short, I got smart. Now all my back links are no follow, I am saying no to guest post requests and product review requests. Yes like you I am getting more acquainted with my delete key.
Happy you’ve found freedom in the delete button. 🙂 Happy long weekend, woot!