How I Began This Thing Called Blogging

A lot of people are always asking me, how do you do that blogging thing where you get products and stuff? It is soooo hard to explain it to people. It is not like it happened overnight. It has taken me 5 years to get to the point that I am at, and I am not even considered one of the "big" blogs that are out there, doing the same thing I do.

When I am trying to explain it to people what I do, I first ask if they know what a blog is, and most people go: Yeah, kind of. No. Not really. So, errrr, how do I explain a blog? I guess I say it is like an online journal. And that is how I started out, back when Jason was in the Army and we were living in Fort Hood, Texas. I used Yahoo 360 as a platform (anyone remember that??), and I blogged about being an Army Wife and our fertility struggles. And then it was about getting pregnant, and being pregnant with Callan. And by the time I was pregnant with Mason, I had moved on to Blogger, and then eventually my own Dot Com.

Anyways, as I was type-type-typing about my everyday life, and following other "Mommy Bloggers", I would see people hosting these giveaways, and giving away really cool stuff. And I was, like there is no way these people are buying this stuff and then giving it away. So I asked around, and figured out people were in contact with Public Relations companies, and Media places, and in return for a review on a product, they got to keep the product, and sometimes offer a giveaway to their readers that the PR company would send to the winner. I thought, how cool! So I did some research, and I began my own Product Review Adventure!

It was NOT easy to get my foot in the door. It was like a Secret Society! And a lot of other bloggers were not willing to share information and contacts, etc. But then I found a great group of women who were willing to share info and give up the goods. I mainly started by reviewing books. And then as I got more established, and started to post more reviews, and get more followers who read my blog, then the PR companies were contacting me! Would you like to review this new lotion? How about this toy for your kid? Of course, sure why not! A lot of my work though was me "cold pitching" companies. I would love to review your products, this is who I am, and what I do, blah blah. And I got a lot of good leads by doing that. Eventually (like after 3 or 4 years, for real!) I got some great opportunities to write blog posts and get paid for it. 

So now it is my job, doing my blog. I make money from various sources and mainly get the products to keep, which has helped us in many situations. Blogging is a Full Time job. It is not easy. It takes a lot of time and effort to do what I do. I know it seems like it could be easy, but it really isn't. Doing this blog thing is my contribution to my family. But it is also fun, and I really love what I do! Thank you to my readers and followers, and also a HUGE thank you to my sponsors!