18 Years Of Blogging

18 years. How can it be that I’ve been blogging for that long? It’s time for another blog recap and a look back at 2024. I had another great year of blogging financially and I’m so grateful to the Lord for that. He’s definitely blessed my business for over 10 years now of making a great living writing this blog. Mark and I had a good year as well and traveled to Europe twice last year. It’s been so fun to slow down and take this all at the pace that is comfortable for me. I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, including myself. I’m so grateful that I was placed in the position to run this blog and social media all those years ago and so thankful that God has blessed me so much. It really has been one of the biggest blessings of my life. This year, however, might bring some changes. The winds are blowing in that direction on the internet.

I’ve always relied on my email list, which isn’t that big anymore, to send out my new posts to you all and it brings people over to my blog. But, things with Google, Pinterest, and other factors have really contributed to the loss of traffic over the last few years. Each year, my traffic declines a bit. I’ve watched this happen, not knowing how low it will go and that’s still up for debate. As of now, my traffic the last 6 months has declined by about 45%, which means my income is also going down, since the main way I make a living doing this is by writing this blog. You all come and visit my blog and the ads that run on here are how I make a living. I have a great ad network, Raptive, and I’ve been with them for years. They do a great job of monetizing our blogs and negotiating with advertisers for space on our blogs. I’m grateful that I’ve been with them so long and it’s been very lucrative for me to have them. I just get a paycheck every month from my ad network.

Again, the last 6 months has seen a sharp decrease in traffic. It’s not just Google search traffic, but also Pinterest and even email traffic. It’s very sad to see, but it’s something I knew might happen eventually. It seems that this year is going to be a lot different from past years unless something flips and starts going back the other direction. At this point, I don’t stress about it, I just have to take it as it comes. I may make less money, but I’m still going to continue on. I have loved writing this blog for so many years and it’s something that can continue on into my retirement years, as long as you all are interested in reading about our lives.

Last year, we traveled more extensively than we have in the past and it was so fun to take 2 trips to Europe: Italy and France. We loved those trips so much and this year we have more travel planned. We’ll be heading back to Italy in April and we’re both excited about that. Right now, we are on a Caribbean cruise on a Celebrity cruise. This wasn’t a comped cruise, we paid for it. I really love to travel (Mark goes along, he’s not the planner) and I hope we can travel even more the next 10 years, while we’re healthy and can afford to go.

House wise, we only did one big project in the house this year. We finished the last bathroom renovation, an Art Deco beauty that we are so proud of. We’re so glad to get the big projects out of the way and enjoy the home we’ve made together, one project at a time. God has certainly been good to us and blessed our lives so much. We still love our house and where we live and we don’t plan to move until we have to one day.

We had one loss in our family last year, Mark’s sister, Kim passed away in August from cancer and we sure do miss her. It was really sad at Thanksgiving and Christmas for her to be gone and the entire family misses her greatly. My dad is doing ok, he is hanging in there healthwise and the community he lives in does a good job taking care of his needs. I’m so glad to have him close by our house. That gives me so much peace of mind. It’s been over a year now since mom passed away. We miss her a lot, but are grateful she is out of pain now and that we had her for so long.

My focus this year is on my health even more. I’m in good health, but I do have some issues that need addressing, so I’ve been going to a functional medicine doctor/chiropractor and we are working on some things. I also have pretty severe arthritis in my hips and I think this year will bring a hip replacement for me. I’ll start with one and then probably do the other one later. I’ve been dealing with hip pain for over 10 years and it’s gotten to the point that I don’t want it to ruin my quality of life. I’ve got too much I want to do! I will write a blog post about health soon, next week in fact. I’m sure I’m not the only one dealing with medical issues at our age. It’s a journey to figure these things out and how to get better. Oh, the joys of getting older! {insert sarcasm emoji}

I’m hopeful for our country this new year. I for one am happy about the election and what we have in store this year. I’m looking forward to a brighter day for our country and for all of us. A return to common sense can’t come soon enough. There’s been so much unrest and chaos going on in our country and around the world in the last few years. It’s hard to ignore it all and not worry, but God doesn’t want us to fear or worry, so I choose to trust God in all this. I’m so sad about the destruction in NC with the floods, the hurricanes in FL and this month, the fires in CA. So much grief and sadness going on right now, but I know God is still in control. I look forward to what the new year brings. Some of you might not agree with my opinion, but we all have the right to say what we think.

Blogging wise, I still plan to continue, but social media will take a backseat as it has the last few years. I still see the hamster wheel that’s going on with Instagram and the “influencers” there are always scrambling for views and reach, constantly putting out content that’s consumed so fast and then discarded. It’s only good for about 24 hours and then it’s time to feed the beast again. I can’t compete with that, nor do I want to. I like the pace I’ve been at for the last year or two, still having a presence, but not working very hard at it. That goes for Instagram and Facebook. It does feel more and more like a competition, but I don’t want to play. The people who work hard and grow are the ones who are rewarded the most with sponsored opportunities, so I know I miss out on a lot by not working harder, but that’s how I keep my sanity. I just don’t have the drive to keep striving for more. I did a few good sponsored partnerships last year and each year, I take them one at a time to see if they are a good fit for me. I turn down more than I take. Instagram has practically turned into one big sales pitch and that turns me off. I would imagine it turns off many of you too. I get it, but it’s just not something I want to participate in all that much. Life is too short to be on a hamster wheel. That’s not for me!

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT ME AND MY BLOG? 

As I shared last year, the best way you can support me is to visit this blog every time I post. That means clicking the links in my emails that go out and coming over here to the blog to read. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a laptop, phone or tablet, it all counts as pageviews, but a laptop will probably the the best experience for ads. I know ads are annoying, I so get that. But again, that’s the main way I can make a living doing this and for you to come and support me here means the world to me. Thank you for that! If you subscribe to my emails, you’ll get one in your inbox every time I post and you can click the link to come over to my blog and read it live. That gives me pageviews and that’s how I make an income from my blog. Many people don’t know the particulars of this, but it’s a pretty neat thing. I’ve said before how much God has blessed this blog and I don’t take it for granted. I had another great year and I have to thank all of YOU for that! Just the fact that you all come over and read makes it possible for me to keep it going.

AMAZON SHOP AND HOME DECOR LINKS

The other ways you can support me is to buy through my affiliate links on Amazon and Like to Know It. I don’t share links constantly, but if you shop with my links, that helps me too. I make commissions when you use my links and that adds to my income.

You can find all my links under Shop my Home on the home page of my blog on the menu bar.

I have an Amazon shop with lots of good products that I use and that I love and recommend as well. The shop has categories you can look at with lots of products. Anytime you buy from Amazon and use my link, I earn a small commission without it costing you anything extra. Thank you for buying through my links!

That wraps up the year and where things are now. If I look at the trends now, I know that my traffic is going down, which does affect my income. I sure appreciate all of you who continue to support me. I know the internet is a busy place and I don’t take it for granted that you come here and support me. Things can change in an instant and one day, my blog may completely dry up and die. I’ll take it as it comes, when Google and Pinterest continue to make it harder and harder to get traffic back to us. I can’t rely on any of those and my email list is more important than ever. If I could get all of you to consistently open and read my emails, that would be amazing! Thank you to all of you who subscribe and come here every time I post. I appreciate you all so much! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

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