Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How Do You Decide What To Post About?

Q: How do you decide what to post about every day? I’m new to blogging and feeling a lot of pressure. I worry what I write will be boring. Do you ever worry about that? Do you have a checklist that you go through to see if something is good to write about? Do you ever worry that people won’t like what you share? Do you ever skip a post if you think it will be poorly received? Do you try to pace things out in a strategic way? – Nina M.

A: Aw, I’m sorry that you feel any pressure at all, Nina. Figuring out what to post about sounds like it could be complicated, but to us the key is not to over-think it. When we started this whole blogging thing back in 2007, no one was reading (seriously we could hear crickets) so the pressure was nice and low. Sometimes we chatted about big stuff (like our four month kitchen renovation) and sometimes it was small stuff (like a baseboard-related conversation, discovering old wallpaper, or someone accidentally selling our washer).

Slowly our blog grew to what it is today, and so did our commitment to sticking to what got us here: blogging about whatever’s going on in our lives (big or small – random, housey, or otherwise) like it’s our job. Because it actually is our job. Yup, from weird dreams to DIY haircuts and pretty much everything else, it all has a place in our weird little slice of the internet. So our advice in a nutshell would be to chat about whatever you’re genuinely excited to share and the majority of your readers will hopefully connect with your authenticity and feel your excitement right through their computer screen.

DayInLife 19 Burger On Sher

And you know I’m happy to be that hyper little cheerleader on your shoulder shouting high-pitched borderline-annoying things like: “you can do it!” and “go get ’em!” – so here’s my humble advice in a nutshell:

  • Find a pace that works for you.
  • Learn what topics you like to tackle.
  • Look for unconscious clues along the way.
  • Skip any post that you’re not excited about.
  • Nothing is too small if you’re psyched to post about it.
  • Try sharing more of yourself, no matter how random.
  • Relax, it’s only blogging.
  • Do. Your. Thang.
  • You can’t win ’em all.
  • A happy blogger = happy readers.

Allow me to do what I do best and elaborate the heck outta those:

#1. Find a pace that works for you. It’s probably one of the biggest “discoveries” that you’ll make along the way. Don’t worry, it’ll happen. Figuring out a pace that works for you will do two things: it’ll help your readers understand what to expect (thereby hopefully reducing your fear of the unknown as a new blogger) and you won’t feel rushed or bored (two things that can quickly kill a blog). We usually share about 2-3 projects a week along with a smorgasbord of other random house/family related stuff. You can see from our monthly round-ups that although some weeks are busier than others, at the end of each month we’re always surprised at how much we’ve done. Sometimes the projects are big and sometimes they’re just small updates. That just tends to be the DIY way – you ebb and you flow. But hey, that’s real life (with real budget constraints, snafus, & timeline challenges) so don’t get discouraged! This tip is probably one of the most important ones since it can easily determine the longevity of your blog (our pace is probably the only reason we’ve been able to blog/DIY non-stop for the past 5 years without burning out).

#2. Learn what topics you like to tackle. Then give yourself free reign in all of those areas (no fear allowed). In the past five years of this blog we’ve been all over the place, which is actually how we like it. And in all of that time, we’ve only renovated one bathroom and two kitchens along with building one patio and one deck, so it’s hardly major work that’s going on at all times. Most of the time we’re just noodling or making small/affordable tweaks (painting something, making DIY art, window shopping, sharing budget blooms, buying/thrifting something, doing small upgrades, rearranging furniture, re-organizing something, sharing Dude Get On That Already & Pinterest Challenges, etc). And sometimes we do full weeks of posts on a certain theme, like our wedding or our blogiversary. Heck, we’ve even had an entire week devoted to organizing! Just chat about whatever you’re loving or doing.

After Books

#3. Look for unconscious clues along the way. If we look at our monthly round-ups for the last 1.5 years, we notice that we usually have the same smattering of big and small projects going on each month. There are rarely months with all large things or all small things. We don’t consciously plan it that way, but that just seems to be what works for us. I think if you blog for a little while, the right pace for you will hopefully make itself clear.

Monthly Wrap Ups

#4. Skip any post that you’re not excited about. If it feels like work and you’re not psyched to share it, just let it go. We definitely do things around the house that we decide not to blog about. For example, we don’t always feel like blogging about re-organizing our drawers every time we do it – so we might skip that if we don’t feel like writing it up. That being said, sometimes posts are hard to write (for example, this personal one about my aunt’s passing) but I actually really wanted to write that to honor her memory and for Clara to look back on. It was hard, but it was worth it. So the posts that feel pesky, annoying, and not-worth-your-trouble are the ones I’d actually consider skipping.

#5. Nothing is too small if you’re psyched to post about it. Try to have a no holds barred / no rules policy if you’re excited to share something (people can tell when you’re holding back and blogging can be a lot less satisfying if you are). We love that nothing is too big or too small to chat about with you guys. Thank goodness. I think if there were rules we probably would have checked out about 4.5 years ago. Sometimes we do something really small and we’re so excited by the difference it makes in our home/life that we’ll share a quick little post about it. And sometimes those posts actually get the majority of our readers the most excited (so if we were to leave them out we’d never know that 200 folks would comment about how they liked a tiny/free clipboard project that we shared, while fewer people commented about some much more “hardcore” deck demo that we posted a week later).

#6. Try sharing more of yourself, no matter how random. Occasionally we chat about random things like running and breastfeeding. Sure, we wonder how the heck they’ll go over before hitting publish for a second – but then we just say “whatever!” and click the button. My breastfeeding post actually got over 1,000 comments and John’s post about running earned nearly 500! We never know what will be a hit, so we just share whatever’s going on that we think is fun – big or small, housey or random, kid-focused or grown-up related. Just try to let go of the pressure that you put on yourself (I know, that’s easier said than done) and you’ll be a happier, more enthusiastic blogger. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that you’re not decorating your house or blogging for the entire world, but in our opinion, the blogs where people decorate their house and blog for themselves are the ones that are the most compelling and fun to read. So that might be our biggest tip.

Bf Pic 1

 #7. Relax, it’s only blogging. Personal home blogging (and almost any other type of blogging, actually) is loosey-goosey in a great way – whether it’s your full time job or just a hobby. Either way, the goal is to be real and share “yourself and the way you live” – whatever that might be. We truly believe it’s why we’ve loved doing it pretty much nonstop since 2007 (with no more than a few days off in a row). It’s definitely our job and we are hugely devoted to it, but it was born from a passion, so we gotta keep that passion going. If we only wanted to talk about step by step tutorials every day we’d hire a staff of people to churn out seven projects a week or start a business-y website without “us” in it – but we’re just not into that. That’s why we call this our DIY diary, and not an e-zine or a home improvement database. It’s just life through our lens. Our little rose colored DIY glasses, if you will. Or our Photoshop plastic wrapped glasses…

Photoshop Plastic Wrap

#8. Do. Your. Thang. The truth is that every post that you write will probably be enjoyed by some folks and some people will just scroll on by or click over to another blog that happens to catch their eye a bit more that day. Heck, that’s how we read blogs (skimming or skipping things that aren’t our style and stopping to soak up the posts that call our name). I think getting comfortable with that is really one of the keys to blogging, since it’s impossible to even attempt to make every last post appeal to every last person who stops in (you entire blog will end up being so generic/safe due to Trying-To-Please-Everyone Syndrome or it’ll be so infrequently updated since your standards for posts will be impossibly high). So just do your thing! That’s hopefully why people read your blog – for what YOU bring to the table. Even if it’s photos of yourself in airbrushed jeans that make your butt wink.

Airbrushed Jeans And Painte

#9. You can’t win ’em all. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in five years of doing this, it’s that no matter how hard you try, you can’t please everyone. In fact trying to please everyone can lead to a slow painful blog death. There’s just always going to be someone who wants you to go slower so they can keep up or faster so they’re more entertained, or to post about more giant projects since they want to see something major while someone else might want more small/free projects since their budget is lower. One person’s least favorite post will be someone else’s favorite. Heck, we’ve even gotten requests for more family/Burger/Clara stuff within days of getting requests for less of it. Everyone is different, so you just have to “do you” as $herdog likes to say (third person $herdog = jackpot).

Cheesy Burger Picture

Let’s get mathy for a second. Usually once every 10,000 comments or so we get someone saying they’re not into a certain post (here’s a post about how we deal with criticism in case that helps). Thankfully when you do the math, that works out to less than .01% of comments being in that vein. Those odds aren’t that bad, right? By sharing your life with the internet at large, there’s so much encouragement and good that comes from it. And while there are definitely a very small percentage of people who might take the time to say “this post was so boring” or “I think you’re running out of things to do” – just know that someone has been sporadically saying that to us for years. Yet we’re still here blogging our pants off, following the exact same “formula” that we always have, and gratefully soaking up words of appreciation and encouragement from the vast majority of our readers.

#10. A happy blogger = happy readers. They can usually sense when you’re upset or nervous – and your blog is a lot more magnetic when you’re just being your happy-go-lucky self. So throw caution into the wind and blog to your little heart’s content! When in doubt, try picturing an imaginary bumper sticker that says:

Blog Like No One Is Watching

I like that Burger weaseled his way in there. Such a ham. Anyway, that’s my brain dump. I hope it helps at least one or two of you out there who might be starting a blog or struggling with what to post about. And I’d love to hear from you guys on the subject of post subjects! Any advice for Nina? Is there anyone else out there who feels pressure before clicking that “publish” button? Do you have a mental checklist that you go through before you write about something or just share whatever’s banging around in your head? Tell $herdog all about it.

Update – Some of the most frequent requests that we get are for info about professionally blogging (how we made our site, how we grew our following, how we make money, etc) so we shared all of the details about how we started a blog, grew our traffic, and turned it into a full time job. 

Comments

  1. Meredith says

    I love you guys! I officially consider myself a YHL evangelist as I have turned at least 2 people onto your blog. :)

    Reply

  5. Andrea says

    Hey YHL! I am a HUGE fan! I check in every day for your posts. I feel like we are friends…yet you don’t know me, I just know you. Stalker-ish, I know, sorry about that. :) I LOVED this post. I actually just started a blog too. I am an avid blog reader and your blog and Kelle Hampton’s blog (enjoying the small things) are two that have inspired me the most to start documenting my own journey through a blog.

    I am curious, I know you did a post a while back about your feeling of safety and the blog, but do you ever worry that putting so much information out there could cause you trouble for your safety? That is one thing I struggle with as I have started my new blog. I want to share and be open, but I don’t want to have my information fall into the wrong hands. Just curious what yall think:)

    Thanks for keeping it real and for the suggestions. They were very helpful!

    -Andrea (AMK)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Andrea! I know what you mean about feeling like you put a lot out there. One thing that has really helped us is getting a great alarm system. I worry so much less when we travel and even when we’re at home. The other thing I like to remind myself is that we try to be smart about what we share (we don’t share our address, house number, neighborhood info, etc) and there are probably folks out there with a lot more money/valuables (ex: famous people, haha) so if someone broke into our house they would just get a pillow or two. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  6. Tara H. says

    Great advice guys!!! I go through rough patches on mustering up my dedication to the blog. I’m hoping to revive it this week! Thanks for the help.

    Reply

  7. Christa says

    Great advice! I like your idea of finding a pace that works for you. I blog for me and no one else. I do what I like and talk to my readers (the few that I have) like I would talk to a friend. And since my friends care about what I do, I just imagine my readers do too.

    Reply

  8. Jess @ Little House. Big Heart. says

    Wow. Thanks so much for this.

    This advice is right on time for us; LHBH is growing and we feel a lot of pressure on posting. Being a self-conscious perfectionist I fret over what to post, if people will like it, if a post is too long or too short… About everything in short.

    Thanks again for the blog love and encouragement!

    PS. We’re blogging about one of things we’re most excited about all this week… Our puppies! It’s Doggie Week at LHBH! :)

    Reply

  9. Emily says

    I just started blogging about eight months ago and my husband was complementing my style the other day. I told him I have good blog role models. That would be you guys! (and Katie B.) :-)

    Reply

  10. Kristen | Popcorn on the Stove says

    Great advice! When I started blogging, I was unsure about what to post, too, thinking no one would like it. I tried posting at least once a day, Monday – Friday, and the more I wrote, the easier it got. Over the past year, I’ve met some lovely people and I think part of it is because I’m very very open about my life.

    Reply

  11. Ginny @ goofymonkeys says

    You guys do a great blog and I think Nina asks some great stuff. I don’t really have a checklist for what makes a good post, but I do read a lot of blogs to get ideas for what might be interesting. I figure if I like reading about it, then others might like to hear what I have to say about something similar.

    I think it takes some work to start thinking about your day as a series of things that someone else might find interesting. Maybe you have a great method for folding a fitted sheet, a unique omelette concoction, a funny photo of your cat/dog/child, or an interesting solution to a problem around the house. Those are the things you may want to share.

    Reply

  12. rachael says

    I think your home inspires people but your success at blogging seems to be another inspiration for some people!! I always look forward to all your posts no matter what the topic is, and its rare but sometimes I do scroll through the pictures. We built a deck last summer so I have no desire to read every word on runs and risers, my husband likes to, but that deck was almost the death of us, so now I’m looking forward to you decorating it! I’m glad you guys just go with your gut and post whats going on in your life, its definitely what draws me in every day.

    Reply

  14. Gabriella @ Our Life In Action says

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love all your posts but these ones even more so since I started blogging. I am new to it and sometime feel like I’m “doing it wrong” if that makes any sense.

    Anyways – thank you again – any an all tips you provide are greatly appreciated.

    Reply

  16. Christina @ Homemade Ocean says

    WHAT A GREAT POST!!!!!

    Today is my blogs one month anniversary and my biggest fear is running out of things to talk about. Seriously, I have dreams about it.

    I really appreciate all of the advice you guys hand out, you are always so helpful.

    Seriously, THANK YOU for writing this post :)

    Reply

  17. KathyG says

    It’s such an interesting anomaly that the best way to make a success on the (anonymous) internet is to create a big community.

    Quick Question, when you say xxx number of comments, is that counting your own as well? I always wondered how that works for blog statistics.

    Reply

  18. Casey @ wafflingdesign says

    Great post! I often get discouraged too, but I just keep on trucking!

    I want to add more “me” in but I feel selfconscious of posting photos of family and friends when I go to a fun event. How do you address that? I try to ask if it is ok with people, but I dont want it to get awkward

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I totally know what you mean! We generally like to say things as we’re snapping like “this is for the blog- anyone object? anyone want to jump out of the pic?” – usually folks just get weird and smile and look at the camera. Haha. But occasionally we have friends and relatives jump out of the pic :)

      xo,
      s

  19. Rebecca says

    Thank you for such great advice! I just started my blog about a month ago, so I really appreciated this post. It’s hard to continually come up with new material, but I’ve found that if you’re really excited about something, the writing just flows.

    Thanks so much for your words of wisdom and encouragement!

    Reply

  20. Julia @ Chris Loves Julia says

    Great post. It makes me proud to be a part of the house blogging community. And I think when you have found your groove–in just the ways you described above–you really do feel like you have found a spot in the community.

    BTW, in this virtual community–let’s live on the same block! ;)

    Reply

  22. GretchenF says

    I think I can honestly say that I’ve read every single post – when I discovered the blog I went back and read the Archives. Because even if it doesn’t apply to something I’m doing right now, I can file it away for later.

    Reply

  24. Robin @ our semi organic life says

    You guys do make great blogging role models. I’ve been blogging for almost 2 years but find myself in publish crazy months, and others where I have nothing to say. You’re right about posts feeling right. I’ve got stuff in draft mode from forever ago that I just can’t seem to get around to finishing… guess that should tell me something. Great post, about posts!

    Reply

  25. Brittany says

    mildly related:
    How on earth did you get that instagram bar over in your ad column? I’m a photography blogger, it’d be pretty sweet to have my instagram in my blog. I use wordpress with a custom template so it’s similar to what you have here – at least I think it is.

    Reply

  26. Tara says

    Just wanted to let you know that I read your all of your posts everyday regardless of topic. I never skip or skim. I know absolutely nothing about hammers, nails, painting etc. Basically I’m living vicariously through you in my DIY dreams. Please just keep doing what your doing!

    Reply

  27. Kristy Swain says

    Excellent advice! I’m having one of those weeks now where it’s not terribly exciting stuff going on… you know, garage org stuff. Oh well, I’ll post about it anyway. I’ve learned to let myself off the hook, too, when the day or week is just too busy to get posts in. I do think I lead to learn to put more personal stuff in. It’s a tough call when it’s a blog connected to your business… how personal do you get… that sort of thing. I will eventually get the swing of that. Thanks for the brain dump. Great stuff! Very encouraging.

    Reply

    • Stefani says

      Kristy,
      I agree with you about the challenge of adding in personal details while trying to remain professional if you blog as part of your business. And also if you have a personal blog plus your own business (separately) you might worry about clients doing a google search, finding your blog, and then knowing more about you than you might be comfortable with. I feel conflicted about that as well. Lots to think about!

      I do agree though that blogs that share personal information are WAY more interesting than blogs that focus only on more superficial non-personal topics. I love knowing about the people and lives, joys and stresses of blog writers because then I can relate to them as a fellow person.

      I think that’s why all us devoted readers of YHL feel like John and Sherry are our friends :) because they are willing to share the little personal things and not just be a cold impersonal DIY forum. That’s why I love this blog!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw, you guys are our friends! Totally and completely. We laugh about funny things you guys say while we lay in bed at night. Haha. We’re so weird, but you really are like friends to us.

      xo,
      s

  28. Stephanie says

    This was a great post. Really great advise for blogging and life. Although I had to say, since I am not a blogger, my biggest takeaway was “Hey… there was no Wedding Week this year.”

    Honestly, I WANT to be a blogger but I have attempted to start a blog before and I am a fail. As in I forget about it and never remember to write posts. Like I want to because I enjoy writing and I think having somewhere to post thoughts would be interesting. (There’s a whole lot of crazy in this head!) I think my issue is between working full time, owning a home and having a social life, where do you find the time??

    Now I have the urge to start a blog again.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw good luck Stephanie! A rhythm that worked for us when we both worked full time was to each write a post every other night (ex: I would write on Mon, Wed, Fri and John would write Tues, Thurs, and Sat).

      xo,
      s

    • Jillian @ Hi! It's Jilly says

      One thing you can do is write two or three posts at the same time and schedule them to be posted on different days, so your blog still has updated content, but you’re not on the computer for a long time every.single.night.

  29. Barbara says

    I love that picture of John and Burger…so silly.

    I’m on a sort-of blog break. I was posting every day and then the thoughts just stopped. I think when your life gets crazy you either blog a lot or stop for a while.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Totally! I have some friends who take breaks and come back with so much awesome momentum and excitement. I think we’re nervous if we stop we’ll never start again – haha!

      xo
      s

  30. Alison says

    I loved this post! Sometimes I get stressed – I want my little blog to do well – and it’s really encouraging to read these tips one of my favorite bloggers (not to be a total creeper, but I spent like 10 minutes the other day telling my boyfriend why you are so awesome)

    I especially love the one about being yourself. It’s hard to remember that sometimes!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks guys! You’re all so sweet. It’s funny to hear that we inspire you guys since you all inspire us so much. Seriously, you keep us going!

      xo,
      s

  31. Lisa@Cozy Condo Living says

    You two are so cool taking the time to answer a new blogger’s question. I would say that personality plays a large part in whether or not I follow a blog. Also, I want to learn something new. YHL definitely delivers on both! Can’t wait for your book.

    Reply

  32. Crystal @ 29 Rue House says

    I love when you guys post about his kind of stuff and that you’re so encouraging of other people wanting to blog. I’ve definitely found that certain things that you included help (i.e. finding a pace, skipping blah posts or even posting if not in it). If I do these (and more) things then I enjoy it more and although I’d love to have more readers, I’m doing it for myself.

    Reply

  33. Katie Rose says

    Outsider view. I do not have a blog but love reading them & have some family/friends who do. When they ask for my honest opinion, your #1 is always what I bring up. Most of them wait weeks or even months between blog posts. OCD me checks every day for a post that happens (literally) once in a blue moon. Then they act like they’ve been slighted the ONE day I don’t check and they actually post. Why do I want to keep checking your blog if your posts are so sporadic? Oftentimes their number one excuse is “I have nothing to write about” and then I have to ask “then why do you have a blog?”

    Reply

  34. -alex says

    I read your blog every morning. I’m on the west coast, so after I delete all of the Living Social deals and other extraneous emails, I open your blog and see what you’re doing. It helps me cope with still being in a rental apartment 18 months after moving. Five house offers, two contract cancellations and nothing in sight is making me slightly crazy (along with two very active boys underfoot.) I’m storing up lots of great ideas for our eventual permanent home. Keep up the good work. (And if you wanted to provide a link to a PDF file of Burger’s bumper sticker, I’d download it in a heartbeat.)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha- we should totally make those bumper stickers and send them out to YHLers. Haha! It’s sadly too low res to print but feel free to drag it off from our post and print it for a little frame or something :)

      xo,
      s

  35. Colleen in MA says

    I met my husband because of my blog!

    That wasn’t the goal at all. I started a blog around 2005 to talk about things I was interested in, especially regarding Boston-area stuff because I like to write and because I was new to the area and looking to motivate myself to write about Boston area events and get myself out of the house.

    I gathered a few (very few) other Boston-area readers. It was all low key but I enjoyed it.

    One day I wrote a short post about how I had just been broken up with and how I was not going to post for a while. A reader who was beginning to feel like a friend said she’d like to buy me a martini and when we met up during a snowy winter evening she mentioned “this friend” of hers.

    Flash forward and “this friend” and me will celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. :) The blog reader who was friends with my future husband came to our wedding. Just follow your heart and have fun with your blog. Never know where it will lead. I’m living proof!

    Reply

  36. Sarah says

    I agree with you! On our blog, we just write about what we feel like. That’s the beauty of having your own blog- no one tells you what to do or how to do it! We blog about our home projects, our estate saling, our kid, our pets…anything we want!

    Reply

  37. Rebecca @ the lil house that could says

    I definitely agree with the sharing more of yourself part. I used to think I had to blog like a robot to not turn away readers, especially after becoming pregnant. Then I realized that the few posts about my pregnancy, baby and motherhood that I wrote got the best responses… and they were therapeutic to write. Win/win!

    And now that I have a baby I went back to re-read both your cloth diaper and breastfeeding posts for some perspective and advice. Though maybe I wasn’t into them at the time, I remembered them and they came in handy later on :)

    Reply

  38. Hunter says

    I’m another one of those people who started a blog and then, somewhere along the way, it went and became part of a business.

    Two things I *always* try to keep in mind.

    1) Be respectful of the privacy of other people. This means I am careful of what I say about family and friends, and careful of what I show in pictures. I don’t want anyone to find something on my site and have them wish I’d not shared it.

    2) Be fair and aware of people’s feelings if I have a complaint or a criticism. Not every product I ever talk about will be 100% perfect. But it *is* likely someone’s baby and something that someone has worked hard on. I try and be very fair when I do have a problem with something, and to make it clear when I think it’s a fundamental problem or if it’s just some quirk specific to how I’m interacting with that item.

    Keeping both of those things in mind helps me feel like I’m not stepping on any toes, which in turn gives me license to babble on about all sorts of stuff.

    Reply

  39. GreekWife says

    My biggest advice is don’t write about being self conscious! I just pretend people love reading my blog, then I get feedback that they actually do. Some writers I know spend a lot of time fretting over who is reading or if it is worth it, and it makes it hard to stay connected to them.

    P.S. – I have the same shirt that you are wearing in the picture with Clara. It was a perfect breastfeeding shirt!(Old Navy right?). It fell apart the other week and I was so sad. Womp womp :(

    Reply

  40. Melissa Sharp says

    I love this post. I might have to reread it a few more times so that the points are ully taken to heart.

    I struggle with some of this a bit. Okay, a lot. My blog’s niche is so narrow and focused. I do get burned out writing about the same thing day after day (and as such, I go off and stop blogging for months at a time). It would be refreshing to me to branch out of my genre, but I feel that readers would feel I had jumped the shark if I did.

    Dilemmas.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That’s so hard! What about posting to talk about it? Maybe not asking everyone for their opinions (not everyone will agree and that can be even harder) but maybe just putting a post out there acknowledging that you’d love to branch out and you know some people might like your blog less for it and some people might like it more but it feels right to you. There’s so much freedom in putting things like that out there and acknowledging that it might not please everyone but it might be the best thing for your blog :)

      xo,
      s

  41. Lauren@FilingJointly says

    Thanks for this post. My blog is a different genre than yours (I never DIY because of how both my husband and my father do now allow me near power tools and hammers,) and I feel so much pressure to be funny every single day.

    And some days I am not funny. Some days it is funny how unfunny I am.

    I just have to tell myself You can’t win ’em all!

    Reply

  42. Jillian @ Hi! It's Jilly says

    I loved this post. Your blog is one of the first ones I starting reading all the time years ago. Blogging is so much fun! My issue right now is finding a balance between posting, commenting on other blogs, etc. and getting the stuff done around the house that I *need* to…like that big ‘ole stack of dishes over there!

    Reply

  43. Jenny says

    One thing you didn’t mention that can help when you’re having that what do I blog about moment is to have a themed/fill-in-the-blank type posts. You guys have your monthly posts, your sponsor roundups, you used to do a lot of mood boards… posts where the concept is already there, you just have to flesh it out. A lot of blogs do this weekly, like with Friday instagram posts, Wordless Wednesday, etc.

    Sometimes you just can’t think of anything to write, but if you’ve got a selection of ideas that just take some time to write up, it can help!

    Reply

  44. Julie (from Pocketful of Joules) says

    Oh my gosh, I love your advice and absolutely agree.

    When I started my blog it had a marketing/business focus and it just slowly evolved to being more about ME just being ME. And people seem to like it so much more than when I was trying too hard to make it work. I mean, in the last couple weeks I’ve blogged about my incredibly ugly green bathroom, my adventures in almost using a hoarder for childcare and the weird search terms people use to find my website. If that’s not being randomly me, I don’t know what is!

    Love you guys! Joules

    Reply

  45. Bethany says

    Love this post. Thanks for keeping it rizzy! Any updates on the book tour~ would love to see ya in Chicago to get my books autographed!!!!

    Reply

  46. Anna says

    Love this. While for some it might be mundane, it is this type of look at your real lives that makes your blog so personal! Thanks for keepin’ it real, yo. (Guess a little $herdog style snuck in there.)

    Reply

  48. Christina @ Homemade Ocean says

    Also….because I have been sitting here thinking…

    It is posts like this that finally inspired me to just take the leap and do it.

    I have been reading your blog since 2009 and I think my favorite thing has been watching you all grow. I think that is the neatest thing about blogging….you document your life and can look back.

    Which is why after three years of watching and commenting and thinking, “man that would be fun” I finally started.

    You all were my inspiration for blogging, the very first blog I got addicted to, and you will always be my daily entertainment, and gosh darnit people like you. Just thought you should know!

    Thanks for “doin your thang”

    Reply

  49. Amanda S. says

    I completely love this post. I just started blogging and was (literally) thinking yesterday – I would love feedback from YHL on how to get started. Thanks for the tips and creating such a fun place to read!

    Reply

  50. Jaime says

    I actually just started a blog and by just started I meant set one up. :P I am waiting for the munchkins to get back to school to get my projects rolling and post. I am soooo nervous! Thanks so much for the wisdom and encouragement. I am pretty darn sure I will be rereading this post a few times this week, Aaaahhhhh!

    Reply

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