Change is Good….Confessions and Reasonings Behind The Blog Change

2 years ago it started with an idea to be a “Deal Blogger”, I had seen others do it so why couldn’t I share all my knowledge with the world too? I loved deals and saving money, in fact I was, what is known now-adays as an “extreme couponer”. Well, maybe not as extreme as those peeps on TV but, I was that crazy person clearing out shelves, spending hours cutting coupons and having an enormous stockpile of stuff. I started out with not knowing really much about blogging to having a growing blog. Of course, there is that saying, if I only knew then what I know now.

 

Sleep Can Wait, I Gotta Blog!
I have to start this with, if you follow any “Deal Bloggers” what I want you to do is remember to thank them. Whether it’s a comment on their blog, emailing them or just leaving them a quick hello on their FB page. Bloggers who write about coupons, deals, freebies etc put a lot of work into their blog. I mean a lot of them spend countless hours posting these deals. I found keeping up with it all was overwhelming! I was losing out on time with my family and slowly losing my sanity as I felt my blog was controlling me, I wasn’t controlling the blog. I found that there really wasn’t much time for sleep. Now it could have been because of my busy schedule and/or because the deals just never stop coming! I wasn’t going to bed before midnight and of course that made mommy cranky!  Over the past year, I actually started weaning out of being a Deal Blogger.
Oh, You’re Just a Coupon Blogger
Remember when blogging meant you were just a blogger? Well now, you may know there are so many niches of blogs that everyone is in a category. Of course writing about coupons or deals automatically made me a Deal Blogger. Even though over time I tried to write more original content about saving money, I was still labeled a Deal Blogger. I have been offended more than once when someone would tell me after telling them my site name, “Oh you are just a deal blogger, you don’t really blog you just copy press releases and other people’s deals“. Wait, what (said in my “oh no you didn’t tone”)?! Without even looking at my blog, I can’t even tell you how many times someone has passed me up for an opportunity of working with me or even bothered to pay my visit a visit because they said they thought I just blogged about deals that other people post or stuff they wouldn’t be interested in. It’s blog profiling I tell ya! Just because one writes about deals doesn’t mean they don’t have good things to share. By the way, it would take me hours to find deals and authenticate the content meaning I tracked down every single deal source I posted about and verified it, I didn’t just post random deals. Also, I didn’t copy other people.
You Copied Me!
Now, I know this isn’t strictly contained to Deal Bloggers and I hope no one is offended by this but I got tired of hearing accusations from other Deal Bloggers saying other bloggers were stealing their content. I was accused more than once and I watched friends who I knew were putting hours into their blogs getting accused as well! Here’s the thing, If you post about content from a publicized source, you run the risk of being seen as a copy-cat no matter the niche, but more so via Deal Bloggers. But I’m sorry, you are posting about something that is being offered that millions of people can see, it’s just not original content if it’s a deal so it’s not really fair to say someone writes about the same thing you just did. I got tired of seeing these accusations fly, honestly.
The Very Large Competition
Speaking of the niche of Deal Blogging, do you know how many other Deal Bloggers there are?! Oh thousands! It’s hard to stand out as a smaller Deal Blogger in a sea of larger Deal Blogger fish! Now, it didn’t mean that I too couldn’t become one day known as a large deal blogger I just didn’t have the time to devote to fighting my way to the spot! Also, a very wise Amy B Hole once said at a Bloggy Bootcamp Conference, “If someone is already doing it, you’re not going to succeed”. Ahhhhh but I am working so hard!! Which is why I was trying to focus more on MY saving money tips rather than the deals but I couldn’t break the mold. I was still, just a Deal Blogger.

The Straws That Broke The Bloggers Back
As I said before, I had been working on writing less deals and more original content before I switched blogs. There were 2 specific incidents though that can contribute to the change you see on this blog today. The first one has to do with Blogher11 and events that took place. I was actually overlooked as a candidate for a pretty cool event because the company saw my blog URL (did not visit my site) and assumed I just wrote about coupons and they would not use me for that event. Okay companies I get it, you THINK you know me just by 3 words. So let me change those 3 words!

The second incident was done by the evil Google. You see, a few weeks ago, they emailed me saying they were having trouble processing my payment for my URL, SuperSavingSense .com. So a few days went by before I was able to even do anything about it as it was a pretty emotional week. So then I updated my card info and sent them an email trying to make sure it was all I needed to do and oh ya I tried to call them but that was nothing short of a nightmare. Well imagine my surprise that when I went to my site last week, I found that they sold my domain. Yep, just like that the 2 years of work I put into my blog were gone. Now, I was able to pull everything off my blogspot and put it on this beautiful site you see here but there was no way for me to let my readers know other than FB and Twitter. Google had sold my site to some random spam site and this site even put up a picture of a cute blond, which I guess kudos to them for trying to fool my readers into thinking it was me.I was crushed, but I saw it as a sign of A) Get the hell off of Google and B) start this new blog I have been wanting to do. I am slightly flattered though, who knew my site was so popular that it was on a list of URLS to purchase once they became available!

So here I am today, I feel better letting go of being a Deal Blogger. I loved sharing my deals with so many but I just couldn’t keep up, and I definitely couldn’t keep up with some of the other bloggers out there. I’m happy to share my awesome knowledge with all of you though so I am going to keep on blogging!! I may even sneak in a few deals here and there. By the way, I am also no longer an extreme couponer! Something else that changed over time was I saw it as hoarding and I actually don’t really coupon much any more other than when I have time!

Thank you for sticking with my 1200+ word post!

Can you do me just two favors if you are reading this right now, head on over to my new Facebook page to “like” it? http://www.facebook.com/CleverPinkPirate

Also, this change would have not been possible with out the help of Becca from http://ourcrazyboys.com, please visit her site and show her some love.

Love,
Sara