Blogger Spotlight: A Life Just Ordinary

This week, we have James from A Life Just Ordinary taking part in the Blogger Spotlight interview.

If you would like to take part, and your blog is under six months old, or has been re-launched in the last six months, please email me randommusings29@gmail.com

1 Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself

I’m James, 37, dad to Joshua, 2, and husband to Sarah. Living in Reading and working at Heathrow. Generally very happy with my lot in life!

2 What is your blog’s name and what is it about?

A Life Just Ordinary – The Life & Times of Joshua’s Dad. Just another parenting blog talking about the roller coaster ride of emotions that is parenting a very active toddler! It’s generally intended to be amusing, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide whether or not that’s the case!

3 Why did you decide to start a blog?

I used to ‘keep’ a blog when I was in my 20s, containing general rubbish about life of a then single 20 something – at the time blogging felt quite new and exciting and all my friends were doing it! After 3 years and having met my future wife I stopped writing because I found lots of other things to do with my time! But a few weeks ago I started reading some parenting blogs and remembered how much I used to enjoy writing – and my new blog was born!

4 Do you have any goals for your blog?

Absolutely none at first! It was just somewhere for me to write stuff when my other half was on late shift at work, but people started reading it after a while and leaving nice comments, so now the aim is to try to keep people smiling and hopefully coming back to read the next post! I find writing for pleasure to be a really enjoyable thing to do in my spare time and a nice change from the more formal stuff at work!

5 Tell us one random fact about you

I have a mild grammar obsession. And 40 stitches from jumping through a closed patio window aged 8. Not recommended!!

6 What is the best piece of blog related advice you have received so far?

I think just to write about what you know and what you personally enjoy. If you get too caught up in stats and pleasing people, or finding a niche I think it loses the point of doing it, unless of course you are trying to make a career out of it! When I read blogs I’m attracted to those where the writer’s personality shines through – they could write about the most mundane subject but it would still be a great read, so the best advice is to let your personality free!

7 What is your favourite thing about blogging?

I don’t read books at all, so blogging has actually got me back into reading as well as getting me back into writing! There’s also a great sense of community I’ve found so far where it’s pretty easy to get talking to new people. But my most enjoyable thing is knowing that people are getting some entertainment out of what I have written at home on the sofa – being able to connect to people across the world so easily is awesome and is what motivates me to keep writing!

8 Is there anything you would do differently if you were starting over knowing what you know now?

I don’t think so. I could say about going self-hosted from the start to save the hassle of switching after a few weeks, or using more pictures from the start (because people love pictures!) or using social media more effectively but as I never had any major blogging ambitions those things just weren’t important to me at the time. I’m happy where I’ve got to and I think that starting slowly and gradually building up has been the best approach for me.

9 Anything else you’d like to share with us?

I also write about women’s football on Facebook (Reading FC specifically!) and spend increasingly unhealthy amounts of time on Twitter! Both social media and blogging are pretty addictive!!

10 Where can we find you? (blog link and links to any social media)

Www.alifejustordinary.com for my blog.

JoshuasDadJames on Twitter

Jamesyboy1978 on Instagram