The Blogger’s Corner series is an interview series featuring advice and experience from bloggers whose blogs are older than six months.
If you would like to take part, you can find all of the details here.
This week, we have the lovely Charlotte from The Mummy Toolbox.
1 Introduce yourself
My name is Charlotte from The Mummy Toolbox, new mum of two (a 5-year-old boy and a new born girl.)
I am an avid runner, swimmer and netballer as well as a wife, volunteer and freelance writer who attempts to dabble in cooking (okay eating) in my very little spare time.
Honestly, I am just trying to navigate life being a young mum and surviving motherhood since 2012.
2 Tell us a little bit about your blog
I started The Mummy Toolbox just under 2 years ago (our 2nd bloggerversary is coming up, yay!) as an outlet for myself and a way of getting out into the world as I was quite isolated when my littlest was born.
It has definitely improved my confidence, opened up avenues to go self-employed and gives me a little patch of the internet to ramble and hopefully try to help and inspire others.
3 What can your readers learn from your blog?
My blog is my little slice of chaos and I am probably less “niche” than I should be. Primarily because my life is full of a variety of different layers, I tend to blog about everything and have a variety of different categories that I blog about but my main ones are:
- Health & Fitness
- Parenting
- Motivation
- Food
- Cat Corner
What I enjoy about my blog is that it follows the trends of my life, for example I was recently pregnant so it was very parenting orientated but from one moment to the next I can cover a ton of different content which I have left myself open to which I quite like.
I also share my weight loss and fitness journey that led me to lose 5 stone and get a new lease on life and I try to give ideas to others on how to do the same.
4 What’s your favourite thing about blogging?
I enjoy being able to express myself because although I come across as a bit of a social butterfly, I am actually quite anxious about how I come across and this can make me avoid certain situations or overthink things too much (which is exhausting).
With my blog I can be open and honest as well as try to help others without worrying about how I come across.
I have also been very fortunate that I have avoided a lot of the trolls (touch wood) so it has been quite a positive, confidence boosting experience.
Plus, I love a chance to chat, I’m a bit of an over-sharer, so this is the perfect medium for me.
5 And your least favourite thing about blogging?
It can be all consuming. I have a busy life anyway but throwing in blogging and the time and effort to make it what I want can interfere with other parts of my life.
This is the downside to choosing to write about everything, I have so much content saved in my drafts or in my head, or on scrap pieces of paper that I want to share but I can’t always find the time.
I would post every day if I could, but for the time being I have to resign myself to 1-2 times per week (for now).
6 Tell us one random fact about you
I am hard of hearing. I have less than 50% hearing in my ears across them both and actually don’t have any hearing bones in one of them.
I should wear hearing aids but I do so much exercise they don’t tend to stay in or are uncomfortable (and then I forget and leave them places) so I primarily rely on lip reading to understand what people are saying. Not many realise I can’t really hear their voices.
7 If you could only blog about one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
I don’t think I could. The variety is one of the parts I enjoy.
But if I had to choose it would be my kids because they keep things interesting, go through different phases and developments that I would want to keep it documented, as well as being relatable and potentially help others as well.
8 What was the hardest part of starting your blog and why?
For me it was choosing a name, colours and a logo because I knew what I wanted to write about but I didn’t know what name or style I wanted.
Plus, I am quite fickle with things like that so I didn’t want to choose something I would later hate. It took me about 2 weeks to decide and I am glad I waited because although I have had different blog themes, I have never changed my logo, colours or name and I am quite proud of them (my husband and I designed the logo together).
9 If you could give new bloggers one piece of advice, what would it be?
Just write. Unless you have a degree in writing, you won’t realise how crap you actually are at it until you’ve been doing it a couple of months, look back on previous posts and realise how far you have come.
So just write now and get experience, practice and develop your writing style and come back to some of the old posts and update them later when you have learned a little more (plus it’s good for SEO to keep updating so it’s win-win).
10 Is there anything you know now that you wish you’d known in the beginning?
I wish I had known how hard it is to get “out there” particularly on social media.
There is a bit of a knack to certain platforms and depending on the type of content you have depends on how you market it or show it off on social media.
I figured it was just a click and go but it is so much more than that. I wish I had started researching straight away.
11 Do you have any long-term goals for your blog?
My blog itself has allowed me to go self-employed and I use it as a sort of portfolio for my work but I would like to monetize the blog itself a little more so that I see more of a return on my effort (who wouldn’t?).
For the time being though, it is more a labour of love and I am not really pushing it. I haven’t found an organic direction to monetize The Mummy Toolbox yet and I don’t want to force it.
12 Who’s your blogging hero?
Amy from AmyTreasure.com is one of my favourites because I love her writing style and she just seems to capture what I want to say. She is definitely who I look up to in terms of writing.
Also, Sue from SizzlingTowardsSixty.com as she is my fitness idol and fellow running lover. She definitely motivates me on social media too.
13 What’s your favourite social media network and why?
For enjoyment I love a bit of Instagram, because I love looking at the snippets from people’s lives and how they look at certain things plus its where I get the most fitness and exercise motivation.
For my blog though, Pinterest all the way, I love making long images and it accounts for most of my traffic.
14 Where can we find you? (blog link and links to any social media)
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