I sit here in front of my laptop, thinking about what my writing coach Jon said about my blog. He told me I am a natural writer, and I am finding my groove when writing about my blog’s life portion. My posts about food, cooking, and recipes are on point and well done.
Some recent suggestions he made were to improve the actual blog, not the writing. He thinks having archives with different categories is essential, and I should have a stronger search engine for readers to use. He knows that Marty and I set up the blog ourselves, but it may be time to find a web developer for help.
I explained to him that we aren’t able to hire a web designer since the blog has already cost me a lot of money. I had to pay for a domain name and hosting site plus a bunch of other computer stuff. That is when he reminded me that I should ask for financial donations from my readers that enjoy my writing. This is where my dilemma came in. Do I do it or not?
I love writing my blog and have written every day since I launched it in January. The blog takes a lot of time. Writing in-depth recipes for my cooking posts sometimes take 3-4 hours. Marty got me a laptop to be downstairs or eventually outside, not being cooped up in our home office on the second floor.
I have a ton of things that I would like to add to my blog. For my food posts, I would like a “jump to the recipe” button. Readers have suggested having a print button for the recipes as well. For the archives Jon suggested, I would like to have a recipes section, restaurant reviews, and a gluten-free guide of restaurants that offer safe gluten-free choices.
Jon has been a professional writer, reporter, and author his whole life, it’s his career, and he is brilliant at it. On the other hand, I am the co-owner and operator of a commercial food manufacturing company that takes up most of our time. I make time every day to write a blog post and look forward to it very much. I don’t have time to figure out the technical things necessary to improve my blog.
I am not writing this blog as a money-making venture, but Jon tells me repeatedly I should be getting paid for my work.
There is a “support my blog” section at the top of the page, and thus far, I’ve been blessed by a few people who have contributed.
So I guess after a lot of hemming and hawing about it…do it (ask for support) or not? I decided that I do want to improve my blog for my readers and thought fuck it, why not?