Hello there! It’s been a long time since my last blogpost. I am getting rusty with typing, I keep pressing the wrong keys, and in general, I’ve gone rusty with writing and blogging.
Oh writing, my first love. But oh boy, I really missed it.
Life has been utterly busy these past five years. Building and moving to our first home, having our third child, the two older kids starting school (mom nester feels!), and then moving house again (unexpectedly). It has been a rollercoaster ride.
In the betweens, I’ve tried to keep my sanity by learning more and working on my online business from dusk to dawn, by prayers (!!!), and a lot of coffee!
So many times, I have thought about closing my Etsy shop. The effort, the sleepless nights,and financial investments I have put into it seem to flip only a few folds of investment.
But I could never do it. Just like this blog, I did not auto-renew its domain renewal so that when it expires, it goes away for good. I want one less thing on my plate. But then the day came, I just could not do it. I remember the work and the content marketing I have put into it. So I paid the dues. And here we are again.
And this time, thankfully I did not close this blog.
So going forward, I have new plans. Here we go again:
New Plans for Mombrainwriting
Finance blog
First, I am going to revamp this blog into a finance blog. There is nothing wrong about talking about money. In my opinion, we must talk about it. Growing up, money was never the usual conversation during dinner. But it was the heavy cloud hanging over our heads all the time. Money was tight. We could not afford a lot of things and opportunities because of the lack of it. But financial literacy was unheard of. It was treated like a topic for the wealthy who have a tremendous amount of money to manage. But it should not be. So I am going to write more about it: how to make money specifically online, how to work smarter not harder, how to live simply under tight costs of living, and how to teach kids about saving and spending wisely.
Etsy knowledge base
Second, I will focus on growing my Etsy shops and I will write my experiences and discovery here. I have learned to love Etsy. It has been a perfect fit for my niche, my business model, and my interests.
Sell digital products
In this blog, I am going to offer digital products that will help other moms start, build, and grow their online Etsy businesses. I don’t have a concrete plan on this yet, but the vision is motivating me.
Final thoughts on being a mom having an online business
Starting a business is tough. Growing your business is tough. Anything in life is tough. And I wish I could tell you that as long as you put in the hard work, you will succeed. In online businesses, success is not guaranteed no matter the motivation. Honestly, we must keep up to date with trends, read financial reports, learn data analytics so that our efforts do not go futile.
It is an online business, thus you must learn how online works. And online means: keyword research, sales trends, statistics, data, data, data!
Gone are the days when you make an extraordinary product, and foot traffic assures you of sales. In the online world, you must do heavy lifting in digital marketing so that traffic goes into your website or marketplace shops. There is no such thing as foot traffic over the internet.
This is not to discourage you. This is being realistic.
Just because making money online is possible does not mean it is easy.
At the end of the day, I am thankful for this avenue of making money while being a mom. I am thankful I did not give up and close my Etsy shop! I now have three. Sure, I have not made millions but it has kept me sane through the years, wired my mombrain, and honestly, it’s a real business.
Time for my toddler to take a nap. I was able to write this because he was playing with legos. But now he’s found me here in our home office. He has to take a nap because he’s getting restless and I have to process a lot of orders on my Etsy shop. I have already gone reserve on my payments!
Talk to you later!