2018 in Blogging

January 2, 2019 By Hollie in Reads Tags: blog, blogger, blogging, digital marketing, goals, opinion, social media 26 Comments

Around the end of the year, I like to reflect on both running and blogging. Typically around this time, I wonder if I want to continue my blog. Is it worth it to renew the $300 platform?

As it’s trended the last few years, blogging is dying. Podcasts, Instagram, and other social media is taking over. No one has “time” to read anymore. Not that I need anyone to read my blog. I don’t have a coaching service or a product to sell, it’s just my life. The way the blog stays afloat is by the occasional sponsored posts as well as the sidebar ads. To keep the blog running, it does cost about $300 a year.

As you can see from the chart, my blog grew when I started in mid-2010, and then around 2015 began to fade. Most people refer to quick and easy information now, and Instagram seems to be the platform of choice for race recaps, training, and whatever else. I don’t foresee myself writing long captions on instagram anytime soon. A picture tells 1000 words, and I like to keep it that way.

I’m not sad or being negative; those are just the facts of blogging and my personal blog. For me, the days of 1000 views regularly are gone, and that is okay.

So back to Blogging in 2018:

Most viewed posts

Tips for Morning Workouts

Blogging is Dying.

New York City Marathon Race Recap (3:07.15)

I Have a Fall Goal Race

Phoenix Half Marathon (1:22.03)

20 Running Podcasts to Keep You Entertained

What Will Happen in 2019?

I renewed my blog, so, for now, I’ll continue it. I can’t say for 100% certainty that I see myself blogging through the entire year. I’ve said that every year, but truthfully I never know. Right now, I plan to continue blogging. Maybe less, or maybe trying to find more sponsored posts to keep it worthwhile to keep going. I’ve thought about just going to newsletter format as well. A newsletter is cheaper and I could still have a record of race recaps and information, I could refer too. still something I’m very much contemplating but it would be a big change and a lot of work to get there.

In short 2018 didn’t change a lot. Blogging is dying. Instagram and podcasts are growing So I guess I don’t know what will happen in 2019. Something completely new and different could happen in social media too.

Questions for you:

Bloggers and Readers, I would love to hear your thoughts on blogging, social media, and changes.

Why You Don’t See Many Negative Sponsored Posts

June 15, 2018 By Hollie in Articles, DailyMusings Tags: blog, blogging, fitness, health, social media 13 Comments

I’ll address the white elephant in the blogging room:

It would involve the following scenario:

Blogger and Company Talk and Agree on some sort of terms of an agreement (product, payment, whatever)

The company sends blogger thing to review (and maybe even pays the blogger for review)

Blogger bashes the company and says it’s garbage.

Therefore the company just sent and possibly paid someone for bad publicity.

The company might lose many potential customers because everything on the internet is true. Even if that product might work for someone else.

I’ll tell you first, why you don’t see it here.

I only accept brands I’ve used for long periods of time and already like. Some brands I’ve worked with before include Vital Proteins, Vitamin Shoppe, Runners World, even brands like Scott, and places for the military to get their hair cut like Great Clips.

I don’t try and set myself up for failure with a brand, or something I know won’t work.

So now you must think, wow Hollie just has favorable luck with everything?

That is not the case! There have been plenty of higher paying (for me anyway) campaigns I have turned down. While my blog does not garner the attention of $1000+ influencer “deals,” I do know, of course, they exist!

I look at every single offer that is given to me. I’m not going to ever choose something I already know I won’t like…that’s dumb. (just like I’m not going to go to a diner with 0 stars but 1000 yelp reviews…LOL).

Here are a Few Recent Examples of Things I Turned Down that Would Have Been Negative:

On several occasions, I’ve gotten requests to post already written blog posts. Prewritten content isn’t a big deal, and I’ve been happy to post prewritten content if it makes sense. I turned this particular post down because of the material.

The content was about losing weight. While many people do need to lose weight and exercise, that isn’t that focus on my blog. My blog isn’t about losing weight, and that isn’t the tone I want to set. The company was going to pay me $200 to just copy and paste into my blog. It was a lot but for me, wasn’t worth it.

A few months ago, I turned down a campaign for the promotion of an app having to do with babies. I have no children, but because many of the readers do, the brand thought it was a good fit. It didn’t make sense, and it makes more sense for someone who has children to blog about that!

The last and best example is recently I was sent free activewear as well as a monthly subscription to a brand (about $50 per month). On the website, the workout and lounge gear looked nice and something I could use.

When I received the activewear, it wasn’t the style wasn’t for me. I emailed the brand my honest feedback and exactly what I planned to blog.

I actually didn’t workout in or wear the apparel at all. In the email, I also said I wouldn’t be posting photos of me wearing the attire because I wasn’t my style nor the style I wanted to portray. I was more than happy to send the clothing (with tags) back, and they could use it for someone who is a better fit for the style. Instead of taking a few photos and making a few extra dollars, I sent the clothing back. I don’t have any regrets about that.

My point is, that is why you won’t see too many negative sponsored posts. For me personally, I don’t accept every single campaign. I won’t promote anything I don’t like or use. Do I have to absolutely LOVE something like a free haircut to the military on certain days? No, but do I think it’s an awesome gesture, of course, I do.

I am fortunate that I don’t rely on blogging as my full-time income or job. From this post, it sounds like I’m given dozens of opportunities every day, but I can assure you I don’t! Unless you are one of the top bloggers, blogging is not a luxurious job that generates an easy and high paying income. I blog because I like to share my story and things I’ve learned along the way. It’s nice to make money and cover the costs of blogging, so it remains a freeish hobby, but I cannot see myself pursuing trying to “grow” and making it fulltime. (I appreciate those who have worked hard to do so though!)

I don’t have a question today, but more of opinions on topics like influencers sponsored posts and making money as a blogger.

Blogging is Dying.

April 25, 2018 By Hollie in Reads Tags: blog, bloggers, blogging, digital, life, running, social media 68 Comments

Blogging is Dying.

There I said it.

I’ve actually had a document on my computer titled: “blogging is dying” for a couple of months now. Past that, I haven’t continued the post. Maybe I was waiting for the best moment to post it, maybe not. Either way, blogging is slowly dying.

I’ve contemplated writing this post for a while now, but I don’t know where to begin. It’s probably a mismatched bunch of words that don’t flow together but when is that anything new?

So here we go:

I started blogging in 2010 when blogging was beginning to grow. Everyone was blogging!

It was the new thing to do instead of writing a Facebook update that was 10 pages long. I think in 2010, I followed close to 20 blogs. I was captivated by their writing, and it ranged from runners, to triathletes, to even a chocolate blog (you know).

I followed people with similar interests. Most people were posting at least a few times a week, if not more. To be honest, I think most blogs posted daily, which I did too!

2012-2014, continued the trend and blogging continued to grow. As the years went by, new social media was created.

There were so many new platforms:

Instagram: To take photos of everything you did!

Twitter: To write short burbs and updates about life!

Facebook pages: When one facebook isn’t enough, get two!

Pinterest and more (to save blogs, recipes, and whatever else you’ll read or follow up on!

I remember kicking my feet at getting twitter…ugh another thing, I couldn’t keep up. I ultimately got most of them, except for Pinterest, because I just pin cat memes.

Then 2013 was a big year for me. I moved four times: New York to Virginia to Texas to New Jersey. I ran my first marathon, and moved in with a boyfriend at the time who put a ring on it (yes Tim). It was the year where I had no idea what I wanted to do. I lived off of savings, made some money blogging, and just job searched like any early 20 year old.

In 2014, life settled down a little bit (not much, but enough). My husband and I got engaged, settled in NJ, and I finally set a half marathon PR. 2014 for blogging was probably my “biggest year”.

What does biggest in blogging even mean?

Most page views? Most engagement? Most money made?

All three!

Then in 2014, a lot of things on the internet changed. Social media channels began to grow, and many runners turned to Instagram to document and give running advice. I tried to go that route with long blog post captions but quickly realized I liked Instagram for taking photos of pretty places. It isn’t my personal preference to write a novel caption about how inspired I was to get out there.

I run and come home. I don’t have an inspiring story about every run, I just get out there and do it. I’m just a woman in the Garden State trying to make it look cool. I don’t like to post half-naked photos and don’t like to give advice about running. I don’t want my account to be running only and don’t want to create a separate Instagram account for my personal life either.

My Instagram is my life whether I have a blog or not. It isn’t limited to running, because my life isn’t limited to running. Maybe I’ll never have a niche, but that is fine. My blog talks more about my training and life, while Instagram is just photos and short captions. A couple of weeks ago, my husband I celebrated our anniversary. Not running, but part of my life.

View this post on Instagram

Celebrating our 3 year anniversary.

A post shared by Hollie (@fueledbylolz) on Apr 12, 2018 at 4:39pm PDT

Anyway, with the growth of Instagram and other social media, came the slow fall of blogging.

It isn’t just blogging that has fallen, and many running publications have ceased too. For instance, Competitor magazine only exists online. Runners World was acquired by Hearst.

This post isn’t too bash anything or anyone. It’s just to briefly explain what I’ve observed in the last several years. It’s not the only view, and for some their blog has gotten bigger, which is great!

In summary, social media such as Instagram has grown. People would prefer free advice versus paying, and to be honest, people don’t want or have the time and interest to read blogs anymore.

So How do You Support Blogs?

The easiest way to support any blogger or let them know you’re reading is occasionally comment (and no I’m not begging for comments). Commenting or sharing posts/articles are two big ways to support bloggers without doing much.

Many people have told me in person, “love your blog” and to be honest I’m shocked they read. Sure, right now I average about 500 page views a day, but I rarely get more than 1-2 comments per post, so I have no clue who reads, if anyone! No one is a mind reader. I don’t expect anyone to read, but it’s always nice to hear from people who are.

I will still blog because I like too. I’ve stopped blogging every day, but I’ll continue to blog. This post is not meant to be negative, or put anyone down. It’s just the trend i’ve noticed throughout several years of blogging (which of course different people notice different things).

Questions for you:

How long have you been blogging? Is blogging dying? Discuss?

Blogging Review

December 29, 2017 By Hollie in Articles Tags: 2017, blog, blogging, life, recap 1 Comment

The year has come and gone. Last week, I recapped my running in 2017 and now it’s time to recap blogging since this is a Running Blog. I have begun to think a lot about blogging in 2018. Where is it going? Is it dying? Will fueledbyLOLZ die?

Eventually yes, all good things must come to an end. I have a longer post about the direction the blog will “go”. Mentally I have written the post, but I haven’t strung 500 words together. In summary, I probably won’t kill FueledbyLOLZ, but I will post less in 2018.

Instead of focusing on 2018 (which I will do at some point), it’s always fun to look back at the year and hanging out with friends and fellow bloggers and internet users.

Danielle, Amelia, and I

Most Popular Posts from 2017:

My Running Story: My about me, running page.

My Running Burnout: What led to about 4 months off of running/racing.

Should You Race in Racing Flats?

Care Free Training

Interestingly enough, a lot of my shoe posts are the “top” posts. Yet, they seem to have the least comments.

Top Referrers:

Twitter

Facebook

Blogging brought many new friendships!
Photo Credit Marty D.

Thoughts about Blogging:

I do like blogging and I enjoy it as an outlet. For me, blogging will never pay “the bills”. I am lucky that I do occasionally get sponsored posts which equate to extra spending money. Those come and go and are completely unpredictable.

Plus, I don’t accept sponsored posts from something I wouldn’t personally use or buy which also limits how many I receive. It’s nice to receive sponsored posts, but will they pay the bills? No. It’s also nice to receive free product to review and try, and I’m always cautious when I do that (for instance, I’m clear in shoe reviews if I didn’t pay for shoes…which 95% of the time, I paid for them).

The platforms of which people choose to blog is also changing. With Instagram growing, many running bloggers have stopped sharing posts or writing lengthy posts and gone to microposts on instagram. You must do what works for you. I am not there yet because I do see blogging as an outlet. While my grammar and spelling leave a lot to be desired, it’s nice to connect with other bloggers and readers in that form, especially my “real life” friends (and dad) that don’t use social media but subscribe only to blog posts.

Blogging is 2017 wasn’t my highest viewership, in fact one of my lowest, but I still enjoyed it. At the end of the day I blog for “me” but it’s nice to share the experience with others. If I wanted to keep a personal diary (which I do keep a personal notepad), I wouldn’t press publish on a public website. Thanks wordpress for being more organized than I am…

Questions for you:

Bloggers: How was your 2017 in terms of actual blogging?

Do you have a favorite post? Do you keep a personal diary?

Reflecting on 7 Years of Blogging

August 9, 2017 By Hollie in Uncategorized Tags: blog, blogging, life 26 Comments

Blogging has changed a lot since I started in August of 2010. You can read my first post here. Sure, I could correct several spelling errors in my first post ever, but it wouldn’t be as “authentic”. So I leave it as my 2010 college self-wrote it.

If anything has remained the same in my blogging, it’s that I don’t have the best grammar or spelling. I spell check, but there is always something. If you have ever held a conversation with me in real life, you know I talk a mile and minute, and my blog is pretty much the same.

But Back to Blogging in General…

I feel like a crabby, old fashioned blogger even saying that blogging has changed so much. When I first started blogging, it was just that. Blogging.

There was no Instagrams, twitters and people did not make facebooks for their page. You just wrote stuff and hoped someone subscribed through email. After you posted an entry, you moved on with life.

Now blogging is more competitive and social media is far more advance. You don’t write something and move on. You write something, link it to all of your social media, multiple times, promote, promote, promote and maybe promote some more. By the time you finished pushing your master piece of writing, it’s time to promote the next one. It’s no wonder blogging can get so damn tiresome. The least time-consuming portion of blogging is writing the post.

Hey you!!! Have you subscribed to my internet?

But here we are. I often reflect on blogging. Many bloggers who started much later than I did make a full-time income from blogging. They do the ten (thousand) step process of blogging, great content, and whatever else it takes.

The first LOLZ header is 2010.

That is their choice but blogging full time has never been mine.

Is it great to make money from something you work hard at? Of course. The majority of the money I now make through blogging pays for the 10,000 races I run each year with it…but that is really it. I don’t make a full-time income and I don’t spend hours on content creation and sponsored posts.

An early header

Part of the reason begins with I won’t promote products I don’t personally stand behind. I can truly say I’ve used and enjoyed every product I’ve promoted on this blog. Throughout the last 7 years, I’ve probably turned down close to 5,000 dollars worth of sponsored posts (whether money or product) because it doesn’t reflect my life or interests.

If you blog full time, you make more money by taking more sponsored posts. You can’t “love” everything so you cannot like and use every single product you promote. It’s a fine balance of blogging about product, life, and whatever else. Too many sponsored posts and you are a fraud. Too few sponsored posts and you eat ramen for dinner. That sort of balance doesn’t interest me.

Plus, to be honest I don’t sit still well. I don’t like sitting at home, I’m usually boring, and I don’t like to people, socialize, and network every moment of my life. I just like to run, eat at diners and talk about various topics that pop into my mind (like reflecting upon blogging).

So How Has Blogging Changed Since 2010?

First, as I just said I’m not a professional. Many bloggers, social media experts, and internet users know far more about “how blogging has changed”. I can tell you what I’ve noticed in the last several years.

From about 2010-2014 blogging thrived. Page views were high. There were months in 2013 and 2014, I would get 50,000 page views on LOLZ blog. I wasn’t even a popular, superstar blogger, so I can’t imagine what others got! But people were visiting blogs! Blogging was booming! There wasn’t a lot of excess social media. Just people and blogs.

I remember when I first started my twitter, I kicked my feet. Everyone had a twitter, but I didn’t find it appealing or necessary. I was finishing my junior year of college, barely staying afloat in Spanish class and dreaming of math equations and proofs. Then I started a twitter, and it’s still probably my favorite platform. You can follow people and things and not be creepy. There isn’t anything you really can’t follow on twitter at this point.

In 2014-2015, Instagram was starting to evolve and pop up. More people had instagrams, but the captions were short. I would Instagram everything. My coffee, flowers, dirt, a pineapple sitting on top of a cup. Then I would filter the $hit out of it pretending I was a professional photographer.

Now you can find Instagram captions that are longer than some blog posts. As Instagram continued to grow, blogging began to fall. My blog that once got 50,000 monthly views now gets about 20,000.

In the recent few years, several of my favorite bloggers shut down their blogs. Also, blogs that used to post weekly went to 1-2 times per month. Few people blog but more people used Instagram! My reader has dwindled for several posts daily to 1-2 per day that consistently update.

Now in 2017, the Instagram trend is still growing. With the addition of Instagram stories, which I occasionally use, it’s more fun and more live. As Instagram grows, I do find myself attempting to take more quality posts (all from my trusty phone). Personally, I like to follow friends and look at pretty photos. So I’m trying to mirror that. Will I ever take out a loan and buy some fancy camera. No…

Just after college graduation header

So where does that leave the mother hen old lady LOLZ blog?

Will I continue to social media in year of blogging? Probably.

Will I continue to use all of my social media? Once again, probably.

Will I get a Strava? No, I can’t even remember to charge my Garmin.

I will continue blogging about life, running or whatever else happens. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, next week or next month (LOLZ to think about next year).

I don’t commit to anything. I don’t know what curves life will throw. I can’t guarantee, I won’t completely stop blogging for whatever reason but I have zero intentions today…not sorry I love talking too much.

Questions for you:

What is your favorite social media platform?

If you blog, how long have you been blogging for?

FueledByLOLZ

Running and Laughing through the Garden State

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