I am not Organized-Blog Revamping and Niche Change to a Blog

What Are You Talking About-Intro?

Trying to Revamp Some Blogs
P. Lynne Designs

I had it all figured out.  I thought I could do it, 100% committed to this whole blogging thing.  I am ready, writing my posts and <tire screech> I do not.

I have been pouring my heart out with My Ambiance Life, stopping every couple of months to check on life (and my parents), and I forgot I have another two blogs I have totally ignored.  Yikes.

I thought I had closed one of them, Tricia’s Baskets, where all posts, sales, and news about The Longaberger Company lived.  It was the perfect place for someone to come, find out how to decorate with the product, and actually order from me. I started thinking, probably around 2016, that I should concentrate on my Facebook page, Tricia’s Baskets-Longaberger.  I have more to say on that for another day that does not have to do with Longaberger’s recent announcement.  As a consultant, you are allowed to run your business as you see fit, as long as it operates within the company’s policies.

The second blog, P. Lynne Designs is, of course, for my second company.  The idea of neglect there is concentrating on my Etsy shop by the same name, getting set up to move the whole writing portion to my WordPress store by the same name, P. Lynne Designs.  Life got in the way, or rather the whole idea of getting behind was overwhelming and doing too much too soon.  The store is still coming, but actual opening day sounds closer to Christmas 2018 than Summer 2018.  I have some kinks to work out, like when can life take a temporary backseat to me playing with the website to my liking and to potential customers.

Life tip: Sometimes, no matter how good you try to make things, you have to prepare to roll with the punches and adapt to the situation at hand.

What am I going to do about this?

I am regrouping these two blogs.  Due to recent events that I mentioned in two of my posts…. What are you fighting for…Prepare to Win and Motivational Monday: Self-Doubt, one of my blogs, Tricia’s Baskets is getting a regrouping and sort of a niche change.  The other, P. Lynne Designs, the blog needs a little updating. 

My thought Process-Tricia’s Baskets

As I said in the previous segment, I am regrouping and changing the subject (niche) on this blog.  At first, I was going to leave the blog as is, but again, due to Longaberger’s announcement to the Sales field, my future with them is up in the air for now.  I must think fast since I want to keep this blog open.  The best thing for me to do at this point is to change it to a home lifestyle blog, similar to the Simply Organized Crafts Blog I had two years ago.  I still have the name of “Simply Organized Crafts” on my Facebook page, so, I will officially change the name to Tricia’s Baskets-Home when I get the blog changed.  The name of the Blog will reflect that change, by me adding “Home” at the end of the name.  In case Longaberger decides to continue in the Direct Selling industry, I will keep this name, since I had planned on exiting the company at the end of June 2019.

My thought Process-P. Lynne Designs Blog

For this blog, I plan on updating it.  There will be no name change, and a simple, “Where have I been” post will suffice, for now.  I want to update it so that I can add it to the store portion when I get that part updated. Hopefully, I will not take too long to do it.

So, why am I Telling You my Plans?

To be honest, I am not sure.  Maybe I want to help you out in your blogging journey, and the only way it to give you my plans as examples.  Maybe it is to be accountable to not only to myself but to those people who have been reading my blogs (My Ambiance Life, P. Lynne Designs, and Tricia’s Baskets), subscribed to them, and waiting to see if I am going to post something new.  Or, perhaps I am admitting that I am human after all. I admit that I made mistakes in my businesses, and perhaps this is one way for all of us to learn from it.  I am glad that these mistakes are not the kind that costs me money or gets me in trouble with the law. 

My one takeaway from this is honest with yourself and your readers if you have a blog, a website, or any type of CyberMedia.  In fact, be honest, period. Admit to your mistakes, correct them, and move on from there. One of the things I admitted to in my “Self-Doubt” post is that I always blame my mistakes of the past on why I cannot get ahead.  I cannot go back to correct them, so, the only way to correct them is to learn and do not make the same mistake.  Regrouping and updating my blogs, P. Lynne Designs and Tricia’s Baskets is one way of correcting my mistakes.  I could have shut them down, but what good would it do my readers.  I am an influencer and I need to act like it.

I cannot speak for you.  I hope you learn from this exercise of becoming organized in your cyber life.  I want to take you all along for the ride of recreating these two blogs and in turn, learn how to update this one as well.  For this blog, I feel like I have outgrown Blogger, and have felt like that for a while, but that is another subject for another day since I had setbacks with this blog as well.  It is all in the process of being a writer in the 21^st century, as the writing industry has grown from the typewriter to what we have now, and do not get me started on that subject either.  I tend to have a “squirrel” mentality lately. (For those of you who have seen the Disney Movie,” Up” would know what I am talking about, LOL)

I hope you have enjoyed this post, and if you want to see more like it, let me know in the comments section.  

It is a Dog eat Dog World. A word on writing, niche, and business growth.

Not what you think.  Two months ago, nephew #1’s dog had puppies.  Strype has 2 sons, 5 daughters.  Some of the names are:  Cayman, Duchess, Princess, Penelope or Venelope (not sure what niece (7) named her), not sure with the other names are.  Great nephew called them all Scripy (he is 14 months, and trying to say Strype’s name, and cannot say the other names). 

I met all puppies but 2 of them yesterday.  When I first met Strype, she was about the size these new little ones were.  I was also glad she was named for the stripe down her nose, and a great tribute to a previously-owned dog also named Stripe.  We had this Stripe, who was a Beagle mixed with German Shepard for 18 years.  He was family, not saying that Strype and the puppies are not part of our family.  I am a dog lover (more dog than cat).  Other family dogs were PJ (Puppy Junior) a Beagle, who lived with us only a few months, and Victoria, a German Shepard, who lived with us for 4 years in California.   All of them resided with my parents.  I personally have not owned any dogs in my home. 

Now you are wondering what do dogs and puppies have to do with writing.  Dogs are exciting to watch, and if you notice how they react to something new, they get excited, and they are excited about everything, and they want to know about that new thing to the point knocking over anything that gets in the way.  Today, I was at parent’s house, and I went outside to the dogs.  Strype jumped all over me, while Cayman, Duchess, and a puppy’s name I could not remember was grabbing and pulling at my left pant leg.  I never had that experience since Victoria kept knocking me over when I was 4 (she was much taller than me standing up on two legs).  I am sure part of Strype’s jumping were to make sure her puppies are safe from my feet, (she I also a little jealous) while the puppies wanted something to chew on (they are teething after all).  Princess wanted to do her own thing by trying to climb onto the deck through an opening in the railing, which she failed at and gave up.

As new writers, we are excited when anything new comes our way.  We jump at the chance to get noticed and we chew and claw our way to the top.  That goes for Freelancing as well as Journalism.  As we get older in our craft, new people come in and feel the same way.  We fight our way to stay at the top of our game.  For freelancers, client come to see the “pick of the litter” writers, and when they find one they like, it is a match made in heaven or not.  Sometimes, we are like Princess, who finds a different way of getting to where she is want to go, by different means.  Instead of climbing the one step to get onto the deck, Princess chose to go between the wood bars.  As proven, you can either fail and give up, or try something different another day.

If you try doing it your way, just like Princess, do not give up.  In fact, it that does not help, try yet a different way but never sell yourself short.  There are many different ways to achieve the same end goal.  This is how human babies learn to do things when no one is helping them.  It does not have to be the traditional method.

Also, be like the puppies who were chewing at the leg of my pants.  This represents a person who is thirsty for knowledge.  Always want to learn more.  Never settle for less. “The more you learn, the more you know.  The more you know, the more you grow.”  This was a quote I heard in my teens.  This talks about wisdom and knowledge. 

For instance, I am a crafter.  I have talked about it several times on this blog, as well as other blogs.  What if I learned to only glue paper to another surface?  That may be fine, but if I want to teach someone or write about crafting, I can only get so far with just the gluing part.  That does not get very far into the process.  In order to do that, I had to learn how to use tools, different techniques with the appropriate tools and gluing, and even go outside that crafting area to learn how to teach a crafting technique or writing techniques in order to write about it.  sure that last part I should have learned starting in Elementary school and through my parents, but it also took a lot of practice and hard work to get to this point in my life.  This is how most blog posts are born.  Another subject for another post.

So the conclusion of this thing called writing is simple:

1.       Do find a niche.  Be excite about that niche, because, it will come through in your writing.  One tip:  If the post does not feel right, you will know it.  You have a choice to change it or write something else.

2.      Be alert.  There will always people who have started writing before you and people who will start writing after you.

3.      Do not stay in one place.  Always learn from your niche, hobby, and new ways to get your point across.  Always be prepared to teach and to be teachable.  Rules, techniques, and time are always changing.

4.      Find new ways to do something new and different.  It goes back to #2 and 3.

If you are not willing to change with the time, you will not grow in writing and in your niche.  If you do not grow in your niche and business, you will not increase in income nor influence someone else whose life you may not get to change.