Why I Blog + Giveaway

I’m going to get real with you guys today, my beloved internet friends and blog readers.  At the beginning of the weekend, I had a minor freak out.  This Friday marks five years of blogging for me, which I think is a huge deal.

For the past five years, I’ve posted here at HH 4-6 times a week.  I guess I didn’t freak out, but I started to second guess myself.  Was I creating the space that envisioned?  The blog, like the blogging world, has changed A LOT over the years.  It started as a daily health and fitness journal but then morphed into predominately a recipe blog, and then back into a healthy living blog.

(Last years blogiversary Almond Flour Funfetti Cupcakes)

I reached out to the friend who introduced me to blogging over seven years ago. Around 2012, she sent me a recipe from Iowa Girl Eats, and that opened up a whole new world to me.  This friend is not a blogger, but instead, someone who enjoys the same blogs I do and has read my blog since my very first post.  We joke that when I started I had five views a day and they were all her.

We talked a lot about the blogs we still enjoy reading almost 10 years later and what my vision is for Hungry Hobby.  Despite having more readers than ever before, I struggled with the balance I’ve been creating at HH.

Blogging is a business, and there is a term we know in the blogging industry as evergreen content.  Evergreen content is content that can be shared over and over and over again.  Most of my direct blog income comes from evergreen content because that is what is viewed over and over and over again like recipes or more nutrition info related posts.

So there is a certain amount of pressure to continue creating more and more evergreen content. (The pressure coming from little things like mortgages, student loan payments, and baby expenses, just little things…)

(Healthy Breakfast Quesadilla – my top viewed post for the last six months, with most of that traffic coming from Google or Pinterest.)

This type of content is how more readers find you and start to follow what you do, which allows you to grow and gain more opportunities.  Many of my Hungry Hobby RD clients find me because of a recipe I posted which they found through social media or on google, which is crazy to me!

Because of the benefits of evergreen content many of my blogger friends have done away with other types of content.  Which I get, sometimes it can feel like you aren’t talking too much of anyone these days.  Most people don’t comment directly on blogs as much as they used to anymore, social media yes, blogs no.

Blog posts I posted recently like Summer Things, Pregnancy Updates, or Friday favorites will not be shared over and over again.  They won’t hit my top viewed posts of all time; they won’t make me a ton of money or increase my recognition in any way.

But, you know what I still think they are worth the effort.  They bring me a connection with you guys, friendship with people who can relate all over the world, and a little bit of free therapy in the form of writing.  On the one hand, I feel like no one cares about those types of posts, and on the other hand, I feel like those posts make Hungry Hobby what it is.  Without them, Hungry Hobby doesn’t seem right to me.

I know that you guys like them because they are heavily viewed when they are posted, and on my annual survey, two things come up over and over.  That you guys love the personal life updates, especially Friday Favorites and that you guys think I’m funny.

Until that started coming up on surveys, I never thought of myself as funny, blunt yes, but funny, not so much.  I guess either you guys are are crazy, or I’m funny, or a little bit of both.  We may never know.

So I started thinking, why do I blog?

• I blog because I want to share my nutrition knowledge with others.
• I blog because I like eating and I like creating recipes I get to eat.
• I blog because I love the feeling of creating something from scratch and then bringing the color, texture, shape, and taste to life in photos.
• I blog because I want to show that healthy living is ever-changing, there is no way right for everyone.  I want to encourage others to make the right healthy choices for them.
• I blog to share my unique story with healthy living from overcoming injuries and amenorrhea to give others dealing with similar issues hope.
• I blog because the sense of satisfaction I get when I finish a post and press publish is addicting.
• I blog because it allows me to work from home, which helps me avoid injury (old injuries flare if I sit too long) and be with my family (especially with a little one on the way.)
• But most of all I blog to inspire, connect, and share this crazy life with others.

Hungry Hobby has been a huge blessing in my life.  Because of you guys, the blog has opened doors I didn’t know excited.  Thanks to the blog I have friends all over the world, which is pretty exciting.

To my readers: thank you for just being awesome, I couldn’t do what I do without you.  For all the reasons I blog, I wouldn’t have anything without the connection I have with you guys.

So that’s why I blog, and that’s why I am giving back to you guys this week.  To thank you for making my recipes, following my accounts on social, giving me post ideas, signing up for my email list, supporting my sponsored content, writing blog comments, sending encouraging emails, signing up for WTE meal plans, being with me in the hard times and the good times this week I’ve got a week full of giveaways for you!

Most of the giveaways will be focused on my favorite products, some come from me and some I partnered with companies to bring you goodies.  It’s going to be a good week so make sure you are hanging around each day this week!

a Rafflecopter giveaway