Money, Money, Money…

When I first started this blog (over 2 years ago now!) I had no idea quite where it was going to go. Looking back my life has changed a huge amount since then and so has this blog. I started off writing about the things in life that make me smile and in a way that's what I still aim to do. When I started though I have to say that I wasn't too sure quiet what I would end up writing about!

Of course I had some initial ideas, but once those first few posts are written you really do need to think a bit harder as to what else to write about. I never imagined quite how many book reviews I would write. I'm not sure why, but maybe I just didn't realise how much I read or how much I enjoyed doing so.

Various crafts and days out still make me smile, but life with Little Miss C also does. It's hard to capture in a blog post about the joy of seeing her smiling as I sing "Horsey, Horsey" to her for the hundredth time. A photograph of a nice National Trust garden or my latest sewing or knitting project is so much easier to capture, but also harder to find the time to do as well.

This blog does need a bit of a kick start though to make me find the time to write it. I don't want it to be a chore, and I know that once I start writing and getting feedback from people I love it. There's a whole family of bloggers out there that I miss interacting with through comments, twitter and various other forums that I inhabit online. Writing here also helps to focus the mind on the good things in life which can sometimes disappear under a pile of dirty laundry, nappies and bottles!

When time is pressed and I'm also not working though, I do need to make my time pay for itself a bit. For a while now I have linked to Amazon when ever I do book reviews and also as part of the various reading lists that are featured in the side bars. If someone clicks on these and then buys something from Amazon I receive a small percentage of the amount that they spend there. I also host some Google adverts in the side margins and footer. If people click on there I again receive a small amount based on how much Google sold that ad space for. In the time that I have been running these it's safe to say that they're not helping to pay the mortgage! Amazon have paid out to me once, and I have earned so little with Google that I'm yet to receive the first payout and at this rate I think the Olympics coming to London will happen sooner. For a while now I have been receiving emails from various PR companies asking me to take part in online promotions via the blog. I've been so busy with LMC that up until now I haven't given them much thought up until now. 

Today an email came from a company working on behalf of Next promoting their Twelve Days of Christmas campaign and as I walked home from town earlier it got me thinking. In general if I like a company or something that I've bought or somewhere I've been then it does indeed make me smile which means that I can see no reason not to blog about it. In a moment that was my "business plan" written. If someone wants to ask me to write about something that I genuinely like then I see no reason why not to do so. Truth is that I actually shop in Next a fair bit, especially since there is the super out-of-town store at London Colney, where parking is incredibly convenient and where I can get some lovely clothes for LMC. Simple.

So, please forgive me if you do see more reviews or sponsored posts on here, but the one promise I have made to myself is that I will offset every post that I am asked to write with one that comes just from me. I hope this is a fair deal. At the end of the day, unfortunately, the mortgage still needs to be paid, and will do for a good few years yet!

I'll leave you with the first bit of festivity for 2010. On the first day of Christmas…