Due to a sharp increase in demands on my time (I got an awesome new client and am doing some kick ass new and exciting stuff that's going to get my name out there in a BIG way and help society along the way), I have to readjust the blog features and post frequency expectations. Also, my three children are even MORE demanding of my attention as they grow. I have a very busy activity schedule planned for them this spring & summer. I have to make sure I spend more time with them than authoring this blog, as much as I love it and my readers, I'd be the naughty family advocate if I didn't focus more on my own family. Besides, that's what we have interns for!!! Here are the major changes to expect:1. Changing and cleaning up the layout. I am tired of the design already. I am going to change it. Perhaps this is why some of my friends accuse me of having ADD. In any event, I am also changing the content, so it makes sense to clean house. I also want to shelve some of the NOT frequently accessed content. I hired an editor to clean up the spelling, typ-os and other minor content issues. I have two new intern applicants to help out my fledgling PR company JJ Ghatt PR and its clients so I think I will assign one of them to clean up this blog and help me launch the promised features.
2. Working on Promised features. This brings me to number 2. I have been excited about two features I am planning, but recently, because of that very demanding client who commands much of my work time, day, night and evenings, I'm having a hard time dedicating to launching those: 1. The must-have "it" baby, maternity and children's gadgets from real moms who seek and covet said "it" items (this as opposed to what the TODAY show or OPRAH may feature); and 2. My Pregnancy Photography Maternity nation-wide giveaway. I slated it to launch this month, but have to push that back because I need to make time to bring the interns up to speed and help me execute and market those features. I'm really excited about doing them and think they will be well received. It's probably for the best anyway as I would like the editor to be done cleaning up the minor errors anyway before reaching out for more national exposure.
3. Redefining Weekly features. - I am switching up from trying to blog daily until I can get a good chunk of quality content in the can and get an intern to help me create enough to sustain daily blogging. As I said before, the new client of mine is quite a time eater and thus, I am struggling to keep up Bellyitch. And I have two other active blogs including an anonymous blog that has its own very anxious followers that demand updates all the time. Like literally, if the folks over there don't get their fix, they email me nudging me so...I'm going to keep the weekly features just remove the days of the week assigned to the weekly posts so noone gets disappointed when they expect a topic on a certain day and don't see it. Easy pressure reliever. As soon as I can, I will return it, but for now they will simply be aspirations.
4. Revamping Product Reviews & Giveaways. I will continue to do product reviews and if a company likes, I can do a giveaway to readers, but I have faced the reality that I do not get that many entrants and it's not fair to the companies (though I'm sure the entrants like their odds). So I won't go after giveaways actively any longer. I think I will condense the side bar mentioning the reviews and stop reaching out for products to give-away. Other blogs do a better job and I don't think the folks that read this blog daily or land on it accidentally while searching for another topic really come here for them anyway. They take a long time to promote and it's just not worth my time and effort. I will stick with reviews of products that the PR companies and Marketing departments send to me and will use one day of the week to reviews products I discover on my own coupled with the down home veteran mom advice I used to dispense of more regularly before I started to get bombarded with product review requests. I'm going to try to return to the organic origins of Bellyitch. So is the plan anyway. I will start later today with a post about Smart Wiring your baby based on my personal observations and interactions with my overeducated friends and peers who have the smartest kids around.
5. Removing GG. - This blog started out as a personal pregnancy journal and then later a journal of my baby weight gain melt off efforts sprinkled with updates on my last baby, my little girl GG. However, since it has taken on a little life of its own and I can see from monitoring my traffic, it is getting more views from folks celebrity stalking or looking for down-to-earth pregnancy, maternity, baby guidance and product reviews, it may be time to move GG over to the Mischiefmakers blog, that is my original blog where I feature my boys. Also, GG has dethroned my youngest boy as the chief mischiefmaker after all. That little girl gets into EVERYTHING! Also, I think for privacy reasons it is also a good idea to move her over. This blog gets worldwide eyeballs from loads of random folks. Some of the Google search topics that land folks over here amaze me sometimes how weird and "off" they are. That being said, she is probably safer over there where most of my followers are family and friends and family-like folks who are more or less not as dangerous privacy wise. If you are a die hard harmless GG update fan, you can follow her antics over at Mischiefmakers.
Well, that's it! Better get to cracking before dawn breaks and the clients and family start s knocking on my door demanding stuff like legal documents and breakfast and stuff! ha!
Exciting....good luck!