What happened to all the blogs?

And how do we get them back?

Some people like to listen instead of read so I’m experimenting with recording my newsletters. I just quickly recorded this on my phone, but if you love it let me know and I’ll make sure to do it on my big girl mic next time!

I was on Threads the other day and saw a... thread I guess... from a rather prolific blogger who was lamenting the loss of blogs and having a low-key whinge about how everything is a Substack newsletter these days. She said she misses discovering beautiful blogs like they’re buried treasure. It reminded me of the day I found Susie Bubble on Coolhunter. I wasted a whole day reading her entire fashion backlog in my admin job. God, that was a fantastic time. I lived for my Google Reader and every morning I’d rush into work and be delighted when my favourite bloggers had new posts up.

The blogger from Threads is right but she also doesn't practice what she preaches. She still blogs, but it's more of an old-school Tumblr where she shares a single image with a minimal caption once or twice a week—hardly the type of treasure trove she's describing. 

I still think of myself as a blogger, although I've published a lot less in the last few years. A baby, the pandemic and another baby really limited my capacity to devote enough time to doing it well. I've kept up my weekly newsletter which is now on Substack (and you’re currently reading it!), but I still feel like there’s room for blogging to come back. I’m just not sure what it looks like in 2023.

Here is where it gets tricky. I love blogging, but it's time-consuming and expensive. I work with brands, I do sponsored content, I use affiliate links, I do all the blogger things and some months, I barely break even. I have to pay for hosting my blog, which is a massive bill because it's been running for 15 years. Same with podcasting. 

Discoverability is non-existent. Instagram is a hellscape. Writing for SEO shits me to tears which is why I've never been good at it. Macaroni and cheese. What is macaroni and cheese? Why make macaroni and cheese? What you need if you want to make macaroni and cheese. Just give me the bloody recipe already!

I like writing about habit-y lifestyle stuff. Food habits, style habits, being a good person habits. Interesting stuff but not niche enough that people would Google what I'm writing about. I'm the kind of blogger people stumble upon. Except there's not really any stumbling anymore. 

This isn't a sob story about the changing landscape of the blogosphere. Blogging has always been my part-time job. It's been very lucrative over the years and it's opened a lot of doors for me as a writer and copywriter, but I've never had all my eggs in that basket. I’m a basket goblin. I currently have seven baskets (revenue streams) but that’s a story for another publication (more on that at the end of this email).

It’s not about money per se, it's more about giving value and staying connected to my beautiful community of readers, some of which have been with me since 2009. When I switched to Substack I got about a dozen emails from readers whose names have been popping up in the comments for over a decade. That feels incredible to me that people have been reading my stuff for that long and I’m unbelievably grateful.

With the exception of maternity leave and those weird months when my email servers went all silly on me, I’ve consistently sent a newsletter every Wednesday at 10 am for well over 6 years (possibly longer) and the main reason why I keep doing it is because I have readers who have told me they save it for their lunch break. Like it’s a treat. There is no greater gift as a writer than hearing that. I get seriously panicky when I think about Sarah not having something to read while she eats her sandwich. It’s not on.

On that note, I'd love your thoughts on a more intentional return to blogging. Do you read blogs? Which ones? How do you read them? What do you look for in blogs in 2023? What is your relationship with social media these days? Are you *this* close to breaking up with Instagram like everyone else? What content do you consume that gives a lot of value? 

For example, I’ve written a post about earscaping, and I have no idea where to publish it. On my blog? On Substack? What’s the best choice here?

I’d love your thoughts in the comments if you have the time. Thank you so much!

Reading 

The final edition of Pom Pom magazine. I'm fairly gutted they had to cease publishing but this edition is beautiful. 

Watching 

It’s a rogue one this week, I’m not watching, I’m playing Super Mario Bros Wonder. A gamer I am not, but if there’s a cute flat game (one where the characters run only from one side of the screen to the other like an arcade game) I’m there. This one is adorable. I only play flat games because I have a shocking sense of direction and I get lost in multi-directional games. It’s my biggest beige flag.

Wearing 

One-shoulder, maxi, wide-leg jumpsuits. This one and this one to be precise. I’ve been looking into the Kibbe body shape system and it’s very illusive and weird, but I think I’m a Flamboyant Natural which means I appear shorter than I am, and I need to honor my vertical lines by not breaking them with high contrast separates. I think inherently I knew this but a monochrome maxi silhouette feels very right for me in this era of my life. I’ve always loved one-shoulder styles on my broad upper body. I feel very Angelica Huston in them.

Listening 

To music! I’ve been doing some zone training because I read that if you keep your V02 max number (the most beneficial amount of oxygen travelling to your heart and lungs in exercise) nice and high, you’ll live longer. My V02 max has dipped to just below average since I had my youngest baby so I started to keep my heart rate in Zone 3 (I’ll explain all this in a blog post or Substack soon) for my daily walks, and it’s started improving immediately. As you can see below. The point is, I’ve been listening to music while I do this because I often have to jog to keep my heart rate high enough. I jog better to music than podcasts. I generally select a 90s workout playlist on Apple Music and belt out Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn when it pops up.

Eating 

I think I've mentioned these before, but New Chinese Garden's frozen gluten-free meals are the best. We live in the country and lost our beloved local Indian takeaway, so we get these now on Friday nights instead. They're surprisingly delicious. We get them from our local IGA, but you can get them at Woolies too. 

Doing 

A quick trip to my dad's hometown Wauchope (pronounced war-hope, and I’ve never in my life been able to spell it without Googling it first, including today). My Nanna (my dad's mum) passed away last week, so I'm heading up for the wake, leaving the girls at home with Ben. I'm not worried at all, we're very equal parents, but it's my first time away from the baby since she was born. I've also only spent a handful of nights away from my eldest, and they were all related to the birth of her sister so unavoidable. I'm a bit sooky. It will be lovely though. We’re all sad, of course, but Nanna lived a long life; she was 87, it was a good inning and she loved and was loved by her five children, ten grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. It will be a beautiful celebration of her life. Plus I haven’t been on a plane by myself in 6 years. I’m going to sleep the entire time. It’s going to be amazing.

Very Excellent Links

Inside the chaos at OpenAI. I’ve been following this saga all week. The board at ChatGPT have fired the founder Sam Altman to the shock of basically everyone. It’s a wild story.

I continue on my perfect lipstick quest and I’ve had several people say MAC matte is the business.

I adore Leandra Medine’s substack. I’m still a touch dark on her for the way she pulled the rug out from under her writers when Man Repeller folded but I do love her avant-garde style and the way she explains her outfit choices. I also love her commitment to going make-up-free.

It’s party season and that means you might want to look semi-tidy at some point. I like these Boden dresses. This one and this one.

12 queens who ran the world.

If you are after statement earrings these are on sale and I think they’re pretty amazing.

I need your Very Excellent thoughts…

Would you be interested in a Substack newsletter about writing, copywriting and freelancing?

I’ve had probably hundreds of people over the years ask for various advice, ideas, and resources around writing for a living (which I’ve done for the last 15 years) and I’ve resisted because it didn’t really fit with my self-improvement niche. I’ve actually written a few courses on copywriting but I haven’t released them because I’m garbage at selling. On Substack, I can create a stand-alone publication for writers and freelancers without annoying or alienating my core followers with rogue content.

It’s a little idea that’s floating around in my head.

Drop me a comment or an email if you’re interested.

That's all for this week! See you next week. 

love, 

Carly