Blogging: labels and where do I fit?

I am a MOC blogger. It is a new label that I have created to describe my blogging. Fed up with your current label? Fancy joining my new blogging category? Read on and find out why I created it.

I have blogged for over 4 years. I love it, and I hope you lovely readers enjoy it, else frankly, what's the point? I started blogging to share some of the parenting lessons I was learning the hard way. If I could save a first time mum some time and effort by sharing my stories, then that's great.

I was also struggling with the concept of looking good. How anyone with a small child to look after had any time whatsoever to put on makeup was, and still is, completely beyond me, hence the blog name.

Over time obviously the posts have evolved from Breastfeeding tips, and Beauty Jargon busters, to Toddler Tantrum tips, reviews of hotels and holiday destinations, and my experiences with Electrolysis.

I have discovered that, as a blogger, I am expected to define myself and put myself in a specific blogging box. Humans delight in doing this. We categorise things to help us make sense of the world.

To start with I was fairly comfortable with the label mummy blogger, but as I began to write about more than just parenting, since, quite frankly, there's clearly more to life than just that else what was I doing with myself for the 30 years before I had children, it felt like a restrictive label.

By focussing on the 'mum' role in the label 'mummy bloggers it limits the writer to just write about parenting issues, or at least limits what readers expect them to write about, whether or not they do.

But I write about anything that takes my fancy, and more specifically about how to be yummy (and keep hold of some semblance of womanhood) whilst also being a mummy. So should I put myself in the Beauty Blogger category instead?

Definitely not. Take a quick tour around google and you can find a host of beauty blogs far far more sophisticated than my random musings on the subject. These beauty blogs are written by woman who absolutely know their beauty balms from their lip balms. I couldn't compete even if I wanted to.

So where does that leave me in the labels?

If mummy blogger is too restrictive and makes too many assumptions about the subject matter, and if using beauty blogger is an insult to actual beauty bloggers, what about Lifestyle blogger?

This is the best overarching label so far. The only slight difficulty is that many fashion bloggers also call themselves lifestyle bloggers. So in this particular party I am stood next to the most stylish bloggers wearing a glamorous combination of Top Shop, designer and vintage and many of whom are half my age. *knickers to that I say in an eminently childish manner*

So I have to create my own label. What type of blogger am I?

Friends in marketing and branding would suggest I need to brainstorm my brand to know the answer. When asked to sum up this blog, words like "tips", "helpful", "advice", "guidance", "random musings", "clueless", spring to mind.

It's easier to come up with words for me.... Always starting with shoes, and ending with chocolate cake. Lots of dancing, puzzle solving, surfing (Internet not water), adding up numbers on spreadsheets, getting too excited about clever formulae in spreadsheets, more shoes, handbags, Ted Baker, Chanel, Clarins, Port, Sherry, Mrs Marple, more dancing, singing, playing shops, hide and seek, writing lists, Hobbs, Mary-Janes, an action movie or three, sandcastles, a glass or two of wine, a traditional cream tea and lots of post-its, all merge together to create the crazy world of Louise.

So which label does that put me in? Since I have probably blogged about each and every one of those at some point, and if I haven't yet, I soon will.

I think I am going to create a new label and settle on MOC blogger, where MOC stands for "Middle-aged odd and complicated".

The fact that MOC also stands for Management of Change in business circles, and even more appropriately; My Own Creation, in Lego building circles, makes it perfect for multi-faceted me.

 

What do you think of labels? What type of blog would you categorise mine as? If you blog, do you blog in a niche? Are you a MOC blogger? Join me in this new category! Come dance, sing, and eat cake.