Friday 30 August 2013

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.

 

6 comments:

  1. I LOVE your new label! I am quite happy to be a mummy blogger, because I do blog about parenting 90% of the time. But I'm also middle aged and a bit complicated. I blog book reviews and about girls' fashion and sometimes I'll have a rant about something outside of my four walls. So maybe I am MOC too?!

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    1. Thank you love! You are welcome to join my crew. P.S. How's the dancing going? We are dancing to Freak at the moment. It's killing my thighs, but I love it. :-)

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  2. I'm also going through a bit of 'label' confusion at the moment. I've been blogging for 7 years mainly about goals, organisation and productivity, however I found it a bit lonely. So when I found the 'mummy community' earlier this year I was very excited because there were friendly people like me out there. However I soon realised I don't want to just write about being a mummy, but I haven't worked out the focus that is correct for me yet, but I feel I'm getting closer.

    I would also pick several items from your list to describe me; shoes, chocolate cake, internet surfing, scones (I don't drink tea, but love scones)

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    1. You are more than welcome to join my MOC blogger club. :-D

      I hope you find your focus. It's not easy. Life is genuinely too complicated to be categorised tightly. At best we can use labels to help focus and guide us, but need to remember to not let them restrict us. Good luck.

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  3. Love the MOC label! It is hard to categorise... I write about writing, people and poetry over at Honest Speaks, my first wordpress blog (started in 2009!) but mostly about parenting at Mothering Mushroom. I started MM as those reading my primary blog didn't want to hear about Mushroom! I was losing readers so decided to separate out the subjects, although there is some crossover.... Soooo, if I had to categorise myself I'd say I'm a WPPP blogger (Writing, People, Poetry and Parenting!). It is hard to categorise - sometimes it's not necessary I think, I do like blogs that cover a wide variety of subjects and it's more about the way the blogger writes than whether they cover one specific subject. A thought provoking post, thank you!

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  4. I'm definitly a MOC blogger...(except the middle-aged part!! I'm only twenty (something! sort of ish!) You need to make this a MOC Blogger badge that we can all grab! Thanks for summing it up for all of us!!

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