Back in 2013, I had every intention to start a blog that will talk about my love for reading and how I plan to spread that love to my twins, Nicholas and Antoinette. I started off with the ambitious plan of updating this blog every day. The first month was exhilarating and I managed to write one impassioned entry after another talking about books, bookworms, and asking questions of and relating to reading and books. That didn’t last long: the daily updates I mean. Motherhood has the power to take you away from things you like doing. Then there was the endless moving from one country to the other, from one address to the next. We are not just the reading Ruffolos, we are the nomadic, traveling, constantly-moving Ruffolos. Time flies very fast especially when you do not pay attention to it. It’s the 28th of December in the year of our Lord 2015 and on this day, we turn two years old.
Yes, this blog turns two!!!
Since then, this platform of my self expression and occasional boasting of my children’s milestones has evolved in different ways. It has changed themes more than twice. It started in the Philippines, continued in China, traveled to Europe and Asia, and is now residing in the United States of America. From a blog that talks about literacy (reading, writing, storytelling), I realized that this is, in fact, a virtual bulletin board of my family’s adventures. There’s nothing extraordinary about our brood of five; it’s just that this family happens to have a wife and a mother who likes to talk about anything she experiences and gets in contact with.
As mentioned, when this blog started, I had an ambitious target of posting every day. Unrealistic. I went from daily posts to once a week to daily posts of just photos and videos, which did not sit well with Google Adsense. I had guidance from a good friend, Verge Gamotan, during the earliest phase of this blog. And then, I had to do this alone. I am no techie but somehow, I managed to understand some technical parts of blogging from reading instructional manuals and watching WordPress videos.
When we moved to Montana, I enrolled in a blogging class at the Flathead Valley Community College, which improved the way I looked at blogging. My teacher, Katie, a blogger herself, taught me how I can get books for free, how my blog can become an Amazon affiliate, and how I can engage more people to visit my blog. She also shared some codes which I was able to apply in the blog. I attended the classes between July and August before I gave birth to Jeff Jr. on September 15. Paying 54 dollars for that class and spending sleepless nights of overhauling the blog was all worth it. There was a significant increase of traffic since then. I know it’s not that much but I currently have between 1,500 to 2,000 monthly page views. I have since been part of Mommy blog networks and have been a recipient of one or two sampling programs.
Have I received freebies? Ever since we moved here in the States, yes. I have received breast pads, formula milk, tea, beauty products, and food items to name a few. But the most precious products I have received are the books. Most women have handbags and shoes, I have my books. I read everyday. Incessantly. That’s why I do a lot of book reviews in this blog.
This blog has grown exponentially in the last two years that I have been writing about our adventures as a family and the challenges I faced and continue to face as a woman, wife, and mother.
These days, it follows this schedule:
Quite a lot huh? I managed to make this work by writing my posts a month or two ahead of the scheduled date of publication.
Blogging is a lot of work. It is for those who takes this seriously. Blogging can be a hobby; it can be an online journal; it can be a platform for some to earn additional income or perhaps even function as their primary source of income.
Blogging has become an extension of myself. It has been a tool in keeping me focused and in helping me honor my commitments. I have a hyperactive mind and I am interested in almost everything. It can be difficult to stay focused and finish tasks. Blogging for the Reading Ruffolos (and my other blog, Breast Talks) has helped me achieve that balance of focus and fun. It still is a work in progress but the presence of this blog is keeping me on my toes.
So here’s me writing to you, dear readers ,that I will continue to do what I like doing: talking by writing. As usual, I won’t always be sweet and caring. I may be blunt and abrasive, I know. But rest assured that there is nothing in this blog that is written just because I just want to show off. Writing to me has always been about sharing. When I was working as a full-time journalist back in the Philippines, I have made it as a personal mission to write about matters that will help people make informed choices and decisions. Blogging is no different. I may have gone a more personal route but it is still my commitment to inform, inspire, and involve people with the power of the printed word.
So…happy two years old to the Reading Ruffolos and we hope to have you with us in the next two, twenty, two hundred years to come!
