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I thought that today would be a fun day to share how my blog has transformed throughout the 6 years of writing it. It has gone through multiple name changes and niches. And that was before I even knew what a niche was.
If you have been following me for a while now, you know that I started my original blog in 2014. I had first moved to Alberta in July of 2014 and was feeling extremely lost as a woman. I had always wanted to be a mom but I never wanted to be just a mom. I always saw myself as having a career outside of the home. Something that filled me up when I wasn’t with my children.
However, that really isn’t the direction my life took. I dropped out of university after being sexually assaulted in my first semester. All my big hopes and dreams seemed to die that day as well. I was lost for about a year and a half before I met my husband. Our romance was fast and furious.
I was in the midst of a depression that I let go unchecked because I didn’t want anyone to know about the sexual assault. I figured I could deal with it on my own. Richard and I had a good life. We had our struggles but we were happy. We had 2 kids when we decided that it was now or never. If we didn’t move out west now it would be something that we were going to regret later on.
So in 2014, Richard packed his things and moved to Alberta without us. He went to find a job and a house while I stayed back and continued working my job and letting my son finish his year at the school he was in. We then joined Richard in Alberta a few months later.
I remember Q being so sad that he was leaving his friends. I sat him and Anna down, who were only 6 and 3 at the time of moving, and told them that this move allowed them to be whoever they wanted to be. No one knew who they were so they could be who they wanted to be. It wasn’t until after we moved that the same principle applied to me. I could be whoever I wanted because no one knew me either. And that is the start of my blogging story.
THE PHASES OF MY BLOG
STAGE 1:
When I first started blogging, I didn’t know anything about blogging. I used the free platform, Blogger, and began my blog with the name The Original Samantha. I was still trying to be who I used to be at this point in my life. I didn’t realize that that wasn’t an option and was never going to happen. This is where I shared my story and my life. I began getting readers immediately and wasn’t really sure how. I just shared everything and anything that I could. Writing about my past, my life, and my struggles really helped me to cope through all the difficulties.
STAGE 2:
This was the stage that I knew I needed more than a free platform. It came time to change my name because my current one wasn’t available as a domain name. It took me weeks to finally figure out my new name. I changed my platform and my blog name to BeYOUtiful Rewritten.
I continued to share my story and I began to add my journey to self-love to the topics that I covered. This blog was really all about discovering who I was in the present moment and to heal from my past. I was at the stage in my healing process that instead of trying to be who I used to be, I knew I needed to find out who I was. It was before self-love was popular and I didn’t know of any books to help me on my way.
I created my own path and started to share what was working for me and what wasn’t.
STAGE 3:
I began to outgrow my blog name, BeYOUtiful Rewritten. I had finally rediscovered who I really was and I knew that my blog name was no longer suitable. I wasn’t rewriting anything anymore. I wasn’t sure what I was going to continue to blog under but I switched my domain name to samanthalaycock.com so that it represented who I really was.
At this point, I was still writing about my self-love journey. I began my subscription box, BeYOUtiful Box and continued to show women my real-life struggles with self-love and self-care. I began to feature small businesses on my blog that were a part of my self-care subscription box.
This stage of my blog was all about supporting and showcasing other small businesses in the self-care industry. This was by far the longest stage of my blog so far. It lasted 3 years before I knew it was time to move on.
STAGE 4:
This is the stage that I am currently in. My blog has shifted from being about self-care and self-love to blogging. This stage came after I lost EVERYTHING from my previous blogs. My site was deleted and the platform wanted me to pay a HUGE sum for them to restore it. So I began again because I refused.
I feel like I have come full circle with my blog. I began to blog as a way to share my story and to heal from my past. I am now incredibly lucky enough to be able to teach women to do that. I not only do that, but I also offer freelance blogging services to women entrepreneurs in the self-care industry because I know the importance of what they have to offer.
I love being able to teach women something that I am so passionate about. Every day my heart is filled with the women that I meet through my blog. The thing is we are always so scared of change. We try and keep things the same but as we grow, change is inevitable. Change is terrifying but exhilarating. Change is scary but worth it. Change allows us to be who we are supposed to be in this lifetime.
Has your blog gone through similar changes throughout the years? I’d love to know in the comments below. Are you ready to begin your own blog? Enrollment for Blogology is now open. Let me help you start your very own blog so you can begin to share your story.
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