I woke up this morning to an email from a reader that was beyond mean and horrible. She was upset that I hadn’t gotten the newsletter out this month yet (which was something I had planned for today) and didn’t like the Rafflecopter link at the bottom of the giveaway posts. Even though it is there because some readers have been having some issues entering them. There were other things she didn’t like as well. Posts she felt I needed to delete and maybe I could change my colors to something she suggested.

I responded, very politely I might add, and addressed each of her issues. Her reply back wasn’t nice either and I realized after us going back and forth for a little while that I was trying to make her happy. It is my blog, my writing, and I am attempting to please and conform to what someone else wanted. That is something I always fall back on. It is a habit that is ingrained in me for some reason. I am the person who will go along with a food a choice even if I hate it just so I don’t make waves.

Are you that time of person? I sat and cried about it all because I am also that type of person. I felt as useless as she called me (several times by the way) then I got angry. How dare her? This is my blog and truthfully nothing makes her read it. I love and adore each one of my readers. I always have. After all, if y’all don’t read the blog then who in the world am I writing for? I do try to write about topics I think y’all will enjoy. I take suggestions and over the years have evolved some. So, I sat down and asked myself some hard questions.

Do I Quit?

That was the first thing that came to mind. I will just quit but how in the world could I allow someone to make me quit something I love. Doing that would be giving into them. So, quitting was out but I knew that I needed to do something. Something that allowed me to address her and her issues along with several other things that have been bothering me for a while.

Time to Change

I felt that changes were in order, and I sat down and made a list of things I hated or wanted to do a little differently. I am not the person I was when I started this blog. Heck, I’m not the person I was a year ago. There are things that have changed me, and I need to figure out just where we are going from here.

Changes are Coming

I thought I would list some of the things that I am certainly changing. My list is actually huge but I am going over each one and asking myself if it is really something I want to change or am I just upset today. I don’t want to make hasty decisions even if I may have already made a few.

Goodbye Newsletter

This is something I have struggled with in the past. In fact, I always have a handful of people who email me and say they didn’t get it. I also have a very small handful who email me, say they didn’t get it and then when I point out that they not only got it but opened it. They let me know they just want me to give them the extra points code because they don’t want to read it. In the past, I just gave them the code. I will no longer be publishing a newsletter. The forms are gone as of this posting. If you were a subscriber and would like to use the code on current giveaways, just use your email address as the code in the Rafflecopter.

Ending the newsletter will save me time and as I have already pointed out most subscribers only read it to get the extra entries.

Twitter Hack

I am still dealing with the Twitter hack and suspension. However, that is leading me to decide which social media I will remain on. I am deciding which ones will be worth it and a better course of action when it comes to my social media in the future. This will be an ongoing thing for the moment as I made some hard decisions

Friday Cocktails

I have most of August scheduled out with these and then I will decide if they will continue. I enjoy them but I am not sure if readers do. What do y’all think? Keep them or do away with them?

Monthly Recap

The same with this. Is it something y’all enjoy and would like for me to keep?

Giveaways on Hold for the Future

Other than the current giveaways and the scheduled Friday Cocktails, all other giveaways will be on hold. There is some sort of issues with some of y’all experiencing frozen forms that I am attempting to work out. If you are experiencing that please let me know in the comments below so I can attempt to get a rough idea of how many it is affecting.

Taking the Time

Those a few of the things that are changing now. I do have some content scheduled for the next few weeks and I will be taking that time to go through my list. During this process I will be dealing with some of the behind-the-scenes things I have on my To-do list. I will also be getting Storied Conversation into shape.

It is important to me that I get this right. If I make a mistake, I will have only myself to blame. I know that losing the newsletter will upset some of you. It may be something that I end up bringing back. At this moment it truly brings no value to the blog other than having the list. So, does it serve a purpose?

I need to reevaluate and see where we are. I will be dropping a lot of my affiliate programs and ads. They don’t bring in much revenue so what purpose do they serve? Do I need to do something differently? On top of that I will be updating pages and writing new posts.

Posts that share where I am in my life now. Things that the middle-aged woman may appreciate. The woman who has been through the fires of hell and walked out the other side. A little worn, a bit singed, but walked out none the less. It is pass time that I show all of myself and maybe stop trying to be what I think others want me to be. To say “This is me. The me that exists now and I’m not going anywhere.”