I’m a lifestyle blogger and I will not niche down

I saw this article a few weeks ago that was shared in one of my Facebook groups which gave great insights on why people blog and what blogging is about. Blogging for me is a way for me to have my voice be heard over the noise. It’s a way for me to write out my feelings and share my story with the world. Life content that helps others and helps me in the process. A lot of people don’t know what a blog is.  I myself don’t even know what to call myself. Am I an influencer, a storyteller, media, writer, journalist, etc. Whatever I am there is a reason why I blog. On my 3 year anniversary of Its’ Really Kita and my 9th year of blogging period, I wanna take you on a journey of why I started, why I won’t niche down, and why I won’t stop anytime soon.

How I started my journey

I started my blog SaywhatUwanna back in November of 2010. I started it after being in a place of sadness for years because my mother had passed away. I wasn’t contributing to life and I wasn’t doing anything but getting fat, taking care of a baby, and sleeping. I needed to find a purpose. I was on Facebook one day and saw someone share a blog. I was curious as to what it was because I never heard of it before. So I did some research and found out that anyone can start one so I put my writing hat on and started one that very weekend. Saywhatuwanna was born because I always said what I wanted to say and didn’t hold anything back. I started off with 120 readers for the first year…that’s 120 in total lol (I checked every month). I use to go on other blogs comment and hoped that it was returned. It was…but slowly. After the 2nd year I started to get a few more people reading and by 2012 I was up to 15k readers a month. I was burnt out though because you see when it comes to blogging it’s not as easy as it looked. I was taking photos, writing posts, sharing them, marketing them, doing PR, doing my own web design, trying to keep up with social media, etc. I was TIED. Not tired but TIED. I wasn’t getting paid like other bloggers. While other bloggers boasted 6 figures I was making 0.

I switched up and decided that if I wanted to make money I needed to be a magazine and be different than everyone else. So I started Kokoa Magazine. Kokoa meant love of the heart in Japenese so I went with it because of the color of my skin and what I would bring. I wanted a magazine that talked about what we as African Americans faced in the real world. So basically an essence but with real everyday people. I started making money within 6 months of the magazine and I was like this is it. I had writers, I paid someone from Fiverr to created the magazine, and we had a photographer and everything. I was excited to be on this journey but most people said that the articles written by me still sounded like a blog. It didn’t translate into “magazine” like the traditional ones out there. People read Kokoa and still heard my voice. I was making money finally and I was happy but then… my husband died and I needed to take a break.

Starting It’s Really Kita

I started It’s Really Kita March 10th of 2016 a few months after my hubs died and a few days before his birthday. I had to sit back and decide why I wanted to blog and what the purpose of it would be. I knew that I loved writing but I also knew that I needed to make money. Do I blog just for the fun of it or do I blog in the hopes of making money? Those are the questions I asked myself when I started It’s Really Kita. I came up with the name because the hubs use to always look at me and say Really Kita. I would do something crazy and his response was Really Kita. So that is what started the name. I’ve been back to good ole blogging since and I have made a few coins but nothing to write home about. I blog to have a voice.

Lifestyle Blogs matter

Everyone wants you to be niched down. I have heard it all niche down so that you can focus, niche down because lifestyle is not a niche, you can make more money niching down. My lifestyle is my niche…let me say that again. My lifestyle is my niche. It’s my perspective and there can only be one me. It’s my perspective of my current reality told by me. People come to my blog because it’s me. I won’t be niching down anytime soon because I love everything. Now I will not talk about fashion, beauty, or home decor too much on here but if that’s what is going on in my life then guess what I’m talking about it. Oh, btw there are many lifestyle bloggers making money too! Nothing is wrong with a food blogger, or a fashion blogger, or a parenting blogger but I am writing this here blog so it has to be me and all that I do.

I wrote a post a few months ago about the confessions of a blogger which goes into details about the cutthroat world of blogging. Today though I wanted to share my story of why I started and why I will continue.

I will continue to blog because I’m not done touching the world with my voice. I’m not done making people laugh, think, cry, get angry, etc. I’m not done writing my story this is only the beginning and I have my own space to share that no matter if everyone is ditching blogging for Instagram. I won’t be joining them!

Why do you blog? Have you ever considered quitting?