My blogging philosophy

I've always intended this blog to be a record of my life, not become my life. That's why I don't apologize for absences. If my blog starts to become my life instead of just a way to talk about my life, then it will be time to walk away.

I love my community here. I love chatting with friends in comments, and on Twitter. I spend significantly more time reading other blogs than I do on writing my own. But I've been getting a little discouraged lately by reading blogs written by full-time bloggers. By blogs that seem to exist solely for income and popularity. I followed a lot of them because I felt like I had to. (They're popular! Everyone knows about them! I have to win all the giveaways! Maybe I'll get more traffic if I do!)

So here is my little PSA, which I'm preaching more to myself than anyone else:
You don't have to have 5,000 (or 50,000) followers to have a good blog. Some of my favorite blogs in the world have less than 100 followers, and don't worry about how to increase their following.
The reality is, Latte Love will never be able to compete with the daily, semi-professional, over-edited dSLR photography found on popular blogs. There won't be monthly header redesigns, or sponsor posts. There won't be weekly giveaways and pinterest-worthy DIY craft tutorials. There probably won't be cutesy photos of E and I out on 'date nights'.

I started a blog in order to write. And to share that writing, and a little portion of my life, with the public on the internets. So, thank you for being here, despite the perpetual lack of all things that seem to make blogs popular/profitable. I hope, in one tiny way, that this could be an encouragement to other bloggers who feel overwhelmed in the sea of twee.

/rant.

I really don't mean to offend anyone with this post, (and part of it is just unsubscribing from those particular blogs that invoke these feelings, and letting it go), but since I think the culture of blogging has been changing so much over the past 5 years especially, I wanted to share this and get your thoughts.