I’m Back!
| Owen Sound Photographer |
I’m baaaa-ck! Well, the truth is, I never technically left. But in terms of blogging, I did indeed take an unintended hiatus. And today I’m sharing why.
I started my business in 2010. At the time, I was a mom of two and was on maternity leave. My son was 2 1/2 and my daughter was 6 months-old. I was really struggling with the decision of whether to return to my full-time job or stay at home and raise my Littles, and so after much thought, agonizing and tears, I took the leap and turned my passion for photography into a business!
I literally had no idea what was involved in starting up a business, but Google soon became my best friend when it came time to do all of the “business” related tasks, such as setting up a website, learning about SEO, and marketing. I spent hours upon hours (usually very late at night after my family had gone to bed) researching and building my business. One way I did this was through blogging. In the early years, I was very consistent with blogging. I would blog every session, sharing my favourite images, while also including personal posts, and others related to sharing tips that would help potential clients prepare for their own portrait sessions. By June of 2018, after 8 years in business, I had a substantial collection of blog posts curated which had helped in getting my business to the top of Google results in my community. And this of course helped in gaining me many clients over the years. So much time and effort went into this avenue of my business. And then - without any warning, and without any real explanation …. my blog posts were ALL. GONE.
In June of 2018, the company that hosted my website experienced what they termed a “catastrophic server failure.” Hundreds of their clients (myself included), lost their online presences. ANY links or information attached to our domains were gone. So for me that meant that suddenly I was without my website, my email, 8 years worth of blog posts, and my digital contracts and forms. Overnight my online presence ceased to exist. I’m not even going to lie - I cried. I cried a lot during this time. In just a few days my kids would be let out of school, which meant my daytime work hours would be decreased. I was a week away from boarding a plane and taking my first trip away in 10 years with my husband for our anniversary. And I was busy wrapping up current client sessions that I had been working on. And now I was faced with having to basically start up my business from scratch. And fast!!!
Within a few days, I was able to get a new website up and running, and once again had email access (though I had lost all of my contacts and previous records of correspondence). But with being in the midst of summer and busy season, I never found the opportunity to sit down and start blogging. And to be honest, my business has suffered because of it. Over the next few months, I noticed that it has had a negative impact on my business. Those 8 years worth of blog posts had helped me gain consistent leads and inquiries, and without that avenue of SEO, I definitely recognized a steady decrease in those areas, and where I was appearing in search engine results. Because of the issue with my hosting failure and how the company handled the situation, paired with other challenges that I was consistently experiencing through hosting with them, I had planned on switching to a new website and host, but again, could never find the time to do it. Until now!!
It has taken me a year and a half, but I have finally made the move! Many hours and more late nights were had as I tackled the learning curve of creating a brand new site, switching my web host, and trying to build up my SEO. Once again, thank goodness for Google!!! And now, I’m re-introducing my blog. Once again, I plan to fill this space with pretty pictures of my amazing clients, posts sharing a glimpse into my personal life, while also sharing content that I hope may be helpful and valuable to you as well!
I would love your input on what YOU would like to see here, or if there are any topics you would like me to write about! Please feel free to share in the comments below, or shoot me a message!
