Over the past 14 years this blog went from being a 'chat about whatever over morning coffee' blog to a 'mommy blog' (before there WERE even mommy blogs... because almost no one blogged back in 2004. Blog wasn't even coined as a word yet. It was just starting out and they were called web logs. Which was such a stupid sounding word I refused to say it or use it. Then they started to shorten the word web-log to blog. Not much better, but better.)I had a huge following for awhile, coffeetalking.com was a very well-known site across the blogosphere (there still weren't a billion sites out there - that started to catch on later); met a ton of people online from across the world, met a few in person, was the originator of the Play with Your Peeps contest in which I ran an Easter contest where I had readers submit photos of original, creative ways they played with their Peep Easter candy; mostly dioramas but some were 'dresses' or other original artwork made entirely with Peeps.
I had to completely shut down Coffee Talking and try to erase all cyber footprints of it and get it off google searches right in the midst of it's biggest popularity. I won't even get into all that. It laid dormant and dead for about a year before I decided it was probably ok to resurrect it; I just had to change how I blogged and what information was shared.
After that it was fun blogging again as I had a crazy, funny family; a crazy but not funny workplace and coworkers, travel and other things to continuously blog about. But then life happened... and the kids were growing older. My husband was relocated and I had to resign from my job to follow him across the country to our 'new' home. At that point I left one kid in college 1000 miles away, another in college 1000 miles and only had 1 at home.
That's when I decided that Coffee Talking wasn't so much a Mommy blog or Family Blog anymore so I guess it needed to go back to being me rambling over morning coffee. But it just wasn't fun anymore so instead it morphed into a 'coffee' blog of coffee items and reviews. Coffee makers, coffee brewing, coffee beans. Coffee gifts and coffee clothing. Coffee travel mugs and history of different kinds of coffee and methods of brewing coffee.
Whew!
And soon life was so incredibly busy and I was traveling back and forth across the country constantly that I just didn't have time to research and post all the coffee item themed posts. Especially for a site that I made almost ZERO money on; no one was paying me to blog, no one was paying me to research, write and review. Any money I made was purely from any small ads or links I put on; and even that was mere pennies at a time.
For a time it was camping topic based; and other times it was news story based. Reviews and product recommendations once in a great while.
My mailbox often had sponsored reviews for all sorts of items. I ignored or declined most as they weren't a good fit for this site or were Chinese companies trying to build fake reviews on Amazon. I accepted some sponsored reviews for items I thought were a good fit for the site or were items I tried and truly loved or used or even ended up buying more of myself. But that was rare. Most offers were declined or deleted.
But again, life was insane with so much going on, that I was often on the road and traveling again. I put 50,000 miles on my car in 2.5 years that was only long distance travel; no errands or local driving.
And here sat CoffeeTalking.com. Waiting for me.
What do I see for CoffeeTalking in 2019?
That's what is on my mind this morning.
Although I would like to go back to it being all about coffee themed products and reviews, that is pretty time consuming and we have so many things and events scheduled for early 2019 that I just can't imagine I want to be investing more money and research time to only blog those things.
I'd like to just sit and 'chat' over morning coffee again.
That means I come here in the morning with my hot, strong, black coffee, sit down and start chatting about whatever happens to be on my mind that morning.
I'm thinking Coffee Talking will go back to what it was back in 2004, although without the 3 crazy young kids in the house. A 'chat over whatever I feel like' over morning coffee blog.
So, 15 years later... I hope to go back to the beginning.
A woman who would rise extra-early and sneak out of the bedroom, down the stairs and silently make coffee... hoping to not wake any of her sleeping children. She would sneak down the stairs to the family room in the basement where her office was, and sip coffee while she chatted on CoffeeTalking about whatever she felt like that day. 30 minutes of "ME" time before the crazy busy world of kids, pets, school, sports, lessons, appointments, errands and work started up.
..... this is my plan anyway.
I think.
