Milf time

Here is my post from the lovely Mums on Top website (totally NSFW) (that was a lie) (although now you'll be wondering) (go on, no! go on, no!) (it's okay really) (or is it?).

I began blogging in March 2005. I have 2 boys, and at that stage they were 7 months and almost 3. There comes a point in most mother's lives where they find they need something more. Some start working, some start a gym membership, some start macrame, some start gin and tonics at 2pm... I was likely to fall into the latter category if I didn't find something to occupy my time, so I gave blogging a punt and started Wanda Harland .

Being at home with the children, I missed daily contact with adult human beings, it is a big shock going from the paid workforce to the home environment.

As a mother, blogging has opened a world up for me without leaving the comfort of my lounge. I am a mummy who blogs, but try to avoid being a 'mummy blogger'. I tend to stay away from too much talk about the children, because lets face it, while I think they're amazing I don't expect the rest of the world to. There are some great Mummy bloggers, Dooce is probably the most famous, and she does it brilliantly. What blogging has given me is a bit of an escape from my day to day routine. I am a full time parent, and I am proud of this fact, but I tend to enjoy keeping the blog separate. It is my little escapist world.

In the 2 years since, my blog has opened a fabulous new world to me. Initially it was pretty slow going, when you start you have to do some serious commenting on other people's blogs to get them to read yours. This serves as an excellent way of establishing what you're interested in reading, and consequently how you want to angle your own blog. I chose to stay away from too much political commentary, because I can live without conflict in my life. I'm not shy about wearing my arty farty, liberal label on my sleeve, but utterly uninterested in debating it with the world.

Bloggers generally develop an unnatural obsession with their site statistics - how many visitors, where from, how many people link to you. I was very lucky to get a couple of links from some top notch bloggers relatively early on, and this provided a good amount of traffic.

It took a while for me to clap my eyes on a real, live blogger. He was nice, didn't bite, and was just like his online persona. I've met many since, and it is a relief to find that they're all like that. Genuine people writing with their own genuine voices. A year ago I was invited to write for The Wellingtonista, a fabulous quirky local site, proud as punch of Wellington (shh, don't tell them I live in the Hutt). The team of Wellingtonista bloggers (and one journaller) are among the best people you could meet.

I started my business Babylicious a year ago. Blogging has provided me with rich resources to learn about business, and about the first 50 customers were readers of Wanda Harland, which was a great confidence boost for my fledgling business. I've received help on so many levels, from the technical to lots of advertising questions, to sourcing stock. I've also been a co-organiser of the marvellous Craft2.0, with yet another blogger. We've really pushed the online promotion of it, since we are both healthily obsessed with the internet.

I'm now having a little love affair with Faceboook, try it, go on, but my heart is still with Wanda Harland, and realistically I can't imagine ever giving it up.

If you're a mum thinking about starting a blog I say "go ooooooooooooooooooonn", and I mean that. You don't need to tell a soul about it, give it a few weeks, get a feel for it, and most importantly LINK TO ME.