Happy Blogoversary!

Today is officially the second year blogoversary of Instead of the Dishes.  It’s hard to imagine what I did with my free time before blogging, but I’m pretty sure it involved diapers and pureed vegetables.  I feel a funny mix of proud and lucky – I think Instead of the Dishes boasts some great content, and I’m fortunate that I have such a great husband who has supported me by helping me find the time to write, helping me with technical issues, and even contributing some awesome guest posts.  The kids are always great content fodder, and I’m lucky enough to have a crew of great readers, so Thank YOU!   Here’s how it all began.

If you haven’t noticed already, there have been some major changes happening on the blog.  I thought today would be a good time to talk about why I am making these changes.

New Layout – I wanted to use a blog template that would allow readers to more easily navigate the 150+ posts that I have on the site. I knew I wanted a topic-based menu at the top of the blog to help facilitate this.  So, I chose a magazine-style layout.  While it is much busier that what I had before, I hope you’ll like having easy access to several different posts from the home page.

New Posts – Over the next few weeks, I’ll be phasing in some new post series.  You’ve already started to see one – Daily Deals.  These posts feature deals from sites like Eversave and Groupon (I’m a bit of an addict).  I won’t be posting these every day – just the deals that I would personally use.  Another new one that you’ll see starting this week is the Booklist series.  With the help of my friend Meredith, who is an elementary librarian, we’ll be posting up themed lists of books to help you find some great reads for your kiddos. I have another new series in the works as well, but you’ll have to stay tuned to find out about that one!

More Posts – I’m making an effort to create more content, and to keep that content focused under the six main topic areas of the site: frugality, going green, mommyhood, travel, local events, and writing & blogging.  My goal is at least four posts per week.

Monetization – Monetization is an industry term for ways to make money from a blog.  Given the changes mentioned above, my blog is now taking up a significant amount of my time.  I feel that it’s important for something that takes a large amount of my time to benefit my family in some way, so if my blogging can help pay for groceries, or a family vacation, it’s easier for me to justify it (and I do love to blog!).  It is my intent to make the monetization of my site as seamless as possible.  You won’t see me doing more product reviews than before, the site won’t be taken over by flashing ads, and everything I post about will still be authentic to my own personal interests.

I would love to have your feedback, suggestions, and even topic requests for Instead of the Dishes. Leave them in the comments section below, or use the contact form in the menu at the top of the page to keep things private. Happy Blogoversary!

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