This week meet Luchae Williams, South African mom blogger as well as co-organiser of the #ECMeetup (with Eleanor). In this post she has some useful blogging advice as well as telling us all about her family.
1) What do you normally get up to on an average day? Most days I wake up as if someone has emergency seat ejected me out of bed because the snooze button tricked me into sleeping when I should’ve been snoozing. Once I’ve herded my 15 year old boy and 2 year old girl off to school, I find myself at my office job – Times Media – where I’m an accounts manager in their digital ads section. I spend a lot of my “after work” time at church and I am an active member of our Music & Creative Arts Department. I am very passionate about music and also review Christian music for the online publication Gateway News. For fun, Hubstopher and I watch alot of series (and by “watch alot of” I mean we put an episode on and then fall asleep).
2) How do you feel about motherhood – what are your struggles and joys? I feel like I’ve been a mom all my life, because I had my boy when I was 19. So I literally had no adult life as a single individual, having to only care for herself. I don’t know what that feels like. I struggle to find peace with myself in that I sometimes feel guilty for not being better… A better cook, a better homework director, a more patient story listener. You know, stuff like that. I find that my greatest joy is randomly found in those moments where you look at your kid and think “woah, that came out of me!”… well, something along those lines. I am amazed at how great and well adjusted my kids are and at how blessed I am to have them.
3) Tell us about your kid(s). Kyle is just about 15 years old and will be going to Grade 10 next year. His extreme competitiveness is matched only by his extreme laziness and I swear that this kid could become the first coloured president of South Africa if he actually just stepped away from the XBox and applied himself. (Mom rant?) He is polite, never rude but ALWAYS taking his chances (he reasons like a lawyer) and is a pleasant kid to be around. I love that he is good in just about everything he does. I am very proud of him. Karis is almost 2 years old and is a little diva. She knows that she has just about everyone wrapped around her little finger and parades up and down as if she runs the world. She is Hubstopher and I’s only biological child. He has a son too, Seth, who is 10 years old. Seth is a sweet, gentle natured boy, who is always eager to please (sometimes too much) and very passionate about sports (more watching, than playing). He is extremely good with remembering stats and can memorize information like a super brain. Part of his life’s plans is to play international soccer and become a WWE wrestler. That may have changed since last week.
4). How did you start blogging? By 2008 I had quite a large Facebook following already (I think over 2000 friends, and the account was only a year old). I was the queen of overshare and people seemed to like that. Anyways, when I found status updates and Facebook “notes” too limiting, my friend JustEllaBella, encouraged me to try blogging. She is now married to my cousin and co-plans the #ECMeetUp with me. I think her plan worked.
5) Share with us a valuable blogging tip you’ve learnt. (or more) I’ve learnt that your content is GOLD. I use to write a blog post every single day (even the days where I didn’t really have anything to say) and realized that by posting something every day, I was kinda devaluing my previous posts. I’ve learnt the art of re-purposing my old posts and often post “throwback” stories on my Facebook page, with a fresh description. I’ve found that my posts receive way more views this way AND I don’t have to burn myself out writing something that my heart is not in.
6) If you make money from your blog, give us a breakdown on how you do it. Give us some of your methods on how to get started on this, or any tips or advice. I’m not exactly raking in the dollars as yet, but the little that I’ve made on my blog was garnered through simply putting myself out there. I realize the importance of building relationship and that is what I try to do with brands and other bloggers alike. I sometimes see people’s conversation and think to myself “Dude, we are all JUST people.” And do you know what people like? They like REAL. Same applies to brands and PR companies. It’s nice to be Nancy KnowItAll. But it’s even nicer to be nice. That’s the juice I’m sipping on right now. 🙂
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