8 years of Samantha. J

8 whole years of my little piece of the internet, wow. To be honest I never thought I would make it this far, a lot of the bloggers I used to know gave up years ago which made sense because at that point a lot of people were moving over to concentrate solely on their social media platforms.

Blogging has moved a lot since 2016 or so, it’s no longer as popular as it used to be and a lot of people now don’t read blogs but personally I love reading reviews off bloggers and following all my blogger friends and their personal journeys over the years really makes my heart happy. I’ve loved seeing them grow personally and writing wise, getting all the opportunities they’ve deserved.

If you weren’t here 8 years ago Samantha. J originally started as ‘always believe in a miracle’, and at the time the name felt right, I was writing about what i’d been through cancer wise but looking back now I cringe so hard.

I think it was the start of 2018 when I really started to take blogging more seriously, I got my first paid collaboration in April with Clive Christian which I was so proud of especially the photography. I remember not having a clue when emailing the brand, I just went with whatever they said and didn’t question it, I didn’t know any better but knowing my worth now I wish I had researched but I suppose that’s called learning and growing.

By the end of 2018 I’d done multiple paid and gifted collaborations but was really outgrowing the name but wasn’t sure on a rebrand just yet and waited until February 2019 to change over to Samantha. J. I went through so many name options but this one just felt right for the direction I wanted to take my blog in the future. I would never re-brand again though, it took so much work especially behind the scenes. I’m pretty happy with where I am now.

I really lost my love for blogging in 2020/2021. The lockdown really took a toll on me. My mental health and my blog suffered massively. I feel like the quality and quantity took a dive and I wasn’t happy with anything I was putting out which is why I hardly posted but sometimes blogging can be like that and you just have to be kind to yourself and not pressure yourself to write when you don’t feel like it.

I took it back to basics in 2022 and stopped worrying about the technical side of blogging and just wrote what I wanted, granted I didn’t put out that many posts but I enjoyed what I was writing which was the main thing. It was the same with last year also and now we are in 2024, 8 whole years later. I feel more excited about my blog this year, I want to write a lot about the things I’m passionate about, my feelings, plan my time better and actually have posts scheduled to go out on a certain date which I have always been terrible at but other than that just enjoy it. Sometimes we take away the enjoyment and focus too much on everything else, I’m not going to let that happen this year.

If you’ve been here since the beginning or you’ve just started reading my blog, thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means the world to me that people actually read and like the stuff I put out on my little piece of the Internet.

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