While I was checking out all of the SEO functions of some new Firefox extensions I installed, I happened upon Archive.org and the Wayback Machine. Out of curiosity, I went back and looked at the first week of the first site that I ever launched. It was 2004 and my site Helping Moms Connect was brand new. After my initial laugh at the site, I started looking more closely at what has changed and what has stayed the same over the last 6 years. Although I completely scrapped the site a little over a year ago and started fresh, it was interesting to see what stayed the same and what changed.

See Helping Moms Connect in 2004

See Helping Moms Connect now

Major differences:

Then: Frontpage (which most other people at my skill level at the time were using)
Now: Wordpress (which most other people at my skill level are now using)

Then: Pink! I thought if it was for women, it should be pink. Thankfully, I realized I was wrong.
Now: Green and yellow. A little more neutral.

Then: No advertisements. I hadn’t discovered affiliate marketing yet.
Now: A few banner ads on the main site and some tasteful text links.

Then: An email address and phone number to communicate with me.
Now: Twitter, RSS feeds, and newsletter.

Similaries:

When I look past those huge differences, I actually end up with a whole lot of similarities. A straightforward header with our name. Basic navigation to categories. Articles for moms that are updated at least a couple of times each week with female-friendly topics.

Despite a complete overhaul of the site, including moving it from hand coded HTML to a blog platform, I stayed true to my original purpose when I started the site. I always wanted Helping Moms to be a source of good content first and revenue second (and that is definitely still the case!).

How have your sites evolved over the years? Are you still true to your initial purpose? Has what you learned online changed your perspective and as a result your website?

Let me start out by saying that I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as a Social Media Butterfly until this morning. I was thinking about what I wanted to blog about and it kept coming back to me that I seem to be spending half of my time these days social networking on different sites. In my head I kept equating it to being a “social butterfly” and I decided to title my post “social media butterfly.” I did a quick Google search only to discover that lots of other people thought of this term long before me.

In essence, the Social Media Butterfly is the technical equivalent of the traditional Social Butterfly. You move from group to group networking and socializing. You may do it for fun or to futher your business. You know a lot of different people in different circles and enjoy making friends.

I wouldn’t say I’m exactly a social butterfly in my real life, but a big part of that is working in a home office and spending a lot of time and energy raising two kids. But lately I have absolutely become a Social Media Butterfly. In addition to my time on the Sunshine Rewards forum with those members (and the corresponding Twitter account and videoblog), I spend a good deal of time on Disney sites talking about both friends and business. I keep my Facebook page open constantly (partaking in a little Farkle, Mafia Wars, and even Farmville). I couldn’t get into Twitter much until I installed TweetDeck, and now I am addicted. Add to that my Ning sites (like TwitterMoms and Smaller Indiana). Oh! And my actual job…networking on various affiliate marketing sites and commenting on blogs. I even got a new phone that I could better text on because my other one was too hard.

It remains to be seen whether all of my time as a Social Media Butterfly is going to be profitable. It’s hard to figure out an ROI on the time that you spend Twittering. I guess I’ll give it a go for the rest of the summer and see where it takes me!

I was reading a mom’s site the other day and she was talking about how people should only have one blog because you can’t focus on too many. I got to thinking about how many different blog sites that I have–lots! Am I sabotaging myself by having too many blogs? I don’t think so. Here’s why…

First, some of my blogs are really websites just running on Wordpress as a means of content management. So while it is true they are “blogs,” they are really niche websites where I just add content weekly using Wordpress. I would say that most people in affiliate marketing have multiple websites.

Second, one of my blogs is tied directly to my biggest business (Sunshine Rewards). And it is a completely different type of blog than the rest because it is videos only. Plus, I have other employees that help me generate the content for it.

Lastly, and most importantly, I don’t think readers of one of my blogs would be interested in the content from my other blogs. Are you here because you want to read about chocolate? About being a work at home mom? If you were, you would go read those other blogs. Granted, this blog is supposed to be more random….so you never know what you are going to get from me. But that in itself is a niche…it’s a blog about the niche of Tricia Meyer. (Thrilling, I know…but you are still reading, right?)

In the end, I’ve decided that it’s perfectly fine to have multiple blogs as long as you are not just repeating the same content and you are keeping them fresh. It doesn’t hurt to cross-promote your blogs a little bit either. How many blogs do you have?