I think it will be good for them. I'm glad they realize that the content has been off for awhile. I don't really see them taking a whole month, but we'll see. I think after finishing the laundry room they pry don't have many projects ready to do anyway.
I still read the blog every couple days but lately I've been skimming much more. I'm sure some people like a step by step of how to lay tile, but I don't need 150 pictures of what to do, especially when a lot of this stuff they've done before.
At a minimum one of them needs to go back to work.
I hope the break is the refresh they need. They've been struggling for awhile, basically since house #2's kitchen, and I'm glad they're not fooling themselves anymore.
I have not read them regularly for years but when I did read there I sensed they were burned out and unhappy. It sounds like this has been a while in coming and I'm glad for them. I think John will return to the workforce and maybe they will blog part time and post once or twice a week. They were much more genuine when the blog wasn't their main income.
i'm glad they're doing it. everyone needs a break from work and they really haven't had one even with little vacations here and there. they live in their job, it's constantly staring them in the face, they have no safe space to get away and not see work. that would seriously mess with your head after a while. i hope they do come back because i enjoy reading even if i don't agree with all of their decorating choices, etc. i'd like to see them come back more as a family/lifestyle blog... they're never going to give up the house renos and diy, but it needs to be balanced with things not house related just to keep their sanity.
I wish I could say that something other than I think that the timing on all this is a bit off. First there is the skipped post last Thursday, then the comments and now we are stepping away. All in less than 5 days. I have a feeling that this break is less about the blog and comments and more about needing time to do projects and editing of their 2nd book.
But at least they are admitting that they are a business and it isn't just a "oh, look at us and our hobby DIY blog" bullcrap which I always found to be quite disingenuous since most of us don't have hobbies that support a family of 4.
I wish I could say that something other than I think that the timing on all this is a bit off. First there is the skipped post last Thursday, then the comments and now we are stepping away. All in less than 5 days. I have a feeling that this break is less about the blog and comments and more about needing time to do projects and editing of their 2nd book.
But at least they are admitting that they are a business and it isn't just a "oh, look at us and our hobby DIY blog" bullcrap which I always found to be quite disingenuous since most of us don't have hobbies that support a family of 4.
This is where I was surprised too. If this is your main source of income, you don't just miss a post, collect some comments, and make the decision to scrap the whole thing for a month (or more) less than a week. I would think especially with the new book coming out, their publisher would want their blog to be active to draw publicity. Something else has to be up, hopefully nothing too terrible!
I wish I could say that something other than I think that the timing on all this is a bit off. First there is the skipped post last Thursday, then the comments and now we are stepping away. All in less than 5 days. I have a feeling that this break is less about the blog and comments and more about needing time to do projects and editing of their 2nd book.
But at least they are admitting that they are a business and it isn't just a "oh, look at us and our hobby DIY blog" bullcrap which I always found to be quite disingenuous since most of us don't have hobbies that support a family of 4.
ITA. I'm sure they are going to use this month to catch up on all their side projects. My hope is that they can wrap them up, and then either give up the blog, or keep the blog and start focusing on it more since the reason their side projects even exist is because of their blog's readership. And if they do come back (which I'm assuming at least one of them will), I hope they hire the help they need with childcare and/or blog maintenance stuff so they can focus on content and post-writing as their "day job" and still have a normal family life on nights and weekends.
I wish I could say that something other than I think that the timing on all this is a bit off. First there is the skipped post last Thursday, then the comments and now we are stepping away. All in less than 5 days. I have a feeling that this break is less about the blog and comments and more about needing time to do projects and editing of their 2nd book.
But at least they are admitting that they are a business and it isn't just a "oh, look at us and our hobby DIY blog" bullcrap which I always found to be quite disingenuous since most of us don't have hobbies that support a family of 4.
ITA. I'm sure they are going to use this month to catch up on all their side projects. My hope is that they can wrap them up, and then either give up the blog, or keep the blog and start focusing on it more since the reason their side projects even exist is because of their blog's readership. And if they do come back (which I'm assuming at least one of them will), I hope they hire the help they need with childcare and/or blog maintenance stuff so they can focus on content and post-writing as their "day job" and still have a normal family life on nights and weekends.
Maybe if they didn't moderate every single comment, they would have plenty of time for a normal family life. I mean Sherry moderates every.single.comment and then comments on many of them. Who has time for all that and taking care of the kids and quality content?
Sorry, that is snarky, but seriously, their whole "oh, we are just 2 kids starting our lives and fumbling our way through these things" and "we didn't mean to become a business" crap is getting old now that they have been at this for years promoting themselves and the blog, have 2 kids, a multi-book publishing deal, several home dec lines, etc. because yeah, everyone who blogs as a hobby and not a business just falls into being able to do all that stuff. <snort>
Maybe if they didn't moderate every single comment, they would have plenty of time for a normal family life. I mean Sherry moderates every.single.comment and then comments on many of them. Who has time for all that and taking care of the kids and quality content?
Sorry, that is snarky, but seriously, their whole "oh, we are just 2 kids starting our lives and fumbling our way through these things" and "we didn't mean to become a business" crap is getting old now that they have been at this for years promoting themselves and the blog, have 2 kids, a multi-book publishing deal, several home dec lines, etc. because yeah, everyone who blogs as a hobby and not a business just falls into being able to do all that stuff. <snort>
I totally agree with you. I left a comment the other day saying just that. They need to act like a business and hire some help to do non-content-related stuff and stop pretending they are doing this "for fun" and that they're novices. Anyone can type, "Thanks! That's so sweet of you! xoxo Sherry" and approve every single complementary post and delete anything vaguely critical. They need content to keep their business alive. As a reader, I DGAF about whether or not they are the ones moderating comments, or running giveaways. And FFS, you are both full-time bloggers, hire some childcare! There is no shame in daycare or a nanny or family help. It's what every other dual income household has to do. /rant.
Can I get a recap on what's going on? I haven't followed for a long time
Today on YHL (after a weekend of honest comments when they asked what people wanted to see on the blog-filler posts yea or nay/quantity kind of thing)
Feeeeeelings Posted by Sherry Petersik, September 9, 2014
This post was 3,000 words long. They all felt overly complicated and heavy and weird. I clicked delete. Then I just typed what we’re really feeling, complete with things we’ve never said out loud and even a few things we’ve never fully admitted to ourselves before.
The truth is that we love you guys. Like for real. Even for the tough love. We know you say it because you care (or hopefully you did at some point), and we want you to know we care right back. We want to do a good job. We want to do this with joy and excitement. We want to inspire you. We know this is an incredible way to have made a living and we are full of gratitude for the experience to have shared the last seven years of our lives with you guys online.
We would NEVER be here without you, and not a day goes by that we don’t know that. It’s why we asked for your feedback last week and read every last comment. We appreciate the honesty and the passion you guys have on the topic of making this blog great. And we agree with a lot of what was being said. We have been feeling off for a while – like we have lost our rhythm and we’re somehow missing the mark for ourselves and for you guys. We too miss the good old days when we did this for the love and were full of such obvious joy and spontaneity. This felt like a place we all hung out and it just doesn’t have that vibe anymore.
Over the years many amazing opportunities popped up for us. Things we never dreamed of doing in a million years, and things we’re incredibly grateful to have had the chance to experience. A book deal, curating paint picks with Benjamin Moore, a line sold at Target, a showhouse, etc. But in hindsight those things also made this feel a lot more like a business than a personal blog to many of you, and to us as well. We have actually ramped those down behind the scenes in an attempt to get back to our roots (we no longer do the BM color collection, the second book is mostly written, our products at Target have completed their run, and we finished the showhouse) but we never really made a big announcement about that – so it’s completely understandable that some of you might think we’ve moved on to those greener pastures and left the blog in the dust, so to speak. The reality is that our site propels the success of any outside project like a product or book, so we could never turn our backs on the blog and expect those items to continue to sell as well.
Not only have we felt this shift from “John and Sherry” to “Young House Love: The Brand”, but the blogosphere as a whole has become increasingly sponsored/corporate lately. We can see from the outside prospective as a reader, or even a fellow blogger, that it’s hard to read a blog post without suspecting some ulterior motive or money-making system behind it. Last week a few of you mentioned that we might need to keep giveaways around because they pay us well, which surprised us since they’re never something we accept payment for (we like to pass free things along to you as a thank you for reading).
Along with the whole business/brand thing that’s going on, and the side gigs that felt like they muddied the water for some of you, there are certainly other things we wish we had handled differently in hindsight. Just to name a few, there’s: being too defensive, over-explaining, letting things get in our heads and change our lighthearted approach, and the internal struggle between being transparent and oversharing personal details like a vacant new house without an alarm system (looking back we wish we’d handled our third house announcement differently). We know many of you felt insulted that we didn’t share more freely about that house, and we truly apologize.
Anyway, back to that whole “we’re sexy stumbling and you know it” thing. It’s endlessly frustrating to do a job that you love poorly, especially when it’s a blog baby that you’ve birthed yourself and nurtured for seven years. And especially when it’s such an amazing job that we once felt so inspired and joyful to wake up and do each day. What’s wrong with us? We know this is a dream job. We acknowledge it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. We know most people who have built something like this would be more inspired than ever. It’s not that we lost the gratitude, I think it’s that we feel like we’ve fallen out of our groove. We feel like we’re letting you guys down repeatedly. It got to the point that every time we pressed “publish” we braced ourselves.
So in an attempt to stop stumbling around and feeling like we just can’t get it back, we’re taking a break. We don’t know exactly how long we’ll be stepping away, but our guess would be at least a month. We will certainly be exploring other options for supporting our family (something we mentioned we were considering back in April). We had that fiery blog-spark back when we had day jobs and did this as a hobby, so we think it could be a good change. We’ll also be taking a break on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but the blog will stay public so you guys can access the archives whenever you’d like.
Our internal struggle and the state of this blog is entirely of our making, and we completely own that. Please don’t get mad at anyone for being honest with their feedback last week or accuse them of sending us packing. We have been struggling with that “something is off” feeling for a while now, and after way too much denial and “we’ll turn it around” pep talks, we finally asked for your feedback because we truly wanted to hear what you were thinking. It was cathartic and helpful for us. It has allowed us to very clearly see that if we have any respect for this blog and our love of it, and for you guys and what you’d like to see, we need to take break if we ever want any hope of getting back to that fun/real/spontaneous place it used to be when this was something we did for the love instead of the high stakes game of supporting a family.
In summary: we love you, we thank you, and we hope you understand.
And I thought a long, long time ago they were talking about hiring out comment moderation type tasks, did that not happen?
I think they said once before Clara started school that Grandma came over one afternoon a week to watch her. Then once Clara was in school that pry gave them somewhat of a break. But now that they have a newborn again they for sure need some help if they want this to work. But I don't see them hiring anyone for the baby since Sherry breastfeeds and she said with Clara she never liked to pump so sounds like she enjoys being with the baby all day.
I do agree with others that they should hire out to approve comments. But Sherry seems to like her hands on everything.
Post by emoflamingo on Sept 9, 2014 13:26:23 GMT -5
They've mentioned Book #2 projects pretty recently (from what I can recall, which is sometimes spotty), so I have to assume this is a "let's 'pause' the blog and bust out this book" sitch.
They are SO wordy. I forgot how bad they always are with that.
It sounds like they are burnt out, no doubt made worse by their (Sherry's) excessive need for control and cheapness. Seriously, no one else with a blog their size is replying to comments. And no childcare? How old is Clara now? Get her to moderate the comments and start contributing to the family biz.
They are so bad at any kind of work/life balance. I read the GOMI article about the Airing of Grievances on their blog last week when they posted that they would only have time to put up one new post that week. Considering the blog/DIY is a full time job for BOTH of them, that's 80 hours a week they are spending on... not blogging. When the blog is their only source of income.
Not to mention that if they think the blog has become weird and too commercialized because they have their fingers in all of these other projects (the BM collection, Target, the show house), well, that's your own damn fault for concentrating too much on that stuff rather than your own DIY, yeah?
Plus the lack of childcare, plus the heavy handed moderation. I know people with WAY less popular blogs who still blog for a living and are able to pay assistants, accountants, etc. It's not an income thing, it's a control thing, for sure.
Post by bunnymendelbaum on Sept 10, 2014 7:47:08 GMT -5
Seems like maybe some bad business too? I was surprised they don't take $ for give aways. IMO, if you are advertising a product why the hell would you not get paid for it? Everyone assumes you are anyway. Maybe they aren't making as much money as everyone thinks? I bet they need to change some of their business thoughts and make more $ in order to hire childcare or an assistant?
In general, I really hate how opaque bloggers are about how much $ they make. I get it that most ppl don't like to talk about how much $ they make, but bloggers are not "most ppl". They will be transparent about everything else in their lives and still a brick wall when it comes to blogging income.
Plus the lack of childcare, plus the heavy handed moderation. I know people with WAY less popular blogs who still blog for a living and are able to pay assistants, accountants, etc. It's not an income thing, it's a control thing, for sure.
I'm here. It was a recipe for burnout. I have no idea how you get work from home done with small children without child care - I can send quick emails or step outside for a phone call while she's awake, but that's it. From what I recall of day in the life posts from years ago, they were always trading off work/child care when Clara was awake, so really, not 2 40-hour weeks. (Unless they did everything else after bedtime?)
I give them props for having a lot of hustle and clearly being good at managing their money (carrying 2 mortgages on self-employed income? Impressive!), but they're being pecked to death by chickens with minute details that should be outsourced.
Seems like maybe some bad business too? I was surprised they don't take $ for give aways. IMO, if you are advertising a product why the hell would you not get paid for it? Everyone assumes you are anyway. Maybe they aren't making as much money as everyone thinks? I bet they need to change some of their business thoughts and make more $ in order to hire childcare or an assistant?
In general, I really hate how opaque bloggers are about how much $ they make. I get it that most ppl don't like to talk about how much $ they make, but bloggers are not "most ppl". They will be transparent about everything else in their lives and still a brick wall when it comes to blogging income.
They make plenty of money just from the ads on the blog. With the huge number of views they get, it isn't even about people clicking through on the ads. They are in a very good position. That non post on Thursday earned them a pretty penny for writing one or two sentences. I forget the name of the much smaller food blog that gives a lot of information about the money end of it, but they have made $30,000 in one month alone. YHL has to be bringing in a lot more than that.
They have donated their pay for the showhouse and at least one other job...guessing they need the tax deductions. They paid cash for their brand new suv, carried two mortgages for six months or so, and have spent a whole lot on stuff the past few months that really adds up (outdoor furniture, office furniture, laundry room, throw pillows , etc...).
They built their brand on being thrifty, and haven't figured out how to incorporate their not so poor status into their blog or into their decorating choices without alienating their fans. They alternate between being cheap rather than thrifty or spending foolishly, while pretending to be in the same financial position that they were 7 years ago. As a result they come off as being untruthful and wind up alienating more people.
Seems like maybe some bad business too? I was surprised they don't take $ for give aways. IMO, if you are advertising a product why the hell would you not get paid for it? Everyone assumes you are anyway. Maybe they aren't making as much money as everyone thinks? I bet they need to change some of their business thoughts and make more $ in order to hire childcare or an assistant?
In general, I really hate how opaque bloggers are about how much $ they make. I get it that most ppl don't like to talk about how much $ they make, but bloggers are not "most ppl". They will be transparent about everything else in their lives and still a brick wall when it comes to blogging income.
They make plenty of money just from the ads on the blog. With the huge number of views they get, it isn't even about people clicking through on the ads. They are in a very good position. That non post on Thursday earned them a pretty penny for writing one or two sentences. I forget the name of the much smaller food blog that gives a lot of information about the money end of it, but they have made $30,000 in one month alone. YHL has to be bringing in a lot more than that.
They have donated their pay for the showhouse and at least one other job...guessing they need the tax deductions. They paid cash for their brand new suv, carried two mortgages for six months or so, and have spent a whole lot on stuff the past few months that really adds up (outdoor furniture, office furniture, laundry room, throw pillows , etc...).
They built their brand on being thrifty, and haven't figured out how to incorporate their not so poor status into their blog or into their decorating choices without alienating their fans. They alternate between being cheap rather than thrifty or spending foolishly, while pretending to be in the same financial position that they were 7 years ago. As a result they come off as being untruthful and wind up alienating more people.
God, yes. They've "grown up" and budget is not much of an issue anymore and that's happened with a lot of their readers too. There's no shame in splurging on things. Think of the "splurge vs. save" posts they could generate by creating a mood board for a room that centers around one item (couch, nice rug, lighting) and then has a budget look and a not-so-budget look.
Seems like maybe some bad business too? I was surprised they don't take $ for give aways. IMO, if you are advertising a product why the hell would you not get paid for it? Everyone assumes you are anyway. Maybe they aren't making as much money as everyone thinks? I bet they need to change some of their business thoughts and make more $ in order to hire childcare or an assistant?
In general, I really hate how opaque bloggers are about how much $ they make. I get it that most ppl don't like to talk about how much $ they make, but bloggers are not "most ppl". They will be transparent about everything else in their lives and still a brick wall when it comes to blogging income.
They make plenty of money just from the ads on the blog. With the huge number of views they get, it isn't even about people clicking through on the ads. They are in a very good position. That non post on Thursday earned them a pretty penny for writing one or two sentences. I forget the name of the much smaller food blog that gives a lot of information about the money end of it, but they have made $30,000 in one month alone. YHL has to be bringing in a lot more than that.
They have donated their pay for the showhouse and at least one other job...guessing they need the tax deductions. They paid cash for their brand new suv, carried two mortgages for six months or so, and have spent a whole lot on stuff the past few months that really adds up (outdoor furniture, office furniture, laundry room, throw pillows , etc...).
They built their brand on being thrifty, and haven't figured out how to incorporate their not so poor status into their blog or into their decorating choices without alienating their fans. They alternate between being cheap rather than thrifty or spending foolishly, while pretending to be in the same financial position that they were 7 years ago. As a result they come off as being untruthful and wind up alienating more people.
Well then it makes no damn sense to me. Hire some damn help! She must have some serious control issues, because it is not money, then why else not?
They make plenty of money just from the ads on the blog. With the huge number of views they get, it isn't even about people clicking through on the ads. They are in a very good position. That non post on Thursday earned them a pretty penny for writing one or two sentences. I forget the name of the much smaller food blog that gives a lot of information about the money end of it, but they have made $30,000 in one month alone. YHL has to be bringing in a lot more than that.
They have donated their pay for the showhouse and at least one other job...guessing they need the tax deductions. They paid cash for their brand new suv, carried two mortgages for six months or so, and have spent a whole lot on stuff the past few months that really adds up (outdoor furniture, office furniture, laundry room, throw pillows , etc...).
They built their brand on being thrifty, and haven't figured out how to incorporate their not so poor status into their blog or into their decorating choices without alienating their fans. They alternate between being cheap rather than thrifty or spending foolishly, while pretending to be in the same financial position that they were 7 years ago. As a result they come off as being untruthful and wind up alienating more people.
Well then it makes no damn sense to me. Hire some damn help! She must have some serious control issues, because it is not money, then why else not?
They have some weird quirks, that's for sure. I just always go back to the whole her not-wanting-to-drive-thing.
That's super interesting. I see the high if $33k a month and then down to $200.
I didn't see a "what is happening" summary though. Did they stop posting as much? Lose popularity?
Honestly, I think this is all too stressful as a job. I can see how someone would go nuts looking at their stats and freaking when they start falling.
the $33k is more recent. they're still building the blog up. if you pop in different posts, he talks about any changes they've made that might account for higher revenue and there was one (i can't remember which) that talked about the ebb and flow of marketing. Q4 is obviously a huge cash cow because marketers are striking hard with Christmas shopping, while Q1 is slower as people are reigning it in after holiday spending.