Goodbye Lauren’s Latest

Hello, friends!

I’ve been writing this post in my head over and over again and, well, I think it’s time I just ripped the bandaid off.

Last month, I said goodbye to Lauren’s Latest (my food blog) and sold it and officially retired from food blogging. Yes, you read that right. I SOLD my blog, passed the torch over to the new owner and now will solely be focusing my time on my family.

If you’ve been around from when I first started blogging 12 1/2 years ago, you will know that I poured my heart and soul into my blog. Gordon started the blog as part of a web business class when he was working towards his Bachelor’s Degree. The point of the class was to actually start a web business and he didn’t know what business to start (that wouldn’t cost a ton of money for us poor college kids). I casually mentioned that if he couldn’t think of anything by the time the deadline rolled around, he could start a food blog for me. As you probably guessed, he started me a blog and the rest is history. Brooke was only 6 months old when it started!

For that semester, he helped put together a site on Blogspot and get google adsense ads in the sidebar and I helped add content to the site. Tada! We were in business. The blog was making maaaayyybbeeee $0.30 per day. After the semester was over, he continued on with his degree and I started to hustle and build the blog to what it became.

I switched my site from Blogspot to WordPress. I rebranded to Lauren’s Latest. I saved for two years to be able to buy my first DSLR camera. I learned how to use it. I practiced food styling. I went to conferences that taught me how to do all these things. I made friends with other bloggers. I’d stay up until 2-3am writing blog posts, then wake up at 7am to tweet out my new recipes and then retweet my friend’s recipes. I’d schedule Facebook posts and Pinterest pins. I created my own food blog conference called Indulge and ran it for three years. I went from designing my own site and trying to understand html (lol) to being able to pay web designers to do it for me. I went from Google Adsense to waterfalling my ads myself (yuck) to joining an ad revenue company. My RPM’s went from $3 to $10 to over $55! I grew from a one woman show to a team of nine. I went from making pennies to being able to support my family (twice!) on just my income in order to meet our needs.

I had three more kids! We moved from Idaho to Oregon, then back to Idaho to New York and then finally to Oregon. My husband got a job out of college, joined the military, got his Master’s Degree, worked for the Secret Service and then quit to be a homeschooling Dad.

So much has happened in these last 12 1/2 years. Man oh man, it was fun to watch my blog grow right alongside my family. In many ways, it was a dream job; I had freedom to do what I want when I wanted.

BUT, I also had the pressure to do more, be more, create more, post more. Is this recipe trending? Is it relevant right now? Did it get enough likes? Why didn’t it get more likes? Should I create a video to help boost it? Should I add more affiliate links in here? Should I block that person because they are sending me terrible messages? Did I optimize the post with the proper keyword? Should I change the title? Did I add enough backlinks? Is there a better keyword that would help rank it higher? The blog became this ridiculous hamster wheel that I could never get off. The to-do list would never end and it felt like a constant battle between figuring out what was somewhat important versus most important.

Initially, I loved the chase. I was ambitious to watch my blog grow and possibly make a small income, which it did slow and steadily. But as I was forced to pay attention to the google core updates or the algorithm changes on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest (and then figure out how to change my posting or sharing strategy,) it became a job that I hated. Spoiler alert: social media sites don’t care if any of my followers see my content. It was like banging my head against a wall.

In January, I reached my breaking point and voiced all of my frustrations to Gordon. He suggested selling. I immediately refused, thinking “who would want to buy such a personalized blog?” but after thinking about it and coming around to the idea, it became clear that it was exactly what I needed to do. The blog had served its purpose for our family and I didn’t need to feel guilty for ‘cashing out’ all of my hard work for some mental peace and financial stability. I could enjoy my kids while they were still young without feeling the pressure of having to earn money for our family because I already did my part to set us up for success. I get to reap the benefits of all those long hours I put in over the last 12 years.

I used a broker to help facilitate the sale. The broker essentially created a ‘listing’ for my business and interested parties would be able to contact him for more info. I received three great offers within 10 days and while I didn’t go with the highest dollar amount, I did choose the best person for the job: another blogger who absolutely knows what she is doing. Over the course of the last four months, maybe you noticed that I slowly started migrating all of my personal posts over to this new blog and showed my face on instagram less and less. This is because I was phasing myself out in preparation for the sale. (Did you notice?) It was a bit of a longer process than I expected, but it is all finalized and I am now just another average Joe, living my quiet life in a much smaller corner of the internet.

What does this mean for you? Probably nothing. All of my recipes will live on! If you have a recipe of mine that you know and love, don’t worry! It will still be online, ready and waiting for you. I just won’t be running the show anymore. The new owner will post new recipes and might even switch things up a bit. I have no idea what she has planned, but I’m excited for her and hope she is able to take Lauren’s Latest to new heights.

From the very bottom of my heart, THANK YOU to my beloved readers who grew up with me and my family. The folks who used my recipes, who left 5 star reviews or helpful comments as to why a recipe didn’t work, who supported us time and time again with your kind comments, emails and DM’s. You kept me going a lot of the time when I really just wanted to quit and live in a place where the internet didn’t exist. I’m sometimes a little sad when I think about not having Lauren’s Latest anymore, but at the end of the day I know this was the right decision.

As for me, I will continue to document my life somewhat regularly on *this* blog and spend my time where I actually want to spend it: with my family. Only in the last few days has it actually hit me that I don’t need to log-on, check stats, reply to emails or comments, create or shoot recipes or really do anything online anymore. Several times, I have found myself picking up my phone to check instagram stats only to remember “oh yeah, I don’t have to do this anymore!” Definitely a habit that I’m thrilled to break. It’s like a pressure valve has been released in my brain and I’m free to do what I want whenever I want. It’s a whole new world. I only wish I had done it sooner.

Anyways, feel free to check-in on us Brennan’s from time to time because we will still be here with a whole lot of love with a little less food.

Much Love,

Lauren