Late last year I found myself deeply contemplating my online presence. The political climate was red hot, the Oligarchy was putting their money on the table, and people were re-emboldened to say the (nastiest) quiet parts out loud.
I started thinking a lot about where my dollars go, mostly for entertainment purposes, but also out of convenience.
I began shifting subscriptions and spending less time on platforms that started to feel icky.
When talking about these steps in my small in-real-life circles, I was asked if I really thought the $6 in ad revenue Insta would lose from me in the coming year really mattered, I’d answer with, “It matters to me”.
After Meta’s outright policy shift in relation to the LGBTQ+ community, I took a six-month hiatus from Instagram in the first half of 2025 and was mostly only sad about it because I knew I’d miss the small community of family historians I’d built on my bold+queer account…
And I knew that that small community was where my t-shirt and mug sales came from in traffic to my family history blog…
But I thought if I spent more time writing on the blog (instead of creating content for Insta), other people would find me there. They did, in fits and spurts, but family history is wildly niche, and the wave of researchers ebbed way back with the receding (debatable) COVID pandemic and researchers went back to work.
Then, I started questioning the need to niche myself…
Started questioning the “expert” insistence that one is only interesting if they only talk about one aspect of their being because “no one cares” about the rest…
Out of those questions came starting this blog, Under the Elderberry Tree. I wanted to share whatever I wanted to share without worrying if it fit into a box I’d put myself in.
And I missed old school blogging when it was just people being people without all the pretense.
But, starting this blog brought me up to THREE active blogs: personal, farm, family history.
In an attempt to gain more traction, I moved the family history blog from SquareSpace to WordPress and doubled down on my categories, tags, and SEO. I joined blogging challenges and commented on other blogs with a passion.
I was met with some engagement and positivity, but not enough to make the ROI make sense.
No continuous engagement, no consistent readers, zero shop sales.
At the end of my six-month hiatus, I decided to dip my toes back in to Insta to see how my family history page felt to me, what the community was up to, and how the platform was doing at large. I found crickets and tons of ads/sponsored posts. The whole thing felt just wrong, salesy, and lonely.
I reached out to the community and found most of them are either frustrated with the platform or just not using it like they had previously been.
We’d all continued to change in those six-months and I knew for certain it just wasn’t a good fit for me anymore.
Faced with all of the information I’d gathered, I began truly assessing if continuing to write on my family history blog, was a good/fulfilling idea. Maybe I could keep writing/documenting just for my personal files, but drop the cost, time suck, and struggle of keeping up a blog so few were reading?
And so, after lots of thought and several deep breaths, I’ve decided to drop it.
As an almost three year experiment, it was fun and enlightening, but it’s time to stop trying to force it.
I don’t think the ancestors will mind the pulling back of their internet presence 😉
I will work over the next few months to ensure nothing is lost/it’s all backed up appropriately.
I might bring a few of my favorite posts into this space to share them with you and make them available for any future researchers who find their way here.
I will also begin writing about family history and genetic genealogy here from time to time, as it fits and I’m inspired…
Maybe once or twice a month? Time will tell.
And I need to figure out what to do with my t-shirt and mug shop because I do love it so and I do know several items have made other family historians very happy.
I’ve also decided to let my farm blog simply sit as an archive.
As an almost 15 year investment, I can’t imagine shutting it down. It simply holds too much of our history. And who knows, maybe I’ll be called to write a post each season. Or not. But, even with no new content added, it averages 500 views a week, mostly on my DIY posts from ten-ish years ago, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.
How does all this feel?
Welp, no longer spreading myself too thin by putting myself in the niche boxes we’re told are the only way to build community/have your work seen online feels just fine 🙂
I’m over it, honestly.
Maybe it’s my age or my personal healing speaking, but life is complicated enough without putting so much pressure on oneself…
Especially in online spaces.
I just want to write and comment and share and chat with lovely people like you here in this space.
And so it shall be!
Thank you for being here with me on this journey!
Onward,
Melissa
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Sounds like an excellent plan. I know I can only handle one blog, and I am always amazed by how some people can juggle multiple blogs. I really like general interest blogs that reflect the interests of the writer.
Thank you, Laurie! It feels good to have made the decision 🙂
Endings are often much harder than beginnings, but it sounds like you’ve put lots of time and thought into this, and see that there are other places you would rather put your time and energy, and I admire that! It took me a bit of reading this blog to find your others (which are both very nice!) but I like the stream of consciousness and different topics and styles you experiment with here, and I guess I prefer hearing from a person living their life and understanding our similarities and differences (go figure, right?) rather than just seeing one aspect of who you are.
I think many of us who were around and invested in the “Old School Internet” really lament some of the unexpected weirdness and wackiness we would find there – so it’s on us to re-institute it. You are doing a great job!
Thank you so much for this, Jessica! I wholeheartedly agree that it is on us to re-create aspects of our experiences that we’d like to see in present time! It wont be for everybody, but nothing is, so we might as well be happy on our journey 🙂
Hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend ahead!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on how you came to your decisions. This sounds like a great solution!
Thank you, Joy! I am glad I finally came around it to. With so many balls in the air, sometimes you just to let a few fall to make the other(s) a proper priority.
Yes! “Maybe it’s my age or my personal healing speaking, but life is complicated enough without putting so much pressure on oneself…
Especially in online spaces.
I just want to write and comment and share and chat with lovely people like you here in this space.”
Same. Online media spaces seem to be ever-evolving, and I don’t have the time or motivation to chase down the latest trends or watch my stats, etc. I just want to meet people in the world and have conversations as we journey along. Thanks for being a space I enjoy visiting.
Thank you so much for this wonderful response, Lisa. I’m so glad we’re on the same page and able to share space and time together through our blogs! I’m so glad to have found you 🙂
I almost scrapped my blog too and didn’t. I’m glad I made that choice as my return to the blogosphere included finding you and others, as well as reconnecting with my familiar blog fam.. I’m glad you’re here.
Hi Kathleen, I’m so glad you hung on so I could have met you in this space! It’s all been such a learning and I’m glad I’ve found my path forward here.
It can be sad and yet also liberating to let go of projects like this! Sounds like you made a good decision for you.
Liberating is the perfect word. Thank you.
I’m not a fan of “niche”-ing to create content because I am more than my niche. I’ve experimented it in the past and it made me realize what I was creating was more like a product rather presenting what I am. I still use Instagram but a lot less because I’m more passionate about writing and expressing myself.
I’m so glad you didn’t fall down the niche well! It’s a tight one and can be wildly uncomfortable for those of us who just want to share without constraints 🙂