If you want to be in the know for all the latest and greatest family products, look no further than Ahh~Mazing Reviews! We sat with Ohio blogger Megan Balaban, a busy stay at home mom who juggles a full family life and blogging without batting an eyelid!
1. Tell us about yourself and how you started blogging.- My name is Megan and I first started blogging when pregnant with my first daughter, back in 2008. I knew I wasn’t disciplined enough to keep up with a handwritten journal, capturing all of the events of my pregnancy but wanted to have detailed documentation of every moment. My career at the time was in IT, so pounding away a bit more on the computer just made sense. I joined Mommy and Me Giveaways (now Ahh~Mazing Reviews) in January 2011, just after my second daughter was born. Now I am expecting my third daughter and love sharing parenting experiences, asking for advice from readers and bringing them fabulous products that make my job as Mom easier and more fabulous!
2. What makes your blog absolutely fabulous?- There are 4 of us at Ahh~Mazing Reviews, all moms, and our children range in ages from in utero to 17. Due to this we all bring a great mixture of insights and interests to our blog. We love connecting with our readers and hope that they realize that it really is personal to us!
3. What type of content fits with your targeted audience?– Reviews and giveaways! These are very broad but can all fit under the “family products” umbrella.
Now that being a mom is my main career title, it is a fabulous way for me to use my brain in a different way.
4. What does a day in your blog life look like?- I am busier now as a stay-at-home Mom who is blogging [more] than I ever was in my professional career!
7:00 – 8:00am ~ Wait for my girls to wake and when they do, make breakfast for them and read over emails that have come in since the night before. Check-in with our Facebook page to see if there have been any new comments or messages from readers and ensure that all of our scheduled promotion posts for the day are completed and ready.
8:00 – 9:30am ~ Blog break … play with my girls, drive oldest to preschool on certain days, plan our day together.
9:30 – 11:00am ~ Craft time / play time for my girls while I work on posts for the day, product pitches, etc.
11:00 – 11:30am ~ Reading time with my girls
11:30 ~ Begin preparing lunches
Noon – 12:30pm ~ Lunch time; I make a point to sit with my girls, technology put away, and talk about our day so far while we enjoy lunch together.
12:30 – 1:30pm ~ My girls watch a cartoon or movie to begin to calm down for naps. I continue to work on posts, emails and pitches during this time.
1:30 – 4:00pm ~ Nap time! I toss some laundry in, scrub a floor, make a bed … then it is back to blogging with some “Mommy TV” on in the background!
4:00 – 4:30pm ~ Blog break; girls are awake and it is time to play, read or take a walk.
4:30pm ~ Begin working on dinner for the night.
5:00 – 8:00pm ~ Family time. If my girls are playing with my husband a lot, I will sit near them with some blog work, but otherwise we try to do something together, uninterrupted.
8:00 – Midnight ~ Finish posts for that day, wrap up any unanswered emails, finish researching and pitching companies. Then … BED!
I make a point to sit with my girls, technology put away, and talk about our day so far while we enjoy lunch together.
5. What types of readers are in your blog ‘pink book’?- Other parents and female entrepreneurs probably make up the majority of our “pink book” demographic!
6. Is running your own blog as glamorous as it sounds?- No! It is a LOT of hard work. I love it and now that being a mom is my main career title, it is a fabulous way for me to use my brain in a different way. It takes a lot of time (I easily put in a minimum of 60 hours a week on it), but it is very rewarding!
7. What celebrity do you look at for style inspiration?– Reese Witherspoon. She is absolutely classy and muted and I love seeing what she wears!
8. What are your favourite stores to shop at for the perfect wardrobe?- Now that I am pregnant this is a very different answer. I have fallen in love with PinkBlush Maternity and Japanese Weekend Maternity through my work with them on our blog. I have always been a hardcore GAP Maternity fan, also. When I am not pregnant I love to shop at The Limited, GAP and Target!
9. What is your favourite travel hot spot?- The Outerbanks, North Carolina! We go every year and have since 2004 when my husband made the most amazingly romantic proposal on the beach that I could have imagined. I love all of our memories that are there. I never leave without sunscreen, my favorite beach hat, sand toys for my girls and my Kindle loaded with several good books. It is definitely one week a year that I put the blog aside and just relax!
10. Can you offer any advice for new bloggers or female entrepreneurs looking to promote their business?- Stick with it. It really can become overwhelming and scary at times, but remember that it is yours. It is what you make of it and the opportunities are limitless. Find a niche that makes you unique and go from there!
Interview by: Talia Beckett