Never to late to try! What have you got to lose????

You will need to find your niche. With so many blogs out there, why would we want to look at yours? In other words, how are you going to advertise it to entice the reader?

Everyone here can be your initial audience.

Good luck.

Don't forget that because blogs and YouTube 'channels" are often heavily monetized, links to blogs are often flagged on Houzz as 'spam'.

I’d be interested, Annie. You seem to have a variety of interests, knowledge, and opinions. It will take up a lot of time for you. If it doesn’t work out, so what. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

You may want to consider an IG account to start the marketing process. Publish photos, they need not be yours, and use those to anchor your posts with a link from IG. While the field is crowded, there is a lot of turnover and a strong new voice, with a distinct point of view is sure to be welcomed.

PS Laurel Bern has a guide she sells with her advice for starting a blog. I have not bought or seen it, but I find her a thoughtful person whose insights are valuable. If I were interested in blogging, I would consider getting that. She has posts on her blog discussing her start and some of her advice. Good luck.

If you are prepared to push through the, I am just talking to myself, feeling, then chances are you will be able to refine your message and become successful. It's a lonely and tough road, but so worth it.

Just DO IT! There's always room for one more. YOU just have to do the work.

Blogs are time consuming endeavors. If you are going to do a blog, my advice would be to do it for yourself first and foremost. Do you like to write and take photos? You will need both of those skills to produce a blog people will want to read. I would also advise that you try to commit to a publishing schedule that you can stick to. Depending on your schedule, it could be once a week, every two weeks or once a month.

Come up with a list of topics that you want to write about so that you aren't stuck with a publishing deadline coming up and nothing to write about. Your list can be ongoing; that way you'll never run out of ideas.

Let your friends and family know about your blog. If you are on social media, post links to your articles each time you publish. One way to get new readers is to occasionally feature people who are involved In what you are writing about. For instance, with home decor, you could interview and feature a furniture designer, interior decorator or a fabric artist. People love to talk about themselves. Being featured is free and good publicity for those featured and they will share links to your blog with their followers. In time, you will build a following.

There are several blogging platforms out there such as Blogger and Word Press. Blogger is free and user friendly. Check out other blogs you admire to see which platforms they are using. I don't know how Houzz works, but this platform, may be a resource you can use as well. That's something you might look into.

Most importantly, have fun with it so that it doesn't become another chore you have to do instead of something you enjoy and look forward to doing. Good luck!

Edit to add that if you are going to publish photos that are not yours, obtain permission from the photographer first and give credit to the photographer in your blog. Its rare to have someone say no as that's free publicity/marketing for them, but people do like to be consulted first.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and support. My stumbling block is I am terrified of people knowing it is me! I have written my whole life and helped with inexpensive decor as well as shared my writing when I was younger. I don’t want to fail In front of my family. I have mostly done well and the thought of a flop makes me itch. I appreciate the support here and I think I will set something up and let you all critique me. All the cute names i think of are taken so working on that!

What a generous community this is. Thank you for being so kind and generous with your advice.

Socks, I can’t seem to private message, I would like to pick your brain if you are willing!

Can anyone help with a name? It would be a mix of “cheap” decor and “life” . I live in a very expensive area on the East Coast. I can’t buy 500 dollar shower curtains which would be frowned upon because who has shower curtains,.so my my vibe is this is a good idea.

I am rubbish at names. You may want to start a new thread and see what the clever people here come up with. I would be sure to keep recycling/reusing/upcycling top of mind as sustainability is a key issue this year. Lots of New Year's resolutions around buying less stuff for the sake of the environment. Also, bear in mind the name need not reflect or describe the blog. Lots of unusual names for services, like Uber, we learn what they mean later. Key words, search words have nothing to do with your title page.

Use your own name, yourname .com or some variation of your name and then you can use whatever tag line you want. It's an easy way to try out different tag lines to find one you want to keep. And you're also not locked into writing about a single subject or focus forever.

Before you get your hopes up too high, consider that there are tens of thousands (maybe millions) of blogs and the likelihood of getting any or much traffic visiting yours is quite low. There may be no traffic at all, other than from the curiosity of friends you mention it to.

I think many people find having a blog a useful outlet for the need to write or express themselves and if that's what you have in mind, you won't be disappointed. If that's enough for you, go for it. Otherwise, if you're doing this as a standalone effort and not as part of a business people know, it's likely that the most frequent visitor to your blog will be you.

I believe Alisande has a blog, she's mentioned it before. Contact her to learn about her experiences.

If you’re too embarrassed to use your own name, then you probably shouldn’t do it. And be original, reposting others work and images isn’t creative or interesting.

I never said I would repost others content( especially without credit)

Elmer, your response is very thoughtful and appreciated. I am not looking to become an”it” blogger. Would hope it would be appreciated but an outlet mostly

When the Holiday forum was active , some had blogs so I started one. Mine was for displaying table settings for different holidays plus posting pictures and recipes I had tried. I enjoyed it but now it seems I just can't get back to it. The last time I posted on it was 2015! The ladies from when I started are not very active anymore. I wasn't really concerned with traffic when I started, it was just because I wanted to try something new and one of these days I'll get back into it! I say go for it and a lot of traffic will come to your blog through Google searches too. I didn't use my real name and most don't unless it's a business type blog.

Forgot to say mine is called " Country Reflections."

Marylmi... I have seen some of you settings here ... I am going to look at your blog

What are some of your interests, Anne?

Do you find that you can tell of various ideas and events in a fashion that causes people to sit up and take notice? Can you put your message in a way that helps peple paint pictures in their mind?

That they'll remember next week, hopefully pleasurably ... and helped them develop an idea in their mind that they feel may help them build new parts of themselves, connections with others, etc. as they go?

Do you have some facility for humorous expression? Often a humorous way of expressing a sort of ordinary idea, that people can grasp and remember, helps one attract and hold attention ...

... and that's the name of the game, in connecting with the public, these days.

And maybe if you help us see various facets of who you are, the discussion here may help you make a warm and memorable name for yourself.

Someone said that two heads are better than one ... and several working on a project are even better: there's a wide ranging area of experience and expertise here, that's willingly shared.

Good wishes for transparent wisdom as you embark on this adventure.

ole joyful/joyfuelled

Joyful guy , how hat a thoughtful, kind response. (my keyboard won’t let me fix the

Gave me a lot to think about. Perhaps I just want to journal more!

Hi Anne

You have a lot of really good responses above.

I "journaled" for years... all about biking (cycling). Started it because I wanted to share where I was, how it was, and show of a couple of pictures.

Back then most people were on dial up, which is why I did only a couple of pictures per post. It was a GREAT outlet for me.

The host of the site (who I met once) got a little weird, which is why I started a blog. Again, just for me... and my family does look in, and some folks from the previous journal site, even some from here. That site was run by "donations". I always donated, and still do, but I felt the need to leave because of the owner.

Yes, it takes a lot of time. Nope, I haven't really figured it out... such as spacing the pictures, and putting text to them. But I do put some thoughts out there, and plenty of pictures. It costs me about the same as the "donations".

Moni

my journals are here:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/giantcycle99 31 journals and articles

then there is the non cycling journals which are on a different area from the cycling journals: http://travel.topicwise.com/doc/downtojusttwo

and my blog: https://meanderdotlife.wordpress.com/

marylmi I remember beautiful table setting photos on Kitchen Table. I wondered why I never saw them anymore. I could not remember who posted them. I always looked at each one more than once.