My First Year as a Dad Blogger

2016StLouisDad(Abby)It isn’t exactly a full year yet, but it’s close enough. I started this blog back in February and the journey from my first post to this post has been nothing short of amazing. To date I have gained a relatively small following compared to many other bloggers out there. I think that’s quite alright.

I was interviewed by St. Louis Magazine just a few months after I started, so a lot was still new to me. A lot of it is even now still new to me. I have had the opportunity to work with some awesome brands. I plan on continuing to work with brands but I also plan on adding a lot more family focused posts. My attempt at a blogging schedule was elementary at best, but over the course of  the year I have learned a few tricks that I am going to attempt to implement my second year at this.

As for the dad blogger community… I am thrilled to be a part of a group of fathers that agree with how it is so important to be a part of your children’s life. The community is very supportive in many aspects to dad blogging. One downside to the community is that I still feel new to the group so I think that my opinions get buried below the daily shares. Which is okay as I’m not looking to steal anybodies attention. I have added a few of them to the friends list and have corresponded and collaborated with a few others.

One goal that I set out and accomplished with starting this site was that I do feel like that I have connected with my children more so than if I had just worked on my own projects as I have done in the past. I even shut down my own personal blog (83rw.com) because I wasn’t contributing to it in the same manner as I was this website. I am okay with that. I would much rather write about my family instead of just personal junk. I can include some of that junk here. Which brings me to how I also found a great outlet for all of my music I have created over the years. So far I am up to five volumes of instrumentals ready to download for free. These would have just sat on my computer forever if it were not for this website.

As I said, this next year I plan to write a bit more about my family. My confidence level is up and I think I might have some good content to share. I will most definitely continue to release more free music, and I am thinking about adding a section to showcase the books I have illustrated, but that is up in the air for now. I had some ideas of starting a podcast or a vlog this year but I think I am still too far away from being ready to start something like that this close to the beginning of the year. We’ll see where I am at in a few months.

Lastly, there are a few people that I would like to thank for making this first year of St. Louis Dad so successful. First and foremost I want to thank my wife and children. Without them this wouldn’t even have been possible. Destiny, Abby, and Alex are amazing people that I am so happy to have in my life. I also want to thank my parents. My wife’s and my own. They have been very supportive of everything I do and it’s nice to know you have family cheering you on. My extended family and friends as well as the parent blogging community in general. Thank you! Also I want to thank all of the brands that have given me the opportunity to work with them this past year. It has been awesome and I look forward to twenty sixteen!

Richie

My name is Richie and I am a 40 year old father of two, a daughter and son. I am married to a beautiful woman named Destiny. She is the foundation of our family, and without her, none of this would be possible. During the day I work as a network security administrator for a local school district. At night I can be found illustrating books, working on websites, or creating music, but more than likely though I am spending time with my kids.

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