I shared on Facebook over the weekend that I’ve wanted to change the name of my blog, Hydrangea Girl, for some time. It all began back when the lovely Maria and I attended Blogtacular earlier this year and one of the speakers asked, “does the name of your blog describe what you do?” and crap. No, it doesn’t. Like, at all. Maria and I both turned to each other and nearly cried.
Over 4 years ago when I first created my blog under the name ‘Hydrangea Girl’, it wasn’t anything other than a ridiculous blog I wrote that my mom occasionally read maybe twice a month. I didn’t expect anything to actually happen here.
In more recent months, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and taking e-courses about how to make more out of your blog; in a bid to make what I do a bit more legit. So for me, the most obvious and first step was to rebrand / upcycle my blog. And here is my thought process, in case you’re curious …
– Hydrangea Girl has absolutely nothing to do with interior design or DIY. No arguing there.– The amount of people arriving at my site looking for gardening tips was worrying.– On the rare occasion that anyone would ask me in person what my blog was called, I was too embarrassed to say Hydrangea Girl.– I’m almost 30, so I can’t really get away with Girl anymore. As much as I’d like it to, Photoshop does not work in real life.– I couldn’t get a consistent handle on all my social media sites. It was messy. For example, on Twitter I was @HydrangeaGirI – ending in a capital ‘i’, because the original was already taken. On Instagram I was alex_hydrangeagirl. And for someone who likes order and for things to match, this was chaos. I was one step away from foaming at the mouth.
And most importantly of all …
– If I’m to take myself seriously and approach companies and people for work, how are they going to take me seriously under the name Hydrangea Girl, when I can’t even say it out loud.
And that’s when I got serious and eventually brain-stormed The Interior DIYer. It marries the two things I’m most passionate about, is pretty self explanatory, might boost my SEO, and [to me] it’s a bit of a play on the words ‘interior designer’.
There was a tough 5 hours yesterday when husband and I were working on changing the URL and I was close to tears and we nearly lost everything. But don’t worry, it was nothing a couple of G&T’s couldn’t fix. I’m still working on some final tweaking, so please excuse my site over the next while if it looks a bit hairy.
Thank you guys for all your support, and I hope you like the new name. It’s still me 🙂 xx A
I love your new name! The font you've used in the banner looks great too – it really works so well. Such a lovely picture of you too!
Maria xx
Thank you so much, Maria. I got some professional photos taken this week, so keep your eyes peeled for new pics xx
love the new name! it makes so much sense ill miss the name hydrangea girl, but the interior diyer sounds a lot more professional. yayyyy 🙂 its very catchy too!!
Thank you, John, I'm glad you find it catchy 🙂