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When I started this blog, when I used wordpress.com, I blogged about autism and mental health. I moved to Blogger in early 2019. When I bought hosting (early 2020) I was back on WordPress and used WordPress.org. I’ve been thinking and I decided to rebrand. Not too long after the new year.
This blog used to be called the lone aspie. It’s now Gaming With Jazz. My new topics are about being a YouTuber/content creator/streamer, gaming reviews, tech reviews, and much more.
Here I will explain why I rebranded my blog and why you should, too. That is if signs point towards your niche not working out for you.
Autism advocacy is not working out for me. The top reason why I rebranded
Don’t get me wrong I love talking about autism and mental health. I love advocating. Talking about how hard it was when my autism flew under the radar. Lately, I’ve been having trouble coming up with ideas for the blog. I decided it’s best to rebrand than to leave the blog inactive for weeks until I can come up with new ideas. I started struggling back in November.
At least to me, it doesn’t make sense to cover what 100s of other people covered. Not many people talk about employment issues. I feel that made me stick out somewhat since some autistics can hold down jobs well, however, we don’t really talk about those who aren’t as lucky. I covered what I could think about when it comes to that. My purpose was to talk about how I struggled with my autism under the radar. I covered just about everything.
Also, I want to try my hand at affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is where I show you a microphone I use for my videos, I’d add an af. link to that mic. If you buy the mic using my link to buy said mic, I make a commission for each sale. I had to make 7 accounts (for Amazon’s program if you don’t make the required sales within 6 months they reject your application and close your account)
My blog wasn’t gaming-focused. So I feel that’s possibly why I wasn’t getting sales. Not even getting clicks.
a Re-brand of gaming/tech-related content will help my case better. I feel it confused the viewer. Having affiliate links on both my YouTube channel and my blog could help double the traffic. Having links to gaming stuff on a blog mostly about autism confused people.
I love blogging about autism, mental health, disabilities. I feel I will run out of ideas completely and the blog means too much to me to quit.
Previous content I did before autism did better
It also causes me burnout. I like vlogging, I like talking about autism. It’s just coming up with fresh ideas. Although gaming with jazz tells you I am a gaming channel/blog, I can put non-gaming content in an off-topic thing.
I find it hard getting noticed as an autism advocate. There are so many with way more experience than me. When I used WordPress.com and covered various content meaning when I made videos say about staying organized, it got 100+ followers. I switched to WordPress.org (which is a website builder if you bought your own URL and web hosting) I use WP.org to customize, manage, install plugins, etc, and made autism/mental health content, I could not grow the blog to save my life. The previous content on the dotcom blog got more views. Compared to when I transcribed my Youtube content was made of tutorials, advice, etc which got more views and grew my blog. I am implying when my blog was about my Youtube content, it got traction, when I rebranded to making autism content, I struggled to get views.
Basically, I am going to do what I did before. I rebranded the WordPress dot com blog. When I used the dot come, I made written versions of my blog posts and embedded the link.
I’ve came across people who aren’t understanding that I am need to all of this
Not a lot of people don’t get I don’t have the same experience as someone that’s been doing this for years. Someone was mad because I had ‘aspie’ in my old URL calling it ‘gross’ (this was in a group when I shared one of my links) didn’t even explain to me what’s so bad about it. It seems to me that they assumed I knew but I didn’t. If the person says “be careful with that name aspie because of XZY. look up X on Tik Tok they have plenty of videos explaining.” Plus it caused me so much trouble setting up the URL since this is all new to me.
I reported their content and the admin removes MY post saying no autism advocacy posts. I made the post LOING BEFORE the changes. The reason I reported it is because they offered nothing constructive so I can understand what is so bad. If you are not offering anything constructive. This can mean linking videos/blog posts etc, then it’s not feedback. It’s nitpicking.
Back in the early 2000s, it was called Aspergers. Things get outdated or you learn there is a horrible history to it and there needs to change. Yes, you should bring things like this to someone’s attention. My psych said folks may understand Aspergers more than autism. Because they associate autism with being non-verbal. However, he now uses ASD. Instead of assuming everyone who uses this is an ableist, think maybe they are unaware the term is outdated. They are uneducated about Hans. If they heed your advice the person wasn’t bad like you thought. I didn’t want to risk clicking on information that is malicious knowing how easily I can be misled. I rather learn from actually autistics, not Nts who claim to care about ya’ll; since I can guess that’s where misinfo comes from.
I think that’s the barrier that stops folks from doing their own research on things. What’s correct information and what’s not. I know Facebook had a fact-checker on articles and images with info at some point. especially when it came to COVID information.
Knowing how hard it is for me to separate real info from misleading info, I don’t feel it’s safe to do autism advocacy outside of how I struggled.
I shared a photo I didn’t realize was inspiration porn and no one actually explained it to me
I’m NOT saying you shouldn’t call out bad words you see, I am just saying automatically assuming the person is aware but doesn’t care is not going to give you the result you wanted.
I have a blog article where I talked about how a guy got upset over a montage I shared. I clearly showed I had no idea what the guy was talking about. He called the meme ‘inspiration porn’ me saying ‘there is no porn here I would never post such content; that will get the group shut down’ wasn’t a telltale clue I had no idea what the guy was talking about.
I kept asking what inspo porn is so I can do a cleaning on my blog if I had to. No one cared to explain. I got overwhelmed and left the group. One guy mentioned learning from my mistake.
Uh, how can I learn anything when ya’ll didn’t explain anything to give me a better understanding?
It’s one thing if someone says ‘this word is wrong it has a messed up history exy.’ and you keep ignoring the advice you are given and then people can guess you’re doing it on purpose.
Basically, inspo porn is putting disabled people on a pedestal for trying to live normally. Like how my mom compares me to other autistic people. How is a meme saying autism doesn’t have a look putting the guy in the spotlight for wanting to live normally? I had no understanding of that and no one explained in a way I can understand.
I am in the middle when it comes to ‘it’s not my job to educate’ yes they can research on their own, but with so much misinformation out there especially. They may go to a site with misinformation. You can tell them a YouTuber/blogger you enjoy that talks about said topic, it’s up to them to heed your advice.
I went into more detail on this video. I started having blog versions and video versions.
In another instance, I shared a graphic from an autism page with a group and people were upset with the words they used. Again, I do NOT have experience with this. I’m not saying it’s an excuse but if people stop assuming I knew and told me what words to look out for, I would slowly but surely go through older blog posts and remove the ableist phrases.
Something, where no one wants to guild me and assume I can keep up with everything, is not something that is good for my sanity. That’s why I blogged about my struggles mostly. In the video reacting to my old autism content, I said people will make mistakes in the advocacy industry.
Had the guy said something like ‘I am not sure if you know but this meme is ableist because of xyz.’ I didn’t make it I shared it.
Had they explained or even linked a video/told me what to look up and I would look it up on Youtube; if I came across the offensive memes on my Facebook I would not reblog it. I would do a cleaning of my blog, YouTube, Facebook/Twitter, etc.
I never knew autism speaks is problematic until I started following actually autistic bloggers. Now that I learned, I won’t share anything with their name on it. However, there could be posts I shared at the time I was uneducated.
It’s like walking on eggshells here. No one is perfect, when you don’t have much experience in advocacy you will make mistakes, you will share information you didn’t realize is harmful and it seems like some people within the circle do not understand this.
People question my side of this stick
People question my side of the stick. I made a blog post about autism and criticism and this guy questions me because autistics he knows handle criticism well. Me being different than his friends had him sus. If seeing someone different than your friends have you so sus maybe that person isn’t the issue, you’re not branching out to get a feel of everyone’s differences. You’re not following different autism bloggers.
I don’t have the spoons to explain myself because simply being different than other autistics got certain people so suss. I do explain in my blog posts how. If they just look at the title and proceed to question me is what I am saying.
I shouldn’t have to explain myself simply from being different than your friends.
Then I made a video about why I hated being autistic and this piece of shit had the nerve to come on my post and invalidate my struggles because things were easy for him. I am sick and tired of this. Because my life wasn’t ‘quote on quote’ easy like this guy. Why can’t we all accept that everyone struggles differently?
Why this is out of bounds
I added that his reasons for being a POS like he doesn’t struggle with understanding vague instructions. It isn’t hard FOR HIM.
The guy doesn’t seem to understand everyone is different and just judges how autistic you are based on his life which is wrong. It looks that way to me
His response after I called him out was more excuses for being a POS so I didn’t screenshot it.
I lowkey should have told him his ableism and privilege are showing. Maybe he was able to get a Dx early and get help while when I was in K-3rd grade I missed out on getting help because my folks were in denial and wanted to believe I was just being bad
He said he may be cruel but he thinks I am taking the easy way out and blaming my flaws on my autism. I should have said “yes, you are a cruel sick person coming on someone’s video, blog, etc invaliding their struggles based on your life. I didn’t know my autism would be tailored to your life. If you can’t be supportive then get off my blog.”
I Don’t see my platforms growing talking about autism
Overall I don’t see my platform growing doing autism advocacy. I’ve been at it since 2017. I even rebranded a Twitter I made for art as an autism page; nothing but crickets.
My gaming posts get slightly more engagement than my autism posts. I even revamped my art Instagram to an autism one. No one batted an eye. Posts went through a black hole. At least on Instagram, my gaming posts get more engagement than my autism/disability posts.
I enjoy blogging about gaming/being a content creator more. The autism content can be stand-by content.
I will keep my older blog posts. There’s a slim chance I will make more autism blogs in the future. I’ll still reblog things on Instagram and Twitter.
Going Foward
My backup blog will be for events when I am having problems with my main blog. That way people know where to find me.
I am thinking about paying for hosting for my backup blog. Through a different hosting provider.
I may post content on my backup blog exclusively for my crypto-blog, Steemit.com/aaliyahholt
which is another place you can find me if my main blog goes down/has problems.
Don’t get me wrong, I shouldn’t let little things stop me from blogging about what I like. If I haven’t grown any of my autism pages within 3 years (I started in 2019) maybe it’s because of the competition.
Final thoughts
I am just happier talking about being a content creator. From this moment on, you will see gaming content and content about being a Youtuber.
I love having a blog, writing, photography. If someone is burning me out, I rather notice it now than keep blogging about something that burns me out coming up with ideas.
My autism content getting no interaction is discouraging. I don’t see myself having a future with autism content.
Remember I am not quitting cold turkey. If you follow my backup blog for Steemit exclusive content ( eg if I want to do a blog every day and I feel the content I want for Steemit won’t interest you.) if you want some more content (where I may post autism content)
Remember if you are not enjoying the content you’re making, it’s best to notice it now and start making changes to the content you enjoy making, content that’s easier for you, etc than to keep posting content that you are not happy making and you end up burnt out.
If you have a cooking blog and you slowly start losing your motivation to do it or maybe you tried another topic and that topic gets more attention. It’s time to change gears. I liked making gaming content more and this is why I rebranded. It’s not just about the money, but different niches have different ad rates.
I like doing niches where I will never run out of ideas. With autism, i feared I would. I can review games, unbox and review products I used. I can talk about being a content creator. Then when my blog gets big enough, I can offer advice for anyone who wants to start a Youtube or Twitch, etc.
If you feel like you are running low on ideas, not enjoying what you’re doing as you used to. Maybe you want a different direction. All of these are signs to rebrand your blog.
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