Blog Hop – What’s In Your Name?
This is a particularly good topic for me, because unlike many of you my blog (though horsey related) is not named after my horse or the equestrian world in general. So for this week’s blog hop by Viva Carlos we have…
What is the story behind your blogname/url?
I moved to Texas in spring of 2010. Though I’m originally from North Carolina, we had lived for the previous almost two years in Massachusetts and the experience was not awesome. We were looking for a fresh start, and I wanted to get back into some form of creative writing.
I’ve actually been a blogger since 2001, and ran a teenage personal blog (I know you’re so upset that this has since been lost) that I coded with PHP. On my Uptonia blog, I wrote about anything and everything I felt like. Blogs were just starting to become a thing in the early 2000’s and there wasn’t much competition. I actually got a decent string of readers and commenters by being little ‘ol me, and at once point had the #3 organic spot for “Lauren” on Google. It was me and Ralph Lauren, like the bff’s we are. Of course, this was before SEO really took off as a business aspect… man I wish I had taken a screenshot of those results!
Anyway, when I started blogging again in 2010 I also wrote about anything I felt like. Moving here was a big deal and something Tim and I pretty much did on a whim, so I decided on “She Moved to Texas” to personify my journey a bit.
Posts came in spurts and were then few and far in-between. My family and friends found it and loved it, and occasionally I would share some on Facebook… but mostly I found myself writing for an empty audience. If you’re curious, you can read a lot of these non-horse older posts in a sub-blog I created. When I made the “life” blog, I meant to keep it up with non-horse stuff… but that’s kind of moved to Selfie Sunday so those old posts just hang out off to the side for now.
So how did this become a horse blog? I’ve read a few horse only blogs for years, even before I started blogging here about Simon. When I got Simon I decided on two things – I wanted to blog about our journey together, and I wanted a blog that had a niche where I could attract readers who would stick around. See I’m a total validation whore… and I tend not to write unless I’m validated with visitors and comments! Call me vain, I am.
I felt like I could set out to create a quality horse blog, and that’s what I’ve tried to do. Many times I’ve waffled about changing my “She Moved to Texas” name to a more horse specific name, but I’m worried I’ll lose people in the change. What do you think readers… do you like SMTT or something horsey?
16 thoughts on “Blog Hop – What’s In Your Name?”
I like SMTT! It’s very different and I think it sets you apart from the horsey/equestrian related blog names (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Don’t change it! I love your name 🙂
I love She Moved To Texas. I have honestly always been convinced that it’s a snippet of song lyric or something that I can’t quite place.
Ha, if you find a song it’s from be sure to let me know!
Two things…I like hearing about how people came up with their blog names, because I want to start a blog but am having trouble finding a name. It seems like it’s something that is really hard to change. Anyway, I like your name so keep it. Second…I always thought it was a play on the title of the Jimmy Buffett song, “He Went to Paris”, and I always hum it when I read your blog. 🙂 I’m mildly disappointed that it isn’t the reason haha!
I really like that song! One of my favorite Buffet songs.
I love your name, plus the shortened SMTT is pretty cool too.
She Moved to Texas is a great name. I had an LJ and a DJ as personal “blogs” back in the day, they still exist but they are tucked away safely.
Keep it! That said if changing is because im of a fear of losing readers I wouldn’t worry too too much. I’ve now moved my blog 2 times. Anyone that cared to read it in the first place still does 🙂 Granted my name didn’t change much but still.
I like She Moved To Texas! Plus, if you ever get tired of blogging about horses, you can write a country song featuring it as a lyric. (I guess you could do that anyway!)
I love that you can shorten your name to SMTT! 🙂
I hope you don’t change your name but I would still keep reading if you did. 🙂
I associate Texas with cowboys (sweeping stereotype – sorry Texans), so to me your blogname has a horsey link. But at the end of the day if you want to change your blog title that is completely your call it is YOUR blog 😉
I would be very surprised if you lost followers though, your posts are so awesome that you’d be hard pushed to get rid of most of us :-p
I’d love to know why you didn’t like living in MA. I’ve lived here nearly my whole life, with a few years in New York, and love it. But people that haven’t grown up in MA tend to hate it!! I love your blog name by the way 🙂
It’s a perfect name! Don’t change a thing. Every blog needs a “backstory,” and yours is that you moved to Texas and then life with Simon happened. :0)
I think the name suits perfectly 🙂