6 Years of Blogging: What I’ve Learned

6 fuckin years, you guys. And what a difference a year makes.

Last year I thought I was going to eventually quit, due to personal stuff. I had to at least back off, and sometimes wasn’t around social media for a week. I had a number of posts/reviews in drafts so that my site didn’t see large maws of downtime, but I was still fairly far-removed from my norm for a few months. Despite this, I somehow made Kinkly.com’s Sex Blogging Superhero List at #2 which is about the best I can ever hope for as long as Epiphora is around! Luckily things cleared up by November/December and I was more fully back in the game. Although I did manage to unveil my Melted Jar of Sex Toys last year, and have kept tabs on it. Lelo finally came out with the most ridiculous vibrator ever, and I finally decided to cut ties with them. Enough was enough. Things were dark for month at the beginning of the year but a few conversations with friends renewed my purpose and I realized that even though this blog is so very different from the blog I started 6 years ago, I still have a lot left to say and do. I had a long-overdue layout revamp in February. I’ve been doing more consulting. And a lot more reviewing! I finally tackled the “WOOD sex toys?!? But won’t you get SPLINTERS?!?” thing. I spent awhile digging around to create a Brief History of Sex Blogging – I’m happy with the post, although some have overlooked my reminders that it is “brief” and not “all-inclusive”.

In the last few months I’ve also been spending a lot of time at the Sextoys subreddit, as one of the mods. I’m flexing my sex toy recommendation muscles every day and finding out that yanno….I’m actually good at this. I love doing this. I’m not bad at reviewing, I think I do pretty good work in the fight against toxic toys and educating people about them. I want “this” to be real life. I want to stop viewing this as a hobby and start treating it as the job that it is. Between the sex toy testing and writing reviews, and writing educational posts guides, and helping people and being present on social media…. I’m here a lot. Putting in full time hours every week is making a difference for the quality of my site. But good intentions and lots of furious typing don’t magically turn into the income I need to stay afloat.

For those rereading this, I used to have a Patreon account. But it was a bit of a blow that I only had a handful of supporters. 6. I am grateful to those 6, but one can only stand on the corner busking for so long before they pack it in and go home. Pride did me in I suppose.

SEX TOYS. Oh, the sex toys. They’re piling up! And I’ve reviewed some doozies this year, like the Revel Body and that shitty cupcake. My love was renewed for the We-Vibe Tango, and the flames were fanned for the We-Vibe Touch. Oh and the Tantus Grab Bag was introduced! Fucking brilliant idea, Tantus. Minna managed to win me over finally; I hadn’t been super impressed with the Ola but the Limon? Nice job on the rumblies. Je Joue managed to win me over a little more, too, with the Mimi Soft which made me realize that the buttons on my original Mimi and my Uma are both defective.  I’ve started digging in to the wands again, and haven’t been super impressed overall. I finally have a few realistic Vixskin dildos to test out, which is nice. And hey, can’t forget about that Pleasure Purse, one of my favorite products that doesn’t vibrate. 

ETA: I wrote this paragraph elsewhere and fucking forgot to add it here! Jesus. Anyway. This “business”, this industry….it’s fickle. But I’ve learned that what WE all do is important. Do you know that every day, we’re changing at least one person’s mind and educating them on toxic toys? We’re all helping people make better, safer choices with their sex toys. It’s important. And it’s also important that we all keep our individuality. Keep your voice, your tone. Write what you want, how you want. The last thing this industry really needs is cookie-cutter bloggers saying the same mediocre stuff. Have opinions. Voice opinions. Don’t be afraid to be a “cyberbully“ in the name of public safety, ha. Changes are slowly being made for the better, and it’s because we have integrity and only back the good guys. Keep backing the good guys, ok? It matters.

Also….Some of you have talked me off the proverbial ledge in this past year. Some of you are the reason why I’m still doing this. You’ve reassured me, you’ve been a sounding board, you’ve encouraged me and I needed it. Thanks.

SO I AM STILL HERE. And I don’t think I’m goin anywhere, folks. Hope you don’t mind. Got any questions for this old lady? Curious about what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, etc? The floor is yours, ask me anything.