Hello again, I'm back!
I hope you enjoyed the last post, it's the first ever time I've done a guest post and I'm so grateful to Caroline for doing it for me! She's awesome!
Today's post is about something which is becoming more and more popular in the professional world as a business tool, for bloggers and everyone else: LinkedIn.
I've been a member of LinkedIn for quite a while now. My dad is a successful business entrepreneur and he recommended it to me because he said that he's gained a lot of business connections from it. I'd never heard of it until then, and at first I was a little confused by it. I thought it was a social network, which in part it is, but I was confused about all of the details it was asking me. I was used to the usual name, age, relationship status and hobbies kind of social network profile, and being asked about my skills and work experience was something that I was not expecting. That's because LinkedIn is totally different to other social networks, and by different, I mean better.
The mistake I made at first was thinking of it as a social network, because really, it's a disguised online CV. You're putting your professional profile, contact details, past work, skills and education on your profile the same way that you would on a traditional curriculum vitae, for the exact same purpose: to showcase yourself to possible future employers. There is one huge difference though that plays massively to the user's advantage. Gone are the days when potential employers would call past workplaces for a reference; now they can see every one of your positive qualities and skills in one handy section, backed up not by one person but by many people who know you and have seen your skills in action first-hand, and endorse you for them accordingly.
So as you can see, it has huge advantages over the traditional CV for users and employers alike, and for that reason it is becoming the growing preferred route of enquiry for many businesses, who are now simply asking for links to LinkedIn profiles from potential staff instead of a CV due to the site's widespread use. Most people in the professional world now use LinkedIn, which is why it's important to make sure you are, too.
LinkedIn also allows you to make great connections. Not only can it aid you in getting a job once you've found one you're interested in, it can also help you find a job to apply for in the first place, or find people who will collaborate and work with you if you already have one. I know many people, my professional studies tutor included, who have gained valuable jobs through business connections and been very successful in them, so it's important to make as many as possible in your industry.
It also allows you to upload your work to showcase what you've done in the past: a portfolio and CV all in one, which is particularly valuable in the creative industry. If you're not on LinkedIn already, I would highly recommend that you sign up right away!
If you would like to view my profile or follow me on LinkedIn, click here.
Lauren xxx
Showing posts with label connection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label connection. Show all posts
Introducing…
Hello! My name is Caroline, a red haired 20 year old blogger
who will be taking over Lauren’s blog for today – how exciting!
Basically I am here to tell you a little bit about me and blogging so let us begin.
However, the main reason is because I wanted to get a lot of
feelings and emotions out about certain things. My blog is basically a way for
me to express my own opinions without necessarily being judge for them. It is
an escapism whilst hopefully helping people through certain experiences
in their life that I have had to face.
Blogging for many is a way to express feelings but also a
way to just be themselves. From beauty and fashion to reviews and health pieces, you can control what you put out there. You can be as crazy as you want to be, nothing is stopping you for doing it. It is so easy to
start a blog. There is Blogger or WordPress and many more to choose from so you
have no excuse. By setting one up, it is also promoting you. If you are applying
for a job, college, university etc, then by saying you have a blog you update
regularly then you are showing them creative, organisational, writing,
photography skills.
Basically I am here to tell you a little bit about me and blogging so let us begin.
It is just coming up to a year in June since I created my
blog, theadventuresofcarolineosbel. One of my reasons for making one is because
I am currently studying Journalism at university so it was important for me to
get myself out there to make it in the industry.
However, the main reason is because I wanted to get a lot of
feelings and emotions out about certain things. My blog is basically a way for
me to express my own opinions without necessarily being judge for them. It is
an escapism whilst hopefully helping people through certain experiences
in their life that I have had to face.
Personally, I don’t have one specific thing that I write about on the blog. The
posts vary every time. They can be anything from film/TV show reviews, the latest fashion/makeup I have bought,
help and advice to my personal experiences or 20 random facts about me and
vintage things. I post everything and anything.
In today's technologically advanced society, there are loads of blogs/vlog channels that focus on a certain thing such as a
fashion style or a genre of music/film etc and I find them rather boring and the same. I try to
break this by posting stuff that are random and that I like.
Blogging for many is a way to express feelings but also a
way to just be themselves. From beauty and fashion to reviews and health pieces, you can control what you put out there. You can be as crazy as you want to be, nothing is stopping you for doing it. It is so easy to
start a blog. There is Blogger or WordPress and many more to choose from so you
have no excuse. By setting one up, it is also promoting you. If you are applying
for a job, college, university etc, then by saying you have a blog you update
regularly then you are showing them creative, organisational, writing,
photography skills.
Blogging is so easy and simple to do. It is free and it
makes you stand out from the crowd. It gets you talking to people you might not
necessarily to talk whilst you express your thoughts and feelings. Many people blog for fun but to become a
successful blogger then it is simple: just do it.
My top 5 tips about blogging:
1.
Blog about things that interest you!
There is no point in blogging something about sport when you hate it. Blog about something you love and that you are passionate about. Don’t waste your energy on writing something that you dislike.
There is no point in blogging something about sport when you hate it. Blog about something you love and that you are passionate about. Don’t waste your energy on writing something that you dislike.
2.
Encourage interaction!
Get your readers involved. If you have
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, share your blog on there. Encourage your friends
to have a read on your latest article. Then make them share the link on their
profiles- more shares, more views, more readers! Able them to follow you on those different sites as well
and allow the option for them to comment on your posts. It engages your readers
and involves them in the article.
3.
Use images!
Break the text up with pictures that are relevant to the topic. You don’t want to read a text heavy article, people will most likely get bored. By involving photographs you create a more pleasing visual for your audience. If you have a good quality camera/phone then take videos and pictures on that. If you don’t, have a look on a search engine (be aware of copyright though). It makes the blog more appealing.
Break the text up with pictures that are relevant to the topic. You don’t want to read a text heavy article, people will most likely get bored. By involving photographs you create a more pleasing visual for your audience. If you have a good quality camera/phone then take videos and pictures on that. If you don’t, have a look on a search engine (be aware of copyright though). It makes the blog more appealing.
4.
Update regularly!
I try to post at least twice a week and by
doing this it keeps my readers updated with what I am doing in my life. By
posting various topics, it keeps them intrigued too. Fashion one post and a
review another, the audience doesn’t know what is coming up next on your blog. Obviously
if you want to focus on a certain aspect then do it!
Furthermore, prepare your posts! Research
the topic and write them a week or two in advances. Try to keep your posts
simple. Many people skip read so keep it short and to the point. This saves you
from panicking the day/night before the day you publish a post.
Update, update, update whenever you can.
Update, update, update whenever you can.
5.
Be yourself!
Remember it is YOUR blog so post whatever you
want. It doesn’t matter if people don’t like what you have written, ignore the
negativity. You can delete those comments or simply scroll past them. Don’t let
that put you off blogging.
So there you have it! I hope this has helped and that is all
from me! Bye x
Follow me on
Instagram: thevintagedaydream
Twitter: carolineosbel
Pinterest: carolineosbel
Tumblr: theadventuresofcarolineosbel
Instagram: thevintagedaydream
Twitter: carolineosbel
Pinterest: carolineosbel
Tumblr: theadventuresofcarolineosbel
Blogger Interview: Caroline Osbeldiston from The Adventures Of Caroline
Hello everyone! Today's post is a bit different because I've been fortunate enough to get an interview with the lovely Caroline from The Adventures Of Caroline! She is a blogger from the UK who blogs about lifestyle and fashion and also writes help and advice articles and does film and TV reviews! She's here to answer a few questions about blogging.
Hey Caroline! Thanks so much for doing this interview! First, could you explain to us about your blog, and what inspired you to start it?
I have two blogs now. Originally I started blogging because I am studying Journalism at University so set up a blog to get myself out there because it’s hard in the industry. On my The Adventures of Caroline blog, I would post abut fashion, films I have seen, what I love at the moment and just random things etc.
Recently I set up another blog for my photography. I have always had a keen interest in photography and would love to become a photographer/journalist so I decided I would set up a blog for that. Basically, it is to get my photos out there whilst including posts about how to do this etc.
However, what inspires me to continue to blog is that I hopefully am helping people. It has been almost a year since I first posted on the Adventures blog and looking back, it has really helped me get a lot of things of my chest. By sharing my experiences, I have let go of feelings I have had for a very long time but also hopefully helping people that might be going through the same things. That is what inspires me now to continue to blog.
What do you love about blogging?
I love the fact that I can post whatever I want because it is my blog. If like something or want to share something with my readers then I can. I also feel like I won’t be judged. Its weird I know, but because I am posting my opinions then some people may agree and may not agree with them but they are my own views and I am entitled to having them.
Who inspires you most in the blogging world? Do you have a favourite blogger? What do you love about them?
I don’t really have a favourite blog, I just like reading through different blogs. From lifestyle, cooking/baking, music, film/tv shows etc, I like reading something new. From a review to beauty/fashion tips to what people have bought and would recommend etc, it is interesting to read their views about it.
What is your top tip for gaining hits on your blog and gaining followers?
So when I first started blogging, I came up with the 3Cs I would follow: Content, Constant and Colour.
For every blog, you have to have content. What you are going to blog about. So if the blog has a theme (baking, music, fashion, beauty etc), then that is what the content is focused on. Even if the blog doesn’t have a specific topic, it still needs good, interesting content. Something new, something different that they haven’t read before.
Constantly update your blog. If you miss a couple of posts then that’s ok but try not to. By constantly posting two days a week or something then it keeps the audience reading your blog. If you don’t then they will most likely forget about the blog, which is bad because you want as many people reading your posts.
Finally, colour. If you want your blog to look professional then that’s fine. However, you don’t want it to look boring and plain. People like colour. Whether it is a photograph or your layout, by having colour then it brings the blog to life so to speak and engages your audience because it is visually pleasing.
Those are the three Cs I use and hopefully they work in gaining me more followers, I have no idea but it makes the blog yours.
Do you read any blogs yourself? If so, what kind?
I love reading film blogs. I don’t read on specific blog based on this but I love reading peoples views on a film that has recently came out or what they have watched on the TV or what film they have bought recently. It is interesting to find out what other people thought of a film that I have watched or wanting to watch etc. I also read fashion, beauty and music blogs because again this is something I am interested in so it is good to see what other people think about a latest single/album or the newest makeup product and fashion trend.
Is there anything you find hard about being a blogger?
The only thing I struggle with is publishing my posts when I want to post them. I try to publish twice a week but sometimes I only publish one because I am busy or I am at university or something. Time management is key to having a blog. You really do have to be orangised and plan what the posts are going to be about. One thing I do is write the posts out a week or two ahead of when I am actually going to publish them. It just saves time and me panicking the day before or the day I want to post.
What do you think about blogging as a long-term career option? Do you think it's viable? Is it something you would consider for yourself?
Blogging has become a huge phenomenon in recent years, especially vlogging (video blogging). In terms of a long term career, I think if you are determined and motivated to write and update your blog then I think it could actually work. I mean look at Zoe Sugg aka vlogger Zoella. She has made money and she has a huge following on her blog and has recent bought out a book etc so she is doing really well. She just started out by posting videos on Youtube about beauty and fashion etc and now she is a huge star with an international following to be honest so if she can have a career but blogging then I think anyone could.
What is your ultimate goal in blogging? What would you like to achieve? What is your idea of a 'successful' blog?
I don’t really set goals as bad as that sounds but it is to just avoid disappointment really. However, I would like to keep on blogging and to go to events etc that I can blog about and meet other bloggers etc, that would be fun.
In my opinion, a successful blog isn’t about the posts that are published but about the person behind the blog. If they are determined and motivated then that is what makes a successful blog. If they publish things that they wouldn’t normally share then they are 1) releasing any feelings they have, 2) getting their views out there, 3) helping other people from what they have written if they are going through that experience and 4) they are being themselves. In today’s society, I think people believe that they have to fit in with a certain group of something. With a blog they can express their own individual style whether it being lifestyle, fashion and whatnot. I think that is what makes a blog successful, for the person to be themselves.
Finally, if you could solve any common blogging problem, what would it be and why?
I am not going to lie, some posts I have read on different blogs are boring. This necessarily isn’t common but it is a problem because who wants to read a boring, same old blog. No one does as harsh as this may sound. I am not saying that mine is the perfect blog but there is either too much or not enough text on the blogs and this is the same with photographs. You want to read something visually pleasing as well as interesting. By breaking up the text by using images and having a punchy post title then it gives the reader something else to look at etc so I would solve how to make some blogs more appealing to read.
Thanks so much for your answers!
Hey Caroline! Thanks so much for doing this interview! First, could you explain to us about your blog, and what inspired you to start it?
I have two blogs now. Originally I started blogging because I am studying Journalism at University so set up a blog to get myself out there because it’s hard in the industry. On my The Adventures of Caroline blog, I would post abut fashion, films I have seen, what I love at the moment and just random things etc.
Recently I set up another blog for my photography. I have always had a keen interest in photography and would love to become a photographer/journalist so I decided I would set up a blog for that. Basically, it is to get my photos out there whilst including posts about how to do this etc.
However, what inspires me to continue to blog is that I hopefully am helping people. It has been almost a year since I first posted on the Adventures blog and looking back, it has really helped me get a lot of things of my chest. By sharing my experiences, I have let go of feelings I have had for a very long time but also hopefully helping people that might be going through the same things. That is what inspires me now to continue to blog.
What do you love about blogging?
I love the fact that I can post whatever I want because it is my blog. If like something or want to share something with my readers then I can. I also feel like I won’t be judged. Its weird I know, but because I am posting my opinions then some people may agree and may not agree with them but they are my own views and I am entitled to having them.
Who inspires you most in the blogging world? Do you have a favourite blogger? What do you love about them?
I don’t really have a favourite blog, I just like reading through different blogs. From lifestyle, cooking/baking, music, film/tv shows etc, I like reading something new. From a review to beauty/fashion tips to what people have bought and would recommend etc, it is interesting to read their views about it.
What is your top tip for gaining hits on your blog and gaining followers?
So when I first started blogging, I came up with the 3Cs I would follow: Content, Constant and Colour.
For every blog, you have to have content. What you are going to blog about. So if the blog has a theme (baking, music, fashion, beauty etc), then that is what the content is focused on. Even if the blog doesn’t have a specific topic, it still needs good, interesting content. Something new, something different that they haven’t read before.
Constantly update your blog. If you miss a couple of posts then that’s ok but try not to. By constantly posting two days a week or something then it keeps the audience reading your blog. If you don’t then they will most likely forget about the blog, which is bad because you want as many people reading your posts.
Finally, colour. If you want your blog to look professional then that’s fine. However, you don’t want it to look boring and plain. People like colour. Whether it is a photograph or your layout, by having colour then it brings the blog to life so to speak and engages your audience because it is visually pleasing.
Those are the three Cs I use and hopefully they work in gaining me more followers, I have no idea but it makes the blog yours.
Do you read any blogs yourself? If so, what kind?
I love reading film blogs. I don’t read on specific blog based on this but I love reading peoples views on a film that has recently came out or what they have watched on the TV or what film they have bought recently. It is interesting to find out what other people thought of a film that I have watched or wanting to watch etc. I also read fashion, beauty and music blogs because again this is something I am interested in so it is good to see what other people think about a latest single/album or the newest makeup product and fashion trend.
Is there anything you find hard about being a blogger?
The only thing I struggle with is publishing my posts when I want to post them. I try to publish twice a week but sometimes I only publish one because I am busy or I am at university or something. Time management is key to having a blog. You really do have to be orangised and plan what the posts are going to be about. One thing I do is write the posts out a week or two ahead of when I am actually going to publish them. It just saves time and me panicking the day before or the day I want to post.
What do you think about blogging as a long-term career option? Do you think it's viable? Is it something you would consider for yourself?
Blogging has become a huge phenomenon in recent years, especially vlogging (video blogging). In terms of a long term career, I think if you are determined and motivated to write and update your blog then I think it could actually work. I mean look at Zoe Sugg aka vlogger Zoella. She has made money and she has a huge following on her blog and has recent bought out a book etc so she is doing really well. She just started out by posting videos on Youtube about beauty and fashion etc and now she is a huge star with an international following to be honest so if she can have a career but blogging then I think anyone could.
What is your ultimate goal in blogging? What would you like to achieve? What is your idea of a 'successful' blog?
I don’t really set goals as bad as that sounds but it is to just avoid disappointment really. However, I would like to keep on blogging and to go to events etc that I can blog about and meet other bloggers etc, that would be fun.
In my opinion, a successful blog isn’t about the posts that are published but about the person behind the blog. If they are determined and motivated then that is what makes a successful blog. If they publish things that they wouldn’t normally share then they are 1) releasing any feelings they have, 2) getting their views out there, 3) helping other people from what they have written if they are going through that experience and 4) they are being themselves. In today’s society, I think people believe that they have to fit in with a certain group of something. With a blog they can express their own individual style whether it being lifestyle, fashion and whatnot. I think that is what makes a blog successful, for the person to be themselves.
Finally, if you could solve any common blogging problem, what would it be and why?
I am not going to lie, some posts I have read on different blogs are boring. This necessarily isn’t common but it is a problem because who wants to read a boring, same old blog. No one does as harsh as this may sound. I am not saying that mine is the perfect blog but there is either too much or not enough text on the blogs and this is the same with photographs. You want to read something visually pleasing as well as interesting. By breaking up the text by using images and having a punchy post title then it gives the reader something else to look at etc so I would solve how to make some blogs more appealing to read.
Thanks so much for your answers!
We also have some awesome news here on The Meta Blog; Caroline has kindly agreed to do a guest post for us! She'll be talking in more depth about her blog, and giving us some of her top tips for being a good blogger. Stay tuned...
Lauren xxx
Lauren xxx
Blogging Platforms: My Experiences
Hello again!
Today's post is about the thing that most bloggers are stumped with first when they decide to start blogging: which blogging platform, and what's different about them. Now honestly, I've heard so many different opinions on which platform is the best that it's hard to come to a definitive answer. What I've gathered is that different ones are better for different purposes and different people, and since a non-objective approach to this question seems to be the most fitting, I'm going to write about my own opinions on the matter.
The very first platform I ever started using was Tumblr. Way back when I was around 14 and I stumbled across it, it was nowhere near as popular as it's grown to be now. It was mostly filled with amateur photography and teenagers complaining (I was one amongst them). However, since then it has developed much more status in the blogging world, often being a platform that most artists and other creative people turn to due to the image-based format of the site and the ease of uploading multi-media posts. I like this about Tumblr, because it makes discovering new artists and viewing their work in high-resolution very simple, and I like how there is no 'default' posting format, so to speak. You can literally post any kind of media: pictures, videos, speech, sound clips - anything, with ease, because it's not automatically assuming that you'll be wanting to write a text post like most blogs do. For this reason, I still use Tumblr now to host my Art blog. I also like the tagging system used on Tumblr; it makes your posts easy to find, and it makes finding others' posts on chosen topics easy to find. There's also the added benefit of the daily laugh you get with Tumblr, because there's a lot of blogs on there posting an abundance of internet-based humour, which is a nice thing to have on your dashboard. I think Tumblr is very easy-to-use, and I like the fact that the Tumblr community seems to be very informal and social. However, I have found that it has a lot of down-sides. Firstly, unless you're good with HTML coding, customising the appearance of your blog to anything other than a simple, pre-designed theme can be very tricky. There are no options to even make small changes to existing themes such as changing font colours without changing the actual HTML code, which sucks a little. Also, it's impossible to browse in public. Because Tumblr is one of the few platforms that still allows NSFW content and blogging, it's not uncommon to be leisurely scrolling down a dashboard of completely normal blogs when you get the shock of your life, because one of them has reblogged one out-of-the-ordinary post. Especially not good when there's someone stood behind you who completely misunderstands the situation. Not good at all. It's also easy to go off-topic from your blog's main purpose with Tumblr, because there are so many pretty pieces of art on there that you can find yourself listlessly reblogging hundreds of image posts and forgetting to write any actual text, or losing your text posts in between the hundreds of reblogged images.
The second platform I used was WordPress. I don't actually use this platform anymore, despite not finding much wrong with it. I guess the reason I started using it was because I wanted to try a more 'traditional' way of blogging, heavy on the text posts, simple and easy. I figured that because WordPress was a text-based platform, it would be a good one to use. I started blogging about things that I did and was planning on doing, like baking cakes, attending social events, planning tattoos etc, basically a lifestyle blog. I found that it was really easy to use. Formatting was easy enough and I was able to make my blog look suitably pretty without too much fuss. Posting was easy, too. I figured it out pretty much straight away, which is always a bonus. I liked the dashboard, too, and how it picked out a few blogs to follow based on your interests. I remember my dashboard always being filled with really interesting, artsy textile posts from really great bloggers. I never got many views there though, which I didn't mind, but if I was planning on blogging about something that I needed as many people as possible to see, it would have been an issue. I found it pretty hard to connect with other bloggers there, too. Other than the crafty-type blogs that I followed and appeared on my dashboard, just browsing was pretty hard. I couldn't really find many more blogs, and I wanted to because I wanted more variation than reading posts from the same few people all the time. I guess I just felt kind of cut off from the community, because people weren't as involved in each other there as they were on Tumblr, which I was used to. None of this was really an issue though, and I guess the reason why I moved eventually was purely because WordPress was decreasing in popularity, and there were more other bloggers to connect with elsewhere.
That's when I started to use Blogspot, which obviously, I still use now. I like Blogspot because it's text-based, which makes traditional blogging easy, but since it's more popular there are more other bloggers on it to follow and connect with. I find it very easy to just browse here, too, using the 'next blog' feature. I find formatting very easy on Blogger because panels can be dragged around in settings and widgets added, and in addition to this the customize tool allows you to change small details like fonts and colours with ease, without having to be totally HTML-savvy. One thing that I also really like about Blogspot is that it's linked to Google Plus. It makes sharing posts with more people really easy, and it's another way to connect with other bloggers. I just think that it all works really well. I love the way that blogger offers stats as a feature, too, so that you can see exactly where in the world and which sources your traffic is coming from. The option of having multiple blogs on Blogger is great, too, especially for people like me who like to have their own personal blog as well as others for certain projects, like this one. I think that the only thing I don't like about Blogger is the lack of a proper dashboard. I know that there is one, but it doesn't really feel like a proper dashboard to me, and it's not so easy to browse.
Then finally, my most recent blogging muse is a new site called Ello, which is developed especially for creative people and is ad-free. It's currently still in beta-testing so I haven't had chance to properly blog on it yet, but I've found my feet and I think that it's simple enough to use. Formatting is fairly minimal on here so that gets rid of the problem of working out how to format your page etc, and I quite like the minimalist approach to it all. It basically just does what it says on the tin, and does it well, without all the ads and popups that other sites have. The community is pretty limited because it's just starting up but it's slowly getting bigger. Similarly to Tumblr, it's quite image-heavy but doesn't rely on that so much, although there is still a feature similar to Tumblr's reblog. I like it. I can see it going places.
So, that's all of my experiences with different platforms. There are loads more, but these are just the ones I have tried. Which platform is your favourite? How many others have you tried? I'd love to know your thoughts!
Lauren xxx
Today's post is about the thing that most bloggers are stumped with first when they decide to start blogging: which blogging platform, and what's different about them. Now honestly, I've heard so many different opinions on which platform is the best that it's hard to come to a definitive answer. What I've gathered is that different ones are better for different purposes and different people, and since a non-objective approach to this question seems to be the most fitting, I'm going to write about my own opinions on the matter.
The very first platform I ever started using was Tumblr. Way back when I was around 14 and I stumbled across it, it was nowhere near as popular as it's grown to be now. It was mostly filled with amateur photography and teenagers complaining (I was one amongst them). However, since then it has developed much more status in the blogging world, often being a platform that most artists and other creative people turn to due to the image-based format of the site and the ease of uploading multi-media posts. I like this about Tumblr, because it makes discovering new artists and viewing their work in high-resolution very simple, and I like how there is no 'default' posting format, so to speak. You can literally post any kind of media: pictures, videos, speech, sound clips - anything, with ease, because it's not automatically assuming that you'll be wanting to write a text post like most blogs do. For this reason, I still use Tumblr now to host my Art blog. I also like the tagging system used on Tumblr; it makes your posts easy to find, and it makes finding others' posts on chosen topics easy to find. There's also the added benefit of the daily laugh you get with Tumblr, because there's a lot of blogs on there posting an abundance of internet-based humour, which is a nice thing to have on your dashboard. I think Tumblr is very easy-to-use, and I like the fact that the Tumblr community seems to be very informal and social. However, I have found that it has a lot of down-sides. Firstly, unless you're good with HTML coding, customising the appearance of your blog to anything other than a simple, pre-designed theme can be very tricky. There are no options to even make small changes to existing themes such as changing font colours without changing the actual HTML code, which sucks a little. Also, it's impossible to browse in public. Because Tumblr is one of the few platforms that still allows NSFW content and blogging, it's not uncommon to be leisurely scrolling down a dashboard of completely normal blogs when you get the shock of your life, because one of them has reblogged one out-of-the-ordinary post. Especially not good when there's someone stood behind you who completely misunderstands the situation. Not good at all. It's also easy to go off-topic from your blog's main purpose with Tumblr, because there are so many pretty pieces of art on there that you can find yourself listlessly reblogging hundreds of image posts and forgetting to write any actual text, or losing your text posts in between the hundreds of reblogged images.
The second platform I used was WordPress. I don't actually use this platform anymore, despite not finding much wrong with it. I guess the reason I started using it was because I wanted to try a more 'traditional' way of blogging, heavy on the text posts, simple and easy. I figured that because WordPress was a text-based platform, it would be a good one to use. I started blogging about things that I did and was planning on doing, like baking cakes, attending social events, planning tattoos etc, basically a lifestyle blog. I found that it was really easy to use. Formatting was easy enough and I was able to make my blog look suitably pretty without too much fuss. Posting was easy, too. I figured it out pretty much straight away, which is always a bonus. I liked the dashboard, too, and how it picked out a few blogs to follow based on your interests. I remember my dashboard always being filled with really interesting, artsy textile posts from really great bloggers. I never got many views there though, which I didn't mind, but if I was planning on blogging about something that I needed as many people as possible to see, it would have been an issue. I found it pretty hard to connect with other bloggers there, too. Other than the crafty-type blogs that I followed and appeared on my dashboard, just browsing was pretty hard. I couldn't really find many more blogs, and I wanted to because I wanted more variation than reading posts from the same few people all the time. I guess I just felt kind of cut off from the community, because people weren't as involved in each other there as they were on Tumblr, which I was used to. None of this was really an issue though, and I guess the reason why I moved eventually was purely because WordPress was decreasing in popularity, and there were more other bloggers to connect with elsewhere.
That's when I started to use Blogspot, which obviously, I still use now. I like Blogspot because it's text-based, which makes traditional blogging easy, but since it's more popular there are more other bloggers on it to follow and connect with. I find it very easy to just browse here, too, using the 'next blog' feature. I find formatting very easy on Blogger because panels can be dragged around in settings and widgets added, and in addition to this the customize tool allows you to change small details like fonts and colours with ease, without having to be totally HTML-savvy. One thing that I also really like about Blogspot is that it's linked to Google Plus. It makes sharing posts with more people really easy, and it's another way to connect with other bloggers. I just think that it all works really well. I love the way that blogger offers stats as a feature, too, so that you can see exactly where in the world and which sources your traffic is coming from. The option of having multiple blogs on Blogger is great, too, especially for people like me who like to have their own personal blog as well as others for certain projects, like this one. I think that the only thing I don't like about Blogger is the lack of a proper dashboard. I know that there is one, but it doesn't really feel like a proper dashboard to me, and it's not so easy to browse.
Then finally, my most recent blogging muse is a new site called Ello, which is developed especially for creative people and is ad-free. It's currently still in beta-testing so I haven't had chance to properly blog on it yet, but I've found my feet and I think that it's simple enough to use. Formatting is fairly minimal on here so that gets rid of the problem of working out how to format your page etc, and I quite like the minimalist approach to it all. It basically just does what it says on the tin, and does it well, without all the ads and popups that other sites have. The community is pretty limited because it's just starting up but it's slowly getting bigger. Similarly to Tumblr, it's quite image-heavy but doesn't rely on that so much, although there is still a feature similar to Tumblr's reblog. I like it. I can see it going places.
So, that's all of my experiences with different platforms. There are loads more, but these are just the ones I have tried. Which platform is your favourite? How many others have you tried? I'd love to know your thoughts!
Lauren xxx
Social Networking: Why it's important
Hi everyone!
Today I wanted to talk about something that is often overlooked as a business tool: social media.
Social media is something that is absolutely everywhere these days, with the ever-growing popularity of sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For most people, they are simply ways of passing the time, nosying around their friends' lives (or keeping an eye on their ex-boyfriends...), or procrastinating when there's work to be done, which we're all guilty of, especially me. However, sites like these hold a lot of power in their format due to their ability to easily reach a huge number of people very quickly, at the click of a button. Look how quickly things spread around Facebook and eventually go viral: that's the power that these sites have, and if they can make something as daft as a cat playing the keyboard fly around the world's computer screens within days, imagine what they could potentially do for a business.
This could be confusing you at this point, because you're thinking "how does this relate to blogging?" Well, for many people who have found success with their blogs, their blog is in fact a business, and a high-earning one at that, with the blogging industry growing faster than ever and more and more people reaping the financial benefits of having a blog. Just like a shop on a high street, more people visiting usually means more money, and with a blog it's exactly the same. The more hits the blog gets, the more money it's worth, so the main goal of most bloggers is to get people to visit their page in the first place, and that's where Social Networking comes in.
What are the chances of some random person knowing your exact url and typing it into their browser? It's really not very high, as you can imagine, thus other ways of directing people are needed. Think about when you visit new blogs, how do you access them? A lot of the time it will be through external links on other Social Media sites, through search engines like Google, or because someone on a conversation thread has linked other people to a blog. If it works on you, chances are, it's going to work on other people. This is why cross-referencing yourself on as many social media accounts as possible is important, because it means that if someone reaches you through just one of these accounts, which at some point someone inevitably will, they automatically are connected to your whole online business persona, and have immediate access to all of your social media accounts and very importantly, your blog.
There are so many options when it comes to social networking that it can be hard to find your feet at first, but it's about making smart decisions and choosing which platforms suit your business best.
Facebook is a good all-rounder. Their huge database of users means reaching a lot of people, and it's a suitable place for smaller sites and companies as much as it is huge corporate industries and very well-known, high-traffic sites. Twitter is also good for reaching many people but it's a little more personal as you're posting small snippets of your own dialogue, which can be handy in the blogging community as it can feel more personal when communicating with followers, which tends to be something desirable when blogging. Instagram and Flickr are both good for more visual bloggers such as artists or people who review products and need to post pictures of them, as they allow for very easy access to a large amount of images. Google Plus is a good networking tool for bloggers in particular, as it is linked to Blogger so it's easy to find other fellow bloggers and people interested in blogging through it, who may become strong contacts and gain you more traffic as you help each other and collaborate. There are also very new, creative networking sites such as Ello, which is a new, ad-free creative social network made especially for people interested in visual media. There are also sites such as Bloglovin' which are made especially for bloggers, by bloggers.
This list has barely touched on the many possibilities of social networking available, but it goes to show that there's something for everyone, you just have to find what works for you. In my experience, most of my followers gained on my blogs have been through linking to my other social media accounts, as people tend to click on the links they see on there more than searching for your blog directly. Blogger is very handy in identifying where your traffic is coming from as it actually shows you stats like that in your account info, alongside things like where abouts in the world your blog gets the most views.
Do you have a blog? If so, how do you gain traffic? Do you find that social networking helps?
Lauren xxx
Today I wanted to talk about something that is often overlooked as a business tool: social media.
Social media is something that is absolutely everywhere these days, with the ever-growing popularity of sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For most people, they are simply ways of passing the time, nosying around their friends' lives (or keeping an eye on their ex-boyfriends...), or procrastinating when there's work to be done, which we're all guilty of, especially me. However, sites like these hold a lot of power in their format due to their ability to easily reach a huge number of people very quickly, at the click of a button. Look how quickly things spread around Facebook and eventually go viral: that's the power that these sites have, and if they can make something as daft as a cat playing the keyboard fly around the world's computer screens within days, imagine what they could potentially do for a business.
This could be confusing you at this point, because you're thinking "how does this relate to blogging?" Well, for many people who have found success with their blogs, their blog is in fact a business, and a high-earning one at that, with the blogging industry growing faster than ever and more and more people reaping the financial benefits of having a blog. Just like a shop on a high street, more people visiting usually means more money, and with a blog it's exactly the same. The more hits the blog gets, the more money it's worth, so the main goal of most bloggers is to get people to visit their page in the first place, and that's where Social Networking comes in.
What are the chances of some random person knowing your exact url and typing it into their browser? It's really not very high, as you can imagine, thus other ways of directing people are needed. Think about when you visit new blogs, how do you access them? A lot of the time it will be through external links on other Social Media sites, through search engines like Google, or because someone on a conversation thread has linked other people to a blog. If it works on you, chances are, it's going to work on other people. This is why cross-referencing yourself on as many social media accounts as possible is important, because it means that if someone reaches you through just one of these accounts, which at some point someone inevitably will, they automatically are connected to your whole online business persona, and have immediate access to all of your social media accounts and very importantly, your blog.
There are so many options when it comes to social networking that it can be hard to find your feet at first, but it's about making smart decisions and choosing which platforms suit your business best.
Facebook is a good all-rounder. Their huge database of users means reaching a lot of people, and it's a suitable place for smaller sites and companies as much as it is huge corporate industries and very well-known, high-traffic sites. Twitter is also good for reaching many people but it's a little more personal as you're posting small snippets of your own dialogue, which can be handy in the blogging community as it can feel more personal when communicating with followers, which tends to be something desirable when blogging. Instagram and Flickr are both good for more visual bloggers such as artists or people who review products and need to post pictures of them, as they allow for very easy access to a large amount of images. Google Plus is a good networking tool for bloggers in particular, as it is linked to Blogger so it's easy to find other fellow bloggers and people interested in blogging through it, who may become strong contacts and gain you more traffic as you help each other and collaborate. There are also very new, creative networking sites such as Ello, which is a new, ad-free creative social network made especially for people interested in visual media. There are also sites such as Bloglovin' which are made especially for bloggers, by bloggers.
This list has barely touched on the many possibilities of social networking available, but it goes to show that there's something for everyone, you just have to find what works for you. In my experience, most of my followers gained on my blogs have been through linking to my other social media accounts, as people tend to click on the links they see on there more than searching for your blog directly. Blogger is very handy in identifying where your traffic is coming from as it actually shows you stats like that in your account info, alongside things like where abouts in the world your blog gets the most views.
Do you have a blog? If so, how do you gain traffic? Do you find that social networking helps?
Lauren xxx
New term, new project!
Hello! So yesterday was the start of a brand new shiny term and it's all very exciting at the minute because that means that having handed in our visual communication and design & technical modules now, we are starting a whole new project! It's a design-only project and we are going to be working with a company to their brief. The project is on sportswear and we will be working with a UK-based company called More Mile, and designing for them a range of sportswear and running shoes. To do this, we will be completing another sketchbook like our previous design project and composing range plans on boards using Adobe Illustrator. Now I'm not usually a big sports person myself by any stretch of the imagination (however I AM forcing myself to the gym tonight!!!) but I am actually really really excited about this project! It's a short one lasting only 5 weeks but I feel really inspired and have already picked out my theme and started working, and we aren't even receiving our intro talk from the company until Thursday! I just want to throw myself into it and really knuckle down and produce a lot of different ideas. I don't know why I'm so suddenly enthusiastic but I am really glad that I am! Maybe it's because I'm excited about the opportunities working with a client to a brief could bring. Maybe all the tea I drink has gone to my head. Alas, it's a good thing either way.
Updates to follow!
Lauren xoxo
Updates to follow!
Lauren xoxo
Connect with me on LinkedIn!
Hi everyone! Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm now on LinkedIn, so feel free to add me as connections! Click here to go to my profile :)
Lauren xoxo
Lauren xoxo
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