Blogging Tips | My Top 5 Blogging Tips...

Hello lovelies.

From time to time I receive emails from my lovely followers asking for some tips on how to start blogging. I'm by no means an exper in blogging in any way shape or form but now I'm approaching the 1000 follower mark I thought even if this helps one person it's worth it! 

I thought long & hard (minds out of the gutter please!) about what I would suggest to new bloggers, here is what I have come up with...

Rome wasn't built in a day:

I know that being a new blogger can be a little disheartening when you feel like nobody reads your posts and you have hardly any followers but you need to stick at it. When I first started blogging reaching 100 followers was a massive milestone to me, now I'm nearing the 1000 mark I really can't believe it. The more you post the more followers you will gain. Social networking sites can also be a great way of advertising your blog so get yourself on Twitter & Facebook and tell the world about your blog! One thing I would suggest is not to spam fellow bloggers comments with the link to your blog or giveaway, this can become very annoying. If a follower of mine regularly comments on my blog without a link I will always check their blog out & if I find it interesting I will always follow back.

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Picture perfect:

When I read a blog the first thing I notice is always the photographs that the blogger has used. Good photographs are very important for any blog, it's what people notice first and can help when you're trying to describe something. By good photographs I don't mean you need to spend a fortune on an DSLR camera, I used a basic digital camera for the first 6 months of blogging. Here are my tops tips for taking great photos:

Lighting | Daylight is your friend! Where possible always take photos in natural light, it gives a better representation of the product rather than taking a photo with a flash.

Settings | Most cameras will allow you to alter the default settings of the camera, do this! Things such as the ISO & white balance can be altered and it makes a big difference. Spend some time playing with your camera & you will produce much better photos.

Macro | Macro is a beauty bloggers best friend. It allows you to take close up shots without losing any sharpness to the image. The Macro setting is normally shown as a flower on most cameras, I cannot recommend this enough for close up shots. 

Editing | I use Photoshop to edit my photos but if you're just starting out or can't afford to purchase Photoshop there are plenty of free alternatives on the internet. Photoscape & Gimp are 2 of the most popular ones.

The final thing I would recommend in regards to blog photos is to avoid stock photos where possible. Photos you have taken yourself are alot more interesting for the reader and often give a better reprentation of the product compared to a professional image that has probably been edited to within an inch of it's life.

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Only Write a post that you would want to read:

This may seem like a really obvious point but only write posts that you would want to read yourself. Don't just write a post because you think it'll be popular or because everyone else is writing about the same thing.

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Be original:

'Always be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of somebody else.' Probably one of my favorite quotes ever. This kinda follows on from the last point but I just wanted to make a point of how important it is to be original. If all bloggers looked the same & wrote the same posts there would be no point in blogging. I read such a vast array of different blogs and love reading every single one of them. Be honest with your reviews, just because somebody else likes a product it doesn't mean you have to too. People will respect you so much more if you're always honest and write from the heart.

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Have fun!

The last bit of advice I have is just to have fun! Blogging should never be a chore, you should want to do it & you should have fun doing it. Don't get me wrong, taking pictures. editing them & writing posts can sometimes take forever and sometimes I really don't feel in the mood to blog. The hard working is all worth it when I see the finished post & my lovely followers take time out of their day to leave a comment. The beauty blogging community can be such a nice community to be part of, we all help each other out & get invited to some great events. I couldn't imagine my life without blogging now!

This post has taken me a few days to write & I can only apologies for how long it is, when I started I just couldn't stop! I literally could have wrote double this but the post is already longer than any post I have ever written. I might write a separate post at some point going into further detail about photography and settings on your camera but if I had done this you would have been reading this all week! If you would like any further advice or have any questions please feel free to either leave a comment or email me at the address in my contact section.

If this has even helped one person then this post was worth writing & I hope I didn't bore you all too much!

Sarah xx