TimeWithYana: blogging tips

Being Social Online Is Important And Some Ways To Promote Your Blog

Hello! Today I thought to mix up my beauty related posts and write about a different topic. From the title you can see it is going to be all about blog traffic and how to make others visit your blog a bit more often. At the same time I want to remind you that I am not an expert, just a girl sharing her experience.

First thing first, your content should be interesting. Write about things that are close to your heart and you passionate about. Simple as that! Next step is promoting. One of the easiest and definitely best ways of doing it is by using social networks like Twitter, Instagram or whatever you prefer. For example, there are lots of RT accounts on Twitter, which are super helpful at sharing your posts with people. My favourite ones are @LovingBlogs, @BloggerFYI and @RT_bloggers. However, do not forget about hashtags. Three hashtags to remember: #lbloggers, #fbloggers, #bbloggers. They work for Instagram too. ~~No, I have never spend more than two hours browsing throught these hashtags~~.

Social Network. Hmmm, see the word 'social' that people usually tend to forget? Be social. Leave comments on other blogs and basically interact with people from your niche. Make blogging friends. If you are as shy as I am, it might be tricky for you, but haha no worries. My goal right now is not a particular number of followers or views, I want to communicate with other bloggers more and more. It has been great to sit here, in my small cozy comfort zone, but I am waving goodbye. Trying to do this. Meeting new people is always fun, right?

My advice is pretty obvious. Take part in Twitter chats. It is not necessary to be a part of every chat out there, you can choose few days in a week, when you are going to spend one hour discussing and chatting with bloggers. I actually wish blogger chats lasted more than one hour! Such a cool feeling to be (virtually) surrounded with people who have the same interests as you do. And all of them are the kindest and nicest human beings you have ever talked with. By the way, the good 'ol replies to tweets also counts.

If your aim is to increase the blog traffic, then try StumbleUpon website. Looking for a place for finding unique websites and killing a couple of hours of your life? Welcome.

That it is for today, love you x

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, by TimeWithYana

Are photos the most important

Are photos the most important? | Blogging Tips Part II

Part 2 of my Blogging Tips is now here! This time I decided to talk about photos and their influence on your blog. Enjoy!

I love this saying that you have to write blog you would personally enjoy to read and would definitely be somewhere among ones you are following. When you like your blog, everyone else will like it too. Same thing with body&appearance, but it's not related to this topic, so lol.

Quality and number of photos on each post is super important. Most of visitors only look through your pictures and then read some parts of the text. Therefore, you have to work on your photographing skills more or improve them in general. Believe me, if you have no clue about all cameras and photos stuff, don't be scared to give it a go! I used to be freaking pointless at "blog photos". Now I think, I'm slightly normal. Practise, practise and more practise.

Started from the bottom, now we are here

So first of all, do you need to buy the priciest camera equipment? My answer is no. Especially on early stage when it's hard to exactly say if you'll be blogging for a long time or enjoy it in general. Well, if there are superfluous money in your pocket, okay then. However in my opinion that doesn't matter as much as lighting and background. Please, avoid messy background and poor lighting. It's quite ridiculous to see such pictures on the blog.

Think about basic composition before taking photos. Add some bits and bobs to make everything a lot nicer. But don't irritate the main item or items at the same time.

For me is easier and more convinient to edit online. My favourite websites for it are www.pixlr.com and picmonkey.com. Another point is that be careful not to over edit. Too much contrast, sharpen and brightness is not a great thing! In this case, photo would appear slightly fake.

Also if you are using Bloglovin' for the blog(what you definitely should do!), choose the best photo for the very first one. That plays a massive role for people to click and read your blog post!

That is it for today! I will talk to you in two days x

Have a fun weekend :)

P.S Blogging tips written above are based on my own experience. I am not expert. As many people as many opinions, so feel free to correct me or add some more advices in the comments.

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, by TimeWithYana

Advices for newbie bloggers

Some of My Blogging Tips

Hi there! As I had written before in Six Months of Blogging, I'll try to make few "Blogging Tips" kind of blog posts and here is very first of them. Let me know what you think about it!

Have just entered blogosphere? Say hello to your new besties: to-do lists and notebooks. Believe me, your life from now won't be organized without them. It's going to be stress and mess. Who loves that? No one!

You can choose to create blog on Blogger or Wordpress or on both and then figure out which you prefer. After that think about basic design. As with blush, less is more. Make it please visitist eyes. Always make sure blog posts are visible and easy to read. Pop of different colours doesn't work, to be honest.

One more thing, but maybe that's only my preference, publish in medium or big size shrift. Readers won't take loupe, they simply will hit close-the-window button.

These are seven steps every blogger, especially beginner has to remember:

Come up with a schedule
Plan posts for the full month or half of it
Make list-to-do every day. Yes, every day.
Whenever you feel inspired grab your laptop/pen/pencil/phone/tablet and start writing
Good lighting? Take photos!
Don't forget about social medias because they are very helpful in increasing your blog
And the most important - have fun

Blog in advance. That's what will actually save your life. Don't, like, don't ever forget about it! Personally for me this is, again, less stress and mess. You probably will think I'm crazy, but I've planned/partly written this ... in January.

Don't get mad when you see other bloggers reaching big amount of followers in shorter time than you do. Remember, everyone has own way to success.

Is posting every day good idea? In my opinion, no. First of all, usually those posts are quite boring and uninteresting or, as I like to say, made with one eye closed. Will you get more views? Maybe, "Should I update my blog every other/two-three days with good content which will interest people more?" question is more correct. See, that is not only about periodicity. Quality plays the biggest role. Obviously, you can't post on the 1st of January and then at the end of the month - don't disappear! However, I agree with my friend who says: "Some Bloggers or YouTubers can post few times a month, not lead active social-media life and be awesome and interesting at the same time". Use your personality! For example, yes, makeup reviews are great, but I want to know about you, your thoughts on particular topics and etc. I think, you have already noticed, people look up for reviews at "info-bloggers" and forget about them afterwards. Don't believe me? Look at your own Twitter, Instagram, Bloglovin' following pages. Who are those people? I'm more than sure most of them write mixed content and you get to know them a little bit with every Tweet or photo. Our brain simply work like that. We remember those who talk and share information on different topics. So if you blog about beauty, don't forget about other things too.

Here is a short schedule example: (it is not my plan or any other blogger, just a random from my head)

Montly Favourites

Tag/Q&A

Review on smt

Outfit or Face of the day

Skincare routine

That's important to take a break if you feel like you need one. Life is full of various situations when blog won't be main priority. Also sometimes inspiration is easier to find during "blogging holidays" and with clear mind you are ready to blog again. I used to be scared to skip my uploading days. Don't worry about it! Promise, everything will be alright.

Don't stress to much about your blogging stats. If you check out them every single minute, you won't see them raising. Simple as that :)

Basically, create a blog that you personally would enjoy reading and following. Don't try to copy/please someone!

Hope my advices helped some of you even a bit x

Talk to you later, Yana.

P.S Blogging tips written above are based on my own experience. I am not expert. As many people as many opinions, so feel free to correct me or add some more advices in the comments.