BLOGGING 101: VOICE

Unless you are strictly a photo blogger, it's likely you will be composing some sort of text in your post. Are you going to be a more verbose blogger, or are you going to let your photos do the talking? What kind of voice are you going to take? Colloquial, as Vintage Virgin does-- or more poetic, such as the way Rebecca from The Clothes Horse composes her posts? I like to write my posts in a very accessible way, very much the way I talk. I think this makes my blog a little bit more personal and helps my readers to get to know me more.

Take time to consider what you want to write about in your posts. Will you write about what's going on in your life? If so, how much are you comfortable revealing to the wide world of the internet? It takes some balls to put yourself out there with honesty, so be prepared for the occasional mean comment, it's the price you have to pay for broadcasting your life on the web. Just remember that the haters aren't the people who matter! They've made a conscious decision to bring negativity into the world instead of bringing a positive attitude. Plus, you have exponentially more people who give you positive comments. Focus on that!

Don't let it scare you from being genuine though. Bring your voice to the blogging community because no one has your voice, it is 100% yours. If you look around the proverbial blogging room and feel like you have nothing unique to offer, just think about how you are totally unique. There is no other blogger (or human being, for that matter) who can be you- who can say things the way you do, who has the life experience you have, who has the same creativity as you do. That's important! Never forget it.

Take some time to think about your limits. Will you swear on your blog? Will you talk about loved ones and friends? Will you post about your faith or politics? Will you talk about being a vegetarian or vegan?

Another thing to remember about writing online is that you don't have your tone of voice, inflection, or body language to help people understand you. All you have is text and photos, so make sure what you write comes across as clearly as possible, especially if you're trying to write about something important or controversial. Misunderstanding can happen easily on the internet simply because you don't have those physical and verbal cues to aid in understanding. Learn to communicate yourself accurately and effectively through your writing. This is kind of a learn-by-trial-and-error process. If it seems like people are frequently missing your point, not getting out of your post what you meant for them to get out of it, or taking what you're saying the wrong way, you may want to evaluate your writing and try to work on communicating better through writing.

Most important: be yourself. Don't write like another blogger just because you think that writing like them will get you lots of followers like them. Be you. Be confident enough in yourself that you don't have to emulate someone else for people to like you!

BLOGGING 101: WHAT KIND OF BLOGGER ARE YOU?

In order to get in the mood for this session, why don't we all sit back and blast The Who's Who Are You? Just kidding. Well, you can if you want to, I won't stop you.

Blogging is a huge, I mean enormous, realm out there on the interwebs. There are blogs about pretty much anything you can think of, encompassing pretty much every nook and cranny of any topic. Food (cooking/restaurant critics/beer/coffee/etc), politics (Republican/Democrat/conservative/green/etc.), fashion (high fashion/celebrity critics/runway/personal style/street style/etc.), wedding (DIY/eco-friendly/high-end/low-budget/etc.).... and the list goes on and on. You can probably bet that if you're blogging about it, someone else is also blogging about it.

This might seem depressing at first, knowing that there are thousands of bloggers out there among whom you're attempting to make your mark. What is it that makes a blog get noticed? What is it that makes one blog grow and another not? It can seem, at times, like it's just some magical "it" factor that some people have, and that if you are not possessing this mystical it-ness, then your hopes of a growing blog are in vain. I don't believe that to be true. I also don't believe that a successful blog looks like just one thing. There are a ton of different ways a blog can be successful and that mainly has to do with your own concept of what success is.

Some people might see their blog's success in terms of monetizing. That is, if you can make money off your blog, then it's successful-- and all the better if you can quit your day job and blog full time. Other people seek to have large quantities of followers. Some people desire to have large blogs mention them, or get their photo featured on a favorite site (think getting your living room makeover featured on Design*Sponge or Apartment Therapy. Or maybe getting your photo snapped by the Sartorialist, or your wedding on Style Me Pretty). Some people want tons of comments on their posts. Other people just love to share their content and could care less about accolades based on quantity of daily visitors to their site, or how many are subscribing to their site.

So success comes in many shapes, sizes and colors. It's important to decide for yourself what your concept of success is. A lot of people will want to foist upon you their idea of what success is, so you need to know for yourself what your goals are for blogging and what it means to you to be a success at what you do. For some of you that might mean producing great content and putting it out there to share with the world. For others, it might mean getting paid sponsorships. It's important to respect that there are a variety of different goals for blogging. Some people see monetizing as a bad thing and could tell you that you're "selling out" for monetizing, and on the flip side some people also might tell you you're silly if you choose to not take sponsors. It's likely you'll get critiqued no matter what you do, so be true to yourself!

The beauty of blogging is that it's fluid. Your blog doesn't have to stay the same, with the same kind of content for its entire existence. While my blog's content has stayed relatively consistent over the years, it has also fluctuated quite a bit as well. For the first two years of my blog, posts were pretty exclusively daily outfit posts. Once I started moving towards going on my Brave trip, I focused more on that and once I was actually on the road, I had quite a few more road-tripping posts than outfit posts. Now my blog is a mix of lifestyle, DIY and personal style (and recently, wedding planning!). Staying true to yourself is important. If you're trying to blog about something that used to interest you, but no longer does, people will be able to tell that your posts don't come from the heart. Not only will your readers be able to tell, blogging also won't be fulfilling to you! I say, what's the point in blogging if you don't enjoy it?

If you're just starting out on your blogging adventure, take time to sit down and brainstorm what interests you have that you want to blog about and what you want to focus on. If you've already been blogging for a while, take a look at your blog and see what parts of it you love and what isn't working and cut out the stuff that you don't love! No sense in spending time posting about it if you don't love it! You can also take a look at your life and see where your interests are shifting and if maybe your blog is lagging behind this shift. I spent some time hanging out with one of my favorite bloggers last year and she was doing just this! She had grown her blog on DIY projects and scrapbooking, but was phasing out of that part of her life and into more focus on vintage and fashion. She's made a beautiful transition-- still keeping the parts of her blog that she loved about it when it focused more on DIY stuff, but infusing vintage fashion and style!

Whether you're just starting out, or you've been blogging for a while, I encourage you to get out a pen and paper (or... a word document and keyboard) and answer the following questions:

1. What are you passionate about? What do you feel like you would be able to post about all the time?

2. Do you want your blog to have a narrow focus or a broad spread of topics? (ex. just a food blog vs. including recipes, outfits, and lifestyle posts)

3. Would you like your blog to be monetized? Why or why not?

4. How do you gauge the success of your blog?

5. Think of your favorite blogs, what is it about those blogs that makes you love them? Can you learn something from those blogs that you can apply to yours?

Think of some themes you want for your blog. For example:

1. Fashion. You can do several things with fashion. You can post personal outfit posts, images from an upcoming line that you love, photos from a magazine or online photos you found that you love, wish lists of items you'd like to purchase, ways to put together outfits, video blogs on how to style a dress, the possibilities are endless! Choosing a broad topic like fashion will give you many options for posts so you shouldn't run out of ideas!

2. Cooking. A lot of bloggers mix cooking with fashion or DIY posts! Even though, they may not go hand-in-hand, they are both creative and give you a lot of options to work with! You could feature a weekly recipe, show what you cooked for dinner last night, do a review of a cute restaurant or do a product review of something you use while cooking. Even though I don't read blogs like Jen Loves Kev for cooking, I am always interested in reading her Last Night's Dinner posts!

3. Vintage. Let's say you love vintage. It ties in really nice with fashion and personal style, but also opens up your blog to a whole other audience. You could post on cute vintage items you found thrifting, you could show how to clean up or repair a vintage item, you could talk about what to look for when shopping vintage, etc.! Plus, maybe someday you could open your own Etsy shop to sell vintage items? Again, endless possibilities. I'm very much inspired by Sally Jane Vintage for this style of blog.

There are so many different things your blog can be. It can be a fashion blog (which can even hone down to a shoe blog, a runway fashion blog, a beauty blog, but make sure you don't limit yourself too much that you run out of topics within the first month!). It can be a food blog (pastries, paleo, vegan, smoothies).  You can blog about being a parent (dealing with parenting a special needs child, kid friendly craft projects, homeschooling) And, what I think is awesome, is that you can mix and combine themes! There are amazing blogs out there that mix fashion and DIY, baking and sewing, vintage and film reviews.  Just remember to take what you love and what you're passionate about and try to stick to those topics. If you choose a topic you're not passionate about, you'll run out of ideas and become uninspired. We don't want that to happen!

What are my themes?

The tagline on my blog says "Style. Life. Adventures." My blog started off as primarily a personal style blog sharing my daily outfits, but as I grew and changed I wanted to share more about my life and passions.  Now my blog combines personal style outfit posts, recipes, trips and adventures I go on, essays on topics I feel are important, home decor and renovation posts, DIY projects, and more!  While I would've characterized my blog as a Style Blog a few years ago, I now fall solidly in the Lifestyle Blog category.  Lifestyle blogs generally share all parts of someone's life.  A great example of a super successful lifestyle blog is Bleubird.  She shares everything from recipes, to stories about her children, to personal style.  Another great example is The Daybook.  Both of these blogs really capture the blogger's voice and when you go to their blogs you almost feel like you're walking into her living room and getting to know her.

Make sure you figure out what makes you unique. You don't want to take your favorite blogger's blog and replicate it. You'll never stand out. You need to find what makes you you and work on it. Take your passions and embrace them in every aspect of your blog... from content, to blog design, to features! Nobody can tell you what your theme will be, it's the biggest thing YOU have to figure out. Take what you're passionate about… and write about it. Find your niche in the blogging community!

Blogs that lack theme, purpose or thought can be boring or get lost. Readers won't know what to expect when they come to your blog and will quickly click off if they don't find what they are looking for within the first five seconds. Find your purpose and clearly state it on your blog and showcase it within every post.

Figured out your themes? What next?

1. Create a name for your blog that will encompass all of your passions you will be writing about! I chose Delightfully Tacky because it perfectly describes my interests, style, and personality.  Who I am is, in a way, synonymous with Delightfully Tacky.  I love it because it doesn't take things too seriously.

2. Create a tagline! Say your blog is called "Flight of Fancy" and your tagline is… fashion, travel and everything fancy. You could post on fashion, what to pack while traveling, travel posts, photography, cute themed posts. You could even decorate your blog according to your theme and tagline! A tagline really helps readers know right away if they want to read your blog. Let's say one of the biggest aspects of your blog is writing reviews on films, but you don't really let readers know that you'll be doing so, they might be put off when you keep posting on film reviews and maybe they'll stop following. Be clear about your purpose!

3. The biggest thing is… how would you describe your blog to your mom, or friend, or co-worker? It should be very easy to define. "What is your blog about?" "Oh, you'd love it! It's about fashion, baking and travel!" "Oh, wow, I love fashion, baking & travel, I'll definitely check it out!". If your blog is a hundred different things, you might not have the focus and drive to keep at it, so don't overwhelm yourself with trying to cover too many topics. Keep it simple, driven and with a real purpose!

Blog Design: Adding Theme

Blog Design: Adding Theme by Tieka, Selective Potential

One of my favorite things about a blog design is when bloggers incorporate their themes into their design. It's all apart of including you in your design. As you all know, blog design is the first thing we notice when we click on a blog. We are instantly connected to the blogger... all in the images, colors and fonts they use. For my blog, I had a difficult time thinking of incorporating my themes into a blog design. My themes are personal style, love and adventures... so what kind of design went with that? So instead I started looking to other aspects of my life that could influence my design. We live in a small quaint beach town, so I knew I wanted to incorporate a beachy color pallet. I also love bold, strong, clean logos, and Helvetica is such a big part of typography (my favorite subject in college!) so I went with that for my header. I also wanted to include a more down-to-earth, girl next door feeling, so I included a handwritten font. You have to put thought behind every element of your blog design. Every detail counts!

Think about your themes. Think about what makes you you. Here are some great examples of blog designs that incorporate the blogger's theme and personality.

1. Andrea of Blonde Bedhead

Andrea has a personal style blog that is very urban. She wears a lot of black and white, leather, studs and loves taking her outfit pictures in a city style setting. I designed Andrea's blog for her... and I took into consideration everything that makes her unique. She's also a great photographer, so we knew we wanted a powerful image for her header. With the urban font, the bold header and the black and white color scheme... we had Andrea herself reflected perfectly in her blog design.

2. Kristina of Pretty Shiny Sparkly

Kristina does a great job of incorporating her theme and blog into her layout. Her layout is clean, crisp, easy to navigate and entices you right away with a great header that reflects her. Her blog is all about things pretty, shiny and sparkly. So she incorporates a glittery image for her header, a pretty girly pink and purple color scheme and uses these elements in many aspects of her blog design.

3. Grace of Money Smart Fashion

When I worked with Grace on her blog design, I made sure to get every detail on what her blog was about before we started. Since her blog is about personal style, being smart with finances and accomplishing financial goals... we wanted to directly reflect that in her design. We went with a "money" green color scheme to start. Since her blog is about finances, but it's still about fashion, we used a girly header font so the design didn't seem too strict or "responsible". We also wanted to find a way to reflect accomplishing financial goals, so we took the header idea of saving money to reap stylish rewards. We also used her "tagline" right in her header. Everything her blog is about is directly accomplished in just one quick look at her blog design.

I hope this session helps you define what your blog design should be like! Now that you have a better understanding of your content and your themes... it should be easier to think of a blog design. If your themes are generic (like growing up, going to college, personal style) you'll have to get creative. Think of your college... maybe you could take color inspiration, font inspiration. Think about where you live and your surroundings. Use your favorite colors. Think of a favorite food and use it as an element in your design (cupcakes, cookies). Think of everything you love. Something could trigger a great design that totally reflects you!