I'm so excited to share this with you guys. It's been a journey and I hope these tips can be useful to you as I've had to experience them for myself as well.
January 12, 2018. That was the day my life changed forever. It was the day I wrote my first blog post, published my website and this whole writing journey began. I also like to think of it as the starting point in my writing career. For someone who’s never published her writing outside of school, it was a monumental moment for me to finally sit down and say, “Today, I’m going to make content that the entire world can read.” It was also the best decision I’ve ever made. But it’s still something I’m learning to navigate. It’s only been seventh months so I’m no expert, but for anyone who’s just starting, and this is the first blog they read for tips, I hope I can help with the seven things I’ve learned after seven months of blogging. 1. Know your niche- Yes yes, I’m a hypocrite-but hear me out. When I say find your niche, I mean that you need to find out what you want your blog to be about. Who’s your audience, what kind of topics do you want to have on your blog, what is your blog going to be about? You should have a general direction of where you want your blog to go and what you want to write-even if it’s just for the first post-and then from there, the rest of your ideas will follow. I’m going to do another blog post on what you should write your first blog post on and let me just say now, it doesn’t have to do with anything with what I just said before but if you want to hear my ideas on niche’s in general, check out this blog post which is cleverly named Niche’s. (Because I’m convenient like that. Lol) 2. Conversation is key- This means find other bloggers and interact. I’ve officially signed up for Bloglovin’ (Although, I am currently not active but will be soon so follow me anyway!) and all I’ve been doing is looking for people who have similar interests to me (for personal pleasure.) Then, I’ve looked and saved posts that relate to me and my blog. If they said something that I liked or sparked an idea of my own, I follow, and I save their post. Go to other blogger’s sites, see what the latest trends are, especially if you’re a fashion blogger. To be honest, I couldn’t tell you what the trend is, I never really cared, for someone who always just wore what she liked, but if that’s your thing see what everyone is talking about. What is everyone wearing for the summertime (or upcoming fall), know your seasons and see if you can jump into the hype. Oh! And comment. Always comment on other peoples blogs, interact with commenters and get them to come to you. It brings a lot more traffic this way and you may actually talk with some really cool people and make some new internet friends. 3. Learn your SEO settings-Boring and complicated SEO settings. Which is what I thought at first, but it’s actually not that bad. For the basic SEO settings, hopefully your blog platform-whichever one you use-will make It easy for you but if it’s complicated, YouTube is always available. Or, if you’re stubborn like me and determined to figure it out on your own, play around with it and see what happens. It’ll tell you if there’s an error or you’ll know if things don’t go exactly as planned. Your SEO settings are designed to get you on Google’s search engine which brings in a ton of traffic, if you’re doing it right. You won’t know if you’re being searched up the way you want until you try it so have no shame in searching yourself up. It should take at least four weeks to get yourself up there though so don’t be discouraged if you type in your name two minutes after you update the settings (like I did) and don’t see anything. It’s going to take time. I recently just read a post from Helene In Between about SEO settings and she says they’re best used to track something called your bounce rate. It’s basically to see who’s clicked onto your post and then immediately clicked out of it which will tell you that your posts are not set up the way you want them to and you need to change the settings. She has a lot more detailed explanations though, so I’ll leave a link to her post down below for more help. 4. Update, update, update- Consistency is key and updating regularly is so important for someone who’s just starting out. You want people to keep coming back to your blog and you want those few who trickle in to stick around and not get bored. If you post three times in one week and then drop off the face of the earth for the next two months (or delete your entire site like I did) people will forget all about you and you’ll have the start the process all over again. So, try to update regularly but when you do update, keep it consistent or at least let your readers know when you’re going to be posting. I don’t have a set schedule for updates, but I try to post at least once a week from the end of the week to the beginning (between Thursday and Monday.) Also, if you post too much at one time, that’s great for bringing the traffic in for that week but then you’ll have to scramble for ideas for the following week and you suddenly loose followers. (I know, such a complicated concept, but trust me, it’s a thing.) So, update regularly, but not too often…consistent. (I hope you guys got that. Lol) P.S. Don’t delete your site. It’s a struggle to get back up. Trust me. 5. Summer sessions is a thing- For someone who’s not only a full-time student but still has another five years to go, keeping up with your blog can be tough. But when you’re just starting out, it can be hard to pick and choose when you can afford not to update. Which is why during the summer, take advantage of the extra time you have. Whether you spend a majority of that time getting your most updates in or just brainstorming ideas in advance for the rest of the year, take all the time you need so that your blog stays frequent all year round. 6. Always get a second opinion- Or a third or fourth. For now, my most reliable source is my mom. She has her own website and she’s a master at grammar and spelling (all things English that I’m still learning) and I always like to go to her for feedback-if not for the content but just for the flow of context. But I don’t mind going to my friends either. If I use their names I like to ask for permission first or to see if they like this title over the other. Sometimes I bounce ideas off of them for topics as well. It’s great to sit there and read your own work and declare it amazing-because you think it is-but you always need a second opinion to give you a reality check and say, “hey, that was rude.” or maybe something simple like, “you spelled definitely wrong.” (Which I always do. Smh.) 7. Spread the word- Social media has literally taken over our society, but I’m not mad at it! I’m not a huge fan of all things Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat (if you haven’t already noticed) but I’m a huge fan of Instagram so that’s my main source of bringing traffic to my blog. But for those of you lovely social media people out there, as soon as your post goes up or maybe even before your post goes up, blow up on your social media and tell everyone that follows you that you’ve posted. There is no shame in promoting yourself and where I said you should be consistent on your blog, when it comes to your social media, be as random as possible and be as often as you want. Bug the hell out of all of your friends, your family until you know they’ve read it, they’ve subscribed and shared it to all of their friends and family. You want every person watching your story and jumping back to your bio to click on the link that leads to your blog because honestly, social media is one of the biggest ways new bloggers get the word out for everything. And that’s amazing! And here’s a bonus because I’m generous like that. Lol 8. Have fun!-Cheesy, I know, but I’m serious! Starting a blog is tough. I don’t mean to sound discouraging but I have to be honest, it’s a lot of work. But I love it which is why I’m doing my best to make it enjoyable for me. You want to create content that you enjoy making and that you know your readers will enjoy reading. You also don’t want to want to rush things just to get have something up for your deadlines or have to repeat your same content. When you’re just starting out, you want to always be circulating new ideas, so make sure you have fun with your blog. (And then when you’re a pro you can recycle that article from a couple of months ago with a new perspective.) Your readers are your friends, they want to know what you have to say, not what you think they want to hear. Don’t try to copy someone else or be someone you’re not just because you’re behind a keyboard and can edit your words and you never want to make updating seem like a chore. If you find that you’re not enjoying what you’re writing, there’s a likely chance your readers won’t enjoy reading it so make sure that you have fun with your blog, that way you’ll want to continue doing it. And that’s it! I hope you guys enjoyed these tips. I know this was more directed toward future or new bloggers, but I hope those of you who took the time to read it, now have an idea on how I keep my blog up and running. Don’t forget to like, comment and share or contact me on my socials. Until Next Time! With love, Arianna Bloglovin’: arianna99 Helene In Between: (SEO Settings)
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8/12/2018 0 Comments A Note to myself about self-love
Listen to the audio, (use headphones for better sound), watch the clips. Enjoy! A note to myself about self-love
Loving yourself isn’t just about having confidence or loving how you look in the mirror. It’s definitely a part of it, maybe even the most important part, but it’s not all of it. Loving yourself is about learning to love your failures and your flaws. Your mistakes, your regrets, and learning that they aren’t so bad now, because they made you into the person you are today. Loving yourself is learning to forgive but not forget. Knowing when it’s time to let go and keep moving on with your life because dwelling on the past is only going to keep you from seeing your future. And stop constantly blaming others. It only takes the blame off of you for a little while, but it doesn’t change the situation. Loving yourself is learning how to say sorry-to others- but more importantly, to yourself. Learn to apologize to yourself for being so hard on yourself for things you had no control over, Or for things that you did, and you just messed up. We all mess up sometimes, but learning to love yourself is learning to understand that it's only sometimes, not all the time, and we’ll get better at these things as we grow older and learn. It teaches you empathy; and that even you have your limits, despite how perfect you may think you are or may want to be. Learning how to love yourself may entail getting hurt in the process. You may loose a few friends, have a few bad relationships or just have a really bad experience, And you want to beat yourself up about it over and over again, but learning to love yourself means accepting this terrible phase in life and knowing that it will pass -The pain, the confusion, the regret-it doesn’t last forever. And loving yourself is trying to figure out the real lesson you’re supposed to learn from all of this, not dwell on “What if?” Learning to love yourself is not learning “a better way to love others.” Learning to love yourself is learning to love yourself. All parts of yourself-the good and the bad-and being happy with that person. No regrets, no mistakes. Acceptance; and eventually...happiness. It’s something we all want to achieve-self-love-and something we all need to work at. It may take a while, or you may wake up one day and suddenly feel like your best self. But until then, here’s a gentle reminder on How to Love Myself. Hi guys! Did you enjoy hearing my voice? I hope the file opened for you with no problem. Putting this together was such a struggle but I finally got it up and I’m so excited! I’m trying to get more acquainted with making videos and editing for you guys. I want to keep things interesting on here because as you all know, I can talk (write) all day but sometimes it’s nice to change things up a bit and I thought recording this would be fun. I don’t own any of the images, in case you were wondering. I have them all on my Pinterest account though so follow me on there at MusicManiac and you can see all the stuff I pin, including these photos. I hope you all enjoyed this little bit of prose and Until Next Time! With love, Arianna Song in recording: Hearing-Sleeping At Last News Alert! The SUNY apps are open! I just got the alert on Wednesday so I’m sorry if I’m a few days late but in spirit of college applications opening up, I have this post that will hopefully inspire for our last month of summer (aka freedom). And it’s a precollege edition, yay! So, these tips will be college based. I’m a rising senior and applying to college is my top priority right now, so I have gone through this list myself (mostly) or I’m going through it as you read this. If you have any other tips or suggestions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below. So, let’s get right into it.
1. Research colleges/visit- If you haven’t had the time or just didn’t know where you wanted to go to college, that’s fine! But if you’re not working, this is the perfect time to delve in and do your college research. Look up schools based on the criteria you have and are looking for in a college and then, if you can, try to visit the schools you have on your list. If you already have your list and haven’t had the opportunity to visit, see if you can go now that you have the time to do so. Visiting out of state schools can be tricky because they take time and money, but if you have the finances to visit out of state, ask your parents to make a week of it. Go visit your top out of state schools and call it a vacation. Road Trip! Or if you don’t have the time, just take the weekend off and drive. My best friend just took an entire weekend to drive up to Syracuse with her family and she loved it, if nothing more for the time she had on the road. It’s a great way to learn more about the college and get a personal feel of the campus, the students and see what your life could be like going there. If it’s the right fit for you, you’ll definitely know after a campus tour and information session. If you don’t have the money or your parents don’t have the time to travel to your far away schools, check out the ones you can visit locally. If your parents have a day off, ask if you can visit all of the schools closer to you. If you live in the city, like me, take the train or the bus to get around downtown and book all of your tours back to back (given travel time, of course) and make a day of it. I know for sure that colleges start tours at eight and they last about two hours so make sure you don’t plan to be in a rush that day. The latest they end are at three-probably starting around one thirty or two. And don’t worry if you can’t bring a parent, bring a friend or a sibling so you have someone to travel with. You always want to have someone there with you to give a second opinion because choosing a college is like buying a house. Input from your family and friends is important because they can give you a different perspective and tell you things you may not be aware of like, if the campus is too large or you don’t have a car in a college town and the nearest Walmart is twenty miles away. (Trust me, it’s a problem.) Then, after you’re done for the day, travel around the surrounding area. Maybe grab some lunch or sit in the park that’s nearby. If you’re in a city, you want to get the feel for the neighborhood and if you’re in a college town, talk with the locals and see where they like to go and then explore. I always loved taking campus visits because I always got to explore afterwards, so if you’re not working, try it! 2. Write essays- I know! So boring, so much work, so…stressful. But it’s definitely something we all should be thinking about starting, especially since August is already here and school is slowly sneaking up on us. (Summer went by so fast!) If you haven’t started your common app essay yet, I suggest you start that one first. They give you seven prompts to choose from and you only have to pick one to write about. There’s a 650-word limit, which seems like a lot, but it really isn’t, so make it count! It also allows you to apply to almost all colleges (but check to make sure) with only one essay which makes things easier. As for your other essays-scholarships, supplementals, etc.-get started on them! Every prompt is different and if you’re looking at scholarship essays, they have their deadlines. So, with the extra time on your hands, brainstorm and edit, that way you won’t have to scramble when it comes time to have everything done. 3. Do the Common App/FASFA- You always want to apply early for financial aid because that guarantees you more money! So, make sure that you find a convenient time to sit down with your parents and fill out all of your financial aid forms, while you have the time to ask them (and they have the time to do them.) They’re always busy and working but since you have more time on your hands, you can fill out the easy stuff (like your name) and when you know they’re relaxed and have the time to go into finances with you, work on it! Now may be the only time to do it if you haven’t started already. P.S. I haven’t done this part of the process yet for myself, so I’ll definitely let you know how the process goes and give you some tips if I have any. 4. Write/research scholarships- I think summertime was always the best time to research college scholarships. Yes, we hope for the most financial aid, and we’re going to take out all the grants we can get, and we hope our schools are generous with their funds but sometimes you need some extra help and we really don’t want to take out loans. So, the extra scholarships are here to save the day. If you haven’t started looking for reliable scholarship sites (beware of scams!) then I can definitely provide my list down below-if they say you have to pay to sign up, it’s a scam-but if you have a few good sites and haven’t started looking, now is the best time. Then, work on them so you can apply! If you’re like me and you prefer to apply for written scholarships, (essays), I can assure you that you’ll need some time to prepare. But don’t worry, I’m slowly (procrastinating) getting through it as well. We will (suffer) succeed together. 5. Relax- As a rising senior, I know how stressful it can be to prepare for college. Going through the process is a lot of work, but when you’re working or doing an internship I can only imagine how the pressure will increase. I’d love to get the extra work experience and certainly the money wouldn’t hurt but I’m also enjoying the time I have to be home because I know it won’t last. It’s giving me proper time to do the things I need to do and not feel overwhelmed (like homework and scholarship essays, etc.) and it’s also giving me more time to focus on blogging and to unwind. Junior year went by so fast, and it was amazing, but I’m glad it’s over. We deserve our time to take a break and relax but there’s a lot to still prepare for, so if you’re like me and not working this summer, take advantage of it. It may even benefit you in the end. I hope these five tips were helpful. A lot of this process is still new to me as well, but I only write about what I know and we’re getting through it together. It’s a new month but August will be gone before we know it (oh gosh, I don’t even want to think about school right now) and it’s time to buckle down. We don’t love it, but that’s life right? Stay tuned for more tips and more life updates because there’s plenty more to come. Until Next Time! With love, Arianna |
AuthorI'm an 21 year old girl who lives in NY. I love to read and write and fashion is my life. Follow me to find out more! Archives
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