tips and tutorials

How to Rock Your Blog Break

August 14, 2013

Let me get a little bit deep on you guys. Blogging, like life, is cyclical. It has ups and downs, busy periods and slow periods. For most of us we can’t help but have our blogs affected by what’s going on in our personal lives. Can’t you tell when your favorite blogger is a little absent? You might not know why, but you can tell that something’s off- maybe they’re busy or going through a transition or even worse, maybe they’re just having a hard time.

For some reason we bloggers seem to want to fight the cycle tooth and nail. Maybe we’re just all addicted to the internet, or maybe it’s all about blog guilt, but I know that I have a hard time when it doesn’t work out for me to put as much into my blog as I want to. I want it to be awesome. All the time. Don’t you feel the same way about yours?

I think most of us assume (and we all know what happens when we do that) if we don’t post that our blogs will suffer.

What we’re not factoring into this assumption is that sometimes when you force yourself to blog, the quality will suffer. And ultimately, I tend to think that posting nothing is better than posting something subpar.

I’ve taken both intentional blog breaks and unintentional blog breaks, and as with most things in life I’ve felt much better about the intentional ones. Here are some things that I learned from my past breaks and my most recent one.

Be strategic. Some times of year are just slower than others. A lot of it is just common sense- for example, the week in between Christmas and New Years usually yields the least amount of traffic out of the whole year, even when I’ve posted regularly during that time. Now I know that I just take that week ( and a lot of times the week before, too) off as time to rest and come up with new ideas since I know not a lot of eyes will be falling on my blog anyway.

There’s probably an argument that can be made for any time of the year, but for me July seemed good because school is out and people are on vacations. It made sense for me personally because I knew I’d be going back and forth between my parents’ house and our apartment, and Brian was studying to take the bar so it would be helpful if I had less on my plate so that I could pick up more of the slack surrounding our move. Do what works for you, just try to make it a conscious choice instead of something that happens because you’re too haggard to make it to the computer.

Set limits. Your traffic might decrease while you’re on your break, and that’s okay. But since you’re accepting that, you might as well leverage the break to create some hype about your return. Set a date that you’ll come back. In my case, it helped motivate me to write content while I was away, and I was able to have a lot of scheduled posts before I came back.

Learn something new. This is a great time to take some of those courses that you’ve been putting off! I went a little nuts with signing up for things, and that definitely helped spark my creativity. I joined Leonie Dawson’s Amazing Biz and Life Academy and I took my first Braid Creative ECourse, both of which I highly recommend.

Follow your heart. “What if I don’t feel like picking it back up again?” To be honest, when I started my break part of me was worried that was what might happen. I realized that if taking a break would help me decide if my life was better without blogging then it was worth taking it. Clearly that’s not how I feel, and I wasn’t really prepared for the creativity that would kick into overdrive when I took some time to just be instead of feeling like I had to create for my blog all the time. Trust your gut, and make sure that you’re blogging because you really want to and not just because you have to or because it’s part of your routine.

I know we’ve talked about this before, but have you ever taken a blog break? How did it affect you? How did it affect your blog? I’d love to hear your answers!

P.S. Tomorrow’s newsletter will be all about how to keep yourself from going crazy when you get back from your break (or vacation.) Make sure you’ve signed up if you haven’t already!)

12 More Google Web Fonts

May 16, 2013

Over six months ago I wrote a post about my 12 favorite Google web fonts. Since I wrote it it’s become my most popular post, so I figured I’d give you guys more of what you’re looking for: free web fonts!

Picking 12 more Google fonts wasn’t hard- with over 600 font families to choose from, I had to do some narrowing to get to the list you see below. Enjoy!

GFS Didot || Trocchi || Sanchez || Quetrial || Playfair Display || Nixie One || Parisienne || Leckerli One || Petit Formal Script || Lato || Open Sans || Muli

Have you discovered any new favorite fonts lately? It doesn’t matter if it’s a web font or just a desktop font- I’m a dork about all of them!

And yes, since I was going with Disney lyrics again I decided to just go for the rainbow gradient. Go big or go home, right?

P.S. I’m not the only one to have written about this topic- check out my lettering + typography board for more font posts!

Editing for Instagram

May 9, 2013

Did you guys catch last weekend’s Blog Brunch? I jumped in at the end, but it inspired me to finally finish this post that I’ve had as a draft for what seems like forever! I’ve been on Instagram for about six months now. Leading up to getting my iPhone I read a lot of posts and tutorials about it. I knew from the start that I’d want it to be an extension of my brand, and I couldn’t wait to join in!

I loved how {av} shared her Instagram editing process a few weeks ago, and I thought it would be fun to share mine with you today. As I went through it I realized that there’s a lot more than just the photo apps that goes into my process, and I thought I’d share that with you guys today too.

Content

Images

The first thing I decide when posting on Instagram is the what of the picture. It might be hard for me to sum up what my blog is about in one sentence, but it’s easy for my Instagram: I use it to capture moments of beauty in my life. When I scroll through my feed, there are some things in there that others might think is a stretch for “beauty,” but for me there’s a common visual thread.

There’s plenty of stuff that I like to share through images that don’t make it onto my Instagram:

Things that are funny. If it’s only funny, but not especially pretty or interesting visually, it goes on Facebook or Twitter.
Memories with friends and family. There aren’t many people when you scroll through my Instagram feed. I put most of my outing pictures with friends and family on my personal Facebook, or save them for Starred this Week posts.
Screenshots. Unless it relates directly to my Instagram followers (like this very post or this post I wrote a few months ago) then I try to keep screenshots on Facebook or Twitter (or Dribbble, if it’s design related.)

If any of the above is compositionally interesting or beautiful, then sometimes you’ll see that stuff on there. But for the most part, those categories stick to other social media platforms. I also try to limit the number of selfies and food pictures that I post.

The thing is, my life is far from interesting. If I can find beauty in my everyday life, then seriously, anyone can! I try to find moments in places you wouldn’t expect. I’ve taken pictures from the drive-through at Wendy’s.

Captions

It took me a while to realize this, but captions are actually very important. The type of caption that you write can greatly affect the amount of engagement on a post. I try to keep my captions in my voice as much as possible, and try to make them humorous or tell a story, my story.

Editing

Filters

There are so many editing apps out there, and each app holds a million possibilities. While my editing process might be more complicated than some, I’ve limited my options so that it isn’t so overwhelming, and so that my feed feels fairly consistent. I use both VSCO CAM and Afterlight, and I highly recommend them both.

VSCO CAM is beautiful in its simplicity. There are only 8 filters, but they’re all beautiful. Seriously. And the community that uses it on Instagram is pretty awesome. I decided kind of recently to stop using filter hashtags, but it’s really fun to browse the VSCO Cam hashtags.

Afterlight has more variables. There are way more filters and frames, and I almost always crop there because it lets you tilt your image very slightly to make sure that it lines up with the grid (and it’s the final step!)

Just using those two apps can make the filters overwhelming, so I’ve made it pretty easy on myself. I only use one filter from each of these apps (well, two if you count the one I use for black and white.) I like that this keeps my pictures consistent as well, and I use the same filters to edit the photos that I include in Starred this Week posts to keep the photos consistent across my brand. I almost always layer them, and I love how Afterlight lets you apply filters with a percentage.

Sometimes I’ll only use one or the other. For example, I’ve noticed that my VSCO filter really washes out sunsets, so I usually just apply the Afterlight filter at a low percentage for pretty sky shots. I use the VSCO filter kind of as my base, and then the Afterlight filter (Glacier) to kind of warm it up. I typically keep that pretty low, and I always do any adjusting and cropping in Afterlight as well.

Frames and Effects

I limit my options pretty severely in the frame department. I try to either have no frame at all, or use the circle frame on Afterlight. I also use the tilt shift on on Instagram (the little drop tool that makes the edges blurry), which is the only editing that I do within the app itself.

Afterlight has tons of cool effects that make your photos look more vintage. A lot of times I leave those alone, but they’re fun to play with and sometimes I’ll add one, usually in a way that’s pretty subtle.

What about you? Do you have a system when it comes to posting on Instagram? What apps to you use to edit your photos? And of course, leave your handle in the comments- mine is @kate_baird!

Bloggers You Don’t Want to Be, Part 2

April 4, 2013

Ding, ding! We’re back for part two. If you missed last week’s post go check it out- the comments were awesome!

The Recluse

Everyone has different rules about how much interaction is required in the comment section, so I’m not talking about those who only respond to questions or keep it pretty minimal. I’m talking about those who don’t do it at all, and who don’t seem to exist much outside of their blogs.

As readers, we want to feel like some of our investment of time and trust in your blog is reciprocated with at least a mild interest. It doesn’t take much to elevate you from recluse status- just be approachable and be willing to engage with people regardless of their “size” in blog world.

Also, make sure you check your @connect page on Twitter! You won’t receive notifications when someone you’re not following tweets you on the basic Twitter interface (one of the reasons I love Tweetdeck!) Make sure you’re not accidentally ignoring people. It’s disappointing to put yourself out there to someone you admire and not get a response.

See also: ignoring certain bloggers. If someone is commenting regularly, make sure you throw them a bone every once in a while. They’ll notice if you repeatedly skip over their comments!

The Sloppy Editor

I’m sure you guys see more typos on my blog than I would like you to. But you’d be surprised how many people are really turned off by bad grammar- it was one of the most common complaints mentioned this Facebook discussion. While bloggers of different niches use varying amounts of text in their posts, no matter what it always behooves you to have polished content. At its most basic level, that means good grammar and spelling. It’s okay (in fact, encouraged) to write in your own voice, just make sure that you’re not accidentally breaking any major rules.

The Bad Host

A couple of times I’ve been in touch with a blogger and they’ve invited me to do a guest post, I get them the content according to their specifications, and somehow it gets posted way after the fact or it doesn’t get published at all. When this has happened it seemed to be for one of two reasons. The first is that it just got lost. It was a “bigger” blogger, and though they confirmed that they would publish my stuff, I was the one who reached out to them, and once the content was submitted I never heard from them again.

The second reason is that the blogger was kind of using the guest post series as a last ditch effort to reignite their blogging spark, which seemingly went out before the guest post went up. Either way, whatever you do, make sure you publish any content that you have sought out. It just sucks to put time and effort into a post and then feel like your time has been wasted. Even if you never plan to publish another blog post again, make sure that you publish any remaining guest posts and post about them on social media. Once you’ve done what’s expected, you are free to fall of the face of blog world. Just don’t do it before you’ve tied up the loose ends.

See also: sending guest post content late. If you agree to do a guest post, make sure you send it reasonably on time, or at least give notice if you’re going to be late. I’ve been guilty of this a few times, but just make sure that you’re courteous! People are generally understanding.

The Drama Queen

You know the type- the kind that adamantly proclaims to hate drama when it’s really not necessary to do so. I bet you can think of a few bloggers off the top of your head that seem to surround themselves with unnecessary amounts of drama. Twitter seems to draw the lion’s share of blog world drama- and it’s just not classy to have epic Twitter wars with other bloggers. No matter how much someone rubs you the wrong way, using Twitter or some other public forum to air your grievances is immature and passive aggressive.

The bottom line- don’t publicly talk crap about other bloggers (or privately, if you’re really smart.) The reality is that for the most part, what you say on the internet is forever. It’s hard to take things back. Be courteous and compassionate towards other people- we’re all human beings on the other side of our screens.

The Negative Nellie

Some people are just negative. It comes through in the way that they write, and it seems to transcend the circumstances of their lives. I’m not talking about when bad things happen to you- that happens to everyone at some point or another. I’m talking about when everything that you put online is negative in some way, be it a complaint, a criticism, something self-deprecating, or heck, even a pet peeve post. All of these things are fine in moderation (notice how this kind of is a pet peeve post.) In fact, when bloggers are overly positive it seems inauthentic. Just make sure that you’re aware of the energy that you’re putting out there, you’d be surprised what attitudes can get across online.

See also: being overly vague. Everyone encounters bad times, and sometimes you have to let people know without giving them the details. Just don’t tease your readers too much.

Last week’s discussion was pretty amazing- I’m dying to hear what you guys think of this one! Do you think I forgot anything? And like last week, if you’ve ever written a blogging pet peeve posts or anything like that, I’d love for you to leave the link in the comments!

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