As I've nearly been blogging for a total of four months now, I started to reflect upon everything I've achieved, but along with that I also began to think about all of my personal blogging mistakes. Now I'm not saying that it's a mistake if you do any of these yourself, but they just happen to be things that didn't really work for me or benefit my blog in any way. I am however glad I have made these mistakes, as like you've probably heard, you learn from your mistakes.
This may be useful for any of you newbie bloggers, to avoid making some of these mistakes early on, but for any of you current bloggers, maybe you can in some way relate to this post, whether you've been blogging 1 week or 5 years.
This is a pretty wordy post, so if you don't have the time or energy to read word for word, you can skip to the end where I conclude everything I talk about in a few bullet points!!
1. Poor Quality Photos
I'm always sucked in by blogs that have big, clear, high quality photos and for the first few months of blogging, my photos weren't anywhere near up to scratch in comparison. Now I always knew that my photos were never going to be comparable to the likes of Zoella or EssieButton as I'm still a very new blog and don't have the knowledge or the technology/equipment that they do, but I definitely have done a variety of different things which have worsened the quality of my photos overtime and just made them very unappealing to look at. Also as I'm aware that I'm not the greatest writer, I understand that my photos need to be to a higher quality to help balance this out...
First of all, I thought it would be great to use small, framed photos. No idea why as I've already stated that I love blogs with larger photos, as do the majority of beauty bloggers out there. Simply by doing this, I probably repelled many people from reading my blog in the first place - if I wasn't the person writing these posts, I probably wouldn't have read them either! I definitely prefer the look of larger photos with no background to them. The larger photos allow the reader to see everything in more detail and they're honestly just a lot more appealing for some unknown reason.
I am a strong believer that most bloggers should edit their photos. My reason for this is that unless you have a professional camera and amazing lighting, you probably won't be able to take the best photos possible. You obviously don't need to best camera to take great photos, but sometimes the lightings just not great, sometimes things need to altered and sometimes the quality in general needs to be improved. I do all my photo editing on Coral Paint Shop Pro X1 which I actually bought a few years ago, but there are many different free sites online which you can use that do the same job. Anyway, my mistake here wasn't my editing skills, it was more the fact that I kept saving my photos in the file format JPG. I would NOT RECOMMEND saving your photos in this format and leads the photo to worsen in quality, again making it unappealing to potential readers. A Little over a month ago I accidentally saved an image in the file for PNG and it was the best mistake I could've made. My photo's are now soooo much clearer and although the photo quality isn't as good as it could potentialy be, it's definitely improved simply by changing to the format PNG.
2. Poor Layout/Design
The layout and design of any blog is an important aspect and for me has definitely been altered much in the past few months. My blogs design is completely different to what it was four months ago and overall it looks so much better! Initially, my blog design was pretty boring. The colours and background weren't eye catching and the layout I'd chosen from Blogger, lets just say, wasn't the greatest. I then gradually started changing little bits of my layout and LOVE it! I love the colour that I have chosen to use throughout my blog, and I feel it's important to have one or two shades which every blogger sticks to using throughout their blogs. I also love the background I have chosen. With most bloggers nowadays, I tend to find that backgrounds tend to be a solid colour, and although that looks great I feel that the use of this background helps to give a little twist to my blog, differentiating it from others. I also increased the amount of white space I have on my blog, making it look more professional and allowing room for larger photos as well. Recently, I also changed the header of my blog, which again look a lot more professional, especially since it was saved in the file format PNG, haha! I currently use the simplest design format from Blogger, however I have put my own twist on it to make my blog a little different to others.
3. Little Communication With Other Bloggers
When I started blogging, I was really looking forward to talking to other bloggers. The blogger community is a great place to be, and the majority of people are so, so friendly. However there have definitely been times where I could've made more effort myself. For example I use Twitter quite a bit to contact with other bloggers (as well as promote my blog - I can't lie, but we all do it), but as Twitter still isn't always a natural thing to me, I don't find myself communicating with other bloggers as much as I could be. When starting blogging, I was really hoping to make some new friends and although I can say I've spoken to some great people, I can't really say that I've make any proper friends...but this is because of the fact that I have made little effort in comparison to other bloggers. This is something I personally need to improve on...and I need to STOP missing out of #bblogger chats!!!
Also, there's been plenty times when I've read blog posts and never bothered to comment. Now I feel that it's simply common courtesy to comment on a blog post that I've enjoyed reading. Not only does it allow the blogger to know that you've enjoyed reading it and that people appreciate what they're writing, but it also allows other blogs to become aware of you're blog, therefore promoting your blog in a small way, as well as allowing you to communicate with new people.
4. Signing Up For Networks
When starting, I thought that one of the greatest things to do would be to sign up for a bunch of different blogging networks. I honestly wish I didn't and am looking at seeing if I can possible 'unsubscribe' from one or two of them as I can't see the point in providing their badge at the side of my blog. I don't feel like I gain anything as I didn't really read into what they provided and simply signed up because it seemed to be what a lot of other bloggers were doing at the time. Also one of the networks I signed up with only seems to offer opportunities for American bloggers (which I obviously am not) so there's actually no point as to why I should've signed up to begin with. I would just say if you're planning on signing up with a network first of all look into what they offer and see if it will in any way be beneficial for you. With this said, many networks don't offer opportunities until you become more successful.
In Conclusion (Tips)
- Large, clear photos look more professional and help to attract people to continue reading your blog.
- PNG photos provide a higher quality that JPG.
- Make your blog layout and design differ from other blogs - Add some sort of a twist to make it stand out, however simply layouts are the most appealing in the beauty blogging community.
- Communicate with other bloggers on different forms of social media.
- Contribute in #bblogger chats on Sunday's and Wednesday's as this allows you to communicate with other bloggers in the same community.
- Comment on blog posts that you enjoy reader to show to the blogger that you appreciate what they've written but to also promote your own blog and meet new people.
- If you're planning on signing with a blogger network, look into what they offer and whether it will be beneficial for you in any way.
Again, as mentioned before, these are all my personal opinions, so please don't feel offended in any way or feel like you have to follow to any of these "tips".
And sorry for the rambling haha!
Lots of Love
Lizzie xx
