What I Know--{Tatertots & Jello}

I am beyond excited to share with you all a very sweet blogger, who has been a great support to me in this blogging world--

Jen.

 

Hello Southern Lovely readers! I'm Jen from Tatertots & Jello and I am so excited to be here at Lindsay's to participate in her What I Know Series!!

I thought I would share a few tips I have learned about blogging. I started my blog about 4 years ago as a personal family blog and it's evolved over time into my full time job, which I love! Along the way I think I've made every mistake possible as I've stumbled along this crazy blogging path. So here are a few Things that I know about running a successful blog:

• First of all, do what you love. Don't start blogging to make money as your main goal. It's possible to blog as a job, but it takes time and so many hours of work. I remember my first email from someone that wanted to sponsor my blog and I was amazed and humbled that someone would want to do that.

• Focus on your content. Write about what you love.

• Maintain a consistent schedule. You don't have to post every day. Figure out what is comfortable for you, your family, your life and stick to that schedule; whether it's once a day, twice a week, once a week. As you gain readers, they will know what to expect in terms of posts and look forward to your posts.

• Develop a group of "blogging peeps", a creative circle. You can bounce ideas off of one another, guest post on each other's blogs or create content together. Promote each other.

• There's enough room in this creative blogisphere for everyone to succeed. Don't be afraid to promote other people and help them be successful. I believe in blogging karma. The positive things you do for others will come back to you someday.

• Network. If there are local events in your area, head out and meet people. If you have the opportunity to attend a blogging conference, try to go. It's always nice to meet people in real life.

• Set a schedule to work on your blog. It's easy to get obsessed and let blogging affect your personal life in a bad way. I am working on this myself. I found that setting specific times to work and treating it like a job made my life much easier. When it's family time, I turn my computer off and focus on my family. This has made my family much happier.

• Also, by scheduling my time, I plan out my calendar and I can see what projects I want to do for the next week or month. So when I go to purchase supplies I can get supplies for all of the projects at once. This saves me time. And when I am working on projects, I can work on more than one at a time.

• I have found Google Calendar to be a wonderful tool. I use if for all of my planning. I log into it at least once a day to see what is coming up, what I have to do each day and it also synches to my iPhone so I can set alarms and it tells me what is coming up for the next day. I also have all of my family's activities set up on the same calendar so I don't schedule something blog-related on top of something I am doing with my family.

• My last tip would be to have fun!! Blogging is a wonderful thing and I have made so many fabulous friends. It's been such a wonderful thing in my life. Have fun with it!

Thanks for letting me come by and share some of my blogging tips. Here are a few of my favorite projects I have created over the past four years:

Burlap Wreath

Holiday Advent Ladder

Beachy Laundry Room Makeover

Aqua and White Kitchen Makeover

And I have a really fun linky party on Friday nights where I love to feature other people. I'd love to have you come over and link up YOUR ideas. It's The Weekend Wrap Up Party and it starts at 6 pm MST on Friday nights.

xoxo

Thanks Jen!  Isn't this such useful information!  

The balance of blog & real life is sometimes hard for me, so this is great!  

Have a great weekend, friends!