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The “Post Ideas” column is where I brain dump all of my ideas. I always put the posts in chronological order of due date. Ideas that haven’t been assigned to a date go at the bottom. I go through this column once a week to plan out posts and give each one a due date.
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The “This Week” column is where I put all the posts I need to write in the current week. These might not be going live on my blog that week, these are going to be posts that I want to write drafts for, complete, and schedule for future posting.
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The “Ready” column are posts that are complete and in the queue ready to be published onto my blog.
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The “Published” column is my archive of posts that I’ve completed. I archive this column at the end of every month and start a new column which is why you see the current month in the title of the column.
What are my Goals for this Blog?
I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately regarding business and online presence. Writers always ask what the purpose of your blog is and I always thought I knew my answer. To write about stuff I like, stuff I eat, and stuff I make.
But one article I read made me think deeper than that. What is my real reason for this blog? Why do I write about those things? So I thought about it for a while.
“Can’t I just write about what I want? What’s wrong with that? Do I really need to have a purpose to write?”
The answers are yes and no, nothing, and YES. ABSOLUTELY YES.
So I thought about it more, and what is my purpose in writing this blog? What the heck are my goals?!
- To share. I’m a firm believer of sharing information that can help others. In personal or professional life I’m an open book and are usually willing to share.
- To vent. Writing is a way for me to express myself. It’s one of my favorite ways to express myself, actually. I’ve written about happy moments, sad moments, more happy moments, and more sad moments. It’s an online journal for me. A place where I can chronicle a part of my life. There are days where I just go to the website and read all the things that have happened and changed since I started blogging in 2007. Wow, almost 10 years! Didn’t realize that til now 😛
- To promote my business. I like to mix a little personal and professional on here. My businesses are my life. I live and breathe it! I dunno, it’s fun lol! As weird as it is for me to say that, that is the purpose of this blog. It shares the name to my online store for a reason and I can’t forget that is the main purpose.
I think all in all I just want people to see the personal connection I have to all the things I design as well as the person behind the product. As I’ve grown as an business woman I’ve seen that the connection between me and my products becomes closer and closer. I used to believe that I could keep them separate. But as time passed I realized that that isn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to create things that I would use. If I didn’t see function or beauty in it then who would?
xoxo,
Kissa
Things I’ve Learned About Blogging
I can’t believe it, I looked back at my blog archives from my old blogs and realized I’ve been blogging for 7 years. WOW, just wow. And though I’ve been blogging on and off for all these years, I’ve learned so much in all this time. Through trial and error I’ve found my voice, my writing style, a posting schedule, and all while I journey through self-realization and self-worth.
If you’re thinking of starting a blog, here are some tips that I’ve learned along the way:
- Be yourself. The whole point of a blog is to have a medium to express yourself, your true and authentic you. You’ll attract a like-minded audience that’ll value what you have to say.
- Don’t worry about how many people are reading your blog. They keyword here: patience. Just do your thing. Trust me here, patience is key. Readers will come as long as you’re consistent and posting good content which leads me to my next point…
- Good content. This is a very subjective piece of advice. Good content means a lot of things to a lot of different people. But the main thing I want to get across is promoting yourself, your products, or your services isn’t going to cut it. Neither is copying and pasting a press release. What people want to read about is you. What you think about things, how things make you feel, your personal experiences.
- Share the lime light. This goes along the lines of good content. Share products and services you enjoy. Reach out to other bloggers and collaborate on a project, product, or contest. Cross promotion and taking interest in other blogs is such a big part of blogging.
- Come up with a schedule. Consistency is key. This is the hardest thing for me to do. I make up excuses of why I didn’t have time to post or how I’m too busy to do it. But for me, blogging is my way of venting, expressing myself, and letting loose; it’s almost therapeutic. When I don’t blog I feel like I have so many thoughts running through my head. Blogging allows me to let my fingers do the talking and it helps me to sort through all the mumbo-jumbo. Once I realized that a blog schedule would help me sort through my ideas about posts and when to post it, it helped with the consistency. I realized that I needed this time for myself, to type what I’m going through and what I’m feeling. Putting it on a schedule gives my blog consistent new content, and it has grown this blog exponentially as well as given me some me time every other day.
The truth is, blogging isn’t easy and it’s not for everyone. As a writer, you need to figure out why you do it. But more on that later 🙂
Have a great week everyone!