For the Love of Blogs

As a blogger, you will get brain farts and not really know what to post sometimes. It happens. Let's give some topics so you can whiff that fart goodbye! 1.) Share more of your photography and offer tips to those who don't know how to take photographs. I'm personally a really picky picture taker, so I tend to throw out a few of my shots and when I'm bored, I grab the camera and take some photos of anything around me. The thing that sucks about me, is that I don't really know how to teach someone how to take pics, so share that for me please!!!! 2.) What I Wore. Hellooooooo!! Fashion is the way to go when you have no clue what to post about. If you don't normally get dressed to post, then this is a really fun activity for you and for everyone reading. Gather your outfit and go on a photo shoot. Grab a friend to take your pics for you and pose. Pose away, have fun and then share it!!! 3.) Food. It's the obvious when there is nothing else on your min...

Last week we introduced 4 Pretty Blogs , a series of features we'll be doing here on FTLOB. Today we have amazing bloggers who not only have 'Pretty Blogs' but inspiration and How to's! Become a better blogger by checking out these tips from The Collective Mill , Katelyn Blogs , The Sweetest Digs , and theStyleventure . a great way to promote your blogs is described best in this post here from everything you need to know to 7 best secrets Gemma offers an amazing insight on how to pitch a sponsored post  + check out her awesome courses Just recently Monika shared how to make blogging your job! fabulous tips and will get you moving in the right direction! Do not miss these posts if you want to be a better blogger!!! enjoy and have a PRETTY DAY! and oh, Hey......we have some tips too. stalk the blog for more great posts and pages! xoxo muah

i know we have our blogging tips and i'm sure you've read enough on the internet from other bloggers, etc about how to blog but really something you're not hearing is this: A SUCCESSFUL BLOG TAKES TIME i don't mean that it'll take a year or whatever to be successful, although it does take some time to develop a well known blog but what i want to discuss is how time consuming a blog can really be! full time bloggers get paid to write, dress up, promote, etc. does that mean they're successful, sure. they take time to pull together a great post, advertise it online and pretty much sell their blog! not everyone has the time in a day to do that though. Many of you have jobs and go to school. Is it quite possible to have a successful blog + a life outside of blogging?  So How Do You Become a Success in a Blog? Step 1. Relax. A really positive vibe and attitude will put you in the mood for blogging. Do not think too much about the process because then...

there's a lot that i wish i could do with my personal blog to make it better but the truth is, i can't.....or perhaps i don't know how to and so i wanted to share these few tips that will possibly make your blogs better because i know it's kinda hard to do in such a big world! 1.) Be Creative. I have a hard time creating artsy posts and therefore I suck! But a thing that I've noticed is that a lot of creativity goes a long way when you're blogging. When posting, drive in your readers by entertaining them. Act as if you are in person with them and they're a guest in your home. Your blog is your territory, welcome them with party favors each time they visit! 2.) Post Pictures. I know I've mentioned this before but pictures are the life of the party! In posting photos, make sure they are clear and appealing, post according to size; for ex: if the width of your main layout is 700, re-size the pics in an editing software to be 640 spacing in the cente...

1.) Your Photos. If your photos aren't picture perfect, you need to master at getting a look that is going to capture readers and keep them! Taking a picture isn't as easy as it sounds. You really need to know how to take a good pic. Also, do not throw a picture into a post and have it be too small for the width of your posts. Prepare a pic in an editing software and re-size to the proper width of your settings: example- if your width settings on your layout are 1200, your sidebar is 300 and your post pics should be around 640 giving you space for your borders, etc. But figure yours out by previewing the sizes and see which picture size works best for your posts. Having a bigger pic means business! 2.) You Don't Post Enough. Posting a Lot means you'll survive in the blogging world. People want consistency. Everyday, maybe even multiple posts per day will get you a great blog. Don't just post to post, actually post really good stuff often and your blog will be a...

Helllllo Bloggers! Welcome to FTLOB. If you're new here, how about some helpful tips to get your blog journey started. I'm heading out of the home to work again. I need to really get out and explore people interaction. The thing about me is that I love people, places and things but I also love being alone! So I go through spurts of either! Today, I wanted to grab some fresh new bloggers who might need a little help getting started, ask questions about anything you have a concern for and we'll be here to check out your  links and answer | interact with you! What we want to help you with: 1.) Blog Design | Headers | Buttons | Layouts : feel free to ask us for FREE assistance, we'll be happy to voice our opinions. And other bloggers, jump in to with your expertise. 2.) What works for you. We have busy schedules and if you're not sure if blogging is right for you, let's talk about it! 3.) Growth. FTLOB has helped hundreds of bloggers become a popular blog...

it's rather frustrating when life starts to pile up and interfere with our blogs, eh?! i mean this is our baby, right?!!! no, not really? ok!...... let's help maximize your time because we all know that time goes by way too fast in one day to get all we need to get done, done!!!! work, family and writing a blog is important to us and we sometimes have to figure out how to love them all and keep an equilibrium between them. some days are easier than others but if we plan ahead, we'll get the most for our leisure: 1.) Set Goals. I used to be a 'go with the flow' type of blogger but as I get more involved with more things in my life, I have to really think ahead and situate my priorities. So I set goals. One of my most recent goals is to post more! In order to post more, I'd need to get the most out of my time blogging which led to this post! For each thing you have planned for this week, I want you to set a new goal for next week and make every effort to f...

this is really important to discuss because i think it happens more often than we think! as most of you know, for the love of blogs does not tolerate that nor shameless self promoting! in a world full of inspiration and positive people, also comes a little negative. I'm saying that because it's not as bad as it may seem but still needs addressing! I wanted to share a recent story about my photos on instagram . Social media is a huge part of blogging and I love to share all kinds of pretty photos as most of us do. I decided after this incident to make my profile private, which is huge for me because I'm a very public person. It may change but for now, it's going to be limited access. I had a man who was following my photos unbeknownst to me in a rather creepy, stalkerish type of way. I didn't know until he left a comment and started to message me some rather crazy things about my photos. Like irregular. Very un-normal. He basically tried to make me feel uncomf...

it doesn't matter if you've neglected your blogs for a period of time. that's incredibly likely with many bloggers. if you fear that you've left it for so long and can't get it back, don't!!!! act like you were never gone and pick up right where you left off. pretend like your old post from moons ago was just yesterday and tackle a new post from here on out daily!!! having trouble coming up with new content? -take a walk with the camera. this gets your mind thinking and some pics along the trail will help you get posts started once again. want your old and some new readers back? -join twitter, instagram and google +.....these three sites are great for getting your friends back, just add your new blog posts to your twitter feed, instagram pics and you'll be flaring in no time. sharing links to your blog is genius. remember that things take time to fall into place, you're back and that's great!

I was digging around for  a software,Photoshop Actions aside,that would fix up my blog photos when I feel a tad lazy-and I came across Pixlr-matic .We've all had our fair share of Picniking though I have to admit I'm not too pleased with their photo overlays.Hence Pixlr-matic.It installs as an app on Google Chrome but you can access it from the site as well.(It's also available for download on android devices I saw). Let's check out what it's all about,shall we? After you go to the site you see a flash based interface-don't worry,it's rather quick to load. Click on the button that says "computer" and upload your image. After the photo has been uploaded you see a range of photo effects much like Instagram.Just for fun:Try moving your mouse on the developer tub(i.e on the main picture ;] ) Go crazy selecting the appropriate effect by clicking on each tiny box at the bottom.clicking on them alls moves the strip left and right revealing mor...

No post is perfect. Well, not ours anyways. Everyone has their own way of writing, what they think is best for their daily posts and it works for them. When reading blogs, the first thing I look for is Good, Eye Catching Titles in feeds such as twitter, facebook pages, bloglovin, etc. I scroll to find the ones that sound intriguing, interesting and something that will satisfy my search. Trust me, if it doesn't sound good, I'm not clicking, eh?! So how do you find the perfect title for your posts? A shorter title is much more attractive than a longer title. Not to say a one word title does it but anything more than a one line title is overwhelming, cut it down. You also increase your views by having some suspense in there. Don't go all boring on me now. Spice that title up a notch. Don't just write "My Weekend in Photos" and think people are going to be attracted to that......let's write something like this, "A Glimpse of Life in the Dat...

There seems to be lots of different opinions about how often you should post! And in our opinion, you should post as often as you'd like! No really. Some people are attracted to more than one post in a day. On the other hand, it's a little too much for some readers. So when you are posting what you love to post, post as often as you'd like. You'll know when it's too much or too little the more you blog. I personally would recommend to post daily. Your readers want fresh posts everyday and I think it's important in growth. Now if you are an irregular blogger and post few in one week, like maybe every other day or 3 times a week, readers may get the impression that you are not a frequent blogger and won't bother checking in with you as much. It's difficult to say because in all reality you want your readers to be happy yet you are blogging for you. I've seen blogs who post 3 or more posts in one day and to me, that's overwhelming. Bu...

I have to be completely honest. When we started this e-course, I was thoughtless, mindless and clueless as far as what I wanted to share with our students about finding your voice. I struggle myself with this. I tend to blame the Gemini in me, the multi-personality. Some days I want to let it all out, other days I want to be sweet and "pretty." I tend to cuss {a lot}, I then rant and rave to the point where I feel out of control, out of my element. I got feedback that made me feel like I shouldn't have written something and offended people. It made me think twice about what my next rant was going to be. I was far from ashamed or anything like that. I just thought that I wasn't the person that wanted to make others feel bad when that was never my intentions. Do you ever feel like people just don't understand but when you write a post, you fully understand what you're delivering? I get me. Others get me. But some d...