New Blogger Tips & Intro to Blogging Greatness

As some of you know, I recently finished up teaching a course for beginning bloggers. It was a great experience for me, I met some awesome people and got them to revamp their blogs and some just start out. But I feel like in blogging, you are always learning. It's an every-growing community and as we established these blogs, I feel like I learned just as much from my students. Especially one student, Nan, who started writing a comedy blog for the 65+ crowd. She's hilarious and so insightful and I'm excited to see where her blog goes.

With that in mind, I think the November Blogathon prompts for Thursday and Friday (both of which I'm doing today) were right on point to what I've been thinking a lot about recently when it comes to blogging. So here we go!

If you could tell your novice blogger self 3 tips...

1 - Build a community.
I really just started writing this blog so my family and friends would read it and know that I was having fun and was safe while living in downtown Pittsburgh. I have had other blogs before and this one was not started to get lots of page views, it is not created to be SEO friendly, even though at the time that's all I was doing in work. But when the greater Pittsburgh community started to catch on to what I was writing and more people became followers, it started to find a bigger purpose for this space. Which was nice and I'm glad to see that a lot of those early followers continued to read even when I moved out of the city, because my content has certainly changed since then. But those followers, bloggers and non-bloggers, have really opened a lot of doors for me and while that wasn't my intention, I really appreciate it.

2 - Fellow bloggers are not your competition.
I do not like that a lot of bloggers are just in it now to monetize and a lot of "How to Start a Blog" posts are dedicated to making money off your blog right away. I feel like doing that leads to you being unauthentic and leads you to not make friends with other bloggers because you view them as your competition. That is dumb. Blogging is supposed to be about the community not the advertising dollars, and while those are nice, hating a fellow blogger in your niche is pretty lame.

3 - Allow yourself a break whenever you need it.
I hear about blogger burnout too much. If you've followed along here for a while, then you know that I believe in giving myself mini-breaks from blogging whenever I feel like it. I wish more bloggers were like that, because readers can tell when your heart isn't into it and I never want that feeling to come across to my readers. Give yourself time off if you want/need it.

Now skipping over to Friday's prompt - Introduce 3 bloggers you follow and why.

Sarah Hartley | Midwest Muse | Sincerely, Sara
Photos are the property of Sarah, Jessica, and Sara, respectively.

Sarah Hartley - Sarah has made an appearance here a couple times, and she will always be my first blogger pick. She's one of the first bloggers I really started to follow consistently and I like that she's built a community that has followed her from fashion blogger girlfriend to mommy of the cutest little boy, with the perfect husband. I like that she's become more open over time to sharing about herself and now I cannot even believe how transparent she is with her readers. She's really grown and it's been an amazing journey to watch unfold over the screen. She's got great style, a fresh sense of humor and plenty of baby pictures to show off her cute little man.

Midwest Muse - Jessica is amazing. She has the best style that I have ever seen, has the best taste in music and generally just doesn't give a shit what people think, and I LOVE it. Jessica takes a week off from blogging and doesn't really need to give an excuse as to why because her readers pick up right where she left off. She changes her hair drastically on a whim and still knows how to style it better than anyone who has had that hair for years. She's basically a unicorn living in Ohio and I cannot get enough of her and her blog. Also, her photographer boyfriend takes the most gorgeous pictures of her that her whole blog just looks like an indie magazine you need to be reading.

Sincerely, Sara - I found this Sara through reading Sarah Hartley's blog and have to say that I'm glad I did. Sara is someone I admire because she is so consistent and her blog reads like she wrote it just to you. She has clear goals about her future and her blog, she tells you upfront what she blogs about and when, and she is always producing quality content in her niche. She's making the rest of us mid-twenties bloggers look unorganized and I actually love it because she is just so good. She's also a bookworm, so always one to recommend good reads.

So, who are your favorite bloggers?

And what wisdom would you share with new bloggers?

Chels & the City Favorites

Happy Monday, friends! For the November Blogathon, today's prompt is to share your 3 favorite posts from your archives. (You'll notice that three is the theme of the week.) So here are three posts that I think are some of my best, and oddly enough, there is one from each year that my blog has been around, which was unplanned but a nice little surprise for myself.

2014 - Bad Things Happen When You Wear Sweatpants In Public
The story of an unfortunate event that I, of course, blamed on the fact that I was wearing sweatpants in public while it happened. My one and only fashion rule is to never wear sweats/pajama pants in public and I feel like the universe was getting back at me for shaming people who do. Lesson learned.

2013 - Hazard Yet Forward
A note to the Seton Hill University community after a serious tragedy. I graduated from SHU in 2011 and it will always have my heart, so this post was important for me to write and is one of my most-viewed of all time. It was one of those posts that you promote once by posting the link on Facebook and it was shared and passed on a countless number of times. I hope that means that the women involved and their families were among those views and that it helped them heal a little bit.

2012 - Cupid: as portrayed by Chelsea
I love this post. It was one of my first posts on this blog and I think I nailed it haha It's actually a really long post but I wanted it to be worth the read. I came up with date night ideas for people in the Pittsburgh area for Valentine's Day and based each idea on the Five Love Languages. Good, right? Like, you wish you were following my blog back then good. At the time, my readers were pretty much just my friends and family and I cannot tell you how many texts/calls I've received since then about people asking me to help them plan a night out or date night in the city, and they reference this post. Thanks, friends, I'm here for you!

Do you have favorite posts from your own blog?

Or a favorite from mine that's not mentioned?

November Blogathon: 30 Things About Me

If you haven't noticed, I have been in a bit of a blogging funk. So to remedy that, I'm joining in on the November Blogathon Blog Challenge, hosted by Kristen of the MRS. & the MOMMA. She has set up prompts for every weekday of November and while I won't be using all of them (because I want to still continue with Chels Wears and Fashion Forward Fridays) for the most part, I will be following along!

Her first prompt is: There are 30 days in November, share 30 facts about yourself!

I really like this prompt because I always like to know more about who the person behind the blog is,

so here's some things about me that you might not know!

Photo by Maddie B. Photography

1. While typing this, I'm watching the Steelers game and it's really hard to pay attention to things about me, but I'll try my best.

2. Everyone says I have the wine taste of a 90 year old woman. I like the super dry stuff.

3. Three is my favorite number.

4. That is only significant because I really only like numbers that end in 0 or 5 because I have OCD.

5. Marion Claire Stationery is my pride and joy and seriously a dream come true.

6. I remember specific moments of my life by what I was wearing while they happened.

7. Pinterest has really made me start to enjoy cooking and I wish I didn't work so many nights so I could cook more.

8. I have been to Consol so many times since it opened and yet, not one of those times has been to see the Penguins play. #badyinzer

9. Every time I hear Wannabe by the Spice Girls, I think about my friend Katie from elementary school and dancing around her basement after school to that song.

10. I still have the Gettysburg Address memorized from when we had to recite it for credit in 7th grade.

11. I wish I lived closer to Seton Hill just so I could have an excuse to drive up that beautiful hill in the fall more often.

12. Anytime someone tells me they are not a feminist I feel like they really just need to be told what the word means. Equality. That's it. Not a battle of the sexes.

13. I'm a huge fan of indie movies. So much so that my Family Video staff calls single-title new releases "Chelsea movies" when explaining them to customers. (I have good taste, this usually creates a sale.)

14. MJ and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary on the 14th of this month.

15. I love roller coasters and have ever since I hit the height requirement.

16. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Let the countdown begin!

17. I started my first blog when I was 13.

18. I actually really like bartending but I wish the general public knew how to properly treat and tip anyone in the service industry.

19. My favorite part of Christmas is wrapping the presents.

20. I love wrapping presents so much that every year I consider starting a babysitting business that allows parents to drop off their kids with me to go shopping and then when they're done, drop off their presents with me and take their kids while I wrap their gifts for them. (I'll do this for people I know but if anyone steals this idea for a real business, please hire me.)

21. I tried on four outfits this morning (Sunday) before deciding on wearing the first thing I put on.

22. Facetious is my favorite word.

23. I always give a children's book with baby shower gifts.

24. I want few things more than I want to see the Pirates win the World Series.

25. Just realized I mentioned all three Pittsburgh sports teams in this.

26. I miss being a camp counselor, but could probably never live like that for a whole summer again.

27. I'm really proud of the students in Blogging Basics class and cannot wait to see how their blogs grow now that they're all ready and set up. Our last class meeting is this Thursday.

28. I almost hate to admit how much I like rap music.

29. To be fair, I love all kinds of music, I just think rap is such an art. People talk/singing really fast is impressive.

30. I hate how many of these sentences I started with I.