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?

My 2015 Blogging Goals

Firstly, I just want to give a shout out to all the veterans. This day is too often overlooked and I am not about that. I could never imagine being a solider and I greatly appreciate those who have and are serving our country and hope that they feel appreciated today and throughout the year. Regardless of where you stand in politics, you should be supportive of those who willingly suit up and fight for us, while we don't even realize what they are doing. So to those of you who are veterans, who are currently in the military or who are a family member or friend of a military member, thank you for your willingness to serve.

Moving right along with the November Blogathon, today's prompt is to talk about three blogging goals. And while I never really "set in stone" how I want my blog to grow, I think this prompt gave me just enough of a push to think about what I really want with this space, especially within the next year.

Gain engaged followers.
This is probably on a lot of blogger's goals list but it makes sense. I really like the community I've been building through this blog, through reaching out to other bloggers on my own, link-ups and becoming a more active member of the Northeast Bloggers Network. Now I just feel like I need to maximize on that community so I can add followers to my social media sites. This past year I have noticed a pretty big leap in followers and I don't feel like I tried really hard for that to happen, so let's see what trying brings to this blog, shall we?

Figure out if I need to rebrand and do it, if so.
Since moving out of Pittsburgh and then creating Marion Claire Stationery, I have felt the need to rebrand this blog to be more cohesive to everything I'm dipped into and that really just means, my name alone. I'd ideally like to (personally) find some roots in the next year, so that will determine whether or not I'd like to keep "the City" but I'm sure that in the next few years, my name will also change. So I have to figure out whether to wait until the name change or to go for it now. But I feel like the upcoming changes in my personal and professional life will tell me whether or not that rebrand is needed, it's just a process that I'd like to narrow down in the next year.

Write more here and there.
I'd really like to up my game in the next year. I started this year off with a bang and was posting really consistently, but when I started Marion Claire Stationery, I really let myself focus on other things. At the time, that was great, obviously I started a business and have made it into something worth noting during that time. However, now that Marion Claire is up and running and has her shit together, it's time to promote that girl. I want to write more on my blog and do a lot of guest posting for other blogs either for Marion Claire or just guest posts in general. I love writing and connecting with new readers, so if you want a guest post, hit me up!

What are your blogging goals for 2015?