Whenever I talk to friends or clients who are struggling to figure out the next phase of their life or career, I always encourage them to start a blog. Maybe you’re burnt out from your tedious 40-hour workweek and want to pursue your hobby of baking miniature pies full time. Or maybe you’re a filmmaker and want to start offering tutorials on how the average person can create short films. A blog can be whatever you want it to be—a diary, a visual essay, an editorial space, a place for discussion and debate, or a scrapbook of inspiration. More than anything, a blog is a great way to get your ideas out into the world and see what people have to say in response. You could receive the feedback and kick in the pants you need to launch your new pie company or begin teaching film classes at your local college. In this chapter, I’ll explain why you should blog, the types of blogs you could potentially have, and—the best part—how to get it all started.
A truncation of the term Web log, a blog is an interactive Web site that delivers regular content to its readers. Whether it’s run by one person or multiple people, a blog is essentially a dynamic and ever-changing Web site that grows with every entry, or “post,” that’s created. Blogs are typically formatted like a newsfeed: the newest content appears at the top of the site, with the older posts descending below in reverse chronological order. The word blog has been adapted in other ways. It is used not only to describe a type of site, but also the people who contribute to it (“Holy smokes—there’s that fashion blogger I love”), the world pertaining to it (“I’m reading this awesome book that’s giving me a crash course on the blogosphere”), and the process of doing it (“I’ll be there in a minute; I’m blogging right now”).
Blogging gives you a way to continually grab readers’ attention with new posts and fresh doses of information.
Blogging gives you a way to continually grab readers’ attention with new posts and fresh doses of information. Unlike a book or print magazine, which gives consumers information in a single serving, a blog offers readers ongoing free content. They can read your posts whenever they want. Thanks to how quickly material can be posted, blogs often publish breaking news before traditional print and television media. Fashion blogs can post a designer’s new fall collection as soon as photos are released, whereas a magazine will need to wait until the next issue goes to print. Many news and celebrity gossip stories show up on blogs before they are filmed and broadcast on live TV.
In an increasingly wired society, more and more of the mainstream population are browsing the Internet every day and spending at least part of that time reading blogs. What does that mean for you? It means that your possible audience is pretty big—including the billions of people in the world who currently use the Internet.
With literally hundreds of millions of public blogs in existence, you may be asking yourself, “Why should I add one more?” Because you have something unique to say, too! Someone out there is interested in your home renovation project because they’re also working on their home, or is so touched by the crafts you’re making to raise funds for your favorite charity that it inspires them to help others as well. Below are some of the main reasons to blog and how it can enrich your life, both personally and professionally.
No 1 Passion
Maybe you’re a nut for interior design and find yourself constantly rearranging your living room furniture. Or you love planning parties and are always looking for new ways to wow the guests at your next bash. Whatever your hobby or passion, blogging offers you a place to record your finds and ideas and share them with future Martha Stewarts and Candice Olsons.
No 2 Community
Whether you’re launching a new bakery or have just become a new mom, blogging can capture the attention of the community of people who share your interests, can offer you feedback, and become the friends you never knew you could have. Readers may also find your life story encouraging and inspiring as they go through the same joys or challenges in their own lives.
No 3 Marketing
Online marketing is essential for every business today, and blogging is one of the best ways to give current and potential customers a peek into what makes your business tick. Not only will customers love giving suggestions regarding your bookstore’s next author of the month, but they tend to be more loyal when they feel like they’re getting access to the brain behind the business.
Wedding photographer, carpenter, Pilates instructor—whatever your skills may be, if you blog to showcase your best work, it’s likely that more clients will come your way. Remember, any reader is a potential client or customer!
No 5 Income
While success may not come overnight, blogging has the potential to be a moneymaking venture. There are bloggers, including the ones profiled in this book, who make part or all of their income through their blog. With lots of hard work, patience, a unique point of view, and a go-getter attitude, you could be one of them, too. But be warned: profit should not be your main motivation for blogging. Your love for a particular topic and passion for sharing it with others will naturally produce a more interesting site. And that will, in turn, offer the potential for it to be a sustainable venture on its own.
MADE BY JOEL
PORTLAND, OR
A PAINTER AND MUSICIAN, Joel Henriques was waiting tables and bartending at Portland restaurants to supplement his and his wife’s income. When their twins (a boy and girl) were born, he quit his restaurant duties and found he had less time to pursue his musical and artistic hobbies once he transitioned into full-time dad mode. Yet he became increasingly fascinated with watching his kids play. Despite the fancy wooden teething rings and toys that he and his wife had purchased, the babies were surprisingly drawn to their drool bibs. Their love of the texture and material in these simple objects inspired Joel to start making his own toys for them. These toys, including modern stuffed animals and a wooden elephant puzzle, sparked the interest of his art buyers and family members, so he began a blog, Made by Joel, to keep track of his creations. Made by Joel includes craft projects that parents, educators, and children can make, encouraging creativity and play and inspiring families to spend more quality time together. Joel has since collaborated with Disney, published a book based on his blog, and entered into a toy licensing partnership.
Who reads your blog, and why do you think they enjoy it?I have a lot of parents, caregivers, teachers, and libraries that want to find something fun to do with their kids or the kids they teach. My readers are worldwide, from parents in the United States to preschool teachers in France. People love that the projects are modern and kid-friendly yet very easy for an adult without any craft skills to do with the children.
Another type of reader I didn’t expect, but am thrilled to have, includes charity organizations, which ask if they can use my stuffed toy patterns to make toys and donate to children in need. Also, I always grant permission to use our projects as a learning aid. I want to make it easy for people or schools to find simple ways to enrich their children’s art education. I’m able to provide a lot of free resources—making it easier for people to find creative projects, thereby filling the need for art that isn’t supported in all schools. I have such a loyal following because of this, and I think people see that I’m not in it just for the money, but that I truly love helping kids foster their creativity.
What types of projects do you feature?A lot of the projects I feature are based on things I think my kids will like or things that they thought of and I expanded on. For example, one day they were in the yard playing with flowers, and my son stacked a bunch of azaleas together in such a way that it looked like a flamenco dress. So we put it on a stand and turned it into a doll. I turned that into a project on my blog, which readers loved because they could easily duplicate it with materials they had at home or in their backyard. I always think about how I can make it easy for others to create the projects, too. Once I realized that I could upload higher-resolution pieces, like PDF templates, that opened up a whole other world of sharing, including coloring sheets and play sets. In addition to the projects, I also feature kids’ music, other artists, the charities that are using our kits to help others, and moments from our lives with our kids. In the end, all the content is centered on the art and giving kids projects to play with.
What types of projects or opportunities have come from your blog?My blog got its first big boost in traffic after BloesemKids posted about me. She has this “Mommy Stories” column, and I was the first daddy story featured in it. After that, I started getting more traffic and was approached by companies to work on projects together. I had said in an interview that someday I’d like to make my own book about crafts with simple, modern designs, and a couple of weeks later, I got approached by Shambala Books (distributed by Random House) to see if I’d want to publish my book with them. I wrote the book Made to Play! over the course of six months, and it was released in 2011. I now produce my elephant puzzle and other wooden toys with a company in London that approached me with the idea of licensing my toys under the Made by Joel brand. Finally, I’ve created a bunch of craft projects for various magazines in Europe, for Cheerios, and for Disney’s FamilyFun magazine and have started a company to produce some of my own toys. I also got to fly to New York to be a guest on The Martha Stewart Show, which was an amazing experience.
Do you use any other social media tools to interact with your readers?Yes, I have a lot of community interaction and feedback on my Facebook fan page. I think of the Web site as the “glossy magazine” and Facebook as a more personal part of the site. There’s quite an active community there. I ask questions like “What do your kids like to play with in the backyard?” and I learn a lot from readers’ suggestions. Not only are they giving me great ideas for other activities with kids, but they are also giving me feedback on the projects I provide and how they’ve changed them to suit their needs. It’s like having a virtual playdate!
Do you have any concerns about featuring your kids on your blog?Everyone in my family is really into art and really excited about the growth of the blog. My wife and I never had any concerns about featuring our kids, but we’ll have certain limitations, like we don’t use their names very often, or we don’t put them in some of the YouTube videos I’ll make. We do what feels comfortable.
How has your role as a daddy blogger helped encourage other dads to play a more active part in their children’s learning and play?I get a lot of e-mails from other dads who are happy to have found my site and enjoy the types of projects I provide. But most of my e-mails are from moms, who tell me about the projects their husbands did and how they are using my ideas to play with their kids more. Even if the projects aren’t things they’ve done before, they are easy to do. Also, the projects I devise are a bit on the masculine side for the crafting world, in that they might require parents to break out their tool kit or use wire or wood, which are materials that dads usually like. It’s fun to hear how everyone in the family bonds over the creation of these toys and projects. It’s really fun to have a job that involves my kids and my family. I feel really lucky to be doing this as my job.
You’ve got the itch to start a blog, so now it’s time to figure out where yours will find its home in the blogosphere. There is no wrong way to go about it, but it helps to start with a certain focus on what you’ll be sharing with the world. What are your interests and passions, and what topics seem like the most fun for you to share with others? What’s something you’ve always been interested in but haven’t had the chance to tackle yet? Is there a topic you love but have a hard time finding content about online? Blogs can be just one kind or incorporate different types, here’s a look at five main variations of blogs you could establish.
Maybe you’ve just changed jobs, had a new baby, or are embarking on a year-long trip around the world. A personal blog can highlight whatever aspect of your life you choose to share with others. You could document a big life change or focus on the joys of the everyday as a way to keep friends and family, near and far, abreast of personal happenings. Whatever your reason for starting one, a personal blog can be a great way to record your life’s journey with words and photos. It can be so rewarding to look back on your growing baby bump or the miles you logged training for a marathon and see how much you’ve changed or accomplished since you started. While you may hesitate at the idea of allowing just anyone to get a glimpse into your personal life, many find that the community of support and interaction they build with others makes it very worthwhile. If it makes you more at ease, you can always password-protect your blog in the beginning, until you feel more comfortable letting it be a public place for all to see.
Whatever your reason for starting one, a personal blog can be a great way to record your life’s journey with words and photos.
A topical blog showcases your interests, passions, and hobbies. And keep in mind that you don’t have to choose just one topic. If you’re interested in both gardening and cooking, you could have a blog that chronicles both interests independently, but also consider creating posts that merge them together. For example, you could post a recipe with images of a dish prepared with veggies picked straight from your backyard garden. A blog that focuses on your passions is likely to attract readers who have similar interests and hobbies, and help you connect with others as well. Many times we say we’ll embark on a new hobby or make time for a new creative outlet that we’ve always dreamed of diving into, but then other parts of our lives take over and those aspirations get put on the back burner. A blog gives you a perfect excuse to not only immerse yourself in this always-talked-about pursuit, but pushes you to stay on top of it once you’re giving updates for anyone to read. It makes you accountable and encourages you to keep those ideas flowing once readers look forward to reading your posts and inspirations.
Let’s say you’re a budding watercolor artist or a hairstylist. A blog can serve as an up-to-the-minute portfolio of your recent personal and professional work. Maybe you’ve been working on a drawing a day, or you recently helped style coifs for a catalog shoot. Even if you’re an emerging artist who hasn’t found your specific style yet, a blog can serve as a virtual sketchbook, allowing you to practice your photography or mixed-media sculptures and post them for others to see and offer feedback. Keeping a blog that showcases your work not only helps you to connect with other talented folks in your field, but also can be a great marketing tool to reach potential customers and clients.
These days, some of the most successful businesses are those that know how to interact with their customers on a more personal level. Especially since so many companies exist virtually these days, a blog can help a business, big or small, interact with customers from all over the world. A stay-at-home mom from Indiana can give her Etsy store customers in other cities shop updates and a glimpse into her process for making organic soaps. For the same reasons that documentary TV shows or movies pull you in, consumers love having a sense of involvement or getting a behind-the-scenes picture of their favorite personalities and brands. Maybe you’re getting ready to open the doors to the flower shop of your dreams, or you’ve been running your family’s thirty-year-old furniture business, and it needs a fresh boost.
If you have friends or colleagues who share similar interests, hobbies, or skills, why not join forces and create something together? You and a long-distance friend can track your foodie adventures in two different cities, or you and some fellow alumni can collaborate on a blog that tracks your post-graduate paths. In a collaborative blog, two or more people contribute to the content of a site. It’s a great way to get different perspectives on a topic and offer more content than you could otherwise create on your own—this is ideal if the thought of maintaining a blog seems daunting. Just keep in mind that the responsibilities here should also be shared. It helps to plan ahead of time who will post on what days and how often, as well as decide whose role it will be to review comments or respond to reader e-mails.
While these are the main types of blogs, you don’t have to choose just one. A good thing about blogging is that it’s an ever-changing format that can evolve with you as you grow. For example, you can decide as you go to blend a bit of your personal life with details on your craft ideas and projects. Many blogs these days include a combination of things—like one’s talent and personal life—so as long as your point of view stays consistent, readers often enjoy the mix.
Blogs can range from the super-basic to the complex, but at the heart of every blog are certain universal functions and features. The chapters to come will delve into these topics in more detail, but to get you up to speed on the lingo, here’s a look at the most common elements of a blog.
URL (uniform resource locator). The specific address on the Internet that readers will type to find your daily musings.
Banner. Like the cover of a magazine, your banner is the first thing readers will see when visiting your blog. A well-considered header is a blog must. Be sure it grabs a reader’s attention and includes your blog’s name as well as some graphics or imagery that hint at your blog’s content. If you’re going to spend any money at all on your blog, this might be the place to do it.
Title. Short and sweet, witty, poignant, or funny, the title of a post gives readers an introduction to what they’ll be seeing or reading in your blog.
Post. The meat of your site will be the entries, or posts, you generate, preferably on a regular basis. This is where you’ll tell a story through images, text, video, or a combination of these elements.
Post Date. This tells a reader the date and time of a post as a reference for when the information was posted.
Permalink. This is the unique URL of a blog post. This address is helpful when you want to link back to an old post that’s no longer on your front page, or if other bloggers want to reference one of your posts.
Hyperlink. Usually appearing in a different color or as underlined text, a hyperlink indicates to readers that the text can be clicked on and will take them to another Web page. You’ll use hyperlinks when you want to credit an image source, tell readers where to buy something you blogged about, link to a post that you love on another blog, or reference a past post in your own archive.
Comments. Comments on your blog let you interact with your readers and give you insight into which content your readers enjoy the most, or least.
Trackback. A trackback shows you when another blogger loves your content enough to link to your post on his or her blog. So if you enable trackbacks, your blog will list all the other places where one of your posts is being reposted or mentioned.
Categories. Like file folders, categories allow you to file a post in a particular section in case readers want to see every post related to a topic you cover. As you generate new posts, you can place each into a category (e.g., “Things for My Home” or “Kitchen Tools”).
Tags. Tags serve as complements to categories and refine them further. In addition to placing a post in a general category, you can tag it using specific keywords. For example, if you have a category about interiors, you can tag a post with the keywords bedroom or wallpaper to more clearly define the various topics in that post. Or if you have a chocolate category on your blog, tags may include truffles, cupcakes, or frosting to narrow the type of chocolate even further.
Archives. The archives are a log of all your posts and are usually organized by month, listed from the current month backward.
RSS Feed. RSS, or really simple syndication, allows readers to subscribe to all the blogs they like and view them in one place without having to visit each site independently or directly. Many Web browsers offer a way to subscribe to blog feeds, or you can provide a link to your site’s RSS so that readers can subscribe to your feed. Depending on your reader’s subscription method, your blog feed may show up in their Internet browser, e-mail inbox, or a specified reader account, like Google Reader.
Blogroll. Usually placed in the side column of your blog, a blogroll is a list of the blogs that you enjoy and recommend, allowing you to show support for other bloggers.
Widgets. A widget is an application that can be installed in your blog to enhance it, like a search box field or a box that shows your Twitter feed. Widgets should be installed only if they are helpful to your site or relevant to your content, as they take up space and increase load time.
Sponsor Ads. When your readership is large enough to be enticing to potential advertisers, you may choose to offer sponsor ads. Usually consisting of still jpegs or animated gifs, these ads can be in a range of sizes and can appear either in your side column, in between posts, or at the header or footer of your blog.
COLOR COLLECTIVE
PORTLAND, OR
ONE DAY, while designing textile patterns for a client, freelance graphic designer Lauren Willhite found herself unmotivated and uninspired. She needed to come up with interesting color combinations for the project but could not find reliable color resources online. So she started her blog, Color Collective, in 2010 as an inspirational tool for herself, hoping that other designers would find the blog useful as well. Along with posting various images from the Internet that inspire her, Lauren pulls five colors from each image and joins them together as swatches to show the color palette. Now, creatives of all kinds—even design heavyweights like handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff and J.Crew creative director Jenna Lyons—use her blog for color inspiration when dreaming up new projects and collections.
What types of images do you post and pull color inspiration from?I pull any image that inspires me, including ones based on art and design, interiors, and fashion images. I studied photography in high school before majoring in graphic design in college, so it’s important to me that all of the images are beautifully photographed.
How do readers use your color combinations for their work or as inspiration?Many quilters and knitters have e-mailed me, saying that they print out my posts and take them to the fabric or yarn store when picking out their materials. I have also received e-mails from brides-to-be who are picking out wedding colors. Interior designers, surface designers, graphic designers, and clothing designers have expressed appreciation for Color Collective, as they use the palettes in their own design work. I am humbled to have been told by Rebecca Minkoff and Jenna Lyons personally that they use my blog for color inspiration! One benefit of having a color blog is that it is not confined to one specific area—color palettes are used in so many different fields. I also started a Color Collective Flickr group so that people could show their own creations that were inspired by my posts.
As a newbie, how did you become more active in the blog community?I sent out personalized e-mails to my favorite bloggers to let them know about my blog in case they had any interest in checking it out. I also left a lot of comments on other people’s blogs hoping that people would track back to mine. Becoming an intern for Chelsea Fuss’s blog Frolic! was extremely helpful, too. I started interning with Chelsea in March 2010, just a few months after starting Color Collective. I helped her out in many areas, from researching and coming up with new blog posts to prop shopping and lending an extra hand styling photo shoots. In return, Chelsea was willing to meet with me weekly to discuss and answer any questions I had about blogging. Chelsea got me started on Twitter and Facebook and gave me tips on how to broaden my circle of blogging friends and join other social networks. I would have had no idea about how to start asking for sponsors without Chelsea’s help! I also noticed that my eye for curating images online became stronger after the three-month internship. Chelsea has a beautiful sense of style, and I found that I became more selective about what I posted on my own blog.
When did you start getting sponsors, and how did you go about starting your ad program?I started my sponsor program about seven months after I began the blog. At the time I was getting around 600 visitors per day. I created a sponsor information sheet that has my stats, press, and rates, and just tried to spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, and, of course, the blog itself. I used to wait for people to approach me about becoming a sponsor, but every now and then when I see a shop or blog that I think would be a great fit for Color Collective, I will send them an e-mail with my sponsor information sheet.
Have any special opportunities come from starting your blog?Jen Ford, fashion news director at Lucky magazine, sent me an e-mail about eight months after I started Color Collective. She said that the Lucky office was impressed with my blog, and after an office vote, they wanted to feature my idea in the magazine! In Lucky’s February 2011 issue, Color Collective was mentioned in the Editor’s Notes. Then, in the following four issues (March through June), I chose a piece of artwork and pulled a color palette made up of five colors from each image. The Lucky team would then find a shoppable outfit to match the style and colors of the artwork. I worked together with the editors to come up with a paragraph to complete each page. In February 2011, I was honored to join the Lucky FABB [Fashion and Beauty Blogger] Conference in New York City. I had the chance to meet fellow fashion and beauty bloggers, and I learned so much about social networking and blogging from speakers such as Rich Tong, Tumblr’s fashion director; Tory Burch, a fashion designer; and Joan Rivers, the comedian.
What types of collaborations have you had with other blogs?Starting Color Collective opened up opportunities to collaborate with other bloggers. Design*Sponge has always been a favorite, so I was delighted when Grace Bonney asked me to do a week of guest posts in June 2010. For the posts, I found images of interiors that inspired me and pulled color palettes accompanied by paint names and Pantone numbers. After the series, Grace asked me to become a regular contributor with my own weekly column. The column is called “Make It Yours”: I pick out my favorite, colorful interiors from her “Sneak Peek” archives, pull color palettes from two different rooms, find paint names and Pantone numbers to match the colors, and then create a collage of five or six products that have a similar style to the rooms.
I also contribute to another of my daily reads, Design for Mankind, as a weekly contributor. The column is called “Color Mankind”: I pick an image that fits the Design for Mankind aesthetic and create a color palette to go with the image. I feel very lucky to have a chance to work with these bloggers I admire.