There’s always room for something new and exciting in the blogosphere, so what will you add to the dialogue? The possibilities are endless. That itch to start something new or share your perspective is often the driving force behind any blogger’s place on the Web. But how do you make your blog sound, feel, and look like an extension of yourself? Many successful bloggers find that developing a vision and voice that they can stay true to and that makes them stand out keeps their readers coming back for more. In this chapter, I’ll help you find your blog’s personality, come up with a distinctive name, hone your writing style, and figure out just how to produce content for your blog that’s uniquely you.
When readers come to your blog, they should immediately get a sense of your personality and niche. Do you want something quirky, funny, poetic, or serious? Even if you have no intention of ever earning income off of this site (or especially if you plan to), from Day One you’ll want to give some thought to what will make your blog special.
The motivation for starting your blog may stem from admiring blogs that you can’t get enough of. Maybe you think, “Oh, I’d love to have a site just like theirs!” or “That’s the kind of thing I want to blog about!” It’s great to look at other blogs you enjoy for inspiration, but remember that you need to bring your own unique spin to your blog. When figuring out what the content of your site should be and how you could convey information in your own unique way, it’s helpful to ask yourself the following questions:
It’s great to look at other blogs you enjoy for inspiration, but remember that you need to bring your own unique spin to your blog.
Why are you blogging? Is it a hobby or personal outlet? A marketing tool for your business? Something you see as a potential career? Knowing the purpose of your blog will help you to steer your tone and focus toward your goal—whether it’s connecting with other artisanal cheese enthusiasts, reaching customers who love your handmade quilts, or interacting with other stay-at-home moms.
Who is your target audience? Are they mostly female or male? What age range do they fall into? Are they city dwellers or country folks? Do they live abroad? Your audience may end up being different from who you imagine them to be now, but it’s a good idea to target the type of person who would be interested in the topics you’re planning to cover. If you’re a typographer and want to reach others in the graphic design community (or potential clients) with your found-type blog, your images and tone should be very visual and graphic, and you should post a variety of images to inspire others with the typography that you both create and find.
What blogs have content similar to yours? After you come up with some ideas about what you’ll blog about, it’s helpful to check to see what blogs out there already have similar content. That way you can avoid an over-saturated category or see what’s missing from the existing perspectives to make sure that yours fills a void or offers a new take on your subject. For example, among the many female-focused wedding blogs out there, the Well Groomed blog is a place where men’s style meets matrimony to give grooms a site to seek ideas for groomsmen gifts as well as outfits for their big day.
Why should someone read your blog? What makes it unique? The best blogs are ones that add their own unique twist or style to a topic. What ideas do you have that will make yours different? Do you end every post with a haiku, or are all your images purposely black-and-white? A street-style blog may not be totally new these days, but if you include stylish locals seen with their adorable (and equally fashionable) pooches, it just may be a fun spin on street style that’s unique to you and your love of animals and fashion trends.
Regardless of whether your blog chronicles what you ate for breakfast, the newest indie filmmaker, or your favorite interiors, you must establish a consistent look and tone throughout the blog that makes it stylistically feel like you—the font and type styles used, colorways, and types of imagery. Erica Domesek’s chic craft blog, P.S. – I Made This…, gives first-time readers a clue to its crafty yet glam nature with its handwritten header and step-by-step layouts that look like pages pulled from an inspirational sketchbook. To help figure out the look of your blog, start by collecting images and text from magazines and the Internet that inspire you, and ties to the content you plan to post. Put all of these elements together in a “mood board” by taping them on a wall or pinning them to a bulletin board. When you take a step back and look at the collection of references you’ve put together, you’ll start to see what your aesthetic really is. You may even notice some outliers that don’t fit with the dominant style you’ve pulled together. This is when you’ll learn to start editing your vision to make it more focused. All of these components brought together will create a visual guide for you to take your cue from as you move forward with your blog’s aesthetic.
… you must establish a consistent look and tone throughout the blog that makes it stylistically feel like you …
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PUBLIC SCHOOL
AUSTIN, TX
WHEN YOU ENVISION A GROUP of guys gathered together under one roof, a college frat house might come to mind. In contrast, the guys of Public School (Casey Dunn, Cody Haltom, Jay B Sauceda, Justin Cox, Matthew Genitempo, Shaun Lind, and Will Bryant) are a collective of photographers, illustrators, and designers who work together in one space and run one pretty cool blog. Before the collective, they were working individually at home or bouncing around coffee shops. Through their mutual friendships, the group manifested with a joint vision to create great work both individually and collaboratively under the Public School brand. They all contribute to the Public School blog, which serves to highlight their work, while sharing things they find interesting in art, design, science, technology, or music. Through their joint work and blog, these non-frat boys show how they believe in the value of working together to create something stronger and more diverse than they otherwise could separately on their own.
What made you decide to start a collaborative blog?Cody and I had kicked around the idea of starting a blog because we noticed a lot of design- and art-oriented Web sites were showing other people’s work, not just their own. We found that when reading blogs, people respond to your taste in addition to the work you can produce. We wanted people to come to our site because they like our content, and then maybe they’d learn about our own work, too. So we decided collectively to start our group blog, and created the name, Public School, with the idea of sharing lots of different ideas, and then named our shared studio and collective space after it.
How did you decide on the type of content for the blog?When we started it in 2008, everyone had varying tastes based on what their professions were. I tend to read more tech, science, furniture, and lifestyle blogs, whereas Cody, in comparison, is more into pop culture and design. I’m not great at finding highbrow art, whereas Will is really good at that. Initially, we didn’t blog as much because we were trying to be solely focused on art and design topics and found that it was hard to blog only on those topics. Then we decided to open it up to a more lifestyle-based blog with a heavy art and design focus, because it made it easier for all seven of us to contribute.
How do you decide how often to post, and what gets posted? Is there a set schedule or plan?At this point, we’ve figured out what our varying tastes are and what types of things each of us will post. We don’t edit each other, because our readership is into the different things that each of us like. We like that it’s a mix of things from all of us. It’s cool for me to read our blog, too, since I’m interested to see what will be blogged about by the other guys, and I don’t always know what’s going to show up.
As for a schedule, we’ve grown into the habit of blogging less in the summer because traffic is usually lower due to readers being on vacation more. But in the fall or spring, we’ll post about four or five times a day. We don’t require everyone to post a certain amount, because it’s easier for some of us to blog, and there are some who are more interested in it. Will and I try and make it a point to post once or twice a day; we’re the most consistent. Because we’re all blogging while also trying to do our client work, everyone picks up the slack when one person is busy and can’t blog as much during that time.
What’s the best part of having a collaborative blog?I think it serves the purpose that we intended in that it’s gotten our name out there more than we could have done individually. When you work for yourself, you have to be all over the place all at once to get your work noticed. Our work propagates pretty easily and gets spread around through our blog. It drives me to create more work, and I look forward to posting when I know our readers will be interested in it. The whole idea of Public School was that it wasn’t going to be about one type of work or attract one type of reader or client. I like that we attract a variety of aesthetics and readers through our varied members’ interests.
How has your blog helped to increase awareness about the creative community in Austin?Even though the Austin scene is still relatively small compared to bigger cities in the country, our blog has served to show that there are world-class photographers, illustrators, and all kinds of artists here. We’re all proud to be living here and glad that we don’t have to live in a major West Coast or East Coast city to do what we do. That’s the beauty of the Internet—the ability to create your world and show your work in front of thousands of people and create conversations with people from all over.
PARTNERS IN CRIME
You might be surprised to find that behind many a blogger there’s a significant other or supportive family member in the background, helping to make the blog bigger, better, and more dynamic. You can’t do everything, so if someone near and dear to you has a special skill or talent, why not call upon them to help you out with your newfound hobby? Kirsten Grove seeks her cousin Evan Earwicker’s technical and programming skills to make her popular Simply Grove blog more functional as her site grows. Emily Schuman from Cupcakes and Cashmere would be without a photographer to capture her daily clothing ensembles if it weren’t for her husband, Geoffrey, who’s learned to use a digital SLR to help record his wife’s virtual chronicles. So if your loved one’s got the magic touch with a camera or a technical mind that just doesn’t come naturally to you, see if they’ll contribute their talents to help you build the blog of your dreams.
Like the title of a movie or book, the name of your blog sets the tone of it and should give readers an idea of what they are about to see. Choosing a name for your blog may seem overwhelming at first—and indeed, it’s a crucial step, as you can’t start a blog or reserve a domain name until you find that special moniker. The sooner you come up with a name, the sooner you can start blogging, and that’s where all the fun begins! It can be tempting to start a blog on a whim, but don’t hastily start posting under the first name that occurs to you. A little foresight—and some significant soul searching—will pay off in the end.
While your blog name doesn’t need to clearly spell out your blog’s content, it’s often helpful if the name hints at your topic of choice. The blog Bakerella immediately tells readers that sweet baked goods are sure to be involved, while Lovely Package offers a fun play on words and alludes to the site’s focus on packaging design. If you haven’t settled on a specific topic yet or you want your blog to encompass a few of your different interests, a play on words can be a good way to tell a bit about your blog without getting too literal or serious. Joanna Goddard’s A Cup of Jo hints at her first name while also referencing that, like coffee, people might like to enjoy her site as a morning ritual. And Scanwiches merges two words together to indicate a blog that features cross sections of scanned sandwiches.
While your blog name doesn’t need to clearly spell out your blog’s content, it’s often helpful if the name hints at your topic of choice.
You’ll also want to think about the potential growth of your blog. While you may be really into French cheeses now and want to have a blog name that reflects that love, could you see the potential to eventually expand into taste testing and blogging about other types of French foods? If so, then “The French Market” may be a little more encompassing of future topics than “Ma Vie en Fromage.”
Simple names are great as long as they feel special as well. As much as your blog will certainly be cool, naming it “The Cool Blog” may make it hard to find when readers conduct an Internet search for your site. Think of ways you can make the name more specific, or better yet, turn that generic noun or adjective into a different or non-existent version of a word, like the men’s gadget blog The Awesomer. Also, blog names that have the potential to work themselves into recurring post titles can be fun, too. For example, the blog You Are My Fave includes the words are my fave in all its post titles, like “Rainbow Pops Are My Fave” and “Summer Watercolors Are My Fave.”
When coming up with a blog name that includes uncommon words or word combinations, it helps to do the “friend test.” Show friends the name you’re pondering and see if they can pronounce it and remember how to spell it the next day. The same is true for lengthy names. Plus, nobody wants to type in a twenty-letter-long URL, so keep that in mind when something like “The Girl with the Green Rubber Boots and Yellow Hat” springs to mind as a potential name. Also, when using a social networking tool like Twitter, a drawn-out twitter handle based on your blog name may get in the way of what followers can say to you or about your blog, since Twitter only allows 140 characters for communicating a message. Because “word of mouse” is one of the best ways to grow your readership, an easy-to-remember name can help a reader remember your blog, making it easier for them to spread the word.
Since blog names are viewed as URLs, do one more test and take a look at the name when it’s typed into a Web browser. All of a sudden the lack of spacing may make it much harder to figure out, or it could be read as something else completely. The blog “Fun Dynasty” may be read as “Fundy Nasty” when typed into a browser with no spacing. While that play on words may be part of your shtick, it’s something worth testing out in case it’s not.
Once you’ve settled on a name or have a list of your top five, search for these names on the Internet and make sure they’re not already being used by someone else. Also, check the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Web site for any conflicts (see Resources). Be sure to steer clear of any names that belong to a company to avoid being slapped with a cease-and-desist order down the road and being forced to change your blog’s name and URL after you’ve established a steady following. If the name is already being used by another business, pick something else. The same is true for a name that’s really similar to an existing blog. If “The Crafty Girl” is already taken, making it “The Crafty Girl’s Guide” is still too similar. It would be best to come up with an alternative name that won’t raise any question of who is who. While the blogger may not have officially trademarked their name, it’s better to be safe and avoid any brand confusion or conflict later on.
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
If you’re creating a blog as an extension of your existing company, you’ll want to capitalize on any brand recognition your business already has by keeping your blog name, voice, and look consistent. Sometimes, business owners see their blog as a chance to create something new. Stay consistent with the brand you’ve already built; otherwise a new name or look could alienate your current customers if it isn’t obvious that the blog belongs to you. For example, if you own a gardening shop called “Green Thumb,” the blog can simply be called “Green Thumb,” too, or an offshoot like “Chronicles of the Green Thumb.” Keep the logo and aesthetic similar so that your current and future customers understand that the blog is an extension of your shop and not a brand-new business altogether.
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THE PURL BEE
NEW YORK, NY
A FORMER EDITOR at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and a freelance stylist, Joelle Hoverson had been a longtime knitter over the years. Her side hobby eventually spiraled into a full-on obsession, compelling Joelle to open a knitting shop in her favorite New York neighborhood, SoHo, in 2002. Joelle was later joined at Purl Soho by her two partners, Jennifer Hoverson Jahnke (in 2003) and Page Marchese Norman (in 2008). Purl Soho started as a modest 400-square-foot shop and eventually moved to a larger location, encompassing sewing and fabric supplies in addition to knitting materials. As their shop expanded, the women found they wanted to interact with their online customers more, to offer support and tips on the various projects their clients needed help with. So they started their blog, The Purl Bee, in 2006 to foster a conversation around craft projects and to serve as a virtual community for those who didn’t have physical access to their store. Joelle admits that the blog is one of her favorite parts of the business—she loves the community it’s created and the stories they are able to share through their DIY projects and posts.
Why did you decide to start your blog, The Purl Bee, as an extension of your shop?In 2006, we expanded from our tiny 400 square feet by renting another store down the street to hold fabric. We named it Purl Patchwork. At the time, I had heard about blogs—and had noticed that the whole craft blog world was such a vibrant community—but I wasn’t savvy about them. In 2003, we launched our online store, PurlSoho.com. However, one of the things that frustrated me was that we weren’t going to be able to talk to our customers online the way we do when they come into our physical store. We wanted to be able to offer suggestions, give tips, and help our online customers with their projects. So we thought that a blog would be a great way to talk to them. The Purl Bee has ended up being an incredible force for our company and one of my favorite parts of the business. Now, we post at least twice a week and coordinate one of the posts with our Sunday night newsletter so that we always have a new project up on the blog when the e-mail newsletter goes out.
You create beautiful DIY sewing and craft projects on your blog. How do you come up with the projects you feature?We make projects specifically for the blog. In addition to Page and me, we have a staff of three people at Purl Soho who also work on the blog and have their own columns. We hold weekly meetings to discuss our ideas about what we want to make. Typically everyone has their own area of expertise—one person does knitting and crochet, another person does the sewing, etc. Once we decide that something is a good fit, someone will take on the project. We’re always trying to teach something to our customers. And when we can, we like to inspire them with something we have in the store—like a new tool or a material we just love. On average, it takes about six weeks from the time a concept is presented as an idea in our weekly meeting to the time it’s finished and posted.
How do you weave products from the shop into those projects? Do you find that readers respond more to certain types of projects than others?One of our most popular posts was a really simple flower made from embroidery thread using a flower loom that we were selling. We sold out of those things five times over, to the point where we couldn’t get any more from the vendor. So there will be posts like that—simple, yet that create a lot of interest in a specific product. In contrast, we had a very involved story about binding and quilting. That story generated a lot of traffic because it was all about a very involved technique, but it did not generate a lot of specific sales. We really try to do a mix of both longer, drawn-out projects and some that you can do quickly in a couple of hours.
How has your blog helped grow your shop and customer base?It’s helped our shop grow a lot. The blog does really well in the search engines because there is always new content, and it’s packed full of information. I really believe that word of mouth is the best advertising, and our blog has increased our exposure on a level we could never have achieved with traditional advertising. People come in the store every day who have read the blog and want to buy supplies to make a recently featured project.
As every blogger interviewed in this book will tell you, it’s so important to be true to yourself in the way you write, the images you post, and the type of content you share. Anything that feels forced and doesn’t freely come out of you will make it hard for you to enjoy blogging regularly and to maintain it down the road. That doesn’t mean that you have to share every moment of your life with your readers. Authenticity simply means writing in a voice that comes naturally to you, and posting things that you simply want to share with others—not what you think they want to see. I often receive e-mails from companies asking me to post about their products—sometimes in exchange for compensation. However, I never post about something (paid or not) if I wouldn’t use or buy it myself. Do the same, and the readers who stick with you over time will learn to trust your taste and come to feel that what you blog about is genuine. (For more on sponsored content, see page 147.)
What do you want your blog to sound like? Like a comedic sitcom, a dramatic movie, a sonnet, an arthouse short film, a rock song? Some blogs are purely visual and only need a bit of text to credit the source of an image. But most blogs give readers at least a small dose of prose. Regardless of whether your blog concept involves a daily poem, recipes, narrative paragraphs, or a few short lines, make sure that whatever you write is instinctual and feels authentic to you. If you’re based in France, you may choose to write in French or to write in both French and English so that your blog can reach those readers who aren’t fluent in your native tongue. Your style of writing should reflect your point of view and the way you naturally write, think, and talk. If friends always remark on your sense of sarcasm and your hilarious one-liners, don’t be afraid to bring that humor into your blog, like April Winchell does on her site Regretsy (see page 134). Or if your innate inclination is for witty prose, you could inject that into your posts. For example, Kelley Lilien of Mrs. Lilien uses rhyme to describe her ’50s- and ’60s-inspired lifestyle, making her sound like a glamorous modern-day Dr. Seuss. Whatever your tone, there’s no need to feel locked into one voice right away. You’re still taking your first steps as a blogger, so it’s okay to let your voice evolve as you grow. Your natural tone is most likely what’s running through your head when you’re not even thinking about your blog, so always keep a notebook handy—you never know when a witty post title or a smart string of words will strike.
DEVELOPING A FICTIONAL PERSONA
Being authentic in your blog doesn’t mean that your blog has to showcase exactly the way you live—in fact, some bloggers remain anonymous or write from a fictional persona to show another side of their personality. This can be a fun way to live vicariously through another character or personality that you’ve always wanted to portray. Blogging under the guise of a “hare-ess” socialite bunny, the anonymous writer, blogger, and illustrator of the fashion blog Fifi Lapin stays true to Fifi and all of her whims and idiosyncrasies (even in interviews for magazines like Vogue and Elle) as she posts illustrations of Fifi’s daily couture ensembles and talks about her furry life of luxury.
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ROCKSTAR DIARIES
WASHINGTON, DC
LIFE DOESN’T ALWAYS have to be glamorous. It’s the simple things—like family, friends, and neighborhood jaunts—that are actually the most memorable to Naomi Davis, whose blog, Rockstar Diaries, attracts more than one million page views per month and whose readers love witnessing how she celebrates the everyday. Naomi began her blog in 2007 while studying dance at Juilliard to keep family and friends updated on her life in New York as a dancer and newlywed. She subsequently moved to Washington, D.C., with her husband, Josh, and had their first child, Eleanor, a few years after. Blogging has become a creative outlet for Naomi that lets her show that having a family and being a young urbanite are not mutually exclusive. She documents everyday moments—like her daughter’s giggle or her favorite burger joint—through high-contrast color photos created from a mix of the family’s Polaroid, digital, and toy cameras. Because of Naomi’s honest and charming demeanor (and her vivid photos to match), her daily posts can often generate as many as 200 reader comments, some simply appreciating her as a role model for young families everywhere. Whether musing about her bulldog, Kingsley; pizza feasts with her husband; weekend visits from her family; or the chubby belly of her baby girl, Naomi demonstrates the simple pleasures of life and shows that home is wherever your family is.
Where does the name Rockstar Diaries come from?To be honest, I named it Rockstar Diaries in the beginning just to be silly. If I’d known back in the day that it would stick and gain a bit of a following, I would have named it something different!
What do you share with readers through your blog, and what do you make a conscious decision to leave off your blog?Because my blog started with the intention of having just our friends and family read it, I’ve always blogged in a personal way and focused on my family’s mundane moments: what we love to eat, weekend updates, thoughts on being a mother, and having a bulldog that we adore. It’s about the simple things we love in life that make every day so special. There are definitely things I don’t share. Sometimes readers forget that a blogger has a right to privacy as well. For example, I have chosen not to share my birth story on my blog, and many readers have expressed their disappointment in that. But my birth story is so personal and special to me, my husband, and, most important, my kids, and I’d like it to stay that way.
Did you ever feel pressured to change your blog or get less personal once your readership began to grow?I’ve always enjoyed blogging on a personal level. The growth was very organic and gradual. I started receiving comments from strangers in my first couple of months of blogging, and then other blogs began to link to my site. When I realized there was a bigger audience, I still kept the content consistent, and I never felt drawn to change it. I want the blog to encapsulate a piece of me and my family. I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much if I changed focus to another topic that I’m less passionate about.
Many of your family members make regular appearances on your blog. Did your husband or other relatives have any worries about privacy or putting their lives online for your readers to see?I’ve asked family and friends who appear frequently on our blog if they’re comfortable with it as our readership has grown, and so far no one has had a problem with it. But I’ve made an effort to leave off where family members live or what schools they are attending—only because when they’re stopped by readers on the street or something, it catches them off guard. I don’t mind when people approach us—I actually love meeting readers of my blog—but it’s different with my sisters. I don’t want them to feel weird at all as they go about their daily routines.
Did you have any issues or concerns with privacy, especially after Eleanor was born?My husband and I go back and forth on this issue all the time, weighing the pros and cons of having a public blog. As of now, we are both comfortable with it. But I definitely feel as our kids grow older that this will change. I don’t mind blogging about my life publicly, but as Eleanor grows and her personality forms, I imagine the blogging (photos specifically) of her will become less and less. I want her to be her own little person with her own little personality and not worry that her mother is tweeting and blogging about her every move.
What’s your number one piece of advice to new bloggers?Blog about what you are most interested in. Don’t choose a topic because you think it will do better or reach more people. The content needs to be something that interests you and be unique to you. There are a handful of people who can make a full-time living blogging, and they work really hard to get there. But if you go into it for that reason alone, readers can sense that you’re only in it for the stats or the money.
How has blogging helped you as a mother?I gain so much inspiration from other mothers in the blogging world—it’s such a special community to belong to. I look up to many of the mothers whose blogs I follow, and I think they’ve really impacted the way I want to raise our children. Blogging in general has helped me to keep up with journaling our lives in a sense, and I love that it holds me to documenting our life as a family. It keeps me accountable for writing down little landmarks or always having my camera handy to capture whatever Eleanor will do next. And I enjoy every minute of that.
In addition to having a voice and point of view that expresses your personality, original content is essential for any blog. Because there is so much great information on the Internet, it’s not uncommon to see the same images or stories on multiple blogs. While it’s okay to blog about topics that other bloggers cover, too, you don’t want your blog to consist primarily of things that readers have already seen elsewhere. Otherwise, they won’t feel as compelled to come back to your blog. One of the main ways to stand out is to offer one-of-a-kind content, mixed in frequently. That could mean posting about things you’ve found elsewhere but adding your own talents or aesthetic for an original twist. For example, Lauren Willhite from Color Collective (see page 23) uses her blog to post inspiring photos she’s found online. But she doesn’t stop there. She creates a custom color palette for each photo, thus offering an amazing—and totally unique—resource for color inspiration. Similar to how magazines create their content, you should customize as much of your own subject matter as possible. Ideally you should aim for a 50/50 mix of new and existing material, and if you have a higher percentage of your own stuff, even better. Below are some suggestions for bringing original content to your blog.
Use your own images and videos. Just like the editorials you look forward to in your favorite magazines, you, too, can offer your readers custom-created imagery. Capture your soul food recipes with a clear and sharp photo, update your fashion blog by drawing and scanning in your daily outfits, or record simple moments for your lifestyle blog by shooting your own video. Because you’re the photographer, videographer, or illustrator and the experience is yours, it’s your unique image and content that no one else can duplicate.
Share your life or your work. Sharing parts of your life or work on your blog is something that no one else can replicate, as these experiences or creations are yours alone. By giving readers insight into your creative process or moments from your everyday life, readers are more likely to connect with you on a personal level. Even if the focus of your blog isn’t just on your personal life, consider bringing in aspects of your persona or moments from your life when appropriate.
Invent recurring columns. Once you start blogging, you may come up with an idea for an ongoing column or recurring post topic that you can publish weekly or monthly. Maybe it’s an interview series with your favorite photographers or a monthly trip to the farmers’ market where you document your local finds. Whatever the topic is, in order for it to be a regular feature, it needs to have the potential to be varied enough every week or month while still sticking to the same overall theme or focus. Not only will a regular feature help give you an outline of what to post in upcoming weeks, but readers can also become fans. For example, the “It List” column on SF Girl by Bay features various objects on the wish lists of crafters, stylists, bloggers, and others in the design community. Once you come up with an idea for a regular column, a witty and recognizable title will help reinforce the reoccurring story.
Create your own layouts. While there’s nothing wrong with keeping things streamlined and clean by uploading a simple photo tied to your post’s content, you can make your blog more unique by posting images that bring together found imagery in an original layout. You can achieve this by familiarizing yourself with programs such as Photoshop or PowerPoint. When I feature roundups or montages on my blog, Oh Joy!, I always lay out the images and objects on a white background with graphic numbers tied to each object. Each time, the theme of the items and the title changes, but the overall look remains consistent. By creating a specific set of graphics and a thematic visual summary, it becomes my own take on a group of existing products.
Secure exclusives. As your readership begins to grow and you interact more with readers, you may begin to develop relationships with various companies, such as owners of small artisanal food stores, or perhaps the PR manager of your favorite home décor shop. They may appreciate how you have spread the word about their company, and may want to keep you in the loop regarding new developments or products, or give you an exclusive look at something new that you can share with your readers. Any time you can offer readers something new that no one else has seen yet, you make your site even more special to them.
