New Year: New Me!

by | Dec 31, 2010 | FBFF | 10 comments

Photo Credit: JT

1. What’s the one thing you vow to learn or do in 2011 to improve your blog?

I plan to delve more into the technological lingo since I am now hosting my own WordPress site. This has been a real accomplishment for me. Even though I consider myself tech-savvy, I am so happy that with God’s help, I was able to get my site up and running. I plan to do a future post because my path was from Blogger to WordPress.com, and then to self-hosted WordPress site. So it was a journey this year.

2. What did you learn about blogging in 2010 that you plan to put into practice next year?

I began my blog on Blogger (BlogSpot) in the summer of 2009. At that time, I knew that I wanted a blog but I had no idea what I was doing. I spent the first few months researching web resources to see what I could learn. In 2010, I expanded my blogging-presence by joining several communities: FBFF, BlogFrog, SITS, and Lady Bloggers Society to name a few. Once I joined these communities, I immediately realized that blogging was not just about writing a post. Instead, it also meant that I had to consider its design, how to make connections, determining comment preferences, and so many other things that I had never knew.

I learned that I could broaden my horizons and reach for the stars. By reading Vahni’s blog Grit and Glamour, she showed me that WordPress was such a better platform than Blogger and that it really is not that hard to transfer over to a self-hosted blog. It took me some time to get my feet wet; but I eventually jumped in the water.

Beautifully Invisible with her Blogger to WordPress tutorial helped me a lot even though my path of steps was a little different because I was moving from WordPress.com to a WordPress self hosted instead of Blogger to WordPress. Her Blogger to WordPress tutorial gave me some direction and she made it look so easy. I will be writing a post relating my experience when going from WordPress.com to WordPress.org .

3. Do you have any high-level goals for your blog in the coming year? Monetization? More comments? More connections with other bloggers? A new template?
I would love to comment more and visit more blogs in the coming year. I keep remembering the one reason why I started blogging in the first place is because I enjoy it and I love discussing fashion and beauty topics.

The hair community  (which I am still a part of) comments arena is quite different then the fashion blogging arena. If someone in the hair community said, “Cute hairstyle,” no one would assume that it is spam or that the commenter really didn’t read the content. And by being part of the hair community, you may reply to ten or more people and never be thought of as someone trying to market your blog. So this was a change for me. Writing and commenting on other blogger’s blog go hand in hand. The difference with the hair community is that you are part of a global community so very few will have a blog and the blog will be in  someone elses site and you need a password to get in, like a Ning site. A Ning site is a free community website where there will be a main administrator and people can write blog post within the site. Your community can be about whatever you want it to be.  The administrator has total control and usually has the main blog but community members can write blog posts which the one site I am a part of have to be approved before published in the community.

Another goal of mine is I would love to do more guest posts on other blogs.  I swapped post for the first time this year (twice) and it was a great learning experience because I was able to guest write.  So much fun so I would love to do it again.

I would also like to add a weekly post called “Handbag of the Week!” I consider myself a handbag collector and love all kinds of bags. This feature would spotlight a handbag from my closet or one that I may have seen at a boutique, a vintage shop or at an online store.

I may add some Shop-Style advertisements but it depends if my blog will look to busy. Other then that I may include my crafty headbands for purchase.

4. If you could collaborate with one other blogger within your sphere of influence in 2011, who would you like to collaborate with, and what would you like to collaborate on?
I have met so many fascinating bloggers that I can not name only one that I would like to collaborate with at this time. I think each blogger that I have come in contact with in one way or another has been a good influence on me and I am so grateful for that.

I would love to collaborate and hopefully the bloggers would collaborate back.  I have to remember that not to sound cliche that fashion is my passion and I am doing this because it’s in my blood. This is not about a popularity contest and it never has been.

5. What do you plan to do to support other bloggers next year?
I plan to comment more on blogs, connect more.  This is a goal for me that I would like to read as many blogs as I can and comment on at least five or more blogger’s blogs and give good comments. I plan to set up a better schedule next year for writing, posting, replying to comments and reading blogs and giving comments.

I can’t overlook the small or big comments because the comments that relate to my posts are all good.  Now if a blogger says “cute dress” and I had on pants, well that’s obvious. However that wouldn’t stop me from responding to you.

2010 was a blast and I have learned so much and 2011 will be even better.

Happy New Year Everyone!