Blogging Overwhelm...

Blogging, and social media for that matter, are overwhelming. I want to be sharing my '2016 blogging goals' like many other bloggers, but this isn't something I feel like I'm able to get my head around right now.

Doubt slips very easily into my mind... What even is my niche? Does anyone even read this? Why am I doing this? How am I supposed to be active on all these social media whilst simultaneously being a Mum and finishing my degree? WHY DON'T I HAVE A SODDING INSTAGRAM THEME?!

Part of my wants to take a back-seat, create good content and focus on the bigger things, and part of me wants to go in heads first, strategise and post, post, post. Finding the time for either right now is difficult.

I'm going to keep up with my One Hour Blog Challenge for now. But hey, 2016. I'm still here.

I'm working on it.

I have all the enthusiasm, but not much focus. Just give it time....

(P.S. I did post about my 2016 New Years Resolutions though... Give them a read here)

xxx

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One Hour A Day Challenge

I'm setting myself a little challenge. Over the past few weeks I've let my degree take up a lot of my time and I've been letting Electric Suede fall behind, because I feel like my time is better spent studying. This might not seem like a problem, it's better than me putting all my time into my blog and none into my degree! But it's something that has been niggly away at me, because I really do want to make more time for my blog.

What put the wheels in motion, however, was when I was offered a part time job. I would make barely any money after nursery fees but was still considering losing an extra 16 hrs a week to a job, and if I could afford to lose that much time away from my studies it might as well be on something I love.

So I've decided that I will attempt to dedicate just 1 hour a day to Electric Suede. Whether that's writing a post, replying to comments, scheduling posts, taking photographs or whatever other admin-y tasks come along with it. This way I will hopefully not fall behind too far, and hey if I want to carry on after an hour, then that's fine too!

I'll check in soon to let you know how I get on, and if you have any tips for blog time management then PLEASE let me know! I really suck sometimes.

xxx

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The Blogger Interview Tag

I was tagged by Leanne from A Slice Of My Life Wales to do 'The Blogger Interview Tag' - check out her answers here. 

How did you get into blogging?

I read a lot of beauty bloggers, watched a lot of YouTubers and felt I wanted to have my input there too! I had my blog for a while before I set up twitters, Instagram etc. and really joined the 'community' of the blogging world. My blog also sat there unused for a while when I was pregnant...Oops! 

What advice would you give to a blogger just starting out?

If you want to get really serious about blogging, consider buying your domain early on. They're relatively cheap and your blogs rankings will increase more quickly this way. Also, get yourself out there on social media as you will find this will probably be your biggest source of traffic!

How has your blog changed since you started writing it?

It used to be a beauty blog. Then a mummy / beauty blog. Now I would class myself as a beauty and lifestyle blog (and I would include 'being a Mum' as a pretty big part of my lifestyle!). I've had three names and never really felt happy until now. I've gone through numerous themes too.

What would be your dream campaign?

Umm... Maybe an all expenses paid trip around Scandinavia blogging about my travels. Anyone want to offer me one of those?

What advice would you give to PR’s wanting to approach you for a campaign?

Scroll through a few pages of my blog and see what I write about... I will only accept campaigns which are a good fit to my blog!

Do you have a plan for you blog?

Absolutely not. I probably should. At the moment I post as and when I can. That's probably a New Years Resolution in the making... 

What do you think about rankings?

I try not to worry about them too much. In the blogging world everyone starts at 0. Rankings grow with time and should grow organically. There's nothing wrong with having low rankings, if any at all! I don't blog just to work with PR's, so it doesn't really matter. 

Thanks for tagging me Leanne! I tag Dina, Taylor, Melissa, Jess, Suprina, Freya and Shumaila 

xxx

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I'm So Bored Of Marble.

I've been thinking a lot about my blog photography recently, and how I should be styling it. Whether I should have a consistent theme, whether I need to focus so much on editing, whether I need to look like other beauty blogs...

If you are a beauty blogger, or read a lot of beauty blogs (probably true if you've found your way here) then you will be familiar with the standard benchmarks of photography which makes photos "fit" for a beauty blog.

I for one are subject to attempting to 'conform' to the beauty blogger standards of photography, and feel somewhat disheartened when, ultimately, my photos don't look as good.

These photos commonly include;

• Flatlay photography on white (and I mean WHITE) backgrounds which are almost unachievable for the non photography-savvy. 
• An abundance of fresh flowers lingering in backgrounds... or a few Diptyque candles... or something from Chanel - for that extra touch of classiness. 
• Crisp white bed linen, copper accents and hardback copies of various coffee table reads... 

And more recently

• White marble surfaces. Or more likely 'marble effect' surfaces. We aren't all millionaires... 

Don't get me wrong, all of these provide beautiful backdrops for product photography. I'm a little envious that I can't find backdrops so beautiful for my own photos. I just feel in an internet-sphere which is becoming increasingly filled with bloggers, Instagrammers and amateur photographers these beautiful photos are losing their originality. 

I, too, am partial to a marble background for my Instagrams...

 I like marble. I think marble is pretty. I would like to have marble things in my house. Yes, marble makes a nice photo background. I think I'm focusing on marble too much. Now marble sounds weird in my head. Ramble, ramble, ramble...

The point I'm trying to make in the most incoherent blog post ever written, is

Do we all need to look the same?

And by 'we' I mean the beauty blogging community, and by 'all' I mean our blog photography. How can we have our own style, and be recognisable if we all look the same? 

Photography is a minefield to me. I'll never be happy with the photos I take and find it an eternal struggle to set up shots - if anyone wants to buy me a big white loft in NYC or something for photography purposes that would be cool. I'm trying to strive, from now on, for originality and purposefulness in my photos though. At the end of the day, if I'm writing about a lipstick you probably just want high quality shots of the lipstick and it doesn't matter whether that photo was taken in a 5* hotel or in my bedroom. 

I'd love to know what you think is getting over-used in the beauty blogging world... Let me know below! 

xxx

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