Blogger: BelievablyMe (Britt)
Website: Believably ME
Created: November 2011
Niche: Crafting & Creative Blogger
Favorite Way To Stay Organized: Using A Blog Planner
Lanette: How Hard Is It Being A One-Woman Show With Writing, Marketing Your Own Posts, Creating And Updating Your Blog, Etc.?
BelievablyMe: Extremely hard! I work full-time while being involved in a few organizations outside of work, and I am active at my church.
L: How Do You Manage Doing All Of That Plus Still Finding The Time To Blog?
B: While I am still in my blogging prime, I do a few things that have served to work well in managing it all at this level. I have learned to be OK with missing the mark!
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| Craft Blogger BelievablyMe shares some of her organization tips to stay on track blogging all while managing her full-time workload |
As long as I am not missing a deadline as a guest blogger on someone else’s blog or my post being late will make it irrelevant, it doesn’t matter if I don’t post when I was supposed to.
Organization Tips: Planners Are Key
B: I recently started using a planner to schedule when I take photos, write my drafts, and posts. I compare it to my personal planner to make sure it aligns with whatever I am doing in my personal life, this helps me build in cushion to potentially avoid major delays.
This last one may sound a little crazy, but a recent change that has helped me tremendously is being willing to lose sleep! Now I am not talking every night, but some nights I force myself to do SOMETHING for the benefit of my blog. It could be checking for comments, checking one or more social media accounts to like a few posts and/or comment, read one article or email I saved for later when I didn’t have time, etc.
One thing off your list today is one thing off your list tomorrow!
People make time for what they want to do, so I also just replace perhaps an hour of TV with an hour of working on my to-do list for my blog, etc.
L: Aside From Writing On Your Blog, You Also Create YouTube Tutorials, Do You Have Any Tips/Suggestions For Those Looking To Break Into The Industry And Vlog?
B: Yes, don’t do what I did and have a plan! I know they say you should just jump in and do it, but for me, with the content I was creating around crafting, frugal living, and graphic design (a lot right?), I should have created a few videos of each before uploading so that I had enough content for someone to be able to decide if they wanted to subscribe or not.
I took a little break from YouTube, and I am currently coming up with a plan while I wait for my new gooseneck phone holder to arrive tomorrow so I can record more videos! I have a plan this time, lol.
L: How Do You Go About Creating A Post For Your Craft Blog? Take Us Through The Steps Of What It's Like To Get It Published And About How Many Minutes/Hours Does One Post Take You To Do?
B: Since all of my posts are craft related, I always make whatever it is I am posting about first and shoot my photos, edit them, and upload them to my MacBook. If it's a post about a YouTube video, I start with my YouTube Editorial Checklist that I mention below.
The next step is my Editorial Planning Checklist that I created. It outlines when I want to post, the Name/Title of my post, the series it will go in, if applicable, any relevant tags, internal links (i.e. to other posts of mine), or external links (i.e other blogs or my YouTube channel, etc.), any credit that needs to be given to another person/company/blog, what photos I need to remember to add (I forgot to upload one once), and any notes I need to remember.
The checklist is slightly different for YouTube videos since I have to worry about intro/outro, annotations, etc.
Once I get that, I just log onto Blogger and start writing. One thing I learned is to just go in and write without thinking to get it all out of my head, and place the pictures where I think I want them.
Then, I step away usually for a day and come back to read it over and fine tune. I will usually step away one more time, then doing a review before scheduling my post to publish.
That last review depends on how much time I gave myself and if I stayed on schedule.
One post may take me an hour or two depending on the type of post. With crafting, most of my time is spent creating the product and it can be days between coming up with my idea and trial and error in creating it.
Using my checklist and using a certain format for each type, really cuts down on writing time.
L: What Social Media Platform Do You Like Best And Why?
B: Right now it’s Instagram. It recently became my favorite when I had to redo my account due to a fluke and had to figure out how to regain followers. I actually gained 100 followers in a little over a month (created new page July 2nd) and now have 118!
It is my favorite because of two reasons. The first reason: is because the people in my niche, creativity, are so friendly and helpful! There is no competition and everyone helps you and comments as if they have known you for years.
The second reason: is the ease of use and how quickly you can throw something up if you want to. You can be out and just snap a picture or video quickly and upload it, or just get on to like a few posts and comment. From a time perspective, it’s the easiest to use on-the-go or when you have a few minutes to spare.
L: What Are 3 Of Your Favorite Craft Or Frugal Living Blogs?
B: It’s actually not a blog, but she is on IG and YouTube. It’s called Coupontoprovide. She feeds both my frugal and crafting needs! Sometimes I see something she got from Dollar Tree in one of her hauls and I run to see if I can get it!
Stampin Pretty at stampinpretty.com - her crafts are always so pretty (no pun intended).
Brandy’s Cards at brandyscards.com - I binge on her YouTube videos! She is on point and I love watching her evolve.
L: What Advice Do You Have For New Bloggers In Your Niche?
B: If you know you are in my niche you are already ahead of the game, you have a niche! I started out just blogging about any and everything that came to mind that day, lol.
If I had to give one piece of advice, I would say take good pictures! I hate my old photos. Good lighting and a nice background make all the difference.
I use my iPhone 6 Plus as my camera and a $15 tripod from Walmart. Then I use marble slabs I got from Home Depot for less than $2, a white silky sheet I got for about $1.50/yd from Walmart, and poster board from Dollar Tree as my props to take my pictures right now.
Photo editing apps come free to less than $5… it doesn’t have to be expensive, you probably spend more than that eating out in a week!
Future plans for Brittany's brand and her blog:
B: I would like to further define myself as a Creative Blogger as time goes on as I further explore other areas that wouldn't be considered crafting like my tutorials on how to use Adobe Illustrator to create graphics. Also, as you know, I am flirting with the idea of sharing my organization and productivity tips on my blog as well that help me with my blogging. We will see!
Are you a planner junkie?
Check out some of BelievablyMe's crafty work below. She made me my very own personalized sticker edition.
Organize and stylize your planner with this beautiful collection below:
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How awesome are these stickers to customize your happy planner! The above planner quotes and stickers can be purchased here at BelievablyMe's Etsy store: |
For additional crafts, freebies + tips & tricks,
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| www.BelievablyME.com |
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Awesome! Thank you so much for the opportunity AND the push to start blogging 5 years ago!
ReplyDeleteAww, no prob! And THANK YOU for these amazing tips!!
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