Blogging can feel a little like unchartered territory for many (including myself!) as it’s a new industry that’s ever evolving. I have found that learning from others has been insanely important and really crucial to my existence as a blogger. After 5 years of running My Style Vita and three years of The Blog Societies, I feel like I know quite a bit of what the heck I’m doing. I’ve done my fare share of Blogger Q&A’s where I provide insight on blog topics that I’ve learned and feel like I’ve mastered myself. However, I’m still learning. Even this weekend in Providence, I learned so much from spending time with other bloggers.
Recently, I redesigned my site and had never used tags before (I think I did on Blogger, and it never translated over to my WordPress habits). My categories were all out of whack and White Oak Creative (she made this pretty little site) straightened me out. I do love to learn what I can and have found several sites that really nail it right on the head for bloggers. I also recently took my search for the best sites for blog tips to Twitter and have now added a few to my bookmarked list. You can never learn too much and as a business owner responsible for my own bottom line, I think it’s really important to make it more of an effort and even a weekly or monthly habit. Click through the slideshow to see what bloggers and experts I look to for information.
I’d love to know who you turn to for advice when it comes to blogging. And don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. There’s a spring style guide is in the works exclusively for subscribers! Sign up right here and be sure to check ‘newsletter’.
The Fox & She
Blair of The Fox & She is not only a fashion and lifestyle blogger that I follow, but she is a designer as well. In between her latest recipe posts and outfits, she’ll share some great tips from photography, essential plugins and best practices. It also helps that her dog Oliver makes appearances sometimes and he’s adorable.
One of my favorite posts of hers is her how to edit photos in Lightroom. I just recently started using this application and her tips were super helpful.
Lindsay Humes
It’s no surprise that Lindsay Humes made my list. I discovered Lindsay through The Blog Societies and have been receiving her newsletter now for a while. For someone who made a conscious effort in the new year to click “unsubscribe” this was
Many of you have also asked what it was like to work with her, and let me tell you, she was incredible. Speedy, thorough and the fact that she develops and designs makes her unstoppable. I was blown away and wish I had more sites for her to build for me.
Shay Cochrane
I recently discovered Shay after seeing her gorgeous floral photos over and over on Pinterest. After perusing her site for a bit, I noticed she had some great posts on photography and building a strong business. One of the best things I read from her was in a newsletter she sent out about tunnel vision. Thanks to that newsletter, I’ve begun unfollowing a lot of bloggers to help create said tunnel vision.
Now let me explain, it’s no offense to bloggers, and I still follow those who are my friends (my rule is if I have your phone number, I follow you!). But it was a conscious effort to no longer compare myself to others. I found myself seeing collaborations I wasn’t getting, or wasn’t doing as well as someone else and it started to really weigh on me. This has also forced me to find new inspiration from other industries. What may be normal for a different industry, may be something new and exciting I can apply to my business that no one else may be doing yet. So moral of the story is, Shay is full of business ideas!
The Nectar Collective
The Nectar CollectiveRecommended by my friend Emily of Life With Emily, The Nectar Collective has got me brainstorming lots of ideas for my newsletter and beyond. I’m thinking a spring style guide exclusively for newsletter peeps is in order. What do you think? Does that get you all excited? I hope, because I already pretty much made it…
She also has this Pinterest course that appears to be insanely awesome. Have you taken it? Would love to know what you thought! It must do something since she’s made over $100K from it! Love that she’s this honest to her readers (and now let’s all make an e-course, shall we?!) I did however read over her Pinterest tips once you sign up for her newsletter. After applying some of her tips to my Pinterest, I’ve definitely seen an increase in traffic, repins and followers.
Krista Rae
Another one I discovered through Twitter was Krista Rae. She is chock full of ideas and has great strategy tips. If you’ve just started a blog I would definitely recommend looking through all her posts as they are super helpful to newbies. She provides a ton of information on strategy, getting yourself organized and so on. Her top 5 plugins post is one of my favorites. I ended up installing the Editorial Calendar plugin she recommended in this post and am loving it. It’s great to drag and drop your posts around without having to go into Quick Edit and make changes.
