01.04.2017
Anchor Folders || Travel Journal || Anchor Reporter Journal || 2017 Planner I was once in your exact shoes. Whether it’s starting a blog, picking a blog name, figuring out what the heck WordPress is, and the real life struggle […]
Anchor Folders || Travel Journal || Anchor Reporter Journal || 2017 Planner
I was once in your exact shoes. Whether it’s starting a blog, picking a blog name, figuring out what the heck WordPress is, and the real life struggle of trying to gain a following.
I was once in your exact shoes, with a site that I only slightly knew how to work, with literally no prior experience just me and my DSLR camera I purchased with money I saved up from working at my college’s gym. In fact here is one of the first blog posts I’d ever written, & trust me it’s nothing exciting.
I was once in your exact shoes, trying to navigate the blogging world and feeling excited about the possibilities. I never started blogging for the money, I never even started it to be a business, in fact, I don’t want blogging to be my ‘be all do all’ business.
That’s never been the game plan and it’s still not today, I will always blog but blogging will never be my only thing, I’m way to much of a busy body to stick to one thing day in & day out. .
But I knew once I ‘broke‘ into this blogging world, I would share with everyone what I have learned.
The reason being I once was you and I once was emailing bloggers asking about: how do I apply to rewardStyle, what camera do they use to take pictures, what is ShopStyle and is it worth it?
I was literally emailing bloggers and let me tell you, I can remember each blogger that never responded and each blogger that took time out of their day to respond,
Specifically Kelly, from Kelly in the City (she is sooooo sweet, and helped me understand ShopStyle and what moving to a different city could do for my blog). Lauryn, from The Skinny Confidential (inspired me to start my blog, has responded to several FAQ from me & even helped me design my site in 2014 via her blog design company Blog-Doo) & I can’t forget Marissa from Style Cusp who let me intern with her for a summer.
All of these bloggers helped me better understand this confusing thing called blogging. & now I’m here to help you! Never hesitate to reach out to me, about blogging questions you might have, interested in interning with me or for meet-ups,
I’m here literally because of you guys and I want to be as much a part of your journey as the above bloggers were on mine
Okay let’s jump right into why you are here!
5 Steps Towards Running a Successful Blog:
1) Just Start:
Okay, my best advice it to start NOW! Blogging takes a lot of practice. From learning how to shoot photos, editing photos and finding your ‘online’ voice, it all just takes time and practice. So the sooner you get the ball rolling, the better. My second best advice is investing in a good camera, trust me it’s soooooooo worth it.
2) Your Blog’s Name Should Have a Meaning:
I think a good name is essential to a good brand, and most importantly your blog name should be meaningful. When I say meaningful what I mean is, your name should showcase your blog’s theme, match your aesthetic & be unique! When picking my blog’s name I knew I wanted the word ‘confidence’ in the title, as I truly believe everything you do should literally be done with pride and confidence. Next I knew I wanted another word starting with a ‘c’ so I looked at words that would describe my New England theme and I thought about ‘Connecticut Confidence’ ‘Cape Cod Confidence’ ‘Classy Confidence’ and ended up picking my favorite…thus The Coastal Confidence. After all New England lifestyle often revolves around the cutest coastal towns.
So pick a name that means something to you or your brand, and I would recommend just mixing & matching words of importance to you. It’s a great place to start.
3) Niche (aka your peeps):
If you read my blog, than you know my niche is NEW ENGLAND LIFESTYLE. Now if you read my blog and didn’t know that, than I’m currently failing at what I think is the most important job of a blogger, speaking to your peeps. I aim to capture all the charms and traditions of a New England lifestyle and share what I capture with people as enchanted with New England lifestyle as I am. By knowing your niche you’ll be able to create content that brings value to a specific group of people aka your peeps.
The thing about niches though is that they really can’t hurt you. I live in Connecticut but I still follow Dallas style bloggers, California fitness bloggers and London travel bloggers. Just because you focus on one thing, doesn’t mean other people won’t be interested in it. So don’t worry too much about if you think you niche is too small, someone somewhere will be interested as long as they can tell you’re passionate about it.
4) Figure Out Your Why & Being Authentic:
Okay, why are you starting a blog? Figuring out your why can help you come across as more authentic to your readers. I urge you not to start a blog for free stuff or money because honestly blogging isn’t a get rich quick career. It might seem like that on instagram, but to be honest I blogged for three years before I ever received any sort of compensation.
So why are you starting a blog? I started a blog because I wanted to showcase New England lifestyle to my California friends, at the time I was attending college at The University of San Diego. I started it just to document a lifestyle I was missing, basically blogging helped me to overcome being homesick at college. My why was simply New England lifestyle & still to this day my why is to get people inspired about New England lifestyle.
My why = New England lifestyle inspiration. & that’s authentically who I am. I love Connecticut and anything I can do to showcase it’s beauty and the struggle of the seasons, I’ll do. So what makes you tick & make that your why.
5) Prepare, Plan & Strategically Execute:
Preparation is KEY in blogging. In order to be successful you & your team must remain consistent. For me that means pushing out three blog posts a week along with one weekly newsletter featuring exclusive content for TCC subscribers. It might seem easy, but creating content requires a lot of planning and this is where office supplies are needed! I organize all my collaborations: style, travel, and TCC at Home Store by these color coded anchor filing folders.
Travel is a key element in running my The Coastal Confidence, as I’m always flying back and forth between New England and Dallas. I keep this travel journal with me at all times, it helps me keep track of airplane flights, hotel check-in times and packing lists. Lists are my everything, anyone else agree?
The new year is the perfect time to regroup and reorganize your life. It’s like back to school but for 2017 business goals. I’ve made a quick list of everything I purchased for my office, below, just in case I inspired you to step up your office game for 2017: anchor folders, anchor reporter journal, travel journal, 2017 planner.
Okay GIVEAWAY TIME! I’m giving away my 2017 office supplies: anchor folders, anchor reporter journal, travel journal, 2017 planner, just in time for the New Year. Make sure to enter below the giveaway closes on Tuesday, January 10th at 11:59pm!
It’s super simple to enter, just follow the directions below!
To Win…Simply
- Comment below & tell me about your blog or a goal you have for 2017
- Follow Graphique de France Stationery & Gifts and The Coastal Confidence on Instagram
Remember guys, the more entries we get, the more giveaways our crew can host! So tell your sisters, girlfriends, cousins & anyone who’s a #GirlBoss. I would love to start monthly giveaways, what do you guys think? Enter below xx Aubrey
UPDATE: THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED, SAY CONGRATS TO OUR RANDOM WINNER COLBY PLASKOWITZ BELOW
Thank you, Graphique de France Stationery & Gifts for sponsoring this post.
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34 thoughts on "Running a Successful Blog & Giveaway"
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Aubrey, this post is awesome. I absolutely love your five steps. I started my blog because my college friends were always asking me style advice on how to wear things. This year I really want to work on making my blog better by creating great content that can help others find their own style and gain the confidence to rock whatever no matter what body type they have.
I remember back in October you mentioned posting about looking for crew members to capture New England moments. Would you do anything similar for being an intern?
Thank you for all your tips! I’ve always wanted to be a blogger. I started a blog in my middle school days called “Tiffanys awesomest blog”, I was very creative back in the days! I never wrote anything on it because I was scared no one would like what I wrote. So fast forward to today to my junior year of college and I have a another blog, this one is called simply Tiffany. I know my name isn’t better than the first one but I tried, haha! I’m currently working on finding my niche like you said. I have so much I could write about I just get overwhelmed and end up not writing at all. I also end up doing the comparing game where I say “my blog could never be as good as so and so’s, so why start?” My goal for 2017 is to start that back up and it just so happens my public relations tactics class is making me start a blog so hopefully I will achieve my goal of writing since my grade depends on it!
2017, for me and many others, served as a much needed clean slate. I think my most pressing goal would be to get more organized and be more diligent in prioritizing my time. I’d like to allow myself more time to express myself in creative outlets. Alloting time for painting, reading and possibly even starting a blog is one of my biggest goals for this coming year!
My goal for 2017 is to write on a daily basis and treat myself to more massages!
Hi there:
I blog for my retail boutique. My goal for 2017 is to bring the blog to a different place, literally and figuratively. A new server and format, more followers which would hopefully bring more visitors to the shop. I recently found this lovely place, Coastal Confidence, and have found both inspiration and encouragement.
Cheers and Happy New Year!
Laurie
My blog is a preppy southern fashion and lifestyle blog with outfit ideas, preppy boredom busters, and makeup products I love! Your blog is super cute and one of my inspirations! My goal for 2017 is to hit 5,000 followers on my Instagram (I have 2,600 now) These office supplies would help me so much by helping me plan the blog posts before I post them and make sure my blog posts are interested and easy to read and well organized.
I used to have a nail art blog that was originally a school assignment, and I kept it going for another year after the semester ended but slowly stopped updating. Sometimes other things just get in the way! Cute giveaway 🙂 @zgnails
I started a blog, but honestly? I need a lot of help running it! I shared a blog with a friend for a couple of months, but we both forgot to post. My 2017 goal is to figure out how to capture people’s attention to read the posts & finish the school year!
ps: I might be asking you for advice ????
My New Years resolution is to always be positive! Also, thank you for doing this post! I have thought about starting a blog and didn’t know where to start, so this is super helpful!
I would like to be more organized financially in 2017.
Keep on working, great job!
I’m actually trying to start my blog right now. I’ve been planning my focus for a while….I keep going between topics. My goal this year is to finally get it up and running!
My goal for 2017 is to finally begin my own blog. This is something that over the past year has been laid on my heart to do, and it helped that I even had a few people affirm this inclination. Your blog post was honestly just what I needed to read. It encouraged and motivated me to not let this resolution go on unresolved.
I want to start off by saying THANK YOU for making this blog post! I found it extremely helpful because I’ve recently started a blog myself and really had no idea where to begin/if I was even on the right track. My blog is called I Have Nothing to Wear, and I named it that because every time I go to get dressed it takes me forever too pick out something to wear! So, I always feel like I have nothing to wear. I love love love the New England style, so there will be a reflection of that shown on my blog as well. Truthfully, I grew up in an area where no one liked fashion or cared about it. It’s nice to know there are people out there that have the same passions as I do! Thank you for doing what you do! xoxo, Callie
Hey! This was actually really inspiring and you seem like a great role model in and out of blogging. My blog (Stripes, Bows, and Navy Clothes) is an outlet for me to post about things I’m passionate about which will range from outfit posts that are in the works, to just writing about things that interest me. My second post went up today that was talking about my goals which was really cool to see as part of your question. Thank you for being such an inspiration!
My 2017goal is to get well organized and to study hard and get good grades n’ make my parents proud ☺☺☺☺
I started a lifestyle and fashion blog just a few months ago. Aubrey your Instagram and blog inspire me almost every day. Great job ???????? The biggest goal for 2017 is to grow my Instagram following.
My blog is all about my journey, growing up and transitioning through life. I want to give my readers and followers not only a glimpse into my own life but offer tips on how to smoothly transition through different stages of life. I also share a lot of my outfits on my blog and Instagram for preppy fashion inspiration 🙂
-Adriana @toprepforlife
toprepforlife.com
Thank you for posting this!!!! Seriously love reaching out to you and thanks again for the name of my blog! So far I have really enjoyed the process, but I know I have a lot of work to do! You rock Aubrey thanks again for being so helpful, you’re truly a light to me!
Blog: thebengalbelle.wordpress.com 🙂
My goal for 2017 is to begin reading and writing more. Blogs like yours have inspired me to get back in touch with my literary side! I used to journal and read regularly but have fallen off track in the past few years. Looking forward to it! Thanks for your posts! 🙂
My goal for 2017 is to improve my half marathon time by 10 minutes and to get better at yoga (my hamstrings are so inflexible)!
@baltimorebergie
Hi!! Live your blog and I am always looking forward to your instagrams! I’m starting my student teaching in two weeks and my goal is to become organized! I think it’s the best way to keep the stress down! Love seeing all the different office supplies you use to keep yourself organized, and to keep very cute, fun and uplifting! I love your style and it inspires me in so many different ways. Love your blog, stay you!
My goals for 2017 are to spend more quality time with family and do more random acts of kindness.
Hi Aubrey – thank you so much for this post!! From the start you have been one of the bloggers I admire most. I started my blog in October 2016 as a hobby and to show people that looking classy does not mean you have to spend a fortune. I have a full time job that I love, but I didn’t want it to consume my life. The Styled Suburbian is my outlet and way to connect with others who share a passion for affordable fashion!
xo, Leanne
Such a beautiful blog, Aubrey! My blog (Breaking Seams) centers around my recovery from anorexia, depression, and anxiety. After leaving treatment for the second time and finally finding stability in my recovery process, I decided to document my journey — the trials and successes of re-acclimating to “normal” life in my 20’s. I took a bit of a break from the blog this past year to focus on personal growth, and I’m excited to get back to writing in 2017!!
My goal for 2017 is to get better at letting people know what I appreciate about them.
My new philosophy for this year is simple: “Less complaints, more compliments”. I’m also hoping to have the courage to break into the blogging world 🙂
xx c
CONGRATS COLBY 🙂
What a great post! Thanks for sharing with us all. Love interacting with you! Kelly (from Kelly in the City) is such a doll and inspiration to us all. Hoping our paths cross sometime soon! The best part about blogging is staying loyal to yourself and your readers. You won’t go anywhere if you copy people or try to be someone you aren’t. Blogging is more about time to reflect and it is something that I love to do in my spare time!
xo elle // https://splashofpreppy.com
my goal for 2017 is to stop drinking soda and to go out more