Blogging 101 and Social Media

Hi Everyone welcome to my blog if this is your first time and thank you for reading. I’m Samantha!

Today I’m writing about Blogging 101 and what it’s like in today’s world. I want to share not only tips for blogging, whether you are just starting out or have had one for a year or so. Do you ever get scared or second guess starting a blog? Well don’t worry it took me a year to start mine, and here’s why.

1. Comparison- you know that thing we do probably everyday when we go on Instagram or Facebook? We see other girls living their best life, going on all these vacations or buying these Mansions and decorating them beautifully. Driving high end luxury cars and wearing designer clothes. They have the best picture content and all that jazz. Well guess what, and you may not want to hear this but you are looking at their profiles for a reason. You want all that right? Sure we all do or most of us anyway. What I am telling you to do about comparing yourself to others is…STOP, and look at them for inspiration, and be happy for them, for their life is their own journey and you have your own that God has planned for you.
2. Not having the tools- Ok so posting on a website and IG isn’t just about writing, it’s also about pictures, and all of that is content. Do you guys know that I have a nice Canon camera that I still haven’t learned to use? It’s this year’s goal though. I have been using my camera phone and its an Iphone 8 and the camera isn’t that great. I need to upgrade but I don’t have $800 to buy a new phone, because I have a wedding and honeymoon to pay for this year. So what I’m saying is I need to learn my professional camera. I am blocking myself again from creating better content for my viewers. So even bloggers who have been in the game for a bit still have their downfalls when it comes to blogging. I have bought photography tools off Amazon, a great site for photography gear. I bought lighting tools and a tripod, you can also buy light rings and box lighting and reflectors. These are tools you can accumulate, I don’t want you going out and spending a ton of money in one swoop.
3. Not having a website- I started with buying my domain name off godaddy.com and I pay a fee from time to time to renew it. I also used their site for a year as a blogging platform to make sure I truly enjoyed blogging. You can go on google and look up blogging platforms, there are a few free ones to start out with. Godaddy was just the one I used because it was an easy setup, and they help you set it up over the phone. So after a year I decided I did enjoy blogging, it was a great creative and fun outlet for me. So after doing some extensive research I decided to hire a company to design my own wordpress website. My Emerald Diaries was officially born and launched. Now this was an investment, and you will be putting money into this, so please do your research and find what company works for you.
4. Not having the motivation- Ladies I get it, I suffer from depression and PTSD and sometimes I would get in these slumps and think to myself, “why am I doing this” “Am I getting anything out of this” and “Am I going to make money from blogging to feel better about paying for this website.” These are all normal doubts and concerns. It takes some money to make money and it takes your mind to want to create content for your followers and readers. A lot of days I have to push myself and get out of my slump and get through it, because the answer to all those questions I’d had was “yes this is worth it, because it makes me happy.” Stop worrying about the money and getting free products or partnerships. Those bonuses eventually come to you. Now the God’s honest truth from my blogging world experiences is what I’m about to share with you.

What is it like blogging in today’s world? Well it’s fun, its stressful, it’s difficult, it’s rewarding. I’m not hear to sugar coat this for you all. I listened to this amazing podcast all morning called Thrive and the creator is Breanna Pair and she’s on Instagram, I highly recommend this podcast for new beginners and current bloggers. I have learned this morning from Thrive that there were a few things I still didn’t know myself about blogging. Like having a huge following isn’t always the best. You can have people who follow you just to gain your following back, but they don’t engage or have no interest in what you have to say or your content. They are called inactive followers and when you are trying to have a good engagement and make genuine connections with people, well guess what, you aren’t getting it from them. So your following goes up and that’s a really good feeling, because once you get to 10k followers, you get that swipe up option on your stories that takes people to your blog or your Liketoknowit page. And I’ll explain what that is down below. But the issue here is, you won’t have the followers that will even swipe up to shop with you and your page. PR companies look at your likes, and engagement with your followers and if you have 1000’s of followers and no likes or engagement, they aren’t going to reach out to you to work with you. How do I know this? Well I am having this exact issue right now. So this is where I have to figure out more about my niche and who my audience is. I need to stop, yes stop, liking and engaging with people who don’t do the same for me, and what do I do? I unfollow them and yes, I feel bad because I wanted or had at some point a connection with them, or so I thought. Some people in the blogging world grow a lot faster than you and become more successful than you and that’s the reality of it. They may stay connected with you and they may stop. Don’t get offended by this, but also don’t continue being genuine towards them and engaging, because you are taking the time away from your blog, you get sad and down because you think you did something wrong, but you didn’t. This is what happens on social media. However you can meet genuine people and create awesome friendships. I met this amazing blogger/woman on IG and now we chat through our phones and definitely plan on meeting one another and this is a positive to the blogging world. Her name is Tyler and her IG handle is “thecarolinacouture’ and I love her page, style and vibe and she just so happens to be one of the nicest girls I’ve ever met. We are always helping each other in the blogging world and we share a lot of laughs and downfalls of the business and keep each other going. That’s what this business/hobby should be about. It should be a positive outlet and you should want to engage and make friends.  You will meet fake people unfortunately, you will talk to bloggers who aren’t very friendly and that’s ok, but you will also meet a bunch who are sweet and genuine and will answer blogging questions you may have regarding their blogs. Some direct you to their site and don’t always want to have long DM chats and that’s probably because they have a lot of DM’s that they get everyday. Blogging can be a full time business for them and they spend hours upon hours creating for you. So now that I have told you some negatives that I felt like people don’t discuss but is true, I want to now talk about the positives to blogging! Yay!

So as mentioned above about my good friend Tyler, that being a positive of course, you make genuine connections with people through blogging and on IG. To talk about the fun and exciting things with blogging, first is my professional website! It was a tough trigger to pull money wise, but it’s absolutely beautiful and is something I can call my own.They taught me how to use word press and if I ever have questions they have people to help. I also have them host my site for $25 a month so I don’t have to worry about using blue host. Another one, which I mentioned above was Liketoknowit, and what that is and if you don’t know about LTK, you are missing out and need to go download the app ASAP! This is an app that takes you straight to a platform that lets you shop bloggers outfits, or decor, etc. So if you see something you love and think “I want that dress!” you can go find their handle/page and shop their outfit you saw on IG. I have a story on my IG that is called Liketoknowit and it teaches you how to navigate the app. For us bloggers who have that fun tool, it’s called Rewardstyle and you have to apply and be accepted on their terms to have your own. They always look for 1000 or more followers, engagement and photo quality. So keep that in mind before you apply. When I was accepted last June it was the best feeling to get, I was so excited to be apart RewardStyle! Also ladies, Pinterest and Youtube are your best friends when it comes to blogging and figuring out how to use things, like your platforms, photography, blog post ideas, inspiration for content, companies to apply for to get affiliate programs, one really good one to start with is Shareasale, apexdrop and influenster. Pinterest has a lot of great pins for blogging and I created a blogging board so you can follow that on my Pinterest account and you can follow me by clicking the Pinterest icon on the top of my page. My Pinterest rocks you guys, I use to pin so much back in the day before I even knew what blogging was, so you can find so much on my page, boards and boards galore!

To end my post today, I will start by saying I will do more of these posts  for you, to keep you going on your journey, to let you know that you are not alone in this, we all at some point had doubts, compared ourselves to others, had road blocks, writers block, sadness about followers and losing connections, gaining connections. I will share tools and tips, and resources because guess what? It’s hard to come by, you figure a lot of this out on your own, and it takes time, dedication, creativity, patience, and genuineness. Stay positive, research, stay kind, and stay GENUINE! Be the blogger that everyone loves to follow, not the blogger that seems to not care and are fake. Just being real.

Please feel free to leave comments, subscribe if you feel this was helpful, DM me with questions or just to say hi! I want to connect with you, other wise what’s the point right? Be safe and well during these trying chaotic times. God Bless!