Beautify Your Blog - my free gift to you to help you up skill during the stay-home period.

A few years ago I launched an online course called BeautifyYourBlog. I can’t tell you the number of hours of work I poured into it, as well as all the knowledge I shared. It was really well received, but I didn’t give marketing it the right attention (I’m going to be honest and say the fear of failure is what stopped me from going full force with it) but I learned a lot and I loved sharing my blogging journey.

Because most of us are at home (or we should be! Apart from those essential service providers whom we don’t give enough credit and support to), now is the perfect time to up skill and work on all the projects you’ve had on your to-do list for like, forever. If you come out of this time without having leaned a new skill, without having accomplished a good chunk of things on your to-do list, then you only have yourself to blame because YOU HAD THE TIME. A lot of us are trying to juggle working from home with little ones and staying on top of housework, while it’s hard & challenging (on ALL the levels) it’s not impossible to carve out some time for yourself to work on your goals.

Along with the online course, I created a workbook to be used alongside the course content. It sums up nicely everything that was inside the course, giving you the building blocks to take your blog to the next level. Full disclosure, there are one or two spelling errors (my followers will nod their heads because they know JUST how bad I am when it comes to spellcheck…but there are only a few…I think haha) and I did create this a few years ago. This means that there are a few tiny things that have changed, but the meat of it all is still 100% relevant. And I believe this is the perfect time to actually start a blog, if it’s been something that has been on your heart for a while.

I could launch into a million different reasons as to why blogging isn’t dead, and if you think it is then you probably wouldn’t be here reading my blog, so I won’t go into that. But if you are here, and you’ve often thought that you’d like to start a blog; then this post is just for you! Whether you' want to use this time to document your family’s every day adventures so Granny and Aunty Eileen can see what you get up to everyday, or whether you’ve really been battling with the isolation and writing down your thoughts and feelings would really help you to work through them, blogging is an incredible tool that gives a creative outlet and can be a jumping board for so many things. And if you’re just here for the free things, that’s okay too.

MAKING YOUR BLOG LOOK IT'S SHINY BEST CAN BE A DIFFICULT PROCESS...BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE.

When I first started blogging, I wish I had had someone show me the ins and outs of branding and what it means to build a brand around your blog. I fumbled my way through my first 5 years of blogging, making so many changes and wasting so much time creating graphics for my blog that really didn't fit my style.

If someone had given me this when I first started blogging (10 years ago now), it would have saved me so much frustration, not to mention time.  This handbook goes through the how's and the why's of branding your blog and most importantly, it shows you how you can do it yourself.

THIS HANDBOOK WALKS YOU THROUGH ALL THE STEPS YOU NEED TO TURN YOUR BLOG IN A BEAUTIFUL, COHESIVE AND VISUALLY APPEALING SPACE THAT YOU CAN BE PROUD OF.

Perhaps your current corner of the web isn't what you hoped and dreamed it would be, and you're not sure how to make it stand out from the other millions of blogs.

Or perhaps, you've been putting off starting a blog because you have no idea how to make it look good; how to make it a place you can be proud of.

Inside I share with you super valuable secrets, tips and tricks that you will be able to implement immediately to beautify your blog, all by yourself. 

WHAT'S IN THE HANDBOOK?

• Lesson 1: Blog Branding - logo, fonts, colours & style guides

• Lesson 2: Blog Layout - how to stand out and show off your content

• Lesson 3: Blog Photos - how to take better blog photos

• Lesson 4: Home, About & Contact Pages - the most important pages for your blog and how to use the space effectively

• Lesson 5: Social Media Accounts - keeping your profile images & bio's consistent so you are instantly recognisable across all your social media platforms

• Lesson 6: Branding for Pinterest - branding images/graphics for Pinterest

My goal when I created the Beautify Your Blog Handbook wasn’t to throw out a bunch of complicated theories and fancy sounding blogging terminology but rather to show you the best & most effective strategies for bloggers that will help you take actionable steps towards creating a better, more beautiful blog.

It’s jam packed with information you can make use of today, and all of that information is laid out in a logical, simple to understand way. I had planned to launch it as it’s own E-book (and I might still do this!) when I get the inspiration back to re-launch the course, but for the time being I would like this to be my gift to you. Pop your email adress in the form below, and the handbook will be on it’s way to you.

Here’s to creating beautiful things together.

#KZNbloggers Meetup - August 2017

Last month I attended the #KZNbloggers meetup which was held at I Want My Coffee in Umhalanga. The venue itself was delightful and we were greeted with a wonderful selection of eats and drinks.

I Want My Coffee is situated just opposite Chris Saunders Park, which is just round the corner from Gateway Shopping Centre. I was so happy I arrived early because this meant I was able to spend some time admiring the decor and awesome little quotes punctuating the wall space. It was the perfect venue for our meet-up, and I can highly recommend their hot chocolate!

I had booked tickets for both myself and my lovely fellow photographer & blogger friend Julie (of Julia Jane Photography & Design) who you can see looking cute with the glass of 'wine' & coffee below. I also was able to meet Claire (from the blog Design By Claire) in person after having known each other for many a year online.

The line of speakers included Verushka from SpiceGoddess (who spoke about her blogging journey and what she wished she knew when she started blogging and whom I've known 'digitally' for years and so it was soooo nice to finally connect in person);  Nelisiwe from Conversation Lab (who spoke about how influencers are identified for brand campaigns); we had a spokesperson from MUD (Make-Up Designatory) sharing more about the brand and finally Ryan from Rain Africa.

Rain Africa had a beautiful display of some giveaway items. I loved their use of natural elements (like the pine cones you can see in the pictures below):

I loved what Susan from Goddess  has said about these meet-ups: "A bloggers’ meet-up is not so much about the goodie bag (but that sure is nice too!) as it is about stepping out of your own space. A meet-up offers you the opportunity to meet other bloggers, meet PR people and experience brands". While goodie bags are a lovely extra, the entire experience of meeting new people and learning from one another is what makes an event like this so special.

On the note of the goodie bag, here are some close up shots of all of the amazing things we were all gifted with.  I can't wait to start using all of these amazing products! 

Rain Africa

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Origin Stationery

Personalised stationery from Origin Stationery (I LOVE how Origin went out of their way to ensure I got a package of pretty pink items!)

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MUD - Make-Up Designatory

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Dupe Factorie

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Milk Solutions

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Forever Living

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Environ

Dr Dermal

A huge thank you to Susan from Goddess who was our host and who did such a fantastic job bringing us all together and organising the event. I so enjoyed my time at the meet-up, especially meeting new (and old!) bloggers and creatives. I will most definitely be attending the next one!

If you want to attend the next #KZNbloggers meet-up, make sure to keep an eye on their Facebook page by clicking here. If you're not in Durban, don't worry!

These blogging meet-ups also took place this year in:

• Cape Town: organised by Cindy of 3 Kids, 2 Dogs & 1 Old House. Click here to sign up to her newsletter to make sure you don't miss out on the next one
• Joburg: organised by Heather of SA Mom Blogs and Laura-Kim of Harassedmom
• Eastern Cape: co-organised by Luchae of My Spreadsheet Brain

I'm so looking forward to the next one here in Durban!

BeautifyYourBlog - Want to find out more about my new E-course? Join me on Periscope this week!

I have some exciting news everyone! I have been busy behind the scenes creating something very special for all of you. If you're a blogger, or have been thinking about starting a blog, this FREE course is for you!

I've spent the last few weeks creating a simple, easy to follow, 6-part course on blogging and I can't wait to share it with you.

If you've feeling a little bleugh with your online space and are looking for some inspiration, and not to mention loads of helpful tips, then you're going to love my new e-course; BeautifyYourBlog.

In this 6-part email series I'm going to be teaching you:

1. How to build a beautiful brand around your blog
2. How to make your blog layout really pop
3. How to up your blog photo game
4. How to make your most NB blog pages work hard 
5. How to put your social media bios to work more effectively (especially Instagram!)
6. How to use branding to create droolworthy Pinalicious photos for Pinterest

To join the course, simply enter your name and email address into the form below.

You can hang out with me and the rest of the course takers over on Twitter & Instagram (@roxyhutton) using the hashtag #BeautifyYourBlog.

Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox! The course will be going live very soon.

In the mean time, I'll be on Periscope every day this week talking all things blog. I'd love it if you joined me over there (the app is FREE to download) and if you miss me live, you can catch the replay for up to 24 hours after each scope.

Click here to get the app: http://periscope.tv/roxyhutton. I hope to see you there! You can find me as @roxyhutton.

Here's to creating beautiful things together.

x 

Help people find & connect with you on Disqus: Why you should update your Disqus profile

Are you a Disqus user? Do you use Disqus as your comment managing system on your blog or website? I've been using Disqus to manage my comments for the past 4 years and just LOVE the interface (and the fact that its FREE!) as well as how easy it is to leave comments on other peoples blogs. I also love how easy it is to track and reply to comments left my own blog. Before Disqus I was using the standard Blogger commenting system which was terrible at dealing with spam, and was just terrible with 'loosing' my comments. Disqus has made my life so much easier, and worked flawlessly when I was on Blogger and works perfectly with SquareSpace.

Apart from being a great system for storing and managing the comments on your blog, Disqus is a fabulous place to find and connect with other bloggers & readers. I haven't spent too much time delving into their voting system (you can recommend commetn discussions as well as 'upvote' comments) but what I do often is go through the comments on my site and click through to find the bloggers and lovely people who have taken the time to leave me a comment.

This is where I start pulling my hair out.

I can't tell you the number of times I've been left frustrated with people who make it so difficult for me to find and connect with them. Basically, if you don't update your Disqus profile and include links to your website & social media platforms, you are basically closing the door on future connections and possible business. And it's so easy to fix! 

If you're a blogger or business owner, you know how important it is to have all your links (website/facebook/twitter/instagram) in an easy to find place so that people can connect with you and ultimately contact you if they like what you are all about. If you don't provide them with your details how are they supposed to find you? The amount of time I have wasted copying and pasting Disqus usernames into Google, only to have to sift through hundreds of search results leaves me stone cold and ultimately I click away and forget about them. Not out of choice but out of frustration. 

So why not make it easy for people to find you. Disqus allows you to include your Facebook Account (at this stage only personal profiles can be connected), Twitter & Google accounts, as well as your website. Not only does this increase your chances of connecting with other like minded people, but it's great for SEO! The more your brand name and blog/business accounts are online, the more exposure your brand gets. It's basically free advertising.

So what are you waiting for?

Pop on over to your Disqus dashboard and get to customizing your profile. Change your name, avatar (the little picture that shows up when you leave a comment) & try to keep it consistent with your brand. Add in your links (under the 'Account' tab on the left hand side of your dashboard), write a quick blurb (biography) about who you are and what you do and then you're good to go! Drop a comment below once you've done so as I'd love to pop over to your site and leave you some social media love too.

Here's to helping you connect with more people, and to making your site easier to find for others.

Happy blogging!

Why you need a 'START HERE' page for your blog

Have you ever clicked a link for something on Pinterest, and then been redirected to the home page or blog of that site only to have no idea what you're looking at? So many times I get lost on blogs, looking for something in particular that I saw on Pinterest, only to give up a few seconds later and click away. You may think your blog is incredibly user friendly, but that's because you designed it and know where everything lives.

If someone was visiting your blog for the first time, would they know, just from the first few seconds, what it is you do and what you offer or sell? It's so hard to look at our own blogs objectively, so why not make it super easy for people to find their way around your site by adding a START HERE page (see image below):

Your Start Here page is another opportunity (just like your About Page & Home Landing Page if you choose to have one) for you to tell your readers what is is you do, and to give them a brief summary of your business or blog. I use my Start Here page as a place to show my blog categories, and as a way to have people sign up for a particular email. I am starting a new email list of people interested in improving their photography for their blog or business, and so use this page as a place for them to sign up. Some people use their Start Here page to sum up their previous blog posts, to answer FAQ's or to share more about themselves.

A few months ago I found a platform called Peek that allows you to submit your website to a panel of random testers who visit your site and answer specific questions about your sites usability. Once you enter your web address and email address up (it's free!) you are then sent a 5 minute video of people testing out your site, their first impressions and their answers to a few questions about the functionality of your site as well as whether you can improve on anything. 

My site was sent first to an older gentleman who really had no idea what I was writing about. At first I was so frustrated watching him make his way around my blog, but then I realised that my site was confusing. He thought the beauty reviews I did were for products I actually sold, and kept trying to find where to buy them. As the first blog post he saw when he clicked on my site was a review for a beauty product, he thought I was a selling skincare & makeup.

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PRO TIP: Your latest Blog Posts conveys a lot to your readers and can influence their decision to stay or leave your site

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I was happy to see he was actually interested in buying the product after my review, but I was disheartened as I soon realised he had no idea what my site was all about. At that time I even had a Home or Landing page set up, but as I use a lot of images in my design, it took so long for the Home page to show the images that he quickly clicked straight to my blog. I realised very quickly that you need to assume everyone who arrives at your blog (whether they are first time visitors or returning visitors) needs clear instructions about where to click and where to find information...

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PRO TIP: This is why SEARCH BARS are so important in your blog design!

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The next person to view my site was a young woman who clearly was a blogger herself. She immediately found her way to my blog and my about page, and proceeded to navigate my site with ease. As much as she liked the functionality and white space of my blog design, she did comment on how long the images were taking to load and that she found it rather frustrating. I have since learned to decrease the size of the images I upload, in the hopes that the loading time doesn't scare off my visitors!

So, by implementing a 'Start Here' page on your blog, you are giving your readers one more place to be able to find out about you and what you can offer them. It also helps them to learn how to navigate your site, and in turn, will make them more likely to stick around and come back.

I am STILL tweaking my blog design (that's why I love SquareSpace so much as I am able to customise so much without having to know ANY code) and I think I will continue to tweak the functionality of it as I go along. I have just added a Home/Landing page back to my site (see image above). SquareSpace gives you the option to add easy-to-customize landing pages to your site in just a few minutes.  I have chosen to introduce a landing page because I have been told me that this site has so many different things going on that some of my visitors feel rather overwhelmed and unsure of where to start when they first arrive. We can't assume everyone who lands up on our site will be a well seasoned blogger. 

Do you have a Start Here page on your blog? Have you ever tried a user testing site before? How do you feel about your sites functionality and user-friendliness? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!  

#TeaWithRoxy: My new LIVE weekly Periscope Series

Hello everyone!

I have been having so much fun on Periscope (click here to read the post I did last week on what Periscope is all about and how to use it to grow your blog or business). I want to share MEANINGFUL content with you guys, as opposed to just showcasing random streams of my dog and my Christmas Tree (although I will still be including a few of these as they are fun and a lot of you seem to really enjoy them). 

Incase you're new to the whole Periscope thing, Pericope is a free app (available on both IOS & Android) that allows you to live stream video footage. Not only can you live stream your own content, but you can also watch other peoples content, and share you support by giving 'hearts' while commenting & asking questions. It may seem a bit creepy and weird (and yes there are a few strange people on there) but it's a fantastic way to build engagement as well as me create real, live time relationships with people. I've met so many new blogging friends in the last 2 weeks and I can't wait to continue to engage with all of you through this exciting new platform.

As a blogger and photographer, I want to do more for you than just show you the behind the scenes of my life. I want to stream useful content that helps you and gives you the inspiration you need to actually do what you've been dreaming about doing. And so, I'd like to introduce you to my new Periscope series; #TeaWithRoxy.

I want this to be a a daily series (I am going to stream at the same time, Monday to Friday) with a different theme or topic each week. That's the plan, but I will be listening to you and your feedback and that will guide me as to whether it will continue to be a daily series or perhaps a weekly series if that's what you'd prefer. I am really excited for the first week's topic, as it's going to be all about blogging!

Here is the schedule for this week, starting tomorrow (Monday 14th December). I have tried to pick a time that will work for the majority of my readers who are all over the world, but if it doesn't work for you don't worry! The great thing about Periscope is it keeps your broadcast for 24 hours, so if you miss it, you're able to go back and re-watch it.

• Monday 14th - Blogging: Where to Begin (I'll be talking about blogging platforms and which ones I love and use)
• Tuesday 15th - Making your blog pop (I'll be talking about what I use to make my blog graphics and some tips and tricks to help you create yours)
• Wednesday 16th - Pro Tips (I'll be sharing with you some of the favourite tools that I use to make my blogging life a lot easier)
• Thursday 17th - Make or Break (I'll be talking about your 'About' page and why you need one, as well as how to make yours awesome!)
• Friday 18th - Q & A (I'll be wrapping up the series as well as answering any questions you may have about blogging)

If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, all you have to do it download the app (it's FREE!), make a quick profile (you don't have to get too fancy with this, but try and include profile photo so I can see who you are) and then find and follow me @ROXYHUTTON. As soon as you follow me you'll get a notification of when I go live so you know when to pop on and start watching.

Like I said before, you'll be able to watch the replay for up to 24 hours after I have broadcast the stream, so don't worry if you can't make the time slot. 

I am so excited to have you all be a part of this series, and I can't wait to help you take your blog to the next level. Come and join an exciting community of likeminded people who want you to succeed with your goals. 

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