Blogger to blogger: decor8

Ludmila — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:58:26 +0000

Hello, friends! I’m so excited to announce the next fantastic blogger who’ll be sharing tips and advice for a better blogging. You all know her, we all admire her – ladies and gents, please welcome Holly Becker of decor8!!! I cannot believe I have Holly on creamylife to do a guest post as a part of my ‘blogger to blogger’ series! I’m honored, happy and I could burst of excitement! Holly was SO kind to take the time to answer some questions I sent her, so without further ado, please enjoy your time with the amazing, inspiring and so super-cute Holly Becker!

Ludmila: Where to look for inspiration for blog posts?

Holly: I am always meeting up with friends, talking to people on and offline, going to craft markets, design shows, traveling, reading, teaching, you name it I’m sorta involved – ha ha! Anyway, my radar is always set to “ON” and so I absorb everything around me and extract the things that move me/speak to me the most and that stuff is put on the blog. I consume a lot, but I only show my readers the best of the best.

Ludmila: How often a blog should be updated and how important it is to let your readers know when to look for posts?

Holly: I update a few times a day, Monday-Friday as that fits my schedule best plus I like to keep my weekends free for creative projects, travel, and girl time. Plus, having weekends free helps me to refuel so that on Monday morning, I’m ready for a new week.

Ludmila: How important is social media in blog world and what are the social media tools to be considered when promoting a blog?

Holly: Twitter and Facebook are my favorites – social media is the yellow brick road that leads people back to your blog. If you don’t use social networking as a tool to reach out and connect, it’s easy for people to forget about you no matter how great your blog is. Most of us have so much to juggle, and so much is being thrown at us online that social networking actually helps us to stay in touch. All of the key players use social networking (or hire someone to do it for them) as a means to promote their brand but also to share valuable information – it can’t all be about self promotion or that gets boring real quick. You have to promote your work, yes, but you need to equally promote others, useful information, helpful advice, etc.

Ludmila: How to deal with negative readers’ comments?

Holly: There are two kinds of negative comments. The mean and nasty trolls who just show up, using an anonymous name, and spew out nonsense that has no value to the conversation. When they comment, because I moderate my blog, I simply delete the comment and that’s how I deal with them. Bye bye! It’s my blog and I have the right to decide how I manage it. The second type of negative comment comes in the form of constructive criticism or general opinion that is actually delivered intelligently and worth approving so those comments are approved — I want my readers to read and even interact with this person because they said something that made sense, or was helpful in some way… Those comments don’t get under my skin at all — I want people to be authentic as I promote this heavily — I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t allow those who visit my blog to be themselves too and say what they feel. Opinions are just opinions and they are everywhere — big deal — but the slanderous, the hateful, the rude… I just delete them. I don’t have to deal with negative comments these days, mostly spam comments from mattress discounters and down bedding companies!!!

Ludmila: What’s the one and only advice you’ve ever received in your life which helped you throughout?

Holly: Don’t live for the “someday” time when you’re going to allow yourself to have, to be, to live the way you really, really want to live. Start today, take little steps, and give yourself what you want someday today. My husband told me this years ago and it impacted my life more than anything else.

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Thank you so much, Holly, for this post! It sure made me think deeper and take steps now toward achieving what I have planned! I appreciate so much that you agreed to be a part of this series!

I’m sure you all enjoyed reading this post (I hope you took notes!) and let’s hear your opinions about what Holly said!

*pictures 2-5 belong to Holly Becker

Blogger to Blogger: Design for Mankind

Ludmila — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:35:26 +0000

Hi everyone! I’m so excited to announce today the launch of a new blogging series here on creamylife meant to help us all with blogging and not only. The thing is that I get a lot of questions about how to start a blog, how to become a blogger with a loyal readership and more like these, many newbies dream of having globally recognized blogs, but they’re wondering how to do it and the worst is that they don’t have whom to ask tips and advice. I was in your skin and I know how frustrating this feels. That’s why I decided to start this series, called “blogger to blogger“, where talented and creative, worldwide known bloggers will share their blogging tips with us all (which can definitely be applied in real life) and I sincerely hope my guests will inspire and help you. After all we’re one big family in this blog land, right? :)

The first blogger who kindly accepted to be in this series is the gorgeous Erin from Design for Mankind! She’s my personal idol, an example to follow and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have her here today!

“One of my best tips (that was given to me from a smart gal by the name of Maggie Mason) is to ask for what you want. It sounds simple, but it’s life-changing for three reasons:

1. In order to ask for what you want, you have to know what you want, which requires some serious soul-searching, as well as a bit of trial/error.
2. Asking for what you want gives you ownership over your destiny. You’re no longer floating through life accepting random opportunities, and the result? Pure empowerment.
3. The chances of great things falling in your lap is slim to none. But by being proactive and searching our opportunities, you’re guaranteed to land some great gigs and meet some fantastic people.

I think, especially as women, we often plow through life thinking we’re undeserving of our successes and looking at other women with an envious eye. But by asking for what we want, we can control our own futures in whatever manner we’d like. It’s a beautiful thing, really. Definitely the best advice I have in terms of life, blogging and careers.”

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Thank you so much, Erin! These tips are of great use not only for our blogging life, but for our real life as well and I’m sure that by implementing this (and adding some persistence and patience) you can achieve what you dreamed of and even more!

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Blogger to blogger: decor8

*pictures 2-5 belong to Holly Becker

Blogger to Blogger: Design for Mankind