I'm completely new to blogging, and I want to improve! I've been shifting through the internet for a few months doing what I call 'blog research'. Pinterest and Craftgawker are my favorite tools for this extremely serious study of the blogosphere. :) Obviously having fantastic ideas, beautiful photos, and a great way of wording everything to pull it all together makes a great blog. I didn't have to even delve into the internet to know that! Though with so many great blogs out there about DIY and crafting, what makes one blog 'better' or stand out more than another?
Here is what I love about some of the blogs I read, and my current Five Favorite Blogs:
1. Print & Pattern: This blog I've been following for almost three years I think. I don't know much about the owner of this blog, but I believe it is a lady that works in the textile industry in the UK. She updates almost every single weekday, and this is one of the things that has kept me coming back time after time. Plus she post photos of simply amazing patterns. Truly inspiring. Whenever I look at p&p, I want to go back to college to get a degree in textile design. AND she's a big Paperchase fan, and so am I!
2. Honestly WTF: I've just started checking in on this blog regularly. I found it through pinterest, when Erica's DIY Woven Chain Bracelet was all over the place. Those two ladies have some great ideas, and I love their sense of fashion! I like their DIY post the best of course, but they do invoke some lusty daydreaming over their lovely fashion and design photos. I'll be honest I don't always read every word, but I eat up the pics.
3. A Beautiful Mess: I found this lovely lady through Honestly WTF just a few days ago, but I'm in heaven over there! As soon as I saw this blog my heart melted a little. Her banner and tabs at the top are to die for! Actually the whole layout is just splendid. Completely visually appealing. If that isn't enough to make you swoon all the fantastic DIYs will! There is a lot to be learned from this blog, DIY and blog wise! Elsie has a great post about blogging called, '5 Tips for Bloggers'.
4. Starts for Streetlights: Stacie caught my attention with her post about doodling on photos. I love her writing style too, her voice is so clear in her blog. I keep coming back, because she is continually posting great original ideas. Though I have only been watching her blog for a month now I feel like I have anonymously gotten to know her a bit, and that's supremely amazing to me. For someone to be able to write about something they love, and still be able to connect to a wide anonymous audience is renewing.
5. Made: I found her at the beginning of the year. Usually when I find a blog that is strongly 'mommy-centric' I tend to shy away, because I'm not a mom & and I don't have mommy-fever (i.e. when you drool over babies, and photos of kids send you into long fits of daydreaming of being a mum). However, Dana's blog is simply fantastic! She always has lovely photos, fun & colorful DIYs, and I also enjoy her writing too! She makes me think, maybe I should scrap the textile design degree idea and go for an elementary teaching degree! There are so many fun crafts to create with kids!
Those blogs have taught me that it's important to be you in your blog. I don't continue to work at this blog everyday to generate 'followers'. I do it because I want to be creative on a daily basis, and my blog is a way to hold me responsible to that goal. With that said I've come to the conclusion that it isn't so important that I have a physical item that I've made at the end of each day. At the onset of 365 Days of DIY that is what I thought the point of doing this exercise would be. However, I have realized that in order to constantly create, and document that process I am losing a bit of myself along the way. I didn't mean for this venture to take away from my creations, I've only wanted it to help lift them up. Thus I've decided to make Saturdays be my day for working on my blog, and highlighting some of the other fabulous bloggers out there. I hope this helps add a personal element, and also connect me to some of the other people blogging about similar things.
Being personable on my blog is something I struggle with on a daily basis. I know part of what makes a blog a great blog, is when you can really hear the writer's voice through their posts. On the other hand, it's a battle for me to give my readers solid simple instructions for a DIY, and not get too wordy and personal. In the late '90s early '00s I started journaling online. I used diary-x, and then livejournal. At first I put it all out there and left everything public, but I quickly learned from that. My biggest problem was I would quickly forget anyone was reading what I was writing. I know it's out on the world-wide-web, but without any concrete evidence it's easy to think 'I'm the only one reading this'. I don't mean this in a negative way. The internet is GIGANTIC, and it's easy to feel like plankton in a sea of big fish. Eh, that sounds terrible too, what I mean to say is how could even just one person find their way to my diary in the vastness that we call the internet?
Things have changed since the days of internet diaries, what with facebook, twitter, youtube, pinterest, and all those other sources of social media out there. Blogger has made it super easy to track how many people have visited my site, how they found me, and what posts are peaking the most interest. Nowadays it's hard not to think about people reading what I'm writing! I'm constantly worried about my grammar, and my horrible grasp of the english language (even if it's my first and only language). Which has totally scared me off of the idea of commenting on some of the blogs I follow. My goal for this week is for this time next week to have commented on a least one of the blogs I'm constantly checking in on.
Until tomorrow, happy DIYing! *chris
Until tomorrow, happy DIYing! *chris
