30 September 2013

Introducing the Beginner Blogger's Bootcamp: Kickstart Your Nail Polish Blog!

Hi everyone! After much contemplation and procrastination, I'm launching my new series for newbie bloggers. I remember being a new blogger searching for information online about starting a nail polish blog. I found lots of great blog posts, but very few comprehensive sources that would take me through starting a blog. I envisioned this as being that comprehensive source to turn to. My plan is to archive it on this site, giving it a dedicated page, so that it will not only be useful to new bloggers today, but also those starting blogs in the future.

Curious? Read on...




What Is It?

You might want to think of this as a series of mini classes or workshops, or for those of you who have already started blogging, a refresher on some of the essentials. A new post will be published once a week on a topic, beginning with the most basics of starting a blog, such as deciding what platform to use, then moving onto more advanced topics like photographing and writing reviews.

Each post will be informative, drawing from my own experiences, the experiences of other bloggers, and my research. But there will also be at times short exercises to apply what you're reading, as well as links to other resources on the web. 


Who Is It For?

I can really see this series being useful to three groups of people:
  • Those who haven't started blogging, but want to learn how to start a blog and what is involved in a nail polish blog
  • Those who are new (or relatively new) to blogging. They may have started a blog in the last few weeks or months and need some direction
  • Those who have been blogging for awhile (more than a few weeks or months), but still feel like new bloggers, or want to redefine their blog

Even within such a small niche such as nail polish blogging, there are so many different types of bloggers. Some of these posts will appeal to all new bloggers, for example the posts on blogging platforms or taking photos. However, I've really envisioned this series as appealing to those who want to make their blogs bigger. By that I mean they want to grow the audience of their blog, reach more people, and even attract the attention of companies and indie makers who will want to work with them. There are other bloggers who don't care about things like followers and pageviews, and that's okay too, but they might not find some of the posts useful.


Why Me?

I started blogging over a year ago, first on Tumblr, then later on Blogger. I may not be the most experienced blogger, but I have learned a lot in that past year, and I've come to a point where I want to pass on that information and knowledge. I also like to do a lot of reading on the subject of blogging, so in these posts I'll be speaking both from my experiences and from the research I've done. 


What Can You Expect?

Here's a tentative list of topics that will be covered over the next several weeks. If there's something you'd like to see covered but it's not here, leave a comment.
  • Defining your niche and reasons for blogging
  • Blogging platforms
  • Taking photos
  • Editing photos
  • Providing unique content
  • Building a following
  • Writing reviews and working with brands
  • Using social media
  • Managing your workload and staying motivated

Final Thoughts

I realize this series might not be for everyone. If that's you, don't worry, I plan to do other series in the future, and hopefully they will interest you more. One of my main motivations for doing this series was that I wanted to take what I've learned through my experiences and my research and bring it together in a way that made sense for me, and ideally for others. 

If you're a new blogger, or thinking about starting a blog, I hope these posts are helpful for you. If anything here stand out, I'd love to hear about it! Your feedback is very important to me. :)

Stay tuned next week on Monday evening for our next bootcamp post!

Tell me: how many newbie bloggers are out there? How do you learn about blogging, from reading or from experience (by doing it), or both?

56 comments:

  1. Meghan, this is a wonderful idea. I think you'll help a lot of people. You're friendly and knowledgeable and you clearly have successes yourself to draw on. :) I look forward to reading these articles you'll write!

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    1. Thanks Jolene! :) I hope that you get something out of the posts.

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  2. Ahhh brilliant I can't wait, I started my blog just for myself, somewhere to see the pretty nails I'd managed and see my progress but most of the time I get a little disheartened when thing font go do great and I give up for a week or so (not on my nails though)
    I've read so many different posts and places about starting new Blogs but it will be great to have an all inclusive so to speak. I'm really looking forward to this :-D
    xxx

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    1. Oh no! Sorry to hear that you've stopped blogging a few times. I hope that I can make a some helpful suggestions.

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  3. Oh just a thought in the taking pictures bit have something on how to hold your hand
    With bottle no bottle with and without accessories
    not just the usual lighting Camera setting blah :-D

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    1. I can definitely talk about hand poses, thanks for the suggestion Heather. And thanks for the feedback as well, I hope you get some useful information and motivation out of these posts. :)

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  4. Great idea! I'll definitely read them with interest! :)

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    1. Thank you Anastasia! And please let me know if there's anything in particular you're interested in.

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  5. Such a great idea! I am a new blogger that started in Jan this year. I am struggling with taking purple colour nail polishes. They always turn blue. WIll be looking forward to your posts! Thanks!

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    1. Thanks for the feedback and I hope you find the posts useful! I can definitely talk about adjusting polish colours, I have that same problem as well sometimes.

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  6. This is great! I started my blog just over a month ago. Hopefully you'll have some helpful hints for me! I learned a lot by reading before I started but I am learning even more as I go, realising some things I try are really not good enough and trying to fix it, etc.

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    1. Thanks Painted Fingertips, I hope that you find some helpful and useful information in these posts. It's definitely an ongoing process - learning about blogging, and improving on it. I'm still learning more about blogging even after more than a year. :)

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  7. I would love to learn to do a nail blog I'm obsessed with nail stamping and certain techniques.

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    1. Thanks! I hope you find these posts helpful and they motivate you to start your own blog.

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  8. I started a blog with my friend so this is going to be super helpful for us. Thank you

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    1. You're welcome Patricia and good luck with the new blog. :)

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  9. I look forward to this! Think it would really help my blog out (: Great idea! x

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    1. Thanks! I hope that you get lots out of these posts. :)

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  10. I think this is a really interesting topic, no matter how old is your blog! I'll stay tuned for sure :-)

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    1. I totally agree! I still enjoy reading up on blogging, and nail polish blogging specifically. I don't think I'll get tired of it. It helps to keep me motivated. :)

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  11. what a fantastic idea! can't wait to see what you have to offer up, i'm sure some of us non-newbie bloggers will even learn a thing or two!

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    1. Gnarly Gnails, I really hope so! I know I continue to learn stuff about blogging all the time. :)

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  12. I've been following for about a year now and started my own nail FB page. But I don't know how to go any further and no one comes to like me or post anything. I thank you for doing this . I hope I can get further than I am at the moment. Debra

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    1. Debra, I'm so sorry to hear that and I understand your frustration. Facebook might not be the best platform for you if you don't have a blog. It's not really possible to do general searches and find new talent. When I like a page it's usually a blogger/distributor/company that I know outside of facebook. I only find out about new pages when people I'm following like a photo or post. You might want to try Tumblr or Instagram. I'm going to be talking about microblogging, probably in the second post, so you might be interested in that.

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    1. Great!! And thanks Toria, I hope you find the posts informative. :)

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  14. This would be awesome! I so need help picking a blog platform, I've got a good vision at this point but no clue how to put it out there lol

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    1. Thanks Shelby, and it will be good to see what you end up starting. I will definitely talk about blogging platforms, probably the second post. I won't cover all of them, just the major ones.

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  15. Cool, kkumachan.blogspot.com could use some serious help. +.+

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    1. Thanks for your comment, but please don't leave blog links in the comments.

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  16. I think I did so much research when I first started out, I loved finding helpful resources. This sounds like it will be a great series and I will enjoy reading it even though I'm not new at blogging ;)

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    1. Thanks Kelli! I also did a lot of research when I started, I like to keep reading up on things too, I find it keeps me motivated. I hope you are able to pick up something, but you already have a great blog so I'm not sure. :)

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  17. This is such a great idea and I can't wait to see it all come together! I started a blog as a way to keep record of the different nail art I did, but now it seems like actual human people have been reading it and I don't know what to do!

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    1. Congratulations - it's always great when you start a blog and you begin to gain some followers, it's a great feeling! :) I hope that you find the series helpful as you continue on your blogging journey.

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  18. Great idea wish I had this kind of information when I first did my blog, and its great of you to make it for the newbies!!

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    1. Thank you Ana! I'm pretty excited about this, and I really wish I had something like this too when I first started.

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  19. This sounds amazing! Can't wait to read :)

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    1. Thanks Squeaky! I hope you find it helpful! :)

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  20. Wow! What super timing for me - just took the plunge and started a blog last month. Still not too sure it's ready for public consumption and whether I like the platform, commenting, etc. I am intrigued by all of your listed topics and everything they entail. You are an incredibly talented nail designer, but also your photography and blog appearance are very pleasing - so we will be lucky to benefit from your experiences. The only thing I can add (which you may already be talking about), is how to keep the blogging part of the activity from not over-shadowing the fun and time with doing our nails. For example, time-saving and efficiency tips for keeping up with comments and general "behind the scenes" stuff. Thank you, thank you, thank you in advance!! Looking forward to these workshops so much!!

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    1. Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad to hear that the timing works well for you! I will definitely try to address your suggestions - it will probably go into "managing your workload." Hopefully I can come up with some helpful tips. :)

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  21. I look forward to reading these, I haven't been blogging too long and I have been learning a lot as I go along but there are definitely still things I would like to improve. Any tips on lighting in photos etc would be great, especially as the sun never comes out in the UK lol.

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    1. Hi Vicky, I can definitely address lighting. It's pretty hit and miss when it comes to the sun here in Canada, but I've managed to work my way around it.

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  22. I think that this is a wonderful idea, that will help new and experienced bloggers alike. I started my blog to use it as a sort of personal diary of the polishes I like and the designs I do.....I got to the intro and stopped. All the things that you need to do to just create the page were too time consuming, taking me away from the most important things, my nails and polish. At this point I am in a limbo and uninspired, so I will be looking forward to your tutorials.....Thank you!

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    1. Thanks for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear that your blogging stalled. But maybe a conventional blog may not be for you. You might want to check in to my next post, because I'll address microblogging, which sounds like it might be more of your thing. :)

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  23. It's as if you jumped into my head and heart and thought " oh that poor lost soul.. here let me guide you!" I'm very excited about this series and I'm looking forward to reading and learning! Thank you!!!

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    1. Yeah, thanks Desarae!! I hope that you find the series very helpful. :)

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  24. This idea is wonderful! It's really great of you to want to help and teach others what you've learned. I started my blog over a year ago, but it only has a handful of post, and may as well have been last month. I have a hard time getting motivated, since I don't have any followers yet. I'm really excited to see what you have to teach us newbies! :).

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    1. Thanks Stephanie, and I hope that you find the posts helpful. Having followers or some sort of community around you can be motivating and make blogging more fun, so I understand the difficulty in keeping up with your blog. I really do hope that I can provide you with some helpful tips.

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  25. I've never blogged and in fact up until a couple of years ago didn't even know what a blog was. I have been thinking of starting one though as a place to keep my nail art pics and my thoughts and feelings/details about nail polish and makeup. For now I have been doing reviews on Makeup Alley but it would be nice to have my own place to do this and keep my own stash records on the computer. I have so many polishes now and I am a makeup junkie so I have a large inventory and I thought I could put it all online and have computer records of my favorites and not so favorites. I grew up in the era of electric typewriters and I know nothing of blogging and I simply a point and click girl on the computer. Blogging seems overwhelming to me right now. For the moment I am trying to get all my polishes organized. I have 5 sheets of notebook paper covered front and back with the polishes I own, but they were written as I purchased over the past 2 years so they are only grouped according to brand and not alphabetical. I am trying to learn how to do a "spreadsheet" to organize them all. Considering I know absolutely nothing about this I am so lost. I typed in the headers but how do I get it to alphabetize the polishes? I don't want to have to do it manually. Is there an easy way? Am I even using the right tool to make my stash list? I am so not computer literate, like I said I point and click only. If there isn't an icon this chica is lost. Your beginning blogging is just what I needed! I still want to get my polish list organized first though. Any ideas? I'd appreciate any help or tips you can offer. Thanks!

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    1. Hi Cin, thanks for your comment and I'll try to help the best I can. I definitely understand wanting to start a blog in order to keep your reviews and information about your collection all in the same place. I originally started my blog as an archive of the polishes I owned. But if you feel that you need to organize your spreadsheet first before starting a blog, and that's what makes sense to you, then really that's the best thing to do. Do what works for you! :)

      To address your questions regarding spreadsheets. I use a spreadsheet to compile my stash list, so yes, I recommend using a spreadsheet to organize yours. I use google docs spreadsheets, which is a spreadsheet that is online. I do that so I can share it on my blog (there's a link to my stash page at the top of my blog under the header).

      I tend to organize my stash manually. I alphabetize the polishes by brand. When I get a new polish I go up to where I want to add the new polish, select Insert line above/below, and I have space to add my new entry.

      To alphabetize them automatically - in excel you select everything you've filled out, then go up to "Data" then select "Sort". Then you select what column you want to alphabetize (the column where you entered the brand names if you're sorting by brand), and you make the selection of sorting it from A-Z. Then it should alphabetize the list. In google docs it's slightly different but I don't know what program you are using.

      I hope this helps, if you have any more questions let me know! :)

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    2. Thanks for the help. I am going to try google docs then. I like the way your sheet was laid out and easy to read and alphabetized within brand! My notebook papers are starting to get holes in them from the folding creases and I need to get them listed elsewhere pronto. I can still start a blog even though I am not finished listing them all. I'd rather not have to go through my stash bottle by bottle to make a list since it is already on paper. Excel is the program I was trying to use. I have never used it before since I always used word pad or notes. I sit here and look at the screen and am bewildered, as I don't understand what any of the little signs and symbols mean. I'm going to give the google doc program a try. Is that something I can access on my smartphone while I am out shopping so I can check for dupes? I have a tendency to buy the same polish over and over and get home and discover I already have those polishes.

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    3. Hi Cin, sorry for the late reply. The great thing about Google docs is that you can can access it on your smartphone. I just checked. I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner since I also have the same issue of now knowing whether I already own something or not! :P

      I'm not the type of person who uses spreadsheets for work, so it was a learning curve for me as well. But believe me, once you learn how to use them, you will be happy you did. And Excel and Google docs spreadsheet are very similar - there are some difference in the menus but they both do a lot of the same things.

      Here's the help page for Google spreadsheets (it's called Google Sheets), which you might find helpful: https://support.google.com/drive/topic/2811806?hl=en&ref_topic=2811739

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  26. I'm looking forward to reading this, I started a blog at the beginning of this year but got really frustrated with photo quality and color accuracy (I'm a huge perfectionist) so I kind of gave up. In September I relaunched after redesigning the blog, getting my own domain and setting up social media pages, but I started with the 31 day challenge and found it really overwhelming... So I've kind of given up again, lol. So any advice on developing some kind of schedule and time commitment that works for you, staying motivated, and getting inspiration would be awesome. Also tips on photography, lighting and photo editing - I know there's a lot out there already but I still find it kind of difficult, even after lots of research. Maybe talk about organization too - like organizing your stash and various accessories as a blogger, physically and virtually, and setting up a permanent photo spot versus a temporary one, etc. Sorry lots of ideas :P in any case very cool! Thanks for doing this!

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    1. Hi Tara, thanks so much for the suggestions - those are all really great and I definitely plan to address those ideas throughout the series. I plan to do a post on taking and editing pictures (I might actually divide it into two-three posts since it's so important), also workload and motivation. I really appreciate the feedback and I hope you find the series useful. :)

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  27. Ohhhh this is so great! I just started a nail art blog and by happy coincidence I came across your link to this series on IG! Quite fortuitous!! :P

    I felt so overwhelmed when I was setting up my actual page, but once it was up, I was really excited and I couldn't wait to put up my first post!!

    My question for you is a little off-topic from this post, but I'll ask it anyway :) How often should you post? I know there's no set number of posts per week, but is once a week too few? The reason I'm asking is because I'm fresh out of uni and looking for a job, so I can't really afford the resources to do my nails daily like some bloggers do. For years now I've been doing my nails once a week, every week and it works well for me. I paint my nails on Sundays and usually my manis don't start chipping until Friday. I don't really like 'wasting' polish (ie: taking it off before it's chipped or cracked) but I worry that once a week posts might be too infrequent and won't attract many readers. What do you recommend?

    I also thought of doing posts during the week which aren't related to art and designs, but more along the care route, or maybe even quick posts on how to keep nail trends work appropriate. Something! Anything! That way I could do at least two posts per week (which I realise still isn't a lot but...)

    Thanks so much for this great series. It really helps calm my fluttering nerves when I see bloggers whom I follow and admire sharing tips from their journeys through the blogging world!!

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    1. Hi Topcoat Therapy! Thanks for the great comment and I'm glad you found the series, I hope it will be of use to you. :)

      Your question isn't off topic at all. Regarding posting frequency the general recommendation is that you should post 2-3 per week minimum. The more often you post the more people are visiting your blog, and the more your posts show up in search engines, etc. Especially when you are starting out you want to try to get, and keep, people interested in your blog, and if you are not posting very often it might be hard. Of course there are exceptions to this rule - bloggers who post infrequently and still have many followers (i.e. The Polished Perfectionist, and The Swatchaholic), however, they have been blogging for years and have a good reputation.

      So you might want to do one extra mani on the weekend. Don't think of it as wasting polish, but rather working on your nail art or blogging skills. Your other suggestions for posts-nail care, nail trends - are also great. Or you can do a nail art design, then do a tutorial. Hopefully throughout the series you'll also get some other ideas for posts - I'll be doing a post on putting together unique content.

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