Blogger, Speaker, Author And Online Entrepreneur On ITunes

But if you take your blog seriously and you want it to visually stand out, the first step is understanding the principles of design. Once you understand what makes a good blog design, you can work on it yourself or find and qualify a talented designer.

It’s an extremely simple proposition. Yet, it has changed my writing completely. If I put myself into a reader’s head going through a post and seeing whether someone will say Oh, this is interesting, John will really like this”, then I go ahead and publish it. It’s almost like an invisible threshold to pass. I need to improve the post until this level is reached. I will iterate, find more research, get more examples, until I can truly imagine this happening.

Travel Tips Shoes… there’s a thin layer of ice at the entrance and down the pathway to the waterfall. I saw so many people fall. And it didn’t matter what shoes they had on. Walking with flat boots? Kissed the ground. Walking with snow boots? Bear-hugged the snow. It just didn’t matter. Please be very careful at Seljalandsfoss. Walk very slow and deliberate. Boots with treads are not a bad idea either. Also, there’s a cave behind the waterfall. It was too cold and the ground was so wet that we decided not to go back there. I wished the conditions were better, because I’d love to explore that cave.

I think I did a little link” overkill in my beginning tutorials (providing hyperlinks on every single supply I used for a project, when folks could have easily googled them). But if you mention other bloggers or smaller businesses that have been great resources for you, I think hyperlinks are always polite. Not only may they help your reader, but the company you link to may even notice traffic coming from your blog. You might get a thanks, and who knows, it could inspire a collaboration someday!

BLAIR STAKY: I started my first blog in college in 2009 as part of a class project, then picked it up again after I graduated. It was just a hobby for years and, in 2012, I decided if I wanted it to become anything more than hobby, I better start taking it more seriously. I had just moved to Chicago, was working for myself as a WordPress designer at my blog design company, Leap. My blog was a great way to connect with potential clients and advertise my business, while also exploring my other passions — one being photography, which has come a long way since the beginning. And really, I’ve always been a bit of techy nerd. In the past year, a lot has changed. I officially closed my design business, making my blog, The Fox & She , my main source of income. It was a terrifying step, but has proven to be the right one.