MEET MY APRIL ADVERTISERS

Monday

 AD - This post features my monthly advertisers. If you are interested in advertising with me then please contact me or find out more on my advertise with me page.

woman working on a keyboard

I have really enjoyed sharing some of my favourite blogs with you each month, it's such a good way to interact with and discover new people.

Life of Morag blog logo

Firstly, we have Life of Morag, a fabulous blog all about travel, politics, health and life in general. I recently discovered Morag on Twitter and I'm so glad that I did, she has such insightful posts that are written from the heart. Be sure to check out her blog!


Start by reading these posts


A girl with a view blog logo

Tash from A Girl with a View is one of my all-time favourite bloggers. She writes about lifestyle, university, travel and more. I always make sure to keep up to date with her posts and you should too! If you love reading helpful, honest posts then you need to check out A Girl with a View.

Check out these posts by Tash


Pickle Emporium logo

Now, this suggestion is a little bit different as I usually advertise bloggers but why not promote small shops too? Prickle Emporium sell really lovely succulent plants and plant accessories. These plants would really brighten up a room and by buying them you would be really supporting a small business. Make sure to check out Prickle Emporium for your plant needs.

Lynn Mumbing Mejia blog logo
Lynn Mumbing Mejia is a great lifestyle blogger with some really helpful posts about DIY and life in general. My favourite posts of hers are her recipes, they always look amazing! If you want really informative posts and advice then you need to check out Lynn's blog!

Make sure you read these posts by Lynn

Sophia Patel blog logo
And finally, last but definitely not least we have Sophia Patel. From blogging help to lifestyle and travel, Sophia has such an amazing range of posts on her blog. If you love reading all about lifestyle or need a bit of blogging advice from time to time then her blog is definitely for you!

Check out these posts from Sophia


Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy these blogs and shops as much as I do, let me know what you think of them. I loved having them on my blog! Remember, if you want to advertise with me for as little as £3 per month then you can just reach out to me.

HOW TO WORK OUT THE BEST BLOGGING NICHE FOR YOU

Saturday

This is a guest post from Sophia Patel.

Blogging can be a challenge, especially when you feel like you are always scraping for content. After 6 years, at times I can find it a weekly struggle to come up with content good enough. There are, however, several tools and habits to stop you from walking down this path - one of them is establishing your niche. Here's how.

Get To Know Your Audience

Just like your blog, your audience will evolve. You will gain some, lose some, and others will stick with you along the way. Base your key topics of interest on your analytics - what are my most popular posts within a particular time frame? What is the demographic of your audience? Both your topic and audience have to work together, otherwise, you will have no one reading your posts. For example, a parenting blog would not be 100% relevant if your audience were 10-15-year-old boys, would it? Establish your demographic first.

What Are You Interested In?

Over the last few years, I had had so much inner conflict with this. I started as a beauty blogger (reviewing the likes of Benefit's They're Real Mascara). Now, you will see 3 beauty posts per year. Why? Because over time your niche will naturally change. I have always considered it an evolution because the ideas you come up with at silly hours in the morning is usually a clue as to what you want to post. And let's be honest, content is always better when it comes from the heart. That's why over time I have ditched the beauty and moved into blogging tips for beginners and home & finance. When the content slowly evolves, some will stick around, and some will leave - that's just part of the process.

laptop coffee and to do list

Don't Try and Blog About Everything

This is a mistake I learned pretty late on. Over time, it is so easy to add a little bit of everything. Been on holiday? Blog about that. Done some clothes shopping? Blog about that. Cooked yourself a nice meal? Blog about that. Just in this example, your blogging niche has expanded to travel, fashion and food. But it begs the question of which one is your direct niche. I have been calling myself a lifestyle blogger for years, yet what does it mean? If new audiences want to gain a snippet from your blog and see a dozen blog posts in different niches they may be slightly confused. Nail down your focus to a few interlinking topics (I have linked blogging tips and home niches by talking about creating a home office to blog), and perfect them. Chances are, there will always be someone else blogging about the niche you ditched so no need to worry.

If You Cannot Write About It, It's Not The One

If you have a niche that you love, but cannot ultimately write content about, then it is not the one. Increased competition means that posts need to be near 1000 words to meet the requirements of Google. If your niche cannot meet that easily, you will still struggle for content. When thinking of a niche, without any resources - make a list of as many blog posts as you can. When I moved to home and interior blogging, I came up with 50 ideas, meaning I could effectively have enough titles for the next 6 months (excluding guest posts and exclusive content). Bounce blogging ideas off one another and aim to interlink many of your posts (a series / two part post). Not only will this help to create content, but strengthen your niche.

What Blogs Do You Read?

Chances are, your niche and the topics you are interested in are going to be linked. If you are still struggling to pinpoint your niche, look at it from a different angle and self-reflect. Think about yourself - your hobbies, career path, the books you read and the blogs you follow. Create a Venn diagram if need be and see where it all overlaps.

Then look at the competition. If the market is oversaturated, it is going to be difficult to stand odd / offer content that Google doesn't have the answer to. E.g. Blogging tips is a very large field with lots of high DA Bloggers competing. As this is something I want to pursue, my niche has shifted to beginner level. We strip back all the technical terms and start from scratch. The key is to find a balance where you are offering content that has not been done a million times before, and something that you have enough experience to talk about. After all, list posts and how-to's are the most popular.

working on laptop with flat white

Give It Time

This is the number one piece of advice. Blogging takes time, finding your niche takes time. If you find it straight away then you are the lucky one - but more than likely a new blogging niche is caused by a love for something else and a critique of current work. If you ever have that dilemma, then it is time to change, because otherwise it'll be shown in your content.

About the Author:

I am Sophia - a recent marketing graduate who is blogging full time in lockdown. I talk about all things blogging; as well as the progress on renovation of an 18th century home on a budget, to boost valuation for sale.

TOXIC POSITIVITY: THE LOW DOWN

I am continuing on my blog series called The Low Down. I haven't done a post in this series for a while so if you are new to reading my posts, I basically just write my opinion on things in this post. I've written about things like student housing, friendships and being a fussy eater before, and this time I'm going to be writing about toxic positivity.

long grass by the sea
Image by Nathan Cowley on Pexels.

What is Toxic Positivity?


Before looking into toxic positivity, and hearing a few things about it on social media, I didn't know anything about it. 

"Toxic positivity is the assumption, either by one's self or others, that despite a person's emotional pain or difficult mindset" - Dr Jaime Zuckerman, clinical psychologist in Pennsylvania. Read the full toxic positivity article on healthline.

Toxic positivity has become even more prevalent in the pandemic. How often have you told someone you are having a tough time to be faced with responses like "it could be worse" or "everyone has that" or even "you should feel lucky?" You may have even responded in this way to people.

It supports the rhetoric that we are not allowed to feel sad or in a bad mood and we must try to feel positive and think positively. It's not possible to think positively 24/7 so why, as a society, do we try to push this?

What can we do about Toxic Positivity?


I think it's definitely important first and foremost to recognise toxic positivity. Before reading about it, I wouldn't have even known that it can be harmful to people and a lot of the time, people believe they are helping by trying to make other people think positively.

Obviously, it is great to have a positive mindset and, I'm just saying that it's impossible to expect this from people all the time and if you or your friends are feeling down, it's important to look after yourself and recognise that you are down so you can deal with the emotions, rather than just pushing them away while trying to be positive.

Change your approach


Start with yourself. If you're feeling down then remember that's ok and hopefully you will feel more positive another day - remember to go easy on yourself and treat yourself with kindness. 

As for being there for others, if someone is coming to you with a problem or they are feeling sad, think about how to approach this. Instead of trying to get them to think positively, just tell them you are there for them and it's ok to feel sad now and again. Ultimately, if someone is coming to you with an issue, they will be reassured that you are there for them, there is no need for saying things like "it's ok, you have nothing to be upset about," as we spoke about earlier.

Just to reiterate - positive mindsets are GOOD and it's great if you are mostly positive. However, not everyone has that mindset all the time and it can do more harm than good to try and force people to look on the bright side when they are feeling low.

What are your thoughts on toxic positivity?

10 STEPS TO HELP YOU GROW YOUR INSTAGRAM

This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you purchase a product through these links I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Over the last couple of months, I have been trying to up my Instagram game and it's been paying off so far so I thought I'd share my tips with you. If you have Instagram already, you might know how frustrating it can be but don't give up! Most of my brand collabs are actually on Instagram and my blog is secondary to that so it can be a really good way to score collabs if that's what you're after.


First of all, you will need to think of why you want to grow your Instagram. It could be because you want to attract more people to your website or business, or you might want to collaborate with brands.

 

Before anything else, I just want to emphasise that follower count is not the be all and end all, engagement is what's most important!


You can follow me on Instagram here.


Like Comment Follow Instagram icons
Image by Christian Dina on Pexels.

1. Take care in the images you upload


The main reason people will want to follow you or engage with you is because of the content you put out. You will be wanting to put out content that your followers will enjoy and content that says a lot about you. For example, if you love travelling then post some of your favourite travel snaps!

Related: 5 Steps to Taking Successful Instagram Pictures

2. Engage with people


If you are wanting people to engage with your content, you should engage with theirs too. Don't be scared to comment, reply to stories and even DM people sometimes. The more you connect with an account, the more likely Instagram is to show your post to those accounts.


Remember to support your favourite creators by engaging with them and seek out accounts you think would like your content and engage with them too. You should be engaging with people before and after you post too!


3. Follow relevant people


Similarly to my point about engaging, if you are expecting new followers, you are going to have to follow some people to. If I see an account with over 2000 followers but they are only following 200, that says to me they don't really want to engage with other accounts.


If you keep following relevant people (by relevant I mean people that post similar content to you) then you are getting your name out there and hopefully you will gain some engaging followers too.


4. Utilise story features


Now, posting on your Instagram story won't gain you any new followers, but it will keep the audience you do have engaged. I would recommend using the features on your story such as polls and questions regularly. Let your audience get to know you and post stories regularly!

Related: 3 Tips for Staying Creative

5. Post reels


As reels are a relatively new thing, Instagram seem to be pushing them and they have potential to get a really high reach. Sometimes when I have been scrolling Instagram, I have seen just reels and nothing else on my homepage so it's definitely worth getting onto them if you haven't yet.


6. Hashtag research


Using the right hashtags is the best way for your images to reach new people. Generally speaking you should be using hashtags relevant to your image. For example, if it's an outfit image you will want to be using fashion hashtags. You will also want to be using different size hashtags. Smaller ones have 10k or less images in it whereas larger ones will have over 100k. A lot of hashtags such as #fashion will have millions of images so it's unlikely your image will be seen with those ones.


There are a lot of blog posts out there with hashtags you should be using for your niche so just do some searching. Also, remember to use 30 hashtags on each post!


7. Set goals


I find when I set realistic goals, it helps me to achieve them and set new ones. If I set myself a certain follower goal in a week, it helps me to work towards it. Now, Instagram can be tricky at the best of times so don't feel disheartened if it takes a while for things to change.


Check out this Instagram Branding Pack.


8. Be consistent with posting


The more consistent you are with posting on your story and on your feed, the more engagement you will get. Also, you will look active to new people discovering your account and they will be more likely to follow you than if you haven't posted in weeks.


It can be hard to find the time sometimes, which is why it's best to plan your content ahead. I use an app called Feed Preview on my iPhone to plan all my feed content. I do try to plan out story content too but a lot of the time life gets in the way - which is OK too.


I try to post on my feed every other day and a few times a day on my story.


9. Use your analytics


Set your account to a business account, then you will be able to see your analytics. You will be able to see which posts have done well in terms of hashtags and you will be able to see when your audience is most active. Mine is most active around 6pm each evening so I will try to post around then where possible.


Also, once you have been posting for a while, pay attention to the posts that have had the most engagement and see if you can post something similar.


Check out this social media template bundle for Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.


10. Have fun with it 


This is the most important step! Remember, you are posting your content for YOU so make sure you are posting what you enjoy. There's no point posting things that you hate just to impress people or brands. If you're authentically you, it will pay off!


Do you have any Instagram tips?


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