#WONDERWOMEN2017
Start pouring in your success stories and empower other #girlbosses around you. #bloggerlife #thatshowididit #wonderwomen2017
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Source : Candyfloss digital
Brand Your Blog
You obviously want everyone to identify your blog as ‘The Blog’ and not just ‘some blog’, you’re struggling hard for people to believe in your blog as a brand and rely on it like ardent fans of exquisite brands do!
When you think of shoes, ‘Louboutin’ pops into your head when you think of ‘Chanel’ you associate it with Elan and Luxury. That’s the power of a Brand name. Want one for yours?
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Source : Candyfloss digital
Top 5 things that make you an Unprofessional blogger
Being associated with the digital world it’s impossible to ignore the world of ‘bloggers’, you love them you hate them but you can’t ignore them!
Is it always necessary for bloggers to act like amateurs? Sure most of them do it as a passion or a part-time ‘fame’ claim, how many of these can be considered in your list of professional bloggers you’d want to work with? Running a digital agency that closely associates with bloggers I figured most are just a bunch of self acclaimed fame with no professionalism to match nor any work ethics. It was then I decided to publish this write-up with the hope that some of these amateurs understand what drastic mistakes they are committing in the corporate world and how inconvenient it can get for PR agencies or genuine product/services that unfortunately chose the platform of (influential) bloggers to make an impact and not to mention regret it much sooner than later!
Here are my top 5 picks from the most unprofessional ones I have stumbled into so far!
1. Unavailablity ! – You’re active on all social media platforms, with nothing less than 10 instagram stories a day and incessant ranting about your ‘bae’ , ‘#makeupessentials’, ‘#hustle’ , ‘#bossbabe’ , ‘#healthymeals’ etc etc etc …You do understand that when someone approaches you for work their team has been closely following all your pages until they decide to make the blunder of hiring you for a campaign right? It’s business rule #1 ! Reply to client calls, messages or atleast Emails! No one likes chasing you from weekend to weekend while you act like you’re caught up in your diva world! There are people out there running serious businesses in the REAL world with REAL money and REAL clients, deadlines involved! It would be nice if you woke up from your virtual slumber and for once took up your work seriously and followed up with the people contacting you for work opportunities. Unless you’re not interested in being ‘DM for collaborations!’ , sweetie you gotta reply to those remember?
2. Lack of Value for work and time: You don’t understand work commitments, you take up work you’re unable to finish on time and barely contribute towards the aesthetics or image of the brand/products you collaborate with.
3.Communication methods : No one likes communicating with someone rude, cold or indefinite. If blogging is your profession then you must be professional in your communication with the client. Student like responses with no thought or feedback reflect poorly about you and ofcourse you won’t be paid the extravagant amount you demand on a whatsapp chat for a campaign!
4. Disinterested: You receive the promotion brief by email, and all you care about is the money you will be paid. That’s a BIG NO! Successful bloggers take up work that interests them and towards which they can meaningfully contribute! Blogging is all about a personal touch not about someone making ridiculous amounts of dollars to put up hashtags disinterestedly!
5. You don’t take your profession seriously: While we understand that there are a bunch of bloggers that do it for money while the others do it just for fun, fame or passion. The problem is with the ones that do it for money or call themselves ‘professional brand influencer’ , brand influencing is a job! you have to take it seriously and put in some real efforts in the form of time and understanding details of the campaigns, in the absence of which you’re a big no no to the brand or any kind of influencing.
On that note, let’s hope to find more professional bloggers in the industry!
Source : Candyfloss digital
5 TIPS FOR BRANDING AND BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL BLOG
BLOGGER OF THE MONTH- CINDY BATCHELOR gives us Branding tips for a successful blog! Read on for more…
Branding… This is something you hear over and over as a blogger, but to be quite frank, I haven’t always been sure exactly what that even meant. I get that by building my blog, I am building my brand, but where does one actually start when it comes to branding?Branding isn’t just important for bloggers who are wanting to get their name out there, it’s vital for any business to succeed. If you google the meaning of the word branding, it means establishing a presence in the consumer (or readers) mind, in order to attract and keep customers.
1. Create a Unique, eye-catching Logo and Name
One way to do this is, and the first thing you will obviously want to do when starting a blog, is create a good logo and name for your blog (or brand). When It comes to branding and creating a logo/name, keep it fun, catchy, simple, eye-catching, and unique, and of course -relevant to what you want to talk about and what you want the focus of your blog to be! These are the keys to creating a successful logo for your brand.
2. Build Your Social Media and Use it Regularly
Don’t forget to share all of your blog posts to all of your social media outlets! Social Media is not only fun and HUGE, but it’s absolutely necessary for branding these days. Ask any blogger, they will tell you it is absolutely necessary and one of the biggest things they use to help drive traffic to their blog. Start building your social media now! Get on all of the major social media outlets too such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube if you have videos! Snapchat is becoming the next big social media outlet, and I keep hearing about it over and over! Businesses are wanting to use it more and more to get the word out, and that means they want to work with bloggers who have high influence and a good following here, so start Snapchatting! This is one I admittedly need to be better about using and building for my own brand!
3. Add those Handy Social Media Share Buttons to your Blog
When blogging and create awesome content, be sure to share each post on all of your social media. Also, be sure to add those handy little social media share buttons to your blog so that it makes it easy for your readers to share your post to their social media as well!
4. Show off your Brand!
Create your business card to keep on hand to give out when needed. Don’t be afraid to go a step further and get creative with your brand. Being a fashion blogger, I love creating a cute Tshirt, tote or accessory that shows off my style, as well as gets people asking about my logo and in turn, hopefully, sparks an interest in seeing what my fashion brand is all about! Whatever your niche, create cool logos and place them on products used in your niche. For instance, if you run a cooking blog, create cute teaspoons, spatulas, etc with your blog name and logo on it! If you’re a sports blogger, get your brand printed out on tennis balls, gym bags, etc. The ideas are endless!
Find events you can attend with people who are interested in the topic of your niche, and start passing out your gear! I plan on keeping some fun Sunglasses with my blog logo on hand at all times, to give out when I find a good opportunity to help someone remember my blog in style! Because that is what my blog is all about- Style!
5. Bloggers love other bloggers. Start getting involved in blogging facebook groups, attend blogger conferences, and start sharing your brand.This is such a great way to get tips, helpful information from other men and women doing the same thing you do (The experts!), and is a great way to start building your brand and getting your name out there. Comment regularly on your favorite blogs (you’re linking back to your own blog by doing this). Share other bloggers’ blog posts to your social media. Share the love and more often than not you will find other bloggers will do the same for you! It’s also an amazing way to find lots and lots of people (and potential readers!) who are already interested in your niche, and this is of course, always a great way to help build your brand.
Branding can be fun, so play around with it, come up with some good ideas and then get going! Be sure to take your time creating your logo and blog name, make sure it’s something you will LOVE for a very long time and love sharing with others when they ask you about it! Then get building your brand and sharing it!
Happy Blogging!
Source : MyStyleSpot
HOW TO FASHIONABLY MIX PRINTS AND A CUTE PRINTED SANDAL THIS SUMMER
BLOGGER OF THE MONTH- CINDY BATCHELOR tells us how to be fashionable wearing mix prints this summer! Read on for more…
HOW TO MIX PRINTS: A GUIDE FOR A NEWBIE
Start small. You don’t have to start mixing those floral and stripes just yet (although they are a great one to start with!) We will work our way up to it. One of my favorite ways to do this is to mix an overall print like a printed dress with a printed accessory such as a hat, shoe, or handbag.
Mix Neutral prints with colored prints. While mixing a lot of color can be intimidating, mixing a neutral with a bold, colorful print is a great way to start. Mix that pretty black and white check printed handbag with a floral red print dress. Remember, neutral colors are: beige, brown, black, white, or tan.
Mix a small print with a bigger print. Small prints look a little less “out-there” and are great to start with when you’re new to figuring out how to work different prints together in an outfit. Tip: Small prints look more flattering on more petite body shapes too. Pick a small gingham print and pair it with large graphic print.
Start with the basic prints. Stripes, plaid, polka dots, animal prints, and florals. They all look great together! Just be sure to limit your outfit to two varying prints only. Any more and you will end up looking more like a crazy person!
Keep the colors in the same color family. Once you’re ready to move past the neutrals, start picking prints of the same color palette. You can also pick prints of the same color.
Be Brave and go for a print on top and a different print on bottom. Break up the chaos with a thicker belt. This will tie the look together in a complimentary way. You can also use this same technique with your skin such as wearing a crop top in a print. the skin between the prints will leave it looking a little less chaotic and more put together.
Remember leopard print and stripes can act as a neutral. Mix with a print in a similar family of color for an easy way to dive into the trend.
Once you start to get a hang of it and train your eye, you can start going bolder with more prints and mixing more colors of varying degree.
Source : MyStyleSpot
INSTAGRAM THE NEW SNAP(GRAM) ERMM CHAT?!
Instagram does it yet again! In a world filled with creative ideas , all it’s doing is creating rip offs , well , with the much needed improvements ofcourse. No, that doesn’t change the fact that Instagram wasn’t ever supposed to be a ‘story’ sharing platform! What was it about again? Pictures, retro filters for those pictures , not sure ! Wasn’t sure back then, not sure even today !
Instagram Stories is a new feature that lives at the top of your newsfeed and allows you to pop in a stream of photos that expire after 24 hours, just like Snapchat and now the whole world is out there complaining that Instagram ruthlessly copied Snapchat. Acknowledging this well-known fact we must not lose focus about the fact that Instagram played the smart game of using it’s strength of a large audience , to launch the ‘story’ update. Let’a face it, the millennials are hooked onto Snapchat, while the older generation took comparatively a long time to understand the concept of showing few seconds of your life as an ‘update’ , some of us didn’t understand it at all! That includes me ! I found it plain silly to put up short videos as stories to update my friends about my life! Also the latest animal filters were a confirmation that I didn’t want Snapchat EVER! Well Instagram definitely not one to lose it’s share of users played a smart trick to make it comparatively easier to try out the story feature, it gives you hints and tips throughout your first few stories to let you get a hang of it , and not cluelessly manoeuvre trying to figure a bunch of new things on an app you’re hooked onto. So users are a little less hesitant to try it , than they would be in case of Snapchat , where you need to download an altogether different app in order to just share stories. Overall I think it’s a good feature for Instagram users to get the feel of two apps in one. The bloggers will be able to connect more with their followers too.
“Good artists copy; great artists steal” – Picasso
Not a fan of stealing ideas, but hey if you can improvise on an existing idea , I’d like to say , why not?!
Source : The Rainbow Site
BLOGGER OF THE MONTH
Cindy Batchelor of MyStyleSpot- for those obsessed with fashion, style, and beauty
MyStyleSpot.net showcases personal style as well as covering the latest trends in fashion and beauty. A fun shopping blog created to help the reader learn about fabulous new boutiques, brands, and designers, as well as access amazing deals on fashion and beauty. MyStyleSpot was designed to be informative on everything fashion and beauty, by providing informative, insightful reviews, as well as to help enlighten and inspire the reader’s own unique style.
Created in 2011 by Cindy Batchelor- A fashion and Beauty lover, and Personal Stylist, with a masters in Psychology Counseling, who spends her time shopping, snowboarding, traveling, and getting in quality time with loved ones and her pets!
Fashion’s Cinderella Moment and Tips for How to Style It: Shabby Apple Tulle Skirt
Fashion is completely having a Cinderella moment, as in, everyone is wearing tulle! It’s been popping up all over for spring, and I was thrilled when I got my hands on the lovely gray tulle maxi skirt from Shabby Apple.
I was immediately in love when I saw this skirt in the picture but when It arrived at my door and I put it on, oh my gosh, totally had my princess moment too! My style is quite feminine but even I haven’t worn anything that made me feel quite so beautiful. When I put this on to first pick out how I was going to style it, I ended up wearing it all over the house, and I tell you what, I totally felt like royalty. I didn’t want to take it off! I was sad when I had to! I know we often wear what we love and what LOOKS good, but how often do you wear something that truly makes you FEEL good?! Well this skirt totally did it for me! I didn’t want to take it off! It made me feel so happy!
You might be wondering how in the world to style such a skirt. It’s easy! Because the skirt is so full and so feminine, toughen up your look a bit. Wear it with a T-shirt or tank to top to mellow down the drama, or like I did here, pair it with a fun crop top, a denim jacket, and some heavier shoes like this blue wedge I’m wearing. When you add some masculine or tougher, heavier accessories, it gives the look a good juxtaposition and keeps it from going over-the-top princess.
Source : MyStyleSpot
They said you could be anything
You can be anything you want said they, for a moment I paused and thought then I’d be an astronaut! I can go to space and probably see the stars! I was only 6 back then, little did I know growing up would teach me so many lessons, unfolding them took up so much of me that I had lost the twinkle in my eyes when I saw these stars up above. “You can be all that you dream of sweetheart” , hell no ! Ofcourse I can’t! Do you think this security guard enjoys standing outside at 3am when he’d rather be home with his wife and kids? Do you think that woman who is trying her best to make ends meet has no wish to be able to go on that holiday trip she’s been planning for years now? I could be all that I dream of , yes sure! But will this society ever accept me as that? Will it let me conquer my fears and outreach myself to accomplish these dreams? Will the numerous barriers of culture , race , traditions, sex, language ever ensure that I move even an inch closer to my dream? Certainly not. But what I will find is despair , discouragement , disbelief , jealousy , that their magnitude will definitely imbibe a sense of “nobody” in me. Growing up teaches you that you’ve got to be the one backing your ownself all the time , cos that’s all you got and that’s all you’ll ever have by your side constantly. You’ve got bills to pay and food to cook , you can’t be just someone eating air and drinking water, remember?
I can’t be anything I wanna be, but yes I can surely be someone constantly fighting these dark demons to chase my dreams day in and out , to encourage that light that shines within me. They said you could be anything, they lied. But if you can be ‘something’ in this vast chaotic mess.
Source : The Rainbow Site
Find your inspiration.. I found mine
That unfortunate morning when i lost my father had instantly changed me forever. I’ve always been a pensive kid, looking for more than what meets the eye. Seeking deeper meanings, finding answers to questions, reading people’s faces and trying to decode those facades. The last meal I ate with my father he was a bit unusual, speaking more than he usually does, speaking things that made us wonder “what’s this dinner talk all about?!” He went on to sort of prepare my brother to take on responsibilities , as if he was already aware he is not going to see sunrise tomorrow. His last statement to me and my brother being “Don’t ever take your clients for granted, clients and life – two things that are the most unpredictable. So cherish what you have today for all you know you no longer will have it the next moment”
What inspires me as a Blogger?
This. To write until the end of my life. To express my thoughts, my observations, to describe birds,flowers,this chaotic world, to immortalize love and freedom of words. I miss my father every single day undoubtedly , but maybe these musings i write every now and then are my way of reliving my moments with him and in some way contributing towards the betterment of this world.
Source : The Rainbow Site
Conquer you Fear!
“What’s the worst and lowest level of misery?” I asked myself, deep down knowing the answer yet gasping a pause , “living your life on someone’s else terms” came the answer. Why do we spend hours in a day trying to impress someone? Or project something we are not? Why do we need to justify ourselves to every person that takes us wrong? To me, this is the not the meaning of life! Yes I’m a victim to society and the projected reality we go through in our day to day lives! Into pressure I’m supposed to buy a Gucci belt although an unbranded leather belt would just be fine, or maybe a Michael Kors watch although a local titan make would still tell me the same time and perhaps last longer for the coming generations to cherish! Why are we so caught up into projections. It’s indeed very pressurising to be real! I can never be real and tell my colleague I’m unable to take a couples holiday with him because my finances are low, I can never post pictures of my sick face on Facebook or probably me eating aalu sabji at home. It’s a world where difficulty , someone not being rich or successful is always looked down upon. People are willing to starve to death and spend fortunes on their appearances even if it means risking their life ! Is it even worth it is my question? All these years I’ve grown up nurturing relations in my life and my belief was the more the communication the better the relation gets. However I’ve come to terms with the fact that certain people in life will never understand your story and no matter how much you communicate you’ll always end up feeling like you’re unheard. Also I’ve matured into realising that justifications for everything Is a waste of time. If people have to misinterpret you , they will do so eitherways. Justifying yourself is only putting them through the bad habit of getting a clarification from your end all the time. If they cared they wouldn’t need any justification in the first place!! In life you meet a lot of people. It’s important to keep the ones that ease you’re pain closer to you.
My new year resolution is to live my life on my terms! No matter how crazy , stupid , selfish or senseless it appears to anybody I will continue to walk my journey on my terms and not make the mistake like the old me and turn around and stop by at every dog that barks at me! I will never reach my destination that way..Losing people has been one of my biggest fears and perhaps through my resolution I will be conquering this fear.
On this note I wish to inspire you with another piece of myself wishing you a happy and self made 2016! Stay true to yourself and earn Guccis and feel good wearing them , not force your spouse or parents to buy them for you just to prove someone something!!:)
Source : The Rainbow Site
Love, it’s a lot more than what you think!
I’m in love with what love does to people,
The way it could make people hear sounds they didn’t notice before,
The way it could make colors seem a little brighter,
The way it evokes memories through scents.
I’m in love with what love does to people,
It pushes one to want to kick off bad habits and be a better person,
It makes one to say “I am going to make it so we can have a better life in the future.”
It gives hope and encourages growth.
I’m in love with what love does to people,
It stops people from jumping off cliffs.
It makes one to finally take that first bite of sandwich after months,
It’s that tiny voice inside one’s head that say “You’re good enough.”
I’m in love with what love does to people,
It drives people to want to make the world a better place,
It inspires people to find the cure for cancers and diseases,
It fuels the passion of our brothers and sisters to fight for rights and freedom,
for people that they don’t know.
I’m in love with what love does to people,and when I say that, I don’t mean just the pleasant things,
I’m intrigued with the way it makes people lose their minds,
The way it makes people give their hearts to someone else and say, “Here, take it.”,
as if it doesn’t belong to them.
I’m in love with what love does to people,
I’m enthralled with the way it softens a person but also, has the power to harden a person,
The way it brings down walls and melts stone cold hearts,
And how sometimes, the very same love,
could make one swears that they will never let anyone in again.
I’m in love with what love does to people,
because in spite of everything it does,
it only makes one to love even more through ways they don’t expect;
through the built up walls, barely healed wounds, closed up hearts,
wrong choices, deluded thoughts, one is still capable of loving again and again,
whether it’s by going all out or starting over with cautious baby steps.
— so I conclude, I’m in love with what love does to people
Source : The Rainbow Site