What's Your Problem?

This article came to my attention tonight on Twitter.
It seems to be written by a professional Nail Technician with a serious disregard for us 'short rounded' nail bloggers. It seems to be saying we're ruining her noble and thankless industry by deflecting attention away from acrylics and the geniuses that apply them. It seems to be a poorly written rush job, purely posted to incite extreme comments and draw traffic.
Much has been said about bloggers versus professionals, be it food, fashion, finance,beauty, nails, rainbow cakes. Basically it seems some professionals have a huge chip on their shoulder at anyone who appears to be as good or better at their own game, without all the hours spent chained to health and safety lectures and the tedious IT lessons.

"I feel like the real industry is getting

overshadowed and everyone’s telling me that 

no one does acrylic anymore, while I spend 

every day covered in acrylic dust"

So the author is still getting the work then? Enough to keep her covered in dust? 

What exactly is the problem? No I mean really, what is she saying? 

Maybe she had a deadline and nothing backed up.

I can see no other reason for her 'hatin' on a bunch of people who may or may not be professionals, and as far as I can see have done nothing but breathe life into an industry that was becoming a cliche?

We (nail bloggers) are not killing the profession any more than a food blogger is killing the food industry. 

It is only in the comments section that the author clarifies her intention in response to some very angry feedback

My point-- and it is made in the post*-- is that natural nails and polish/art have not, as yet, dominated to the extent of representing the entirety of professional nail services being done in salons. And I'm a little irritated (but not exactly hateful) that my own industry resources have been so quick to forget that many of us are still doing "fake nails" on a regular basis... making a living doing them, in fact.

*no it isn't

So what she's really saying is her own industry's publications are selling its members down the river by favouring the decorated, natural nails rather than show artificial nails? 

Is that what she's saying? 

Because I don't see L'Oreal and Chanel calling up nail bloggers consistently to do manicures for their collections. If anything, the industry is as nepotistic and elitist as it ever was. 

What we do, and I speak for all bloggers whatever the field of interest, pro or noob, is employ ourselves as curators or counsellors of passion.

We might break things down so readers and fellow enthusiasts can try something they never thought they could do.

We might tell you the truth about something that has a misleading but unstoppable marketing campaign behind it. 

We might be up all night editing photos and text and re-doing things until they're reader worthy. 

We might do it for an audience of 5 or 5 million.

We are here to stay, and if forward projections are to be believed, the majority of the human race will have a blog one day. I see value and importance in everyone's private lives and thoughts, not just professionals who already reap the rewards of their craft daily.

We're also pretty good at forming a sentence or two, something the author might want to look into. You know, when she's bored with annoying a sizable and vocal section of the internet.

Let's Go To LA

The most beautiful pictures of LA at night by Vicky Moon Via Roos Bros stole away from me all sense of time and place.  I'm not even scheduling this post, I want everyone to go and see these. Go now. Quickly.
I was just looking at my camera and thinking

'Poor sad thing, all you do is take pictures of nails in this little room. You should be out, living, having adventures'

                                                                     
and I came across these wonderful pictures I should be filling my little bored friend up with.

I am an image whore.
I could look at art all day, not even art, just pretty things. Classical, architectural, modern, pixel emoticons, you name it. I file them in my brain and they make me try harder to be better...at something.

I get most excited by night time urban photography, and especially decaying urban scenes.
After all, I am from Manchester, a splendidly decaying Urban scene

Winter Has Landed

Help yourself to this image if you like it. Click on it for original size.

The longer us human beans are 'around', the further away we get from nature.

I feel as if I've spent the weekend on a snowy farm in out of state New York, or sled down Finnish slopes.
I've not moved from this pc, going through blog after blog after blog. Borrowing thoughts and ideas and images mentally, to give me something beautiful to focus on rather than worry about birthdays and money and school bags that are broken.

Apparently, Autumn is the time of the year when human beans get their rewards for looking after the land and everything upon it. Before all the spice trails and trade winds and world conquering, you grew stuff, gathered in the market, and people swapped or bought the stuff they couldn't grow. I never claimed to be an academic, so forgive the simplistic adn quite possibly, nonsensical description.

Since telly was invented, we've started thinking of Christmas as being our 'treat' time. Presents, specifically mass manufactured electronic, or heavily marketed presents are the new fruits and berries and wheat. Our harvest is in the plasticized sacks under plasticized trees.
I want to shake the 14 year old out of his current lethargy. I didn't get him an I-pad for Christmas, the grant went unclaimed. It seemed frivolous, and I was maybe a little jealous too.
He seems to be surviving.

We are snow-bound in Wythenshawe. It has been this way for one morning. I am bored with it already.
Speeding on to Summer days with no central heating, time to loll in the sun, walk in grass. Seasons seem to be more enhanced by the people you're with than the degree fo the elements that make it. I miss my best friend up in real snow North Yorkshire. I miss her stupid chocolate lab, who has gone from the cheekiest funniest baby to a grey bearded old man, who cant go skidding face first along the snow covered ground any more.
I miss the night sky there, huge and blue black.

That's the thing with time. One minute there's too much, then suddenly there's not enough.

Keep warm x

Free Cover Photos and Banner Headers

I thought I'd have a play with some of my photos on my BB while its too snow to do anything else. Save them if you like and use them as you wish.

Great Craft and Design Blogs To Waste A Day With

is a list for a friend who is considering Interior Design as a career.
We all love Elle Decor and Dwell and glossy showrooms, but often the looks inspire rather than translate.
The following bloggers are all real people living real lives.
Some are crafters rather than ID's but they still seem to lead trends rather than follow them, and are shaping their world how they want to live in it.
Just click/tap on the links, and down the rabbit hole you will go.


Every Day Is A Holiday

http://iheartshabbychic.blogspot.co.uk/


http://www.ziedarling.com/


http://www.youaremyfave.com/category/crafting-it-updiy/


http://mermag.blogspot.co.uk/

/http://www.minted.com/julep/


http://myscandinavianhome.blogspot.co.uk/


http://make-living.blogspot.co.uk/


and as a tongue in cheek treat for Wendy

http://unhappyhipsters.com/

Annoying Sites (2)

Ebay
Or rather the dodgy sellers and gullible/devious buyers
I used to feel bad for the people bidding on the fake Mac, or the overpriced Chanel or the ridiculously fake Nars. I wanted to give them some sound advice and berate the nasty sellers. However, I now believe that most of these people know exactly what they are doing and intend to sell on the goods on Ioffer or classifieds.
The sellers who have Chanel Peridot and whack a silly thirty pound Buy It Now price on it with SOLD OUT  or HTF on it when it is in abundance for £18 at any Boots, or even Illamasqua at double digits when the item is on sale at Debenhams for under a fiver drive me to despair.
I love grabbing a bargain but it's getting harder and harder now with this tacky crap (the fakes) on an endless seliing and reselling loop increasing ever thus and blocking the genuine items from showing up.
Ending soonest (but not on a smart phone) and buying from private sellers can cut the chances of you being ripped off down a little.

Etsy is following suit. There are Chanel and LV bags on there now. If you ever see anything on Etsy you like, do a quick ebay or Google Shopping search of the item. For instance, bird cage necklaces. Fallen in love with what you think is a unique piece, lovingly handcrafted? Quick search on ebay or ali express or ioffer for bird cage necklace should come up with nothing, if it's genuinely handmade. In most cases however, you'll find the item for as little as a couple of pounds from the source. Stick to actual handmade items, such as customized jewelry or edibles. Even quirky little felt-bound notebooks are mass produced now.

Annoying Websites

Namely Superdrug.
Does anyone else despise using it?
It's a good shop, but the IT team seem to be oblivious to the extra revenue and cache a good website can bring.
MUA have launched a cut price version of the Caviar Manicure kit, but unless you specifically search for MUA nails ( a 3 step procedure) you won't see it on front page. Not even Nails front page.
Like the dark ages.
Come on Superdrug.

Bloggers Wish Lists

Stop taking the proverbial.

The cameras working!

Pics galore...I must admit, without the proper camera, blogging had lost its sparkle, my iphone is cute an all, but the Blackberry had a better camera, and when I droped that down the loo, well, it was downhill from there.
But I found all the necessary bits to the camera and am pleased to present a manicure for a change.
I loathe staming plates for nails, I just think they're a kids trick. Sure some people really do them well and play around, but the usual 'stamp, there, click' seems really lazy to me. A good sticker though and a bit of personalisation is right up my street, and as Autumn is beckoning us in with a chilly finger, the neutrals are back

Where have you been?

Staying at Redheads...exciting news, WE met a doctor!
Redhead would say SHE met a doctor, because she likes to be fussy...but I'm very excited and hoping it works out.
Josh's laptop is being relaptopped, whatever that involves, something to do with disks and Windows, and so he has monopolised mine for all last month, hence the blogging shortage.
We went to the zoo, all pictures were taken on Iphone and therefore look like we took a trip to 1978, so I need to sort those before uploading.
Went out a bit, Manchester in Pride weekend was a little crazy, but fun. Cheers to them, the boys in shorts and raincoats, the girls with fabulously assymetric hair and everyone in between.
Now back home and cleaning up and getting ready for a new school year. I'm still clinging to term times as if they mean anything. Now Josh is 14, its all rather serious but almost over too. We just need a good school bag and a blazer and we're done.

Question: Is it appropriate to scoop a fly out of yesterdays wine and drink it anyway?

This is a test

Just seeing what my iPhone can do..

For the smartarse spammer in the previous comment section

Here is my enlightening Galaxy Nail Post

Take five colours, smush them about a bit.
Do not study pictures from outer space.
Do not take more than 3 minutes to do entire manicure.
Dot white polish in a random fashion

Et voila!

Why Comment Moderation Kills Blogs

Obviously, some of the biggest blogs on the web use moderation, so this isn't a tutorial. I bet they didn't start out using it though. When I go to a blog post that might have been published yesterday, say, and I see no comments, and I have something (usually too much) about the issues raised, I'll get all excited. I'll think a number of things.

• ooh, no-one is brave enough to comment
• ooh, I can leave an uninfluenced comment
• I'll comment to show support
• I'll comment with a different spin on this

So you type out the comment, and press the button. 

Oh.

Awaiting moderation.

Of course you can't delete the comment until it's been approved, so if you have said the same thing as 11,000 other people, there is no way of knowing until it's too late. Same applies to posters replies. If they've answered a question that is relevant to your comment, then you look like a troll or a nincompoop.

I understand that spammers make everything horrid. Mine go in the spam folder and noone sees them. Or genuine bloggers can be argumentative, nasty and negative. There should be an app that zaps certain trigger words from comments or sounds a klaxon when a beast is nearby. Until there is, comment mods are here to stay. 

But it could be killing your blog and a potential community.

Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you very much to Momma of Mojo (link to post and excellent blog here) for nominating me for this award which I graciously accept on behalf of all nonsense rambly type bloggers. For you, people, once again, I do this

So, here is the award

And here are the RULES

• Name the lovely nominor, or nominator or monitor or whatever the correct term may be. Whoever gave you the 'thing'. That is Momma of Mojo, and a lovely blogger. We have a fair bit in common, and lots of mad differences that make her blog extremely entertaining and just the right amount of those sit back and think moments. Also, her blog has just had a fairly significant makeover and it's all swishy and dapper now, so as far as good blog design goes, you should probably have a look also.

• Nominate 5 other bloggers worthy of the award.. Bear in mind the category of versatility, we all like a bit of variety. Spice Up Yer Life as the saying goes.Do let them know you have done this, with a link, so they can see who's saying what shit about them. Only fair.

• List 5 random things about yourself 

Technically, the RULES state FACTS but that's boring.

1. In my head I am 18 and sexy and thin. I was never sexy and thin, even at 18, but I wasn't this fat, and I felt fatter. So in my head basically, I am an imagining of what I could be if I was perfect. This sexy 18 year old mythical creature chooses my clothes, and spends all my money on crap. Henceforth, I have a wardrobe of clothes I don't fit into, shoes I can't walk in, and no money.

2. I think I am brave and eccentric and can cope in any social situation, but I sat in an extremely POSH bistro in an extremely POSH part of Cheshire on Saturday night and lasted about half an hour. Had to get out of there man. It was as if they could SEE the woman that sits around in her pants playing GTA and not opening bills

3. I never take off my makeup before bed, or keep up with a skincare regime and am extremely distrustful of anyone who says they do.

4. I did NOT expect beauty blogging to be more about the tech equipment than the good stuff. I was always surrounded by makeup and nail polish. Now added to that is a pool of cables, piles of cards, cameras, tablets, phones and madness.

5. I cannot filter myself. I cringe when I look at the length of the comments I've left on peoples blogs. Most of them could and should be blog posts of my own. I have issues.

Me, me, me...so onto the good stuff. My nomineets (I'm having real trouble with all this) are ... and I hope they take it in good fun..obviously I'm not expecting them all to do the award thing, but much like the adult Twister groups that have sprung up, I think its fun in a retro ironic way..

• D for Dalrymple A thoroughly good read in the style of woman with attitude. Introduced to her through a womens hair suvey. Hair down there, one might say. Stuck around. Good Tweeter too
• This Week I Have Mostly Been Loving A real experienced beauty blogger. Photographer and guest house owner too. I want to go and stay there and look through her makeup collection. Found through the comments section on my next nomineesblog
• Big Fashionista A feisty, say what I damn well want girl. Interesting and current. However, it's the mostly weekly Nom Or Vom articles I most appreciate. Should be medallised for services to women everywhere. Also, one of the most helpful supportive established bloggers about. 
• Mammy Jane's Place Such an interesting, diverse blog. She's a rockabilly-vintage-loving-tattooed-mummy-student and generally fabulous individual. Mad blog layout, but fun and different. Psychological insight, makeup and hair, family life..all with her enthusiastic twist.
• The1970s Diet Wonderfully named, eclectic mix of family life and rants about how rude people are and how we were all angels in our day. Of course we weren't, and it isn't, but I love this blog as its real and straight talking.

So there we have it. My best of the best versatile bloggers. Hope you nodded in agreement if I mentioned those you're familiar with and introduced you to some damn fine women bloggers if you haven't met them before.

Thanks again to Momma of Mojo for the chance to share the love.

Comms Chat. Way Cool

Last night whilst staring uselessly at Twitter I read a tweet from
nickie72, an IT guru (Twitter Link)
mentioning something about bloggers and 'comms' and a hashtag.
Hashtags always excite me. I can have the most random thought or dream or idea, and a quick hashtag search on Twitter will show me either of two things

• I am not alone
• I am crazy

I went straight to the site linked to, as I always do if it looks promising, and found this

 commschat-on-blogger-relations (link)

Seemed interesting enough. I wondered why I hadn't heard about this before, until I remembered I'd had a good clear out of randoms I was following, and Twitter can only show a selection of tweets at any time, so I must have freed up some tweeting space.

I waited for the chat to begin. It was hosted by

EmLeary (Twitter link)

who led with very interesting questions, and what started off slowly, soon gathered pace and I can honestly say it was the quickest hour of my life.
I very much wanted to participate, but was aware I was in the presence of real blogging and comms gurus, (by merit) such as

•  @LBQblog
• @Get_Lippie 
• @BigFashionista 
• @geekisnewchic 
• ‏@Communicatemag

which is always a little intimidating. 

I got all excited and asked some really inane questions, and was so caught up in it all, I burnt pasta and my pc was screaming with the pressure. 

I won't go into a blow by blow account, you can find that here (Link) and it is really interesting reading. 

Major themes were the bloggers relationship with PR and transparency and whether bloggers should be governed by the same rules as journos. 

As a completely amateur blogger, just writing because I have to, for me, I can't see a time when I'll ever have to worry about it, but fascinating nonetheless.
I wondered about contracts between bloggers and PR, about whether a negative opinion of a product would influence a bloggers style.
I was shocked, ok, a little taken aback to see that bloggers could inflate their stats, and that bloggers approached PR, I honestly thought you had to wait until you were head hunted, and saw both sides of the transparency debate.

Of course I felt like a useless little troll among these pro-bloggers and comms experts, but I also felt inspired and informed and entertained for the first time in a long time on Twitter.

I've been losing patience lately with the beauty bloggers hashtag. Week after week, regardless of the topic, it seems that the same things are tweeted, its rarely a discussion anymore, just quotes sent out with the hashtag and the feeding frenzy of linkage that starts as soon as the hour is up. 

With the CommsChat, because the emphasis wasn't on the beauty community, it was a more varied conversation of the medium we all use. I guess I'm more of a nuts and bolts girl, the beauty stuff is hardly rocket science, so I like to hear more about the process and the way we're looked at by others.

When it was over, I lit a cigarette, exhaled, and got round to responding  to some of my mentions, and checked back to the hashtag a bit. Lo and behold, a couple of new bloggers had completely missed the point, and were linking up, and outright begging for free stuff. 

My high horse mounted, I remarked on this, but then I thought, actually, it's their life. Just because it's not the way I conduct myself, doesn't mean it's the wrong way. So. life lessons too. 

Excellent. 

Thanks CommsChat, you're going to become the best part of Monday nights.

Body Shop VIP Event

Which I wasn't invited to.
But I crashed anyway, because I'm rock and roll.

Stumbling past the Trafford Centre store on the way to Carluccio's for tea, I saw a tray of champagne near the door...my life has been severely devoid of champagne trays lately, so I thought I'd pop in and have a look at the box-fresh Lily Cole collection. I was greeted by Brooke, who told me that L'Oreal use synthetic skin to test their products on now, and agreed that it was a shame about the conditions in China, and showed me all the Lily Cole range.
I needed a liquid eyeliner, so naturally, I bought a cheek and lip dome, a primer and a liquid eyeliner. I asked her for a black, but it was lilac when I got it home, bit irritating. I also signed up for a Body Shop card, because I've had a long standing affection for the store since I was a young'un and would spend my Saturday job wages on Strawberry Shampoo and tubs of lipgloss.

As I'd gatecrashed so convincingly, I got a Goody Bag with my purchases also, which was full of treats!

Soap and Glory kind of stole the Body Butter market right from under Body Shop, which I think is unfair. I like a butter to be so thick in the tub you have to work to get it out, but it to melt a la butter, on the skin. S and G Body Butters have always seemed a little glossy and feeble to me, whereas Body Shop butters are always exactly right. The Duo that came in my Goody Bag is wonderful.
One side is for normals, the other for scaly, dried up hags like me.
Perfect.

The Shower Gel is overwhelmingly Pink Grapefruit scented, so that's one for the mornings, and a nice large bottle of it too.

The samples are the stuff of a beauty fanatics dreams. Lots of lovely treats to play with, hair butter and fragrance, day cream, chocolate body butter (heavenly).

As for the makeup, I'm a little cross with myself.
The primer is amazing stuff.
Sorted me and Redheads drink sodden Jubilee faces right out and made us look fresh and glowy.
The trick is to smoosh the stuff between you fingers before applying to the face, and you will have a shimmery veil of smoothness.
The eyeliner is ok, but not what I wanted, it's lilac, but with a red undertone once blended out.
But it's not what what I wanted.
The Lip and Cheek Dome is absolute poop.
I'm sorry.
It refuses to be blended, and just wipes off, it's too sheer, and slidey and apart from looking the absolute business, doesn't earn its place in my makeup bag at all.
The packaging of the Lily Cole range is one of those things that looks good under the halogen, but tacky and cheap when you get it home.
It's just a big old let down really.
Nice idea, but cynically marketed towards the teen market.

Right, I'm off to buy some chocolate Body Butter. Let me know what you guys think of The Body Shops new range

Setting Up A Blog

There are a lot of ways to blog. Live Journal, the side bar on MySpace (ask someone from 2006) A domain of your own, a host site like Studio30 and here. It's taken me a year to work out how to use Blogger properly, and I don't think I'm quite all there yet. Here are some tips so that you don't waste a year too.

Creating A Blog

You've spent ages taking lovely photos, developing a craft or listening to the latest gossip, now you want to share that and make contact with like minded people. You need a name. Unless you're crazy (like me) you'll want a name that best describes what you are blogging about.

If you want to offer sophistimacated nailart, then that would be a good name. 

If you're doing OOTD then mention that in the name. 

The days of browsing and stumbling upon good blogs are gone. The first 3 pages of Google search results are now filled with the 'already made it' of blogs, sponsored listings and ads. 

You must know your audience and destination before you set off. 

I don't think its vital to have a Google Plus account either. Mine recognises my blog as being mine, but refuses to recognise I am me when commenting and joining other peoples sites.

Setting Up Your Blog

Non HTML users..

Its best to start off with one of the 16 Blogger Templates. They've been designed to work with Widgets (we'll come to those soon) and not mess up.

Bear in mind different computers load differently, so of course you'll want to customise your template, but don't mess with table/background widths too much. 

No-one likes to horizontally scroll to read your side bar.

Most people are used to pages having a left or right side bar for information, and the main body of the blog in the largest middle column. Stick to that and no-one will leave because of navigation. 

Fonts you choose are important also. I love swirly flowery fonts. LOVE them. But if you want people to 'get' what you're saying, stick to a plain, easy to read font of about 14 px. 

Let your pictures show your creativity. 

People are also accustomed to web links (date, title of post, more like this etc) being in blue, or at least some noticeable colour. So use bold type in your posts when you want to make a point, not different coloured lettering, or people will get confused. 

Background images, not on the template will slow down the loading of the blog. 

We all do that 'ooh, black background, black text' sucking of the teeth in the dancing minutes before a page sorts itself out. 

Keep that to a minimum if possible. 

Of course, if you're designing your own style sheet, do what you want.

Posts and Images

Labels are your friend. 

I went on for about eight months without labels. I wanted people to read my whole stream of conciousness, because I wasn't really aiming it at anyone other than my friends and family. 

Now I've built up a few different topics, I have to label my posts so I don't bore the browsers who are looking for Nailart with my inane Eric the Vampire lust. 

You only need two or three to start with, and after publishing the post, be sure to label. 

Select the widget Labels and Save, and they will appear where you want them to. Blogger will group them for you, and your readers can just click on their interest as soon as they land on your page. 

This is good for your blog. 

You may think that it would mean they lose out, but if a reader finds what they want quickly, likes what they see, they're more likely to revisit and one day follow or subscribe.

You can remove or add labels to multiple posts at a time. 

Useful for if you change your mind about something. 

Open up Posts> All 

Select the label icon above them. 

Apply label or click on the label you want to remove. 

Select all or some, and remove or apply.

Simple.

Always link back to your own work if you can.
If you use a nail polish regularly, create a link so readers can see other posts you used that polish in. 

If you mention a friend a lot, link back to those posts. 

Make sure the reader knows the what the link is, ie, read more about X here so they can choose. 

Click Here is generally regarded as bad form. 

If you are using an idea or a tag from someone else, you must either link or credit them. All art is plagiarism, we get that, but if you are open and honest, and let the original blogger/artist know what you have done, you may get another reader and they may recommend your work. 

You will also spare yourself having to flamethrower trolls away when they start leaving the 'that's my friends idea' comments.
Photos are one of the best things about blogs. A picture tells a 1000 words, and Blogger makes it very easy for you. It is easier to upload all your pics for that post at one time, and insert them where you want them as you come to it than scrabble about going through folders and interrupting your train of thought. 

Also remember a large number of people will be visually impaired and use accessibilty tools to look at blogs. These speak the contents of images, and so when you click on the pic after uploading, fill in the alt and image text boxes. 

This also helps when people search Google Images for specific things.

Be consistent with posting. If you get ideas daily, but only realistically get the time to post once a week, jot down your ideas and just post once a week. Consistency is what will allow your readers to rely on you for new posts and look forward to reading your blog. Nothing worse than a brain explosion, and nothing for a month or two.

Search Engine Optimization and Encouraging Traffic

A lot of people are going to tell you the best way to get your blog out there. Do a google search and the so called experts will assume you are a software programmer and offer you tons of code to enhance your blogs visibility. It is rather a lot easier than that. Firstly, you need to set up your GA or Google Analytics.

This is found at google.com analytics (link)
Follow the instructions, and once you've created your account you will get a code number. This should begin with letters UA. 

You go to your Settings>Other and type that code in where it says Google Analytics, and the little robots of Google will keep an eye on it for you. 

I deleted my bookmark after about a week as I was driving myself insane checking it every five minutes. 

The best advice I can give you is use whats available to you to drive traffic to your blog. 

Its hard work, and if you're shy or  take rejection to heart, then don't worry about it. Write your journal entries for you, and make yourself happy. 

If you want people to read and comment and engage with you, you're going to have to use the Internet. 

A facebook page people have to like rather than your personal page is a good tool for people who aren't at their pc but like to keep up with what you're doing, and Twitter is probably the best tool you can have. Follow bloggers you admire, ask for and offer help. Read their latest blog posts, so you get a feel for the mood and the rest will come in time. Don't follow every company you ever bought anything from though..your time line will be filled with spam and Twitter only allows you to see the top posts of a few of your Twitter Tweeps. If there is a comp, follow and after the dead line, unfollow. Better to sign up for newsletters if you want to keep updated with whats going on, and create an email folder so you can look through them all when you're stuck for a writing prompt.

I don't have a lot of readers, but among them are people I respect so much and I am proud of the interest they take in me. 

They wouldn't have heard of me if I hadn't taken the plunge on Twitter. 

Commenting on peoples blogs you read is another method of welcoming serious blog readers to your page. A lot of comment boxes have little forms where you can leave your link and when your comment is displayed, it will show your last post, or your Blogger name. 

Unless asked by the poster, don't leave a link to your blog though. It looks desperate, and can aggravate rather than titillate. 

If the comments you leave are engaging, as they should be, you will attract traffic to your site 

(they will click on your name) 

Please turn those text capcha things off. 

Unless you've got thousands of followers, chances are you won't get spammed anyway, and lots of would be commenters and subscribers will leave rather than jump through hoops to say 'well done'. 

This is easier done in 'use old Blogger Interface' mode.

If you lose track of where you commented, either subscribe by email to the comments feed or go to your Blogger dashboard.

Click on comments and it shows your comments to other Bloggers. 

Don't ever be too busy to respond to comments. 

Even if its once a week, consistency is important.

Thats the most important tips covered for a new Blogger now I think. 

Here's a link to my other tech-blog post, 10 internet tips for beauty bloggers which I hope you'll find useful too. 

If you enjoyed this post or think its a right load of rubbish, comment below. 

I love reading peoples opinions, even when I don't share it. 

Above all be brave, it's not easy taking an idea and throwing it into the air. But if you have courage and hard work, there are people here who will say

'Hi, we've been waiting for you'

*update*
Upon advice have un-centred post. Looks much neater, thanks Get Lippie (click here for her fabulous blog)

Blogging With Tears In Your Eyes

I am slowly working through The Bloggess archives and am truly inspired by
 This Post From Christmas 2010

This is people, encouraged by one woman to be people at their absolute best.

It's hard as a blogger or writer of any medium, when you stick your head above the trenches and are either ignored or shot down.

 It's actually insanity to continue regardless.

But absolute fucking rock stars like this one make it easier to not give a shit.

Just keep writing.

I don't write my little blog so I can get schmoozed at by L'Oreal, no judgement or sent free stuff. I write because I have to. It's in me. Like drawing and chocolate.

I don't write for a demographics taste.

How boring would that be?

My post with the most traffic was a review for a spa, and who can afford to do that every week?

I'm not Joan Collins.

I'm a single Mum from Manchester with 2 boys. One has Aspergers and one is grown up. I was married to a soldier (their Dad) and that didn't work out. I've got things to say, that often I can't say because that would open up a lot of serious shit, and no-one needs that.

So I talk about nail polish and mascara, loving what you've got and the little things that get me through the day when I'm not dealing with the Disability Living Allowance people and the tax credits and the Headteachers. And I realise how lucky I am, because I have these gorgeous physically healthy kids, and a roof over my head and a family that love me and a platform like this to get the madness out of my head onto. Thats a hell of a lot more than some people, me included in the past.

And that makes me not give a flying duck about my stats. If you're inspired by anything I have to say, or just want a reason to navigate away from this page then click here and be good people

"Give and Makeup is a non-profit initiative whose sole purpose is to get everyday essentials into the hands of these women and children who need them the most"

Give and Makeup

10 Internet Tips For Beauty Bloggers

 My oldest son at 13 could practically type out a whole paragraph with two hot keys. 

 I want to say 'show me how you did that' but frankly the look of disdain on his face puts me off and he is quite good at running errands and stuff so I 've learnt to pick my battles. 

I learned some things when I worked at O2 where you had to be quick and accurate with peoples bank details and Iphone orders and I learned the rest from going out with portly IT chaps (my favourite) and the rest I nicked off the Internet Help pages. 

And I gathered them all here on my lovely beauty blog (natch) in one easy to find or avoid place. 

Since blogging, I've found I really needed to raise my game with my computer literacy, I've lost far too many posts by pressing the wrong button at the wrong time. 

So I hope this helps out anyone like me who was born when typewriters were pretty machines with ribbons. Enjoy. Feel free to add to the list.

1. If you're filling in a form and have to refer to another tab, for instance filling in an application form or a CV, pressing ALT then TAB will flick among those tabs for you so you can copy and paste (see No.3 for extra quick tip)and you won't lose your place in the original form.
2. The space bar will take you down in order of boxes to fill in. Really good if you are holding a phone or burrito with your left hand and can't reach the tab button. Also much easier to bash a space bar with an elbow or nose.
3. Instead of right clicking and scrolling down to copy or cut, after highlighting, just press CTRL, hold it down and tap the X (cut) or C (copy) or V (paste) Have faith, it works. Pressing A will select EVERYTHING so be careful 
4. If you have lost your cursor, in some sheets, this is a glitch, pressing the HOME button on its own will take you to the beginning of the sentence you're typing. This is in the little gang of six buttons to the upper right of your main keys. It lives with Insert, Page Up, Delete, End and Page down.
5. Really good for copying web addresses is pressing SHIFT and END. Just put your little cursor at the beginning of a URL and do the SHIFT/END thing and it will highlight it all.
6. CTRL and right or CTRL and left arrow moves one word to the right or one word to the left each time! Handy!
7. Highlighting a whole passage and deleting it is easily fixed by going up to EDIT and UNDO just like in paint.
8. If you press back and have lost a passage, ALT and the right arrow should restore it. You'll still have palpitations, but at least it takes your mind off it for a second.
9. If your pc is old, and changes arent showing on the screen when you edit profiles, blogs etc, press F5 on the top row.
10. When you need to print whole screen for copying to Paint (really good for blogging and tickets and banking mistakes) press ALT and Print Screen.

I Ignored My Own Advice

So in between confusing Her Majesties Revenue and Customs Employees, and eating cheese toasties, I am going to attempt to install an email me button. 

I cleverly deleted Paint from my pc, and I find Serif Draw Plus, frankly obstructive. 

For all you Mac users, this is why I'm not to be trusted with a Mac. 

I was searching for email buttons, and came across  where they're keeping all the good stuff on the internet. 

Its owner is a lovely lady called Cathe, like Cathy but spelled Cathe. 

She takes these lovely things from her brain and puts them on the internet for idiots like me to use! 

I have thanked her (possibly a little too much...she may be drawing up restraining orders against me right now) and said I would link back. 

So I am. 

So email me! 

But not spam bots. 

You can go to hell.

 *UPDATE*

I did it! It was easy. If you're in a bit of a spot about adding links with pictures just do this>

click on design, choose add a gadget

choose picture

choose picture file from your pics or url

add 'mailto:' and then your email

choose save

And you're done.