Blogging 101: Inspiration

After you have been blogging for a while you can get stuck in a rut and forget why you started blogging altogether.  Every few months this happens to me and that's when I step back and try to get inspired.

Tumblr & Pinterest 

I love tumblr and pinterest.  I could just sit and scroll for hours on end.  They have given me some great ideas for the blog.

Magazines 

I love to flip through Allure or People's Style Watch.  They are always talking about something new that I have never seen before. 

Retail Therapy

I love, love, love to go shopping in NYC.  Sometimes all I need is a good walk through Sak's or Sephora and I am inspired again.  If you don't live near any department stores just go to their website.  Sometimes just looking in the What's New section gets me excited. 

Other Blogs 

I love reading other peoples blogs (daily reads in the side bar).  Sometimes they use a product in a different way or they picked up a product I was looking at and never purchased.  I love looking at how other people layout their pictures.  

These are just some of the ways I get out of my blogging rut.  What are some of yours ??

Love, 

City Styles   

Blogging 101: Getting Started

I have been at this for over a year now and want to share some tips to the new comers or to those who are thinking about starting a blog.

Pick a Topic 
A topic could be beauty, fashion, decor, diy, gardening, baking.  Just make sure it is something you enjoy.  If you don't enjoy the topic you are blogging about readers will notice and it won't be fun for you.

Name
Your blog needs a name.  Love, City Styles came from my existing Etsy shop.  It has nothing to beauty but, I do love it.  Try and come up with something catchy and run it be a few friends or family members and see what they think.

Blogger vs. Wordpress
I went with blogger as my hosting site just because it is what I knew.  Wordpress looked like a scarier place to me.  Blogger is powered by Google and I knew it would be easy for me to use.  Check out both sites and see what you like better.

Content
Now that you have a topic and a name get to blogging!  Always try and put out quality content.  I believe in quality vs. quantity.  If I have a post that I am not happy about, the pictures came out wrong or I am at a loss for words when writing then it does not go up.  I'd rather put nothing up then something I don't feel my best about.

Consistency

Try and be consistent with your posts.  I try very hard to do this.  Every week I aim to put out 5 posts.  Some weeks that goal is met and other weeks, well not so much.  Blogging itself can be very time consuming.  I take photos, edit the photos, and write the post.  Taking photos and editing them can take hours.  So some nights I am just to tired after work to come home and write a post.  But I do and that is what counts.  

Quality

I am a stickler for quality photos.  I understand that not everyone has an amazing camera but, you do control what goes into your photos.  I like to take photos on a white background or a magazine or something fun.  But I don't want to see you sweaty gym clothes or your open food in the background. Most computers come with free photo editing software and you can download tons of free apps.  Please use those! 

I hope this helped some people.  Next week I will be talking about how I take photos. 

Love, 

City Styles