MY TIPS, INSPIRATIONS AND TOOLS FOR STARTING A BLOG

Hi all :)  So first of all I love all my readers and thank you for following along with my posts! I feel like I have a lot of followers that stay tuned for the health tips and workout videos and even a few that just follow for the random updates on my life.

BUT for the girls out there that are following because you are someone that also wants to start a blog and begin to work from home, this post is for you.

I want to give you some insight on what to do so that you don’t waste your time, some of the websites that have inspired me, how to grow your blog quickly and the work that you need to put it to run a blog from home!

I started blogging mainly because I wanted to interact with my followers more and I couldn’t really do that solely on Instagram. I started with my Tumblr page, but then realized that I still wanted more. More options, more interacting. I didn’t go to ANY CLASSES for website design or graphics or any of that so I actually taught myself how to build a website, meaning that YOU CAN TOO!

I started off trying to use wordpress but it’s kind of a lot of coding which I found really confusing. Some people like it but I found SquareSpace to be much more simple.

5 Tips For Starting A Blog:

1.    Pick a Direction, And Stay With It:

- When I started my blog I talked about everything and it was just all over the place. As soon as I really narrowed it down to just health and fitness and took out fashion, personal stories, random pictures etc, I noticed my followers started to grow.

I think it’s okay to talk about a lot of topics once you build an audience and have a good amount of followers but when you’re just starting you want to pick one main focus and kill it! This way your followers know what they’re going to get if they go to your page and begin to rely on you for that thing.

2.    PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES!

- After lots of reading, studying and experimenting I’ve learned that people (including myself) are drawn to simple, clean pictures, and lots of them! The other reason my blog took some time to gain followers was because my pictures weren’t cohesive with one another. They make look good in each individual post but once you look at my entire blog, the pictures would clash and it would look to busy to the eye.

Pick 1-2 sizes that you want all your pictures to be in every post and don’t stray from it. Do they all have the same color schemes? Do they all have plain backgrounds? Do you like them to be poppy colors or do you want them all to be faded? Do you want them to all be pictures of things and people or do you want them all to be plain colored backgrounds with text on them? Whatever you choose, keep it consistent. I edit all my pictures on Canva! It’s the best you can do everything on here! Add text, graphics, cute little hearts, Ebooks, WHATEVER!

3.    TEXT:

- Same thing as pictures…you want your fonts to be the same throughout your blog/website. Pick a headline font and a normal text font. People will start to understand what your text looks like when there is a link attached to it or when it’s something important. If you change it for each individual it can start to get confusing. DAFONT.com is a great website for downloading new fonts :)

4.    KEEP THE CONTENT CONSTANT:

Now this is where you have to decide if running a blog is something that you’re really passionate about, and I don’t mean to sound intimidating. I remember when I was starting my blog I used to just Google, “How To Start a Blog” and all the posts said pretty much the same thing which was, “It takes a lot of work, be prepared to work and not get attention for a while, it takes consistency, blah blah”.

It really does. But if you stay with it and follow these tips you will start to gain a following. You need to post almost everyday. Your followers want to wake up and go to your blog and if they start to notice that you haven’t updated your website/blog in over a week, they’re not going to have an incentive to go back. Make it fun, new and exciting, ALWAYS!

5.    BE GENUINE, BE YOU!

People are going to start following if they like YOU! Let your personality be transparent. Type the way you would actually talk to someone so they can start to understand your language. Be vulnerable and be relatable. People are going to be drawn to your blog if you can give them useful information or motivate or inspire them in some way. If all your posts are about your cat, then I don’t know if your audience will really be attracted to it. Unless your cat is like the most magnificent thing anyone’s ever seen…then maybe.

5 Tips For Working On Your Blog From Home:

1.    Schedule Posts:

I would probably have a massive anxiety attack if I didn’t have my schedule with me. My Kate Spade Calendar is my LIFE. You need to get one. You can look at the entire month right in front of you and say, “Okay, I want to blog 4 times a week this month. Monday I’ll post about my new favorite snack, Tuesday I’ll post 5 new booty exercises, Wednesday I will post about the benefits of chia seeds” and so on. This way you know that if you’re busy all day Wednesday, you need to write your blog for Wednesday on the day before and schedule it for the next day so that it posts on it’s own.

This way you’re always holding yourself accountable for posting X amount of times and you know what you have going on for the month. Here's an example of what my schedule looked like in November.

2.    Delegate a Certain Amount of Time to Working on Your Blog Each Day:

Remember – in order to make your blog successful you HAVE TO BE CONSISTENT! I spend time on my blog everyday even if I’m not writing a blog that day. It’s good to look at other websites to gain inspiration for design and posts,  create graphics for upcoming posts, organize, etc. Someone that I found and really found beneficial was this website!! It is so amazing it’s all about how to build your blog, design, and develop a relationship with your followers!

3.    COLLABORATE

This is probably the biggest thing that will grow your blog and something that you MUST dedicate time to. Find other people that blog about the same things that you do. Ask them if they want to collaborate with you in some way whether it’s hosting a give away, sharing a blog, giving a shout out or whatever. You’re readers are likely to have the same interests as the other blogger so when their readers see that you have information that they’re into, you’re likely to gain them as loyal followers!

4.    Write Down Your Goals:

Along with having your posts planned out for the month, actually write down what you want to accomplish that month so that you always continue to push yourself and stay on top of your game. Write down how many collaborations you would like to do that month, how many photo shoots you want to set up, how many things you want to cook, how many pictures you want to paint, whatever it is, set goals and write them down.

You should be checking back in with yourself once a week to make sure that you’re on track.

5.    Get Snapchat!

Haha, who saw that coming? Snapchat is great because if you use it properly you can show all your followers when you’re working on a new project, what your day looks like, what your struggling with etc. It gives you a chance to develop a relationship with your followers which is HUGE and it allows them to love you for your personality which in turn will begin to show through your writing. Add me on snap!! My username is CHELSEYROSE ! You’ll always find me at my desk, on hikes, cooking, making new yummy detox drinks and what not :)

I hope this helped!! You can do anything if you stick with it! None of us really know what we’re doing so it’s just a lot of trial and error, practice and patience.

xo CR

MY BIGGEST TIP TO BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL WOMAN

Feeling lost + feeling like a failure + feeling like your entire life is out of control is a recipe for depression. It'll make you not even want to try, or think. It will make you focus on everything else that could possibly be negative in your life. It will lower your confidence while raising your insecurities and make you like you're being attacked.

Reset. Restart. Refresh. Be on top again. Feel Organized. Feel accomplished. Feel proud. Be happy. Feel confident. Love yourself. Be positive. 

It will be impossible for you to even hear or believe all the positive comments towards you because the negative thoughts you are telling yourself over and over are so much louder.

Something I really want to talk about today is your mind set, and how powerful it really is. When you allow yourself to slip into a negative mind set you basically torture yourself.  We've all been there. For example, I have a wonderful outlook on life, i'm very optimistic and I think there is always hope MOST OF THE TIME, but I have definitely gone through some times where I don't feel so happy or really see a way up our out. Everyone around me tells me i'm doing great but sometimes I just don't FEEl it.

WE'RE HUMAN! We're bound to feel every emotion on the spectrum but, we're also powerful, and the power of our minds is an incredible thing.

You have to start to tell yourself that everything is good, God has your back, and everything is going to get better so long as you believe it will.

If you tell yourself, "I look good!", "I'm beautiful!" "I may not look the way I want to right now but I am in control so I will change quickly :) " ... you will start to clear the cloud that you put above yourself.

If you tell yourself "I suck", "I'm disgusting", "I can't do it", etc, then you will be that and you WONT be able to accomplish what you desire because you have already told yourself that you can't. 

We all go through hard time, it's normal. Some time are worse than others, but the worst thing you can do is just sit in those sad emotions and let them control you. WE HAVE GOD PEOPLE!! Talk to Him! Open up to Him! Tell Him what you're feeling and what you want. Asked to be healed and ask for a positive, productive mind! 

I'm sure you're a joy to be around. Let that happiness rub off you and on to someone around you rather than having your negativity rub off and push people away. 

Laughter is contagious for a reason. We are made to be happy and joyful! Think about all the reasons you have to be happy and allow your mood to change. Make a list of the things you want to accomplish and start working on them.

Have a good day! :)

xoxo 

MORNING MOTIVATION

IS IT JUST ME ORRRR...

does anyone else feel like Britney Spear’s “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman” song is starting to be a lot more relevant? Personally I feel like there’s a weekly struggle between “spend more quality time with my friends” & “spend all my time building a business for myself.”

24 is an extremely exciting yet weird age. I feel like I have all the time in the world yet I’m in a rush to do everything at the same time.
Someone told me that your 30’s are exciting and fun because those are the years that you are rewarded for all the work you did in your 20’s. I think that’s where my “get to work” mind set kicks in.

I feel like we’re in a generation where there are endless new opportunities that our parents can’t even comprehend because they are real opportunities that weren’t even ideas when they were our age. I also think that because we’ve seen so many adults live their lives showing up to a job they hate with a boss that they can’t tolerate, many of us feel much more inclinced to ditch that and instead be happy by persuing our passions.

At least this is the case for me. Is it hard? HELL YEAH.

I’m sure I have all the same questions that you do..

- How can I turn my passion into my career?
- When will this get easier…or worth it?
- Will I be able to create a full time job for myself?
- What happens if it doens’t work?

Let me just say that the more I pray, the more I persue my passions and the more I see people at work that HATE their life every day that they’re there…the more I undersand that if you want something bad enough, you will find a way to make it happen.

This is the stage that everyone wiser than us always talks about. The hard part. The part before it gets easier. The part that proves that you’re only about to achieve something because so far, everything else is failing.

My dad tends to ask me what my back up plan is. This question really only makes me want to succeed at what I’m doing even more because going with a “back up plan” not only means that I faild at what I wanted to do, but that I gave up.
I have a couple ideas for back up but honestly, I just don’t let my brain wonder that way.

I liked when Denzel Washington stated in his commencement speech:

“If I’m going to fall, I don’t want to fall back on anything. I want to fall forward. St least that way I’ll see what I’m going to hit.”

If you’re starting something from the ground up, creating something for yourself & have no idea what you’re doing, YOU’RE NOT ALONE! I feel you! Believe me, I get stressed too. Writing about it is really the only thing that puts everything into perspective for me.

Embrace the hard times, be proud of yourself & pray! Good….scratch that…AMAZING things are coming your way!!


Watch a clip of Denzel’s speech here:

     
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7 TIPS TO STAY SANE WHILE YOUR SCHEDULE GOES CRAZY

I’m almost always a very positive, happy, stress free person but, give me a couple weeks of nothing but work and dead lines on my mind and I become this quietly stressed, drained, empty shell of a human being… too far?

A few months ago I developed a whole new schedule over night. I was starting an internship and a new job on the same day and the demands from me were a little insane. I had to be up at 5:00 am, be at my fitness internship by 6:00 am, learn, work, practice, train, and take tests until 2:00 pm. Then I had to go home and try to memorize everything on three different menus for my new job while trying to get homework done for my internship, then get off anywhere from midnight to 2:00 am then wake up and do it again.

I. Was. Dying. I had to be extremely strategic with how I spent my time and energy while keeping my sanity because with everything that I had to learn and remember, I needed all the energy and focus that I could get.

Not to mention I needed to find ways to stay happy and positive because I knew that if I didn’t, then I would begin to doubt myself and most likely not be able to focus on what I needed to do.

So during this time of being COMPLETELY overwhelmed, I developed some habits that helped keep me sane, energized, happy and positive.

1. Woke up and drank tea.

When I know that I have a long day ahead of me and I need sustained energy I always go for a huge mug of black tea with honey in the morning. It gave me the ability to focus and kept me alert for hours unlike coffee which would make me feel tired a few hours later.

2. Ate really clean, light meals throughout the day.

I didn’t have time to feel full, work off a bad meal or eat something that would bring down my energy. I needed to eat foods that my body could digest easily and give me energy so I actually managed to get in excellent shape during this time. Here’s an example of what my meals were throughout the day.

Breakfast: Plain greek yogurt with fresh berries, nuts and chia seeds.

Snack: Apple and almond butter

Lunch: Flax seed chips with tuna and sriracha

Dinner: Steamed veggies, fish and a salad.

3. Carried a jug of water.

In order to stay hydrated, keep my appetite under control and keep my mind clear I made sure to carry water with me and drink it throughout the day. If you need to drink more water but you’re not really a fan of the taste (or lack there of) try adding 1 squeezed lemon, cayenne pepper and a pack of stevia!)

4. Rewarded Myself.

Since I was so busy I never had any time to spend any of the money I was making so on Sundays I made sure to have an entire Sunday funday planned out! This was what really saved me. I would go get my nails done, get a massage and go get a mimosa brunch with my boyfriend…AND order pancakes. Since I knew I did well all week I had NO guilt trip at all when it came to spending money on myself, eating whatever and having some drinks on Sundays. It was a huge re set button for me that worked really well.

5. Wrote in my journal.

I would do this in the afternoons in between my internship and job just to pray and stay connected with myself. I would set goals and remind myself why I’m putting myself through such a chaotic schedule. This kept me positive and organized with everything I had going on.

6. 20 minute naps.

These also saved my life! Obviously by the time it hit 2:00 pm and I realized I had 4 hours of work to do before I even WENT to work, all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep the afternoon away. I didn’t have time for that but I was able to put aside 20 minutes for a quick nap and it was an instant recharge. That amount of sleep compared to hour-long naps actually gives us more energy! Sometimes if we nap too long we actually wake up more tired than we were when we went to sleep.

Whatever you have going on or whatever your schedule is looking like, just remember to NOT STRESS! Stress is horrible for our bodies and can be deadly. Find out what makes you happy and make sure you find time to do that at least once a week.

Eat clean so that you don’t compromise your health and make sure that you reward yourself!

No matter what you’re doing, keep it up, be proud of yourself and remember, if it were easy, everyone would do it.

Find more of my health, fitness and life blogs at chelseyroseblog.tumblr.com :)