Get rid my blog or just improve it?

17:59:00 Angela White 6 Comments


I've been finding that recently my blog has been slacking, big time. It's never a good feeling when you write a post asking for advice and literally not one person replied, haha. I've gotten more comments when I've wrote a post that doesn't necessarily ask for advice. I'm just kind of stuck in a rut with my blog. I literally felt like giving up with my blog and just not continuing with it anymore. It's so difficult to keep up with a blog that you're not happy with and I was at a point where I felt like I was doing well and now it's just backfired and I thought about completely just getting rid of my blog.

After a long conversation with Ollie, he advised me that I'd worked so hard this far and made me look at it in a different light and I probably would have deleted my blog by now. After that conversation, I decided not to get rid of my blog but I need to make some major changes in order to continue with it. So, I thought that there could be a few things that I could do to improve my it and feel happier with it.

Homepage picture - If you've seen my picture you're probably aware that only one of my eyes is showing, my hair hides my face and it's overly edited, well more like the brightness has been turned up a few notches or twelve . As soon as I can take a better selfie a bit less edited then I'll change it and I think it will show more of who I am.

Blog pictures- I'll be honest with you, I really don't like using stock photos on my blog and I started off using my own pictures. I ran out of pictures to use, my phone never has enough storage and my camera stopped working a while ago. I need to start clicking away and take my own photographs to put up, especially when I see the stock photos I've used on someones blog and it doesn't look good that the same pictures are being used. So I really want to start using my own photographs again, even if they don't look as good as some of your lovely photography.

Blog name- Okay, I mentioned this in my last post and I came to the conclusion that it's my decision what to do with my name, it's not something that someone can advise me to do. Ultimately it's down to me and I think eventually I'll change it to my name, the only problem with changing a blog name is that regular readers know who I am by the name of my blog so I hope they'll still know it's me and don't think who is that? It's something i've wanted to do since I almost started.

Blog posts- I think I'm going to start whacking out different kind of posts, rather than talking about my blog, on my blog. Like I've come to realise no one cares about my opinion on my blog or what I want to do with it, people want something interesting to read and thoughts and opinion posts seem to work well with some people, but with mine those kind of posts don't get much attention so I'm guessing I need to stop writing personal/opinion posts and asking for advice and sway away from those topics for now.

Theme- I'm quite fed up of these budget themes, with broken html codes and then a massive sign at the bottom like 'Gogo templates' or something. I need to invest in a good theme, that's not like £100 and that actually looks quite nice and one that I can personalise to my taste.

Enjoy it- I enjoyed it more when I first started because I didn't have high expectations, I didn't expect many readers or comments so any of those that I got, I was over the moon. Once I had a few posts with a substantial amount of comments, I compared the rest of the posts to that, so the last thing is to just relax more into it and just enjoy it.

Angie xo

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6 comments:

  1. I read your last post as well, and I can totally relate with how you are feeling about your blog. Maybe changing the name of your blog and getting a new theme as you mentioned will inspire you to look at your blog in a new way and to start having fun with it again. Good luck! :)
    www.morethanrubies.ca

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    1. Yeah I think I might do that and once i'm happier with it, I might enjoy it more :) I really think those things will help, thank you very much :) xx

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  2. Sometimes you really just need to step away and then come back and refresh your blog. There was a point last year when I felt really emotionally and mentally unwell, and it showed in my blog. I hated my photography, I felt like nobody wanted to read it etc, etc. I stepped away for a little bit and then re-approached my blog, and this year I've taken it really seriously with my schedule and I've been *loving* it! I'm always working on it, tweaking it. I really needed that time away from it. Your blog is supposed to be like your baby. It's hardwork, but you love it, and that's what I feel about mine. You gotta do what you gotta do to make it enjoyable!

    I don't enjoy using stock photos either - I always used to use my phone last year before my brother got me a Canon for Christmas, and it was really simple and easy to do photos on. Now I have a real camera, I'm super excited to take photos all the time. I often bulk take photos, sometimes without a post in mind I'll just take photos to use, say, for Instagram, or a post I end up putting into my schedule on a whim etc. Absolute nuisance about storage space - can you get a bigger SD card for your phone? I wouldn't worry too much about changing your blogging name, you can always put it into your bio/about page that you were formerly known as Silk and Sapphire. Everyone goes through a rebranding at some point, and loads of people make the big leap to change their name, I think it works out fine in the end! As for your blog posts, just make sure you write what you want to write! I don't see the harm in you discussing your blog & asking for advice, sometimes you really need it, and sometimes you just need to vent. For themes, I recommend Etsy - that's where I get mine and they're often quite cheap! Plus, if you have HTML issues I've found the person I've bought from can usually give you a code to fix your problem :) Sorry this was such a long message, just wanted to reply to your post haha.

    Amanda Jayne | beauty, style, life

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment, I really appreciate the effort that had gone into it and everything was all really helpful! I know exactly what you mean about feeling emotionally and mentally unwell, it really does seem to reflect in a blog and I felt that's what was happening with mine too. I also feel like if you're not 100% happy with your blog, that also shows and I felt like that was really coming across. Now I want to quit moping about it haha and just get on with making it at a point where i'm actually happy with the way my blog is going.
      Getting a proper camera probably really helped you a lot, once you got a camera you probably found yourself using shots you didn't necessarily have in mind to take, but they came in pretty handy haha. I'm sure your great photographs reflect in your blog and it's probably made you feel so much better about it. I definitely want to be able to do this too especially with a proper camera because iPhone cameras aren't terrible but nothing beats a proper camera.
      You're completely right about rebranding, so many other people have done it and i'm sure that I could write it down somewhere like in my bio, perhaps a rebrand may change it for the better. If bigger bloggers with a wider audience can do it, i'm sure I can do it without a problem.
      You know, I never thought of getting themes from Etsy but thats a pretty good idea, i'll check it out and see if I can find myself a nice theme from there that will help make my blog look at least a little bit better than this theme haha
      Thank you so very much for your advice and really helpful comment, comments like these make me feel so happy that you can take the time to help me when i'm stuck in a rut and I appreciate it so much :) xx

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  3. I've felt like deleting my blog on a few occasions and I am so happy that I haven't. For me, taking a step away from it for a while helped so much. The most helpful advice I have myself was: don't compare your blog to others. This includes your photos. No matter how much you love your blog, and how much effort you put into it, you are always going to find another blog that is better. And thats good because it will help you to strive to become better. When it comes to taking photos, start simple. Simple background, very few props, just work on composition and lighting and then as that aspect improves start to add props and different background.

    For your layout, look on etsy. I think I only paid something like £15/£20 for mine and I love it.

    And for the time being, don't worry about comments. I know it can be disheartening when people don't comment, but I find that you get less comments during the summer anyway.

    There is probably so much more I could say to you about this, because I could have put a post like this up a million times, but for the sake of not giving you an entire essay to read I'll leave it here. Good luck with your blog :)

    Lauren | Lauren the Daydreamer

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  4. Go girl you can do this...I shared the same feeling as you. Deleted my first blog because I didn't have the essentials to cater to it but look at me now. I am back and going to put my all into this. Your content is very good and I love to read your posts, don't stop. Keep pushing and with God on your side you will see it through. Best of luck. Mwahhh

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Thank you for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate it and I read every one :)