Sweet Electric

Though Pinterest is a great way to procrastinate, its also great for helping to promote your blog and posts. I’m bar far a Pinterest expert but I do use it for my blog and I’m starting to see a bit of traffic from there. This post is a brief guide with links to other information that’s really helpful in getting the most out of it.

What is Pinterest?
If you dont know what Pinterest is, its basically a platform where you can pin images you like to boards. If you sign up to pinterest, I think its a good idea to have a button/social media icon or widget (like I have further down the page) so your subscribers can easily follow you on there. I also think its useful to have a business account – you can sign up here. Its pretty much the same as a standard account but you get to see your analytics so you can view which of your pins are popular which in turn can help you to boost your pinterest subscribers.

How do I pin images from my blog?
I use a pinterest widget for chrome toolbar which allows you to easily pin images from websites onto your boards (you can find that here). You can also add a pin it button to your images so your blog readers can easily pin your blog photos to their boards – this post explains how to add a pin it button to your images. You can also add a share button underneath your posts like I currently have so its even easier for readers to pin your posts/images – you’ll find how to do that here.

How do I gain subscribers on Pinterest?
I think the best way to gain followers on Pinterest is by making sure that you have a widget or follow button on your blog, regularly pin images from other pinners onto your boards and follow other pinners or their boards. As I said at the start of this post, I’m no expert on Pinterest and I dont have thousands of subscribers on there so I’ve started reading advice from others on how to make the most of my pinterest account. This post offers some good insight into growing your pinterest profile as does this infographic.
 
What are rich pins?
Rich pins include extra information about the image source. If you want to enable rich pins for blogger (note to self – you need to do this!) then this is a brilliant post by XOMISSE.com

What else do I need to know?
Some great resources to read are:

*43 ways to grow your blog with pinterest
*How to make your pins go viral
*How to create images people love to pin
*How to go viral on pinterest
*How to SEO your pinterest page
*Use pinterest to boost blog traffic
*How to convert pinterest visitors to subscribers
*7 must have pinterest marketing tools

Do you have a Pinterest account – leave your link below if so!
Do you have any Pinterest tips to share?…

Creating ideas for your blog can be a challenge if you’re suffering from writers block. To give you some inspiration, here are 108 blog post ideas to help kick start your creative juices. These can serve as pointers, blog titles or even as an idea for a blog series and are suitable to use for most blogs. You can switch them up and add your own spin. I hope they’re helpful.

Blog Post Ideas
product review
brand focus
what’s in my makeup bag
what’s in my bag
outfit of the day
beauty product dupes
recipe post
wishlist
great budget beauty buys
products worth the splurge
most used products
favourite makeup brushes
facts about me
what I did during the weekend
my favourite books
book review
my favourite blog posts from the past month – sharing the blogger love
5 places I’d like to travel to
a roundup of new upcoming beauty products
letter to my teenage self or letter to my future self
DIY project
makeup tutorial
skincare routine
everyday makeup
room tour
favourite songs
Why I started blogging
blogging inspiration
my blogging routine
my hopes and aspirations
blog photo setup
my favourite hair styles
what’s on my phone
five things that make me happy
5 quotes I love
a haul post
favourite places to visit in my city
5 healthy eating ideas
empty products
things I want to achieve this year
shop my stash
nail art
my favourite nail polishes
my desk/makeup desk staples
my fitness routine
my favourite beauty brands
my favourite clothing brands
what I’ve been up to lately
how to accessorise an outfit
my favourite instagram accounts
10 favourite pins on pinterest
tips to save money
a holiday post
celebrity fashion/beauty inspiration
home details – favourite home accessories
how to organise your beauty products
how to organise your wardrobe
date night ideas
my favourite apps
5 TV shows I love to watch
sale buys worth purchasing
a photography post
ways to beat blemishes
In my friends makeup bag
guest blog post
things I wish I knew when I started blogging
things I’ve learnt from uni/college
5 minute makeup
brow routine
contouring post
how to style a pair of jeans
how to style a black dress
a day in my life
cute t-shirt ideas
overhyped beauty products
building a makeup collection
three of my favourite purchases
a tag post
my wardrobe staples
things I’m looking forward to in Summer
blog sale
5 easy ways to style your hair
favourite MAC products
how to apply winged liner
tips to organise your blog
the best scented makeup products
my shoe wardrobe
how to use a planner
how to apply fake tan
5 minute manicure
everyday fragrances
films to see this month
beauty gadgets worth purchasing
how much is my face worth?
healthy snack ideas
project life scrapbook
how to cope with a hangover
easy beauty tips tricks
my favourite photographs
exam revision tips
favourite music festivals
5 reasons to love yourself – a confidence post
what I remember from the 90’s – my childhood
what I learned in my teens
how to workout at home
refreshing your room on a budget
5 breakfast ideas
gift ideas for your loved ones…

Photo editing is an important part of content creation. Unfortunately, I don’t have a large amount of free time available to take photos or edit and I would rather spend more time writing and planning. For those of you in a similar position, here’s a guide on how to take/edit your photographs.

Taking photos.
To save time, its best to take your photos in bulk. I have a planner so I know what posts I’m writing for the week ahead and then I can take my photographs based on that. I usually take hundreds of photos in one go as you never know how they’re going to turn out. Sometimes a photo can look great on your camera screen but be slightly blurry when its been uploaded. I like to play around with backgrounds to so I’ll change things up as I go along. Once you start taking photos, its very easy to accumulate hundreds, so its handy to have a large(ish) memory card to store them on. Once they’re uploaded, I’ll have a quick look through them and select the best ones.

Regular photo editing.
For regular beauty posts, I try to keep editing to a minimum. I take all my photos in natural light – I usually take them in my bedroom, where theres quite a lot of light. The only thing I usually change apart from cropping is the brightness of a photograph and I do this using the curves option on ipiccy.

This is pretty much all I do in ipiccy as I don’t like over editing photographs. However for photos, such as collages and for using text over a photo, I use a different method.

Collages and text.
For collages and text, I normally use picmonkey (another free editing site). I use picmonkey as you can now use your own overlays and fonts. To use your an overlay in picmonkey, you upload a photograph as normal and then click onto the overlay section;

I normally use a circle or square and then fade out (on the right hand side selection) to about 40%, so you can still see the original photo through the overlay. I’ll then add some text using the text section;

Picmonkey have several free fonts you can choose from but you can also now use the fonts stored on your computer, which means you can download lots of free fonts from the net to use on your pictures. I really like fontquirrel and dafont for free fonts!
For collages, such as wishlists I use the design option on the front page of picmonkey to get a blank canvas. From here, you can then use the overlay option to select your own overlays – photos for your wishlists etc. These usually need resizing and then you can add text.

Photo collages.
You can also make collages via the collage option on the picmonkey homepage – this is great for putting one or more product photo in an image, such as the one of the Clinique blusher above. Collages can also be made on ipiccy and fotor – these have different template options. You can then also add text afterwards via the usual method once you’ve finished your collage.

Every blogger has different ways of editing their photos and this is just a quick way that works for me. What photo editing sites/programmes do you use?…

A great blog design can make a significant difference to your blog. Lets face it, we all want our blog to look good and if you dont want to spend a lot of money then here are a few options for you. There are a few free options on the web but these are five of my favourite templates.

Responsival

A very chic and elegant template. The layout is a little different from normal, so if you download this make sure you read the instructions.
Demo |  Download
Simplicity

A beautiful modern template for blogger.
Demo | Downoad

Adelle

A free pretty theme for wordpress

Demo | Download

Color Pop

A colourful template for blogger. Super pretty, I’m surprised its free!

Demo | Download

The Blog Theme

A cute wordpress design, ideal for all blogs.

Demo | Download…