Reflections

Top- H&M / Vest- Urban Outfitters / Pants- found during TxSC swap night (similar) / Booties- Jeffrey Campbell / Bag- Rebecca Minkoff / Sunnies- Ray-Ban / Quartz Stone Necklace- gifted Moorea Seal / Rings- H&M

I got these pants during the TxSC swap night. And even though it was over 100 degrees outside it was SO cold in the Hyatt where we had all the classes that these were a life saver. I swear when I wore my overalls on Saturday my leg hairs grew about 5 inches. The pants are adorable and again I'm wearing my trusty denim vest. Literally the best purchase I've made this year so far. That and my mirrored Ray-Bans, of course. How cool are those reflections of all the buildings in downtown ATX?!

Anyway, now that I've come off my TxSC high and have had a couple days to "reflect" and look over my notes I wanted to share a few key tips I took away from the conference. These are the things I found most helpful and I hope you'll find them helpful too!

Lifestyle Blogging Locally:
- Don't be afraid to go to local businesses and take photos to feature on your blog. Most of the time they won't mind and would welcome the extra exposure.
- Share your posts with those businesses on their social media channels like Twitter and Facebook. They might retweet your post. So, then there's not only extra exposure for them but also for you too!

Media Kits:
- Check out other bloggers Sponsor pages. A lot of times they'll have their media kit on that page and it could help you with ideas if you're trying to create your own.
- Skyscraper is a great resource that will create a media kit for you (https://www.skyscraper.io/).

Sidebar Ads & Working with Brands:
- Contact your favorite brands; It's better than waiting for them to contact you.
- Passionfruit is an online ad marketplace specifically for bloggers. It helps you keep track of your ads and is only $9/month (https://app.passionfruitads.com/).
- When working with brands, base your prices for ads on how much you think you're worth. You can even base them on CPM.

Balancing Work, Life, and Blogging:
- Start a editorial/content calendar. This will help you keep up with posting and hopefully become more consistent. You don't have to stick to the schedule, it's just nice to have something in writing!
- Understand the difference between balance vs. fit. You may never find a perfect balance in your life, but you can find time to fit things into your life. (I'll be touching a little more on this topic in a future post.)

So, there you have it. A little recap. Let me know if you liked this post and if you'd like to see more of this kind of stuff on the blog. If so, what? Doesn't have to be about blogging. Could be anything- style, beauty, life in general, whatever! 

Photos by Caleb Kerr