MY BLOG: THE BEGINNING OF MY BLOGGING JOURNEY & TIPS I'VE LEARNT SO FAR

My first post may have been published in December and I have been blogging now and then since, but the posts from December through to June haven't really been my best work - they haven't shown what I can do and frankly, they were a big naff. So now is the time that I put my foot down and show the world (most importantly, my readers) what I can actually do. I am counting all of the posts that has been published in July as a new start - and I hope you do to. I understand we are only fifteen days into July, but in those two weeks I have learnt so much and I have changed and re-vamped my blog massively, and I hope that you all prefer this new Beauty High Street. Not only am I reviewing products any more, but I am sharing my tips and my views, as well as writing other non-beauty-related posts (which are under 'lifestyle'). These past couple of weeks I have bee reading through many, many more blogs and have come across some fantastic writers that are around my age and have become so successful in such a short amount of time (check out my blogroll) and it has inspired me to do the same, to show the world what I can do and be proud of my blog - after all, writing it what I want to do for a living.

Talk, comment and follow

Talking to other bloggers, either on their blogs or via Twitter, can be very useful for both of you. Not only are you gaining a fellow blogger as a friend, you can exchange tips and get their links to their blog for more inspiration. Commenting on other people's blogs can also direct traffic to your blog, just make sure that you leave a link to your own website. Following people on Twitter is very simple - with a lot of people, you follow them, they follow you. Simple!

Bloglovin' is your new friend

Before this month I had no idea what Bloglovin' was but now I do and I am in love. Having one place where I can read my favourite blogs and also find new ones is a very special place. I have 13 followers already and I've only been on there are a week! Get on it and thank me later.

Photos mean everything

What's the first thing you see on a blog? Photos. What will make you click on a post? Photos. What's the most eye catching thing on your blog page? Photos. As you can see, they are very important and up until recently I didn't know that. Look at the first couple of posts I published, yes the photos are clear but are they as eye-catching and pretty as the ones on this page? No. No they are not. The littlest things can make the slightest difference, add some flowers or a different background and put more than one thing in the picture. It all helps, it really does. A couple of tips first though... make sure that you take pictures of your own. You can probably get away with taking a picture off of Pinterest or Tumblr and crediting someone but be careful, taking pictures can have harsh consequences. Secondly, depending on your financial situation, purchasing picture editing software such as Photoshop can be very beneficial - however, for the moment I have a free version called Gimp, it is very similar but there is just not as many tools etc.

Left: Picture unedited | Right: Picture lightened and saturated with Gimp

Go SEO mad

Search Engine Optimisation. For those of you who don't know what that means, let me put it simply: make the title of your blog posts something that others will search in Google. For instance, if you're blogging about a Benefit product, don't use a pun or funny joke (these only work in magazines and website that have readership without advertising), instead include the words, Benefit, product, makeup and the title of the product.

Read other peoples blogs - I cannot stress how important this one is

Earlier this year I used to read 3 beauty blogs. Three. 1.2. 3. That's it and somehow I thought that I was reading loads. No. Every blog is completely different and there are tips and advice from every blog you go on. You might like the blog design on one, the way a post is presented on another and the pictures on a third. But don't just look once and that's it. Keep reading them, keep analysing them and keeping loving them! Are so many blogs that I read that I wish I had created, and I really do enjoy reading them! Look at my blogroll from time to time and you'll see that the list is constantly growing.

If you're not proud with what you have created, it will show on your blog

You need to be happy to show your blog off to the world and parade in front of a big blogging population. If you're not, your readers will be able to tell. They will see that you're not blogging frequently and that your not putting your all into every post, the whole thing will just look tedious. If you're not proud of your blog then do something about it, discover what it is that your not happy with and fix it. Again, look at other similar blogs for inspiration. I didn't like the look of my blog so I changed it and now I am in love <3

The most valuable tip I have... Be patient

I have had a couple of blogs over the past few years which after a couple of months, I just gave up on. That is partly because I wasn't proud of them. But one thing I will say is don't delete them like I did. There is always something that can be done to improve it whether it's changing the name, the theme, the look... anything can be changed. And most importantly, it takes time for something to become successful and it takes a lot of time. I'm not there yet, there is still soooo much room for my blog to grow and it's just starting and I am so excited to see where it can go! But I'll just have to wait for now...