OK, it’s time! I’m super excited (and slightly anxious) to announce that my ebook will be available for purchase on Tuesday, May 21!! Of course if you’ve joined my mailing list you’ll be able to get your hot little hands on it the Friday before :)

I’ve been writing and coding a bunch of brand new tutorials over the past month and am trying to keep my perfectionist tendencies out of the way so I can get this thing finished for you all. Just a few more pages to go and it will be ready!

My brand new XO Sarah site will launch in the next week, which will include a few more details as to what’s inside and I’ll be giving away a few copies as well, so stay tuned!

Dear internet – it’s time to get off the band wagon. I know I’ve written about this before and I will probably write about it again, but it’s something that drives me absolutely crazy. I keep seeing the same exact outfits, DIY projects, recipes, even the style of writing repeated through blog after blog. I’m BORED.

We’re all crammed into this tiny bubble of blogging, tweeting, Instagramming. It makes us so aware of what other people are doing all the time, intentionally or not, we end up mimicking each other.

It’s like when you watch a TV series all in one go – hours and hours where all the actors have southern accents or British accents and you find your voice and thoughts beginning to sound like they’re part of the show.

We’re so consumed by what other people are doing that we’ve started absorbing it into our lives and our blogs.

I used to follow over a hundred blogs and now that number is dwindling as they all mush together into the same repetitive boring slop. I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing just because they have tons of followers and comments. I want to do what I like. I’m not into vintage dresses and clunky shoes and taking pictures on coffee dates. I’m into stripes and combat boots and taking pictures of my growing muscles.

And I’m not writing because something is “soooo cuuuuuteee” and promoting shopping lists from my sponsors, I’m writing because I want to help people make their sites bad ass, take risks, chase their passions and not wake up in two years thinking “Crap…why didn’t I start this sooner?”

I’m not saying my tutorials are first-offs and no one has ever written about coding and escaping a day job, hundreds of people have, but I don’t follow any of those people. I don’t watch what other developers are writing and I only follow a few designers. I listen to my readers & clients and see what issues they are running into and then I post tutorials to help them, not to keep up everyone else and their perfect internet lives.

So how to you stay true to yourself? First off, remember there is not one other person EVER who will see things the way you do and say things the way you do and it’s a shame for you to waste your time taking on the traits of people online to build some image of the perfect person.

(I’m not perfect – I was extremely crabby on Friday, danced until I was sweaty and my feet were numb on Saturday and spent Sunday morning rehearsal laying on a landing mat because hanging upside down and spinning sounded like a horrible idea.)

Take a few weeks away from reading blogs, tweeting, pinning, Instagramming to find your voice. Would you really love the things you love & write the things you write if you weren’t being bombarded the same posts/pins/tweets over and over every day? Share what comes from your heart instead of reposting the things that are trending online in the hope that your blog will grow.

Do you know how the biggest bloggers became popular? They were not afraid to be authentic, put themselves out there and share what they love even if it wasn’t popular at the time. They knew that not everyone would like them or what they had to say and they were confident enough and loved themselves enough to be who they are anyway.

I don’t follow bloggers who make me want to be more like them, I follow bloggers who inspire me to me more like ME. Here are a few of my favorites who appear to truly follow the beat of their very own drum & don’t give a shit about what everyone else is doing…Sarah, Kathleen, Danielle, Veronica.

Who are your favorite authentic, inspiring bloggers?

When I posted the survey last month a lot of people answered that they have trouble making/finding time to work on their blog or business.

Prior to making the escape, I worked a full-time job, managed design clients, an Etsy shop, wrote blog posts, performed and taught aerial classes. It was a tremendous amount of work, but every single one of those things was important to me and so I planned my days and I created time.

The best way to find extra time is to track how you’re spending every minute of your day. How long does it take to get ready in the morning? What do you do when you come home at night? What are you doing the last hour before bed? How about weekends?

It’s especially important to recognize how you are spending your time online because I know how Facebook and Pinterest can be an enormous time-suck. Networking is important but if it’s at the expense of working on your own business then it’s worthless.

To figure out exactly where your time is going try keeping a notepad with you for a couple days or log what you’re doing all day on your phone. Then evaluate which parts of your day could have been used in a more productive way. 20 minutes looking through photos on Instagram could easily turn into a brainstorming session, a blog post, keeping up with accounting or even a much needed nap.

When I look at my days I know I need to be better about putting down my phone and getting to sleep at a decent hour so I can start my days earlier. And now that I’m aware of what I’m doing with my time online I’m getting pretty good about staying out of the Facebook black hole.

Have you ever tracked how you spend your time?

Original photo

Did you know Pinterest now has analytics? In addition to visiting http://pinterest.com/source/YOUR URL/ you can now see full reports on what is being pinned & repinned from your site.

To view analytics you’ll first need to verify your website. Then click your name in the upper right corner and click analytics. (make sure you’ve switched to the new version of Pinterest)

The first screen allows you to choose the date range and displays the number of pins, number of impressions and the number of clicks.

Pins: the daily average number of pins from your website.

Pinners: the daily average number of people who pinned from your website.

Repins: the daily average number of times pins from your website were repinned.

Repinners: the daily average number of people who repinned your pins.

Impressions: the daily average number of times your pins appeared on Pinterest in the main feed, in search results, or on on boards.

Reach: the daily average number of people who saw your pins on Pinterest.

Clicks: the daily average number of clicks to your website that came from Pinterest.

Visitors: the daily average number of people who visited your website from Pinterest.

You can click the little check mark in the upper right of the graph boxes to view items one at a time. Hover over a point on the graph to see specifics for that day.

Pinterest also displays the most pinned items and the pins that got the most clicks. Though they don’t display pins & repins on the individual items – you still need to click into ‘most recent’ to see those numbers.

I use this information to help decide what type of content I should be writing and what days of the week are best to post & share items so they generate the most traffic. It’s nice to see what items are being pinned & repinned, but more importantly – how often are users clicking pins and coming back to my site?

For a even more robust Pinterest analytics tool check out Piqora and Curalate.

Any questions?

If you haven’t noticed already, the blog got a little redesign this weekend. The more I looked at the old design the more antsy I got for something new. So I spent the weekend rebuilding the template to make it even more clean, simple and feature the categories I write about the most. Along with the redesign I’ve also updated the sponsorship page.

I was inspired by Amanda Palmer’s TEDTalk about, among other things, letting people pay vs making them pay.

She was referring to selling music, but it got my brain spinning on how I could apply that principle to the blog. Passion Fruit doesn’t currently have a pay-what-you-like option, so I decided to create a cheapy-cheap $5 sponsor spot for those of you that love & use my tutorials and just want to leave a little tip. I’ve also expanded the number of ads, so I moved them all into their own sidebar and included one large featured spot at the top if you’re looking for more exposure.

Once you’ve purchased an ad spot on mine or any other blog, there are a few things to keep in mind to maximize that little ad…

Review the numbers: When sponsoring a blog I don’t just look at how many page views they have. I check how invested their readers are by looking at the number of comments and how many Twitter & Facebook followers they have. A smaller blog with more engaged readers might earn you more new followers than a large blog with tons of drive-by traffic.

Keep your site updated: The owner of the blog you’re sponsoring is probably going to take a peek at your site from time to time to see if you have any cool posts to share. Have you noticed that text links within a post get more clicks than a sidebar ad? Make sure to create enough content to not only give your that sponsored blog something to share, but put your best foot forward for all those potential new readers. Nothing worse than getting excited about a cool looking ad, only to click-through and see they haven’t updated in a week.

Track your clicks: Don’t sponsor blindly – keep a tally of how many clicks your ad is generating to make sure you’re investing wisely. You can use bit.ly to create a short link instead of linking your ad directly to your blog and it will track clicks automatically.

Make your ad stand out: Photos and colored backgrounds work best. If you’re set on white, add a border so if doesn’t blend in to an all-white blog.

Guest posts and giveaways: This is a great way to have all the attention focused on your blog/shop and it will likely generate more clicks than your ad or in-copy links.

So you’ve been posting to your blog for a couple months now, getting a few comments, a new reader here and there, but you can’t quite figure out why the number of subscribers is inching up so slowly.

Subscribers are super important to the health of your website. Readers who subscribe to your blog through an RSS feed or sites like Bloglovin‘ and Hello Cotton are more likely to read your posts, comment, and share your content an a regular basis.

People might pop over after finding your blog through a Google search or swing by a few times a week, but if you really want to build a following then you need to make sure people are clicking that subscribe button and having your posts delivered to them on a daily basis.

Here are a few reasons people might not be subscribing to your blog…

You post sporadically… You blogged twice last week, once the week before, skipped the week before that. Choose specific days of the week you’re going to post and stick to it. If someone visits your blog for the first time and you haven’t written in a few days or a WEEK they’re going to assume you’re not dedicated enough to produce content on a regular basis.

You have no focus… Last month you posted about your day at work, a muffin recipe, your skiing trip, how to knit socks, what you ate for lunch, a cute video of your kid, how to build a window box, your thrifting finds, and 20 other random things. Now, if your blog is about your life and you just want to write about what you did and what’s on your mind every morning that may be fine, but if you have any intention of building a readership/brand/business, may I suggest you narrow your focus.

All your posts are guest blogs, advertisements and giveaways… You know why people subscribe to my blog? Because they want to hear from ME. Weird, right? Unless your blog is a group project or you’re going on vacation then YOU should be writing the content. Use guest bloggers sparingly and only when the information will truly benefit your readers, not to fill your calendar when you have nothing to write about.

Same goes with advertisers – I become a little concerned about whether a blog is genuine when I get half-way through every post and see it’s actually for a product/service and not really about their getaway to New York. Bummer every time.

And giveaways – they’re fun on occasion, but when it becomes a weekly parade of useless crap through my reader I end up hitting unsubscribe.

They did subscribe, but… when your post showed up in their reader it was only an excerpt or even worse, just a title. I know people do this because they want to drive traffic to their website to generate clicks and comments, but it’s just annoying. If you want to generate clicks write comment-worthy content & include a list of related posts.

They can’t find the subscribe button or you don’t have one at all… I’m going to pretend none of you are reading this are going ‘uhoh…’ because I know you’ve all earned enough nerd points that if I checked your blog right now I’d find a subscribe button immediately…right? RIGHT?? Also – not everyone likes a pile of blog posts showing up in their inbox, so email subscription is not enough.

Just in case…Blogger users can find their RSS feed at the bottom of their site where it says Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) and WordPress users will have a feed URL that is something like SillyGrrl.com/feed. But, if you click the subscribe link in my sidebar (go ahead, subscribe away :) you’ll see that it’s a Feedburner link. This way I can keep track of how many people subscribe and how many people actually read & click into my posts.

Any questions?

If you’re to realize your intentions, what you stop doing is just as important as what you start and continue to do. Stopping = the white space. Stopping = room to run free and create from the deepest place of being without restraint or compromise. Stopping = more time for what matters most.

I ran into her post just as I was thinking about the two things I’ve stopped doing in an effort to take pressure off myself, so I thought I’d share.

First, I’ve decided to take sponsorships off my blog starting next month. While I loved getting to know and featuring other bloggers, it was more work than what it was worth to myself or them. I think it’s almost turned into something we’re supposed to do when we hit a certain number of followers to prove our blogs are good enough, but for me, right now, it’s not something worth putting effort into.

I’d rather spend the time toward creating posts to help with blogging and design and I’ve got a little idea brewing to feature some bloggers who I think are doing a fantastic job.

The second thing I’m stopped doing is checking my email every five minutes when my phone vibrates. When I was on vacation I set my email to only update manually and when I got home I decided to leave it that way. I’m so glad I did. I’m no longer distracted all day by phone going off and instead can check it a couple times a day when I have time to focus solely on email.

Both of these things are adding to my plan of simplifying and removing stress from my life.

Have you stopped doing anything lately?

While this is a scrapbook of my life and a way to share my passions, you have all been so sweet and supportive, so I’d also like to post things you actually want to read.

Are there any topics you love hearing about? More/less outfit posts, recipes, aerial shows, behind-the-scenes aerial stuff, Nerd Q & A, DIYs, make-up/nails/hair tutorials? Would you like me to write more about going after goals, tips on design, maybe some freebie graphics, or Pinterest round-up type stuff?

Or do you have any questions? I’ve never done a FAQ, so if you have any burning questions about me, my life, aerial, design, etc I’m happy to answer them :)

Time to de-lurk and tell me what you want ;) ;)

[ Morning Glow Template for Blogger + social media icons ]

[ Sunday Afternoon Theme for Tumblr - choose your own background color]

[ Hello Yellow Theme for Tumblr + social media icons]

Everyone deserves a good looking blog. You don’t have to be nutty like me and tweak your blog on the daily, but a once-over every couple months will make your blog easier to navigate and a pretty space for your readers to visit.

1. Give your posts room to breathe
Increase the width of your blog to add a little white space between your sidebar(s) and main column.

2. Bigger photos are better
Try making all your photos (vertical or horizonal) one standard width that fills your main column. The photos on my blog are all 620 pixels wide and it helps make my posts look organized. You can use Pixlr.com to crop and resize them if you don’t have Photoshop.

3. Clean up and organize sidebars
Think about what can be deleted, moved into a page, or shuffled around to make content on your sidebar easier to find. Do you really need two sidebars or will everything fit into one?

4. Be social
Is it easy to find your Twitter, Facebook, Email and RSS subscription links? I like having mine toward the top of my sidebar.

5. Make your titles stand out
Use the Google Font API to make your blog titles a little fancy, but play with the sizing to make sure they’re still easy to read!

6. Pick a color palette
Keep it simple – choose a main color and an accent color and keep the rest black, gray and white.

7. Everybody to the left
Aligning your text to the left or justified (instead of having it centered) will make it much easier to read and keep your columns nice and clean.

8. Prune your tags
Don’t overwhelm your readers with a list of 200 tags, pick the top 10 or 20 you use the most and feature just those. More info on organizing tags and categories >>>

9. Use your head
If your header space is, say, 920 pixels wide, fill it up! Make your photos, graphics and text stretch across the entire space. On the height side, I wouldn’t go taller that 250 pixels or you risk pushing all your content too far down on smaller monitors.

10. Get out of the shadows [ instructions ]
This one is for Blogger users…I recommend turning off the automatic shadows on your photos so graphics and text looks like…

There…now doesn’t that look better?

P.S. If you follow my blogging tips I’d love to see before and after screenshots, post them in the comments!

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