How We Blog is a new series that reveals the blogging habits of some of my favorite bloggers.
Next up: Adele from modernemotive.
1. Please describe your blog and your reason for creating it.
I had the idea for modernemotive a few years ago but never really did anything with it and so I sat on the URL for a while. Blame this on procrastination – the bane of my existence some days.
When I eventually got the blog up and running, it was focused on my adventures in sewing and knitting – something I need to get back into. Then after a blog hiatus, I switched the focus back to my original idea – starting my own eco-friendly stationery company.
In many ways, I think my reasons for creating it are yet to transpire or at least become natural to me. I still don’t feel as though I’ve found my voice for my blog. So this is something I really need to work on in the coming weeks/months. It’ll come – I know it and I’m sure it’ll be a ever-constant evolution once it does.
2. Where do you find inspiration for your posts?
Right now, I’m finding my posts are too focused on modernemotive products and my business (by the way – all of my inventory is currently reduced by 25%!). While this is important to some extent and will obviously always be a part of my blog, I need to have more “meat” than that. I want my blog to have genuine value for my readers and not just been a marketing tool for my business.
To combat this, I plan on creating a weekly content schedule. That way, my blog will have some focus and I won’t find myself either scrambling to either say “something” or just not posting period. Once I have this, I think the inspiration will surface naturally. Again, I think this all comes back to finding that voice so that the content becomes a natural rollout and extension of modernemotive.
3. Please tell me a little bit about your blogging habits.
My writing is either done directly from my dining table (where my “office” resides) or from bed. I don’t have a particular time for writing per se, though in general I find myself more creative in the morning. With writing, I find I either have the flow in me that day or I don’t – so this obviously relates to how long it takes me too. I’m sure with practice (and that content schedule) I’ll find it less taxing. At least I hope so as I actually love to write.
Lately, my posts have been quite sporadic which I need to fix. Ideally, I’d like to be posting daily to keep my content relevant and fresh. That’s one of the reasons I started my weekly feature – Green Motive – which profiles other eco-friendly designers like myself. I hope to run more daily features along the same lines so that I have more focus and accountability. Of course, I’ll also be throwing in random postings too so that it doesn’t become too predictable.
4. How many other blogs do you read a day? What are some of your favorites?
Oh my, I have too many blogs in my reader – 235 to be precise. It’s quite out of control. Whenever I try to shave it down, I feel guilty deleting people so end up not bothering. At some point though, I’ll need to. I really enjoy commenting on other peoples blog, but with so many, it just never happens. Often, I need to hit the ‘mark all as read’ when I’ve let my daily reading slip. Those posts soon add up.
dooce
heart handmade
oh so beautiful paper
sweet fine day
modish
This is just a smattering of my favourites. I have too many too many to list here.
5. What do you love the most about blogging?
Sharing and meeting new people. For me, publishing a new blog post is very liberating as I never know who will comment or whom the post may resonate with.
Also, I’ve made many great friends thanks to my blog and through participation on others. Same is true of Twitter which could be calling microblogging. Feel free to drop in and say hello @modernemotive
Thank you, Adele, for your thoughtful answers!
If you would like to be a part of the How We Blog series, please contact me: pj at somewhereinmiddleamerica dot com