Better Blogging // To Do List

Hey dolls, remember when I discussed what I've learned in my first year of blogging? Well, that was the first installment of a long line of blogging discussions I would like to have. I know I'm a new blog, but that doesn't mean I can't give advice, or share my goals, or do anything I can to improve my blog, or better yet, help others improve theirs!

So here it is, my second topic for Better Blogging (that's what we'll call it), and I want to discuss some things I would like to do to help myself stay motivated about blog posts. It's not easy for me to set goals for myself and actually follow through with them. But, I'm hoping that making my weaknesses public might help push me harder to make sure I make them stronger, and that I'm keeping my word. Maybe some of you can follow along and try some of my blogging challenges. Think you can do it? Let's try! Here's ten things I am going to do to improve my blog:

♥ Keep a posting schedule. Bloggers can't stress this enough it seems, and I finally understand why. It really does feel better to have a full week, or even 2 posts ready to go. Especially when you're too busy one day, or simply just don't feel like whipping something up the night before. I've already started trying this task and so far it's going really well. I currently have 8 drafts ready to be posted and it feels great! Now I can plan for better posts and have time to execute them better. 

♥ Post at least 3 style shoots a month. My real goal is to post one a week but I know I might be more successful if my goal is 3. Maybe I will exceed that and over achieve! (A girl can hope!)

♥ Take better photos. I have to admit, most of the photos I took at the beginning of my blog, I would never consider posting now that I've learned how to photograph objects better. My goal for this challenge is to not necessarily invest in better equipment, but to learn more about my camera and about lighting, angles and more. Great photos really draw me to other blogs and I want my photos to attract readers to mine.

♥ Be more opinionated. This is a big one! I stay safe with all the inspiration posts and shopping guides, I need to add more personal posts and discuss my opinions on things. Even if their not good opinions.

♥ Share more crafts and recipes. I'm always crafting and cooking and I'm going to set a goal for myself to share more how-tos. Let's start with at least once bi weekly. That seems like a good place to start.

♥ Improve my sponsor features. I love, love, love my questionnaire that everyone does for their sponsor posts but wouldn't it be awesome to give people the option to do a guest post on whatever they would like to discuss? Or maybe just give them more freedom to talk about what they'd like to talk about? Hmm.

♥ Stop. Changing. My. Layout. No description needed, I just really need to stop doing that.

♥ Brainstorm new topic ideas. This is something I'm really working on this month. Those 8 drafts we speak of? They're all relatively new kinds of posts for my blog. I feel like I'm slipping into blogger burnout and I really want to avoid that by coming up with new topics to discuss or new ways to share photos, etc. without doing the same thing everyone else is doing. And that leads to the next one..

♥ Be more original. I know, in the blogisphere, that's easier said than done. But, we can try? And also Beeeeeeeee yourself (Hey, Aladdin fans..see what I did there?). I find there's so many things that I love and enjoy that I almost never talk about on my blog. For instance, how obsessed I am with movies and television, and how I can recite basically any Jim Carrey movie, or SNL sketch. Or how music is the very essence of me. I've been to 13030405 concerts, own 20349595 records, cds, cassettes, books and yet I've only mentioned that maybe once on my blog. Maybe this is a gold mine I've just been sitting on and ignoring. What. An. Idiot.

♥ Nail Tutorials? This is an idea I've been playing with in my head for a few weeks now. I used to do nail art tutorials on my Tumblr blog and people loved it. I know I already post quite a bit about nail polish.. but, maybe tutorials are something you might be interested in seeing on my blog?