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3 Ways I Will Make My Blog More Successful

Sunday 30 June 2019


Something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently is the purpose of my blog and Instagram account. Maintaining both takes up every minute of my free time, my weekends aren't mine to do what I want with - if I want to go on a short trip or even a day out shopping I have to plan for it weeks in advance because of my full-time job. Though I love being creative and taking photos, sometimes it can feel a bit like I’m working 7 days a week. Don’t get me wrong, I love creating content and I’d be lost without this little space I’ve created on the Internet, but I do wonder if I could be achieving more with my platforms. Here are some of the goals I’ve set myself for the year ahead.

Start earning some money

I’ve been thinking about the ways I can monetise my content for at least a year now but I just haven’t had the confidence or willpower to actually put myself out there. I absolutely love taking photos and sharing my thoughts with you, and the occasional PR packages are so welcome, but the truth is that maintaining Fridayfaye requires money and time and in order for it to be viable in the long term it really needs to start to support itself, at least to the point where I break even on the money I put into it. The two main ways I can see of earning money are:

1. Sponsored content - I’ve worked with plenty of brands on a gifting basis before but actually asking for payment is something I lack confidence with. I also want to make sure that my social accounts stay authentic and creative, so I would only want to work with brands that allow me to speak freely and that are a fit for my content both aesthetically and morally. You’ll never see me promoting skinny teas or appetite suppressant lollipops!

2. Selling something - I’ve often thought about selling some Photoshop actions/Lightroom presets or creating some pretty stock imagery for Etsy. This could be a good option for me if I’m able to find some time to put into it initially, currently I’m not sure how I’ll squeeze the extra work into my schedule.

Grow my following


I feel like stating that you want to gain followers on Instagram can be a contentious subject nowadays as the popular opinion seems to be that you shouldn’t care about followers at all. Though I do agree with the statement ‘followers aren’t everything’ I disagree with the statement ‘followers aren’t worth anything". I went through a really traumatic situation in my personal life earlier this year and in order to take my mind off of things I turned to Instagram where I received the most incredible and overwhelming show of support from the people who follow me, hundreds of messages of advice and condolences, strangers who just wanted to let me know that they are there if I feel alone, offering a virtual shoulder to cry on. Followers are people with lives and interests and opinions, they’re potential new friends (or enemies I guess!) There is no shame in wanting to build a bigger community of them.

The other benefit of growing my following is that so many more people will see my content, I’m proud of the images I create and I love the thought of more and more people seeing them! My ideal ‘goal’ for my Instagram following is to hit 50k, it’s a big dream but I like having something to aspire to!

Add a personal touch

Putting your life on Social Media can be scary, it’s an open platform where anyone in the world can find you and will form an opinion on you, for that reason I’ve always tried to keep anything too personal as far away from it as possible. I’ve always said that I can deal with people not liking my flatlays but it’s much harder to deal with people not liking my face or who I am as a person. I’m worried that my fragile self-confidence will break at the first negative comment.

That being said, I do believe in pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. Personal, heartfelt content is my favourite to read and see and I want to be a part of creating those kinds of posts. My initial goal for this year was to relaunch my blog with more personal posts, which I’ve already started to do, my next ‘scary’ goal is to show my face more often on my Instagram and to talk in my stories - if I’m able to accomplish these it’ll be a huge achievement!

So those are my main focus areas for the rest of this year, I’d love to hear some of your goals.

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