Today you get to meet a wonderful world traveler, writer, journalist, photographer, and a great blogger. Pedro from Worldwide Pedrol is an amazing person and you would learn a whole lot form his interview. Once you are done with his interview go check out his amazing work and breathtaking photography. I am linking his site below.
Let’s jump right into it.
1- Tell us a bit about you?
My name is Pedro Luís, I´m 37 years old and I was born and grew up in Lisbon, Portugal. I studied ‘Communication’, worked for some years as a journalist – my dream job! – but after some time I started to feel bored, extremely bored, and with the need for new challenges. Some research is done and I found the European Voluntary Service, which took me to volunteer a few months in a youth center in Skopje, Macedonia, in the beautiful zone of the Balkans. After this experience, I came back to Lisbon and found a job in a hostel, where I worked for the next 4 years. After saving some money, and with my French girlfriend at the time, I went to Riga, Latvia, where I stayed 10 months, and, once again, took the chance to discover all the cities and countries around. This experience took me then to Nice, in the south of France, for another year, where I discovered all the Cote d’Azur and worked in another hotel, which helped to save money to travel for a few months in Asia. After this, I came back to Lisbon one year ago and, at the moment, I´m working in another hotel.
2- How did you come up with your travel blog?
Through the time I had many blogs… for some time I had one dedicated to Literature (I write poetry and have published two books), then I got bored and started other dedicated to photography, then another to my travels. One day I realized I should stop create different blogs and concentrate in one that could aggregate these different topics, together with my Journalistic portfolio and some other stuff that interests me. That´s when I started World Wide Pedro, it has a lot about my travels but also some quotes I find in books and newspapers – in fact, my days are spent with readings… I´m very curious and I love to write and the mix of books, local authors and my travels excites me and motivates me to create some articles on my blog.
Great wall of China
3- What kind of traveler are you?
As I wrote before, I´m a very curious person and I love to find the real culture of a place. In fact, I don´t travel (for example) to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, I don´t care about it and I believe it doesn´t contribute anything to my blog because everyone knows this icon and I´ll be just losing a post… what motivates me to travel is to see what is new, what is real, what is different from my reality. Sometimes I´m lucky and I find interesting spots, some other times I realize I should have done more research, which proves that, besides curious, I´m also a bit lazy aha
4- You are also a freelance writer, who do you write for?
For some time I wrote for magazines and newspapers but, as you may imagine, in such a small country like Portugal, it´s impossible to live with it. At the moment, I write for myself, I write my short stories and haikus. In fact, what I like is to feel motivated to write and to travel help me a lot.
5- Do you monetize your blog?
No. I receive a lot of emails with proposals. I answered some to understand how it could work and I realized it wasn’t worthy to get a few money and deviate/ lose my readers. In fact, I don´t like to visit blogs with so much advertising and clicks and push buttons so I prefer to have a clean and more friendly site. On the other hand, I wouldn´t say no to some collaborations with hotels or tourism boards and this is something I am starting to work on and, hopefully, next year, have some results.
6- Your pictures are beyond amazing, did you learn professional photography?
Thank you so much, Bushra! I didn´t learn about professional photography, in fact, my learning came from following other photographers and see a lot of photography. I know I’ve improved a lot but there´s still a long way to be even better. Also, I edit the photos and use some filters, which help me to clean and improve the photos.
Enjoying Spain!
7- What kind of camera do you suggest a blogger supposed to have for his/her professional blog pictures?
I don´t have any money to invest in cameras. To be honest, I prefer to invest in a trip. I used to have a Sony Cybershot DSC-W830 but I don´t use it anymore because nowadays (for what I do) it is much easy and practical to have a good smartphone. So, at the moment, I have a Huawei PT20 Lite, it has two Leika cameras and I also use this app called Foodie to edit and improve the photos. When I travel I also take an iPhone 6, which I used to use and I think it takes good-enough photos.
8- I saw you yourself is a great interviewer, what suggestion would you give me regarding interviewing people?
Read a lot, not only about the subject but also past interviews of the interviewed. Be curious and try to know the most about the subject. Try to think about interesting questions and avoid the same-old basic ones. Even if I know that this is easy to write but not so easy to put in practice, think that a reader will be much more interested in reading your future interviews and/or reports if there´s something new that he/she can learn from it. Just like no one likes to see 300 different photos of the Eiffel Tower, in my opinion, no one also likes to waste time reading the same questions and answers.
9- What are a few golden tips for other travel bloggers would you give, who want to travel and work around the world?
Be curious but use common sense, be respectful, patient and open to the other cultures, do never think that you have the reason about any subject, try to listen to the others and understand their point of view. Oh, and of course, smile and transmit good vibes.
Nowadays it is easy to travel and find a place where you´d love to stay for some more time. Ask if you can volunteer there, a few platforms like work away and woof are the open door to a lot of volunteering projects all around the world.
10- What is your favourite memory you have had over the period of 30 years while traveling?
That´s a hard question aha I have so many memories and certainly, I´ve forgotten some others. From the Balkans, I remember the friendly people, the great food and the long distance bus rides, sometimes with long stops in the cold of the night to show the passport in the borders. I remember the sweet memory of arriving in Yerevan, in Armenia, after a 12 hours night journey I made with a family from Kazakhstan… or even in the middle of China when I met an English teacher that was so happy to meet me that wanted me to marry her daughter ahahah
11- What are your thoughts on networking, as a new blogger I found you very supportive of your blogger’s community?
I will tell you a secret: I spend much more time on networking than actually on my posts. I believe it answers your question, in my opinion, networking is the most important thing if you want to have a successful blog. By success, I mean readers and followers and views. For me, this is important because I feel it may open a lot of doors. Also, I like to know who are my readers and what are their blogs, what do they write about and what interests them in my blog. In my opinion, it may help you sometimes to decide what kind of photo to post or article to write.
12- What one piece of advice would you like to give to new/seasoned bloggers in order to be successful?
To counter my last answer (lol), I totally believe a blogger should write about what he/she likes. In the last years, I realize I dedicate a lot of time to my blog if it was to do something that I actually don´t like I would never be so consistent and it would be another dead blog. Try to have the most fun on it because this challenge can be, in fact, very beneficial for yourself – and I´m not even saying financially, but like socially and related to your own development, as to blog is a bit like to swim, you develop a lot of different skills: you write, you take photos, you edit videos, you manage social media. But be aware, it takes a lot of work and compromise, makes sure you are ready to accept it.
One of my office fellows at work was talking to me and asking me if I set up my house yet. My answer was, “heck no, I am too busy blogging…LOL”. She asked what kind of bedroom I am going with, I am like…”Ummm it’s a secret, but I can give a color away I am gonna go with, and it’s gray”. She said, “Oh, gray is my favorite color as well”.
My Question To Her:
I asked her about her bedroom and she said that it’s pretty old, but she has no idea what to do. And by now, readers, you all started to have a sense of my crazy helpful nature. I jumped in and said, “Oh, I can help you with that”. Well, my friend got very excited and accepted my help. She asked me how am I going to help her as she lives a bit farther in another city, the fact that I am too busy with everything. I solved the problem. I asked her to take pictures of her bedroom’s individual walls.
Pictures of Bedroom’s All 4 Walls:
She took my advice, and the next day brought me pictures of all her four walls in the bedroom. Pretty smart idea to see the whole bedroom, right? Of course, after all, she is working with me. I was excited to see those pictures. To be honest, the pictures didn’t disappoint me. I got rather excited and visualized the whole new beautiful bedroom between those tired and outdated walls.
Her bedroom right now, pretty exciting..huh (front wall)
When you enter the room, the first thing you see is her bed and I personally think that is a pretty good place for the bed. It should be facing the door as the bed is important furniture for the room. I have never been to her place, but I am going to when she will have everything ready according to our mood board.
What do you think about the curtains? Just giving you a closer look
These curtains just made me laugh. I can be mean at times, too. I just laughed and laughed…my poor friend. I told her “what the heck were you thinking with these curtains?” She probably thought I am going crazy, so all she did laughed with me and said so what should I do now.
I don’t know what should even I say about this side of the room. First wall
I asked if she needs her computer table or writing table in the room so when I put a design board ready, I should know about that, but she preferred to get rid of it. That dresser in the corner has got to go.
That dresser is screaming for a help. Right in front of the bed (3rd wall)
This wall is opposite the bed. I have no idea why dresser is pushed up in the corner but it’s okay…she is a great woman to work with. The good part is she is very nice when it comes to accepting the changes and taking advice.
Bathroom door and 4th wall
She does need this ironing board in the room and I am going to think something for this to hang that board. I might dig for ideas on the Pinterest.
Her Budget:
So after going over all the above images, I asked her about what color and style she likes. She kinda couldn’t give me an idea about the style, but for the color, she already told me that she would like to go with gray. The big thing she told me was that she had a minimum budget to go with.
Well, that should not be an issue for me as ever since I became a mother, I took the license to manage any kind of money issues. I am pretty thrifty, so it was not an issue for me.
PIN IT
Here is the design board I put together for her as we are going to use the same furniture.
I would love to get rid of that ugly carpet but she doesn’t have a budget for that which is fine. We are going to hunt for an area rug from Costco. We should be okay.
The funny Part:
The funny part is that my husband who holds a degree in communication as well does proofread my post as English is a second language for me. He is going to pull his hair out that I am helping others while our own house is a mess but it’s okay, he will get over it soon.
Today’s post is written by our guest blogger Lindsay Muller from lindsaymuller.com She is a mother, a singer and a blogger. let’s see what she brought us for today’s guest post!
The Begining:
Three years ago, I was a stressed out mom of two energetic toddlers. I felt like most of the words that came out of my mouth were
“Be careful!”
“Don’t do that!”
“Be gentle with your brother!”
Deep down, I wanted to speak positive, loving words to my boys because what we say to our children is POWERFUL. Our words become their inner voice!
But I was so busy and frustrated with the demands of my little boys that I often forgot.
At the same time, I was learning about SELF LOVE and POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS. As I spoke affirmations to myself I noticed a huge shift. I became so much happier, more confident and less stressed. I wanted to make sure my kids heard these affirmations from a young age because I knew they would believe them easily, and hopefully keep them tucked in their hearts for the rest of their lives.
My family!
My A to Z list:
So I came up with a list of positive affirmations from A-Z, starting with “You are Amazing” for the letter A. I’d whisper this list each night as I tucked them into bed, and eventually it developed into the song that has become my main message as a parent, musician and human: that every single one of us is AMAZING; that we are all loved, unique, and valuable.
Not Only For Children:
I didn’t want this message to be solely for the kids, so eventually, a second verse developed. I wanted my boys to know that I believed in these affirmations as well. This time I turned the words around: “You Are Amazing” became “I Am Amazing.” It turned into my personal anthem and boosted my self-confidence and self-love even further.
Without further ado, here are the lyrics. I hope they will serve as a tool to help instill self-love and confidence in your children’s hearts – and in yours as well.
You can listen/buy this song and the entire album at LindsayMuller.com
Verse 1:
You are amazing, and I believe in you,
You’re beautiful inside and out
You are capable of anything you wanna do,
And you’re doing a great job
You are excellent,
and I have faith in you,
you have great ideas
And I’m so happy that you’re in my life
You are important, intelligent,
You are filled with joy
You are kind, you are loved,
you’re allowed to make mistakes
You’re never alone, and it’s okay to be sad, to be mad, to be scared
You are precious, and I’m so proud of you,
We are all equal
You radiate love and joy,
You’re special and you’re safe
I trust in you, for you are unique, valuable, wonderful
I’m so excited to get to know you.
Love yourself, be yourself and
go crazy once in a while.
I love you in the good, I love you in the bad,
When you’re happy, and when you’re sad
I will love you, I will love you, always!
Verse 2:
I am amazing, I believe in myself,
I am beautiful inside and out
I am capable of anything I wanna do,
And I’m doing a great job
I am excellent, and I have faith in me,
I have great ideas
And I’m so happy that I am alive
I am important, intelligent,
I am filled with joy
I am kind, I am loved,
I’m allowed to make mistakes
I am never alone,
and it’s okay to be sad, to be mad, to be scared
I am precious, and I’m proud of myself,
We are all equal
I radiate love and joy,
I’m special and I’m safe
I trust in myself,
For I am unique, valuable, and wonderful
I’m so excited to get to know me.
I will Love myself, be myself and I’ll go crazy once in a while.
I love me in the good, I love me in the bad,
When I’m happy, and when I’m sad
I will love me, and I will love you always
Do you use Positive Affirmations with your children? Or with yourself?
Hey you all beautiful people out there! I would like to request you, if you can join me to support this young, sharp, bright and a very smart boy Nick McCarthy. Nick is an 18 years old boy who proved that no disability could stop him to grow. He is showing with his blog that ” Sky is the limit”.
My Rule in Life:
By knowing me through blogging you all would come to know that I am a firm believer in supporting each others. I believe that we are nothing without supporting others. To me Diversity and team work is the way to go!
Nick recently wrote a little book which is available on Amazon and it’s very affordable.
Nick you are like a brother to me and again, You owe me nothing. I would love to see your blog grow.
Here is the book cover for you all! I will put a link below if someone would like to buy it.
I mostly show my support and love by rebloging! but if any of you want me to share anything on my blog or my facebook page with Fifty thousands followrs to get more exposure please don’t hasitate to reach out to me.
WordPress plugins can customize your WordPress site in nearly any way. But there are some mistakes non-developers make when using WordPress plugins and hiring developers to make them. This article explains five such mistakes to avoid, and how to benefit the most from WordPress plugins. Avoid Expensive Custom Development The most expensive part of making […]
Hi y’all! It has been a super quiet morning compared to yesterday. Halloween is finally over, which means I am behind on one of my favorite activities. Every year I crochet for charity. Last year I crocheted Wildlife Rescue Nests these nests are sent out to wildlife rehabilitators all over the world. My heart melts when I see the little critters all snuggled up in their nests. Go check out the web-site and you will see what I mean.
These are a few of my nests from last year:
This year I’m choosing Warm Up America and I want to scarf bomb the city for our homeless that need to keep warm in the frigid temps. Warm Up America is a wonderful charity that was started by Evie Rosen in 1991. Sadly, she passed away in 2012, but her legacy lives on and she will always be remembered. She is…
Today’s post is a little tech savvy post and guess what guys? I am not a tech savvy person at all. I am in wordpress learning group and someone asked the above question in the group. The answer everyone was posting ” install the plugin.
Plugins:
With wordpress free plan you can’t install plugins. That feature is available only with the business plan and not everybody is needed the business plan. I myself, in the beginning, was struggling with the same question and when I googled it, all I come up with plugins installation. I am only using free wordpress theme so it was not possible for me.
Ask A Friend:
Then I finally asked one of my friends. Driftyness, she is a very tech, savvy girl. I didn’t think of writing a post about it until I saw the same question someone else posted. I thought it’s a great way to put information together.
Steps to add a page:
Go to your settings under “my site”
Click on customize from this menu
Then click on Menus
Once you click on menus
Then it will appear like this
Now click on the primary menuClick on add items
Now add as many pas pages you want. you see an empty bar where it says “add new page”. Give your page a name you want and click on ” Add Next to it. Once you add it then you can reposition it.
Add posts under the new page:
Once you created the page then click on posts below the “ADD” button. Select your post and reposition it by moving with your mouse. Now you are good to go. You can also reorder it if you want. You can see the ” reorder sign next to the ” Add Items”.
I hope it would help whoever needs it. Don’t ever hesitate to ask a friend. We all have to learn from somewhere
My previous Tech Savvy posts in case you need them
Thank you so much for all the “Birthday Wishes Friends”. I truly had fun with my children, hubby, and my mother! My husband didn’t even let me peak on my blog…He said, spend time with us. It was a nice break though but I missed you all!
Hey you all my lovely fellows in the bog lands I thought I should put all my October posts up today, so if any of you missed something, a good time to catch up with me.
Here is the Recap!
Posts:
26 posts total I posted
10 reblogged (so total 36) as I believe that “Sharing is Caring”. promote others in order to get promoted.
Awards:
5 Awards. (two I have posted and 3 more to go). I was really honored by all the awards and in my opinion it’s the great way to spread the word about each other. Some people are embarrassed to accept those awards. In my opinion, you are absolutely worthy if someone shows the love and care for you. Some of the awards I have been nominated twice and I am still going to post them regardless of that I have done the post before for the same award. Care for your fellow bloggers that the only way to go toward success!
Friends:
101 more friends I gained as my followers.
1100 more page views. with 500 more visitors.
A big Thank you!
Credit goes to all of you who are supporting me but with that being said, If I ever missed visiting any of you, come, find me, as you all know where to find me by now? LOL. I am a firm believer of that supporting each other is the way to go.
Okay, here you go with my most popular posts.
Read it here!The complete post is here!Read full post here and learn to be a great blogger!Here you go to read about this little teacher!There is another exciting weekend wrap-up!Amazing information to improve your blog!Thank you to all of the 22 bloggers!A Quick DIY for you!Great resources and courses for your blog!How to organize your little boy’s closet!Grandma made this dress and vest for Zahra’s doll Jenna and I did the photo shoot. Yes, having kids made you do all that. Here is the postOnce again, thanks for your love dear friends! If you see on the top the web bar that’s my new URL.
PIN IT
Did your put your October recap together? If not go a head and do that, it’s a great way to put your monthly posts on one place.
Hi everyone!!! One of the most common problem at female population nowadays is facial hair. This no one wants to have it. In this post, we are going to see the best solution to this problem. This recipe is full with minerals and vitamins which will help you in making you skin soft and shiny. […]
It’s finally Halloween and I’m a little glad to see it come and go. My daughter is 11 this year and she’s at that weird in-between age where she’s too young for certain things and too old for certain things. She wanted to go trick-or-treating, so we will, but she’s just not as excited about […]
I am going to work on my site’s theme so would be posting here and there just to keep you all in the loop otherwise would start posting on regular basis about in a week or two.
Health
I am still feeling very dizzy and sick which is why I am taking so long to put things together, I have almost 15 bloggers ready for the “Blogger Interview Series” but couldn’t put my questions ready last week to send them, darn we really take our health for a granted.
Facebook Page
If you haven’t checked my facebook page please check that out and drop me your link over there in the comment section so I can follow you back.
Facebook Group
If you are on FB and have not joined our FB Group please join it here
October States
Here is the October states for my site and I am so thankful to all of you guys for your support as it’s only two and a half months of blogging for me!
A Poem by Zahra
( my silly 9 years old girl)
Zambi Zambi where would you sleep
In the graveyard is where I would sleep
Zambi Zambi what would you eat
Your yummy brain is what I would eat
Happy Halloween to all mama’s Zambi blogger friends!
(She typed it and was insisted to share with you all)
PS:Zahra is such a little writer. She can write a whole book on a little thing. she made her headband with cat ears and last night she showed me the 10 pages of instruction book on that. (extruction book what she called it…lol)
PIN IT
Grandma made this dress and vest for Zahra’s doll Jenna and I did the photo shoot. Yes, having kids made you do all that.
Drop me a line, what your plans are for the Halloween. Are you taking the kids to ” Trick Or Treat”?
Thank you so much for showing your love yesterday and asking about my health friends. I am feeling a little better but still not back to sit on the computer for longer to do something.
I am so thankful to you guy for you love, encouragement and support! A few days I would be working on my site’s new theme and so on then would be back ASAP I done with all that. Don’t forget about me. Keep me in your thoughts, please.
Once again, thanks for your love dear friends! If you see on the top the web bar that’s my new URL.
Here is the updated version of my daughter’s room!!!
Made me so happy to see the end result. All It took me a couple of hours to re-set everything and at the end, it was pretty rewarding. What do you guys think?
Her room before
Her room beforePretty busy, right? I painted her room in a Turquoise blue. As opposed to I decorate her room, in the beginning, she was insisted to have tons of furniture in there and decorate it by herself. My husband said, let her have it, whatever she wants right now, and, in a few months you can work again on it. You guys know those moments, right. When our darn cute kids just show us an innocent face and melt our heart.
I loved the combination with white, such pretty looking color scheme.
In this WordPress SEO tutorial, I’ll show you how to add a free SEO plugin to your website to SEO optimize your site and website content. SEOPress In this video here I compare all the top SEO plugins And here is the basic ideal with any SEO plugin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All of my opinions in this […]
Learn how to use the new WordPress content editor named Gutenberg. The future of content writing is finally here. If you want to check out the free theme I used in the video that is 100% Gutenberg compatible, here is the link It’s also the them I use on all of my websites. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All…
So, you all have seen the picture of my little boys closet here on my weekend wrap-up-3
It was pretty messy. I, by nature, am a pretty organized person, but to be quite honest, ever since we have moved to this new house, things seem to be a little out of control and wacky. Especially when it comes to clothing. Boxes are all over the place and so are the kid’s clothes. It’s very unorganized. I work five days a week full-time, and when I come home I work with the kids and then hang out with you all in the blog land. Before I know it, the clock tells me it’s time to go to bed.
Fighting with the time:
Time is just flying! I only have the weekend to tackle things in our house. Organizing can take tons of your time, but once you get organized in different areas in the house it sure makes your life fairly easy.
Although it was not a huge project, the closet organization still took three days. I was not adding or subtracting anything to this space. All I was doing was organizing to add more function in order to make my own life easy. My little boy is a very clean and organized little man. He was driving me crazy. He was saying “Mama, when are you going to get my closet organized?”
Here are the steps I followed to clean and organize his closet. His room is still a mess, but at least he can get his clothes ready at night for the morning.
Prep:
First, I took everything out of his closet and cleaned it with homemade all-purpose cleaner.
The first step: empty the closet.
Steps:
Self Adhesive Contact Paper
Then the first Step, I added the self-adhesive contact paper to the selves from Dollar Tree. I love this paper for two reasons. First, it’s super easy to add and second, it’s only going to cost you a few dollars, so no burden on your pocket.
Here is how the selves look like with the self-adhesive contact paper.
It’s the same paper I have used to transform my lamp shades. It’s a beautiful, lightweight, and easy to attach Moroccan style paper. I used two and a half rolls, so less than $3 and the whole closet was looking pretty darn good!
DIY Storage Boxes:
The next step was to add some storage boxes to the closet so we can store tons of his clothes in a tiny space. As opposed to buying expensive baskets, I used my brain and thought of making the big baskets with the paper boxes. I see a lot of paper boxes at my work, so I ask the girl who does all the stock management if I could get a couple of those boxes, and she said she would save them for me.
I brought these boxed home and I thought I could use the same Dollar Tree paper to wrap them up. Here is how it turned out…!!!
See? it was an easy DIY which gave us beautiful storage boxes. All his sweaters and PJ’s are stored in them.
It’s very easy for him, as for last two nights he is getting his clothes for school and his PJ’s easily, as he knows now where they are.
DIY Car Labels:
The labels his big sis’ made for him. She drew those little cars and then colored them.
His sister first wrote it with a pink marker. Well, what can you say, he has two sisters…LOL
Dollar Store Storage Containers:
We still needed some more baskets, so I brought a couple of them from the dollar store to store his teas and his undershirts.
The pictures are not great this time as I was lacking light, and was in sorta rush too. But overall, the closet started to look great.
It’s nice when everything has a homeHis memory box to store his very precious things.
Here is the reminder of how it was before.
Here is the after and final result. Took me three nights to do that.
When I started blogging I never dreamed that one day, I’d actually get sent a product – for free – in order to write about it. I never thought I’d ever get paid to write a blog post – I mean, what? That only happens to Zoella, right? I didn’t understand how blogging can be […]
“Make sure you don’t start seeing yourself through the eyes of those who don’t value you. Know your worth even if they don’t.” Being taken for granted is a terrible feeling specially if you are a genuinely nice person, few people start taking your kind, loving and respectful behavior as your weakness. They are always […]
Cate Rosales is a blogging instructor who teaches online and helps others to achieve their dreams to be self-employed. This interview is filled with great information along with tons of free resources. Give your self a favor and read it or save it.
Here you with her interview!
1- Tell us briefly about yourself and how did you get into blogging?
Of course, I’m happy to do that! I’m Cate Rosales, the blogger behind SweetandSimpleLife.com. I live in southern California with my husband and our two babies. I’ve been blogging for a little over 3 years now and I’m a sucker for all things online business, marketing, and passive income.
I started blogging back when I was pregnant with my first baby in 2015. It was really just a hobby at first because I loved to write, and I loved telling stories that could potentially help someone who came across my blog. As my hobby blog started to grow, I decided I wanted to try my hand and making some money from it. And here I am 3 years later: a full-time blogger with my own online business. I seriously couldn’t be any happier!
2- I saw you are a very successful blogger and blogging instructor. How long did it take you to get where you are now?
Well, I had a lot of experience in the online business space before I started blogging. I was an administrative manager for many years, so I had experience in business, marketing, and social media management. Those skills really helped me to boost my blogging business quickly. Success is relative, of course. But after I got laser-focused and strategic with my blogging business, it took me about a year of hard work to reach my monthly income goals…basically, walking away from my sucky day job and being able to pay my bills and feed my kids on my own is my definition of success. I will say: all good things take time and effort. Blogging is not a get-rich-quick deal and you really can’t compare your own timeline to someone else’s. All you can do is educate yourself about the business of blogging, invest in the right tools, and put your time in.
3- I found you very active helper towards other bloggers regardless of if they are newer or established, what’s your thoughts are about supporting others?
Helping people is absolutely what I live for. It makes me so happy to support other bloggers on their journey and show them how to make money and build a successful blogging business. It’s a job that I would gladly do for free if I didn’t have bills to pay, that’s how much I love it! And I think that supporting others is directly connected to our own business success. When you give of yourself and lift others up, it ends up lifting you up as well.
4-Tell us a bit about your blog’s name, How and why did you choose this?
My blog is called SweetandSimpleLife.com. Quite honestly, the blog has evolved a lot over the past few years, but its true meaning has always been the same. I’m all about keeping life simple so that we can enjoy the more important things. I used to blog about keeping life simple as a working mom, but my passion for sharing stories of motherhood just kind of faded after a while. Over time, we evolved from a “working mom” blog to a “business” blog, and now all of my content is geared toward aspiring entrepreneurs that want to make money with their own blogging business. My original purpose still rings true through all of my posts: keeping things simple in life and business, so that we have time and money to enjoy the sweeter things in life. I’m so proud of the name and the evolution of my content as my business grew. It has been exciting to watch my business and my mission takes shape and to have so much support from my audience.
5- This is my question for all successful bloggers, What was the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far?
When you own an online business, challenges will come up all the time. I’ve had months that I struggled to pay my bills, I’ve had other bloggers steal my content. You name it, I’ve probably dealt with it. I honestly don’t recall one specifically challenging moment, because they come and go, and I choose not to dwell on them. But I will say that making steady money is a challenge for most bloggers in the beginning, so it’s important to be aware of that.
6- When did you decide to be a blogging instructor, your courses are great?
I was writing a lot of content about online business and marketing at that time. Many of my readers and commenters were asking me how to start a blog and make money…I realized there was a real need for education on this topic, and it was something that I could truly help people with. I was spending hours upon hours responding to messages and emails, answering these same beginner questions over and over again. I decided it was much more efficient to create a simple beginner training course that answers all of these questions for you. I launched the course in early 2018 and it was one of the best decisions of my blogging career.
Here is the link to the course for any of your readers that would like to check it out!
7- How long after you started blogging did you begin to monetize your blog?
When I was blogging as a hobby, I never really intended to monetize. A few companies sent me free products in exchange for a review, so that was cool. Once I got focused and decided to turn my blog into a business, I started making money right away. I only made a few bucks here and there during the first couple of months. And my income steadily grew over the course of a year. It’s all about your focus and your strategy. You can start making money pretty quickly if you know what you’re doing.
8- In your opinion, what’s the best social media strategy as there are too many platforms to be active?
The best social media platform and strategy will be different for each person. My best recommendation is to choose the ONE platform where your target readers spend the most time and learn how to rock it. Do some research, take a course, ask questions. Whatever it takes to help you capitalize on that one platform. Then you can use automation tools to share your content on the less-important platforms. Most bloggers choose to focus on Pinterest at some point in their career, and I think that’s a good idea. I personally focus on Pinterest and Facebook to reach my target audience.
9- What is the best hosting site someone newer blogger should go with?
I personally use and love Siteground for my website hosting. But if you need a monthly option, Lyrical Host is good too. The important thing is to choose a self-hosted site for your blog. This includes a small investment and you can follow my step-by-step setup guide in this article.
10- Can you shed some light on how important networking is?
Networking is great for any business. You connect with other people in your field, you learn what’s working and what’s not. So many doors open up when you step outside of your comfort zone and just start connecting with your colleagues. I think it’s even more important to do when you run an online business like this. Because we have the tendency to sit behind our computer for hours and get lost in our own little blogging world. There’s actually a big, beautiful, supportive online community for bloggers. And getting involved with the community can lead to great opportunities.
11- How someone should use SEO keywords to increase blog traffic, please provide specific examples?
SEO is important because it allows your target audience to find your blog post right when they need it most. As an example, if you are a food blogger and you have a recipe about chocolate chip cookies, it would be great for readers to find that recipe right when they are searching for chocolate chip cookie recipes! That’s the beauty of SEO.
There’s a lot more to it, but here’s a simple for beginners: think of simple phrases that your ideal reader might type into Google when they are searching for something. Remember the chocolate chip cookie example above. Pepper those keyword phrases into your blog posts naturally so that Google knows what you’re writing about and where they should rank you on their search engine. This is a very simplified example, but it’s a good starting point. I also use and love Moz.com and BackLinko.com for help with my SEO.
12- What kind of attitude a blogger should have towards the readers, as I found some rude bloggers out there, as they were never new?
As bloggers, I think we have a responsibility to our audience, to be professional and kind no matter what. Of course, there are rude people in every field and we can’t change them all. But I personally believe your attitude reflects on your business, and it can be a good reflection or a bad one. I always try to err on the side of kindness.
13 -What best advice you have for newer/seasoned bloggers, please?
My best advice is to treat your blog like a real business. You are the CEO of your business and you have to act like it if you want to be successful.
Show up, do the work, serve your audience, and don’t be afraid to invest in your business. But also, find joy in the process and make sure you’re having some fun along the way!
Thank you so much, Cate, for your precious time.
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Great resources and courses for your blog!
Check out her course, Her prices are very reasonable. I did a great job to put all these questions together so you can take advantage of her full of knowledge answers.
Any questions you guys want to add for the next blogger let me know in the comment section also let me know if there is the specific niche you want.
I truly believe in helping others while exploring knowledge for myself.
Sarah broke down the whole budget theory in such a simple way. Check her post out and claim your free printable. I already did mine as I can’t survive with out budgeting. By now you all know that my husband has no sense of it, He is a great computer engineer and that’s it. So I have to keep this budget game fairly straight.
Okay here is her post, go check it out.
Start a Budget the Easy Way: Free Printable Planning Worksheets
Let’s do a budget! If you have not been budgeting for awhile or if you are new to the household budget game, it can be hard to figure out where to start. Don’t worry, I have some tools you can use today to get you started down the road to family budget success! For new budgeters, this is the best budgeting advice for beginners.
It’s almost Halloween! My daughter already has her costume. She is going to be a bird this year. I thought that was pretty unique. Growing up I was almost always a witch. I’m not sure why. Maybe because it was the easiest costume to throw together. And the cheapest since I already had everything. There were not many costume ideas back then. We had the plastic costumes with the plastic masks. The masks had tiny holes for the nose so you could barely breathe all night. I would go to someone’s house, get my candy, and immediately turn around and lift up my mask.
Here’s an example of a Wonder Woman costume:
It was way scarier than the costumes that were supposed to be scary! But oh, how I miss those days.
I managed to get some Halloween decor put out. I didn’t go over board this year because quite…
Here we go again! Our weekend is over, and I am talking about it. Friday feels way far from Monday, and Monday is so close to Friday. It’s totally not fair with people who work full time…We need to protest about this, but God might not like the idea of protesting, so all we can do is just deal with it. Let’s share with you how our weekend went through…
Our Saturday,
We planned to take my mother to our local “Farmer’s Market’ but my husband had no clue that farmer’s market was done for the season.
Well, since we were out and about it, we decided to go to a park and then to downtown Portland so the kids could enjoy the weather, as the winter, and the rainy season is gonna start soon.
Adventurous kids! That little buddy looks like he’s scared
We took the kids to a really cool little park where everything is made of wood materials, and they spent almost an hour and a half. It was great fun for them, and the fall colors were beautiful.
Then we headed downtown to one of many “food cart blocks” that Portland is known for. There are always many varieties of food to choose from, and the people watching is always “interesting”.
The food was really good, and the greatest part is that it was “halal”, so it was permissible for Muslims to eat.
Look at those tired kidsSee the ” Halal Food sign” and my silly Zoha
After that, we walked over to Pioneer Square and got some delicious lattes from Starbucks, did a bit of shopping, and then went home very late and feeling exhausted.
We expected to just do the quick Farmer’s Market deal but instead ended up with a full day of fun. My husband works in downtown Portland, so he experiences all of the “Keep Portland Weird” stuff all the time. I, on the other hand, work outside of downtown so it’s always fun for me, my mother, and the kids to see the inner city.
Here everyone is tired at the end
Our Sunday,
Sunday, I was organizing all day long.
Below is the picture of my little boy’s closet and how it was before. I will post on Friday the after step-by-step pictures as I am still working on this mess. Our house is so cluttery right now, everywhere is clothes lying around and boxes took over on half the house. It feels like it’s going to take forever to move in.
See how messy and unorganized it looks
Here is the little buddy who’s closet I was organizing all day long on Sunday!
Great Sale
Kohl’s is running a great sale on shoes go get them before they get sold out!
Here is what my kiddos got!
News from the bloglands
I normally don’t post on the weekend, but I am glad I did my posts for two of my awards. I met several new and cool people and I decided I at least should interduce my new friends I gain over the weekend to my previous friends.
Here is the list of my new friends for the weekend I made as my followers.
If you like to gain friends, check those blogs out!
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What kind of food do you guys like, street food or dine in? How was your weekend, I am nosy (not really, just love you guys) and would like to hear the detail!
I am thrilled to share another Award nomination with you guys. It feels so nice when your fellow bloggers recognize you! To me, it feels like all the hard work paid off and all my restless nights are not wasted. They are worth staying up late for. Fellow bloggers are not only your blogger friends but also your co-workers and I betcha, co worker’s don’t award you without any reason!!! Yes, you got that! You know what I meant?
Rules
I made an easy graphic for you with rules included, just save and use the same picture if you want!
Thank the person who nominated you
This Award was awarded by my dear blogging friend, Jackie. Yes, a dear friend because she was with me at the beginning of my journey and she was there to support me when I just came to the blog land knowing nothing. She visits me constantly and cheers me by leaving her lovely comments.
Thank you so much, Jackie, for your love and support!
Include a link to their blog in your post
Guys, you have got to see her blog! She is an interior decorator for commercial firms, and her blog is full of great ideas. Go check out her blog, “This Halcyon Life”, and gain a great supporter and a lovely blogging friend.
Share 7 facts about yourself
1- My mother is my best friend and I totally adore her. She is the most creative and smartest women on earth I have ever known. No wonder my dad adored her! (my dad passed away at the age of 57, almost 10 years ago)
2- I live my life by a quote “Life is tough, but I am tougher” and I always succeed in everything by the grace of God.
3- My husband thinks I am obsessed with cleaning, paint, and interior decoration (I never cleaned before I came to the USA though, I learned how to clean the bathroom on youtube).
4- I am surprisingly good at finance management although I never checked the price before I bought anything when I was in Pakistan. If I liked it, it has to be in my shopping cart and I am so thrifty now.
5- I am totally spoiled by my five brothers (in fact, six the youngest one is adopted).
6- I am very helpful and love to support others as much as possible
7- I believe you can’t live without diversity and teamwork.
Nominate 15 bloggers of your choice to keep spreading the love
My nominees are: (It’s such a versatile list for you)
None of you are obliged/forced to accept and do a post about this award. Only if you believe in supporting each other and networking then every little effort counts. To me, it’s really a great honor to be a part of it!!!
Hey fellows! Saturday is not my posting day, but I just couldn’t wait anymore to share my excitement for another recognition award with you. It’s always nice to be acknowledged, especially with lovely friends like Liba. So, here I go again.
The Rules
Thank the blogger that nominated you and give a link to their site.
Thank you so much, Liba for your love and support! Go check out her versatile blog here, and gain a wonderful blogging friend! I am blessed to have her in my blogger’s friend list.
Give a summary of how your blog started.
Well, I am so much into interior decoration and DIY’ing. I was always reading a few blogs and one of them is Diane’s blog. If you missed her interview, read it here, please. I never thought I should take blogging very seriously. Although once in 2010 I started a blog on blogspot, and in a week I had 140 followers, and two opportunities landed in my inbox but I thought it was all spam. I was in school and had a little toddler to take care of, so I just got out of blogging within a month, but I kept reading a few of the blogs. They are very successful now.
In August 2018, I was just reading the post from one of my favorite bloggers and I thought, “okay it’s not spam”. Blogging is real, and the next moment I was creating my blog on wordpress. It’s been two months, and I am doing great. I know how to be successful as I am a very hard working woman. The rest is the history, and now you can all follow along with me.
Give two pieces of advice for any new bloggers.
My two pieces or two cents of advice is;
1- Be supportive of each other.
2- Networking, Networking, and Networking.
I can’t stress how important networking is in blogging. I will do a whole post about it. Where you can learn a lot more, but right now I would just say stay connected with each other. Try to promote other bloggers in order to be successful. This Blogger award is a big example of this, so spread the word.
Stay tuned! I have another award to share with you tomorrow, I just don’t want to merge them together.
None of you are obliged/forced to accept and do a post about this award. Only if you believe in supporting each other and networking then every little effort counts. To me, it’s really a great honor to be a part of it!!!
Hey guys! So, you remember from Monday that I showed you the picture of my thrift store candle holder? Did any of you guess what I made with them? Well, my weird brain always works in so many weird ways in my own weirdo land. OMG, I already used the word weird so many times, it’s kinda weird…LOL!
The above picture you all have seen on my Monday’s post.
As soon as I saw these candle holders in our local thrift store, I thought of making planters with them. I even visioned where I would put them. See, my brain does work in a weird way. You got the idea, right?
Here you go. My little Halloween corner is ready as well.Here is a more close-up look.
The above plants, I have purchased from Costco, and so far I have not killed them, heh. Although I killed plants very quickly in the past, and I’m a known plant killer in our house, my love for all those plants keep them still alive… I don’t learn lessons and buy them again and again. In fact, I am pretty proud of myself about these plants. I have kept them in pretty good shape for the last 2 months. If you guys have missed how I made my DIY outdoor designer planters, check them out here.
The cage in the first image I used for my candle stands, and it looks so beautiful at night when those battery operated candles are on.
What do you think?
I first placed this cage in between these two chairs, but then I decided to put it by the planters, and I like it better.
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Easy-peasy step by step for you!
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Hope you guys like this little easy DIY, and I hope it will give you an idea as to what to do with random stuff. Let me know what you think.
22 Awesome Recipies From Our “Family Favorites Recipe Roundup’s Participants” Bloggers. We needed 15 recipes but we ended up 22 with participation.
This is a list of some of blogland’s favorite family dinners. You will find a wide variety of fun dishes you can try for yourself in these listings. There is something to satisfy every taste.
Let’s start with my favorite recipe ” Chicken Curry” made by my mother.
Here you go with the Recipe:
You can chicken in pounds ( 2lb ). There is packet available with all these spices included. Use that. My mother just likes to make everything from scratch.
Directions;
1- Heat oil in a pan then add cinnamon sticks, cloves, and garlic.
2- Add onion and fry until their color turned light brown. Stir occasionally.
3- Mix all the spices in a cup and add 3 TBS of water to make a past.
4- Add the paste to the pan, stir fry till oil gets separated.
5- Add chicken pieces and cook in the spices for five minutes to seal the chicken.
6- Add 2 cups of water and salt to taste.
7- Cook for another 20 minutes and there you have it a yummy Pakistani dish ready.
These are the recipes from Our 22 Awesome Participants!!!
Sarah from Garden Full of Dreams contributed her family favorite recipe for Tuscan White Bean Soup
Jenny, from Jenny’s Colorful Life, contributed one of her most popular recipes for this delicious beef stroganoff. Add a little Russian flair to your dinner table with this hearty meal that is sure to please your entire family.
Jacqueline from Mama’s Real Meals submits her Sausage and Vegetable Sheetpan Dinner. This is a wonderful one-dish meal that is the perfect alternative to a traditional casserole. Quick and easy preparation with simple ingredients is sure to make this a winner at your table.
Jessi from The Coffee Mom submitted a deliciously wrapped Fried Taco Triangle recipe. If you fry it and it is a taco, it is a win in my book 🙂
Tasheena from The Cinnamon Mom has a delicious and healthy recipe for Salmon Pita Pockets. It would be a perfect one-dish meal because everything is rolled up into one.
Jenn from One Hoppy Momma has contributed one of her family favorite recipes. This is a low carb dish and it has all of the flavor of an egg roll without the wrapper. Stop by her blog for the full recipe and make it a healthy addition to your dinner lineup. Delicious Low Carb Deconstructed Egg Roll
Mariah from The Simple Parent shared a very delicious Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Dump Cake. Slow cookers are a big thing in our house and it is nice to have something sweet and delicious cooking all day in your kitchen in the slow cooker. This recipe is sure to please!
Michelle from Blessings by Me contributed this Delicious Chocolate Éclair Cake. I have personally tried this and it is a simple recipe your children would enjoy helping you make.
Liba from Libarah blog posted a delicious Vanilla Sponge Cake. For those of us in the US, have your scales and google units pages pulled up to convert from metric.
Today’s guest is our very special and very smart french scientific journalist from Quebec, Canada. Who humbly accepted my request for her interview. Her interview is very informative for us newer or seasoned bloggers both. Read and give yourself a favor. You would learn a lot from her answers. She has a unique name for her blog.
check it out here after you done with her interview reading! So here you go!!
1-Tell us briefly about you?
My name is Dominique Nancy. In my everyday life, I’m a French scientific journalist from Quebec, Canada. For the blog, I mostly write (both in English and French) about sustainable clothing, trends, and styling. I share my vision of fashion through outfit ideas, DIY, portraits of stylish women & designers and tips to elevate your chic and eco-friendly consumption. I was partly raised by my grandmother from my father’s side. Growing up during the first war she had learned to recycle everything. In my youth, I admit she was driving me nuts but later in my life, it had an impact on my consumption of things. Today, I try to buy my clothes wisely and they have to be made by sustainable brands. I prefer quality over quantity… In everything!
2- How did you start blogging and can you tell us about the meaning behind the name of your blog?
I would like to say it was for helping others but the truth is I started blogging simply for fun. At 49, I felt I needed a new challenge in my life. I wanted to give myself a gift for my fiftieth birthday, which was to gather in one project my three passions: science, writing, and fashion. Hence my blog! It gives me a creative outlet to bring knowledge and facts about clothing and brands as well as styling tips. In my youth, I have studied fashion for a while and even worked in the field for a few years, but my interest in science and writing were stronger at the time so I changed fields. I went back to university and became a scientific journalist, which I have been doing for the last twenty years. I feel the need to tell people that when I suggest ways to wear a piece of clothing it’s from my own experience and love for styling, certainly not because I know best.
The three “C” in 3C Style refers to classic, contemporary and chic. No matter your fashion preferences and budget, it is possible to be stylish. Whatever your age and your look! I’m not perfect but I have a frame that millions of women have and should enjoy. The blog could just as well be called 8C style as it also advocates a “reasonable consumer” and an “ethical conscience” as “creativity”, “curiosity” and “courage” to see fashion differently. My main goal with my blog is to provide Fun, Sustainable Fashion tips, and Good Vibes.
3- When did you start monetizing your blog?
I started earning money for my consulting services as a stylist well before being a blogger. It’s a hobby that has become a way to finance my expenses related to my blog. Originally, my intentions were not meant to monetize my blog. But I spend a lot of time producing quality content and I would like to be able to do it full time. This would require regular income from 1) counseling services; 2) affiliate links or advertising on the site; or else 3) to sell digital products such as ebooks, courses, apps, etc.
Your question is interesting and coincides with the reflection phase I am currently in. I have been working at growing my community for over two years and have developed a trusting relationship with my followers. In my opinion, this is an essential criterion to develop even before thinking of making your blog profitable. You also have to know the needs of your followers in order to be able to serve them effectively.
To answer your question more specifically, let’s emphasize that my blog has no affiliate link yet and I’m not sure I want to venture in that direction. I’m thinking about this possibility right now though. If I opt for this avenue my followers will be warned because I advocate a transparent approach. Moreover, every time I do agree to write about a brand or a product or when companies send me a garment to style and promote on my blog and my social networks my followers are informed whether it is a collaboration or a sponsored post. I only agree to work with companies that share my values and whose products match my interests and those of my followers. My requirements are quite high. Evidenced by the low number of collaborations accepted over the last two years: barely a dozen! Fortunately, I have another job.
Note that I am currently working with my project partners of When Fashion and Nature Collide to develop an online shop to market the products we create. This is a long-term project as it brings together collaborators from three different countries: Canada, United States, and the United Kingdom.
4- Which social media you prefer the most and how much time you spend on social media.
Social networks are essential tools for promoting the content of a blog. I use Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Bloglovin to promote my blog posts. Each of them has strengths and weaknesses and their relevance may vary depending on the target audience of your blog. The vast majority of my collaboration with brands come directly from Instagram @3cstyle_fashion
I spend about two hours a week on these social media. Communicating via my blog on WordPress is how I prefer to engage with my audience as it brings high levels of interactivity and space for discussion and sharing opinions. However, this requires more time, especially in the preparation of content and in reading people’s blog posts.
5-What was the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far?
Creating content has never been a challenge for me. Creativity flows in my daily life. My brain is wired that way, I guess. Honestly, the biggest problem is finding the time to write all those ideas into blog posts. Apart from that, I would say I am presently living one BIG challenge with the shop I am trying to put together with my fellow bloggers from the project When Fashion and Nature Collide. The technical and legal aspects of it are a bit overwhelming. But I believe in this project and I am determined to make it work.
6-Tell us about your proudest achievement
Art and nature have both a major influence in my home decor and the way I style my clothing. Eight months ago, I have started a very special project called When Fashion and Nature Collide. It is a monthly collaboration with three of my WP friends: Roda from Indigo Acres Apiary, Lisa from Lismore Paper and Darren from The Arty Plantsman.
The third Wednesday of each month you can see outfits styled by me, and art from Lisa, that was inspired by Roda’s critter pictures and Darren’s flower pictures. With the spirit of protecting nature, I pull together my outfits with clothing already available in my wardrobe. When purchases are to be made, these come from vintage shops and thrift stores or from socio-eco-friendly brands. Click here to see our September Issue.
This project which now is a great success holds a particular place in my heart since it was initiated with my WordPress friends. Although it represents a lot of work, it is a source of creativity and pleasure constantly renewed.
7-Do you think anyone could be a blogger?
Nope. Sorry, you wanted more? 😀
8- Explain your signature style?
I’m like a mini wheat cereal: there are two sides of me. Fashion-wise, one is minimalism and clean; I prefer to put the accent on details. The other one is sugar coded. I mix & match patterns, textures and bold colors. In both cases, it has to be elegant and comfortable clothing. I guess that makes me a practical maximalism minimalism! That embodies my signature style, which can be translated in three words: Polished, fun and feminine. A mix of Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, and Grace Kelly.
9- What would you say that is the greatest satisfaction of being a fashion blogger?
Of course, I imagine being photographed by Phil Oh brings great satisfaction to some fashion bloggers. It certainly would for me as well. But my biggest satisfaction is when people tell me I have provided them with style inspiration, helped them with the styling of a garment or encouraged them to buy less clothing and have a more socio-eco-friendly fashion approach.
10- How active are you on a weekly basis and how often do you communicate with your followers?
There is a lot going on in my life at the moment so I have been less active in the past month. I take blogging very seriously but family always comes first. Usually, I publish an average of eight blog posts per month, including the rather impressive edition of When Fashion and Nature Collide. Apart from reading blog posts, I’d say I communicate with my followers about 5 hours on a weekly basis.
11- Who takes your pictures. And what camera do you recommend for blogging photography?
I work with two lady photographers from Montreal, both are good friends of mine. I also take some pictures myself, usually for the flat lays that I like to post on Instagram. In that case, I simply use my iPhone as it is easy to do the photo editing. Recently, a dear friend of mine from the UK, The Arty Plantsman, visited me in Montreal and we took many fashion pictures together. The complicity was magical and you can see the results in our September and October issues of When Fashion and Nature Collide. I can’t wait for him to visit again in Spring. We have already planned a few days of shoot.
12- How have you used SEO keywords to increase blog traffic? Please provide specific examples if you can.
I have created target keyword lists for my blog. I find that staying connected to the news helps generate traffic too. I’m far from being an SEO specialist and I’m not a tech-savvy either. To be honest, I’d rather focus my energy on the content. But SEO is crucial in order to increase visibility via search engines. So I recently called on a specialized firm to help me identify new opportunities. I could tell you about my experience in a few months but for now, I’m still in the experimental phase.
13- What best advice would you like to give to our readers/blogger/new bloggers?
To me, high-quality content is one of the most important things. New bloggers shouldn’t try to imitate others. Be you. Be genuine and show what it is that makes you different. For that to be possible you have to know yourself well enough though. I would also recommend that they write a description of themselves in their About page. Blogging is about meeting new people each day and it is nice to know a little bit about the person from which we are reading blog posts. This encourages giving a positive feedback of their work and to follow them. Would you talk to 20 complete strangers on the street each day? I mean, if they don’t need help, of course not. Finally, I would suggest new bloggers to a team and collaborate with people that add value to their work. Rome wasn’t built on a day or only by one person! To me, this is what blogging is all about.
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Amazing information to improve your blog!
I hope you all like the interview and learn at least a few things. Dominique and I both worked hard on it to put our best possible questions to cover so you guys can get a benefit. Now give yourself a favor and read the interview.
Hey you all my Bloglands’ friends. I am so Excited to share that!!!!
bushraslifetyleblog.wordpress.com
Is moving to
bushraslifestyleblog.com
Thank you so much for your support and love. It’s almost two months in blogging and I met tons of friends from around the glob who are inspiring me everyday in so many ways.
Hey lovely fellas, how was your weekend? As per schedule, I am right here to share my weekend wrap up with you. So, let’s talk about that. Weekend wrap up is going to be a part of my blog as long as my blog would exist. I love writing about my kids and random things to share with others in this wrap-up post. I feel like it covers this and that very nicely. So, let’s start what we did on the weekend. If you missed the last weekend wrap-up, you can read it here!
How We Spent Our Saturday:
My husband barely sits around. He always is ready to go somewhere. Sometimes this habit of his bothers me, but on the other hand, I am someone who barely likes to go out so maybe it’s a good balance. Otherwise, I would always be home and cleaning. And you all know cleaning is pro-rated. It’s a never-ending task.
Okay, so we took the kids to a pumpkin patch to have some fun and to bring some expensive pumpkins home. Right, like we need to spend all the money on Halloween…lol! The kids had tons of fun, though.
The one we took the kids to is called Lakeview Farms, and it was pretty affordable. We paid, $30 for the tickets and train ride, as we like train rides. My mother always loves to go on those little trains and I like it as much as the kids do. It reminds me of my childhood. We left the house around 1 pm because I had to do laundry as having three kids leaves you with tons of a load of laundry full of love.
It was pretty busy when we got there, but parking was not an issue at all. We purchased our tickets and joined the line for the train ride. The kids had a blast. It was a real pumpkin patch full of lots of different sizes and colors of pumpkins.
Caterpillar ride
All the kids picked up their pumpkins and played in a haystack. There a cool “caterpillar” ride made out of recycling drums and the kids loved that. Zoha was not even ready to get of off it. We spent almost 4 hours there as the kids were not ready to leave. Finally, we had to force the kids to get out of that place, We paid for our pumpkins and took off.
Zahra with her pumpkin
Zahid with his pumpkin
That was our Saturday fun!
Here we go to Sunday,
Sunday was all day long with house cleaning and organizing, I barely put our living room together. Nothing special just a place to sit until we figure out what kind of couch we have to buy. This is the same furniture we used in our old living room.
Just put Our formal living room together. Nothing special just what we have on hand until we decide, which couch we want to buy?
Then my mother served us a great meal of rice with my favourite achar gosht. Here is the recipe for you if you want simple plao rice.
Best Palo rice (Plain rice) my mother made.My mother always makes us very yummy food.
Here is the Palao recipe for you
BTW, if you have not participated in our “Family favorites Food Roundup” you can join here, it’s open till Tomorrow night.
2- cup of rice, basmati is preferred.
3 and a half cup water
1 cup of oil
1 cup of sliced onion and few cloves of garlic or garlic paste
1 TBS of sliced ginger or ginger paste
4 cardamoms and 2 cinnamon sticks small
2 a few cloves
Salt, red chili, turmeric to taste. Hot, medium or hot
Directions:
Rinse the rice and soak in the water for 30 minutes. Rinse rice and drain water before you use them in the paleo.
Put the pan on low heat, add oil and onion in it. once the onion is reddish black, add all the other spices and pastes in it with half a cup of water and let it boil for few minutes. Then add 3 and a half cup of water. Once it comes to a boil add your rice. Keep it on slow heat and put the lid on the pan and cook for about 15 minutes. Check it on and off.
Once you see that the rice is almost done, then lower the heat even more and cover the pan again leave it for almost 10 minutes. That’s about it.
In the end, I worked on some DIY upcoming projects Which you will see on Friday.
This Round-up is arranged by Sarah Garden and Myself
Here is how Sarah Garden set this up for you! Please read it before you post it.
This is a group participation opportunity: This will be a recipe roundup scheduled to be posted next Wednesday, October 17th around 3pm Eastern US timezone.
Deadline for entry is October 15th at 3pm Eastern. Please list your favorite recipe post you have on your blog, or create a new one.
Post the URL to your recipe in the comment section below.
By posting your URL, you are allowing us to utilize one photo from your recipe post to include in the roundup post. We will post a link to your blog on Bushra’s website for the main recipe round-up post.
We ask that you publicize your participation in this recipe roundup by posting this graphic on your blog and mentioning where people can go to find your recipe.
Backlink To Your Blog!
We will publicize the roundup post on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. You will get the backlink and hopefully some traffic from your participation. We have a fun and interesting group of people from around the world and I very excited to see what recipes you decide to submit.
Here is the group link, in case you want to drop your link on Facebook.
Since October is “Down Syndrome month”, and I have a beautiful smart little girl with Down Syndrome I decided to write about my daughter, Zoha. I call it “UP Syndrome” though, as those children are so high in their values and morals. Children with Down Syndrome have the best manners on earth. I thought I should share with you what I have learned from having my little girl.
My Story about Down syndrome!
If you have missed my post about Zoha’s birth with Down Syndrome you can see it here.
Okay, here is what my daughter taught me so far, and she is only 6 years old right now.
1- Be Thankful and count your blessings
The first thing I have learned from having her is to be “Thankful”. That little girl has been through a lot, but she’s always very calm and happy. You can always see a beautiful smile on her face like the most content person on earth. Thankfulness brings you closer to God as well, as He always likes to test us with different tasks in life. Once you become thankful to God, then immediately you learn to count your blessings in life. Life doesn’t give anyone a second chance, no matter how high a position you hold in life. You only get one chance from life, so be thankful with what you have, and count your blessings. People with Down Syndrome are the most gracious people on earth.
2- How to Love
This little girl has taught me how to love unconditionally. Her extra chromosome didn’t mess up her ability to love. Instead, it gave me an extra sense of ” how to love unconditionally”. I quite often think how God made her full of love. If someone ever gets hurt in the house, she is the first one to run over and make sure if the person is okay. She is so appreciative and full of manners. Her love is all about giving!
3- Be Patient
She taught me how to be patient with life. It’s okay to have some delays, life doesn’t get complicated or stop if things don’t move at the pace you want to. It still keeps going, you just have to get used to it. There is nothing impossible in this world, and the word “impossible” itself tells you that “I’m possible”. Just learn to be patient, and everything will go along.
There is a verse of the Quran, where God says. ” Indeed, God is with those who have patience”.
4- Emphatic
I have been very sympathetic toward others since childhood. That’s how my parents raised us, but after having my daughter, I feel like I can understand other people better and connect with others to support people the way I wanted to be supported with anything in life. I feel like I just became a better person, and humanity is even more important for me.
This verse from the Quran, helps me often.
5- How to overcome on hardships
I live my life by a quote, ” life is tough, but I am tougher”. I always thought I can do anything in life and be successful if I want to if God is willing. After working hard on any task, I leave it on God. Zoha has gone through so many surgeries and so many hardships but that little girl is always happy. I barely see here complaining over things (unless her brother steals away something she really likes). Those two are the best siblings. Her positive and strong attitude, in fact, has taught me a lesson that you can overcome anything in life, you just have to work through it.
6- Be sincere and pure
Children with Down Syndrome are the most sincere people on earth. They don’t think negative, they are so close to God and so innocent. Their life is full of positivity and sincerity. They don’t have time for all that negativity on earth. They are best friends to have. They are not less smart than anyone. They are, in fact, extraordinarily smart and don’t waste their time and life on things that don’t benefit anyone.
These two you would always find together.
7- Determined
The other thing I have learned from Zoha, or Zoha inherited from me, is determination. Zoha is one determined girl. She won’t give up no matter what it is! My little girl thinks she can do it. She might get frustrated, but she won’t give up, though.
8- It’s okay to be different
The beauty of this world is to be different. If we all would have been the same, life would have become tough and boring. Hence, God made everyone slightly different, and kids with Down Syndrome are more alike than different.
He thinks he is a big brother…LOL. They have the best grandma on earth.
9- Advocacy
I can absolutely raise my voice for those who don’t have a strong voice. I am not embarrassed to have a child with a so-called “word disability”, as my Zoha is capable of doing everything. Not only I can help others but can speak up for my little girl wherever we need to get her rights to be answered.
10- Possibilities are endless
I think of Zoha’s future as I think of my other two kids future. I think she would grow up and maybe going in the fashion industry, as she is a little fashionista. In fact, once I took Zoha to see her endocrinologist for her regular visit and her doctor brought me an article and said, “Look, this girl with Down Syndrome is a fashion designer, and your Zoha could be the next one as she has such a great sense of fashion!”. She found that article and printed it for us. It was so nice of Dr. Conner. We moved away, and we miss her.
See, those two!
11- Slow and steady wins the race
I know it might take a little longer for my Zoha to get where I want to see her but she would get there for sure because only slow and steady wins the race. Zoha is not behind anyone.
12- Closer to my faith
The greater change I saw in me is that I become closer to God and each day becoming a better practicing Muslim. I always think Zoha is a such a great present God gave us. I call her a “passport to Heaven”. God must have loved me in that he gave me Zoha.
Preeti is a young and a successful blogger, a writer, a poetess, A social media influencer and a voice behind Scenario of life who took her blog to a new level only in a year.
Let’s find out her secrets behind her success!
1- Tell us a bit about you and what inspired you to start your blog?
My name is Preeti Gaur, I consider myself a lifelong learner, a career woman, and a dreamer. I have been into healthcare industry for over 6 years, working as a Medical Language Specialist (Healthcare Documentation Editor) until March of this year (2018) and then I resigned from my job and started concentrating on my blog more.
When it comes to inspiration for my blog; well, my Papa (dad) is personally a writer and I give him credit for instilling the same spirit of writing in me. I have been writing poems since my teenage and it’s been a decade now. So yeah, it’s just that I got inspired by my Papa and end up starting “Scenario of Life.” Please click here just in case if you’d like to know the story behind it.
2- Are you a full-time blogger or is this just a hobby for you?
It’s never been my hobby even when I started it initially last year and I have committed to it full-time since May of this year and I am really enjoying it.
3- Your site looks great, did you have any professional help?
Thank you so much for the compliment. No, I haven’t taken any help from any professional out there and I have created my blog on my own. I am not a tech-savvy so it definitely was not that easy for me, but I am proud to say that I did it myself. Also, it is not yet exactly how I would like to have it and I am learning continuously how to improve and professionalize my blog and yeah I am getting there.
4- How do you motivate yourself to keep the blog up and running?
I love writing so it’s my passion that keeps the writer in me motivated. Sometimes I need to recharge myself so I read my previous blog posts or books and that motivates me to keep going.
In addition, the positive feedback from my readers shows me that I am on the right path and the satisfaction of knowing that in one year of my blogging journey I’ve created something of value to myself and others feels great and this inspires me to keep on writing.
5- What do you find the most frustrating aspect of blogging?
Building up followers and getting a targeted audience is always a difficult task; just say sometimes a more important article left unseen/unread by many and sometimes a less important one goes viral, so yeah that’s what frustrates me at times.
And I think in that case if your family and friends support you by sharing your article that can really be helpful to get the word out there to people who may not have discovered you and/or your work without that support, but the bitter fact is that they don’t do this. They will happily help the celebrity by sharing and buying what they promote but they generally won’t help you by sharing your work even if they like it. What do you guys think about this? (question for you, all lovely readers out there)
6- How often do you communicate with your followers, and how important do you consider it?
I think it’s really important to connect with people who are interested in your work and/or brand. So yeah, I communicate often with my followers whenever I get time on my social media especially on my Instagram as I am fairly active there. I make sure to reply to most of the comments and messages I receive to build a connection between me and the followers. Like any other people I love hearing from my followers too – so don’t hesitate to reach out!
7- What do you think is the best social media strategy for getting more visitors to a blog?
Social media platforms undoubtedly boost traffic to your blog and I personally like Instagram, although Facebook and Pinterest work well too. But I feel what works for me is not always works for you too. I would say that it just depends on the niche sometimes. So whatever platform you are using just be consistent with your posting, try to engage with other people, be genuine and true to your audience; it always does the trick.
8- Can you tell us some of your strengths that really helped you in blogging?
To be honest, I’m not a successful blogger yet and I completely agree with the quote “Success is not an overnight thing.” We all are unique and so does our writing style; so one should focus on their writing style and be stubborn for success. My love for writing and my never-give-up attitude are something that helps me to focus and I think that’s what my biggest strengths are.
9- Where would you like to be in blogging five years from now?
Five years from now……..Well, it’s quite a long-term journey and you never know what’s going to be next. But yeah I would like my blog to reach to a lot more people and to see it as one of the top 10-15 lifestyle blogs within this timeframe; hope my blog will gain that much of attention. Also, I would love to be a part of certain blogger events and last but not least I would like to be able to make a good income with my blog.
10- What best advice or tips do you have for new bloggers?
I would like to say that just don’t compare yourself to any other blogger out there, everyone has their own writing style, so just stick to your personality and write in that way only. Just remember – it’s your personality that is going to convince people out there to subscribe. And yeah one can’t be a star overnight so just be patient, “Success does not come easily,” even if it looks that way; it takes time and a lot of hard work too.
Also, be consistent towards the blog and have a designated day or days to post on your blog; that way people can know what day you will be posting next. And get social as much as you can and of course promote your blog.
Thank you so much for your time Preeti, it was a pleasure to get to know you!
PIN IT
I hope we all learn a tip or two from this interview. Drop me a comment below with any other questions you guys want to ask about blogging from successful bloggers. I can add that to the next interview.
Credit scores can have a big effect on our finances, especially if they’re on the low side. Find out how to improve your credit score on today’s guest post!
Hey lovely people, I am trying to stick to a regular schedule for my blog posts. Man so much to do with so many learning curves. Another day, one of my blogging friends Hunida, posted her whole month’s blogging schedule. Check it out right here. Yes, the whole month, go figure. Although I was super impressed! But she left me with so many thoughts. I asked myself, am I lazy or an unorganized person? The answer was neither. Then what? I know guys, “self-praise has no recommendation”, but people who know me, clearly know that “I’m a very hard working person”.
Well enough about me. Now, let’s talk about the blog and its schedule. I am going to manage to post Three times a week! Yaaay! It might take me time to get used to it with a new house and still settling down in a new city. But this is how I’m going to manage for my future posts. This is going to be my schedule from now on and, one day I will get a grip on it with all of your support and encouragement.
Now, I can force to push myself to stay in the game!
Mondays would be always covering about my weekend’s, this and that.
Wednesday I am going to interduce the most talented people on my blog.
Fridays would be my free choice whatever I want to put there including my DIYs and home decorating etc.
Okay, now let’s talk about our weekend wrap up!
On Saturday morning, we took our little girl Zoha to CHAP for the art class and we met several really nice people… If you live in Oregon or Washington State, stay tuned because CHAP’s interview would be here soon so you can learn what they do for the community. They are really busy for two months but by December, you would be able to read about them more here on this blog. I already made an appointment with a very sweet lady.
CHAPHere is my little Zoha with her contagious smile!
Zahra and Zahid are always very supportive toward their sisy.
Later in the evening one of my friends visited us and my mother who is a “cooking queen” prepared such a delicious dinner with a quick recipe for the sauce to spice up the dinner table.
Here is the recipe and this is my first-time food photography which I learned through Sarah’s blog. I think I did alright.
My first photography for food, I’m know, I still suck.Riata Sauce
For Riata Sauce you need:
*1/2 cup plain yogurt.
*1/2 cup chopped cucumber.
*2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (or mint chutney).
*Half a small chopped onion.
*A pinch of salt and a pinch of cumin.
*Mix them all together and you have a yummy sauce ready! No rocket science here.
Let’s move on to Sunday! It was more of a cleaning day and putting things together so I can at least find my clothes in my new closet. Paying bills, spending some more time with the kids. The kids wanted to have a small tea party a little after lunch. You all are invited. This is what Zahra just said.
These kids grabbed every possible snack in the house for their tea party!
At the end of the day, they were begging to play a bit in their room before dinner.
I barely put the girl’s room together for now until I put the design together to give it a great makeover!
Our kids like to take a bath every night, they even manage to swim in the bathtub…LOL, Most of the time my husband takes them inside swimming pools in town. As a Muslim, we supposed to start to cover our whole body starting at a certain age. Here is my list for the best swimming clothes for modest/Muslim kids on Amazon.
Her dad loves to see Zoha swimming and capable of doing everything with her siblings!
Right before going to bed, I visited some of my blogger friends so I could see their new posts to support them. I am so proud of my blogger’s community, You all are awesome and tremendous help for each other. Please come, join me here to share your posts and learn from each other. It’s a cute little corner to hang out for us bloggers. No strict rules to follow and no obligations. Just your love and support for each other which is helping us to grow together as “humbling attitude goes long ways”.
Now tell me about your weekend, I would love to hear what my bloggy family was up to?
Here is the updated version of my daughter’s room!!! 
Her room before 
I loved the combination with white, such pretty looking color scheme. 
Here it was pretty simple and boring. 
Take a closer look! 
The above picture you all have seen on my Monday’s post.
