A Review: Blogging for Creatives

A few weeks ago a jiffy bag with an interesting looking book came through my letter box.

I only wish it had arrived 4 years earlier when I, clueless but eager, began this blog.  

‘Blogging for Creatives’ written by Robin Houghton gathers together all the information you need to begin your blog.

It is intelligent and easy to read and best of all it features a diverse range of blogs (including mine!) which are bound to get your creative juices going.

I loved Advanced Style – the photographer, Ari Seth Cohen’s blog, which celebrates the style of older people he photographs on the streets of New York.  The photographs are beautiful and inspiring and might marginally calm your fears about getting old!

Another featured blog, A Perfect Gray, is an interior design blog and is written by a girl on a mission to find the perfect gray wall colour. 
That doesn’t get my pulse racing even though there must be at least 50 shades (teehee) but judging by her number of followers she is not alone in her mission!

Finding your niche is key and makes writing a blog much easier.

Now that I’ve stopped being a full-time Shop Girl I’ve definitely found it harder to update this blog every week.

‘Blogging for Creatives’ leads you through the basic process of setting up your blog from choosing a platform, layout, style and content.  

It also includes some of the slightly technical (but not too technical) things you should know.

One example would be: How to create a decent mailing list. 
I discovered ‘mail chimp’ just a day before I got the book after a lot of wasted time online. (While we’re on the topic, please join my mailing list! Top Right!)

It took me 4 years to create a professional mailing list mostly because it simply hadn’t occurred to me to do one before.

That’s the great thing about this book - it provides you with ideas, suggestions and plenty of useful nuggets that might not have dawned on you otherwise.

Of course you can google every possible component of a blog to know how it works and even with this guide book you are still bound to spend hours working things out online.

The book lists useful websites but if it illustrated every tiny step it would get a bit tedious. This means you still have to commit yourself to hours of exploration.

If you are beginning a blog or have one but feel it isn’t quite up to scratch, then I recommend you buy this book.

I know I’ll be flicking through it again for inspiration and tips I may have missed.

After all, a blog is organic and should be forever developing.    

Blog Workshop

If you need an extra push to begin your blog, I will be running a  
Live Beginners Blog Workshop on Saturday 18th August 
10am-12.30pm  
Fee: £35.00
@ 77 Tower Bridge Road, SE1 4TW
If you've ever fancied a sneak peak at our chandeliers then this is your chance as it will take place in the same shop building which inspired my book 'Shop Girl Diaries'.


E-mail me: emily@emilybenet.com for more details.