Create or Curate? Blogging bits. Blogtoberfest 2013 day 8.

Last week on Gruen Planet on ABCTV one of the panelists mentioned the issue of create vs curate in relation to web content, specifically that most content on the web is curated rather than created. Meaning that most of it is reposts, summaries and round-ups of issues.
Less of it is stuff that people are actually writing, or posting their own photographs or uploading their own movies.

This is very true of blogs.
Are you a creator or a curator? Or a bit of both?

Some of my favorite blogs have curation - you know you can pop in for some tasty recipe links, fun fonts, or newsy bit 'n bobs.

On the other hand ploughing through some original diatribes can be less than satisfying - even if they are well-written.

It led me to think-
Does this make the web better or worse?
I guess variety is the spice of life.

Is there a place for both?
I think so, after all you can never read everything.

Do you follow a lot of "curated" blog or sites?

How important is original content when you are browsing?

Do you like that you can pop to a site and have a summary of the news, or recipes, or fonts for example?

Feel free to leave tour comments here - I will reply.

Blogtoberfest 2013 - day 1

It's here again!
Blogtober....and  whole month of blogginess. - hopefully.
OK, so I have got off to a bad start by failing to blog on day 1, so I'm cheating and backdating (but that's OK isn't it?)

Blogtoberfest is a whole month dedicated to blogging.
It is being hosted this year by Michelle over at Shells in the Bush.
If you are interested in joining in - click on the link below.

There is a list of bloggy prompts as well as some inspiration.

And the best hing is you get to meet other bloggers and get to read some fabulous blogs.

See you there.

Voices of 2013

Yesterday I did something I've never done before - I went to a meeting of bloggers.

I was a little nervous but knew that one of my on-line friends would be there....and being bloggers everyone was very friendly.

And there were people there who you felt that you knew like Pip Lincolne from Meet Me At Mikes and JustB.

I didn't know what to expect.
Certainly not a neat little notebook and pen, beautiful flowers and some yummy afternoon tea.

There were inspiring speakers-

Keynote speaker Hayley Bartholemew

Panel discussions - 

Panel 1

Panel 2

Michelle and Sally

and goody bags!

The whole shebang was put on by Kidspot which is a fabulous blog dedicated to parenting. And what a fab job they did - it was so well organised.

I should add that there is a section on Kidspot called Village Voices which hosts a wider range of topics - go check it out!

The venue was rather amazing - an old warehouse that now has a cafe Kitchen By Mike and a very interesting looking furniture store koskelo.
Note to self "must go back and explore these places someday"

Then there was the goody bag that we all got!

It was great!

I'll blog about what I gleaned from the afternoon some other time,

Thanks so much to Kidspot and everyone who took part and shared so generously.

7 blogs to read - Saturday Seven

I went to a blogging meeting today.
It was my first one.
It was organised by kidspot.

I noticed my on-line friend Sally from Jambo Chameleon mention it on facebook and I thought "yeah, I need to do something different. Maybe step out of my comfort zone a little. Go meet some other bloggers and see what goes on"

So I did....and I will post all about what happened another time (I'm a tease!)

So I thought for my Saturday Seven today I should blog about some blogs I enjoy reading or browsing. (Do you really read blogs or do you just browse?)

In no particular order -
tractorgirl. A blog about design. Julie manages to find the loveliest, most unusual, most challenging designers.
http://tractorgirl.com.au/ 
(I sometimes advertise on tractorgirl and find Julie is a very supportive and enthusiastic hostess)

74 Lime Lane
I enjoy a lot of the finds that Kellie shares. It is a very generous blog.
http://74limelane.com.au/blog/

Justb
Soooo many great finds here. I love the variety that Pip shares all the time. There is always something of interest.
http://justbaustralia.com.au/

ish & chi
I remember Vivian from her etsy shop Ish and Chi way back! Now she has the most stylish design blog. Lovely to look at.
http://www.ishandchi.com/

I'll Think of a title Later
A friend put me on to this one not so long ago.
Her review of 50 shades of whatsit is hilarious.
http://catep36.blogspot.com.au/

Earth Apple Jane.
Jane takes the most gorgeous photos and really blogs them as photo essays. Lovely stuff.
http://earthapplejane.blogspot.com.au/

Story of My Life
Just found this one as I was on a blog crawl.
Jenni is hosting a blog every day in May challenge - wish I'd heard about it earlier.
Anyway, I like the cut of her jib.
http://storyofmylifetheblog.blogspot.com.au/

Please feel free to share some blogs that you enjoy reading,or browsing, or trawling.
I'd love to hear from you.

What to blog about?

When I first started blogging I wondered what on earth I would find to blog about!
But here I am - 4 and a half years and over 600 posts later - still blathering on!

So, what to blog about?
Here are some of the ideas for blog content that I have collected.

1. What you are working on.
2. Write about someone else - another artist or designer maybe.
3. Review something - a book or a movie or a product.
4. Write a list eg 30 things I want to do before I'm 30.
5. Your creative process.
6. Something you just bought be it craft supplies or a wonderful backpack.
7. Spotlight items from your inventory.
8. Hold a competition.
9. Hold a giveaway.

10. Write a tutorial either for one of your creations, or a recipe, or how to change a car tyre.
11. Write about an event you have been to - a craft show, or a theatre show, or a dog show.
12. Write about your travels - round the block or round the world.
13. Something from your family life, or your childhood.
14. Invite guest bloggers.
15. How you have developed your creative business.
16. Join in with special days hosted by other bloggers - eg wordless wednesday at My Little Drummer Boys, My creative space hosted by kootoyoo at Village Voices on Kidspot, Mandarin Orange Monday at lorikart, Friday Finds, Sunday snippets with tinniegirl or just do your own.

17. ______ inspires me.
18. What I've learned from ________________. eg running a craft business, or being a mother.
19. Share other interesting blogs posts/tutorials/how-to's/giveaways etc. Note do not copy hollus-bollus but a short review or comment and then link back to the original post.
20. A follow-up on something you blogged about a while back.

Well, that's about all I can think of for now.
What else can you add to the list?

Please leave a thoughtful comment if you would like to enter this week's giveaway, which I will draw later today.
You can leave a comment on any of my posts.

There are more blogtoberfest giveaways happening over on Ms Curlypops blog.

Want to find out what blogtoberfest is all about? Head on over here. 

Blogging tips

Last week's ticklish question "why blog?" inevitably led me on to the question of "how to"?

So I did a little research, as you do, and wondered if I could impart some quick and useful blogging tips.

Now, I should tell you that I am by no means an expert.
I don't pretend to be the best blogger or even a good blogger.
So you need to do as I say - not do as I do. OK?

What I aim to do is distill some of the vast quantity of information that is out there for bloggers.

- blog what you know. Remember you are the expert on your business, your garden, your cooking, your children, whatever.

- let your personality shine through in your blog. Don't try and be someone else's blog. Although you may love the style and content of The Ginger Cat's* blog - it's a mistake to try and emulate that exact cat's style, people will find it hard to engage with you and you will find it hard to maintain.

- be consistent. Blog regularly, not necessarily every day, but if you blog regularly your followers will look forward to your posts.

- build relationships. That's what it's all about really. Comment on other blogs (meaningfully!). Invite guest bloggers, submit content to other blogs. Use facebook, twitter, google + etc to find your readers and build up networks.

- keep posts fairly simple. One topic/issue/point/item per post mainly. That way your posts are easy to read, and you can save the extra material for more posts.

- Use a mix of images and text. Some posts might be mainly photos (like wordless Wednesday), some (like this one) mainly words. Mixing it up keeps things interesting and remember that a picture tells a thousand words!

- Have fun. If blogging becomes a chore it will show!

- Rules are meant to be broken!

Here are some links to pages that I used to find this info.
There is heaps out there!
Do you have any recommendations of bloggers who have given you good information or advice?

How to grow your blog by Neil Paton

blogworld

Charlie Beckett on LSE

OneofaKindSites on etsy forums

Timothy Adam handmadeology 

Jess over on Epheriell Designs 

blogging with Amy

Pip over at justb is holding a blog school, starting next week, should be good.

Happy blogging!

Remember I'm having another giveaway you can see it here. 
Please leave a comment on any post and proper, thoughtful comments are much appreciated, thankyouverymuch : )
If you want to take part in other giveaways during blogtoberfest have a look at Ms Curly Pop's blog.

*hopefully not a real blog, I think I just made it up.

Why blog? and a giveaway

Why blog?
Wow! I really opened a can of worms in my head when I asked myself that question.

Because I can?
Because it's there?
Because everybody else is?

I lead me on to think about the many billions of blogs out there. Most of the blogs I am familiar with are to do with crafting, art or creating stuff.
But there are all sorts - travel blogs, foodie blogs, political blogs, financial blogs etc etc and many more, I'm sure that I have no idea about.

There are more blogs out there than we will ever need!

So why me? And why you?

I guess I started blogging as an extension of my on-line business.
Over on etsy (where I have 3 shops now!) we're told that you can't just load you items in your shop and expect them to sell - oh, no - you have to promote yourself.

"Have a blog", they said - those gurus of the etsy forums.

Let people see the person behind the goods, let them get to know you - "connect with your customers".

And so we all rushed over to blogger or wordpress or wherever and blogged our hearts out.
But was anybody reading our blogs?
Why would anybody read our blogs?
We networked and read other people's blogs and we commented like crazy!
We joined memes.
We joined blog rings and jumped through hoops!

Why do we continue to blog in this world of 140 character grabs, flickr photos, facebook friends, and tumblr (plus no doubt many more I have no concept of!)?

Here's what I have gathered.

1. Blogging can be the centrepiece of all your on-line marketing and your social media activities.

2. You can explain more about yourself and your creative processes. you can post works in progress and get those appetites whetted.

3. You can share.
You can share tutorials, display ideas, successes and failures.

4. The posts you write are enduring. Facebook and twitter scroll through pretty quickly and if you want to find something again is pretty much impossible.
You can refer back to blog posts or refer others to them.

5. You can use photos to tell your story - a picture tells a thousand words so they say.
" Ok, you say you can have photos on facebook too". But on your blog you can post several pictures, you can have a coherent storyline - or not, depending on what your post is about.

6. You can hold giveaways or competitions.

7. You can link to all your other activites - you on-line shop, your fabebook, your twitter, your flickr etc. They can all be in your sidebar or wherever you want to have them.

Do you blog?
Why do you blog?
What do you blog about?

Oh, and my giveaway!
Please leave a comment of you'd like to be in the draw for a beautiful pair of planettreasures earrings.
The winner will be drawn next Tuesday 9th October.

 thanks for reading : )

Welcome to blogtoberfest!

Hi and welcome to blogtoberfest!
This is when a whole lot of bloggers will endeavour to blog every day in October.

I took part in this last year and it was fun, challenging and inspiring.
At the moment there are nearly 168 participants. If you would lie to join in or just check out some really cool blogs pop on over to our fabulous hosts blog, I Saw You Dancing.

The gorgeous Curly Pops is hosting the giveaway page for blogtoberfest. Not too many participants at the moment but I'm sure thing will pick up as the month goes on. Have a look - here!


Back here you will find a few stories about me and my life and craft(s).

 On Wednesdays I'll continue the photo essays on my trip to India in July.

Thursdays are traditionally My Creative Space days.

Other things I have planned include some how to's, tutorials and spotlight on some of my artist and designer friends.

I'll include places I've been, and anything that generally rock my socks!

If you are a blogger why don't you challenge yourself and join us in blogtoberfest? Go on!
I'll see you there.

Nearing the end - to blog or not to blog - blogtoberfest day 29

Well the end of blogtoberfest is in sight - 2 more posts after this, and for better or worse I've stayed the course.

Mostly it has been fine - and lots of fun - and I'm found some great blogs and today I even met (really!) a blogger I first "met" through blogtoberfest! How cool is that?!

It wasn't planned - it wasn't a date or anything, we just both happened to have a stall at the Museum of Fire Doll, Bear and Craft Fair.

But, I digress...I must admit that the last couple of days it's been a struggle to blog. I've been so busy getting ready for the aforementioned fair and yesterday was a pretty lame attempt - I blogged my lunch (!)

And it led me to wonder is it better to have blogged and lost than to never blog at all?!
Or is it better to blog only about worthy, meaningful things and if you don't have anything to say then just "shut up!"?

And with that I will take my own advice and disappear.....

my stall at the Museum of Fire

using a couple of old cases to display tshirts

You can find blogtoberfest participants here.

Blogtoberfest giveaways are here.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Things to blog about - 7 things Sunday

Often I hear people say "I'd love to have a blog but I don't know what to write about" or "I did have a blog but I couldn't keep it up."

Blogging does require some thought and commmitment and, sure, it isnt an activity for everyone.
And I guess the hardest thing is getting inspiration, keeping you mojo going, being interesting and consistent.
I must admit I'm not the most consistent blogger, a bit of a sporradic poster, but I do enjoy it and wish I was a faster typist!

Anyway if you are stuck for ideas here are a few hints.


1. If you make stuff, talk about what you make and how.
You can talk about your latest creations.
Or design inspiration.
Or "how to" / tutorial.

2. Feature other artists or designers.
Either as an interview style article or an overview of what they do.
For example I have a Wednesday wishlist, it's a quick, simple way to showcase othher designers.

create joy by sarahjanestudios

3. Write about your hobbies.
Love reading or walking or cooking or collecting stamps.

4. Have a giveaway. Everybody loves a freebie and the chance to win something.
You could also host giveaways for other people, lots of opportunities for networking there.

5. Have a wordless day - just post a photo - easy-peasy!

6. Join in on a special posting day. Lots of bloggers host a day of the week postig eg My creative space on Thusdays or What you working on Wednesday.
Or you could join in with a meme. A what?
You can find out more here. But basically it's a question or list of questions that you answer and that you then post on your blog.

7. Blog about your life.
Films you have seen, books you have read, restaurants you have been to, places you have travelled.

There are many more ideas, some take more effort and time than others, but once you start you will never be short of ideas.

What are your favorite things to blog about?
What do you love reading about on other people's blogs?

Blogtoberfest

Hi! and welcome to October and you know what that means don't you?

Blogtoberfest!




"What?!" you ask!

Well - blogtoberfest is a month long festival of blogging hosted by tinniegirl.

We'll try very hard to blog every day and visit other people's blogs and revitalise and refresh our blogging mojos!

Sounds like fun doesn't it?

So far there are 90 bloggers signed up to join in, so if you'd like to join in too pop on over here.

Some bloggers are having giveaways which you can find at CurlyPop's blog.

What have I got planned?

I'll be showing you some of my creations and some places I visit.
I'll share some tutorials with you and continue my occassional series of selling ideas.
I'll be having some Wednesday wishlists and taking part in Our creative spaces on Thursdays.

Is there anything else you'd like to see?

How about a lacey installation hanging about above a Sydney street?
I think it gets lit up at night and is probably pretty nice then. During the day it just looked like a fishing net!

Here is the sandwich I had whilst inspecting said fishing net!
Yum! Veggie sandwich on a fresh wholemeal roll from the sandwich shop behind Sydney Town Hall.