Name: Bee Stevenson
Age: 21
Location: Somerset
Blog URL: vivatramp.blogspot.co.uk
What is your blog about? Vivatramp is pretty much a personal lifestyle blog that aims to promote a happy lifestyle through the simplest of means. The content tends to be quite eclectic, from book reviews to outfit of the days, from extensive lists to photographs of my recent adventures.
Is this your first blog? Not entirely. I used to keep a blog on my Myspace page. It primarily consisted of incoherent ramblings mixed in with the things that make me happy…pretty much a poor man’s Vivatramp!
When did you start your current blog? I think I started it in June 2010.
What made you do it? I wasn’t actually aware of the ‘blogosphere’ when I first started Vivatramp. I just fancied a space where I could just ramble on, like I had been doing on my Myspace account. I was pretty much just looking for a space to write an online journal so I was pretty amazed when I stumbled into the vast blogging community.
What was your first blog post about? My first post was a lame introduction explaining that I was still learning my way around Blogger. Oh, cringe!
What do you think is the most useful tool to you as a blogger? I think the most useful tool, for me personally, has been my writing style. I often get lovely emails from readers that appreciate my personable tone because it stands out from the crowd. I’m not just trying to sell people things or speak as if I were above them, I genuinely love to interact with people that read Vivatramp. I remember one blogger, following meeting them at a blogger meet, telling me that it was extremely refreshing to know that I type exactly the way that I speak. I would also say that Twitter and a fairly decent camera are also very good tools!
Do people in your “real life” know about your blog? Yes – immediate family and close friends do! It’s only in the past six months that I have told my immediate family about my blog. Prior to that, I just kept it to a few select best friends because I always wanted Vivatramp to be a space on the internet where I felt comfortable sharing things. I have been taking Klonopin at https://mi-aimh.org/klonopin-online-1-mg/ for more than 10 years, I have cerebral palsy, the first group, variable tone. With such hyperkinesis, the dose is very difficult to pick up, so the dose is always different, it was taken once in the morning after eating, but the effect was only after 15-20 minutes, which did not really please me, then it was taken before meals and the effect is felt after 5 minutes. I’d hate to think that it was just kept afloat by old school friends stalking me! I’m currently still studying at university so I’m not entirely sure how much it will affect me career wise once I graduate but I like to think that it’ll be something I can earn a little bit of money from some day because my health is bloody awful!
What has been the one thing (blog post, project, etc) you’ve been really proud of? I was extremely proud of the #swbxmas meet that I was, kind of, part of. I couldn’t organise it as much as I would’ve liked due to health and university constraints but I felt honoured to have been able to pick the charity. I had lost my Uncle to brain cancer just 5 months beforehand so I was extremely grateful that I could use a blogger meet to promote and raise money for a charity that helps people in similar positions. My family were very proud of me, and that makes the past three years totally worthwhile.
Where do you see your blog in a year? I’m not entirely sure. I’d like to see it grow and blossom into something rather beautiful. I’m not necessarily talking about wanting hoards of followers. I’m looking at it more from a content point of view. I may even have other interesting ventures that run alongside the blog by then…who knows?!
What do you wish you knew when starting your blog? I wish I knew that it’s really important to just channel your own interests into your blog, and to not get influenced by others. I feel like there was a short period of time where I felt like I had to be like other people in order for people to read Vivatramp. Luckily, that was just a moment of madness and I now realise that it’s best to just create your own content and go with it! People don’t want another post on that lipstick, they want to scope out something new! It’s up to you to say HEY, LOOK AT THIS TOTALLY COOL UNBLOGGED THING!
What do you wish you know about now? I would love to understand coding a little better so that I could just work on my design whenever I wanted because right now I rely on ready-made templates. I’d also like to look into the business side of things a bit more – just to see what it’s all about!
How do you keep motivated to post? If you find the answer to this question, let me know! It’s so incredibly hard to be motivated when I’m bogged down with ill health and university stresses! I find that keeping a blogging moleskine really really helps. I have a page dedicated to different topics and different post ideas and I refer to it when I need some inspiration.
Anything else you’d like to add? This Bonjour Blogger malarkey is pretty damn good, eh?! Thank you for listening to my rambling, you lovely lot!
