Name: Kelly Gay
Age: 28
Location: Bedfordshire
Blog URL: www.klghairadvice.com
What is your blog about? My blog, Hair Advice & All Things Nice, is for the majority of time about one of my favourite things, hair! I’m a qualified stylist and love all things hair, from giving advice to product talk. I mix this with a little about my life.
Is this your first blog? Yup, I had Live Journal previously, along with MySpace but this site has been the first regular writing online that I’ve done.
When did you start your current blog? 8th December 2009. Woah, been doing it a while!
What made you do it? Jen from A Little Bird Told Me. She inspired me and gave me some advice about it all. Plus I was annoying friends and family with my hair geekiness.
What was your first blog post about? Just a hello and introduction, a little about what I wanted to blog about.
What do you think is the most useful tool to you as a blogger? Apart from an old fashioned notebook for scribbling ideas, I’d have to say social media. It’s hugely important to have that to really get your blog out there. It also works so well for interacting with readers and as my blog offers advice I find Twitter really helps with that.
Do people in your real life know about your blog? Most of my family do, and some of my friends. I don’t think they really ‘get’ it but they see that it’s important to me and my sister loves to read my blog.
If yes, has your blog helped you career wise? I’d say it has definitely helped. It’s meant I’ve been able to get my hairstyling work out there and opportunities for writing have also come from the fact I have successfully run a blog writing my own original content.
What has been the one thing (blog post, project, etc) you’ve been really proud of? I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with some brands on campaigns and events, for example Aussie, Lee Stafford and L’Oreal which always amazes me that my ‘little’ blog has been given. Other than that I just feel proud that my blog is still quite niche and I take pride knowing that I create every post and when certain posts are ‘popular’ it does give me a buzz.
Where do you see your blog in a year? Hopefully bigger and better, I’d love to develop my YouTube channel more, and also add sections on the blog relating to certain things within the hair industry I think would be of interest. Without saying too much, I hope it’ll be a big year.
What do you wish you knew when starting your blog? That you don’t need to follow others. Looking back I tried to take inspiration from blogs I saw gaining followers, the style wasn’t me and I’m glad I realised that as I would have lost passion otherwise. Also think wisely about a blog name. I changed mine about 6 months after starting blogging.
What do you wish you know about now? A little more about HTML and rates/charges are still a complete minefield to me at times.
How do you keep motivated to post? It’s a topic I love to talk about. At times I’ve found it hard to motivate myself, as I work full time and also work part time doing other things. I don’t beat myself up if I take a break though. It’s needed at times.
Anything else you’d like to add? It sounds cliche, but blog for you. Not for opportunities, not for freebies and definitely not because you’d love the life of a full-time blogger. The tone of your blog is important and readers will pick up on the fact you aren’t ‘into’ blogging as will PR companies. Oh and remember your manners. No one likes a rude blogger.
