Name Sanaa
Age 22
Location Brooklyn, NY
Blog URL Sanaa Brooks
What is your blog about?
My blog is about almost anything and everything I can find that’s interesting. From fashion collections to music reviews of mainstream artists and indie artists, book reviews, recipes, and blogs about any topics that I find on the news or online that I think is really interesting (or not interesting).
Is this your first blog?
No, My first blog was … gosh it’s so far back I don’t even remember, I think it may have been a blogger, and then I went to tumblr (which is still active, I just changed the name recently so it fits my current blog, www.sanaabrooks.tumblr.com). Then I started using wordpress where I started my first wedding blog (www.bridetobeandbroke.wordpress.com), and then I made a music blog (www.noradioneeded.wordpress.com). But since I always found myself wanting to write about more than music music and weddings, I started my new blog “Sanaa Brooks” so I wouldn’t be limited.
When did you start your current blog?
About a couple of months ago, I believe in July.
What made you do it?
I wanted to write about more than just music or weddings, so I decided to make a blog that would allow me to write about everything.
What was your first blog post about?
My first actual post was a book review for “The Help” By Kathryn Stockett. I still haven’t seen the movie, but I want to so I decided to read the book first.
What do you think is the most useful tool to you as a blogger?
Definitely Hootsuite, since I always forget to share my posts on social media, with Hootsuite I can schedule a couple of posts so I don’t have to worry about it for awhile.
Do people in your real life know about your blog? If yes, has your blog helped you career wise?
I bring up my blog every chance I can get (I guess so I can get more readers), but my career doesn’t really have much to do with blogging. Although, from time to time I always find myself helping other small companies with their social media and blogging, so my blog is really useful when I’m showing others how I write. Oh and because I blog so much, I’m always reading marketing tips or pdfs, so I’ve picked up a lot of useful tips that I can share with others.
What has been the one thing (blog post, project, etc) that you have been really proud of?
I guess that would have to be going to school for music. I just finished my time at The Institute of Audio Research, and I also became certified in Pro Tools during my time there. I’ll be walking the stage of the Apollo next June, so that’s also really exciting since it’ll be my first time.
Where do you see your blog in a year?
Gosh, if I can keep blogging the way I’ve been blogging this month, I think I’ll be able to finally get a domain name and a really nice template. (I’m too broke for it now, plus I’m waiting to see if I’ll be able to keep up with this blog.) Also, I’m hoping I’ll have a lot more followers, who are actually engaged and that I’ll be able to partner with companies so I can start doing some giveaways! What I’m really focused on this time though, is gaining a good amount of engaged followers. A lot of people usually just follow and read, but never really comment anything, so I’m looking to have that change in the next year.
What do you wish you knew when starting your blog?
There’s honestly nothing I can think of right now, I’m not new to blogging so I guess I learned everything I know now early on.
What do you wish you know more about now?
I wish I knew more about SEO, and graphic designing so I could make my own graphics. But I don’t really have the time to teach myself.
How do you keep motivated to post?
By staying on the internet a lot, sounds crazy but it’s true, if I wasn’t on the internet so much I probably wouldn’t feel like blogging as much. But when I’m on the internet, I’ll see a topic and think “omg that’s collection is coming out? I have to blog about this” or “seriously? that’s stupid! I should share this to see what other people think”. Or I may see a really cool video and immediately I feel the urge to blog about it. I’ve also noticed that if I don’t blog about a certain topic during that moment I get excited about it, I loose interest in it and I never blog about it. So by blogging about things right away, I stay motivated to do other posts as well.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Yeah! Right now I’m looking to connect with other bloggers, follow more blogs, and I’m actually looking for a guest blogger for a series of blog posts that I have an idea for that I just don’t have the time to keep up with. (It’s about men! It’s called “”The Man Catalog”” I’ll give out more info via email.) So if anyone is interested in connecting, looking for new followers and has a wordpress blog or is interested in guest blogging, please let me know! It would be greatly appreciated.
And if you’re thinking about starting a blog you should do it! But ONLY if you really like blogging, don’t do it because you think you’ll make money from it, or because it’s the “cool” thing to do. If you don’t really love blogging then it’s not going to work out. It takes a lot of work to keep up with a blog to get the results you want, so you actually have to be doing it just because it’s fun. Okay that’s about it now.
