Every Sunday, we ask one of our favourite bloggers some questions about their blog history. This week is the turn of Sarahmia – a red head in Cardiff who likes pandas, yellow and avocados
Name: Sarahmia
Age: 29
Location: Cardiff, UK
Blog URL: www.sarahmia.co.uk/ff (Personal) www.hellotelegramme.co.uk (Photography project)
What is your blog about? Sarahmia is a “lifestyle” blog – so, er, it’s about my life? Telegramme is about beautiful photography, and is an accompanying blog to the magazine I put out every six months.
Is this your first blog? I’m 29, what do you think? ;) No ma’am. No it is not.
When did you start your current blog? Sarahmia started in August 2009, Telegramme started in March 2012, so is relatively new.
What made you do it? I started blogging before Blogger was owned by Google, so I’ve been around for quite a while. I’ve always liked being able to spill out all my crap onto a blank space – it helps me to be able to sort through it. I also like the feedback you get from your friends, peers and complete strangers – where else in life can you get that?
What was your first blog post about? On Sarahmia it was a “er, hello. I am blogging again” post. Telegramme had a post announcing the (long awaited) arrival of Issue 3.
What do you think is the most useful tool to you as a blogger? Common sense. I don’t post things that will get me in trouble (anymore, ha), I’m respectful of other people’s feelings and I don’t ever forget that my blog is in a public space, for all to see.
Do people in your “real life” know about your blog? Sure. My mum even comments occasionally!
If yes, has your blog helped you career wise? This is a hard one to answer. Directly, probably not. But both of my jobs (I’m a freelancer) involve writing blogs and I do think I wouldn’t have had the skills for these jobs if I’d not been honing my writing and publishing skills for the past decade as a hobby.
What has been the one thing (blog post, project, etc) you’ve been really proud of? Oh Telegramme, certainly. That thing is a hell of a lot of work, but having complete strangers tell you that they love it makes it all worth it.
Where do you see your blog in a year? In the same place it is now. Happy, yellow and full of lists.
What do you wish you knew when starting your blog? Honestly? I have no idea. I think by the time I came to start these particular blogs I knew enough about blogging to figure out what I needed my space to be. When I first started I wish I’d known more about self hosting, bandwidth allowances and how to block robots and spam to save them eating your allowance and annoying the crap out of you in the comments.
What do you wish you know about now? Coding. I’m slowly learning, and I’m competent enough in HTML, but it’s always more useful to be able to tweak things if you’d like it to look or behave a little differently. Being able to play about with your template also had the bonus of helping your blog look less generic, especially if you’re using a free theme :)
How do you keep motivated to post? I don’t put any pressure on myself to “perform” for my blog – it does what it does and I’m okay with that. I don’t have thousands of views so there’s no perceived or actual pressure of “disappointing my fans”. Scheduling helps too, sometimes if I’ve got an hour and I’m in the mood I’ll write four or five posts and save them up, for when I’m not fussed or I’m too busy to dedicate the time :)
Thanks Mia! Go check out her blogs – www.sarahmia.co.uk/ff (our favourite feature on there is Friday Thanks, followed by Grace in Small Things – everyone likes positivity!) and www.hellotelegramme.co.uk – a beautiful magazine showcasing some amazing photographers!
