Tag Archives: blog

Blog update

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Well by know you all know that Random Sarah has been neglected. Tumblr indeed has won. But you will be happy to know that I will be posting here more frequently for a class I am taking. So for a short time at least, you will get the old Sarah back. The one who updates her blog regularly, and has lots of great stuff to write about new media.

But if you’re interested in what’s been keeping me busy these days while I’m not updating my blog, I’ll tell you. I’ve been doing some consulting work with a few clients while going to school full time. I’ve also rebranded my tumblr blog and opened a online store selling vintage home goods.

There are of course a bunch of other projects I always have floating around my head at any given time that I’d like to explore. Most recently I’ve been wanting to teach a skillshare class on the importance of copy in social media. But chances are before I get a chance to put a whole class together it will probably just become a blog post here.

 

Vegan Month of Food!

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Year after year, I see friends of mine signing up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. Now, I wish I had a novel to write, but alas November has come around again and I have no desire to write a novel. But today I discovered that November has been declared the Vegan Month of Food by the folks at Post Punk Kitchen.

While there are no set rules, the goal is to post something related to vegan food at least once every week day or approx. 20 times in the month of November.

Challenge Accepted!

I figured it was a good enough idea as any to get me back into the swing of blogging regularly. While I don’t consider this a food blog, I am a vegan who loves food so why not!

Stay tuned for all the vegan awesomeness to come this month!

Finding time to blog

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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So since I got my dream job as the community manager for Postling, everything got really busy, really fast. I’m working a full time job, going to school full time at night, and trying to stay healthy and lose weight!

How does one find time to blog in the midst of all that?!

I’m starting to thing that I really have to start a writing schedule, and make the time to write the blog posts I want to write and make the videos I want to make.

I enjoy producing content, so it’s stressful for me when I don’t have time for that outlet in my life.

But I wanted to give you all an update on my weight loss goals, and staying healthy through all this stress. I’ve officially lost 20 lbs!

When I first started at Postling, it seemed very difficult to stick with my regular eating schedule. When you are suddenly out of your element, you lose control of your food to a certain extent. And if you aren’t the type of person who plans every meal in advance, suddenly not being in your own kitchen can make deciding what to eat very difficult! (especially when you are vegan)

I’m starting to feel like I’ve regained control and even picked up a few great tips on how to eat anywhere and stick to my plan. (more on that in a later blog post)

Stepping on the scale and seeing a lower number than before still feels amazing, and I’m looking forward to losing the next 20 lbs!

7 Tips to Help with the Blogging Blues

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Since I redesigned my blog I have gotten a lot of great compliments on it. But a lot of my friends have asked how I keep up with writing.

I admit it can be very hard at times but you have to come up with ways to get over the blogging blues.

One of my favorite blogs, Style Me Pretty, just launched a supplemental blog called Backstage, where they write about the in’s and out’s of blogging as a business. The blog is a great read and recently Abby Larson wrote a post about Blogging Blues that I really wanted to share with you guys.

I’ve been noticing that a few of my favorite bloggers have been getting the burnout blues these days. And I totally get it. In this industry, it’s really hard to stay on top. To stay fresh and innovative and to approach each new day with a different set of enthusiastic phrases. And although I love what I do, the blogging blues can bite you when you least expect it. So today, I thought I would remind myself and all of you how to bring back that sparkle to the job that you know you love…you just might have forgotten why you love it.

  1. Keep a gratitude journal. Sounds big time cheesy, I know. But writing down the reasons that we are grateful for our jobs, for our creative brains, for our lives…will remind us all as to just how lucky we are.
  2. Take a break from the mundane and for one day, make it all about the fun. What does this mean? Well…if you are a florist and are bogged down in the business of being a florist, set aside one day to design flowers for your closest friends. Totally YOUR designs, influenced only by your love of your craft. For a wedding blogger this might mean spending a day with a cup of hot chocolate, sifting through all of your favorite vendor sites, finding inspiration in back copies of domino magazine, poring through galleries of your favorite weddings. Even reading your OWN blog to rediscover your voice, your passion.
  3. Reserve a day just for housekeeping. It will be a brutal day…paperwork, number crunching, computer cleaning…but in the end, it will free up your brain space to get back to what you love.
  4. Reserve a day just for brainstorming. Tait and I had a 2 hour meeting the other day to hash out all of the little details we needed to in order to move forward. It was hugely fulfilling and definitely reignited my motivation and excitement. Getting together a brainstorming meeting with your team will definitely bring back a little buzz. By encouraging everyone to participate (interns too)  in your session, you’ll inspire them, you’ll potentially discover a different perspective, you’ll get the fun brewing among everyone.
  5. At the end of the day, shut the computer off, swear off emails and grab a glass of wine or a hot cup of tea. Take a moment to think about your day and to find the bright spots, the spots that make your stresses all worthwhile.

I know that these aren’t particularly mind blowing ideas, but these are little things that I do to give myself a pick-me-up. Of course, we all struggle with different parts of our lives. Running a family, keeping a nice home, maintaining relationships with our friends, running a business. It’s basically impossible to do all of these really well but it isn’t impossible to fall in love with the journey.

A few things I wanted to add to this list:

  1. Don’t be afraid to re-blog. If someone wrote a post that you like, if it’s something you think your readers would benifit from, or if you feel like you have something to add to that post, don’t hesitate to re-blog the post. As long as you give credit to the original author and don’t try to claim the ideas as your own.
  2. Read more. If you are feeling like you are in a blogging rut, read more blogs. And start reading blogs that might not fall into your “category” of blogging. Technically Random Sarah is my personal blog, but it focuses on social media and web 2.0. But I read a lot of food blogs, fashion blogs, friends personal blogs, tech blogs, local blogs. It helps me see what is out there and really reflect on how I am writing my own content.

You have to love your blog, if you don’t know why you are blogging maybe it’s time to take a break from it and reflect on why you started blogging in the first place. Let me know what helps you stay motivated to blog in the comments.