blogging

Chair: Wayfair, Desk: Craigslist and a fresh coat of paint, Bookcase: Target, Shirt: Summer and Sage via Le Tote, Jeans: Levis

Hey friends!

Today I am posting something a little bit different than the normal recipe. I thought it may be fun for you to get to know me, the blonde behind the blog, and what I have been up to this past month.

If you have been following along, at least since December, then you know there have been a lot of changes going in my life which has created a wonderful opportunity for me to spend more time on this little blog of mine.

And sincere there has been a lot of things happening behind the scenes, I thought I would catch you up!

Okay, so where to begin? How about with my goals for February?

February Goals

Felt Board: Felt like Sharing via Amazon, Letters: Target and Amazon, Plant: Ikea, China: Haviland via Grandma, Cups: Ikea

After I officially left my job in late January, I gave myself a “week off” to get stuff done around the house. But February 1st was going to be the official first day of my new job: blogger, business owner, and entrepreneur! I set a few goals for myself, mainly to keep me motivated and task-oriented. This is the first time I have been self-employed and I honestly had no idea how I would acclimate.

My first goal was to email three other bloggers for advice on how they have run their blog/business as well as how they have managed through changing their blog name (more on that to come). I am proud to say I actually accomplished this one and have gotten some great advice from some amazing bloggers. Its a little bit out of my comfort zone to reach out to people and ask for help (I don’t ever want to bother people), but everyone I reached out to was incredibly gracious with their time and wisdom. I think I will keep this as a goal every month!
The second goal of mine was to decide on a new blog name. Of everything I set out to do this past month, this was maybe the most difficult. While Follow the Ruels is a great name (although some people think I am spelling rules wrong), it just doesn’t fit the vision I have for this blog. I wanted to pick something that was slightly more food oriented but wouldn’t pigeon hole me into only food or cookies. I enlisted the help of some of my best friends to refine some of my ideas. Fortunately, they picked the same one! Everyone else will have to wait a little bit longer to find out what the name is, but I will be dropping hints along the way. There may even be one or two in this post!
Once I had a new name for the blog, that meant that I could accomplish goal #3, which was to register a business. Because I plan on selling baked goods out of my house, I wanted to register an LLC to protect myself and my husband if anything were to happen. Most bloggers don’t need to do this, but this was more for the baking aspect of the business. This part was surprisingly easy, thanks to LegalZoom! Seriously, I thought this would be the hardest part, but once I knew the name of the business, I could fill out all the paperwork in a matter of minutes, and they handle the rest!
My fourth goal was to submit my cottage food license application to the Georgia Department of Agriculture, which I still haven’t done. I am waiting to hear back about my LLC just in case I need an EIN to register. But, I did complete my food safety course, which is a requirement for the license.
The last goal for the month was to create a new logo. This is also something that I can’t say I have done yet. While I have done lots of research on designers, I haven’t been able to pull the trigger just yet!

So that’s basically what I have been up to this month! I feel like I have accomplished quite a bit! I am just hoping that I can carry this into March, which will be a fun, but busy, month!

March Goals

Since setting goals for myself worked so well for February, I wanted to set some for myself for March! The first two goals carryover from February and the others build on the momentum from the last 28 days to hopefully result in the new blog and business up and running by the end of the month!

Submit my cottage food license application
Create a new logo for the blog
Reach out to three new bloggers
Develop a free downloadable guide on cookie decorating
Build up my email list
Launch the new blog!

Random February Favorites

Cookie Box: World Market, Bouchon Cookbook: Amazon, Ad Hoc at Home: Amazon, Rolling Pin: antique

The month of February wasn’t all about the blog and business, however! I also trained for a half marathon, started decorating our house, organized our pantry, and did lots and lots of baking. Here are some of my favorites from the month:

Favorite app: Brain Focus

This app keeps me focused on tasks when I struggle to prioritize what I need to do over what I want to do.

Favorite thing to listen to while I work: Spotify playlist “Girl Boss”

I created a new playlist called “Girl Boss” which I play a lot when I just need to feel empowered and motivated. There is nothing like Brittany Spears singing “work bitch” to get my butt to work!

Favorite thing to listen to while I run: Atlanta Monster podcast

You know, I seem to run a bit faster when I am listening about a serial killer in the very city that I run in.

Favorite Book: 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

This is only my favorite book because it was the only book that I read this month. While I don’t think the premise is 100% realistic for everyone, he does have lots of good advice and lessons on increasing efficiency and maintaining a good work-life balance.

Favorite Website: Havenly

I have spent so much time on Havenly this past month, it’s ridiculous! For those who don’t know, Havenly is an online interior design service! I hired a designer to help me with our living room and I absolutely love what she came up with! Now I just need to actually buy all the things she recommended which is the hard part!

Favorite Store: the Container Store

If you follow me on InstaStories, you are probably familiar with how much time (and money) I spent at the Container Store. But at least now my kitchen is organized!!

Okay, that’s a wrap on February! I am looking forward to March since it is my birthday month and I am teaching two SkillPop cookie decorating classes in Charlotte later in the month. Which means that I not only get to do one of my favorite things but also get to see all my friends!

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I schedule just about every aspect of my blog. My blog posts are scheduled at least a day in advance if not a week. Most of my tweets are scheduled. Even my Instagram posts are scheduled! Managing a blog takes up a lot of time, which is something I don’t have a lot of during the work week. So on weekends, I try to do as much as I possibly can to schedule every aspect of the blog.

Scheduling blog posts is nothing new. I would imagine most bloggers schedule their posts to go live on a specific day and time. I have found that for me, scheduling 3 blog posts a week is what works. Any more, and I would burn out quickly. But I wouldn’t want to do any less.

To make sure I have enough content to post 3 times a week, I plan things out far in advance. For instance, it is barely November, and I am already preparing posts for Christmas. Or at least thinking of ideas to post in December. My plan is to have pictures edited, copy written, and the post scheduled 1 to 2 weeks in advance. Then I use my calendar tool in WordPress to see where my gaps are. I have also tried CoSchedule, which is a great application for those who post a lot more than I do, and need something to manage their posting schedule. While I really liked using it, it costs more than I am willing to pay right now. There are other tools available for free that do similar things.

I’ll admit, I am not the best tweeter. I could definitely take some lessons from some of you. But before I scheduled my tweets, I was downright awful at tweeting on a regular basis. I would be lucky if I remembered to tweet out my post that day. Now I schedule almost all my tweets when I schedule my blog posts. For instance, if I had a blog post going live on Monday, I would schedule at least one tweet for my post on Monday, one on Tuesday, maybe one more on Saturday, and one or two in the following weeks. I also really like promoting other bloggers, which can be time consuming. So when I find a recipe or blog post I like, I also schedule a tweet to promote them throughout the week.

The tool I use for this is Buffer. What I like about Buffer, is that you can install a button on your browser so when you are reading other blogs and find something you like, you can just click the Buffer button, or the “Share Image” button (like a Pin It button) and instantly add it to your queue of tweets. CoSchedule also offers this through their app, and seamlessly integrates your blog posts into a tweet schedule so you are never missing an opportunity to promote your blog.

Did y’all know you can schedule your Instagrams? Posting to Instagram was the hardest for me to do while at work. Before I learned how to schedule posts for Instagram, I would upload my blog pictures to my phone a couple times a week, then at some point during the day I would sit at my desk trying to think of a caption and type out a dozen hashtags on my little phone keyboard. It wasn’t convenient at all.

Now I use Latergram.me and it has changed my life. Directly from my computer, I can upload a picture, write my caption, then pick a day and time for it to post. When the time comes, I get a reminder on my phone that the picture is ready to post. I open the app, and the picture automatically opens in Instagram, I paste in the caption that I already wrote, and hit “post”. Not quite as automatic as Buffer, but it is better than nothing!

So that is what I do to schedule my blog posts and social media posts. It has saved me so much time during the week and allows me to constantly promote my blog with a lot less effort. Maybe eventually I can do this full time and not have to worry so much about scheduling. Or I can just hire an assistant.