Feature Me Friday - Week 1

This is the first week of our Feature Me Friday and its all shiny and new!

Basically each week I’m asking a different blogger to come share their experience and thoughts on being a blogger, so if your thinking of starting a blog or looking to discover new blogs, this is the place to be!

First up is the lovely jo. We first crossed paths when she became my Brit Mums big sister and since then we’ve become great friends other than the fact she supports York City Football Club!

Name -

jo.

Blog name & address -

www.sweetfoolthemouth.co.uk is my long-standing long-suffering website

www.mum-friendly.co.uk is my almost two (I think?) parenting based one

www.adequateparent.co.uk is my baby

www.palesaints.co.uk is a fansite I made a while back (as I know the band quite well anyway, so it was easy to get some cool stuff to put on there)

www.whitedog.org.uk was a site my dad bought, though he never got to finish it, I added lots of his scooter memorabilia to it and it’s a cool glimpse into scootering in the sixties in York.

How long have you been blogging?

Since 2000 or 2001.

What got you into blogging?

I kind of stumbled into it. Back in 1999 I started working in my current job, and part of that involved hanging out at fansites of a lot of the bands – and fortunately as I loved a lot of those bands this was an excellent way of finding my feet on the internet – one of those bands/artists was Throwing Muses and Kristin Hersh. Within their site Throwing Music they had a section for members only called ‘The Place’ – and within there everyone had a ‘Place Page’ which was your space to do whatever you wanted. It’s here I started blogging. After a while The Place disappeared, and I moved to LiveJournal using my josiejo name (I do still post there occasionally under the name sevenwindmills), finding my blogging feet a bit more and being slightly more public. I started my sweetfoolthemouth website and used Blogger at first then switched to B2, and finally WordPress and most of the early content I cringe at now as it was me moaning about my job a lot and at life. I’ve since learnt a lot – especially about how to express my opinion where it embarrasses me the least.

What is the best bits of blogging?

Meeting other people, making friends online, finding out people really do read what you write and often like it. Being given fabulous opportunities. Being in a position to get advice from other people I respect. Had I not had that initial Place Page I might never have met my husband.

What is the worst bit about blogging?

People who take the mickey. Writing about something when you don’t think the internet is as big or obvious as it is and the person/thing you wrote about finding out about it, and you get a bollocking. Knowing that sometimes what you write can never make something better and it’s better to just ignore.

Also, your past can almost always be found somewhere on the internet.

What are you most proud of when it comes to blogging?

The fact I’m still doing it and am still not bored by it after around thirteen or so years. That, and that I’m still fairly low-key.

What have you achieved that without blogging you may not have?

Having somewhere I get listened to! Although I did once write a post when Cillit Bang first came out on Sweetfoolthemouth about how well it cleans money, and received thousands of hits in a few days, the general public thought I was extremely sad – I took it to heart and removed the post and hid – so I wasn’t ready to be heard by the masses!

What is your top tip for someone starting a new blog?

If you know you want to blog and feel like it’s something you’ll stick with, go self-hosted from the start. It’s less hassle in the long run.
Give it time and don’t expect people to find you immediately.
Work out what you want to say and try and say it in as few words as you can (I love to waffle, I’m sure it turns people off).
Check your spelling before pressing ‘submit’.
If you’re going to slag off something, remember they can read it – in fact, anyone can.
You’ll also get people who’ll troll you quite possibly, just remember it’s someone with an opinion with a keyboard and try not to get wound up by them. (or upset – see Cillit Bang waffle above)
Be yourself, and enjoy it – and if you don’t enjoy it, take a break.
If you’re still not sure about the world reading your posts, you can set up blogs to be private and just allow people you want to read in there – though don’t assume that it won’t break (LiveJournal did once).
Try not to use too many exclamation marks (guilty as charged)
Most importantly of all, back up your blog regularly – you don’t want to put in all that time and effort to accidentally lose it one day.