5 Things You Should Do Before Clicking Publish On Your Blog Post

SEO

It's not that difficult - I promise! SEO is essentially paying attention to key words in your blog posts. If you want YOUR blog post to pop up on Google when someone searches for a review of a lipstick or candle, be sure to think like you'd Google that product. Nobody searches for 'My favourite red lipsticks' or 'My top 5 Mac lipsticks', no, they're searching for what they want to see, some examples being ''Mac Ruby Woo on pale skin', or 'mac lipsticks for pale skin' ... See what I mean? This is linked with my next tip, but you'll soon get the hang of it and there are hundreds of posts about SEO that are super detailed, so you have no excuse not to get those page views!

Google Friendly File Names

This is the one thing I sometimes forget myself, but by far the easiest way to direct extra traffic to your blog. Photos don't tell Google what they are. A photo of a Mac lipstick is just colours to Google unless YOU tell Google what the photo is of. Before you upload your photos, save the file as something relevant! Instead of uploading you amazing photo as IMG6427.jpg, save it as 'Colourpop_Lippie_Stix.jpg' or 'Mac_Ruby_Woo_Swatch'! If you want to go one step further, go to your blog settings for that post and name your photo under the ALT tags and title text.

 Featuring The Right Image

RSS feeds, such as Bloglovin, automatically pick out the first photo you upload as the 'featured' image. So if you want these feeds to showcase your pretty photo of your Mac lipstick collection, instead of a random swatch of lipstick, be sure to pay attention to which photo you upload first!

Pinterest Friendly Images

Pinterest is a HUGE source of traffic. It's undeniably one of the most useful social medias to use for diving traffic to your blog. Most recipe and cooking blogs utilise Pinterest and simply wouldn't be half as successful without it. Unlike any other social media, people re-pin around 90% and only pin new content at around 10%. This means that any image on the website can do the rounds hundreds upon thousands of times, meaning if just half of those people click onto your blog from that photo, you're gaining a huge surge in page views! But your images should be utilised for Pinterest. Be sure to use long images - these are proven to be the most successful and eye-catching the site. Oh, and install a 'Pin Me!' hover button on your blog. 

Link Back To Your Old Posts

Are you mentioning a blusher on a monthly favourites that you reviewed three months ago? Link back! Not only does it drive traffic back to old posts, but it looks good to Google too. It never hurts to re-direct people to more detailed posts, and it's win-win in terms of traffic!


Do you do any of these tips? What's your top tip for new bloggers?

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4 Tips For When You Finally Start Learning To Drive*

Finding the right instructor for you - I would always recommend paying for 2-3 lessons instead of a block right at the beginning of your lessons. When you first meet an instructor, it's hard to tell if you're going to like their teaching style. It definitely takes a few lessons to figure out if you're going to get along! As an example, my first driving instructor made inappropriate jokes and turned the radio up really loudly on my first lesson.. needless to say, I changed instructor! I really didn't feel comfortable with the radio playing as I fearfully drove a car for the first time in my life....

Start Early - I really, really wish I had started my lessons when I was seventeen. I was too scared to call up a random person I didn't know and ask them about starting... Can you believe I used to be such a baby?! I ended up starting them at 18 and did them for around 13 lessons before I went off to uni - long story short, it was expensive and as soon as I got to uni, I couldn't afford to continue with 2 hour lessons every week, which was the way I found it easiest to learn (an hour flew by far too quickly) I do wish I would have booked lessons online back then, or at least arrange a call back. I guess I never looked into it properly! If you're a bit like seventeen year old me, you can actually do that on a website called called Book Learn Pass. They allow you to book lessons online and do the leg work for you in finding an instructor. Easy-peasy! They also have a lot of information regarding lessons/theory tests and practical tips on their site, so be sure to head on over and take a look.

Learning on the go -  Everyone learns in different ways obviously, but some of the things I found most helpful were asking the 'stupid' questions during my driving lessons... and I mean stuff like 'why can they go ahead of me from that lane? Why can't I cut in front of the granny, I've had three lessons now? I'm practically a boy racer..?' .. Kidding, but you know the things you're too scared to ask? They're always available online for you to look up and research, and remember, your instructor won't think you're stupid for asking - they've likely seen it all before! And hey, when you're paying around £20-30 an hour.. ask away on that rate!

Be aware - Probably an obvious one, but sometimes it can be hard to tell when you're being taken for a ride. Literally. My first instructor spent an entire hour and a half of my first lesson explaining where parts of the car were and did most of the driving himself. I ended up behind the wheel for about half an hour (probably less...) of my first 2 hour lesson.. not cool. Most instructors are really great and want to help you pass quickly so that you recommend them to your friends.. but some will end up making you need 50 hours of lessons. (The average is around 30/35 before you can pass for most people).

What were your experiences during your first driving lesson? Share any interesting stories below!

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*This post is in collaboration with Book Learn Pass*

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KYLIE JENNER X SINFUL COLORS: Review and Swatches!

It's always weird when celebrities endorse products. People either go 'OMG! It's amazing!' or 'Wow. That's crap' just because a celebrity has put their name on it. This week, I fell in love with some of the colours from the Kylie Jenner x Sinful Colors Nail Polish range. Therefore, I wanted to put out an honest review of the products and let you guys know whether they're worth buying or not!

I'd never heard of Sinful Colors until I saw Kylie's range on the Superdrug website, but from what I can gather, it's a drugstore, purse friendly brand from the US. I really love a lot of the colours from the rather large collection and thought I'd pick up a couple to try out. I bought Taupe Is Chic, a pale pink/nude polish with a matte finish and Kreme De La Kreme, a gorgeous gold glitter, perfect for an accent nail. There are four mini collections with lots of finishes to choose from such as shimmers, mattes, nudes, bright colours and sparkles.. so there is definitely something for everyone!

This is yet another brand that claims to use 'gel technology', which in my opinion is just complete rubbish. Sarrrrrrry. Gel is gel, polish is polish. I've never used a nail polish that claims to be some weird gel hybrid that's ever lasted longer than a bog standard Rimmel one. I think the whole gel trend is a ploy to make people think that they need to buy the matching top coat personally.

I think the brush is okay, but I do prefer the BarryM ones. I think the Sinful Colors brush is a bit thin and doesn't distribute the polish so evenly, but for £3 it's okay quality and the pigmentation of the nail polishes is actually very good! I think the mattes are rather impressive. I purposely picked up a paler shade and a glittery shade so that I could see how well the polishes layer and how well the glitter lasts. You can probably see from the two coats pictured, that it's a fairly opaque colour and it actually looks really nice on! I'm definitely going to be picking up more shades. Oh, and that gold colour could survive a nuclear war. Ah-mazing!

Have you guys tried any of the Kylie Jenner x Sinful Colors range?

You can also find me on:

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