Stress!

Today has been the most stressful day of my entire FMP process. The past week people have been having meltdowns and panicking however I have been fine.. until today. I was in the library doing some last minute touch ups when my laptop decides to break on me. All of a sudden lines appeared on my laptop and it just turned off. My first reaction was to go to the Apple shop to see if they could do anything but by the time I had got there it was too late to see someone. At this point I was walking back to the library with my broken laptop in my hand and tears falling down my face with my brother and mum on the phone telling me to not panic. The only thing going through my mind was that my deadlines were a couple of days away and my work was all on my laptop. Luckily for me, I had emailed one piece of work to myself but because I was working on my evaluation, I had not backed it up and that was the only thing I was really worried about. I was so thankful to myself for deciding to do an online project because all of my work was already live on my blog so I wasn't able to lose that, it was just my essays.

From this experience today, I have learned to ALWAYS back up my work because you never know what is going to happen. Tomorrow morning I am going to go back to the Apple store and hopefully they will be able to fix my laptop .. which I have so much hate for at the moment.

Bad Quality Pictures

I had a blog post idea yesterday that was going to tell students in Southampton a cheap place to go for cocktails with friends, family or even a date. I had work during the day so had planned to go in the evening and once I had got ready to go, we went to take some pictures in my room however the lighting was horrific. Everything looked yellow and fuzzy so I tried to play around with the camera settings however nothing was working so I decided to abandon the idea. Next time I attempt to take any pictures in the evening in my room, I am going to get and get old of a ring light or some other kind of lighting to help. Luckily for me, I am going back to the cocktail bar next week so I will just mention it in that post instead.

Writers block

Recently I have been lacking ideas for my blog. Normally my blog ideas just come to me however all I can think of are OOTD posts. I don’t want to keep posting just fashion posts because I want my blog to be a good mixture of each category. I’ve been looking at my favourite blogger – Samantha Maria, but her posts are primarily fashion. This has got me thinking that maybe I should focus just on one category and because I enjoy the OOTD post so much, maybe I should just focus on fashion. I do want to keep talking about beauty products though because that is where my passion originally came from for this blog. Part of my also thinks that I should take a break from blogging but then I may fall behind schedule. I have got a work placement coming up soon so maybe that would the perfect opportunity for me to take a step back.

I read on the Anna Edit not too long ago that she took a month out from blogging and she said that

"I love what I do, so it wasn’t that I needed a break; more just a chance to press reset and return with some juice in the ol’ battery. " 

https://www.theannaedit.com/what-i-learnt-from-taking-a-month-off-from-blogging/ 


 I feel like I should do the same. The consequence will be that I stop blogging sooner than planned. I was planning on posting three times a week, consistently from the beginning of march (which I have been sticking to) right up until the deadline.

The reality now is that I may stop posting about two weeks before the hand in, however this may work out for the best as it will give me time to work on my evaluation and any other little bits I have to do.

Rainy Beach Day

Today I planned to go to Bournemouth beach to shoot an OOTD post. The weather had been hit and miss however it did say that it wasn’t going to rain until the evening. I was scheduled to leave at 1 pm because my photographer was busy until then however we ended up leaving later than planned. When we got to Bournemouth, we actually ended up in the wrong place. At first I was thinking we should just stay where we were and work with what we have however my gut was telling me to go the place I originally planned. Once we got there and parked the car, it started to rain a little so we decided to go and get some lunch first and that way we would be sheltered. We decided to go into Zizzi’s because I had never been and then I found out that they offer up to 40% student discount! I used my initiative and decided to mention that in the blog post I had planned for the day. Once we had finished eating the rain had slowed down so we made our way towards the gardens. When I visited Bournemouth last time, I walked through the gardens and they were beautiful so I thought that they would be the perfect location for some pictures. We got a couple but then it started to rain again so I decided to head to the arcade. The vibe inside the arcade was so cool so we decided to get some pictures in there too. Although the lighting wasn’t the best, it gave the pictures more of a vintage feel, you could tell we were in an arcade. By this time the shops had closed so there wasn’t much more to do so we decided to head back home. Although the day didn’t go to plan, I still enjoyed it and am happy with the pictures and if anything, it gives others ideas as to what to do when it’s raining in Bournemouth. If I were to do this again I would try and go on a day with better weather and leave earlier. I would also come up with a backup plan so we would have more indoor places to go to.

Tutorial Feedback

Today I had a group tutorial where I presented my work so far to Elizabeth, Anna and Emma. At first I was nervous to present my project so far after hearing and looking at everyone elses work, because mine was so different. Blogging is something I am passionate about and enjoy doing to I stick to my decision of doing this. I personally think that the future is digital so I think the way forward is to create something online.

Change in blogging days

Whilst researching for another project, I found that the best days to post online are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I have been posting on these days however because I work all day on a Saturday, I don’t really get the time to properly promote my new content. This is why I have decided to post on a Sunday instead. I still work all day on Sundays however because we close earlier, it gives me more time during the day to share my new post.

I have also found through this process so far that because I post three times a week, it only gives me two days to promote that piece of work before I have to move onto the next one. Sometimes I feel like it would be better to post twice a week instead and that way I would have more posts planned in time and I would be able to give them the time they need to be promoted. I may alternate some weeks by posting twice or three times to see if it makes much of a difference but that I don’t want to confuse followers who know the days I post on.

When it comes to promoting, I’ve found that twitter is the best app for me, some viewers do some from my Instagram but not as many compared to my twitter account. I have created a twitter account purely dedicated to the blog where I follow others bloggers and whenever I publish a new post, I use the relevant hashtags. As there is a blogging community, other bloggers tend to retweet my link so that my content gets viewed by a wider audience.

Stats & Social Media

Looking through my stats on posts i've already posted shows that my audience like "Outfit of The Day" and Haul posts a lot more than my other posts so this is something I am going to take on board and do more of which is good because these are my favourite type of posts to create. This must show through my work and may be why I get a good response to them.

Looking further into my stats, I've found that I am starting to get views from different parts of the work which is amazing! I've noticed that I have started to get views from United Arab Emirates and I think this may be due to the Youtube video. This makes me feel happy as it shows me that my blog is working and I am reaching my target audience (women/men with a similar skintone to me) as well as others from Brazil, Canada and United States. The majority of my readers are from the UK and this could be because I talk about and mention products which are more accessible here so I may seem more relatable to them.

Making a schedule

To become more organised, I have downloaded a PDF calendar of the month so that I can plan out my posts. I feel like this is a good idea because I can visually see what is going to be posted when and if I need to move any posts around. The downside to this is that I am going to have to try and stick to the schedule which may be difficult for me because If I create a post I am proud of, I’m going to want to post it as soon as I can. I really want to create more collaborations with other students however it’s so difficult to find a time when everyone is available and the weather / lighting is good. I feel like this projects would probably have been better for me to do during the summer as everything looks better then in terms of lighting. I think I am going to carry on blogging after this project is over because I love creating new content and seeing it live on my blog. I am always happy with how my posts look on my blog and that always motivates me to carry on and create more content.

NEW LOGO

My friend who said would help with my new logo has been quite busy recently and I didn't want to keep bothering her so I've decided to just make my new logo by myself.

I went onto DaFont.com to look at the fonts they had until I found a couple I liked. These are the ones I managed to narrow down. 

Publishing Valentines Day Tutorial & 1-2-1

Today I published my valentines day tutorial and it made me realise how much fun I had filming, editing and publishing and has made me realise I want to make more makeup tutorials.  I had another 1-2-1 with Elizabeth today so I showed her the video and I was happy with the response and feedback. Elizabeth showed me some Instagram accounts I should follow for inspiration for new makeup tutorials and she really reassured me that my FMP was on the right track.

My next step is to film a YouTube video where i'm actually speaking directly to the camera however, this is a big step for me. I think even though I have enjoyed making this youtube video, blogging is still the best option for me and that maybe i'll slowly ease myself into YouTube and maybe post a talking video in the future.

Editing Valentines Day Tutorial

Today I edited my valentines day tutorial. I wanted to edit my video yesterday however I had work all day and was tired when I got back home. I had not used final cut pro for about a year so it took me a little while to get used to it again. The editing took longer than I thought it would as I wanted the vide to be detailed but not too long at the same time but I am happy with how it turned out.

I then had to create a thumbnail for the video so I decided to use a picture I took after I finished the tutorial as the lighting was good. However, I did not realise that the image that I took on my phone was actually to small to be a thumbnail so I either had to stretch the image or zoom in. I didn't like the way either of these looked so I decided to leave some white spaces on either side and this is something I will be conscious of next time.

Filming First Ever Makeup Tutorial on YouTube

As it is valentines day next week, I want to create a makeup tutorial for my YouTube channel. A big thing at the moment is affordable, drugstore makeup so i've decided that all the products I am going to use are going to be affordable as this ties in well with my USP as I am aiming my blog at students. My biggest challenge for this tutorial is going to be finding a drugstore foundation that I actual like using and matches me well.

Whilst going through my makeup, I came across my L'Oreal True Match foundation which I think is probably the best match i'm going to get and I thought it would be helpful for others with my skintone to know which shade I use.

I decided to film at 1pm as the lighting was best at this time of day. I decided that this was not going to be a talk through tutorial as I am not that confident with talking on camera by myself just yet. Once I was filming there were a couple issues, first my SD card ran out of storage so I had to use my housemates, and then the camera was about to die so I had to be as quick as I could. I made up the makeup look as I was going but I was happy with the outcome anyway.

From filming this makeup tutorial, I discovered that I actually really enjoyed making videos. It has always been a passion of mine to watch tutorials but I never realised how much work actually went into making these videos.

Late Night Library

Today after I finished work, some of my housemates were going to the library after they had their dinner so I decided to go with them. Whilst I was there I managed to write 2 blog posts (Mothers Day Gift Guide & Points Cards Worth Having). I couldn't think of the first image to have for the Mothers Day Gift guide so I decided to make my own. I want my blog to look minimal and clean so I decided to use a white marble background which I found on Pinterest. I then went onto DaFont.com to download a font I liked and one that suited the vibe for the Mothers Day post. Once I had that sorted I then decided I wanted the font to have a metallic/foiled effect. I created my business card with the foiled effect and I really liked the outcome so I had a play around with Photoshop until I remembered how to do it. The next thing I had to do was find images for my Mothers Day Gift guide. As much as I love taking my own pictures and using them on my blog, for this post I had no option but to use images other had took which I found online, however I made sure to give credit to each image.

Logo Ideas

Taking Elizabeths feedback on board, I contacted a friend of mine from work who graduated with a graphics design degree to see if she could help me create a new logo. She said she can and to send her over some ideas of what I was thinking. I've been looking on Pinterest at different fonts as I want my logo to be minimalistic. Here are the samples I have sent her.

First 1-2-1 Session

Today I had my first 1-2-1 with Elizabeth and I showed her the work I had done so far. The feedback I received was to make my logo more clear as it was difficult to read and also to put spaces in-between my pictures as this would make flow easier. It was helpful to be told that my logo was unclear because I would show my friends and get their feedback as to what they thought but they already knew that my blog was called "Kits Beauty Edit" so they would know what it said. Following this 1-2-1, I went to a stationary store to buy a notebook to write down and blog post ideas I had as I want to have the majority of my posts already created before they need to go live so I can stay on top of my work.

Grade & Feedback for Proposal

Today I got my grade and feedback from my final major project proposal. At first I was a little disappointed with myself but then when I had time to think about it, I realised I was being harsh on myself and that I should actually be proud of myself for getting a 2:1. I have had it fixed in my head for so long that I need a first in everything however this isn't the case and that a grade doesn't always define my work as long as I out my all into it. I believe that my blog has potential to help others whether they are students living around Hampshire or someone with a similar skin tone wondering that shades may suit them.

From the feedback I received, I am going to make a plan of what posts to post when so that I don't fall behind in posting. My plan is to have blog posts ready 2 weeks before publishing. I've decided my aim is going to be to post 3 times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays because the research I conducted for another assignment showed that these were the days that most people are active to read online posts.

Presenting Idea

Today I met my FMP mentor Elizabeth and we went through what our ideas were as a group. From that mini feedback session, me Yasmin and Lucy realised that we could actually work together and create separate content for each of our platforms. Following from this, all the groups then joined together in one room where we presented our ideas again.

After presenting my idea to the other groups and receiving the feedback I did, it made me feel more confident within my project. When explaining that I have not come across any other Indian, student, bloggers it reassured me that my USP is strong and has potential to actually become something.

At first I was doubting my ideas however I thought back to when I was younger and how a blog like mine would have helped me back then.