Hey There, Chelsie

Blogging & Business

7 Pinterest Tips from a Pinterest Ambassador

I mentioned last week that I got to check a goal off of my list for 2016 and attend a blog conference in January! I made some rookie mistakes, but also learned a ton and was able to walk away with some actionable tips and tricks to make my blog and social media biz better! I know that blogging conferences aren't available (or affordable) for everyone, so I took a TON of notes and plan on sharing as much as I can here. Today, I'm sharing all of the tips and tricks I learned from Alexandra from avestyles.com! She was one of the first people to really harness the power of Pinterest; so much so that she has just under 1 million followers and is one of a handful of . . .

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Blogging & Business

5 Ways to Rock your First Blogging Conference

One of my goals for this year was to go to a blog conference and I couldn't believe my eyes when the perfect one fell right into my lap a week after I had made that goal! Someone had posted in Blog Passion Project (the facebook community I help run) about a mini-conference happening in South Phoenix and I bought a ticket within minutes of reading about it! So, on the 3rd Friday of January, I got in my car and drove myself down to Gilbert, AZ to attend my first blog conference, put on by SayHi Society! I learned SO much while I was there and have several blog posts coming in the next couple of weeks detailing exactly what I learned because I know not everyone has . . .

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Blogging & Business

If We Went out to Lunch

Last week was incredibly overwhelming and stressful and not the way I wanted to start off my year and new site. There were so many times I wanted to just go out to lunch with someone and pour my guts out to them over my favorite Thai food dish (Pad See-ew, of course) but since I still don't know many people in AZ, that wasn't really possible. So, today, I'm just going to open up here on the blog and pretend that I'm out to lunch with one of you (because I don't drink coffee, but I love the idea of those posts) and let you know what's been going on. I hope that's okay. If we went out to lunch, we would for sure go out to get Thai food because that's my comfort . . .

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Blogging & Business

10 Reasons Why I Obsess Over your Blog

Hey There! I feel like bloggers are always asking what they can do to grow their audience. While this is a good question to ask, I don't think it's the right one. Instead, I think bloggers should be asking what they can do to keep their audience! Why? When a reader loves a blog so much, they will share that blog with their friends and invite others to check it out to and that is what grows an audience! At least, that's how I work. When I find a blog that I just adore and obsess over, I will share it to high heavens because I think other people should partake of the goodness! So, today I wanted to share the 10 reasons why I obsess over a blog and 10 blogs that I . . .

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Blogging & Business

Welcome to Hey There, Chelsie

This has been a long time coming. When I did my first major redesign of Life with Rosie back in September, I had been debating about rebranding back and forth for months. The results from my very first reader survey had my panties all in a bunch and I was having a hard time sorting through them. Some of the responses said they didn't like reading about Rosie and some said they wanted more posts about Rosie and many, many people still thought MY name was Rosie. (It's okay if you were one of those people, I won't hold it against you...probably.) I think I chatted to Dustin about rebranding or redesigning and the constant battle back and forth for hours on end, trying . . .

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Blogging & Business

Blog Boss: 10 Must-Have WordPress PlugIns

  It's Blog Boss time! When I started blogging, I was on the blogger platform. I spent hours researching different blog strategies and social media techniques and kept reading about plugins and how many amazing things they could do. So, being the newbie I was, I immediately transferred my blog to WordPress....the .com version. Rookie Mistake. Don't be like me and think you can use plugins on the .com version of Wordpress! After buying my domain and spending all day setting up my design, I went to download my first plugin and realized that there wasn't an option to find them. Puzzled, I went to the forums where I realized with a punch to the gut that I . . .

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Blogging & Business

The Negative Side of the Blogging Culture

When I started blogging last year (and had no idea what I was doing or what it would lead up to) I was most excited about the community I had stumbled into. There were so many amazing and strong women out there, writing their stories, sharing their experiences and inspiring me to try to cook more! I finally felt like I had found my "people" and found myself pouring my heart into my space and into blogging. I was being challenged creatively, mentally and emotionally. I started caring about my body again, started caring about my appearance and well-being because of how other fashion and beauty bloggers were inspiring me. I started facing my demons face first instead of . . .

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Blogging & Business

The 2015 Blog Report: What Worked, What Didn’t and What’s Changing

A few weeks ago, I read this post from Paige at An Uncomplicated Life about the importance of doing a year-end blog review. Then earlier this week, I poured over Jaelen's blog report for the year (Jaelen is KILLING it over there at Making Mrs. M. She's inspired two of my posts this week!) I had been chewing on the idea of doing a blog report for a few weeks now, but was a little hesitant to sit down and actually dig in. I think was afraid of what I was going to find! However, I'm really glad I decided to put together a 2015 blog report; I discovered some pretty surprising things about my traffic and stats and have been able to see what to focus on in the new year! . . .

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Blogging & Business

January Goals & Exciting Announcement!

Oh hey January, I'm super excited you are here! Like I mentioned yesterday, 2015 was not my favorite year (although it did have some amazing high points) and I've been ready for 2016 for a long while now. I've been setting monthly goals for over a year now and I've never been so consistent at achieving them in my life. This year, I sat down and really chatted with myself about my goals (not in a creepy way) for the year and where I want to be. Then, I worked backward and set goals every three months to help me get to those big goals. And now, my month goals all will fit into hitting those three-month goals. I hope that made sense...I promise it makes sense on . . .

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Blogging & Business

The Best of Life with Rosie + Reader Survey

In my post from yesterday, I mentioned that I went through a couple failed hobbies/attempted business ideas and failed miserably before starting my blog at Life with Rosie. I am so incredibly proud of myself for making it through almost an entire year of blogging, for actually seeing an income come off of it and for being more passionate and motivated than ever! As I sat down to plan for the new year, I wanted to look back and see what my most popular 7 posts were! . . .

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Blogging & Business

Blog Boss: How I Fill Up My Monthly Editorial Calendar In One Day + 30 Blog Post Ideas

When I first started blogging, I had no idea what an editorial calendar was, nevermind how to fill it up. I often would find myself sitting at the blank screen of my computer struggling with finding a topic to write about that was more than a few sentences. Sometimes, I would go days without posting anything because writer's block is real and I would rather not post anything than posting something poorly written or thrown together. I knew that if I wanted to have a successful blog, I needed to get my act together and start planning out my posts in advance. Having an editorial calendar has helped me in several ways and I can't stress how important it has become to . . .

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Blogging & Business

5 Ways I Stay Inspired When Working From Home

PR Sample- A free sample was sent to me in exchange for my honest opinion. I honestly love this product and think you will, too! Working from home is both a blessing and a curse. I love being able to walk around in my slippers all day and be home with Rosie, but I can get distracted easily by the dishes or Netflix (more so Netflix, let's be real). I was really struggling for a while to get into a good routine that helped me stay focused and productive while working from home, and after a lot of failed attempts at working from my couch, I decided to take myself and my blog more seriously and get into a routine. You can read all about that here (and get a free . . .

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