It’s Friday and I’m celebrating my one year anniversary of Sparkles and Sprinkles! Can’t believe it was a year ago that I did my first post and man oh man how far the blog has come since then.
It’s been a long journey and quite an exciting one at that. I’ve met some remarkable people and have been opened to some amazing opportunities thanks to this site and everyone who has been following along! Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read my post, comment or even just scroll through pictures (HI if you’re scrolling you’re going to miss this), it means the world to me knowing that I’m not just blogging for my mom and dad any more so thank you so much!!
There are so many things I want to share with you that have happened over the past year thanks to Sparkles and Sprinkles, so I thought I would do a little flashback of the things I have learned from blogging, opportunities I have received and times I wanted to hide my face from an embarrassing post.
So sit back grab the champagne and cupcakes and celebrate with me while I take you through this past year on the blog!
A Year of Sparkles and Sprinkles
Biggest Opportunity
I have to start off with the most exciting news of course! About a year and a half ago when I was interning for a PR agency, I discovered a Chicago magazine and realized that was it, that was where I wanted to be. I wanted to work for a magazine all about the city I love and live in everyday. I did some intense Linkedin creeping and networking like crazy until I got some connections at the magazine. I reached out to the Director of Marketing (my now AMAZING boss:)) in August of 2013 in hopes for a foot in the door but unfortunately there was nothing at the time. I continued following up every other week for months, but still no luck. This past July I was invited to a blogging event where my boss was a panelist. After the event I decided I should probably go up and introduce myself since I had been e-mailing this woman for almost a year and never actually met her. I remember it like it was yesterday. I walked up and said “Hi my name is Megan Patterson, I’m the one who’s been e-mailing you for the past year” and right away she responded “are you still looking for a job, we have an opening and can interview you tomorrow”. My heart jumped out of my chest. I immediately said yes I’ll be there and then embarrassingly walked away and did a little victory dance with my friend (Wahoo!). I went in the next day for an interview and can now happily say I work at the magazine. If it wasn’t for this blog I would have never been at that event meeting my future boss:)
Lesson: Take every opportunity you can to introduce yourself and be patient, timing is everything.
Most Embarrassing Moments
Yikes, there’s a lot of these. When I started my blog I was having anyone and everyone take my pictures including myself with a self-timer. I can’t thank everyone enough who took my photos for me and tried to act like it was normal that I was laughing out loud in the middle of the street. I greatly appreciated it, but realized having someone who knows the camera makes the world of difference. Also someone who knows when a pose just looks awkward. There were so many times I would cringe when a post went live because of the pictures. Ekk
Anyone remember my hair tutorial? Yup, that was me using a self timer in my closet. Why I thought I should post that…no clue.
Lesson: Great photos are key to a successful blog, especially if people are just going to scroll through for the photos.
Best Gain
When I first moved to this city I didn’t know a single person. Thanks to the blog it helped me really meet people through blogging events and just from people e-mailing me to grab coffee and chat. I learned to really step out of my comfort zone by going to events by myself and introducing myself to new faces. These people have helped me in so many ways from advice about blogging to connections for collaboration opportunities. Now I run into people I know just walking down the street. Who would have ever thought in a city so big?
Lesson: Network, network, network. Blogging has opened so many doors for me to meet new people and make new connections. Remember every person is a new door to a new opportunity or friend.
Best English Lesson
I remember my first few posts I would talk all about the weather and working…uhm why didn’t anybody tell me how awkward and boring that was? No wonder I was getting 20 page views a day (aka my mom hitting refresh 20 times to see when I post again). I had such a hard time finding my voice and learning how to have a one way conversation. I still struggle with this daily, but after reading many other blogs and finding what makes me connect with them I can proudly say I don’t sound like the weatherman giving the forecast anymore.
Lesson: Be yourself. People connect with your true voice, so don’t try to write to please just write what comes to mind.
Biggest Challenge
Blogging is NOT the piece of cake I thought it was. I know many people think oh they just take pictures of themselves and play on pinterest all day…I wish, wouldn’t that be the life! While there are some very fortunate people who have been able to make a living off blogging, there are many bloggers who have full-time jobs and blog “part-time” even though it’s basically full-time too. Blogging is a never ending hobby. There are always new things to learn, posts to create, people to engage with, social media outlets to manage, e-mails to answer (oh the pile of e-mails I spend catching up on every night), people to network with, photoshoots to take, photos to edit…I think you get it. I absolutely love blogging and don’t regret for one second jumping into another full-time “job”, but I will say it’s not as easy as it looked. Kudos to all bloggers out there killing it everyday with massive followings!
Lesson: Blogging is not easy, but if you truly love it it’s worth the time and effort!
Best Site Makeover
Ok so if you’ve been following me since the very beginning then you know my site has been through quite some changes over the past year. My original site was basically the work of a 5 year old and a word document. Please tell me nobody remembers that one. My second makeover was a little better on the eyes and started to create a branded look, but still a hot mess of copying and pasting. I got a tip from a friend that all I needed was a template to get me started and man was she right. I bought the template that I use now and played around with the html coding for hours until I got everything looking clean and sleek. I am so happy with the way it turned out and never knew how big of a difference having a site that’s easy on the eyes would make.
Lesson: Having a site that is easy on the eyes and easy to navigate is key to building a following.
Things Take Time
Nothing happens in an instant, unless you’re instagram and get likes in the snap of a finger. Things take time and this blog has taken a long time to really get up and going. I remember the day I had 100 page views in one day and jumped up and down! I thought man, 100 people looked at my site today, how cool is that? It has come a long way from my 100 day page views and hopefully will continue growing even more in the next year.
Lesson: Be patient. Things don’t happen over night, but they do with hard work and time.
When I started this blog I did not have a clue what I was doing. To this day, I still have so much to learn but it sure has come a long way. I can’t thank everyone enough for following along this past year with my exciting, embarrassing and weather predicting blog. It’s been a year of living and learning and I can’t wait to see what this next year has in store for Sparkles and Sprinkles!
Thanks x A MILLION!!