11 Tips for Newbie Bloggers

Last Tuesday I published a post about the mistakes I made when I started blogging, so this time I'll share some tips for new bloggers out there. 
1. Choose you blog name carefully and connect all your social media channels and your email address to it. This will make a lot of things easier. You are recognizable through all channels, everyone will find you and it's your brand. Find a blog name, which is connected to you and your blog. Think of the banner as well, it's what people see first.  2. Find a suitable design for your blog, make it easy to handle and connect it to your blog name and the things you blog about.  3. Write like you talk. It's your blog and your style. Blogging is representing your personality, so show it in your writing. People want to see the real YOU.  4. Show your personality. This is obviously connected to point 3. Make it personal and link it to yourself. It's your opinions and likes that matter.  5. Edit your posts. You don't want too many mistakes or typos in your posts, always re-read them, before you press publish.  6. Quality before quantity. It's not about publishing as many posts as possible, readers will stick with you, when they like your style. Focus in the posts you are happy about, work on them and don't just write something that isn't even important to you.  7. Interact with the blogging community. The blogging community is great, I have made a lot friends and they are all so supportive.  8. Write unique content. It will stick out and make people curious.  9. Be active on social media. Share your posts, share your passion, your hobbies and talk to others.  10. Make it a passion. Write about your favourite things and things you are passionate about. You need to enjoy what you do.  11. Reply to comments. It brings you closer to your readers and they really appreciate it. 

How to prepare yourself for a city trip

Most of you guys that I’m off to my 3 cities adventure in the States soon, this Friday actually. Whenever I go to a city, I prepare myself, find out more and kind of make a list of what to do. I did exactly that for this trip as well, especially for NYC and Chicago, cause I kind of have my own personal tour guide in Dallas. Well anyway, I thought I’d show you what I do to prepare myself and also what I bring on a trip like that.

Let’s start with the preparation.

I booked all three hotels over a booking website online. I usually use ebookers.com, the Swiss version of course, the NYC hotel I booked with expedia.ch, because the had the better deal. While booking, I of course looked at the price, the room and also the location. I wanted to be very central for both NYC and Chicago to be able to go shopping, sightseeing and also be close to broadway shows or hockey stadiums ;). In Dallas I’m out of downtown because I will be close to my lovely second momma, she’ll basically be my driver and recommended the hotel. You will be able to see all that in the vlogs and blog posts about my trip.

After about a month, maybe a bit more, I emailed all three hotels, asking for a confirmation and a quiet room. It just makes me feel more secure and I know that I have a place to sleep at.

Then I bought a travel guide for NYC, one for Chicago, a travel magazine for NYC and then little bits and bobs for all three cities from magazines, the internet and other sources. I don’t have a lot for Dallas, since I my personal tour guide there. I actually love travel guides, it’s the perfect way of discovering places you want to go see and decide on what you want to do. Travel guides are full of useful ideas, they cover all sections: walks, food, shopping, nights out, popular places and other info on public transport and things you shouldn’t do. I always take out the map and circle the hotel. Then I go and circle the places I wanna go visit. With that I get a good overview. You can say now that it’s easier to have a map on your phone. Yes that’s true and I will have that. But I just prefer the old-fashioned way. In addition to the travel guides and magazines I also surf on the internet and ask my friends. With all that I put together I list, also of things that make sense doing on the same day. I won‘t make a list of days, that I will decide when I’m there. Certain things depend on the weather, so I will be spontaneous.

All there cities have hockey teams and as a big fan it’s a must. So what I did was of course looking at their schedules and booking tickets. I will see Tampa Bay Liughtning play the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden and in Dallas I will see the Nashville Predators vs the Dallas Stars. 

In the same areas are Musicals. NYC has the Broadway, so there is another must. I will go see School of Rock and Fun Home. 

Part of the preparation is also making sure how you will handle the money thing. How much money will you bring and what will you pay with your credit card?!

On we move to part two, what you need on a city trip:

-       Sneakers/trainers: Comfy shoes are the key! You will walk around a lot and you want to be comfortable.

-       Medium sized and handy handbag: When you’re in a city you need certain things so a small one would be too small. It also has to be a comfy one, not that your back hurts after an hour.

-       Sunglasses: A must on a sunny day!

-       Camera: to vlog and take pictures!

-       Phone: Photos, maps, texting etc.

-       Tissues: You never know, how clean a toilet is.

-       Water: Drinking water regularly is important.

-       Granola bars: It doesn’t necessarily have to be granola bars, but little snacks for when your hungry are always handy.

-       Umbrella: Depends on the weather of course.

-       Money

-       Most important make-up bits and little mirror

-       Pain killers, if needed. I also have my homeopathic globuli close by.

-       Maps, travel guide.
-    Portable charger. Perfect for traveling. 

I think that’s pretty much it. I could add more, but I have mentioned the most important things. I feel that it is important to take regular breaks, eat and drink and sometimes a little nap or a relaxing hour in the hotel room can do wonders.

I have to more travel related posts coming up, before I leave. One about my hand luggage and one about long haul flights. 

How to come up with good questions for a Q&A

In book blogging author interviews are a great way to post something about an author and every single one is different, because we all ask a different mixture of questions. I have hosted a lot of authors already and I hope there will be many more. I have seen different types of questions and I thought, we not explain, how I come up with them, so here we go!

Most of the time I try to post a Q&A around an author’s pub date, so questions about the book are the first thing! It’s always best to start off with what the story is about, so that your blog readers get an idea about the book. You might know the story already, but your readers don’t, so give them a chance to get to know the author and their book. Then there is also the inspiration for it and what led the author to write it. You can also ask about the writing process here. Of course a popular one is the characters as well. Who are the main  characters? What makes them special? If you like the cover of the book or maybe all the author's covers in general, ask about the cover artist. 
When the pub date is not that close, just ask about their latest book first.

I always feel that after talking about „THE“ book, change the topic a bit and then go back to older books the author has written. There you ask similar questions.

My first questions is actually not connected to the book, but to the writer. Is it their dream job? How did they get into it? After talking about that and the book obviously, I will mix in some personal questions about the country they love or live in, another job they have/had, their writing habits, their personal tastes. In between of course get back to other books they have written. Since they are all authors, they are all interested in books and writing. It’s always interesting to ask about their faveourite authors and books that had a big impact on their life and writing. Instead of asking Who are your favourite authors? though I always phrase it differently.

Something us bloggers are always curious about is their current work. What are you working on at the moment? is a really popular question ;) It always gets me really excited.

The personal things can be realted to their hobbies, their blog or also daily life. One of my favourite questions is „THE MOVIE“ question. I always cast actors and actresses for the characters in the books and that’s why I always want to know what the authors think themselves and who they want to play their characters.

In the end I always give them some „This or That“ questions, they are always fun and give you a little insight to their personality.

Even if your not interviewing an author, but someone else you can do what I did here. I think the  most important tzhings ist o always mix questions up. Ask about their profession, but also keep a variety of questions to make it more interesting. A lot of people say don’t always ask the same questions. I kind of agree with that, but I still have some questions that I always ask, because they are all authors. When it comes to more personal things I change them and adapt them. I always go to the author’s website and find out morw about them furst. Then I can up up with specific questions.

I hope this post gave you some insight of how I create my questions I also hope I was able to help you a little. If you want me to write about about other blogging things and tips, then please let me know.