At the end of last year I was informed about the #BlogBoost challenge via a post by Joanne Dewberry. Joanne was debating whether she should take part or whether it would result in death by blogging! 
I'd always planned on being more organised with writing posts for my blog, however it was always one of the last things on my 'to do' list and as a result it had been pretty badly neglected! I always had the dilemma that I wasn't so sure what I should be writing about and who would want to read it anyway? Should I stick to things that are relevant to Photo Fairy Designs such as photography, photo editing and graphic design? Or was I OK to talk about things that influenced me and my life as an expat and mum to two little boys?  

I decided to jump on board the #BlogBoost challenge and use January as my month for getting to grips with blog writing. As you can see from the last 30 posts I have written I can waffle on about most things! I soon realised that as long as the content was good it didn't really matter whether what I was writing was highly relevant to my business. I've learnt a lot taking part in this challenge and can honestly say I have really enjoyed it! So if you are thinking about starting your own blog or are struggling to know what to write about in yours here are my top tips!


1. Don't put your own skills/ knowledge down, you don't have to be the best at something to give advice. One of the things stopping me writing some of my Photoshop tips was that I'd often thought 'oh that's too easy, nobody will be interested in reading about that' - WRONG! If you have a skill in something, even if you're not an expert, there will always be people who have less ability than you. Sharing your knowledge and helping others to learn the things that you have will nearly always attract readers.

2. Interact with your readers. So we've already established that the large majority of us aren't geniuses, we can however share our experiences and knowledge. Instead of just writing a post that requires no real interaction from your readers why not add a question or two so they can interact with you? Finishing a blog post with as simple a statement as 'what do you think?' encourages people to comment. Who knows, you may even learn something new yourself from the comments your readers make!  

3. Start writing! Don't be so afraid of writing something silly that you don't start writing a blog at all. If you've written something but you're not quite happy with it save it as a draft and come back to it later, you may have a flash of inspiration for what was missing or realise actually it is fine as it is! 

As much as I have enjoyed taking part in #BlogBoost and being part of such a supportive group I am relieved that I no longer have to write a post a day! It now makes the prospect of writing two or three posts a week seem ridiculously easy and I've even been volunteering my services as a guest blogger on a couple of other sites.

Congratulations to everyone that has completed the #BlogBoost challenge 2012!

If you have any top blog writing tips I would love to hear them, what gives you the inspiration to write?