How To Live A More Eco-Friendly Lifestyle

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Maybe it’s because I live in the most granola city in Texas, but living eco-friendly is a huge part of my life. I strive to reduce my impact on the environment every day, and I’m loving how the idea of “being green” is becoming a common and agreed upon lifestyle. Unfortunately, it’s also very common for people to do things that harm the environment, without even realizing it. It’s not their fault of course, because these harmful actions have been embedded into our lifestyles to the point that we don’t think twice about them. Most people don’t know what happens to their garbage once it’s taken away, or how detrimental plastic can be to our environment when it’s used at the capacity it is today. But hear me out—there are tons of simple ways you can incorporate eco-friendliness into your lifestyle, without having to purchase a bunch of green products (although that’s awesome too) or completely change the way you live. If anything, some of these will make your life more simple and enjoyable.

Turn off your computer at night. I’m a huge culprit of leaving my laptop in sleep mode overnight, and I hardly ever turn it off completely. If it’s on, it’s using energy. And if you don’t like dealing with the time it takes to turn back on, a lot of computers have an option to set a time for it to automatically boot back up!

Buy a reusable water bottle. I purchased a Camelbak bottle last year, and it comes everywhere with me. Fortunately, there are a ton of water fountains throughout my campus, so it’s easy to fill up throughout the day. Before your buy one, make sure it’s durable and easy to clean so it doesn’t become a hassle!

“Second-hand doesn’t mean second-best.” Seriously, I love second-hand shopping! I wrote a whole post on my second-hand shopping experience with thredUP, and it’s become normal for me to shop used before buying new. Not only are you saving materials, but a ton of money too!

Buy local. This is one thing I think bloggers have down! Spend some time looking around your city for small businesses and farmer’s markets, and consider buying from them before going to a big-name store. The owners will surely appreciate it!

Invest in a personal coffee cup. Did you know you can bring in your own cup to Starbucks and have them fill it instead of using their paper/plastic cup? They even give you 10 cents off (not much, but it’s something) for doing so! If you’re like me and can’t get enough of their delicious drinks, this change is perfect for you.

Go vegetarian every once in a while. Commercial animals, especially cows, take up a LOT of space, water, and food. According to 50 Ways To Help, “It requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. You will also also save some trees. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed.” There are a TON of delicious vegetarian meals out there, and trying this just once a week could give you more meal creativity!

Donate. Before you throw out old clothing, furniture, books, etc., consider donating it to a local donation center. You never know what someone else might consider as a treasure, and a donation center will be sure to get your “trash” to someone in need!

Bye bye plastic bags. This. Seriously, ditch the plastic bags. Have you seen all those pictures of animals killed because they became trapped in a plastic bag?? Yes, recycling is great, but I’m sure you’ve heard the lyrics—plastic bags do enjoy drifting through the wind, and are bound to wind up somewhere they shouldn’t, no matter where you throw them out. Buy a few reusable bags (they’re usually a dollar) and leave them in your car. I even have a foldable bag that I keep in my purse for everyday use!

Support green businesses. A lot of companies (and small businesses!) are making efforts to be more eco-friendly themselves, whether that’s through their packaging techniques or product materials. If you have the choice, buy eco-friendly!

Avoid using energy when you can. Do you really need that automated can opener? There are a lot of energy-consuming conveniences out there, and yes, some of them are worth using. But if you’re only saving a few seconds by using the electronic version, ditch it.

Have you tried living a more eco-friendly lifestyle? I’d love to hear your success stories!

Filed Under: life Tagged With: eco-friendly

How Switching To WordPress More Than Tripled My Blog Views

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I made the switch from Blogger to self-hosted WordPress on February 22, 2015, and to be honest, I had no clue what to expect from WordPress in terms of helping my blog grow. I knew it was a more SEO friendly platform, and I purchased the Genesis Framework to boost that even more, so I figured my views would increase at least a bit. But then, after a month of using my new self-hosted blog, my views had doubled. And now, less than a month later, they’ve tripled. And I haven’t noticed any evidence of that trend stopping.

“Views” may not be the right term to use here. I’m actually referring to “sessions”, which is the term Google Analytics defines as

…a group of interactions that take place on your website within a given time frame. For example a single session can contain multiple screen or page views, events, social interactions, and ecommerce transactions.

The other two statistics I’m considering are “users” and “pageviews”, but I’ll get more into those in a Google Analytics 101 post! To make this comparison a little easier, let me give you some backstory on my statistics before I made the switch to WordPress.

Before Switching To WordPress

For the sake of simplicity, I’m comparing the period of time that I’ve been on WordPress (February 22 – April 4) to the period directly before that (January 11 – February 21).

As you can see, my session counts were all over the place. There was an increasing trend, but I’m chalking that up to the fact that I was posting a bit more during this period in an attempt to hype up my switch. My sessions in periods before this were all about the same, with no noticeable increasing trend. Here are a few notable numbers –

Average number of sessions per day: 70 sessions
Minimum sessions for a day: 23
Maximum sessions for a day: 125 (the day before my launch)

Basically, my stats were pretty dang low. I had the occasional spike on days that I posted, but even those weren’t too high. And based on my earlier assumption, had I not been posting more often and hyping up my blog’s switch, they would’ve been a lot lower. You could say I was pretty happy when those numbers skyrocketed after my switch.

After Switching To WordPress

So I’m not quite famous yet (ha), but those numbers still excite me. For the first few weeks of being on WordPress, my sessions averaged out at about 200 a day, which was still above every session count from the previous period. Then, almost exactly a month later, those numbers started increasing, even though I was posting the same amount each week. Here are some extra statistics –

Average number of sessions per day: 370
Minimum sessions for a day: 160
Maximum sessions for a day: 715

Overall, the number of sessions from the previous period increased by a whopping 430%. There are a lot of factors that go into these statistics, so it’s hard to tell what exactly caused this increase. Could social media platforms be sending more readers to my blog? Could my content just be more relevant than before? Basically, I can’t say with 100% confidence that switching to WordPress was the main cause for this increase. I have noticed a big increase in the number of sessions referred by a search engine though, which is a good sign.

Overall Comparison

Gosh do I love Google Analytics.

The numbers are pretty easy to interpret. They’re real, and they’re right there. But there are a few other points this comparison left me with:

Keeping track of your statistics is extremely important if your goal is to grow your blog

It’s hard to start looking at your blog’s growth when you don’t have any history to look at, and that made it hard for me to judge whether switching to WordPress was really what caused my increased views. Had I kept track of exactly how often I was posting before and after, and how my social media followers grew, it would’ve been easier to narrow down the influences.

Watching your statistics can help your blog grow

I’ve been doing some experimenting with post times recently, and it’s interesting to see how the time I publish a post increases the number of views that post gets. I always thought there wouldn’t be enough of a difference, but I was definitely wrong. Now, every time I make a post, I try to publish it at a time I haven’t before, and take note of the number of views that post gets and when it receives the most. I’m hoping this will eventually help me find a “perfect time” for posting and continue to increase my views.

Never trust Blogger statistics

Seriously. Just don’t. I knew this was a bad idea after hearing these words of advice from many other bloggers, but when I finally checked out my Google Analytics statistics, I was still disappointed to see that my actual number of views was almost a quarter of what Blogger had been telling me. So if you haven’t yet, go install Google Analytics on your blog. It’s totally worth it.

If you’ve switched from Blogger to WordPress, did you notice an increase in your views? Or if you’re on Blogger, what are some strategies you use to promote your content and grow your blog?

Finding Your Instagram Style

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Update: Check out the new Instagram!

My name is Jessica Slaughter, and I am a blogger who sucks at Instagram. There, I said it.

Contrary to most of my posts, this one isn’t a “how-to” based on my experience of actually doing what I’m talking about. Instead, I’m writing about my struggle to find my own Instagram style, and sharing the steps I’m taking to get there. So here we go.

Finding Your Instagram Style

Instagram is becoming extremely popular in the blogging world, not only as a way of gaining more readers, but for connecting with your followers and letting them see your personality rather than just read about it. “Professional Instagramers” have become a thing, experts are holding classes on how to get to their level, and making an Instagram post has become almost as important as making a blog post. It doesn’t seem like a hard skill to develop. Just snap some photos, throw on a filter, make a clever caption, and bam, 500+ likes. But it is. Instagraming is a skill, and I’m determined to attain it.

Now I know there’s a lot of controversy in the blogging world about social media and comparing yourself to others on it. That’s not necessarily what I’m trying to do here, though it’s sort of coming out like that. It’s not that I feel bad about myself for not being Instagram famous, or for not having perfect photos like some other bloggers. I mean, it’s just a picture. I just think it’s awesome that some bloggers have found a sense of style in their photos, and are able to share that style with the world. It’s so inspirational! So no, I’m not comparing myself to other bloggers because I don’t think I’m good enough. I’m comparing myself to other bloggers because I personally want to get better at using Instagram, and they’re the perfect source of inspiration and motivation.

To make this search for my style a bit easier, I decided to find a few favorite Instagramers and look through their photos (this was a very creepy process) to get a sense of where they’ve come from, the style stages they’ve gone through, and where they are now. One of the most encouraging things I got out of this step was seeing that most of these bloggers started out exactly where I am – with a mishmosh of photos, experiments with every filter imaginable, and no clear sense of style. Lesson learned?

Anyone can develop an Instagram style — your Instagram history doesn’t matter.

After narrowing down my favorites, I started focusing on the current styles they had, and sorted them into categories.

Warm Vibes, Contrast, & Coffee

Instagram Soft Tones

Top: @oakandoats, @kthrnhnsn
Bottom: @elahtree, @megmcilvaine

These Instagramers share several style characteristics, and they’re also some of my favorite bloggers! Their pictures always make me happy, because they’re real life moments captured in a beautiful way. Their attention to contrast really brings out the colors in their photos, while giving them an in-the-shade look so they’re not too in your face. As for coffee? Well, the idea of coffee just has a certain vibe to it, and that’s the only way I can describe this style. Coffee. Oh, and they’ve all perfected the coffee-in-hand shot.

Color, Color, Color

Instagram Color

@abeautifulmessofficial, @britandco

If you ever need color inspiration, check out these Instagramers. Their feeds are exciting, bright, and full of energy! It’s pretty much impossible to scroll by one of their photos without noticing it, because they always stand out in a feed. I love how they are able to combine such contrasting colors in a beautiful way, and their staging is perfect. There’s a reason the owners of these accounts are so successful in the blogging world! (hint hint, they really know what they’re doing)

White Space, Desks, & Pops Of Color

@laurenelizhook, @whitv, @thenectarcollective

These ladies have beautiful feeds filled with bright colors and lots of white space. I’m loving the clean, sharp look this style creates, and it draws all of your attention to the subject, whether that be a notebook, food item, or person. A lot of their photos have to do with their personal businesses and blogs, but they’ve managed to do so without seeming spammy at all. This style also translates well with product-based Instagram accounts, because you can shoot in the same place every time with whatever product you’re trying to promote. I’ll talk a bit more about how these ladies have used products in their photos later!

A Few Things To Consider

  • Prop styling is another huge aspect to Instagram style, and these ladies have it down. Social media is all about connecting with others, and I know that whenever I purchase from a small business, I want to share how much I love their product with my own followers!

  • Consistency is something I’ve always struggled with. The last time I posted to Instagram was over two weeks ago, so there’s no reason I should expect to be growing my following. I hope that once I find my style, I’ll be more motivated to post a few times a week!

  • Captions have never been my expertise. I’ve tried emojis only, quotes, puns, and no caption altogether, and I’m really not sure what route I want to take. I definitely want to connect with my followers more though, so maybe I’ll try asking a question at the end?

I’m not entirely sure yet which style I’m heading towards, but I’m thinking the first one would fit best with my lifestyle. Although I love the white space look, I just don’t have many places to shoot photos like that. And while I love color, my belongings and clothes are definitely more toned down and natural, which again fits in with that first style. I guess I have some decisions to make!

How skilled are you in the Instagram world? Have you found your style, are you searching like me, or do you enjoy just posting whatever comes to mind (because that totally works too)?