Welcome back to a new year with Trophy Wife. It's going to be a great year for blogs and especially this one. With Trophy Wife reaching it's one year anniversary this January I found it a great opportunity to look back and dwell on thoughts of failure. Twelve months, a dozen posts and only 17 followers. After much much soul searching, asking myself what I want to achieve here with Trophy Wife and how that might be accomplished I have come up with the solution that the answer must surely lie with someone else. That's why I begin back here with the first in a series of "Blogger Interviews" with successful bloggers who will share with Trophy Wife and her 17 readers what it takes to nab that next elusive follower. But first lets define blogging success. For me that would be not just having many followers but that those followers comment on your posts regularly, if not constantly. Sometimes twice on one post. Furthermore those comments would be of the flattering nature. Things such as "Another great post X. You nailed it. We should be friends. Where do you live?". Someone who has achieved this kind of success is my friend Karen with her blog
Karen:the blog. I caught up with her recently and asked if she wouldn't mind sharing the secrets of her blogging success. She wasn't keen but then I reminded her I know where she lives and she relented. Which is good news for us because with 142 followers and counting Karen knows a little bit about what it takes to maintain a successful blog. I began with asking her to tell us a little about her blog and it's readers.
(At the time of going to press Karen:the blog had been shut down pending legal action regarding copyright issues. I am therefore, unfortunately, unable to provide a link).
Trophy Wife: Karen thanks for joining us. Can you tell Trophy wife and her readers what Karen the blog is about"
Karen: "Um, probably not. I'm under legal instruction not to discuss it"
TW: Oh, OK. Lets talk about your readers then. What kind of reader does Karen:the blog attract?"
K: Um generally I'd say my followers are unemployed.
TW: Thats fantastic. Now I noticed that at some point last year the emphasis on your blog shifted away from scrap booking and mixed media lay outs and onto studly men in retro knits. Was this a strategy to improve your blog traffic?
Karen: Not initially. I had found myself one week without new scrap booking content. In desperation I thought I could pass off one of these delightful photos as scrap book fodder. They turned out to be so popular I am thinking of devoting the blog entirely to this genre of Man Candy.
TW: I See. Do you think Trophy Wife could benefit from this kind of imagery?
K: I'm almost certain of it.
TW: Now I'm just about to wrap this interview but do you think that Trophy Wife and her readers could follow you around for the rest of the day?
K: What?
TW: I just think that would be a great way to learn what makes a creative such as yourself tick, for example many successful bloggers I've noticed are also thrifters who wile away their days in op shops, trawling for that perfect mid century retro collectable at a steal of a price to then showcase on their blog the next day. I promise you'll barely know I'm there.
K: I'll give you an hour.
TW: Fantastic.
Trailing Karen proved to be instructive. I was fascinated by how long she deliberated over, say, this cheap chocolate cake mix for her son's birthday. Clearly she is a woman of discernment. It may not be a retro collectable but I'd say I saw some real thrifting in action.
Thanks Karen!!
Anyways! The how to: Pick some nice paper, you can choose any that appeals. I like to use the children's school news letters before I get the chance to read them. Cut triangles out any size, any shape. I find not measuring them suits my mood best. You'll probably need about 8 - 10. Here I have coloured some in with flouro markers which is optional. Then with some contrasting thread in the machine sew along the top of the triangles, leaving a gap between each one depending on the size of the pantry.
