See Jane Blog: Heather Brown of My Life Well Loved

By Javacia Harris Bowser, See Jane Write Magazine Founding Editor

In November 2013 Heather Brown of Birmingham, Ala., launched the lifestyle blog My Life Well Loved, but she is hardly new to the blogging world.

For the past four years Heather has published the website SavingMoneyLivingLife.com with her friend Jessica. Heather and Jessica offered readers the scoop on great deals and built a large online following in the process.  Now Heather is taking what she’s learned over the past four years and using it to build a blog of her own.

See Jane Write Magazine: Why did you and Jessica decide to close SavingMoneyLivingLife.com and why did you decide to keep blogging with a site of your own? 

Heather: SavingMoneyLivingLife.com had truly served its purpose and had run its course. We had fun doing it, but then it became a bit more like work, and less fun for us. Plus, Jessica now has a 1-year-old, a husband in residency, and has a full-time job herself, so time was tight.

I knew I wanted to keep blogging, but was tired of just blogging about deals. I really enjoy healthy eating, working out, fashion, and being creative. So, I decided to re-center my focus and launch out on my own with a new blog. That new blog has turned into MyLifeWellLoved.com where I share how to love your life well by way of healthy eating, exercise, and occasional indulgences all with a Southern Twang.

What lessons did you learn from working on SavingMoneyLivingLife.com that you plan to apply to MyLifeWellLoved.com?

I learned that consistency is key. When you don’t post for weeks at a time, you lose touch with your readers and they never know when they should check in with your blog. I also learned avid fans are more important than big numbers. I’d rather have 3,000 engaged followers that are liking, following and commenting than 6,000 [that are not]. That’s what brands who work with bloggers want to see as well.

You built quite a following on your old blog. Any tips for bloggers trying to build a large and loyal following for their sites? 

So many things play into this, however, my top 3 would have to be consistency, networking, and the occasional giveaway. That means blogging and engaging on social media regularly. Even on the days I don’t blog, I’m active on my social media outlets. Networking can mean anything from garnering blog post swaps with other bloggers, commenting on their blogs, striking up conversation with others via social media or even just asking questions of those you look up to. The occasional giveaway is a great way to grow your numbers, however, sometimes these aren’t the best engaged followers.

What are you doing to retain the readers you had on you old site? What do you plan to do get new readers to your blog? 

I plan to redirect the old blog to the new one in January. I was very lucky that I got to keep my followers via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etcetera. Getting to keep all my social media followers is a huge help.

I truly just plan to continue to post quality content and find ways to expand the reach of said content. I’m making it a goal for 2014 to do at least 1 to 2 guest posts per month.

I’ve networked like crazy already. I asked all my blogging friends and real life friends to help me spread the word. On the day of my launch, many of these people tweeted, Facebooked, shared, or mentioned me in their blog posts, which was amazing. If you are open to helping others out, they’ll usually return the favor.

Check out Heather Brown’s new blog at MyLifeWellLoved.com and be sure to follow Heather on BlogLovin’, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.