Deborah Hunter Kells: Interview

Deborah Hunter Kells: Interview

“Random and Relaxed Style”

2019: Wednesday Interview Series – Meet my wonderful friend Deborah

Can you tell our readers about yourself and your blog?

I am a blogger – almost 60. I had been blogging casually about 4 years ago until I finally decided to jump into a paid blog in late 2017. I wanted to include my Blog as part of my portfolio for my writing and graphics. (Let me tell you some attempts needed a bit of help!)  My blog plan was and is to have articles for the older woman – particularly in clothing styles as well as related topics. I have a Facebook page of 5 years where I cater for women 30 through 80 (Baby Boomer & Mature Women Clothing Styles)  Although I must say many other topics of interest get in my way!

this For later use

Photo Deborah Hunter Kells Nov 2018

Can you tell me some of your strengths that really helped you in blogging?

My main strength has been to have confidence in my ability and learned skills. When I chose the words last year Discover and Leap – a lot changed in the last months of 2018 to incorporate this and my “new attitude” to not worrying about what I didn’t know. “Overwhelm” was being “kicked out the door”. My new words for this year have been Attainable Inspiration and Growth.

What type of networking do you think is better to enhance your traffic to the blog?

I would like to see a little less time spent on volume and concentrate on quality with networking. So as to really get to know people. I feel that Mr. Google is getting smarter and that some of the things we now do may negatively impact how we do network. Mrs. Pinterest too. Automation will figure largely on the scene. To me “burn-out” can be a very real problem and something we have to be aware of in Social Media sharing strategies. I am currently spending quite a bit of time learning about SEO. Think tortoise and the hare scenario and yes the tortoise is me.

How do you manage time to run your blog efficiently?

I do what comes to hand and allow some things to slip through the cracks since you can’t get to everything. Important things are often put before urgent and sometimes helping people can be more important. Even at some future time, that person pays it forward. I have a tagline  “Random and Relaxed Style” hence my blog’s tagline. I went from having a post once per week for a whole year – till November of last year, I now have 2 to 3 posts per week. I do collaborative posts where I either tweak, change or fine tune and make them personal or reject them. I am paid for my time – so that has become part of my blog and that does save some time.

How do you want to improve yourself in the next year?

I want to increase my health. That is and has always been number 1 on my list. Short sentences – lol – but you get that!

What would be your ideal working environment?

Looking out at nature from my office window and a big office full of resources. I now have that and feel truly blessed. God is good.

In your personal opinion: How often should a Blogger post to his/her blog per week or month?

The recommendation is once per week – but at least once per month if you don’t have staying power in the short term. If you have a paying blog I think 2 to 3 posts a week may be helpful to your monetization. Personal opinion though – – because if you have something everyone wants to know and you do quality posts you may be doing everyone who is “burned out” a service by coming out with a post once a week.

How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations?

Well, the most stressful situation was first finding out my husband had Terminal Cancer – everything else rather pales into insignificance. His companies bankruptcy, no retirement fund, some unfounded accusations – so I guess it’s putting things into perspective. We have adjusted and take each day one at a time and we only have “The present”. There’s a book by that name I have just about finished reading (just a few pages to go at the end) and life surely is a learning situation and there are many, many things we can be grateful for. So I only think about here and now – can’t do anything about the past and won’t live in the future. Just dealing with now helps a great deal.

What was your greatest failure and what did you learn from that?

Not trusting and having a big dose of fear. I learned that you can come to have the Gift of great Faith from this way no matter what you think.

What do you do in your spare time?

People – I love interacting with people and learning – I’m a little bit of a polymath (yes your new word for the day) and so a variety of topics is my thing.

What inspired you to start your blog?

My husband. My first blog post was about just that topic.
How a husband can inspire you with a Blog

How do you motivate yourself to keep the blog up and running?

I keep it up and running and it just happens – I don’t know what will be in the next week – so I’m always looking for surprises. Wise scripture says “You never know what a New Day will bring forth.” Rather helps you to live in the present but keep expectant too.

What do you think is the best social media strategy for getting more visitors to a blog?

Use of good hashtags if it’s Instagram. Changing themes every so often in a group to keep it interesting on Facebook so you will gain more attention from those interested. Work on focus towards quality rather than quantity. Work on crafting your posts whether Twitter, IG and Facebook – did I say, quality – yes rather than quantity – have less but better.

Is blogging your profession or just a hobby?

It is slowly turning into a growing business – because of income from collaborative posts my blog is finally turning a profit and I’m doing VA work which is showing the same – they go together in quite a few ways since I proofread for bloggers, and do social media posts as a VA for a business. I have an affinity towards bloggers trying to make a blog work as a business.

A lot of people think that blogging is an easy way to make money online. Do you have some tips for those people who are interested in making money and a full-time job from their blog?

No, it is not an easy way – at least not to start with. Some can see a turn around in 6 months (but with a lot of previous learning on what to do. But let’s face it – with heaps of courses out there all offering to “sell” of their knowledge – that you can start to learn this yourself.)  These are some tips I have. Start to learn about SEO (make it a priority in your blog education). Offer quality in your posts. Make your blog easy to navigate and quick to load when they are searching. Make people want to stay on your blog.

You will find Deborah via the following Social Media outlets:

Blog 
Twitter   
Instagram    
Pinterest      
Facebook    

If you wish to also participate in this 2019: Wednesday Interview Series please follow the link, and email me and consider it done.  I would love to showcase you and your blog.