MONDAY MOOD- MY ONE THOUSANDth POST

 Can’t believe I’ve come so far. It’s a really big milestone as I celebrate my 1000th post today. I remember my first post in my birthday outfit pictures- the silver shorts paired with a purple top and dewy makeup. With no sense of photo editing and content-creating, I wrote my first post. I’ve come a long way from being that thirty something, newbie, fresh-on-the-block blogger to thirty something Myriad Musings. My blog is my brand and my business. This wouldn’t have been possible without  hubs, daughter, family, friends, my sponsors and all the unconditional love and unwavering faith in me.

As I celebrate this day with some wine and sweet memories of the initial days, I would like to share ten random facts about my blogging life, one for every 100 posts I wrote…..

1) My name is Saumya. I am a wife, mom, property-manager and a blogger. I moved to US twelve years, had my daughter five years later and now I am a proud home-owner. I love it here and wouldn’t like it any other way.

 2) I have been blogging for a little over five years. I started off as a fashion and lifestyle blogger, then two years later changed my niche to fashion and beauty. But after eight months of blogging exclusively as a fashion/beauty influencer, I began missing sharing recipes and talking just about anything. So then I reinstated my profile as a fashion/ lifestyle blogger. Now I enjoy having the freedom to write about what I am feeling in that particular moment.

4) My blog is my baby. Just as a mother cares of her baby, I take care my blog as my second baby, my daughter being the first. I am constantly thinking about my blog’s growth, nourishment ( content )and future.

5) Over these five years I have worked with hundreds of brands, both big and small. Initially my campaigns and partnerships were unpaid and limited to merely gifted products for reviewing. But as the blog grew, my audience grew, I was able to demand a compensation in addition to the gifted product. So I owe this to you. Without you I wouldn’t have learn’t the importance and pros of being a financially independent woman.

6) I never hired or seeked professional assistance for my blog development. I developed my own blog, learn’t all the backend and techy stuff. Terms like HTML, java code all were so alien to me, but I learn’t about them over time. Thanks to google. I am now looking to work with a professional developer to spruce up my blog and also have a nice logo designed. So if you are a graphic-deisgner or a web-developer, or know someone with relevant qualifications, contact me asap.

7) Initially hubs would take my pictures, which was possible over the weekends only. Then I worked with a blogger friend, we would take pictures for each other, pretty much every other day. When she decided to take a break from blogging, a tripod and a remote became my photog-buddy. It was weird at first to stand in front of an unattended camera, but then I became a pro and enjoyed taking my own pictures. It was time-consuming but worked for me. Now,  I work with a professional photographer. We meet twice a month and I try to get as much as six outfit in two hours.

8) Blogging is fun but hard. I call it a part-time work, but I end up working full-time. I blog forty plus hours per week, which I now consider as overtime. It is not just taking photos, there is a lot of pre and post work that goes into it. From outfit planning to taking photos, from editing to writing, from publishing to social-media promoting, all needs to be done, which is definitely a mammoth task. This is my routine pretty much five days a week.

9) I have been lucky to have worked with some awesome brands and have had the opportunity to host a few events- most of which have been a pleasant experience. Except for a few where I had to actually fight for my payment. The vendor gave me a hard time paying the amount he had committed. The lack of contract, blame it on my amateur days, made it even worse. There was no proof of the amount vouched, just a  few emails, which entirely butchered everything. The vendor ended up paying me, but he made me plead, literally plead. After this incident, I have been really particular about having a contract in place whenever a payment is involved.

10) Talking about the future of the blog, I would like to continue blogging for as long as I can and for as long as the situations and resources permit. I would like to diversify and do more kids, travel and healthy-living blogging. My daughter loves to model for the blog and I don’t mind her involvement. I have a few travel campaigns planned for July which I am really looking forward to.

What other content would you like to see on my blog???