10 Decisions Inspired from BritMums Live

1. Be ME!

This has been coming for a while, but managing so many different profiles in attempt to keep Blissful Mama anonymous is just getting too hard/annoying/complicated. Just last week I was credited as Blissful Mama then aka my full name on Facebook. Lots of people know me anyway.

I guess there were really two reasons to use another name. I always say that it is to protect BB. I do want to keep some sort of distance for him. He didn't choose to grow up on line, and you can never be sure what people might find in the future and give him grief about. I suppose, if I am honest, it was also a way for me to hide.

But what the hell.

I'm Emma. BB is still BB - for now at least, though if you watched any of of our videos in previous posts, you already know his name too, so I may well get over that one at some stage too!

2. Delete Facebook Pages 

Like a lot of people I had facebook pages for my sites because everyone said I should. But Facebook drives me nuts anyway, forever changing privacy settings and rankings etc. I didn't use it much anyway, very few of my posts were on there because I just never valued it enough to spend time on it. I would rather the conversations happen on my blog than on Facebook. So, pages gone already!

3. Delete even more social media stuff (and use what's left better!)

I came across this great article suggesting I should cull links on my blog to the whole lot! I had multiple links to G+, so two of those have gone. Instagram, plus Pinterest and Twitter are still there, for now at least.

Due to trying to protect my identity I had multiple twitter accounts. One for my Virtual Assistant business, and one for each of my blogs. Having decided to be ME,  I am now down to 2, and may even go to one!

I both love and hate Twitter. Every time I go on it I find some gems, but I do have to sift through heaps of cr*p  to get to it. I am going to try and cull a few of the people that spout too much cr*p, so that it becomes less overwhelming and more pleasurable to use.

4. Do a writing course

In the food blogging session CookSister appealed to everyone to invest in a writing course. I am going to do that! 

5. Connect more with UK bloggers

I was living in Oz when I started with this blog, and it was just a way to show my Mum where I was. Then when I began the journey of an SMC, I connected with lots of US bloggers, but my UK connections are limited, even though I read a lot of UK blogs. I discovered lots more great people and great blogs at Britmums Live though and am looking forward to some new reads.

6. Wear dresses, and other nice clothes

A random one perhaps compared to the others, but I always used to wear lots of dresses, but combine the facts that they make breast feeding tricky, that I am larger than I was so lots of old ones don't fit, and that I am now living in a cold country so most of my dresses are only useful one day a year anyway, and now I rarely wear them.

Kirstie Allsopp reminded me how great and easy dresses are, then one of the books that we were given as freebies had the statement "Life is too short for ugly clothes!" and I think that too. Again I used to have some great clothes, but they are too small, I even sold some of them on ebay. I have refused to buy new ones as I am waiting to get thin! My mum has bought a me a few plain T-shirts, which are fine for round the house and doing jobs, but I might treat myself to a little something pretty too, on my way to being thin - otherwise, let's face it,  it could be some time!

7. Aim higher with sponsored posts and reviews - value my time more!

I have only done a few of these, but I learned some lessons. The Six Secrets of Successful Weight Loss for example was hours and hours of my time - for nothing at all but a free book! I have refused a few recently, I won't have anything that will compromise my blog anyway, but even if it's stuff I like I am going to have a think about whether or not its really worth what's on offer.

8. Approach brands I like

I guess I already did this with both Vital Greens and Goodness Direct, but I have a couple more in mind.

9. Create a Media Pack

Inspired by Actually Mummy , I am going to try and put one of these together for both this blog and Almost Paleo, in the next few weeks.

10. Seek Feedback on my blog

My blogging friends at Love 2 Declutter and I agreed to take a look at each others blogs and give feedback. I hope they like what I have done to declutter this one so far, as I already got rid of some ads, and the amazon affiliate stuff, some other random stuff in the side bar, and a few icons! 

I would love to hear from other people  - any constructive comments are welcome, even if they are negative, that's what its all about. Can you navigate it OK? How does it look? What would you add? What would you take away? More than happy to return the favour of course.

11 out of ten

I can't end this post without a mention of Katie Piper. Isn't she awesome! I have been telling everybody about her ever since her Keynote on Saturday. Definitely one of the bravest and most inspiring ladies I have ever shared air with! Love her!