Morning, friends! I’m trying something new with the posting schedule, doing Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Aside from my Caturday posts, Saturday posting has been infrequent, but Sally’s Baking Addiction is doing this…so…obviously if I do exactly what they do then I will become a famous food blogger, too. 
I’m not really sure if you guys even care what days I post since my survey showed most of you have something like bloglovin’ you can check to see if there’s a new DSHN post, but I thought I’d share…some thoughts with you today!
Blog Updates:
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I like to update the blog. A lot. Like once a week. Sometimes that’s a bit of procrastinating, but I really do love playing around with blog design (I wonder if I should take a course so I can get good at html and start helping other bloggers design??).
In the last couple of months I’ve updated:
1. My logo. I really liked the design Julie made me (and she did great with what I asked of her), but I decided I wanted something a little more bold and fun. So I took pieces of the original design and spliced it into a new one!
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2. My homepage. After getting my blog evaluated on peek, I decided I should update my homepage so that it’s clear what my blog is about, who I am and where you can read more. I also condensed the menus and added more topic “buttons” so you can find what you want to read. It’s challenging to organize 700+ posts sometimes!
3. My About Page. The page still said that I live in Minnesota, which you might know is no longer true, so I changed that part around a bit. I still feel like it might not be optimized for new readers…any suggestions?
4. My Work With Me Page. I try to update this monthly to reflect new numbers for the purpose of finding partnerships. (As much as I dislike it, numbers matter to brands.)
5. I created a Media Kit (that took wayyy too long, but was kind of fun).
Blog Things I’m Working On:
1. Creating a space to do recipe creation and photography. As in a physical space. I don’t have my own space right now since I’m at the Daddio’s and I keep thinking I just don’t want to make too many messes.
The thing is…cooking and baking gets messy. So I’ve felt a little stuck. I might start sharing fun stuff I make at the café or quick things I can make here with minimal ingredients.
What do you guys think?
Update since I first writing this a week ago: I bought a bunch of foodie photography stuff and had some fun baking and shooting my first recipe in over a month!
Any ideas? My snapchat followers might know! (ps. follow me! semihealthnut)
2. I’m trying to find someone to take pictures of me doing workouts. I want to have at least a handful on the blog I can refer to. Or really just a local photographer that can take pictures of me for blog stuff. If you know anyone in the Omaha area who wants to work with a blogger on a zero dollar budget…
3. Being okay with not being an expert..on anything. After blogging awhile (cough five years cough), I feel like I should be the expert and to speak with absolute authority on all things health and fitness.
The truth: the more I learn, the less confident I feel that I have “the answer.” Everyone is so different, so I am just trying to share my perspective.
4. New bloggity blog that’s “soft launching” in a week!
This new blog also involves contributors which makes things a little more complicated, but also more fun! Even though we are launching soon, I’m still trying to fine tune the topics that we will be chatting about, but so far they include:
-Self-love.
-Loving others.
-Finding passion for life.
Kind of broad, but hopefully I will find the blog voice soon. We have also decided to do a “soft launch” where we show the site for a week or two, then put it back on “private” so we can add more content and work out the details on having contributors without feeling the pressure of posting consistently. I think this will help with my overall sanity AND allow me to keep DSHN going strong at the same time!
You should definitely check us out on Instagram to get an idea for the feel of the blog!
5. Monetization. I’m always kind of fidgeting with this aspect. Since I depend on the blog for about half of my income at this point, it might as well be optimized! I’m trying out new organizations that partner brands with bloggers and so far it’s…a lot of work trying to figure it all out!
Bonus: I started a blog for Mr. Dave. It’s called I’d Shoot That.
We’ve been talking about doing this for over a year and like with my new blog, I just decided to jump in and do it. I kinda sorta really like setting up new blogs (as long as I can use plugins and widgets) and designing logos. [This love might eventually factor into the monetization part. So…if you need a logo redesign, shoot me an e-mail! Since I’m not even an official designer, you might (read: will definitely) be able to get a good rate. ]
Mid-Year Blog Survey + Target Gift Card Giveaway:
I feel like my posts have been a little hit or miss recently and I’m trying to figure out why. I like finding the balance of sharing what I want AND what you want to read about, so I thought I’d ask some questions.
I will love you forever if you’d answer these survey questions linked here! A random survey-taker will win a $10 Target gift card mailed (and paid for) by yours truly as a thank you for your time.
> Take Blog Survey Now <
Bonus question (to answer in the comments): What do you think about my usual post length of 1000+ words? Too much? Just right? Do you read all of my long posts and just can’t get enough?
[Tweet “Diary of a Semi-Health Nut blog survey (win a @target gift card!)…help Amanda help YOU! “]
Again I would LOVE your help in answering these blog survey questions so I can bring you all what you want! (for the most part. I will still share photos of Zoey no matter what. 😉 )
recipes, workouts, tips + exclusive content…right to your inbox!
PS I’m all about Pinterest this year, so I would LOVE IT if you could pin one (or two!) of these images!
Pin with me!Follow SemiHealthNut Visit Diary of a Semi-Health Nut’s profile on Pinterest.
Linking up to: (All of the lovely link-ups I participate in here.)
The Facebook comment thing tricked me!!! As I said above, I like the length of your posts. That’s your style and I think you should own it!! xoxo
haha you just commented twice! Did it not show up??
And I’m glad you like my post length! Sometimes I feel like people don’t read the full post, but I guess that might happen with any recipe post. 🙂
It’s so cool to witness growth in bloggers, as well as myself. I hope you’re proud of yourself for all of the exciting things you have created for yourself and for readers! Keep up the awesome work!
Girl, this comment just made my day!! I don’t know if anyone has ever put it like that. I think I am proud, but at the same time I compare myself to other awesome bloggers so often I don’t feel like I’ve created much of anything haha.
Thanks again and so happy to have you in my blogging world! <3