A Behind The Scenes Look At How I Blog!

Hi everyone and happy Autumn!  Now today's post is a bit different than my usual posts.  It dawned on me a while ago that while I post blogs regularly I have never discussed how I blog.  So today's post is going to give you a better look at how I blog!

I guess first things first, I own a lot of nail polish.  My collection features everything from drugstore brands to high end brands, to specialty brands like Disney World's brand of nail polish.  I buy my nail polish from all over.  Over time I have purchased from most drugstores, Wal-Mart, Target, ULTA, Sephora, Sally Beauty supply stores, and even Amazon.  I am always on the look out for good sales.  I have found that signing up for store's reward systems is a great way to get coupons and to earn points that can be exchanged for money off a purchase or free items.  ULTA and Sephora offer free programs while Sally Beauty's costs $5 (USD) a year.  While Sally Beauty's does cost money it automatically saves you money off of every purchase by offering members a special price.  Amazon is another great way to buy nail polish and can save you money.  I often times check out various sellers to see their competitive prices and look to see which has a good price on shipping too.  My only suggestion for ordering nail polish on Amazon is to make sure that the seller lists the polish as new, which is how most Amazon stores sell nail polish.  Here is my collection of nail polish laid out by brand from A to Z:

Typically I store my nail polish in Rubbermaid bins by brand and I use blank white rectangular stickers to label each bin so I know where each brand of nail polish is.  Here are what my bins look like:

With all this nail polish I needed an efficient and quick way to be able to see what nail polish I own and what each nail polish looks like.  So I created my own nail polish binder.  The binder features swatches of each polish I own, as well as a written list of the nail polish's names, and a calendar which I use to remind myself to post.  The calendar also helps me pre-select which nail polishes I will blog about each month.  Here's my binder:

Here is my binder.  I use a red pen to denote which nail polishes have been blogged about and to mark the calendar so I know which blogs have been published each month.  It is simple but effective!

However the binder is not my only means of nail polish organization!  I also keep an Excel spreadsheet of my nail polish.  The spreadsheet is alphabetical order by nail polish brand and then within each brand the nail polish is alphabetical by the polish's name.  The spreadsheet also allows me to keep track of the collection the nail polish came from, the date I posted a blog about it, how long I was able to wear the nail polish before it chipped and best of also I keep links to each post so I can quickly access them!  I also use the Excel spreadsheet to keep track of blog views, how many posts I have planned for each month, total number of polishes and the number of polishes by each brand.  Here is a screen shot of my spreadsheet:

Now that you've seen how I store and keep track of my nail polish I'm going to show you how I pick out nail polish to blog about!  To pick out nail polish every month I try to include a variety of brand of nail polish and a variety of colors.  (The only exception to this is October where I only wear pink  nails polish to celebrate National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.)  I like to select a mixture of older nail polishes I have had in my collection for a while and some more recent purchases.  I pre-select what polishes will appear on my blog for a few months in advance that way I have time to wear them and really test each one out.  I use the top of one of my Rubbermaid bins to lay the upcoming nail polishes out on.  It looks like this:

Here are all the nail polishes that will appear on my blog from August of 2014 to January of 2015.  August is at the bottom and the top row (before the bottles of nail polish remover) is January.

After selecting the nail polishes and trying them out I write out each blog post soon after that way I can accurately remember how each polish was.  I take photos using Fugifilm FinePix S4300 camera, which is a nice camera that has a variety of settings and good zoom.  (It isn't a Cannon but it works wonderfully!)  The only work I do on the pictures is to crop them down to an appropriate size.

Once each post is ready to be published it typically sits as a draft for a few weeks until its post date.  (Like I said above I use a calendar to predetermine when each post goes live!)  After a post goes live in my blog I post a link to it on several sites.  Here's the list:

StumbleUpon: http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/LondonLover27
Twitter: @PerfPolished12 (Which is the Twitter for this blog)
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/londonlover27/ (I post the pictures in the "Nail Polish" board)

I hope everyone has enjoyed this little behind the scenes look at how I blog!  The next post will be all about the nail polish again!

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)