Finding a Niche for Your Blog

Sponsor Spotlight: Southern Belle Simple

southern belle simple
When Kate Spears started her blog in fall 2009 it was called Small Town, Big Dreams. But Spears struggled to find a way to weave what the name represented into each post.
“It finally dawned on me that so much of who I am, both positive and negative, has been established because of my experiences growing up in the South,” Spears says. “I knew that because my love for the South runs deep, I would never tire of writing about it. Plus I wouldn’t have to reach very far to find topics to write about because it’s just what I know best.”
And so Southern Belle Simple was born. Spears’s decision to blog about the South has served her well. Her blog has nearly 3,000 Facebook fans and more than 1,600 Twitter followers. Spears was a presenter at The Southern C Summit in Jekyll Island, Ga., in May and she has used her blog to develop relationships with Southern brands and businesses.
Spears has taken these relationships to the next level with her new company Screen Door Media. Through this company Spears offers companies traditional marketing and public relations services as well as help with social media marketing and content development. She has clients not only in Southern states such as Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, but in California as well.
“Sometimes the business of doing business keeps folks so busy. They don’t always realize their stories are interesting to their customers and other audiences,” Spears says. “I can help them take an objective look at how to best tell their stories to engage and capture the attention of the right audience who will help them be successful. Your story is unique to you. It’s one of the most important things you have, as an individual or a business.”
And as you blogging, finding a niche for your site may help you tell your story more effectively.
“If you are just starting out, having a niche can help you find your unique voice. If you are in a content drought or a creativity dry spell, having a niche helps you push past it,” Spears says.
Having a niche can also build your audience.
“It’s always good to help readers know what they can expect from a blog because this helps to keep them coming back for more,” Spears says.
Just as Spears did, choose a niche that reflects your interests, something you’re so passionate about that you feel you could write about it endlessly. For Spears it was the South. For you it may be fashion, feminism, or food. Perhaps you want to blog about DIY projects or gardening. Maybe you want to blog about relationships or politics or career development.
“A good blog is an expression of the person writing it,” Spears says. Don’t choose a niche just because you think it’s popular. If it isn’t authentic, readers will pick up on that.”
If you choose a niche and soon realize it’s not a good fit, it’s OK to switch.
“Don’t ever be afraid to change directions if you feel like something isn’t quite right,” Spears says. “Trust your instincts!”

The Simple Booth is simply awesome at See Jane Write Magazine Launch Party

Sponsor Spotlight: The Simple Booth

Thursday’s launch party, presented by Hamer Law Group, was amazing! More than 75 people came out to Aloft Hotel Birmingham to help us celebrate. My friends and family members and even people I’d never met before came to show their support. Some even drove in from cities like Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Jacksonville, and Guntersville.
The food was delicious, our signature drink — The Jane — was yummy, and the party was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones. And none of this would have been possible without our great sponsors.
The highlight of the night, however, was The Simple Booth. The Simple Booth takes photo booth fun to a new level offering an open play area that includes you, a camera, a remote, and a bunch of your closest (or soon-to-be close) friends as you see just how crazy you can act!
The Simple Booth is run by Lynsey Weatherspoon, a very talented Birmingham-based photographer.
Below you’ll find some of my favorite Simple Booth photos from the night, but you can view all the pictures and even download and purchase prints here.
And if you’d like to book The Simple Booth for your next event, visit TheSimpleBooth.com for more information.

Lynsey Weatherspoon of The Simple Booth
See Jane Write founder, Javacia Harris Bowser

Keith Lee of Hamer Law Group, our presenting sponsor
Alan Duke of Hamer Law Group, our presenting sponsor
Christy Turnipseed and Tanya Sylvan, two See Jane Write Magazine contributors
Darlene Millender of Designed by Didi, one of our great sponsors

Read more about the See Jane Write Magazine Launch Party here. 

Join Us at Sketches & Scribes

I can’t draw to save my life.

Nonetheless, I am immensely inspired by visual art.

Though I don’t fancy myself a great fiction writer, I can look at a portrait of a woman — be it a photograph, painting or sketch — and create a character. I can look into her eyes and imagine her name and whole life story.

In April I traveled two and a half hours to the High Museum in Atlanta to see the exhibit Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics & Painting because Frida Kahlo inspires me like none other. Her self-portraits motivate me to write personal essays.

Frida once said, “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”

And Frida inspires me to be bold in my writing.

She once declared, “The only think I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”

I don’t need a fancy art museum exhibit, however, to get inspired by visual art.

I find inspiration in offbeat art galleries too, in places like Naked Art Gallery.

Naked Art Gallery is all about making art accessible by focusing on functional art and funky wall art too.

Naked Art Gallery, located at 3831 Clairmont Ave., is one of our July sponsors and to show our appreciation we’ll be hosting a mixer at the shop on Saturday, Aug. 3 from 2 to 4 p.m.

At Sketches & Scribes we’ll browse the shop, eat some snacks, and chat. Also, we’d like to challenge those who attend to go home and write something inspired by a piece of art seen at Naked Art Gallery. Then, if you’d like, submit your piece or a link to your blog post to seejanewritemag@gmail.com and your work may be featured on our new online magazine.

I hope you’ll join us. You can RSVP via Facebook here.

Sketches & Scribes will also be a See Jane Write membership drive. Find more details on SJW membership here.

Check out Christmas In July: Great Gifts for Writers for a preview of the great functional art at Naked Art Gallery.


Why Writers Need Social Media

Sponsor Spotlight: Mitzi Jane Media



What’s your social media strategy?


If you’re having trouble answering that question or perhaps even wondering what a social media strategy is, you may need to give Mitzi Eaker of Mitzi Jane Media a call. 

Mitzi Jane Media is a small organization of social media strategists and content providers that work with small businesses, nonprofits, and bloggers to make their creative vision of growth a reality.

“Writers and small businesses need social media to stay connected to their readers and/or customers,” Eaker says. “Social media not only allow for writers and small businesses to share what is important to them with their following, but most importantly, they hear directly from their customers as they engage them in community online.”


Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, blogging, and online forums and polls are just a few of the ways writers and business owners can see firsthand how their followers engage with their work or purchase their products. 


At Mitzi Jane Media, “we work hand-in-hand with each client to establish a strategy that really fits their brand, their purpose and goals, their skill set, and the time they have to do social media within the budget they have allocated,” Eaker says.


Head over to See Jane Write Magazine for 5 Mistakes You May Be Making On Social Media.

3 Reasons Writers Should Love WBHM

Sponsor Spotlight: Public Radio WBHM 90.3 FM




My love for Public Radio WBHM 90.3 FM is no secret. This year on Valentines’ Day I posted an open love letter to Birmingham’s NPR station right here on this blog. 

And when WBHM volunteered to be a July sponsor for See Jane Write Birmingham and See Jane Write Magazine, I began to appreciate the station’s dedication to support its community even more. 

But there are reasons that you, women writers of Birmingham, should love our local NPR station too. 

1. At Thursday’s See Jane Write Magazine launch party WBHM is giving away two 15-oz. glasses that feature a custom, public radio-inspired “Listen & Be Transported” painting by local artist Bethanne Hill. 

2. NPR features so many author interviews there’s a whole page dedicated to them on the NPR website. WBHM marketing manager Audrey Atkins, who is also a writer and blogger, said, “Personally, I learn a lot from hearing about other authors’ creative processes, what drives them, what inspires them, why they wrote what they wrote, how they wrote what they wrote, how long it took them, their frustrations, their victories.”

  
3. With its Crime in the City series NPR focused on one piece of the writing process — location — and created an entire series based on it.  Crime in the City focuses on different cities that were used as the setting for a detective novel. This summertime series is sure to get you mystery writers inspired.


Why do you love public radio?