blogging

3 Reasons to Attend Magic City Fashion Week’s Bloggers Night Out

The organizers of Magic City Fashion Week are as much about community as they are couture.

Magic City Fashion Week is set for October 24 – 28, but creators Daniel Grier and Derek Matthews (the designers behind Splashed by DKG) are already busy adding magic to the Magic City through a series of smaller events leading up to the big week. Grier and Matthews see Magic City Fashion Week as an opportunity to not only cultivate, connect, and showcase Birmingham’s designers, beauty industry professionals, photographers, videographers, and models but also Birmingham bloggers.

Last month they hosted their first Bloggers Night Out, a networking event meant to help connect local bloggers with one another. On Monday, Sept. 18 at 6 p.m. at the rooftop bar at Redmont Hotel, MCFW organizers will host another Bloggers Night Out event. Here are three reasons you need to RSVP for this event right here, right now.

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5 Life Lessons from Vic Styles

Sometimes you meet certain people who are so interesting and so inspiring you just know your life will be different because you met them. This is how I felt about the woman behind the blog and the brand Vic Styles when I first met her last year at a Boss Babes Brunch she hosted in Birmingham. I later had the pleasure of interviewing her for B-Metro magazine.

Though based in L.A., Vic has family in Alabama so she visits the Magic City often. During her most recent trip, she spoke at a Bloggers Night Out event hosted by the organizers of the upcoming Magic City Fashion Week. Vic is a full-time lifestyle blogger who has figured out how to essentially get paid to live her life and be herself. In a recent interview with 21Ninety, Vic described herself as a “freelance life-liver.”

Since Vic is living what is nearly every blogger’s dream, you can be sure the room reserved at Blue Monkey Lounge last Wednesday evening for Bloggers Night Out was packed. Here are five gems dropped by Vic that I really needed to hear.

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Why Writers Should Blog

“So tell me,” she said with crossed arms, a furrowed brow, and the tone of a prosecuting attorney, “exactly why should I start a blog?”

The woman’s question surprised me – sort of.

I was taken aback by the question because the networking event she and I were attending had nothing to do with blogging. But I shouldn’t have been shocked that she would ask me this question because in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, I’m considered the go-to girl when it comes to all things blogging.

In 2011 I started See Jane Write, which is not only a blog but also a membership organization for women who write and blog. I host workshops, panel discussions, networking events and conferences under the See Jane Write brand. Many of our events are about blogging, I started this organization in part because I am a blogger, and I grew this organization primarily by blogging. So to many folks, I’m Birmingham’s blog babe (or writeous babe thanks to my old Twitter handle).

I answered her question with another question: “Why do you want to start a blog?”

“Well, I don’t,” she said.

“Then don’t start one,” I replied. She looked stunned.

Obviously, I’m a huge fan of blogging. But if you’re not blogging because you really want to, if you’re only blogging because a chick with curly hair and a hard-to-pronounce name told you that you should, then your blog is most likely going to suck. And the last thing the Internet needs is another craptastic blog.

But if you truly want to start a blog and you haven’t simply because you’re not sure how it could benefit you in the long run, I can discuss that sun up till sun down.

So why am I so in love with blogging?

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