Free Stock Photos for Bloggers, Creatives & Business Owners

We are nearing the end of the first quarter of 2017 and to make your life a little easier when it comes to your blog & social media graphics, I've just released a new set of feminine styled stock photographs just for you.

If you're new around these parts, you might not know about the CGScreative Resource library; a treasure trove of resources for Bloggers, Creatives & Business Owners. 

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The CGScreative resource library is a FREE online space filled with blogging worksheets, business resources & helpful printables.

It's also filled with what has made my library famous; my unique selection of styled & natural stock imagery.

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Here's a little sneak peek into what's inside:

The CGScreative resource library is a pretty space for bloggers, creatives & business owners & is  designed to be a place that helps you grow your blog or business and a place to visit to feel inspired.

And now I'm sure you're probably wondering how you can gain access. To keep the library exclusive (and to make sure that only serious creatives have access) you only need  pop your email in the little space below.

Join the CGScreative Resource & Stock Photo Library!

* indicates required

First Name

Email Address *

By popping your email address above you'll be joining the  CGScreative mailing list. From there I'll be sending you the password for the resource library will allow you to log in.

You'll be able to download any and all of the resources and you can rest easy with regards to image copyright as my photographs are licensed under a creative commons license.  This means you can use the photos for all non-commercial purposes i.e you can use them for anything related to your blog or business that you are not intending to sell.

Feel free to crop the photos, add text to them or layer them with other images and graphics to create the perfect visuals for your site.

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Here's a pretty Pin to add to Pinterest so you can ave this post & come back later. Simply hover your mouse over the image and then click the little red Pinterest button in the top left corner.

I add new items to the library every month, so the content always stays fresh. I hope you find these resources useful to you in your blogging or business journey and I look forward to seeing how you use them.

If you do enjoy them, post a photo on Instagram of your experience with these resources and use the hashtag #CGScreative. I would love to share your images on my social media accounts (with your permission of course!) for extra exposure to your blog or business.

Join the CGScreative Resource & Stock Photo Library!

* indicates required

First Name

Email Address *

Happy blogging friends!

Beautiful & Free Feminine Styled Stock Photos for Bloggers, Creatives & Business Owners

It's the start of a new year (even though we are already heading towards the end of January...how is this possibe?) and make your life a little easier when it comes to your blog & social media, I've created a set of feminine styled stock photographs just for you.

If you're new around these parts, you might not know about the CGScreative Resource library; a treasure trove of resources for bloggers, creatives & business owners. 

---

The CGScreative resource library is a FREE online space filled with blogging worksheets, business resources & helpful printables.

It's also filled with what has made my library famous; my unique selection of styled & natural stock imagery.

---

Here's a little sneak peek into what's inside:

The CGScreative resource library is a pretty space for bloggers, creatives & business owners & is  designed to be a place that helps you grow your blog or business and a place to visit to feel inspired.

And now I'm sure you're probably wondering how you can gain access. To keep the library exclusive (and to make sure that only serious creatives have access) you only need  pop your email in the little space below.

Join the CGScreative Resource & Stock Photo Library!

* indicates required

First Name

Email Address *

By popping your email address above you'll be joining the  CGScreative mailing list. From there I'll be sending you the password for the resource library will allow you to log in.

You'll be able to download any and all of the resources and you can rest easy with regards to image copyright as my photographs are licensed under a creative commons license.  This means you can use the photos for all non-commercial purposes i.e you can use them for anything related to your blog or business that you are not intending to sell.

Feel free to crop the photos, add text to them or layer them with other images and graphics to create the perfect visuals for your site.

---

Here's a pretty Pin to add to Pinterest so you can ave this post & come back later. Simply hover your mouse over the image and then click the little red Pinterest button in the top left corner.

---

I add new items to the library every month, so the content always stays fresh. I hope you find these resources useful to you in your blogging or business journey and I look forward to seeing how you use them.

If you do enjoy them, post a photo on Instagram of your experience with these resources and use the hashtag #CGScreative. I would love to share your images on my social media accounts (with your permission of course!) for extra exposure to your blog or business.

Happy blogging friends!

Join the CGScreative Resource & Stock Photo Library!

* indicates required

First Name

Email Address *

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How to get your first 1k followers on Instagram (+ 2 Free Printables!)

I've been on Instagram for about 3 years now, and have only seen any kind of noticeable growth in my following in the last 6 months. I KNOW how frustrating it is to put so much effort and time into something, and then receive the bare minimum amount of engagement (especially when you know that at least half of those likes come from family and your best friends!). It took me a long time to get where I am today (and I'm still a baby in the big bad world of Instagram!) but I want to encourage you on your journey, wherever you may be right now.

While there is no secret, overnight trick to go from 0 - 1000 over night, today I want to share with you my strategies over the past year which got me to my first 1k.

1. Start tracking your numbers

First things first. Grab a pen and paper (or even better, print out the free stats tracker I made just for you...it's waiting for you in The #CGScreative Resource Library) and write down exactly where you are right now. It doesn't matter if you have 5 followers on Instagram or 5000. You need to start somewhere and today is a good a day as any to begin YOUR journey.

I have also included place for you to write down your stats for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & your email list. It makes life easier having all your social media stats in one handy place. Then keep adding your stats every month (or even every few weeks). When I first started tracking my stats, I counted all numbers every week. It was very encouraging to see the numbers slowly creep up. I have included space for the 12 months of the year on the free printable above, but you can print a many as you need if you want to do it by week instead of month.

2. Write down your goals

As with any journey you need to know where you are going. You write down your 'dream' numbers and keep them small and easily attainable, or you can shoot for the stars and write down something outrageous. Don't get disheartened if you don't reach this number in a week, a month or even a year. The point of this exercise is to know where you are heading and where you want to be. You can put a date a date on your goals, but I find this doesn't end up motivating me, and I end up feeling like a failure if I haven't reached my goals by a certain date. I like to keep my goals open ended, as I want to keep growing and not stop what I'm doing even when I hit a target. Here's a free goal tracker printable to help you. You can write down whatever goals you have for your social media channels; things like hosting a giveaway/joining group boards on Pinterest are great goals to start growing your channels too.

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3. Hashtags, Hashtags, Hashtags!

Hashtags WILL help you grow your following by making sure your photographs show up on searches. Before you tag your photo, think about what your photograph is showing/telling people. You want to make sure you use the right hashtags so that the right people find your feed. If you're little unsure of where to start, read this post on using different hashtags.

4. Be Social & Share the Love

If someone takes the time to comment on your photo, make sure to first reply to that comment, and then take a minute to head on over to their profile. If you like what you see, leave them a comment or two, or at the very least go and show their feed some love by liking some of their photographs. If you aren't actively engaging with other people, you're missing out on creating real, authentic connections with potential clients and potential business/blogging buddies. Think about your own feed. When someone simply likes one photo, how many times do you click on over to their feed? But think about when someone likes 5, 10, 20 of your images? How does that make you feel? Okay, it can sometimes feel like they are being a little spammy, but if they comment on your images as well as like them, chances are they genuinely enjoy what you are putting out there. So why not return the favor? It will increase your chances of being remembered by your followers as someone who is genuine and authentic, ie. they are more likely to then click over to your blog and read your content.

When you like an image on Instagram, that person gets a notification. If they have a big following, changes are they get so many notifications that your little like fades into the abyss. If you go and like 10 of their images, your name will appear 10 times in their notifications, making you stand out. I know that I click on profiles that leave me lots of likes (and I definitely click on profiles that leave comments). So why not use this to your advantage and make people want to click on your profile and follow you to see more.

5. Be Consistent with your brand

This step is the most important. Maintaining a consistent feed is what will help you stand out amongst the million of other users out there. Branding is a whole other kettle of fish, but on a basic level, if you want to convey your brand (whether that is the brand you are growing for your blog business or even just your own personal brand of who you are) you need to be consistent. 

When I first started using Instagram I was all about the Valencia filter; you know that brown, sepia filter that gave a vintage edge to every photo? That was all very well and good, but since then my own style has developed into something more feminine, clean and pretty. I now use a white (or at least a light) background for all my photographs and put more thought into what I want to share. If you are serious about growing your brand, you need to think hard about the image you want to convey to your followers. 

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about I want to share with you what happened to my Instagram followers a earlier this year.

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At the beginning of May this year (2015)  I decided to take Instagram seriously. I wanted to use it as a tool to grow my blog, not just as a place to share photos of my dog. I started styling my photographs, using a white background, and just putting a bit more thought into my images. I also started to introduce more of my own photography work (you can see this in below image on the left). Slowly, I started gaining lots of new followers. By the end of July I had gained about 200 new, actively engaging followers. 

Then I went on holiday to Borneo. 

I wanted to share the exciting places we were seeing and things we were doing with my readers. I changed the hashtags I was using to fit in with travel, and even though I was getting more likes on my photographs, I lost nearly 50 followers in 2 weeks. I had no idea what was going on. Yes, Instagram does go through purges where they delete inactive & spam accounts, but to loose so many people had to mean that my followers weren't interested in what I was posting.

You see, people were following CityGirlSearching the lifestyle blogger who posted photographs of makeup, stationery and other pretty things. They hadn't chosen to follow CityGirlSearching the global traveler who posted photographs of beaches & exotic foods. 

It was hard to realise how fickle people can be, and to see such a decline in followers when I thought I was posting interesting new content. I realised I had to start thinking about my Instagram account as an extension of my brand, and not as a personal account. 

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Lots of bloggers I follow have ended up creating multiple Instagram accounts to use for different purposes and I have been contemplating doing the same. They have one account for their blog or business, and another one to share personal photographs for family and friends. Right now I have enough social media channels to juggle without adding in a personal IG account, but it is something you may want to consider to help streamline your brand.

There are a number of free apps to tell you how many people follow/unfollow you but I have just found they make me feel horrible about Instagram. I downloaded Trackgram which has a paid and free features, and I found it took all the love out of Instagram for me. When I actively see who has un-followed me, it makes me want to unfollow them, regardless of whether I like their Instagram account or not.It leaves a bad taste in my mouth being able to see who un-follows me, and it has made me feel very negative towards certain bloggers who I used to love and admire. So I would say us it with caution, or rather, don't use it all. You don't need to be reminded who exactly un follows you, you can get a broad overview of this yourself by looking at your Instagram numbers on your profile yourself.

I hope this post inspired you to tackle the big bad world of Instagram! If you have any questions about it, please feel free to leave me a comment below, I promise to get back to you.

The #Hashtags you should be using on Instagram to get your photos noticed + FREE Printable Guide

When I first started using Instagram I was very afraid of the hashtag. I thought using them made me sound cheesy, like I was trying to be cool. But, having been an avid Instagram user for a while now I feel confident in saying that using hashtags will get you more likes and more followers and increase your engagement.

Why?

Well hashtags are a way of categorising your photographs so they are grouped together. This means you can look for things really easily. If you're a beauty blogger and you want to connect with and find other beauty bloggers you might use the following hashtags: #bblogger #beautyblogger #fotd (Face Of The Day)

By tagging your photographs with these hashtags you are ensuring your photo appears in anyones search for that particular subject. If you don't use hashtags, then the only people that can see your photos will be your followers. If you want to keep your photos private then you might deliberately choose not to use hashtags, but if you want to grow your blog/brand using hashtags will help your photographs be seen by more people. 

TIP: create a note on your phone with the hashtags you use most often (for me these are the hashtags under the 'lifestyle' heading below) and save it. That way you don't have to wrack your brains trying to remember all the hashtags and you can simply copy and paste them into the description box or comment below your photo.

There are hundreds of thousands of hashtags out there, and you can also make up your own like I did with #ShadowTheJindo & #WhatILoveMostAboutMarriage (although a few random people have popped on that one and started tagging their photographs with it so be open to the the idea that you can't 'own' a hashtag and anyone can tag their photographs with that particular tag and their photo will appear under it).

If you have a blog and want to create more of awareness for your brand as a blogger, why don't you consider starting a hashtag? It's not pretentious at all, see it rather as a way to connect with more people and to keep your ideas/photos categorised and easy to find. 

Here are some lists of the Hashtags I use when I post different things to Instagram. Some of them may seem obvious, but these are usually the tags that are widely used. Others I have found via searches and my own network of followers.

Beauty Products/Make up

• #bblogger
• #beautyblogger
• #beautyjunkie
• #beautyinkorea (if posting about a Korean product)
• #southkoreanbeautyproducts
• #skincare
• #motd (makeup of the day)
• #fotd (face of the day)
• #beauty
• #makeupaddict
• #makeupjunkie

Nails

• #notd (nails of the day)
• #manimonday (when posting on a monday)
• #manicure
• #nailstagram
• #instanail
• #nailswag
• #nailsofinstagram
• #nailinspo

Dog

I had no idea that so many people had Jindos as pets until I started using hashtags! I found so many wonderful new friends to follow who share the same passion as I do for this unusual breed of dog. If you'd like to read more about our rescue pup, #ShadowTheJindo click here. 

• #instajindo (or insta-  insert your dogs breed here)
• #instapuppy
• #dogsofinstagram
• #woofwoof
• #ilovemydog
• #dogoftheday
• #dogsagram 
• #petsagram

General Blog/Lifestyle Content

I have been using the following hashtags on all my photographs for the last 2 weeks and have noticed a general increase in engagement. These tags are really popular and are suited for lifestyle bloggers (those of use who post all sorts of content that doesn't always fit into one category).

• #thatsdarling
• #thehappynow
• #petitejoys
• #livecolorfully
• #howyouglow
• #myunicornlife
• #abmlifeissweet (From the awesome blog A Beautiful Mess...there are a number of different hashtags you could use from A Beautiful Mess to connect with likeminded people)

The great thing about Instagram is that you can add new hashtags to your photographs after they have been posted and that way you can make sure to categorise even your older photographs. There are no hard and fast rules to Instagram so play around and have fun with your hashtags!

If you don't want to look like you are spamming Instagram with your hashtags you can post a few in the image description of your photo, and then post the rest of them in a comment under your photo. That way once people start commenting on your photo, your own comment with the hashtags will be pushed up to the top and hidden by the other comments. Its a little sneaky way to seem a little less brash while still getting your photos seen. 

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To help you remember all of the hashtags mentioned in this post, I created a free cheat sheet just for you! This cheat sheet was created exclusively for members of my #CGScreative community. By joining this community of over 900 creatives you'll gain exclusive access to the CGScreative resource library. The resource library is filled with loads of worksheets, printables and what has made this community famous, beautiful stock photoraphs. Best of all, it's free to join! Simply click the image below to find out more:

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What hashtags do you use when posting on Instagram? If you're on Instagram come by and say hello (@roxyhutton) I love making new friends there!

How To Take Better Photos For your Blog Using Your Phone + Free Checklist!

You don’t have to have a fancy camera to take beautiful photographs for your blog. You can use your phone’s built-in camera, and with a few tips, you too can produce pretty photos to take your blog to the next level. Even though I own professional photography gear, sometimes I just want the ease of snapping a shot right in the moment. And a lot of the time when inspiration strikes, I don’t want to be fiddling around with settings and then end up missing the perfect shot. A lot of the images I produce for my blog are styled and I don’t have the time to get my camera, set it up, export the images to my computer, edit and then finally upload them to my blog. I find that using my iPhone and a few, easy-to-use (and free!) apps, I am able to produce pretty pictures that only take a few minutes to put together. Today I want to share with you how you can do the same.

All the images below were taken on my iPhone 4S and edited with VSCOCam to give them a grainy, film-like texture.

1. Clean your Lens

As with any camera, if your lens is dirty, your photographs aren’t going to come out very clear. It’s such a simple tip and yet has made the biggest change on images taken with my phone. Think about where you phone goes, and now think about the last time you wiped your camera lens clean. If this gives you the shivers, like it did to me, then whip out a piece of cloth and get wiping!

2. Natural Light

Wherever possible, use natural light. I take the majority of my photographs (using both my DSLR & my iPhone) during the day and try as much as possible to maximise the soft, natural light that comes through a window. Harsh midday light is just as hard to work with as a flash, whereas natural light, the kind that streams through a window, produces soft, clean images.

3. Click to Focus

On the iPhone camera app (the standard camera app that comes with the iPhone), there is a yellow square that automatically appears when you want to take a photo. This is your focus setting. You can allow the phone to automatically adjust the focus, or you can over-ride this by clicking where you want to focus when you take a photograph. This is especially useful when you want to create a slightly blurry background, with something in the picture in focus. I often use click-to-focus when I am photographing macro-type shots of make-up and stationery.

4. Self-Timer

I only found out about the self-timer feature on my iPhone when I updated my IOS to the latest version. This is especially handy when you want to take a ‘selfie’. Don’t forget to click to focus before you take the shot to ensure that your face is perfectly in focus and not blurry. 

5. Use a Tripod

Using a tripod (or any home-made version of a tripod) will stabilize your camera and help to avoid camera shake. It can be so frustrating when you set up the perfect shot, click to focus, and then bump the phone by accident and the photograph ends up coming out blurry. I often just use a book and wedge a drinks coaster underneath the phone to adjust the angle (and then set up the self-timer to get the perfect shot).

6. Avoid the Zoom

Especially on the iPhone built-in camera, when you use the zoom it decreases the quality of the photograph. Rather use your own built-in zoom (ie. your feet!) and position yourself to be nearer, or further away from your subject. Unless you have a snazzy new phone, like the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the iPhone 6, I would suggest avoiding all use of the zoom.

7. Background

Using a white background when shooting any product produces beautiful, professional looking shots. The white offsets all other colors and is always complimentary. It looks crisp and clear and really helps to make your subject stand out. Textured backgrounds also work well for product photography, but I find they can also distract from your subject. I have yet to take a photograph on a plain, white background that I didn’t like. 

8. Angles

Play around with angles. Have fun and go crazy with high and low, close up and far away shots. Use your body to zoom in on particular items if you are styling photographs for you blog. It’s okay to cut off parts of items, and this works particularly well when I shoot make-up or stationery. Consider the two photographs below. The one on the left is the full image, and the one on the right has been cropped therefore removing parts of the image. Can you see the difference? None of the props have been changed and the lighting is the same. The only difference is the angle.

9. Apps

There are so many amazing apps you can use to really make your images pop, from overlaying text to added film effects or textures. My favourite go-to apps are:
– VSCOCam for editing the colour, brightness, cropping, straightening and adding film-like overlays.
– Studio for adding text and graphics.
– ABeautifulMess for hand-drawn overlays and creating collages
– Instagram for connecting with other creatives and sharing my images.
*All of the above apps come in Android and IOS versions.

10. Delete

There really is no point in having 10 of the same image. Be thorough and delete any and all of the ‘extra’ photographs so as to avoid wasting storage space and also to avoid having duplicates. The amount of times I upload the ‘not quite perfect’ image into a blog post and then realise I have to go back and search for the right photo is just annoying. And then I realise I often delete the perfect one and end up having to re-create my images again. Deleting all the nonsense saves you time and will make your life that much easier when it comes to blogging.

Most importantly, HAVE FUN! Taking photographs should be fun, and with all the great apps out there that are free and easy to use, blogging no longer has to be boring. With just a few minutes of practicing and playing around with your phone, your photographs can look just as good as the pros, and will take your blogging to the next level. I hope you found these tips useful. If you’d like to find out more about the apps I’ve mentioned above you can pop on over to my blog where I have reviewed the Studio App {Click Here} and the ABeautifulMess App {Click Here}.

To help you remember all these tips I've created a FREE printable checklist. It's in my FREE resource library, along with a whole bunch more resources AND free stock photographs just for you. Join the library by clicking the image below: