The #CGScreative Instagram Photo Challenge - An easy way to grow your Instagram Following!

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The #CGScreative Instagram Photo Challenge - An easy way to grow your Instagram Following!

Has your Instagram feed also been taken over by posts asking you to turn on notifications? I know that a lot of people are rather upset by the latest changes announced by Instagram, but I'm here to tell you today that it's not going to be the end of the world for you.

It's also not a huge surprise that Instagram, which is now owned by Facebook, is implementing these changes. 

If you're not sure what the changes mean, here is a easy to digest summary of what has got everyone in a tizz.

Instagram is planning to show us the content it thinks we like, based on our previous actions (ie. our likes and comments). This means that it is now more important than ever to be liking and commenting on those accounts that you really love and want to follow, rather than engaging with accounts that you hope will follow you if you spam their feed enough.

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My top 15 insanely useful tips for bloggers

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My top 15 insanely useful tips for bloggers

I've been thinking of ways to condense all of the useful posts I've written on blogging, and so created this insanely useful list for bloggers of all niches and topics. Whether you've been blogging for years or whether you've just started your journey & are feeling a little overwhelmed, these tips are bound to help you on your way.

1. Read, re-read & update your About page.  

When I look at the traffic stats on this site, my About page is one of the most popular pages. And I know that when I visit other blogs, I always click on their about/welcome pages to find out more about who they are as a person. Don't let the thought that is has to be perfect put you off editing yours (or even making one if you don't already have one). I am constently updating and editing mine, adding in or taking out information that is no longer relevant to my blogging journey. Your About page should grow with your blog, as should your profile picture (mentioned above).

Here are some tips for your About Page.

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How to create a custom landing page in Squarespace

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How to create a custom landing page in Squarespace

While creating my recent e-course, I've spent a lot of time researching the best tools and resources to use to ensure a smooth launch. Today I want to share with you how you can use your Squarespace site to create your own, customized landing pages without having to make use of a landing page generator site like Leadpages.

One of the benefits of blogging with Squarespace is the ability to create Cover Pages (just like this one that I made for BeautifyYourBlog.

But

Cover Pages are designed to be super simple landing pages, with just one or two call to actions. If you are looking for something a little heftier to be able to add in more images & your own custom sign up forms (currently if you want to connect Squarespace Cover Pages & their Forms blocks to Convertkit, you need to use a site like Zapier to run an integration) then a custom landing page is what you're after. I've found some super simple tweaks that you can do to a regular Squarespace page to make it look like a fancy landing page.

If, you're like me, and not quite ready to make the jump to LeadPages, then creating your own landing pages on Squarespace is a great workaround, and with just a few coding tweaks you can make it look like an actual landing page, as opposed to the rest of the pages on your Squarespace site which have things like your menu bar & header image. Convertkit (which I just LOVE!) does offer a few options for landing pages, but the customization is very limited, and I like to make my pages look as pretty as can be. That's why I have been playing around with using Squarespace pages as customized landing pages.

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India through photographs - Highlights from our 2 week trip through Goa, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Pushkar & Jaisalmar

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India through photographs - Highlights from our 2 week trip through Goa, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Pushkar & Jaisalmar

In January this year, Farmboy and I headed to India & Nepal with two friends for 18 days of backpacking adventures. We spent 15 days in India, and the last 3 days in Kathmandu, Nepal.

I will be writing travel guides for all of the places we visited, but it's going to take me a while as this was one of the most extensively planned trips we have ever done. Here is a breakdown of our 15 days:

Korea > Goa for 5 nights

Fly from Goa > Delhi 1 night

Delhi > Agra for an afternoon, then drive > Jaipur for 2 nights

Jaipur > Pushkar for 2 nights

Pushkar > Jodhpur for 2 nights

Jodhpur > Jaisalmar by overnight train for 3 nights (including a dessert safari stay)

Finally fly from Jaisalmar > Jodhpur > Delhi

It's going to take some time before the travel guides are up, so in the mean time, here are a few of the highlights of our trip. Make sure to scroll down to the end to watch the video too!

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BeautifyYourBlog - Want to find out more about my new E-course? Join me on Periscope this week!

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I have some exciting news everyone! I have been busy behind the scenes creating something very special for all of you. If you're a blogger, or have been thinking about starting a blog, this FREE course is for you!

I've spent the last few weeks creating a simple, easy to follow, 6-part course on blogging and I can't wait to share it with you.

If you've feeling a little bleugh with your online space and are looking for some inspiration, and not to mention loads of helpful tips, then you're going to love my new e-course; BeautifyYourBlog.

In this 6-part email series I'm going to be teaching you:

  1. How to build a beautiful brand around your blog
  2. How to make your blog layout really pop
  3. How to up your blog photo game
  4. How to make your most NB blog pages work hard 
  5. How to put your social media bios to work more effectively (especially Instagram!)
  6. How to use branding to create droolworthy Pinalicious photos for Pinterest

To join the course, simply enter your name and email address into the form below.

You can hang out with me and the rest of the course takers over on Twitter & Instagram (@roxyhutton) using the hashtag #BeautifyYourBlog.

Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox! The course will be going live very soon.

In the mean time, I'll be on Periscope every day this week talking all things blog. I'd love it if you joined me over there (the app is FREE to download) and if you miss me live, you can catch the replay for up to 24 hours after each scope.

BeautifyYourBlog Periscope CityGirlSearching

Click here to get the app: http://periscope.tv/roxyhutton. I hope to see you there! You can find me as @roxyhutton.

Here's to creating beautiful things together.

x 

How to avoid the overwhelm in your creative business + a Helpful Checklist

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How to avoid the overwhelm in your creative business + a Helpful Checklist

About 3 months ago I started dipping my toe into the world of online business and passive income, and goodness me, it's a whole other world out there.

The idea of online businesses isn't new, people have been producing online courses and selling information products ever since the internet first began in 1969. What has changed dramatically is the people behind the courses. No longer do you have to have a doctorate in computer programming or some other fancy sounding degree, regular people like you and me are making money selling their social media strategies in the form of webinars, workshops and coaching packages.

Sounds wonderful doesn't it? Being able to make money doing what you love. Isn't that so many people are striving to do? Striving to free themselves from their 9-5's to make more money and have more time to do the things they love?

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How to Create a Style Guide for your blog + Free Template

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How to Create a Style Guide for your blog + Free Template

I know I know, blogging these days is definitely not for sissies. If you have a blog and want to stand out amongst the masses, you have to up your game & make your blog look as fancy & professional as possible.

That doesn't mean spending a fortune, or betraying you own personal sense of style. There is space enough for all of us (from the pastel pink lovers to those who go nuts for shades of neon yellow & black) and it's your own unique sense of style that you should be portraying through your blog in the first place. You just need to do it in the best way possible to make your blog stand out while still looking polished.

So how do you do that I hear you ask?

Well, apart from hiring a fancy smancy graphic designer to do your branding, you can start by creating your own style guide for your blog. I would still suggest getting a professional to create your logo (although you could definitely create something yourself using a free online design site like Canva).

Once you have your logo, it's all downhill from there! You can then work on the rest of your branding yourself and take your blog from drab to fab. Having a style guide as a reference for your branding will make your life so much easier, and will help you to keep your blogs look & feel cohesive.

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Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream - Currently Testing & First Impressions

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Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream - Currently Testing & First Impressions

For the past week I have been trying a very exciting new addition to the Dear Klairs range of beauty products. Dear Klairs is a Korean beauty brand established in 2010 in Seoul, South Korea, and what I love most about them is that they do not test on animals and their their products are alcohol-free, paraben-free, and artificial-color-free!

The majority of their products are catered towards sensitive skins, and their latest addition, the Midnight blue Calming Cream is no exception. If you have 'patchy' skin, dry and undernourished only in certain parts of your face, then this cream is just for you!

I have tried out a number of their products (courtesy of WishTrend) and have been most impressed with them. Dear Klairs has actually become one of my favourite Korean beauty brands, and I have tried LOTS of Korean. Here are my own (always honest) reviews for the products I have tried out so far.

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Racoon Cafe in Seoul, South Korea - Blind Alley Cafe

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Racoon Cafe in Seoul, South Korea - Blind Alley Cafe

If you're from the US, chances are you're not a big fan of these furry creatures. You probably have visions of your rubbish being riffled through and your pets being harassed. But to us South Africans, this funny little creature is a complete novelty. 

We don't have racoons in South Africa, the only thing we can compare to the US 'racoon' in terms of how much havoc they wreck around your house is the vermit monkey. Most South Africans (at least those from Kwazulu-Natal) have at least 1 story of a monkey (or even a troop of monkeys)  breaking into their house, causing complete chaos with the dogs and cats and stealing any food they can get their hands on. 

I'm not a big fan of monkeys, so I can understand some of my American friends and their aversion to these so-called 'pests' but I was quite taken with these two racoons that we spent time with at Blind Alley Cafe near Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul. Obviously, these racoons are pets and so tame, I wouldn't advise anyone running up to a wild racoon and try and give it an affectionate scratch (ouch...you'll be in for a nasty surprise). 

These two racoons were very entertaining (especially the white one who was the braver of the pair).

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Island Camping in Korea...Wido Island

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Island Camping in Korea...Wido Island

This was our second camping trip to Wido Island, a small island on the west coast of Korea, accessible only by ferry from Gyeokpo.

Even though right now it's technically Winter here in Korea, I saw buds on the trees while working to work yesterday. So thought this post would be a good one to write now so that you can get planning your first Spring camping trip of the year. 

Having a dog here in Korea (click here to read more about our rescue pooch #ShadowTheJindo & owning a dog in Korea) makes it hard to travel. We do have a car, which makes our lives 100 times easier, but the accommodation is always a problem. You see many Koreans are terrifies of 'big' dogs (even though our pup would only be considered a medium sized dog in most countries). Here in Korea, he is a great big, scary wolf. and so booking accommodation is always a problem. Even the places which allow dogs usually turn us away when they catch a glimpse of him. This is why we go camping so much. This post is all about Wido Island, and one of our favourite (usually deserted!) places to camp in Korea.

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Creating a Media Kit for your Blog - Designing the perfect Media Kit + FREE Template

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Creating a Media Kit for your Blog - Designing the perfect Media Kit + FREE Template

Media kits.

Those scary things that only the big & successful bloggers have.

Those intricate pieces of design that must have cost a fortune for a graphic designer to whip up.

Are these the things that come to mind when you think of the term 'Media Kit'? Some might view media kits in this way, but I try and view a media kit as a simple 'CV' for your blog.

If you have no idea what a Media kit is or why you need one, then click here for a great post by Glamorous Glitter 

No matter whether you are a newbie blogger with only 5 fans on Facebook, or someone who has been around for a while and has thousands of followers, you need a Media Kit.. You might be a mix of the two, having been blogging for years but struggling to grow your readership & social media following. No matter where you are in the blogging game, having a media kit shows you take your blog seriously, that you are professional, and that you mean business (even with your 5 Facebook likes!).

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Innisfree Ginger Oil Cream - Review

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Innisfree Ginger Oil Cream - Review

I think what I love most about Innisfree is their innovative product lines. Every few months they release a new line of products (or at the very least a new addition to their already existing product lines) and last Autumn was no exception. As part of their fall/winter lineup, Innisfree announced a ginger-oil-centric series of serums, creams, and essences that promise to: 

make skin more hydrated, firmer, and healthier

As with most of their skin care ranges, they claim to to contain lots of of natural ingredients from the Island of Jeju. I'm sure you can guess what is extra special about this cream and what special ingredient goes into it?

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Borneo Malaysia Travel Guide: Batang Ai Lake & the Hilton Longhouse Resort

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Borneo Malaysia Travel Guide: Batang Ai Lake & the Hilton Longhouse Resort

Welcome to Part 2 of my Borneo Travel Guide. My husband and I spent two weeks exploring Malaysian Borneo. 

We spent the first part of our holiday in Kuching (2 days), moving onto Bantang Ai lake (3 days), then Kota Kinabalu (2 days) and then onto Semporna (1 day) & Mabul Island (4 days). As there is so much to say about our trip I am breaking up these posts into different parts. In this part I will be talking about Bantang Ai Lake; Part 3 I will be talking about Kota Kinabalu and finally in Part 4 I will write about Semporna & the scuba diving we did on Mabul Island.

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Great Coffee shops in Korea: Florida Cafe, Gwangju South Korea

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Great Coffee shops in Korea: Florida Cafe, Gwangju South Korea

To celebrate the start of 2016, Farmboy and I headed to Gwangju with some friends. We spent New Years eve having dinner at the popular First Alleyway (good burgers and board games!), and then headed for a few drinks and festivities at Speakeasy.

We spent New Years day relaxing and recovering from a full night of dancing (why I insisted on wearing heels, I'll never know) and then found the most AMAZING authentic burger place (one of the only places was open on New Years day!) called Burger Bridge (blog post to come soon). 

We then spent New Years day evening at Florida Cafe. I can't wait to share with you the photographs of this beautiful, modern cafe in downtown Gwangju.

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The #CGSCreative Community: FREE stock Photos & SO much more awaits

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The #CGSCreative Community: FREE stock Photos & SO much more awaits

I've been throwing around the #CGScreative hashtag on Instagram & Facebook for a little while now, and I think it's time I told you what it's all about. 

If you're already a part of my special mailing list, you will already know all about it (and you would have already received your Love Inspired photo pack..yay!).

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about but like the idea of getting beautiful FREE stock photographs to use on your blog/Facebook Page/Instagram etc. then please do read on.

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High Street Fashion Inspired Styled Photo-Shoot in Buan, South Korea

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Urban Fashion Inspired Styled Shoot in South Korea by Roxy Hutton of CGScreative CityGirlSearching Blog-05.png

Hi everyone! Not only do I use this blog to share business and blogging tips (click here to read more on that) but I also use this space to showcase my photography portfolio, especially the Styled shoots I love creating here in Korea.

This High Street Fashion shoot was shot on location in my small town here in Korea. I had so much fun working with my stylist friend Sam (who blogs over at There She Goes Again) and our two wonderful model friends, Heejoung and Stephanie (who blogs over at Hedgers Abroad).

This shoot was originally planned around the snow, but as tends to happen when you plan for a particular kind of weather, you usually end up with the opposite. So instead of soft, white snow, I got harsh, bright sunlight. But, we have to work with what we have and I'm really happy with how the photographs came out. 

This shoot was something very different to what I usually do (click here to see some of the other styled shoots I have done), but I really enjoyed the challenge. If you have any ideas in mind of a story or theme you'd like me to capture, then please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. Click here to read more about my photography and to find out about my rates. I will only be available here in Korea until June this year (when Farmboy and I head back home to South Africa...yippe!). 

The shoot would not have been possible without the following incredibly talented ladies. Thank you to all of you for all your help, for all your talents and for being so easy to work with:

And now the result of our High Street Fashion Inspired Styled Photo-shoot.

Enjoy!

Thank you again to each and every one of these ladies:

How to easily make photo collages for your blog and Facebook: A Blogstomp Tutorial

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How to easily make photo collages for your blog and Facebook: A Blogstomp Tutorial

In order to build a cohesive brand, it's important to make sure the images & graphics you share are aligned with the look and feel of your business. An easy way to do this is to share groups of images (collages) that tell a story. 

I use collages here on my blog when I want to share a lot of images, but I don't want to slow down my site loading speed. 

Using full sized images in a blog post means lots and lots and lots of scrolling for your readers. Creating beautiful collages is an easy way to make your blog posts look better, and it helps the back end of your site by making it faster to load.

In today's blog post I'm sharing with you how I create collages for my blog and Facebook page using Blogstomp.

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Dog Friendly Accomodation in Gwangju, South Korea. Hertz Guesthouse

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Dog Friendly Accomodation in Gwangju, South Korea. Hertz Guesthouse

Owning a dog in Korea is so much harder than people realise. Korea is not very pet friendly, and although this is improving, small dogs (or rather teeny, tiny handbag size pooches) are far more accepted and approved of than big dogs.

I own a 'big' dog, although he would be termed medium size in any other country. 

Shadow, my 1.5 year old Korean Jindo, is a rescue dog whom we found on the side of the road in September 2013...you can read more about him by clicking here. 

But, after lots of trial and error, I have found some great places that allow 'big' dogs that don't cost an arm and a leg and are near the popular areas of each city. It's no fun having to stay miles and miles away from where you want to be, as having a dog shouldn't be a huge hinderance.

This post is about Hertz Guesthouse, an awesome place to stay right in the heart of downtown Gwangju.

 

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10 Things to Do with your New Camera - helpful tips for all camera owners + FREE Checklist

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10 Things to Do with your New Camera - helpful tips for all camera owners + FREE Checklist

I recently upgraded my camera, moving from my beloved Nikon D700 to the fancy (and super lightweight) Nikon D750. I'm going to share my thoughts on this camera here on the blog soon, but in the mean time I'd thought I'd share with you some useful tips of what to do with your new camera.

I've also included a free checklist for you to print out to as a reminder. I have my checklist printed out and stuck up in my office at home. It acts as a mini-reminder of what I should be doing before leaving the house with my camera too (eg charge my batteries & format my memory card!).

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My blog holiday - See you in a couple of weeks!

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I'm writing this from a spot of wifi I found here in the North of Goa, India. I'll be away from my blog for the next 2 weeks, stuffing myself with curry and naan and trying to capture the beauty of this country with my camera so I can share it with you when I get back at the end of January. 

Currently I'm in Goa, soaking up the sun sea and sand but head to Delhi next to explore the Golden Triangle (Agra and the TajMahal, Jaipur and the Jodhpur) from then it's west to JaiSalmar where we will be staying in the dessert before finally heading to Nepal for our final few days.  

If you'd like to follow our adventures, pop on over to Facebook (@CityGirlSearching) or find me on Instagram (@RoxyHutton). I can't wait to share my photographs of this incredible place when I get back.

See you soon!  

Roxy

xxx

 

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