An Attempt to Be More "Others-Centered."

The past week or two, I have been thinking about the article I mentioned a few months ago, about being an others-centered blogger. I love writing about our adventures here in Hawaii and I have lots of fun posting outfits {that hopefully inspire you!}, but it's also been on my heart to develop some ideas for ways to help my readers, connect with them {you!} better, and also promote some of my favorite hard-working creatives. So here are a few things I've come up with.

{one} I've been blogging for over two years and have run a handmade biz for almost a year. I am still learning and in so many ways, I feel like a total newb. But, I have learned so much in that time and I want to share what I've learned with you. So, I'll be writing a blog series called {What I've Learned}

 (real original title, right?) I'm going to cover topics like blogging, handmade biz, inspiration, packaging and photography. Let me reiterate that I consider myself far from an expert and I'm a bit hesitant to even do this series, for fear that I would be perceived as considering myself one. But I threw out the idea on my Facebook page this weekend, and got some great feedback, so I'm going for it. I'm also considering having some guest posts on things I know little about like... organization. :)

Look for the first {What I've Learned} post next week! 

{two} I love introducing you to my sponsors each week, and I hope that you enjoy finding new shops and handmade businesses to get to know! But as I surf the web, I find myself daily discovering shops that I'd love to share with you. In order to make more room in my posting schedule for sharing new shops with you, and give myself more time for writing those posts, I am going to change things up a little bit with my sponsorship. 

From now on, I'll be offering feature posts for the large ads only. Small size sponsors will get an ad spot on the sidebar and will be mentioned in a monthly group post instead of a feature post. This will allow me to bring in shops that I've found every now and then and bless them with an unsolicited feature. 

{three} I want to get to know YOU better! I do my best to visit your blogs and reply to your comments, but I know there are still many of you who lurk in the shadows, or who I have just not had to chance to get to know. So I created a survey to get to know you better. Even if you have never commented before, I would really love to hear from you. I promise to visit your blog if you leave me a link! All questions are optional.

I have also included a few questions about your likes/dislikes about my blog. Obviously, I write this blog for Chris and me, but I also like to see what you enjoy reading. So let me know what you think!

Click here to take the survey! 
**Survey closed! Thanks for participating!**

Pssst... If you don't have a blog link, please leave your email so I can respond! Mahaloo!

{By the way, I had a really awesome survey created in Google Docs, but it would not show up in live form no matter what. So instead, you have this boring looking survey. Oh well.}

So those are three major changes I am making to strive towards becoming a more others- centered blogger. I'm constantly learning as I go, and it certainly is a fun journey!

What are some ways you strive or would like to work towards being an others-centered blogger?

lindsay