Interview with Shauna Mackenzie (Founder, Best Kept Self) : Journey of a Professional Blogger

Never underestimate the power of a powersource "Woman". Women Power is booming on eAskme and here I am glad to introduce you withShauna Mackenziefrom bestkeptself.

Women makes world a better place. Today I am going to introduce you with one more power bloggerShauna Mackenzie.Interviews are the great way to know person, her struggle, life journey and achievements. It make all of us strong and also give inspiration to create our own world of happiness.

Interview with Shauna Mackenzie (Founder, Best Kept Self) : eAskme
Interview with Shauna Mackenzie (Founder, Best Kept Self) : Journey of a Professional Blogger : eAskme
This is the 15th edition of powerful, successful and inspirational interviews in the series of Journey of a Professional Blogger, interviews on EASKME.com.
  1. Interview with Leticia Perez
  2. Interview with Jennifer Peaslee
  3. Interview with Kari
  4. Interview with Deborah
  5. Interview with David Leonhardt
  6. Interview with Marisa Sanfilippo
  7. Interview withSasidhar Kareti
  8. Interview withRomano
  9. Interview withSteve Counsell
  10. Interview withAlex Young
  11. Interview with Paul Manwaring
  12. Interview with Sef
  13. Interview with Maxwell Ivey
  14. Interview with Sarah Taher

Today we are going topublish interview with aprofessional Blogger,Shauna Mackenzie (Pro-Blogger and Writer) fromBestkeptself.


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Please share about yourself and your story to enter in blogging?

Eight years ago I started an image consultancy. I knew that one of the fastest ways to grow my credibility as a consultant was to share my expertise online in the hopes that it would lead to sales. I started with a blog that I was only active on about once a week. As my business evolved and I added more people to my team, I took more and more of my consulting online which led the evolution and founding of Best Kept Self, a lifestyle platform for busy professional women who are not only looking to boost their image but their health, wellness, and mental wellbeing.

Instead of focusing on providing services one-on-one, I decided to take the route of setting up a more robust media site that would pump out content on a daily basis and create a community online for women to connect on these topics.

This led to the launch of Best Kept Self in May 2014 and my platform started with myself and four other experts that we call The Collective who specialize in writing on topics in their subject areas of expertise. I absolutely love being able to sit down and write about topics that have made a difference in my world and get the feedback from others that it is affecting their world as well. I think the biggest part of our success is having other writers who share the same vision we do of Best Kept Self.

bestkeptself Team : eAskme

How the idea to make your own blog came in your mind? How you found the right people to develop it and what big obstacles you faced?

I feel like I answered this in the previous question so I'll try not to overlap but the idea sprung from being passionate around certain subject areas. I personally had taught myself wordpress over the years and had always been compiling an online collecting of styles, layouts, and aesthetics that I loved in other people's blogs and websites. I used a private Pinterest board to collect ideas. Once it came time to build out the site, I was able to take those ideas and search for a layout that I wanted to apply to my own style. Developing the site was not hard but ensuring that it was user-intuitive can be difficult when you're the one who has stared at it for hours on end. It's imperative that you seek outside assistance and feedback to ensure that it's as user-friendly as you want it to be and that you are clearly guiding users on a path that keeps them wanting more. The biggest obstacle we've had is keeping the website up to speed, literally. We've had major issues in terms of site speed that have needed to be addressed ongoing and since there are several variables to that issue, it's an ongoing process.

Can blogging really change someone`s life?

As someone who believes blogging changed mine I can't help but think it could change the life of another person as well. I think people appreciate and find an incredible amount of fulfillment being able to share themselves and express their ideas and opinions on a platform that aligns with their vision. And especially hearing and seeing the feedback of the audience ... that's what is truly inspiring on a day to day basis. Blogging is a way to help change the lives of others and knowing that your effort to put content out there on a regular basis can do that is pretty awesome in my opinion.

What are your favorite Internet marketing tools?

There are several tools that keep our blog running smoothly. I especially love SumoMe plugin and also PopUpAlly. I also use leadpages quite a bit for when we need quick landing pages and opt-in bribes. For social media, I rely on BufferApp and Tweetdeck to help me stay engaged and sharing a wide variety of content.

What is your daily schedule? and how do you maintain your tasks?

My daily schedule is different each and every day because blogging is not my only entrepreneurial activity. Part of my day always includes browsing our own content for the day to ensure everything looks perfect and as it should before it goes public. Then, I spend time ensuring that I've lined up the new content in my social media schedules for the next couple weeks. Of course, email inquiries, blog promotion, and managing the editorial calendar are always ongoing tasks.

Blogging have different definition for different person. What is it for you?

Blogging means to me consistent publication of content about articles and topics that are aligned with a target audience. This blogging content can be in the form of pictures, articles, videos, or other media so long as it supports a consistent and authentic message. I also believe blogging is much more robust than people may think and can lead to huge opportunities if it's done correctly and properly scaled. I also think that engagement and building community needs to also be inserted in this definition as the entire point of bogging in my opinion is to create an audience who's engaged about the same interests you are.

Which are your favorite blogs?

Here is a list of some of my favorite blogs. I really love copyblogger, YFSMagazine, HubSpot, Social Triggers, Seth Godin, TheEveryGirl, LifeHacker, Zen Habits, Smart Passive Income, Chris Brogan, Marie Forleo, Entrepreneur.com, Fast Company, Mari Smith, Social Media Examiner, Bloggin Your Passion, LKR Social Media, Design Sponge, Marketing Profs, and several others but too many to list.

How much time do you spend on social media promotion and SEO of your blog?

I spend an immense time on social media promotion and SEO. Probably more so social media promotion. It takes several hours a week just to schedule out tweets for all of our content and that's just on our blog account, not even my personal account. Then there's FB, Pinterest, and Instagram. All of those are curated weekly. I'd say that 15 hours of our week is dedicated to social media promotion.

Each time a blog is added, we're obviously optimizing for SEO. We're also tracking everything in google analytics which is checked every day.

How much time do you spend for blogging daily?

Because of how robust Best Kept Self is, I personally spend on average 3 - 5 hours of working specifically on the blogging content each and every day. Sometimes it's more depending on what is going on but I also have a dedicated team who is incredibly helpful to getting the blogs up and promoted.

Message for Readers:

I think the most important thing to remember when blogging is to always be checking your analytics and being flexible to adapt when necessary based on this feedback. There's powerful information behind-the-scenes and in those numbers. If you're not checking it, you're missing major opportunities to capitalize on your audience in new and better ways, in addition to getting the reassurance you need that what you're doing is working.

It was a great interview withShauna MackenziefromBestkeptself
. eAskme team wish her best of luck and bright future. Her journey as a blogger is an inspiration. If you think thatit is impossible,think again. You have the ability to do anything and be what you want to be. So if you still waiting to start a blog, I must say you should start it right now.
Don`t forget to share aboutShauna Mackenzieon your social profiles. If you want me to Publish your interview, feel free to contact me.
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