Blogger Spotlight: Nia Patten Looks

This week, we have Nia from Nia Patten Looks taking part in the Blogger Spotlight interview.

If you would like to take part, and your blog is under six months old, or has been re-launched in the last six months, please email me randommusings29@gmail.com

1 Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself

My name is Nia Patten, I’m a beauty blogger, and I live in Cardiff, South Wales. I have  two little girls and I work as an NHS dentist.

2 What is your blog’s name and what is it about?

My blog is called NiaPattenLooks. It’s a beauty blog where I review makeup and skin care. My goal is to really put products through their paces and give my brutality honest opinion. I try and write with humour and make beauty accessible to people like me, busy mums who don’t really have time and money to waste.

 3 Why did you decide to start a blog?

A friend of mine was doing a dog blog and was really enjoying it and she inspired me. I had had my second child and had time to kill while sitting and feeding her. There’s only so much Candy Crush Saga you can play, I wanted to do something creative and a beauty blog seemed like a fun outlet.

 4 Do you have any goals for your blog?

I would love to increase my following. Just keeping it going long term would be an achievement. Life is busy and I’m really hoping that my blogging doesn’t get shelved because I have to concentrate on important (boring) stuff like laundry and cleaning. To get to the 2 year mark would be my main goal. Of course to be nominated for an award and get sent products through the post would be fantastic. My main goal for now is to continue writing.

 5 Tell us one random fact about you

I nearly lost my arms down a lift shaft when I was two years old on holiday in Greece. Back in the early 80s, the lifts in Greece didn’t have doors (can you imagine such a thing, health and safety didn’t exist). I was holding a ball which I dropped, it got sucked into the lift shaft and I went to grab it. My little arms got caught. Luckily my dad pressed the emergency stop button or I would be a paraplegic now.

6 What is the best piece of blog related advice you have received so far?

Write good content. You can employ all the SEO tricks in the book but if your writing is boring or full of typos no one will want to read it. Write from the heart and take your time to reread and double check. Always produce content to be proud of and the rest will fall into place with much more ease. I’ve heard this advice time and time again and I think it really holds true.

7 What is your favourite thing about blogging?

The friends I’ve made. I feel like I’ve made real relationships with bloggers who I’ve never even met and that’s a wonderful thing. We check in with each other daily and offer each other support, not just support with blogging issues but also on a personal level. Blogging makes me feel connected to the wider world. Sometimes when you’re a mum to small children you can feel isolated and focus so much on the house and kids that you can lose your place. Blogging has brought me out of my comfort zone and out of my shell.

8 Is there anything you would do differently if you were starting over knowing what you know now?

I wish I hadn’t started out on wordpress.com. I started blogging without much prior research or forethought, I just dived in and started writing. Maybe that’s a good thing because if I had spent too long deliberating then nothing would have happened at all. I do wish I had spent a wee bit of time checking out other publishing platforms and figuring out my USP. WordPress (.com) is very easy to set up but it’s also quite rigid and there’s a lot of things you can’t do on it. I know some day I’ll have to go through the hassle of moving over to self hosted.

 9 Anything else you’d like to share with us?

Shameless plug- if you want to know which product to get and don’t have time to shop about and don’t have money to waste, check out my blog, it’s chock full of honest reviews. I have a “holy grail” section on my menu to guide you to the products I really think are worth the money.

 10 Where can we find you? (blog link and links to any social media)

My blog- http://www.beautyblogwales.com

My Twitter- http://www.twitter.com/niapattenlooks 

My Facebook page- http://www.facebook.com/niapattenlooks 

My Instagram- http://www.instagram.com/niapattenlooks 

 Thanks so much Debbie for having me on your blog X