Boots Shoes and Fashion : Meet Linda, in the Women Over 50 who blog series.

Guest Post.

Hello Everyone!

My name is Linda and I’m a blogger at Boots Shoes and Fashion.

I live in Essex, in a small village just south of Colchester.

By day I’m a cosmetic/retail merchandiser.

I’m 53, am happily married to Adam and I have 5 children aged from 12 to 28! I have one daughter who is the 2nd eldest at 24 .

My eldest three have all left the nest – my eldest is a professional chef; my 2nd son is currently in his 3rd year at University studying animation; my daughter works in a hotel as a Food and Beverage Supervisor.

Boots Shoes and Fashion

My blog, Boots Shoes and Fashion, was started in July 2012. It started off being a “traditional” shoe and fashion blog, ie talking about styles, what’s in the shops and online etc.

By January 2013 my blog started to include interviews with fashion designers and my friends who just happen to be in that industry.

I found that I enjoyed interviewing people and that the feedback was positive that nowadays it is an interview style lifestyle/fashion blog where I profile many inspirational people from around the world as well as doing the odd review and fashion feature too.

I’ve never had a career involving shoes funnily enough – fashion, hosiery and make up yes, but not shoes!

I’ve worked as a hairdressing salon junior; in sales and marketing for a
fashion company and a make up company; I’ve run my own children’s clothing company selling via market stalls; I’ve made & sold earrings; modelled hosiery; and my current career is as a retail merchandiser based in the top UK supermarkets specialising primarily in cosmetics.

I don’t have any particular favourite interviewees – they have all been fantastic guests. I’m a bit of a book worm so I have particularly enjoyed chatting to my author guests from Carol E Wyer to thriller writer Simon J Stephens; the artists Jane McAdam Freud & Niyaz Najafov were fascinating;

I love the zany personalities of model Debi Jones, Rosemary Conley CBE, photographers Nina Junger & Tom Cairns; TV personalities Celia Sawyer & Alex Proud and the Miss World 2014 contestants; and fashionistas that blew me away including shoemaker Kevin Garlick, Tiannia Barnes, Bizi Buenos Aires, Milly J Shoes, Goldgenie & Designer Linda Blissett.

It was also a great honour to interview Mo Endfield (wife of “Zulu” director Cy Endfield) and Tony Porter (founder of London Fashion Week). Not forgetting my fellow blogging friends too..

My favourite social media is Twitter – don’t know why really but I
just enjoy tweeting!

The most popular social media outlet when it comes to attracting readers to my blog is Facebook. My least favourite is Instagram – I’m not on it, I don’t like using hashtags if I can help it and I’m not really interested in it!

My fellow bloggers think I’m missing a trick by not being on it but … I
protested about using Pinterest a few years ago and labelled it “boring” then I was dragged kicking & screaming into the 21st century by a blogger friend and now it’s in my blood! I’m also on Flipboard, Mix and most recently, Camooni.

What do I like most about blogging?

I enjoy writing, reading and socialising – through blogging I have
been able to utilise my love of the English language; I enjoy reading and blogging has introduced me to such a fabulous range of different blog genres that I read blogs instead of magazines; and I made so many “blogging friends” around the world which I have found fascinating.

My 5 Top Blogging Tips

1. Write about what you know or about what you are genuinely interested in. Your enthusiasm will rub off and emit from your blog, making your posts a pleasure to read
2. Blogging is 10% post writing, 10% research/administration; 80% networking. Your current blogposts should be shared on a daily basis at least once. Try to stick to a schedule that suits your life eg posting every Friday, posting 3 times a week, once a month etc.
3. Don’t neglect those archive posts – post them on a regular basis too! If they are time sensitive, update them to make them relevant.
4. Without sounding like the Grammar Police, don’t forget to proofread and spellcheck. I am an English blog and I spell according to UK English rules. Occasionally, I use American English only if I’m interviewing an American company.
5. Visit other blogs and share their posts on social media too – they don’t have to be the same genre as yours. Share the love!

If you’d like to read more about boots, shoes and fashion, then pop over to Linda’s wonderful blog : Boots Shoes and Fashion