stealing souls for cash

Wondering what makes a blog a good blog (and about my blog and blogs in general), I started thinking about the sites I always go back to, realizing that my favorite blogs are all written by women: women with character, substance, vision, style, authenticity and – most importantly – a great sense of humor.

Here are my top six, part 1.

Garance Doré
Garance is the coolest. She’s crazy talented, a great photographer and writer who works incredibly hard. What I love most about her is that she doesn’t take herself too seriously which is why she’s so authentic and sympathique. It’d be easy for her to be all blasé and über-cool, but she’s very down-to-earth. Although I’m not super interested in fashion, trends, beauty products etc. – I probably should be more interested, now that I’m thinking about it – I still try and look at her blog almost everyday, because she, as a person, is very inspiring to me. She started from nothing and now, only through her own talent and strength, she’s become a person whose opinion is valued by many while she stays true to herself. Not surprisingly, I have a special place in my heart for other freelance business girls like myself, and Garance is definitely a role model that I look up to.

Simple Lovely
Honestly, I wonder sometimes why I follow Joslyn’s blog. The content by itself isn’t necessarily anything that I’m very into (styling, products, updates on weekends with her family etc.). I’m not saying she doesn’t have great taste – actually, she really takes personal curating to the next level. It’s Joslyn herself who makes me want to go back again and again. I just love how she presents herself and how honest she is. She’s constantly trying to overhaul her life, live more simply, spend less etc. etc. She wants to become “the best possible version of herself,” something I think we all strive for, but: are we brave enough to let the whole world know about it? Do we post the progress (or failures) on our blog? I sure don’t and I don’t know many people who do.

Also, she’s slightly obsessive and quite OCD and I love her so much for that. Because – ha! Who am I kidding? I am totally the same! Arranging your groceries so that your pantry looks pretty? Check. Wanting to do a juice detox for years but never really getting around to it? Check. Wondering if your work-life-balance is, well, balanced? Check. I soak it all up and can’t get enough. I just wished that Joslyn’s photos had a bit more contrast to them, but it’s a minor quibble compared to the big picture.

Rollkoffer, Reisepass & Rigutto
Duh! Not only is Stefanie a great journalist (and a good friend of mine), her site is also the number one go-to place for people who leave their house occasionally, i. e. everyone. Whenever I go somewhere, I immediately check Stefanie’s blog for restaurant and sightseeing tips. She’s got a great collection of roof top bars on her blog which my travel reportages have profited from tremendously. It doesn’t matter if you’re taking a trip to the Hallwilersee or Hong Kong, Stefanie’s got you covered. Her columns which are published bi-monthly in Sonntagszeitung are a nice, more personal addition to her shorter blog posts (one of them even features yours truly, unfortunately in a slightly embarrassing way). I wrote some guest posts on Maputo, Johannesburg, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore for her blog and I haven’t forgotten that I’ve promised her another one about a cool neighborhood in Paris! It’s coming soon (definitely sometime before 2074)!

PS. Don’t forget to sign up for Stefanie’s Zurich food tour Baciami e portarmi a mangiare.

I’ve recently hit a bit of a blogging low. I don’t know what to post, I find the content lame, I think no one reads my blog anyway, so why pursue it?

Pondering this, I started reading some blogging advice blogs.

Then I got side-tracked for a couple of weeks and found awareness/mindfulness/simplicity/time management blogs. But that’s a road you don’t want to go down, because everytime you go off the internet, you think you should be more aware, serene, mindful (what does that even mean?), managing your job better etc., which is simply impossible. Not to mention, obviously there is something wrong with you, as you have nothing better to do than perusing these websites, wasting precious hours away. As a result, you end up feeling like a total loser, all the time.

But back to the blogging advice blogs. They said: You need to connect with your audience. But who is my audience, apart from my mom who checks my blog more often than I do? (Hi, Silla! You are awesome.) I honestly don’t know. So, who are the people who read this site? Please comment, or email me. Let me know what you like on here, and what you would like to read more about.

For your effort, you will be rewarded: I’ll send out a copy of Army Of One (signed by the author and with a dedication – this would make a great Christmas gift, just saying) to three people picked by the quality of their comment. Thank you! And now I’m back to wondering what I could blog about next…