Tracey in Maine

Howdy friends! The other day I shared this watercolor pencil painting I did in my sketchbook:

I had a few requests to do a tutorial so I thought I would for our beginner tutorial this week. I have been posting beginner (probably over explained but I just want to make sure even beginners can follow along) tutorials on Wednesdays and I hope they are useful:) Let me know if they are just too simple or if I hit the mark:)

Photo credit: thescranline. If you like baking check them out. Their Instagram account is fabulous! (I don’t bake so I follow their IG account for the pretty photos and they encourage fan art!)

Supplies: Affiliate links used. Watercolor pencils and paper from Arteza *Use coupon code FRUGAL10 for 10% off if shopping on the Arteza Website.

• Arteza Expert Watercolor pencils (also on Amazon)
• Arteza Watercolor sketchbook (also on

Today’s post is all about writing that great post. The one that is going to attract new readers, build trust with the old ones, and engage every one who stumbles upon your blog to comment…

We’ve already talked about writing a blog post in 15 minutes, which is a great skill to have, and we also tackled the issue of being consistent.

Consistently creating great contentis the backbone of any blog.

First of all, you should know that this happens to us all.

Inspired by a great idea, you sit down ready to write the best blog post ever. But as you progress, your enthusiasm fades away. You’re not sure what the problem is, but the piece is not coming together the way you thought it would.

You put your head down and keep writing, but you begin to realize that you’ve got a complete mess of a post on your hands.

OK, let’s relax, take a deep breath and a step back, and run through this quick checklist to see what happened…

After months or even years of thinking about it, you finally decided to start your own blog. You sat down at your desk, maybe planned for a few hours, gathered your thoughts, and punched the damn keys.

Feeling a bit nervous, a bit excited (you weren’t sure what you were feeling) you eagerly waited for stuff to happen. After all, it’s all about writing and clicking on that blueish little Publish button, is it not?

Well… the feedback you receive is the kind that makes 95% of bloggers quit. Soul-crushing silence. That’s enough to break even the toughest warriors.

What happened? Where did you go wrong? Where are all the readers?

Mistakes. That’s what happened. I know, because I’ve been there. I made my fair share of mistakes. Some of them I even fixed. Now I am working on making new ones.

But let’s just focus on the…

Think of some famous, long-dead person you genuinely admire. Think of this person’s life. What made them worthy of your admiration?

Can you sum up this person’s life in one sentence?

I bet you can.

Yes, the saying is jack of all trades, master of none, but it’s better than master of one, but the truth is that we often spread our resources too thin to become successful at any one thing.

Is your blog like that?

How long does it take you to explain what your blog is about?