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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

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July 16, 2012

Blogging Together…our number one question answered!

Recently Kathy of  a Delightsome Life asked us to share some on blogging and how we do it, we thought we’d share our post here with you today.


Believe it or not the number one question we get asked about our blog At The Picket Fence is not…”how do you come up with projects?” or “how did you get sponsors or advertisers?”

At The Picket Fence

The number one questions is: “How do you blog TOGETHER?”

 The concept of multiple blog authors is still relatively new in the blogging community.  Blogs originally were a platform for people to share their personal lives, most likely with friends and family so therefore it was a natural extension to be a “one woman or man show.”  But, there has slowly been an evolution to multiple author or contributor blogs.  For us this was a fabulous concept!


Here are a few pluses about blogging together: two brains for the price of one. double the available content. a person to automatically get to vent to, collaborate with and bounce ideas off of. a division of the labor i.e. writing posts, responding to questions and emails, working with sponsors and advertisers and communicating through social media.


Here are the minuses: lack of spontaneity. having to compromise. sharing of the income generated from the blog.


As you can see in our eyes the pluses far out way the negatives! And the added and best bonus:
Getting to work everyday with your sister who lives across the country!


So HOW then do we make this work daily for us? Well, we thought it would be fun to share a day in the life of our blog!

Heather is on East Coast Time
and Vanessa is on Pacific Time

so with a three hour difference we can cover a large portion of the day with regards to our blogging business!

Most days Heather will wake up, have coffee, have some more coffee…and fire up the computer. The first thing she does is either publish that mornings post (usually between 8-9 am) while Vanessa is still snuggled in bed with visions of posts dancing in her head…Winking smile  If there is a post up from the night before that will still be the featured post for that day, Heather will go into edit and update the date and time and update the post.  This brings the post back up to the top of people’s blogging dashboards and readers.

Next, Heather will check emails and categorize them in our At The Picket Fence Gmail account.  This is our main account for our blog, and we both have access to it online and on our phones.  With a quick scan she deletes any spammy emails, categorizes emails into their respective folders: sponsors, giveaway requests, post questions, BlogHer emails etc.  She makes sure to mark any for Vanessa specifically as “unread” and starts them so she’ll see them when she gets online.

After addressing any emails that need immediate responses. Heather switches over to our special email address where all of our comments are sent.  We decided awhile back that having two email addresses one a general and one a comment only helped us from  “losing” emails from sponsors, advertisers and business opportunities among the comments.Heather scans quickly the comments looking for questions to answer or comments that need a direct reply.


Now,  it’s time to connect with our Facebook Friends. 

We have been blessed to have so many wonderful Facebook friends (almost as many as blog followers) so we work hard to cultivate the community over there! In fact, it’s a great way to connect with us on a more personal level, so we encourage all of our blog friends to also join us over there. We try each morning to share an inspirational or funny quote, picture, etc. We also make sure to link up our blog post for the day.  We check for any private messages or new likes who have left comments and respond to those directly.

We also make sure we are utilizing all of the great resources provided by social media platforms by having our Facebook updates all post on our Twitter account automatically. While we are in our Facebook Page account we take a quick moment to scan the pages we follow to make sure we leave comments, like status updates, etc.  This not only creates a sense of community but  also increases our edgerank (i.e. how Facebook sees our importance) because Facebook likes interaction.


At this point in the morning, Heather’s coffee has run out and it’s time to focus on “real life” for a few hours.  Vanessa is now up and at ‘em with her family.


Vanessa usually jumps on the email first thing to check for new comments, and to address her emails.  She is our “email cleaner” she is good about keeping us from being overwhelmed with emails in our in box! She also will often get on Facebook as well and post something from her.  Usually something funny or cute her kiddos have done…and they are VERY funny and cute. (says their Aunt Heather…grin!)

Often Vanessa will send a quick text to Heather letting her know she’s up and to touch base on something while getting her family around for the morning.  We do A LOT of texting!!

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Texting saves our bacon when it comes to our blog. No matter where we are or what we’re doing we know we can communicate with each other.


Some of our text go like this: “Yikes! I forgot to put the linkytool link in the party! Can you fix that real quick I’m not at home!!” or “OMG you’re post today is so fabulous! I LOVE your photos!” maybe a “did YOU see the email we just got?!” Winking smile or “Can you do a Facebook update I forgot?”


At some point in the day, we will have a phone conversation. This usually consists of working through our calendar and scheduling posts or discussing working with a new sponsor, etc.


When blogging together an online calendar is a lifesaver! We use our Google calendar because it is attached to our Gmail.  It’s easy to click over and go over the calendar together and fill in our posts, giveaways, etc.  We then schedule reminders to our Gmail to help keep us on track.  On our calendar we schedule posts, sponsor shout-outs, giveaways, and keep track of our statistics.


Afternoons are reserved for both of us to work on projects, take photos and write posts. We also do lots of our post writing at night when our families are settled in for the evening. Afternoons are also when we will have a phone conversation to discuss sponsors, giveaways and advertisers.  We often split responsibilities but we both are able to handle things like billing, tweaking the look of the blog and making sure we are visiting and making the blog rounds in our community.

Vanessa will get online in the late afternoon, while dinner is going on at Heather’s house, to refresh a post again.  She will share features on Facebook, tweet some updates and answer emails. Evenings are always flexible at both our homes depending on what we have going on in our personal lives.  Sometimes we are both online at the same time, emailing featuring, pinning, and tweeting.  Sometimes only one of us is on.  The nice thing is no matter what we can be
PRESENT online connecting with our communities because there are TWO of us!


One fear we have had in this joint venture is a lack of personalization.  We are one blog…but we are two sisters.  We will often “sign” our Facebook updates, comments or tweets with our individual names so that others will know who they are talking to. We each have “blog friends” that we feel especially close to and have developed friendships with.  We never want to lose who we uniquely are. We also each have special gifts, talents and subjects we feel strongly about and want our blog to reflect our individualism as well.


Vanessa has her amazing and very personal A Labor of the Heart Series…focusing on adoption and faith. Heather has written a Blogging 101 Series sharing her passion for blogging and helping new bloggers.
And then we have fun joint series we love working on together like our Behind the Blog Series. And of course our favorite part of the week…Inspiration Friday Party! Where we get to showcase other bloggers and bask in the fabulous talent out there in blogland!


As our day draws to a close, we often will spend a few moments pinning and repining on Pinterest, which is a fun way to end the evening or tweeting with our friends.  We both have Pinterest and Twitter apps on our phones which makes this easy to do without having to be in front of a computer. Vanessa will often refresh a post one more time in the evening, or do a few more shout-outs on Facebook, making sure we are connecting with our friends in all time zones. 


And then it’s time for bed…where often our most creative ideas and blog ideas come to us when our brains are resting…which might generate one more late night text…”Hey I just had the most amazing idea…remind me in the morning to tell you!!” Winking smile

Besides are blog we also have several other collaborative projects.  We are both monthly guest contributors to Houzz.com as well as recently brought aboard as HomeTalk Ambassadors.  Needless to say we’ve developed an even closer relationship over our blog.  It’s a business…but we are SISTERS and that always comes first!

heather and vanessa
dual signature

28 Comments Filed Under: Blogging 101, Good Ideas

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Comments

  1. Wanda says

    July 16, 2012 at 11:56 AM

    very glad to have stumbled upon you two! I just joined hometalk! I am a new blogger, blog about family, life, home and decor!
    http://www.recreateanddecorate.com

    Reply
  2. Carmella says

    July 16, 2012 at 11:59 AM

    You girls are just amazing! I am so happy that even though you are separated by the miles that are between you, you still get to work on this amazing blog together! And, it truly is amazing! I have been inspired and encouraged more times than I can count!

    Thanks for sharing the behind the scenes…. Because I was one of your readers that thought, “how in the world to they do this??” now I know 🙂

    I hope you BOTH have a great week 🙂

    Reply
  3. Maury Kilgo says

    July 16, 2012 at 12:35 PM

    Sounds like you girls have it together! Not that anyone doubted that. It’s fun to get to see behind the scenes 🙂

    Reply
  4. Debby says

    July 16, 2012 at 12:54 PM

    What you do works and that’s the only thing that matters…..besides the sisterhood.

    Reply
  5. Laura @ House Of Joyful Noise says

    July 16, 2012 at 1:22 PM

    That was SO interesting to read! I too have wondered, how the 2 of you managed one blog together. I’ve always been intrigued by how you do this as sisters, because the idea of working with someone in a creative business, has always appealed to me, and I also envy the close relationship you have as sisters. Sounds like you’ve got a great system down!

    Vanessa, I read your entire adoption story yesterday. You wrote it so beautifully, and I was completely lost in it. I can’t tell you how many tears I wiped off my cheeks, shed from various emotions throughout your story. What really stuck with me, was how you mentioned (in your own words) that people say ‘babies are such a gift’, and how deep your gratitude is, when your child truly WAS gifted to you. You put it much more beautifully, but it really touched me in a profound way, to think about that. I was happy I came over to read it.

    Keep blogging on, Girls! And keep treasuring the beautiful relationship you have as sisters. THAT is a gift too, when you have a sister that loves you enough.

    Reply
  6. Debbiedoo's says

    July 16, 2012 at 1:53 PM

    I think it is pretty fantastic. I actually wish my sister and I could do this together. It is nice to be a team, collaborate and come up with fun fresh material. My sister however, works full time and can barely even read my blog. You girls are doing a rockin job. In fact, I remember when you first merged I was wondering how it would all pan out, obviously very GOOD!~:) XO

    Reply
  7. Judy says

    July 16, 2012 at 2:24 PM

    I wish I had a sister to do this with. I think it’s so super how the two of you work together so seamlessly. I enjoy your blog on a daily basis and am so honored to be able to call you my friends.

    Reply
  8. lsteckly says

    July 16, 2012 at 2:44 PM

    I LOVE this post! It comes through in your blog that you guys have so much fun together 🙂

    Reply
  9. Anne Lorys - Fiona and Twig says

    July 16, 2012 at 2:49 PM

    I think the two of you gals are just fabulous!
    I love reading and seeing your different perspectives and the way you blend it all together so seamlessly.

    Hugs,
    Anne

    Reply
  10. Debbie says

    July 16, 2012 at 2:53 PM

    I love the way you two work together. If I could get a certain sister of mine to blog with me, I would.

    As if we don’t spend enough time together…
    Good grief.

    Reply
  11. Dawn says

    July 16, 2012 at 4:58 PM

    This was so fun to read! I love how you can stay so connected and work together even though you are miles and miles apart. And you are working like crazy! 🙂

    Reply
  12. South Shore Decorating Blog says

    July 16, 2012 at 5:09 PM

    You guys really have it worked out to a T! It’s nice, too, that the blog keeps you so close. Really gun post to read!
    Stacy
    PS – LOVE the photo of you both at the end!!!

    Reply
  13. Shirley@Housepitality Designs says

    July 16, 2012 at 5:16 PM

    You two are a great team, a great “sister act”…Your blog and “business” is successful because of your extraordinary, wonderful relationship and commitment to each other and your families…You can tell through your blog that you two genuinely enjoy what you are doing, thus the success…your creativity and sincerity are a blessing to us all!….Great post!

    Reply
  14. Kristin @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia says

    July 16, 2012 at 5:26 PM

    Awesome post! Wonderful that the two of you can blog together and bond! The fact that you can do this together and spend more time with family is key!!!! Have a wonderful week.
    OXXO
    Kristin

    Reply
  15. Susan (My Place to Yours) says

    July 16, 2012 at 5:42 PM

    Great job, ladies!

    Reply
  16. Honey at 2805 says

    July 16, 2012 at 6:15 PM

    You make a fabulous team!

    Reply
  17. Lauren @ My Wonderfully Made says

    July 16, 2012 at 6:53 PM

    I’m exhausted just READING about what you do! You are both so good at your craft and it shows in every aspect of your fabulous blog!

    Reply
  18. reFresh reStyle says

    July 16, 2012 at 8:27 PM

    You guys are awesome, love this! You work so great together…do you need an older sister 😉

    Reply
  19. Anonymous says

    July 16, 2012 at 11:39 PM

    You forgot to mention that you call your mother every single day to run all your ideas by her! Yeah, right!

    Great job! Love you girls!

    Mom

    Reply
  20. Tanya Anurag says

    July 17, 2012 at 1:28 PM

    Proud Mom 🙂 and why not!!

    Girls, this is one of my favorite posts! I could actually see both of you working on your blog while reading what is written. I am not sure who wrote this (does that even matter!!) but all I know is i LOVED it! Thanks for the insight! That was really inspiring!

    Reply
  21. Kim @ La Belle Époque says

    July 17, 2012 at 3:12 PM

    This is such an awesome post and certainly is a reflection of you two sweet gals that I met at Haven. One word comes to mind…genuine. Oh, and thanks again Heather, for saving me from that strange man (aka my husband) on Friday night in Atlanta!

    Reply
  22. Bliss says

    July 18, 2012 at 2:38 PM

    This was one of your best posts. I wondered, but never asked…..and it is a great testament to making work *work* with someone you love.

    ~Bliss~

    Reply
  23. Linda @ it all started with paint says

    July 18, 2012 at 9:15 PM

    Wow, what a fabulous post and you two are so amazingly organized! I can’t get myself organized and I’m only one person …

    Love the refresh idea too. I’m going to look into how I can do that …

    🙂

    Linda

    Reply
  24. Vicki Shead says

    July 20, 2012 at 1:12 AM

    Excellent!

    Reply
  25. Konkurrence vind says

    July 27, 2012 at 10:03 AM

    Vanessa, those are precious! going to have to remember that idea so can do it with Little Man and Little Sir when they are old enough. That would keep them nearby even when they have .

    Reply
  26. MCX TIPS says

    September 12, 2012 at 6:20 AM

    good information sharing thanks for posting the news.

    Reply
  27. ניהול מוניטין פור יו says

    August 28, 2014 at 2:09 AM

    I’m gone to tell my little brother, that he should also go
    to see this webpage on regular basis to get updated from latest news.

    Reply
  28. Stacy Martinez says

    May 11, 2016 at 3:25 PM

    This post was so helpful! My sister, best friend, and I are starting a blog together. We actually had personal blogs that we couldn’t keep up with because it was so time consuming. We decided to join our efforts to make the work load more manageable. (You actually visited our personal blogs in the past! Years ago. We would link to your parties and you featured us on Inspiration Fridays: http://www.thepreciouslittlethingsinlife.blogspot.com and http://www.thepeartreecottage.blogspot.com) My question is in regards to money and taxes. How do ya’ll manage this aspect of your blogging business? How do you file your taxes? Do you have a joint business account? How do you split the profits? Do you pay your regular contributors? Sorry, so many questions! This post is so old, I’m not even sure if you’ll see this comment. If you’ve already written on this topic, would you be so kind as to provide me with a link to the specific post? If not, would you consider writing a post about this? There is very little information out there for “shared” blogs. Thank you so much!

    Reply

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I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 y I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 years now and every year I ohhhh and ahhhh over the blossoms like it's the first time I've ever seen them. I gush and I take photos (that look exactly like the ones I took the year before and the year before that) and I make my family come outside and look at them with me which you know they just LOVE to do. 😉 I think that is one of the main reasons why I love spring so much. On the one hand, it's predictable and yet, on the other hand, it still feels like such a surprise after the long months of barren branches.

And yesterday, as I was staring at the gorgeous blossoms for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but think that I hope this is how I feel when our lives return to some semblance of normalcy.

I hope that the predictable feels special and that the typical feels anything but. I hope that I ohhh and ahhh over the simple things I've realized I've taken for granted. And, most of all, I hope that feeling doesn't go away for a very, very long time! 💗
Are you living with great expectation friends? Bec Are you living with great expectation friends? Because He is risen!

Happy Easter from my home to yours!
Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for sure but some things don’t change. Have you been baking and getting ready for tomorrow? What’s one thing on your menu that you have to have every year?
If this is Good Friday, why doesn’t it feel so “good”? It all seems backward doesn’t it?

What could be good about the unspeakable pain he suffered? What could be good about the shame and betrayal?

Easter Sunday is so joyful, bright and cheery. Shouldn’t that be the day we call “good”? It just feels so much better!

But, I don’t know how to rejoice over His resurrection, unless I have felt the pain of His death. I have realized that in life the sweetest victories are the ones which were realized after a pain-filled journey.

And, so it is with Good Friday. I know there will be victory over death, but I can’t skip ahead in the story.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what he would experience. And he knew why he would go through it. He did it for me. He did it for you.

Do you know that? Have you felt it down in the very core of your soul? 
Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit. Why would anyone do that for me?

Well, because, I can’t do it for myself!

There is nothing I can do to earn that kind of love and mercy.

That is why it is called GRACE.

His grace is freely given. We don’t have to pay for it. He paid the price for us already.

Do you remember that movie from years ago called “Ransom”? A couple’s young son was kidnapped and the parents went to hell and back trying to find him and pay the “ransom” demanded by the kidnappers.

Well, Jesus is our “ransom”. (1 Timothy 2:6) His life was the payment.

Why is it called “Good Friday”? Because that wasn’t the end of the story….
.
…It was just the beginning!
Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house that’s become the landing zone for ALL THE THINGS! 🙋🏻‍♀️🤪 I’ve never been more thankful for our rarely used dining room table as it’s become command central for school books and laptops and games.

Where are things collecting in your house right now?
“Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every si “Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every single one of these emotions has made their way through our home in recent days and, my guess is, they have in your home too.

I SO needed this reminder today from the new book ‘Adore’ by @sarahagertywrites.

Adoration isn’t just sitting at His feet gazing longingly with stars in my eyes. It’s bringing my fears and my sorrows and gray roots in my hair that desperately needs to be colored and my messy house and all of the things that threaten to send me over the edge right now and laying them down before Him, soaking up His word and His presence so that when I stand back up, I am changed for having spent the time adoring the ONE who is... Healer, comforter, peace-giver, deliverer, redeemer.

What do you need to bring to Him today? I’ll share mine in the comments and I’d love to hear from you too!
I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole lockdown thing began, I’ve come to appreciate this time of day even more.

It feels the most...normal. Daytime is strange and foreign right now. My husband has taken over our home office, I’m suddenly taking over the responsibility of managing my kids’ distance learning and let me just say that teaching 7th grade algebra to my daughter is hugely ironic since I struggled with math all the way through school. I’m trying to do my own work but it feels utterly futile with the constant interruptions which take precedence right now. In the daytime, I’m constantly reminded of how upside down life feels.

But, in the evening, I cook dinner like I’ve always done and we gather around the table like we’ve always done and we laugh and tell stories and then clean up and play games or go on a walk or watch a show. And that feels SO gloriously normal.

So now I love evenings even more than I ever did before and I’m so grateful for this little chunk of time where the rhythms we established years ago are helping to sustain us now when so much of life feels outside of our control.

What feels ‘normal’ to you right now? Whatever it is, keep doing it. 🌿
When I was in college I would frequently call home When I was in college I would frequently call home and pour my heart out to my mom, sharing with her all that was happening in my life in that completely unfiltered way that you can talk with the person who potty trained you. These phone calls usually took place at night and my mom would patiently listen as I vented frustrations about professors, roommates, boyfriends and the food in the cafeteria. And, inevitably, they would end with my mom saying, “Everything seems worse when you’re tired. Try not to overthink things or make any major decisions tonight, especially when you are feeling emotional.” Dear friends, may I pass along this advice to you today?

If you don’t absolutely HAVE to make a decision right now, I want to encourage you to wait until life gets back to normal. If you are finding yourself over-analyzing relationships and family dynamics, I want to encourage you to remember that everything seems more dramatic when looked at under a microscope. And, let’s face it, being homebound with our loved ones non-stop makes us all feel like lab rats in an experiment.

If you are tempted to quit a job, start a business, start homeschooling permanently, stop homeschooling permanently, move to a new city, buy a farm, quit pursuing your dream, join a commune or make any other major life decision just…wait. Because, if it is in fact the right decision, it will be made even clearer once our lives return to their ‘regularly scheduled programming’. Instead, in this strange season, let’s all just take a deep, collective breath and let it out slowly, releasing the anxiety that threatens to overtake us. Let’s help each other maintain some perspective and not slip into a posture of over-thinking every little thing in our lives. Let’s remember that the enemy of our souls would love nothing more than to use this time when things feel dark to manipulate us into thinking that aspects of our lives are worse than they actually are.

My prayer for you in these days is that you will have the clarity to know what is true and that you will be filled with peace even while we live in this season of so many unknowns.
Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking thes Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking these days! 🙋🏻‍♀️ I’m trying to avoid gaining the #corona15 but my daughter and I LOVE baking together and it does help to pass the time plus it counts as a science lesson right?

If you’re able to find flour in the stores (for the love people please stop overbuying!) and you’re doing more baking at your house too you need to add this apricot bread to your list of new recipes to try!

Normally I’d point you to my blog for the directions but I’m going to do you a solid and leave the full recipe in the comments.

What have you baked so far during this time of social distancing? I’d love some new ideas!
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