Thoughts on turning three and a $2,000 birthday giveaway

This blog turned three last week. I can’t believe it! For fun, I thought I’d take you back to the Interiors Addict that was, back in 2011, on Tumblr. This was when I didn’t even call it a blog! My first ever post was about displaying single stems of flowers and this shot was taken three apartments ago. Ah, the memories…

I like to think I had good taste from the start however and could spot a rising star. Here’s one of my first interviews with Darren Palmer, way before he became the big TV star (and I’m glad to say friend of mine) he is today.

After more than a decade of working as a journalist, mostly in print (and initially resistant to going online, can you believe it?!), I remain fascinated, excited and obsessed with the immediacy and potential of online publishing.

Here are  few of my blogging highlights this year:

• Being sponsored to go to the Milan international furniture fair this month
• Having my apartment featured in Home Beautiful
• Helping uber interior designer Greg Natale write his book
• Having created a business that’s established enough that I can work overseas for six months (this comes to you from London but we’re off to Amsterdam today)
• Expanding the team beyond just me, with the addition of editorial assistant Olivia Shead
• Two fab 7 Vignettes reader events with Darren Palmer in Sydney and Melbourne (where Block twins Alisa and Lysandra made a guest appearance).

So, three years on, Interiors Addict is on its third new look, it has more readers than ever (around 80,000 each month), continues to grow month on month and I’m making more money than I ever have, doing something I ADORE. Although I’m delighted, I’m still very much on the journey and not ready to rest on my laurels any time soon! The next year, like the last one, will be all about growth and improvement.

Although I’ve of course just listed all the good bits, it’s definitely not all glamour and I mainly share the edited highlights on Facebook and Instagram! You won’t see many pics of me with no makeup and working in my PJs at home, but that happens a lot! I have the same stresses at tax and BAS time as the next person, I’m rubbish with numbers, I sometimes worry WAY TOO MUCH about work stuff, I also worry too much about what other people think (but I’m getting better at it), and I really should switch off from social media a little more often.

If I’ve learned anything about creating a successful blog and business, it is realising just that, that it is a business. It requires a level of professionalism and setting yourself high standards, being organised, doing things properly, thinking like a business owner, constantly diversifying, improving and looking to grow and be sustainable. While yes it’s all very well going to fancy parties, getting goody bags and PR and being featured in magazines and the like, this is not what pays the bills and gets you a following big enough to be able to charge money for ads and sponsored content that enables you to make a living.

I’d love to do this for free but frankly, I can’t! And the fact that it’s a business makes me strive to keep improving all the time. And I always make sure I think about you, the readers (customers, if you will), and what you want to read about. I still get that buzz when I discover something I know you’re going to LOVE or I finish a great interview which I know will inspire and motivate some of you to follow your dreams and get into the design industry.

My ultimate business advice is, and always has been, work hard and be nice! Simple!

I am full of gratitude and thanks and still full of passion for this blog, and its readers, and making it even better, even more than ever. I won’t single people out for thanks because I like to think I appreciate them all year round and I don’t want to miss anyone! You know you are!

So please follow your dreams. I certainly never EVER thought I’d end up doing this for a living!

To celebrate turning three, I’m giving one of you the chance to win a massive $2,000 online homewares shopping spree! Find out all the details on the blog tomorrow!