Online Lives: Meet Tracey Smith of mumsmakeupbag.com
Tracey Smith from Mayo has been blogging for over a year.
She juggles her writing with her day job in marketing and being a mum to four children aged between two and 16. Her
husband, Kieran, is a chef.
The 36-year-old from Mayo writes on mumsmakeupbag.com about topics such as parenting, lifestyle and reviews.
“I write about the kids, our lives, nostalgia, beauty, lifestyle and product review,” she said.
“On my blog, I post a mixture of the same, including memes, bargains, products that my readers may find interesting. I also share a lot of bloggers posts.”
Tracey enjoys helping other bloggers as she has found the community to be very supportive.
“Honestly I am still blown away by how helpful they are to newbie bloggers like myself. We all learn from each other.”
She enjoys interacting with her readers on social media and finds it a useful tool to direct traffic from her many followers to her website.“My main platform would be Facebook and Instagram, I also use Snapchat, and Twitter. Obviously, all of these are used to bring traffic towards my blog.” she said.
“I would use social media most of my day between the blog and my work and then personal browsing. I enjoy the interaction I love to see people comment on my posts and share and just enjoy what I post.”
Tracey, who has a Masters degree in marketing, works in marketing and advertising for a pharmacy chain and said the skills she is learning as a blogger have been useful for her career as well as her personal life.
“I believe having my blog was a huge factor in gaining my current employment. Blogging has had a hugely positive impact on my life, I use writing as a form of therapy.”
Overcoming her self-doubt led to Tracey becoming more comfortable as a writer.
“I had to put the very much Irish thing of ‘what will they think of me?’ to the back of my mind. There is also the intruder syndrome, which most creators have.”
She says anyone who would like to start a blog should stay true to themselves and become aware of the different areas.
“Read blogs, know what angle you want to take with your blog. Be unique, use your voice, nobody else’s.
“I wouldn’t have done anything differently. I have made mistakes, I make mistakes and I learn and grow from them. I love my older blogs, they are raw, lacking in confidence but they all came from me and my unique voice.”
