Podcast sponsored by: Today I'm joined with the amazing Marianne Manthey. Marianne is a designer and has her own blog where she shares tips on how to make your site just that little bit better. As well as having design tips on her blog, Marianne also has a book out called: Blog Beautiful: 50 Tips + Fixes to Make Your Blog Glow! Marianne started a Facebook page early in 2013 for her blog to share things whilst her blog was being set up. She was doing her Facebook page for six months before her blog launched in July, and she gained 100 followers in this time. designyourownblog.com's aim is to teach women how to design their own blogs. Also to show people how easy it is to do customizations, learn design, learn more about different styles, ect. Marianne wants to share all of these things with her readers and that's why she created her book. Blog Beautiful has all of her thoughts on design inside. She needed a place to pull all of these thoughts into one and put them in order and work through with people - where to start, what's next. [tweet_box] "There's a lot of people who want to learn how to do things themselves. They're in the DIY mindset." - @marianney [/tweet_box] Questions I Asked Marianne 1. What made you really step up before your site was ready? 2. Before we get into the site and the blog, fill everyone in with what you do during the week?  3. When did you officially launch the blog?  4. What's the premise behind it? And when you launched it, what was the plan and direction you wanted to take it in? 5. How do you manage all of this?  6. What were some of the challenges or obstacles that you faced in growing this? Any advice? What would you recommend to somebody?  7. With the writing, did you use a tool like Scrivener or Evernote? 8. Have you thought about publishing it as a physical?  9. How long did it take you from concept to sale?  What You're Going to Learn [tweet_box]"You don't need to wait for everything to be ready or perfect to get started, you just need to take action." - Kim Doyal  [/tweet_box] Where you can connect with Marianne Website | Facebook | Twitter