If you’ve admired the bad-ass graphics and design of any of my websites, you’re should direct your compliments to Vail Joy of FutureNoir.net. Vail is the epitome of a grymm & epic businesswomen, running her creative design studio out of Slovenia, where she can indulge her bird-watching obsession and attend as many metal festivals as she wants, the lucky wench.

Over 18 months ago I was thinking about updating my Steff Metal site and sent out a message to all my readers asking if anyone knew of a good designer. Vail answered the call and I’ve been bugging her with projects ever since. She’s friendly, super easy to work with, has the BEST ideas (have you SEEN my Cthulhu-themed copywriting packages? That’s all Vail’s work), and I recommend her to everyone I know planning a website – especially if you’re even a little bit alternative.

Vail’s come over to Grymm & Epic today to talk about being a creative freelancer, money managing tips, and how to find the time to get to all the best heavy metal concerts.

Firstly, we just want to know who you are, and what you do. Can you share your journey from mini-Vail to FutureNoir?

Well, I am a transient cat herder and long-time lover of music, but make a living as an independent writer and designer. FutureNoir is a niche design studio focused primarily on web solutions for the creative industry – music, authors and artists.

Read On…

I‘ve been thinking a lot recently about what to do with this blog. In the beginning, I was bursting with excitement about writing it. I made this EPIC list of everything I thought you might want to know about starting your own creative business, and I set about trying to write it.

I was stoked to be able to help you. I’ve learned so much since I began this journey, since I first sat down after landing my sensible, adult job after university, and decided I wanted to give this writing thing a go for real. I wanted to share this adventure with you – I wanted to be there with you on your own journey, because I hate missing out on all the fun.

But the problem is, you see, I’m getting tired of the sight of my own words. I wanted this blog to be a community, but I’m destroying any by making it all about me, me, me. What I learned. What I believe. How I do things … blah blah blah.

I feel like I’m talking without saying anything meaningful, without putting anything in its right context, without telling a story.

I may be grymm, I may be epic, but mine is not the only way. And I don’t think either of us is actually learning anything from my blather. And, truth be told – I live my business every day. Talking about it, instead of doing it, is boring to me. I’d rather learn alongside you.

SO, let’s learn together.

Read On…

You’re addicted to blogs. You frickin’ love blogs. You read blogs every day – cute blogs, sassy blogs, funny blogs, intelligent blogs. Blogs about your favorite things and blogs about strange people who make you feel slightly uncomfortable and blogs consisting only of pictures of animals made out of cheese. And all these blogs are making you wish you could start your own blog. You have no visions of grandeur, no desire to be an internet entrepreneur – you just want to create a blog that people will love.

Or maybe you’ve got your great business idea – you’ve created a high-quality product and defined your service and decided you’re ready to launch yourself onto the big, wide world. You’re bursting with ideas and a need to connect to people. You’ve heard about this blogging thing and you know a blog could introduce your awesome business to the world.

But you don’t know where to start. All the other bloggers out there are so much cooler than you. You keep hearing about all these blogging rules and you’re absolutely terrified you’ve going to mess it all up.

You’re afraid to start your blog, because people might hate it. Because you might inadvertently break the rules, and everything you do stays online forever. You can’t click undo, can’t erase it. You think “What if I say something wrong, and scare all my customers away?”

But most of all, You’re scared shitless that you’ve got nothing to say at all.

You are not a blogging failure

Hi, I’m Steff Green, marketing copywriter and blogging fairy, and I want to help you to blog like the awesome person you are.

I’ve been blogging for over seven years now, and I’m going to let you in on a secret – there are no secrets.

“My mind is still boggling from the quantity
of information in this ebook. But it’s not only quantity,
it’s real quality as well. An ebook that will be ‘next
to the computer’ for some time as some sort of a
compendium, because there is so much to learn!

Totetextiles Etsy shop

Seven years ago, I didn’t even know what a blog was – in fact, I had no desire to be a blogger at all. I was going to be an archaeologist. Bugger that fact that I’m, quite literally, blind. I was going to dig up the secrets of the universe.

That was, until I was coming up to the end of university, and I was desperately searching for a job. I had perfect grades, months of volunteer experience under my belt, a killer resume, and contacts in the digging biz. But no one would return my calls. The archaeologists were happy to have me along as a volunteer, but as soon as I wanted a paycheck, they went quiet.

Then the cincher came – a job came up at the museum I was volunteering at – a job I would have been perfect for – and I ran to tell the director I wanted to apply. I’d expected him to be happy, but he shook his head and said. “I’m sorry, Steff, but I can’t hire you. I can’t have someone with your eyesight at the museum – what if you have an accident?”

I was devastated. I wanted to rip my museum volunteer badge off my chest and stab it in his perfectly decent eyes, so he might know what it felt like to suddenly feel so woefully inadequate. I cried for hours, until my husband told me it was time I stopped feeling sorry for myself and figured out what I wanted to do about it.

I realized I never wanted to hear someone tell me I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t want to work my ass off for years only to prove to people like that curator that I could do the job. I realised that if I was going to be happy, I’d have to do things my way.

And so, a blogger was born.

I didn’t know anyone I could talk to about blogging – I was just a blind girl with a crazy idea, and I knew the only person who was going to make it happen was me. So I started reading everything I could find about blogging. I analyzed popular blogs and not-so-popular blogs, tearing them apart in my head and figuring out how they worked. I talked to hundreds of people about what they like and don’t like on a website. I spent six months writing down ideas before I even brought my first domain name.

I didn’t have instant success,  but I had the determination to succeed. Over months and years I built my blogs from nothing to thousands of readers every day. I wrote my first ebook and watched the little sales pop into my inbox. I went “squee!” as my little online empire grew and grew, and over the years, that voice in my head – the voice of the curator who said I wasn’t good enough – that voice faded, and was replaced by a new voice - my own.

I want you to find the same success through your creativity that I’ve experienced. I never want you to feel like you’re not good enough, that your happiness depends on someone else. I want you to experience the freedom and the joy and the exhilaration that running a blog can bring. I want to help you get past the initial scariness, so you can move on to the magic.

And, I’m going to let you in on another secret. Everyone makes blogging mistakes. I’ve made my fair share, including choosing the completely wrong topic for my first blog. Yep – I got bored after six months, but it was doing so well I had to keep going. By the time I finally pulled the plug, that blog was so dull I’d driven away all my loyal readers before I even had the chance to tell them about my awesomer blog.

(And, if you need further proof there are no rules, note that I just made up the word ‘awesomer’, and used it, and no one’s thrown a dictionary at me yet).

Please don’t throw a dictionary at me.

So yeah, I know a thing or two about not feeling like you have anything to say, and even more about making mistakes. But now I know even more about blogging. As well as tending my own blogs, I write blog posts and set up blogs for small business owners and non-profit organizations. I write blogs for people who know they need a blog, but don’t – for whatever reason – have the time or skill to write their own.

But you do, because you’re awesome. And you can clearly see how rewarding blogging is, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this page. And that’s why you’re just the person who needs the Grymm & Epic Guide to Blogging.

Read On…