A few years ago, I began my Katinalindaa blogging journey on Blogger. I never thought I'd say this, but yes I am finally coming over to the big, beautiful world of WordPress.

I've honestly been thinking about this decision for over a year. There's been lots of reasons for the delay, but I am now ready to commit!

I kinda feel like explaining the reasons why I'm moving and why I've been a bit slow.

WHY I DIDN'T WANT TO MOVE
One of the largest reasons is probably my lack of expertise when it comes to all things WordPress. I actually attempted the migration a few months ago and it was honestly the biggest headache. I temporarily lost all of my comments, nothing looked pretty and it was basically all destroyed. I panicked, deleted everything and decided - not today.

I liked how my blog looked. I've been very happy with the vibes of my blog which is why it hasn't really changed much in over a year. I tried my absolute best to make my blog look like I was on WordPress and as least Blogger looking as possible.

Money, money, money. I'm a recent uni graduate and have been scraping my money together. I didn't have the money to pay someone to do the move for me, to pay for hosting, to pay for pretty themes (Which I have now solved - yay).

WHY I AM FINALLY MOVING
The biggest solution to my problems was when I stumbled across Tine's services. Basically, Tine is heaven sent and is handling the entire move. Therefore, I don't have to deal with any scary processes. If you're looking to do a migration, Tine has been lovely to work with so far, so you should check her out. Definitely worth ze money!

I want to be legit. I feel like there's so many things that I can't do on Blogger. I sometimes feel like I can't move to that next level in blogging because my platform stops me. I don't want any more excuses because I'm sick of saying 'Oh, I can't do that on Blogger'.

I also feel like there is a bit of a negative stigma against Blogger. I always have conversations with people and they go a little like this.
"What platform are you on?"
"I use Blogger!"
"Oh.."
Enough is definitely enough!

THE MOVE ITSELF 
The migration has started and as a result, my blog will be out of action for a few days. I'm estimating to be finito, polished, doneskies by next week. Fingers crossed.

I'll be back with a brand spanking new website, new blog post and new motivation to keep powering through with content. In the meantime, be sure to email me at katinalindaa@gmail.com if you have any questions about my migration and thoughts, or any blog post requests.

Let me know if you're excited for the relaunch - I can't wait!! x



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As you kind of already know if there's one thing I love doing, it's giving you solid blogging advice or tips. I've done so many different posts here on the blog about how to improve your blogs, photos and other general stuff. But, I now want to take things even further.

I came up with the idea of creating my own Etsy shop called Blogging Resources by KLR which you can find here. Basically, I'm now able to create some E-Products and sell them to you guys at mega affordable prices.

I truly know the struggle of wanting to be able to learn everything and then I find a course which is some ridiculous price of $300+! No way can I afford that and I'm sure that many of you can't as well.

So, here is my very first E-Product - A Blogger Media Kit Template for Beginners. It's a one page template that you can use in either Microsoft Word or Photoshop.

In the actual document, I list pointers of things you can mention and I also include information about how to access your blog statistics through Google Analytics.

This is only a one page media kit so it is great for those of you who want a good starting point to begin talking to brands.

I've priced this first template at $15 and I hope you guys love it.

What's after this? Well, I'm going to make more in depth media kits and after that, I have a crazy big idea where I basically want to make a one stop shop advice book with insanely in depth details for everything you need to start your own media kit from scratch.

I am BEYOND open to feedback and I cannot wait to hear your thoughts or ideas for my bigger project xx


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A couple years ago I started blogging. I didn't really know what I was doing and it took me a long time to learn quite a few things. Now that I have this extra knowledge, I absolutely love creating these tip and advice posts for you.

Today, I present to you Four Tips for Beauty Bloggers. Even though I say that this advice is for beauty bloggers, this post can really be adapted to other bloggers too. I really hope that you find some value in this post and I'd love to hear from you if you have any other questions.


#1 - Know Your Worth 
There are lots of things that I could mention first, but this in particular has made me quite upset lately. Of course it's in the nature of blogging to receive 'freebies' from PR companies or brands, but let me tell you! It's an old expression, but it rings 100% true. 'Nothing in this world is free.' You have to know your worth.

If someone wants to send you a product for editorial consideration (eg: if you really like it, you'll write about it, but no guarantees), no worries. This happens to me all the time and I am incredibly thankful because it's virtually impossible to use your own money to keep on top of all of the new products or trends. But, if you let brands dictate to you and basically send you 10 requirements, you have to realise that isn't fair. They're businesses, and you should treat your blog like a business. Don't let them demand things of you. Blogging is your online space and you should have control.

If a product doesn't fit you, don't feel pressured to write about it either. Trust me when I say that this was something that took me a while to learn. I thought 'ooo look I can get X for free if I just do X'. Overtime, I realised that so many products weren't suited to what I wanted to write about and my audience probably doesn't care about X anyway. Looking back I made so many cringe worthy, forced looking posts. I definitely went through and deleted a whole heap of them because they just made me feel dirty.

#2 - Don't Rush Your Photography
This year I posted my ultimate Five Steps For A Perfect Flatlay which you can read here. Reading that post, you'd know that I am all about photography and taking my time. Especially if you're using natural light, make sure you do it at the right time of day. Don't try and smash out photography just before the sun goes down because all of your pictures will be looking mighty blue and no editing can fix that.

Take your time. Figure out what time of day you have the least shadows, the best natural light etc. Play around with your arrangement. Take a photo, look at the arrangement again, and keep on going. It usually takes me around 5 tries until I'm happy. You can take as many pictures as you like until you get a perfect one, but if you only take one picture, pack up your stuff, look at the photo later and you're unhappy with it - ergh! Worst feeling. It took you so long to set up and you still aren't happy with the end product.

#3 - Proofread
One of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started blogging is that I felt sort of anxious when I finished writing a blog post. I hated keeping it as a draft and as soon as I proofread once, I just published the post and let it go. Big. Mistake. It's great to prepare your posts in advance because if you get busy you already have something to put up. But also because it seriously gives you endless amounts of opportunities to double check everything. I've now gotten into the habit of editing and proofreading as I write my initial post. When I think I'm finished, I proofread probably another 3 or 4 times. It does sound strange but I recommend reading out loud. After I have published my post, I proofread once more and if the post is gigantic, I might even ask my boyfriend to take a quick glimpse as well.

#4 - Network 
To be completely honest with you, my favourite thing about having a blog is being able to network and meet other amazing bloggers. But, if you live in an area where you don't have many events, understand that networking doesn't have to be in person.

You can easily network over the internet, I mean hey, here we all are! Comment, share, engage with other bloggers posts. Try break the blogging-friend boundary and you might actually make some great friends, not just great blogging friends.

What are some of your tips for beauty bloggers or other bloggers?



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Finding new blogs is one of the most exciting parts of blogging to me. Being able to see and read new content is really inspiring. It also presents more opportunities to network and make friends.
When I first started, I found it a bit difficult to know where to look, to find more blogs. I've recently been on a following rampage because I found so many great ones, so I thought i'd share my Five Ways To Find More Blogs To Read and Follow.

HOW DO I FOLLOW A BLOG? BlogLovin'. If you're new to the blogging world as a blogger yourself, or a reader, you need to sign up to BlogLovin'! It essentially lets you 'follow' blogs. Every time a blog that you follow uploads a new post, it will come up in your BlogLovin' feed, which is mega simple to a Facebook Newsfeed. If a post doesn't look interesting, you can say mark as read and move along. If it does, you press the post and it'll instantly direct you to the full blogpost.
WHEN DO I FOLLOW A BLOG?  For me, there are a few reasons. Of course the first reason is because their blog is so damn beautiful, that I can't keep my eyes away. Their pictures, style of writing, everything just pulls me in. 
Sometimes, it's because some people post amazing reviews. They are ridiculously in depth and informative. I know that if I follow this blog, I'll always turn to them for the latest beauty news. 
I want to live vicariously through them. This is especially relevant to food and travel blogs. I just want to live their lives, really.
Because I want to build a relationship with other blogs. Once and awhile I stumble across blogs and just think, hey let's be friends! This is probably one of the most important ones to me. I usually like to follow blogs that are really engaging, because yes, I want to start a convo.
WHERE TO FIND MORE BLOGS TO READ AND FOLLOW  #1 - BLOG COMMENT SECTIONS This is probably what I do the most! When I find a blog that I absolutely looooove, I always check out their comment section. I figure that because I love this blog so much, obviously some people commenting have great blogs too. Once and awhile, I'll just madly open 10000000 tabs of blogs and scroll through. Then, follow the ones I like on bloglovin.
#2 - WEBSITES WITH DATABASES // LISTS OF BLOGGERS  Here in Australia, we have this magical website called Beauty Directory. I myself am one of their expert panelists *wink wink*. Before I was a panelist however, I mainly used Beauty Directory to find other blogs. They have huge lists of blogs, with a bit of about me information and a link. Same thing here, I open so many and end up following some. 
#3 - TWITTER  I follow quite a few bloggers on Twitter and I keep my eyes peeled about who they're talking to. I find quite a few good blogs here! Most of the time the ones I find on Twitter have really good copywriting skills - not sure if that's a thing or just a trend that I've noticed. If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, click here.
#4 - INSTAGRAM Most of the time when you follow an incredible instagram, they'll have a blog. It's happened so many times where I didn't realise. I'd follow someone on instagram, constantly like and comment on their photos, without checking their bio. Once and a while, I stumbled across gold! Some people forget to promote their blogs on their instagram, so chances are, check their bio and you might strike gold. If you're curious about my Instagram, click here.
#5 - LOOKING AT MY FAVOURITE BLOGS AND WHO THEY FOLLOW ON BLOGLOVIN' This is one of the best ways to find really high quality blogs. On BlogLovin', each blogger has a profile for themselves and their blog. If you go onto the personal BlogLovin' of your favourite blog, you get to see who they follow and who they save posts from.
Hope that this gave you some inspiration to find some great new blogs!
Where do you like to find new blogs to follow? What are 2 of your favourite blogs of the moment?

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Hello friends! It has been a while since my last This and That, Chit Chat so I thought it was about time for another. If you're unsure about what this series is, it's basically a little talk that I'll be having with you guys every so often. 

Let's start off with the most exciting update, I'm going to Europe! For those of you who don't know me, I am half Filipino and half Austrian. My grandma still lives in Austria, so every year we try and hop over to see her and the rest of my fam bam. The last couple of years we've gone around Austria, Germany, Spain and Portugal, so this year we're mixing things up. We'll be going to Hungary and the Czech Republic, with a few days on the end of our trip in Dubai. I'm so excited and do not worry my friends, you'll be updated daily on my instagram here and there will also be more in depth posts when I get home. Oh and also, still expect to see two new posts a week on Wednesday's and Sunday's because of course, I can't leave you without some new content.
When I get back from Europe, I'm going to graduate from University. I am so pumped to finally close another chapter of my life and move onto a new one. For those of you who are curious, I studied Marketing at Monash University. My hope is to either work in a digital marketing agency, work within the field of travel marketing or get into marketing within the beauty industry. If you're currently studying in University or College, or about to embark your journey, I have quite a few advice posts which you can read here.
Nothing too much else is new with me other than lusting over all of the makeup and clothing that I currently can't afford. To all of my Australian's living in the cooler parts of Australia, how cute is all of the Autumn and Winter clothing!? I really want to get more earthy toned tops and jumpers! When it comes to makeup, next month I'll have a post coming out about brands I need to try more, so keep your eyes peeled for that. 
What's new with you :)?

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After blogging for a couple years, I think that I have finally figured out five steps for a perfect flatlay. What fun would it be to keep my tips and tricks to myself right? So here you have my five steps to achieve a perfect flatlay. I hope that this post helps you improve your flatlay skills and gives you a good insight into the world of blogging, if you don't blog yourself. 
Oh and before we get into it! Remember that you can click any of these photos to make them larger, just incase you want to see exactly what's going on, up close.

STEP ONE - YOUR FLATLAY 'STUDIO' First things first, you need a place to take your flatlays. I take mine on a spare piece of kitchen shelving,  right in front of a window. Underneath a higher window can work well too, just try not to get too many shadows. This is because the key to a good flatlay is lighting. The best sort of lighting for a flatlay, is of course natural lighting. However, there are those terrible days throughout the year, especially in winter where photography can look completely off during the day time. In these circumstances, I use a ring light. The particular one I have is from Fotogenic. There are heaps of other alternatives, so do your research  if you'd like to try out artificial lighting. You can also try making your own form of artifical lighting. For example, my boyfriend has made me a DIY photo box which I really like for taking photo of arm swatches, all year round. I find that it brings up the true colours of the swatches better than natural light. 

STEP TWO - PROPS  This step is definitely optional. If you want to take a flatlay of products without anything else in the frame, just scroll down to number three. To me, this step takes your photos to the next level. Products can sometimes look a bit boring or dull if they're on their own, so it's always good to have props! One question I get a lot of the time, is where to find props. I usually start off with homeware stores and pick up nice plates, placemats and wooden boards. I also pop into arts and crafts shops to get some paper that will add a bit of texture. Of course like many others, I too dabble in the fake flower department which I find really accessible, even from $2 shops. One important thing about props is to make sure you don't go overboard.

STEP THREE - SETTING UP THE FLATLAY Okay now that we have our flatlay studio and our props, it's time to set up the flatlay! What to flatlay you ask? Anything your heart desires! For me, it's 99.99% beauty related. I love taking flatlays of my makeup for that day, or a combination of makeup and other beautiful things I want to share. 
There's more to a flatlay than just plopping everything down on a board and taking a photo. You need to play around with the arrangement, a lot. There are different ways or styles of flatlays. Here are a couple examples I've grabbed from my instagram. 

Stacked up is you guessed it, placing products on top of one another. In my opinion this works best when you have a lot of the same item. 
Lined up is essentially, making lines of the products. I typically do this, but I then take the photo on an angle. The products are all in order and pretty, and then I like to throw it off.
Mixed up is what I call an organised mess. This is probably the hardest to do actually because you need to try mix up the arrangement so it looks like there isn't any pattern or reason. I know that sounds easy, but it is quite challenging. Before taking your actual photo, just open up your camera and see if everything fits in frame how you'd like it. If it doesn't, rearrange until it does. 
STEP FOUR - TAKING THE PHOTO  Guess what? You do not need a fancy camera. Every single photo you have seen here on my blog, my instagram or any other of my social media profiles since mid year 2015, has been taken with my LG G4 phone. Yep, that's right, a smart phone! 
In order to take good photos from your phone, you need good lighting (which you'll already have from step one). Another key thing is to wipe your camera lens!!! So many people skip this step and their photo looks washed out or blurry because of clumsy finger prints. It's so simple, just give it a quick wipe and your photo will honestly go from 0-to-100 real quick.
Now, actually taking the photos! Here are a few examples of how I set up the flatlay and tried shooting from a couple different angles.


STEP FIVE - EDITING THE PHOTO  Firstly, I move my photos to my computer and open up Photoshop. All I do in Photoshop is use the curve tool. From the image of the curve, you see a little square dot. I pull it up and left depending on the photo preview and that's it. What curves does is it removes shadows, brightens up the photo in a really natural way and makes the background more true white. Also, you might see that I'm running Photoshop CS3. Definitely old school, but still fine by me.
Occasionally, if the background appears too blue, I'll move my picture back to my phone and use Snapseed's temperature or Facetune's whiten tool to adjust it.
I then save my photo and upload it in PicMonkey which I use for adjusting the highlights and contrast. Photoshop does allow you to do this aswell, but I personally just enjoy using PicMonkey. 
When I'm in PicMonkey, I also like to use the crop tool and straighten tool. PicMonkey is also completely free, so I definitely recommend you check it out. Sometimes I skip Photoshop and use PicMonkey all together. 

Annnnd that's it! Save and upload away.
FINAL WORD Creating the perfect flatlay is not a quick process. You might want to rush it, but I really recommend that you don't, You have to remember that if you up the brightness, you need to up your contrast or decrease your shadows to balance the image and the colours. 
The aim of editing isn't to make things look too far from truth. When I edit a photo, I try to imagine what it looked like when I took it. Not from what my camera showed me, but from what my eyes saw. Enhance the original image to make it clearer and more pleasing to the eyes. Don't use these tricks to the stage where all of your products are washed out and indistinguishable (unless that's your thang). 
Please also remember that this style of editing with the bright white background is only my personal preference. 
Before I sum this up, here is a final before and after. The before is straight from my phone camera and the after is of course, after every tip you've read here. 
Good luck :)
How do you take your perfect flatlay?  Are there any other tips posts that you'd like to see from me?

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Lately I've seen lots of bloggers do weekly, fortnightly or monthly catch ups with their readers. This really inspired me to do the same! So hello to a new series called This and That, Chit Chat.
Basically I'll be filling you in about my life, the blog, my instagram, ideas, goals, random thoughts, so anything that comes to mind really! 

#1 - HELLO POST SCHEDULE After using this blog for a solid year now, I think it's about time I introduce some sort of order. From now on, you can expect a new post every Sunday and Wednesday. If there's ever anything that I'm too excited for or if you have a request, I'll definitely pop in a couple extra posts, here and there.
#2 - The recent katinalindaa instagram changes  If you're following me on my instagram here, you may have noticed that the past month and a bit I've been trying, really really really hard to mix up my content. I'm beginning to throw in lots of more food and 'travel' posts. I say 'travel' and not travel, because sometimes it's just me exploring the city or going on a one hour drive. But sometimes, it might be something far more exotic and exciting. The reason for this mix up is I just feel like I have a lot more to share than just beauty. You guys seem to be liking it, so thanks for that! I'll slowly try to integrate more food and 'travel' here on the blog too, hopefully!
#3 - I still don't have my license - urgh  I'm 21 now and in Melbourne, Australia, you're able to go for your license at 18. To say that I'm a bit slow in the driving department is probably a bit of an understatement. Don't get me wrong - I have driven and I like driving. I just always forget too. Like it isn't instinctive. For example, my parents will want to go out and I just hop in the backseat without even giving it a thought! I always end up kicking myself when we get home thinking, I should have driven and gotten more experience so I can go for my test - ah! So, I was wondering.. Do any of you have some tips / motivation to help me actually remember and want to get behind the wheel!? Before I start full time work, it's pretty much number one on my to do list because I really don't want to limit where I can work because I can't drive there and I can only use public transport. 
#4 - My skin has definitely gone down hill for now For many years I've been battling against my acne and sadly it is currently winning. Usually in summer my skin improves because the sun helps get rid of any nasties, but the weather in Melbourne has been so temperamental that it's really, really unhappy. I feel like this month and the next is going to be filled with skincare experiments, so expect to see quite a few skincare posts. 
What's new with you?  What are your thoughts about the post schedule and katinalindaa instagram changes?

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There are so many blogs out there these days and I'm sure I'm not the only one that finds it hard to keep up with my bloglovin feed. But, there are four particular bloggers that I always make time to read their posts. 

First up, probably my closest blogging friend Ash from The Beauty Collection. She is the queen of swatches and if you ever want to be tempted into buying beautiful new collections, Ash is definitely on top of it. Whenever I want to see whether something limited edition is worth it, I just hop over to her page because chances are, she's got it and she's made a post about it. 
Next, someones blog that I have been reading for what seems like forever. Sarah from Morethanadored was definitely one of the inspirations that made me want to begin a blog of my own. Something about Sarah's posts are just so incredibly genuine and you can tell that every post up on her blog is useful and wasn't just written because she ran out of content. You can expect to see beauty, some bits of fashion, food and advice pieces on More than Adored.
Kat from Kitschsnitch has an incredible blog. Kat's blog definitely sways a lot of my purchases. One thing that I really enjoy about Kat's posts is that she is really knowledgable. Many of Kat's posts include a variety of photos including product information and ingredients which will definitely be helpful to many of you that have allergies of some sort. Kat's blog is also great to share some beauty products that many people don't usually talk about.
Kiara King from Lion in the Wild has the ultimate one stop shop sort of blog. All of her content is amazing and she talks about incredible products. Every single post that Kiara puts up, you can literally see all of the effort she goes into and her content is always something different, keeping her blog very interesting. Kiara has an incredible taste in beauty and fashion, and she also shares many advice posts as well.
What are some of your all time favourite beauty blogs? Follow  instagram | twitter

This week, I reached out and asked if you had any questions about university or studies. I was so happy that quite a few of you came up with great questions, so todays post is me answering them!  
Bit of background information, I've just concluded my Bachelor of Business Marketing with a Distinction average. Didn't drop the grade for the sake of it, promise! Just wanted to let you know incase you were wondering 'ok so why should we listen to you Katina?' - so hopefully that justifies a few of my answers, right?.. You still don't have to take any of this advice of course! Just take whats meaningful to you and work with it. 
Warning: incredibly long, in-depth post!

WAS THE TRANSITION FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO UNI HARD? & HOW TO ADJUST TO UNI LIFE? I won't beat around the bush, yes it is. But don't fret, that's just all a part of the journey. Theres two parts that I found difficult. 
#1 Independence. In high school, you're used to having your teachers remind you that things are due. You usually get told a while in advance and receive your almost weekly reminders. At the beginning of every uni period, you're given a booklet for each subject. Inside along with lots of other information, you receive your assessment details and due dates. Your tutors and lecturers will probably also give you a couple reminders, but that's it. It's up to you to know when your things are due across all of your subjects. 
My tip: At the beginning of every semester, write down or create a word / excel document. Put all of the weeks of your semester, and write down when you have things due. This gives you a super clear indication of your busy periods that semester. Seeing everything down on paper or in a visual form will really help you plan out your assignments so you don't forget anything
#2 Friendships. At high school, you're used to seeing all of your friends, every day. Sadly, university is nothing like that. You go to your class, and leave. If you're lucky, you'll strike up a friendship with some people and take that friendship out of the uni zone. You'll find though lots of 'friends' that you make in university are temporary, unless you really work on them. You'll have your constant university friends throughout the years that you see in class with and bond with. but trust me there's lots of people you meet for one semester and next semester, your friendship has almost evaporated! 
Unless you make the effort, it will also be difficult to keep in touch and see your friends from high school. It's really funny because in high school you think that there's so many people you'll remain friends with and as soon as everyone is thrown into the big world of university, 'you see who your true friends are'. It's super cliche I know, but if there's that friend or two that you saw cracks forming during late high school, chances are you won't be friends for much longer. Not because bad things will happen, but because you grow up and realise that if people are impacting your life negatively, you just don't have to put the effort in anymore. You're no longer forced to one social circle because those are the people you see every day in and out. There's no pressure to stay in a friendship group if it doesn't work for you! Friendships should always be a two way street and if people never reach out to you, or always make you feel crap, then what does that say? 
My tip: Do your best to make friends during university as early as possible. I stupidly waited until my last year to make really good uni friends and I honestly regret it. If you click with people, ask them out for coffee or lunch. See how they are outside of uni and you might have those friendships forever. 
Know who makes the effort and who doesn't. Like I said, true colours come out. You and your friends from high school will all have your own university, work and social circles forming. It will be hard to see everyone and you'll see overtime who your true friends are. If people treat you like crap and don't want to see you, please don't waste your energy. 
HOW TO GO FROM 9-3 HIGH SCHOOL DAYS TO A UNI TIMETABLE  This is such a good question. During high school you're used to your routine of 9-3, you get home do some homework and repeat. Because uni is so incredibly open, you can find yourself having only a few days at uni a week, a few hours at a time. 
My tips: Everyone is different but when I get home after a day of uni, I like to do that homework straight away. I do my readings, my homework and assignment prep that day or the next so everything is fresh and it gives me virtually a whole week to ask questions. That way, I knock off a subject and I know exactly how much spare time I'll have that weekend. If you leave everything to the last minute, you're probably going to run out of time and your work won't be as great.
HOW DO YOU JUGGLE UNI WORK AND BLOGGING WORK?  I'd say that I'm pretty lucky because I am an organisational freak. I love lists and planning ahead, so it works to my advantage. 
My tips: As I mentioned earlier, try get down on paper when your busy periods of uni are. Try work on your assignments earlier. If you have an essay due in week 10, start looking for articles in week 5, reading through them week 6 and jot down your ideas by week 7. That gives you a solid couple of weeks to then write your paper. When it comes to blogging, do the same! Note when you have busy weeks at uni or because of other life commitments and try plan ahead. When you have a quiet week, go all out with ideas and content and just schedule your little heart away. And hey, if it's too much, take a break from blogging!
HOW TO JUGGLE ASSIGNMENTS + EXAMS  No matter how much you organise your assignments during the semester, if you still have some assignments due later on in the semester, you're going to panic a little because of the upcoming exams. So, it's not only important to just organise and plan for your assignments, but also exams.
My tips: Start your exam notes early. Exam notes are typically just a summary of everything you've learnt through the semester. After every week, just spend 30 minutes to an hour of summarising your textbook, articles or anything else you've learnt at uni that week for a subject. It seems really annoying, but at the end of the semester when you still have so many things that are due and you have to start thinking about exams, you'll honestly thank yourself (and me haha).
HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED & HOW TO GET GOOD GRADES? At the beginning of every year or semester you usually start off super motivated to do really well. Sadly, that motivation does drop! The busier you get, a couple bad grades here and there and you start thinking 'whats the point - p's get the degrees' 
My tips: Remind yourself why you're at university. Uni isn't supposed to be easy. There's a tricky grade system for a reason. You're supposed to push yourself and it's supposed to be challenging. You're paying such good money to be at university and to learn as much as you possibly can. If you have a few unmotivated weeks and your grades start slipping, it's going to be hard to chase up good grades later on in the semester. It can also really impact your graded averages. Just tell yourself that if your grades decline and you fail, that's more money out of your pocket! The more units that you fail, the longer time you have to spend at university re-doing them - which i'm sure you don't want to do! Work your butt off, get in and get out of university, onto better things! 
HOW TO GET A MARKETING INTERNSHIP (or any internship)  Internships are so important. If you go to a university like mine that is incredibly book based, by the time you graduate, if you don't have any internships under your belt, adjusting to the real world can be really difficult. I had three internships this year and they were all equally as important. They teach you how to apply what you've learnt and they help you understand more clearly the particular area you want to work in. For example, marketing is a HUGE area. There is so so soooo many aspects of marketing, and therefore lots of potential jobs. Going through my internships, I learnt that I want to focus on social media marketing and digital marketing, in particular content creation (who would have known that it would align so well with my blog, right?) 
My tips: Ask around. Your immediate connections are the best way to start looking for an internship. Alternatively, go have a look around Google or if you're in australia, Pedestrian Tv. They have heaps of good internship opportunities, many at start ups or more creative sides of businesses. Before accepting any internship, make sure you have a good look around for reviews. Please please pleaseee don't just accept whatever internship comes your way because unfortunately many businesses can use interns to do all the rotten work and just turn them out. Interns in, interns out. Some don't care for you and your development, and just use you for free labour. Aussies, check Glassdoor because they often have really good reviews.    WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO STUDY?  Again, this changes for absolutely everyone! At the beginning of uni, it's all trial and error. The first semester, try a few different techniques for different subjects and you'll see what works the best for you. Some people need to write everything by hand, record themselves speaking about a subject, or like me, I have to write everything up into word and then get that bound into my own little book for exam revision.
Thank you so much to everyone who asked a question for this post. I really hope that I answered your questions well and that this post can help you all.
If you missed out on asking me to talk about a topic or couldn't leave me a question before, feel free to leave any additional ones in the comment section.
What's some of the best study advice you've ever given, or been given? 

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Most of you know me as Katinalindaa the blogger. But today, I wanted to post about something a little different. To kick things off... Hi guys. I'm Katina and I'm a final year marketing student. 
Over my three years of university, I've never really been one to go for the typical P's get the degrees and I've definitely worked my butt off from day one. Not to say there's anything wrong with just wanting passes, but my mind set of university was to make sure that I leave with atleast a distinction average. All of us are different, and that's totally fine! Every semester I think I begin to further understand what works for me when it comes to studying and getting good results for those crazy, stressful exams. I also think that I've picked up a bit of knowledge about how to make the most out of your university experience. 
This post is going to be filled with my Top 5 University Tips. If you're not intending to go all out and don't want to see some crazy girl go into her crazy methods and tips, close this window now.

I often get questions about my instagram and how I got my followers. Today, I'll be sharing with you my tips and tricks on how to gain more followers using these hacks. And no, they aren't physical hacks that will increase your instagram following by a click of a button. Growing your instagram following is a slow and worthwhile process. At the end of the day, it's really all about understanding what your audience wants and ensuring that your photos are so amazing that they have no reason to not follow you. Here are my tips.
#1 What do you want to post? Before you can post anything, you need to know what interests you. What do you enjoy taking photos of and what things do you want to share with others? For me, it started off with beauty and all I did was take photos of things in my collection. I posted flatlays, swatches and closeups. Overtime, this progressed and I now post lots of different content but they all revolve around I guess my 'theme' or colour scheme which I'll move onto next.
#2 Be consistent. By consistency I mean, if you have white borders around your photos so you can fit in the whole picture, stick to it. Or if you use the straight up square format like I do, stick to it. If you combine the two once and a while I'm sure your audience wont mind. But if you're constantly changing up the borders, appearance, colour theme and filters, your feed is going to look very very messy and unappealing to new potential followers.
#3 It's mostly all in the photos. Okay so here is where we get a little nerdy and my crazy photo obsession comes out. I am so so so so picky with the photos I take. This really has a few subcategories so here we go:

• Background: I opt for mostly a white background and use prompts like magazines or textured paper. Whatever background you choose, it needs to highlight what ever you're shooting. If you use a background that's too loud, your content will become lost
• Lighting: NATURAL. LIGHT. When I first started my instagram I opted for artificial light and I originally thought it was bees knees but now I realise it's definitely not the way to go. I personally find the natural light best around 1-2pm after there aren't any more shadows. I'm a full time uni student so I try to get all of my photos for that week done on one day

As you can see here some of the colours here are washed out and
the reflecting light is pretty distracting = do not do.

• Focus: So many people forget that when you take a photo, if you touch the screen on your main object, it actually focuses. If you take a photo out of focus, there's honestly not much you can do! 
• Don't just take one photo, take many: Nothing is more annoying then setting up everything you want to take a photo of and later realising that something was in that photo, that you really don't want to be there. Or, that you took it from the wrong angle. You can always delete photos, so take as many as you'd like! I usually take 5-10 and review as I go to make sure I have the exact photo I want
• Take photos in square mode: When you take your photos if you know 100% that you want that pic up on your instagram, take it in square mode. This way you know the entire picture fits and you won't have to result to cropping anything out later

#4 Edit to enhance, not distort. Editing is supposed to enhance the photographs you take. Not make the picture look ridiculously sharp or grainy. For me, whenever I edit photos I up the brightness, iighlights, contrast and lessen shadows to make the photo appear to have more depth. I usually do this through the Instagram app. I used to use many other applications to edit my photos but really now all I use is Instagram, Camera+ and occasionally Afterlight.
#5 DEM HASHTAGS. For me, whenever I post anything on instagram I chuck in the tag #bbloggersau and #melbournebloggers. This way anyone searching these hashtags will be bound to find me. A good tip with hashtags is put the most relevant ones in your actual description and then as a comment to yourself on your own photo, paste the rest of the hashtags from a list you have on your phones notes. Whatever you decide to post, suss out other hashtags that people use. The only hashtag I used in the actual description was covergirl and the rest were hidden
 in my comments, so now if you scroll through you don't see the huge list. 
#6 Do NOT buy your followers. There are many services out there for what I like to call desperados who refuse to put in the hard work with their instagram and result to these buying services. If you ever wanted to look like a joke this is exactly the way to go about it. People and brands aren't dumb. If you have an instagram following of over 10k and you are barely scraping in 50 likes... I don't have to see a receipt about how you purchased these followers... It seems pretty obvious to me. How have you gained more followers? What are your Instagram tips?
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Today I embark on my third year of university and I thought what better but to begin with some inspirational & motivational quotes; especially if some of you are going back to school / uni today.