oh hey, friend!
anjali here.
I’m a New Zealander who is obsessed passionate about blogging, storytelling and helping women create kick-butt blogs.
I’m here to help YOU create the blog you’ve always wanted (and do it with confidence! ) through 1:1 blog coaching, courses and resources.
Grab a cuppa, and have a read about how we can work together to get you to a place with your blog that you’re super pumped about.
And you can learn a little bit more about me, and how I got to where I got to. It’s a goodie, promise. 😉
my story ... the short version
The short version of my blogging story is this: one day a friend said I should start a blog. And I did.
And that was over 10 years ago now, and I’m still here. 👋🏻
But now I help other women create their blogs and grow them into something they’re really proud of.
I absolutely LOVE working with bloggers and small business owners to create content that speaks to their audience and brings in new readers, and even new customers and clients.
In 2020, I decided to take all my experience and knowledge about the blogging world and offer blog coaching, blog courses and even a blogging membership to better serve the bloggers I was already connecting with.
Now I’ve been lucky enough to work with over 200 people in some capacity, and I am excited to connect with YOU and help you grow YOUR blog.
so tell me.
are you ...
Writing your blog posts and plugging away at your blog, and while you think it’s pretty good you know something ISN’T right.
You’re getting the odd view here and there but for the amount of time and effort you’re putting in, you’re not getting much back.
You often sit down to write a blog post but have zero clue what to write to actually engage your audience.
You need more ideas so you can find the sweet spot between sharing what YOU want to share and finding what your audience actually WANTS to read.
Coz that was me once. Okay twice.
Okay multiple times in my blogging life. I got so frustrated trying to increase my readers, to share with them the cool things I had written and was creating … and yet I was struggling to make it happen.
You can read more about how I eventually turned things around below.
But look, I get it. I’ve been there.
And I don’t want that for you.
let's change your
blog's future,
today
so ... i wanna help you grow your blog
Here’s how you and I can work together to turn your site into the blog of your bloggy dreams!
1:1 Blog
Coaching
Blogging with
Confidence Course
The Blogging Room Membership
You completely blew my expectations out of the water! You did a great job directing my concerns and then provided so many helpful tools for me to ensure I’m doing SEO correctly.
Not only am I motivated to clean up some things on my website, I’m also much more confident when working with my own clients on their websites and blogs. – Beth, Copywriter
you read the short version of my story.
here's the long version.
You want the long version? Mmmkay buckle up!
So that friend who recognised my love of writing and photograph back in the day, encouraged me to start a blog.
He had been writing online, and so had another friend at the time and while I didn’t really know what a blog was, I decided to look into it and thought it seemed like a fun idea.
I didn’t know what I was doing. Like at all. 👀
But back in 2009, that was okay. I started out on Blogger, as it was free and seemingly easy. My first blog was something to do with cupcakes? I can’t quite remember to be honest, but basically it was me sharing the things I was doing in my University life (which, tbh, wasn’t much), and posting sporadically now and then.
That blog sort of fizzled out and soon died.
But in 2010 I started what would become This Splendid Shambles.
My parents were headed over to the UK and I was going to stay behind in New Zealand to finish my Philosophy Degree (yup, WHY would you like fries with that?). I would join them afterwards, so in anticipation of moving countries, I started a blog called From L&P to English Tea.
I thought that name was so clever (tbh I still do); L&P is a New Zealand soft drink, and English Tea is obviously … English Tea.
While I was in England, I used my blog to write about the places I was visiting, the things I was seeing, the cute villages with cobbled streets and corner pubs.
It was there that I wrote my first ever book review, and that really got me into writing about the books I was reading.
My blog started gaining some traction … but nowhere near what was wanting.
By the time I returned to New Zealand a few years later, I knew things needed to change.
I re-thought my blog, From L&P to English Tea (the name didn’t make sense now anyway!), and turned that blog into a version of what you see today: This Splendid Shambles.
I knew that I needed to learn more and do more for my blog than just write content and shove it out there into the world and hope for the best.
I needed to learn.
And so I did.
I googled a LOT, I took a course or two, and I checked out what other bloggers were doing and how they were doing things like laying out their blog posts and using keywords.
I learn about things like SEO for blogging, how to bring traffic to my blog, and how to use Pinterest as a blogger.
And I noticed things starting to change.
My blog post was getting visitors that weren’t just my mum and my cousin. It was growing.
I’ve attended several webinars and courses about blogging but none of them came close to what Anjali taught about content ideas in [Blogging with Confidence].
The way she presented her ideas are easy to understand and I managed to come up with many ideas for my blog. I will highly recommend blogging beginners who are struggling with content ideas to join this course! – Amber, Blogger
I began to put myself out there more and more. And as soon as I did, doors started opening.
I went along to blog meet-ups in Auckland and connected with others. I reached out to publishing companies and began to write book reviews for publishing houses such as HarperCollins and Hachette NZ.
I wrote a guest blog post for a travel website and then was asked to jump on a 3-month writing contract that ended up being several years.
I was able to go travelling and have my blog ticking over, bringing in traffic and readers while I was riding camels in Mongolia, getting lost in Powell’s Bookstore in Oregon, and squee-ing far too much at Disneyland Tokyo.
I tell you this as it’s part of my blogging journey. Coz hey, it really IS a journey, as cheesy and silly as that sounds.
But if you had told little 18-year-old Anjali back in 2009 that she would guest post on international websites like HelloGiggles, be featured in blogging magazines, be part of a worldwide collaborative book blog, start a podcast with someone she’d never met but fast forward a few years and she’d be that same stranger’s bridesmaid at her wedding …
If you had said that she’d be a blogging coach teaching and helping other women all over the world to start and grow their blogs, or that the women she met along the way would be some of her closest friends, or that she’d be hosting masterclasses for other businesswomen, or creating courses, memberships and offering coaching for bloggers …
All because she started a blog …
She’d have laughed in your face. In a kind way. She was still a pretty nice gal.
but here's the thing ...
Like any story, like any journey, there are ups and downs. And everything good that has come from my blogging experiences, there have been challenges and hard times, too, of course, there have been.
But you know what?
After all these years the thing that I always come back to, the thing that I remember I need to do when things feel like they’re doing haywire …
Persevere.
Which seems like a copout I know. But so many bloggers quit far too soon. They don’t think they can make it. They think it’s too hard. They’re not seeing the results they want to be seeing. They get discouraged and disheartened.
And that is totally normal.
But you know the difference between those bloggers and bloggers who actually ‘make it’ (whatever that means)?
Perseverance.
They kept going. They picked themselves up. They sought help when they needed to, they got guidance from those who have come before them, they joined communities and got accountability buddies …
They didn’t throw in the towel. They didn’t give up.
I can’t believe how much The Blogging Room membership has surpassed my expectations! 🙌
It’s been just a few months, and I’ve gone from sporadic blogging to crafting 7 posts in a single month. That’s almost double my previous record!
It’s also helped me create awesome freebies and products for my audience, turning my blog into a legit business. The resources feel like having 24/7 blogging buddies by my side! 😄
I’m totally loving everything so far and I’m super excited to keep growing every month!
you ready to get your blog to a place where you're actually excited by it again?
Here’s how we can work together to make it happen. 👊🏻
1:1 Blog
Coaching
Blogging with
Confidence Course
The Blogging Room Membership