Tell me about your Blog?

My blog (Sleepless Nights) is a personal blog. I started my blog in 2007 when my daughter wasn’t sleeping through the night and I was slowly going insane. I was living in a very rural part of Tasmania and would go days without having any adult conversation as my partner was working nightshift. I discovered blogging when I started Googling for other mothers stuck at home with their children. I found a few fellow Australian blogs and devoured their archives. Within a few weeks, I’d started my own. Being able to write it out became my therapy. It’s what I did when my days where bad and I was pulling my hair out. I love writing, and I tend to write more about myself than about my children.

What was your first blog?

Sleepless Nights was my first blog and I’m still writing on it regularly. I’ve got a good community built up there.

What is the biggest tip you would give to a newbie blogger?

Buy a domain. It only costs $10 or so and you can host it for free on blogger or wordpress.com. Later on down the track, you’re going to want to go self hosted and having to ask everyone to change links, while having pagerank drop due to 404 errors is awful.

What do advertisers do that you wish they wouldn’t?

Cold call. Only it’s cold emailing. All I see is blahblahblah promote my product…. then I junk it. If you want to advertise, email me politely and tell me you’re interested. Ask about pricing and positioning and is money is an issue for you, then talk about what you’re willing to pay. I’m more likely to want to work with someone who is upfront and professional.

What do bloggers do that you wish they wouldn’t?

Obsess. We’re an obsessive bunch, but really, sometimes it’s better to just close the stats page.

What do you do to improve the world?

The world? Not a lot. However, 12 months back there was a sick little girl with a severe auto-immune dysfunction. She wasn’t approved for the treatment she needed to have quality of life. I had been reading her mum’s blog for nearly 12 months at that point, so I started a petition. Only a few days in, people had reposted my post all over the internet and we’d caught the attention of the media. A week later, she was approved for treatment, all because of my petition. I might not improve the world, but I did improve her world.

What do you do that is green?

Just about everything. Where I live, it’s rural, so no shops just down the road. We don’t have access to piped water, so we rely on rain water tanks. That automatically makes me very water conscious. Our laundry and bathwater in summer gets saved and used on our fruit trees and vegetable garden.  We also compost all our household scraps and our vegetable garden is growing by the day. All of our herbs and leafy greens are grown at home. I enjoy it a lot.

What is one thing about you that not many people know?

I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a rare connective tissue disorder. Most people who read my blog know this, but very few people I know IRL do. It makes it hard to explain why I can’t play sports or go along to dinner with them. Most days I’m just too exhausted to do much of anything. And explaining why my wrist is braced or I can’t use a pen? That’s just annoying.

What’s your favourite book?

I don’t have a favourite book. My entire house is lined in books though and I read a lot. My favourite author is Robin Hobb. She draws you into her stories and you get lost there. I dream about her characters when I’m reading one of her books.

What are your contact details (email, company, blog, facebook, myspace, forums, etc)?

My email is veronica@(nospam)somedaywewillsleep.com or veronica@(nospam)veronicafoale.com

My blogs are http://somedaywewillsleep.com

and http://veronicafoale.com/

You can find me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/veronica.foale

And I’m on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SleeplessNights

What events do you go to?

Events? Not many. I have 2 small children and mobility issues, so it doesn’t make for easy access to a lot of things. I go to ceramics exhibitions because my mother is a ceramic artist and won’t let me stay home. If I had my way I’d attend lots of things, but life doesn’t work like that.

How do you prefer to communicate?

Email or phone. Email is generally easyer, no one can hear screaming children over an email.

Who would you recommend, and why?
Go for 10 people plus

Problogger.com – His site always has good advice for everyone at any stage in their blogging.

Miscmum.com – Karen Andrews is the first blog I ever read start to finish. She’s now an author and publisher.

Mythreeringcircus.com – I adore Tiff. She writes so well.

Sweetsalty.com – Her words are beautiful and heartbreaking. She makes me want to be better.

Everydaystranger.net – The same for this lady. She makes me want to be better.

Yetanotherbloomingblog.blogspot.com – She makes me laugh out loud.

Digitalphotographyschool.com – Has taught me so much about photography and extending myself and my camera. I love it.

That’s about it. Like I said, I’m a personal blogger, so mostly the blogs I enjoy are personal ones as well.
What is one thing people can do for you?

Read what I write and enjoy it. Truly, that’s all I want. For people to like my writing.