I write a home decorating blog called The Inspired Room. My blog has grown tremendously over the years and is now read by 300,000 people every month. In addition to that, I have Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts, all of which have thousands of followers as well. Obviously, it took a lot of work over the years to build up that audience. Blogging is now my full-time business and I love every minute of it, but I know the blogging life is not for everyone.

I've shared here on Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Designer Marketplace about the benefits of social media to designers who wish to promote their work. I've written an article on how to determine if you should start a blog, how you might use Facebook to promote your work, and how to use Pinterest.

For designers who might be interested in promoting their work through social media, but simply do not have the time to build an online following or write a blog, today I'd like to offer another possible solution!

Many bloggers are happy to help promote great home design projects. While you might have the talent and the projects to show off, many bloggers have the access to large numbers of people who would be interested in your work. Not only do some bloggers have large audiences interested in great home makeovers, but magazines like Better Homes & Gardens, House Beautiful and others follow bloggers and regularly find talent through their blogs and Pinterest accounts. Many bloggers have been widely featured in magazines. If pairing up designers and bloggers with magazines sounds like a match made in heaven, you are probably right.

So, how would I recommend you connect to bloggers who might be able to feature your work?

Here are a few tips that can get you started:

• Determine if you really want your work to be featured online.
  
  Once you hand over photos of your work to a blogger or other online resource, the photos will likely travel all over the internet by way of other blogs and Pinterest. While for most people that is the desired effect, some people are bothered by how quickly their photos will travel and sometimes how little credit they will receive for their work. While most bloggers do their best to credit and link back to the original source, not all are as careful. If having your work put on Pinterest and other blogs that you did not contact or give permission to is troubling, it would be best to not offer the photos at all. It is always a risk to share your photos online, but the rewards are likely to be worthwhile.
  
  
• Before you contact a blogger about being featured, be prepared with professional quality photos that you own the rights to or have written permission to share online.
  
  It is important to have excellent quality photos in order to be featured. Whether you hire a photographer or take the photos yourself, remember that the better the photos, the more likely your work will be featured and re-featured around the web. Some magazines will even approach you about using your own photos for a feature, so it is a worthwhile idea to put out the best photos you possibly can.
  

• Get to know bloggers and their style.
  
  You want to find a blog that is a good fit for your design style before you approach them about featuring you.
  
  Here are five large design blogs you might want to check out (and how to contact them). Not all blogs do design features but many will. Keep in mind there are thousands of blogs and by doing some research, one might lead to another that might be better suited to your style and would be willing to feature you. Even smaller blogs can have tremendous reach online. But these larger sites will help get you started in the world of design blogs:
  
  Apartment Therapy
  Design*Sponge
  Decor8
  Cote de Texas
  Material Girls
  
  
• Remember that bloggers get hundreds and sometimes thousands of emails, many from people wanting the same thing you do.
  
  Do your best to capture their attention with a great personable email and quality photos in the first communication. If you don't hear back, perhaps try again at a later time. Otherwise, there are so many other blogs that may respond to you more quickly. Keep searching for the right ones! Don't give up!

Hope this helps get you started in connecting to the world of bloggers!

Top photo: Pottery Barn Cassidy Secretary and Graham Smart Technology™ Secretary.

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Melissa Michaels is the creator of The Inspired Room, a popular design blog dedicated to inspiring readers to embrace the home and life they have. Each day The Inspired Room delivers fresh and affordable ideas to make a house a home. Read by over 300,000 people each month, The Inspired Room has been featured on HGTV.com, Apartment Therapy, Re-Nest, The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, The Oregonian and other publications.