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Another nominee for the Female Blogger of the Year Awards is Charlott Schönwetter, formerly known as Ebert ( ). As a student of both African Studies and Sociology, she has plenty of knowledge at hand to share on her blog Afrika Wissen Schaft. Follow the jump to find out why Charlott really took up blogging, why she posts in German instead of in English, and why she hasn’t  mustered up the courage to post images yet.

What’s your name, how old are you, and what do you do for a living (or all day, for that matter)?

My name is Charlott and I’m 23. I spend most of my time studying, both for my MA in African Studies, but also for my BA in Sociology at the Open University. Besides, I work for a social network. (One can’t live off studying alone.)

How long have you been blogging? How did you get around to blogging?

I’ve only really started at the beginning of April 2010. Before that, I undertook a couple of short-lived attempts. And how I got around to it? That’s difficult to say…. I wanted a blog because I like to write and like that platform as a way of making your texts available to a wider public. And if you want me to be super-honest, another reason was that many of my friends suddenly took up blogging (most of them about political issues), I wanted to take part.

What’s your blog called and why?

My blog is called “Afrika Wissen Schaft” [something like "Afrika Know Ledge"]. I intended to bring out what’s in the title: Knowledge about Africa. I chose that particular spelling to allow for multiple ways of reading. As in, for example, “Africa creates knowledge”. Possibly not the most ideal name ever created. But at least pretty memorable.

What are you blogging about? Why?

In general, I blog about my studies. Sometimes I add event recommendations, blog or media reviews, or articles on the issue of racism. I surf around the net a lot and came across multiple awesome American blogs providing the world with humanistic content. In Germany, we don’t have as many of those. So on my blog I’d like to share knowledge that otherwise would only circulate in small university rooms. To me it’s important that my blog is German, too, because most of my sources, the books we read and the stuff that’s available online is in English.

Who’s your target audience?

- Lay readers that are interested in a different approach on Africa (and sometimes Asia, too)
- Students looking for input
- Future students that are interested in what topics my major covers

And when I take a closer look at my blog statistics, I can see that I apparently, I am also of interest to one very particular group: People who are desperately looking for more information on Homi Bhabha, postcolonial theorist.

Who designed your blog? How much was that? In case you designed your own layout: Where did you learn how to?

I just chose a readily available template at WordPress. Nothing especially made. The only thing on my blog I designed myself is the header. In a distant future, I’d like to have a fantastic, creative, unique blog… Well, one can dream.

Which software and which host do you use? Can you recommend them?

I’m with WordPress and quite happy with it, especially because I have no time for anything more complicated. There, it’s possible to get quick, good results.

What role play photos, MP3-files or video clips on your blog? If you use them, would you mind showing us one?

So far, unfortunately, my posts are mostly words. I haven’t really dared to go into any of the other media. Privately, I carry my beloved camera around all the time, but whenever I think about adding images to a post, I hear one of my professors: “Who is making use of images should be absolutely sure about what meaning they are meant to transport and to what extent they are crucial for the scientific issue discussed.” I’d like to start adding more images, though.

How many readers do you have? How many would you like to have? Does their number matter to you at all?

I can’t say much about reader numbers, because I can only see in my statistics how many page views I get. (So in theory, one visitor could go wild and click on all pages, like, 90 times.) I am not all that interested in numbers, either. My blog is probably not exactly made for everyday reading. It makes me happy to see that through searches on different topics I get around 20 to 30 visits a day. This means at least one of my goals has been reached: Providing information. Whether people like what they see, they only rarely tell, though.

Can you learn how to blog? Do you need to know a lot about computers? Do you have any advice for beginners?

I think that thanks to different blog hosts, setting up a nice blog has become fairly easy, you don’t need to know too much about computers. More difficult, for sure, is the content part. In my opinion, one should know from the start what the blog’s topic will be. Also, blogging really is a lot of work if you’d like to post more than just once every couple of months. To a certain degree, I guess, you can learn how to blog for sure (like anything, really). For example by looking at other blogs, figure out what you like about them and so forth. Other people’s comments might also help. You might not become the next genius blogger by that (I myself am admiring so many bloggers for their cool layouts and writing styles!), but you’ll become a solid one for sure.

Have you made negative experiences with blogging, too? What kind?

Luckily, I have been spared on that front. Let’s hope I will be in the future, too.

And have you ever made money through your blog? If yes, how so?

No, but that was never my intention.

Do you use twitter, too? Why (not)? What pros and cons do you see when it comes to twitter?

I do have a Twitter accout, but it’s dead, really. I was against it for a long time, then succumbed and failed. I’m glad whenever I manage a blog post. Twitter is too stressful.

Which other female bloggers can you recommend? Why?

I love blogs and read plenty of them. I can’t name them all, so here are a couple of highlights only:

In German, I like the Mädchenmannschaft (http://maedchenmannschaft.net/) a lot. They offer feminist news, commentaries, and I have been allowed two guest posts there already. I also find Annalist (http://annalist.noblogs.org/) and Kathrin Ganz of I Heart Digital Life (http://www.iheartdigitallife.de/) pretty amazing. New to me was Das Gespenst der Armut (http://www.gespenst-der-armut.org/) by Elke Brüns, which really impresses me.

In English, I like Sociological Images (http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/). They post great sociological analyses on commercials, photography, texts, design etc., sometimes even gender- or race-related. Also great: Native Appropriations (http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/).

Today, I would like to introduce to you Barbara, a friend of mine, who runs Im Nahtschatten [Sink-Stitch] – a fashion blog quite different from the rest!

Follow the jump below for an interesting and extensive interview on Barbara’s professional experience as a fashion blogger, her thoughts on paid content, and how an image of Walt Disney’s Little Mermaid would bestow upon her blog more readers in a day than any ordinary month…

What’s your name, how old are you, and what do you do for a living (or all day, for that matter)?

My name is Barbara Russ, I am 26 years old and a student at Freie Universität Berlin. Most days I am busy with uni work and blogging. Fortunately, I enjoy my major and also feeding my blog with new posts. My remaining time is divided up equally between books on fashion theory, movies, my boyfriend and flat mates. Every now and then, there are also parties, fashion weeks, exhibitions and so forth.

How long have you been blogging? How did you get around to blogging?

I’ve been blogging since April 2009, so not very long. I started right after I moved to Berlin. First I was writing for Fashionfreax about fashion and lifestyle, then I started taking on other jobs: Writing on culture and happenings for Globe-m.de and also for Modabot. I still work for the latter two, Fashionfreax has been on the rocks for a while, as there just isn’t enough time.

What’s your blog called and why?

My blog is called „Im Nahtschatten“ ['Sink-Stitch' or literally 'The Shadow of the Seam']. There are two reasons I called it that: Firstly, when I was still a student at German design school Esmod, we were always joking about how fashion designers were living in ‘the shadow of the seam’, because we had hardly any free time and were constantly sewing. Secondly, the name transports my critical view on fashion, its industry, the business, its practices and relevant topics.

What are you blogging about? Why?

I probably just answered the first question above, so here’s the Why bit: I blog because I like the idea of introducing to other people a new point of view, one that I am personally interested in and that hasn’t really been around yet. I would like my readers to change their attitude towards the fashion industry: Some a perhaps a little less disdainful, others maybe a little less naive.

In the beginning, I was planning on using my blog for high-level bitching, like a German “Go Fug Yourself”  – people used to tell me I was good at that. However, I discovered that that was very difficult to do on the spot, also I’m much better at it when just talking. Overall,  I’m better at factual critique, I guess.

Who’s your target audience?

I have no target audience. Everyone who’s interested is very welcome to stop by. My ideal target audience, in any case, is one that comments a lot. So far, I’ve only been getting very little feedback on my blog. It’s probably too new still.

Who designed your blog? How much was that? In case you designed your own layout: Where did you learn how to?

I used a WordPress template. I learned to use WordPress during my time with the Fashionfreax, just like stuff about optimization for Google, tagging, and some other stuff. Other things, for example how to come up with categories or how to embed buttons and icons in the side bar, I googled or found out through trial and error. My blog’s profile picture was put together with Photoshop. I was lucky enough to learn how to do that at design school.

Which software and which host do you use? Can you recommend them?

Like I said, WordPress. So far I can’t compare this to anything else. But I guess your own website and host and so forth is only recommendable to people who REALLY know what they are doing. For beginners, WordPress or Blogspot should suffice.

What role play photos, MP3-files or video clips on your blog? If you use them, would you mind showing us one?

Photos play a big role. Issue-wise, my blog is dealing a lot with visuals, too. Plus I believe that most readers get tired of too much text. I only read a lot of text when I am dying to know something. Under other circumstances, I don’t have enough time for that. So yes, I like using photos and videos to get my point across very much.

How many readers do you have? How many would you like to have? Does their number matter to you at all?

On average around 1500 a month. Frankly speaking, I’d love to have more. Or at least more active ones. I enjoy feedback of any kind. Ultimately, I am writing my blog for myself though, to clear my mind of thoughts I have. I like that. And if other people dedicate their time to me by reading my posts, that’s absolutely awesome, no matter how many of them.

There was a funny incident with regard to reader numbers last November, though. On the 16th, an ordinary day, my reader numbers suddenly exploded. I only noticed on the 17th, when I saw that my statistics were different: Instead of 150, 1500 was the new maximum. My first thought was that somebody had linked to me. But when I had triple the usual number of visitors the next day again, I realised that all of them were coming via an article on Arielle, I understood what had happened: Facebook and its comic characters were the reason. My image of Arielle was pretty high up in Google’s image search, so people stopped by to get it from my blog.

Can you learn how to blog? Do you need to know a lot about computers? Do you have any advice for beginners?

The question is: Can you learn how to write and do you have something to say? If you can answer both questions with yes, you shouldn’t shy away from blogging because of technical issues. They usually are explained rather quickly. Watching You-Tube tutorials or googling specific questions always helps.

Have you made negative experiences with blogging, too? What kind?

It eats up my time! Other than that, no, on the contrary: It opened up a bunch of interesting possibilities and enjoy it a lot. It makes me happy that through blogging I get to watch fashion shows and invitiations to parties. I’ve met great people, not just fashionistas, and I’m becoming more experienced in journalism.

And have you ever made money through your blog? If yes, how so?

Not through my own blog, but through the other ones. I applied regularly with Globe-m by answering one of their jobs ads and now receive a fee per published article. I like it that I don’t only get to write about fashion there, but also about arts and culture. For Modabot, too, I work fee-based. I love working there as the atmosphere’s great and their fashion-related topics are hot. At Fashinfreax, there was the odd cooperation, but these were mostly goods or vouchers to distribute among our readers instead of money for us bloggers. As long as topic-wise, the ads match a blog’s content, I don’t see any problems with ads. But as my own blog is rather critical in nature, I doubt that it’s very suitable for ads or other paid content.

Do you use twitter, too? Why (not)? What pros and cons do you see when it comes to twitter?

I installed an automatic feed for my posts, and I have a few followers. I hardly use it, though. Maybe more now that I’ve got an iPhone. We’ll see.

Which other female bloggers can you recommend? Why?

My favorite blog is Threadbared: http://iheartthreadbared.wordpress.com/. It’s written by two American academics that occupy themselves with fashion. 

I also like to read Gaga Stigmata: http://gagajournal.blogspot.com/ It’s a blog on Lady Gaga and her style.

And Proletkult: http://ervehea.blogspot.com/. Ervehea discusses movies and fashion.

Fräulein Julia is a one woman arts and entertainment section. And as such, her blog belongs into the RSS-feeds of all culturally interested inhabitants of the cities Berlin and Cologne.

Follow the jump below to find out how the idea for her niche blog was born, how Twitter helps attract new readers, and which is her own favorite blog of all time.

What’s your name, how old are you, and what do you do for a living (or all day, for that matter)?

My name is Julia, I am 27 years old and a freelance journalist based in Berlin.

How long have you been blogging? How did you get around to blogging?

I started my blog in the fall of 2008. At the time I was a student editor at a Cologne Internet portal and was getting my information on unusual arts and culture events straight from the source. One day I came up with the idea of introducing these events in more detail on a blog, where I would also talk about my life as a journalist.

What’s your blog called and why?

My blog is called “Fräulein Julia” ['Miss Julia'] – I put the ‘miss’ in front of my name because it’s a wonderful appellation, even though at least in Germany, it’s a somewhat outdated one.

What are you blogging about? Why?

I write about interesting events in arts and culture both in my hometown Cologne and Berlin, but also about books and exhibitions. From time to time, I even give away small personal secrets.

Who’s your target audience?

Everyone who’s interested in arts and culture.

Who designed your blog? How much was that? In case you designed your own layout: Where did you learn how to?

My blog has no special design, apart from its header maybe, which I made with Photoshop. A friend taught me how to use that a good ten years ago.

Which software and which host do you use? Can you recommend them?

I have set up a free and easy-to-use blog with Blogspot, but I’ve been contemplating moving it to WordPress in the long run.

What role play photos, MP3-files or video clips on your blog? If you use them, would you mind showing us one?

Images are very important on my blog: Each of my posts must be prefaced by one, ideally in landscape format. But I rarely post videos and MP3s never. Here’s one of my favorite pictures:

How many readers do you have? How many would you like to have? Does their number matter to you at all?

I get – about – 200 to 300 visits a day. For a small blog like mine I think that’s pretty decent. To me, more important than reader numbers are feedback and comments.

Can you learn how to blog? Do you need to know a lot about computers? Do you have any advice for beginners?

Whether one can learn how to blog… ummm. I guess it depends a blog’s issue and its respective target audience. A good writing style is certainly an advantage to keep readers coming back. Technically, some HTML basics would be good, even when these days all blog formats are usable without it.

Have you made negative experiences with blogging, too? What kind?

Nope, not so far.

And have you ever made money through your blog? If yes, how so?

Earning money through my blog has no priority. I have previously considered putting some – content-related – advertising up, though.

Do you use twitter, too? Why (not)? What pros and cons do you see when it comes to twitter?

I’ve got my own Facebook fan page and also an account with Twitter. I think Twitter is a good tool for spreading content quickly and also reaching out to new readers.

Which other female bloggers can you recommend? Why?

My favorite blog ever is called “mädchen blogt” ['girl blogs'] at www.nicolekellmann.de. You’ll find beautiful pictures of the blogger herself and lovely writing.