We've seen amazing momentum from web creators trying their first steps with Web Stories. With more adoption comes more content exploration, guidance and questions, and it’s still early days for Web Stories, so we’re all figuring things out together as a community.

Web creators around the world are figuring out how Web Stories complement their portfolio, and one particular thing we've seen folks try out is teaser content: Web Stories that are essentially advertisements for some other content, like a blog post or full-length video.

Unfortunately, from what users are telling us, this isn't what they want. Instead Web Stories are best when they tell a full story and aren’t used to “tease” other content. Readers don’t like to feel forced to click through to a connected blog post to finish reading. While Web Stories can help grow traffic to your domain and raise your visibility, they likely will not work as a pure acquisition channel where users have to click through to complete their content journey. We want to see you succeed, so let’s discuss what to do instead. 

Let’s address the elephant in the room, the reason why we’re talking about all of this in the first place: monetization. We know that many blogs and websites have their monetization strategy well crafted and want to drive users to their main property. That makes sense. However, with Stories, it's important to think about the users consuming them and how Google showcases them.

What you might not know is that you don't have to rely on converting traffic to your blog pages to monetize. You can directly monetize Web Stories with in-between-page ads. Well-optimized blog posts might still make you more money today, but ad networks are working on building out and expanding their Web Story integrations, so you should see both CPMs and fill rates improve over time.

Quality content will make your Web Stories find an audience

Google wants to send users to the best content, so the quality of your stories is very important in determining if they show up on Search and Discover. In other words: A critical ranking signal at Google is the quality of your content. And a one- or two-page teaser for your blog post doesn’t tell a satisfying story to a reader, so Google will do its very best to not show these to users.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that you can’t link to more extended deep dives on your blog. Like always, there’s nuance, and acceptable ways of adding value in the moment while directing readers to your blog, YouTube channel or e-commerce storefront. Here’s how you can do it.

Dos:

• A shopping inspiration list that highlights products and links out to places where you can buy them.

• A short version of a recipe with complete ingredients listed that leaves more detailed instructions behind a click. It inspires readers to cook and see the end product, plus allow them to dive deeper into the recipe if they prefer. But it is still a story with a beginning and an end.

• A story that connects to an article about the same topic, but both convey the information with different angles. For example, creating a story about the “making of” the recipe. 

Don'ts:

• A three-page story that is a list of the “10 best sci-fi TV shows,” but stops at #3 and forces the reader to click through to your blog for more.

• A one-page story that mentions a recipe in the headline, but is just a bunch of photos that redirect to the website.

• A list highlighting beautiful cities in Europe, but just listing a city and a photo and pointing to the blog link for any actual information..

To readers of Google Discover, Google Search and other places, Web Stories are a standalone form of engaging content, so please treat them as such. After all, I'm pretty sure you’d be equally frustrated if you went to a magazine rack and discovered that it’s only the covers and all pages are missing! 

Showcase your Web Stories proudly on your website

When you focus on quality storytelling and give Web Stories that first-class treatment next to your blog posts and videos, don’t be afraid to proudly showcase them on your website. Embedding Web Stories in a carousel or gallery on your site doesn’t just refresh the look and feel of your site, it also makes content much easier to consume to your most loyal readers, improves the organic ranking of your stories and diversifies your traffic sources.

Web Stories allow you to reach an entirely new audience on Discover and beyond, and contrary to their social story counterparts can have links, so publishing the best stories will build your brand, help you acquire new loyal readers and engage readers organically.

We can’t wait to see what stories you’ll tell.

Keiko Lynn has only ever had what she calls a “real job” once in her life. She did a short stint at a pretzel parlor as a teenager and kept a blog as a personal diary the whole time. After that, it was full-force creator mode as she launched a clothing line to help pay for college. 

Today, Keiko (pronounced “cake oh”) is a successful lifestyle blogger, fashion influencer and Web Creator based in Brooklyn, where she lives with her boyfriend, dog and three cats. Her website, keikolynn.com, serves as her online hub for beauty and style tutorials, lifestyle guides and links to shop Keiko’s favorite fashions. 

Keiko’s blog is the heart of her business and where her community thrives. It’s where she shares her view of the world and love for all things whimsical, vintage, pink and fuzzy, with a dash of fantasy. Keiko is also active on social media platforms, serving daily doses of inspiration via her Instagram stories, Pinterest boards, etc. But it’s her blog she can’t do without. “I could lose my Instagram tomorrow,” she says. But you can’t take her blog. 

Keiko chatted with us recently about growing up on the web, and what it takes to be a full-time fashion and lifestyle blogger and social media influencer. 

You’ve been blogging full time since college. How did you get started? And what has changed since then?

Keiko: I fell into this career at such an early time. But before that, I started on Open Diary, and then I transitioned to LiveJournal because that was the hot new thing. LiveJournal was more about the community and making connections. And it really started off as a personal outlet—like a diary—and evolved as time went on. I helped put myself through college promoting my clothing line. And then as I moved to New York, it became more about my personal life, my personal style, beauty, and it evolved as I grew up. The only "real job" that I ever had was when I worked at a pretzel parlor as a teenager.

You’re on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. How do you have time for all that plus your blog?

Keiko: I've always said that you should have your own space. The thing about your blog is that you own it. My Instagram could be shut down tomorrow, but people will always still be able to find me on my blog. So I think of it partially as a safety net, and partially as a nostalgic thing that I hold on to and could never give up. 

What is your favorite kind of post?

You've done a lot of work with brands. What is your approach? 

Keiko: I've been with Digital Brand Architects, the very first influencer agency before we were called influencers, since 2009. They helped me deal with the business side of things because I am possibly the worst person to champion myself. In the early days, when money started to become a thing with blogging, it made me so uncomfortable. I would just be like, "Oh, don't worry about it. I'll just do it for free." It made me so uncomfortable. So, they are the middleman between me and the brands and take out all the awkwardness so that I can just have a relationship with the brand, be the creative behind it, and not have to talk about numbers.

How do you select the brands that you work with? 

Keiko: I have lists of dream brands that I want to work with, and we will actively go after those sometimes. I make tailor-made decks to show them what I can bring to them. But most of the time a lot of brands will approach me and I'll see if it makes sense, or I may have a really good idea of how to make something more interesting than just holding up a product.

That mirrors what you would do at a digital ad agency, which is build a brief and then present that. 

Keiko: Honestly, I didn't do it for so long, but I started to think about certain things that I really wanted and realized that I need to be more of a champion for myself. And I saw a tremendous amount of success with that because sometimes brands don't know you exist because there's so many people [out there]. But once they see what you do, they might want to work with you. And the worst that can happen is they say no. That's not so bad.

You really just have to be persistent and consistent, which is one of the hardest things, especially if you're working a normal job. But I always say that you should treat this as your second full-time job instead of just quitting your job and starting this from scratch, because it's going to take a long time before you get there.

In 2008, Boston-area resident Tina Haupert wanted to get in shape for her wedding day. Never a fan of crash diets, she started reading healthy living blogs and figured, What the heck, why not start one of my own? She believed healthy foods could be combined with small servings of delicious, guilty pleasures, andCarrots ‘N’ Cake was born.

What began as a personal blog became, in Tina’s words, “a go-to resource for all things healthy living, from my love of delicious food and wine, to fun workouts, quick beauty and fashion tips, and the ‘true life’ of tackling a chronic illness, ulcerative colitis, head first.”

A former social media marketing consultant, Tina is now a full-time certified nutrition coach and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, offering group and one-on-one coaching—as well as fitness and nutrition programs—to the Carrots ‘N’ Cake community. She’s built her brand online, attracting local and national media attention and landing book deals, including “The Everything Macro Diet Cookbook,” published in August 2020. And in late 2020, she launched the Carrots ‘N’ Cake podcast. 

Tina recently chatted with us about how her blog and her business took off.

Tell us about the evolution of your blog from its beginnings to how it became a full-time job.

Tina: I started the blog as a hobby. It was a side gig, but over time, more people started to read it. When I began to have more of an audience, I got in touch with an advertising company and started showing ads in the sidebar. Before ad companies knew what was going to happen with blogs, they used to pay us per page view, which was a pretty decent income for simply blogging and having ads on your site.

I was working full-time and doing the blog on the side for a good two to three years, then ended up quitting my full-time job and having a part-time job. I was doing about 20 hours a week at my part-time job, and then the rest of the time was spent on the blog. Over time, things just kept growing. I ended up getting book deals and traveling a ton so I couldn't keep the regular job and went all-in, full-time on the blog.

How have your revenue streams changed over time?

Tina:Things have totally changed. When I started my blog, you could definitely rely on ads and that was probably 90 percent of my income. But over time, the ads have become less of a priority. There was also a phase where sponsored content was huge and I was doing two or three sponsored posts a week, but now that has slowed down, too. I still do sponsored content but I have shifted more of my time over to providing services to my readers. Over the years, I started to see the challenges that my readers were experiencing, with a lot of the same questions about what to eat, how much to eat, how to fit in workouts and more. So I've transitioned to providing nutrition coaching and at-home fitness programs and functional testing now. 

How does being service-based impact you and your business?

Tina: I'm able to connect with people better now because I'm working with clients one-on-one or  through group coaching. I feel like I'm helping people in a different way instead of them just reading what I'm doing in my life. Being service-based has also been good for my work-life balance, too, because it's not producing content all day, every day. 

What types of content work well for you and your readers these days?

Tina: Back in the early days, my blog posts would have 20 photos and a really long post about whatever I did during my day. Now, I feel like people don't always have the attention span to read something super long, so I'm posting short Instagram-like content like infographics or images that tell readers the story immediately. 

Do you embed your graphics into a blog post or do you use them in a Stories-type format?

Tina: It’s a little bit of both, actually. I now write short-form content but in Instagram Stories, for example, I post images where you can click through to see different steps. I've also been doing shorter videos. So, instead of doing a 15-minute YouTube video, I'll just do a two to three-minute video. For longer videos, it takes more for people to commit to listening to it.

Walk us through the process for writing an article or a blog from start to finish. 

Tina:If it's a basic blog post where I'm just writing what I want to write, it usually comes as an idea in the shower, driving or wherever. I write it down on a piece of paper, highlight key parts of the idea and start writing. With images, it's really important to name the images according to your topic; that's something that I didn’t do in the beginning, which wasn’t great for search engine optimization. You can even research Google keywords and find common words for your blog post topic to help you with SEO. That's really important today if you want people to find your content. I use Yoast, a plugin that helps with SEO. You write the way you want to write, and then add in some keywords.

If it's a recipe post, I use a WordPress plugin Tasty Recipes from WP Tasty called Tasty Recipes.They have a recipe card that helps you make recipes more standardized and also helps with SEO. And Tasty Links automatically links your keywords to URLs. I'm not affiliated with them, they just make a really good product. And then of course there's proofreading. 

And then I have a virtual assistant who creates and posts all of my pins on Pinterest. Make sure you’re using keywords and high-quality images for Pinterest.

That's pretty much the process. Like I said, some posts are a lot more involved. It might take me a week to write one, and then sometimes I’m inspired and bust it one in an hour or two. It just depends on the content and what's going on in my life at the moment.

Since Google launched a new home for Web Stories on Discover, we have seen a diverse group of content creators using the format to tell engaging stories, everything from product reviews to a history of the U.S. postal service. Thanks to new and improved creation tools, it’s easier than ever to create a high-quality and interactive story. 

Web Stories are a web-based version of the popular "Stories" format that blend video, audio, images, animation and text to create a whole new way to learn something new. We have seen publishers recut, reuse, or reinvent their brands using Web Stories. If you are new to Web Stories, check out our new YouTube series, Storytime. And if you want to create some yourself, follow these tips to make them as interesting and beautiful as possible.

1. Use video. 

Video is a great way to engage users. Optimize your landscape videos by converting them into videos in portrait ratio (9:16) to take advantage of the mobile screen. Making the video full bleed helps readers focus on a single key subject. And if you have video with audio, use closed captions. Here is a great example from VICE. Without captions, your audience needs to be able to listen to audio to follow your story. If you only have horizontal video, try using a conversion tool, like Kapwing to make them vertical. 

2. Try first-person storytelling. 

Be the protagonist of your own story. Stories are the first mobile-native medium. It’s perfectly possible and expected to capture the assets for your story using your mobile device’s front-facing camera. Since most consumption happens and continues to grow on mobile devices, the creator is able to deliver a full-screen portrait experience to the viewer in the same way they captured it. First person allows you to give a personal touch by adding in additional commentary and perspective. 

3. Take advantage of your brand identity. 

A brand identity is the face of your brand. That can include your visual style, the colors you use  and your logo; these visible elements identify and distinguish your brand in consumers' minds. People should know at a moment's glance that this Web Story is from your brand. For many readers, consistency in branding leads to comfort and loyalty. 

Be sure to import your color palette and logo into your favorite Web Story creation tool. Use your brand’s typography, and if you don’t use specific typography, select a font that complements your colors and style. Fonts can be very powerful, so keep it simple and legible. Here are some general rules to follow. Avoid having a story that contains text that blends into the background image or video, which may make some pages difficult to read. Be sure to provide contrast between the text and background images on the page. 

4. Display infographics and dynamic visuals. 

Web Stories blend video, audio, images, animation and text to create an easy to consume narrative.  One great way to engage readers is by using dynamic visuals and infographics. Graphs and charts make it easy to understand a topic while using minimal text. This can be a great way to inform your reader quickly and clearly. We commonly see great graphics and visuals in recipes, explainers and investigative journalism.   

5. Get a boost from illustrations. 

Sometimes stock images and videos won’t cut it. If you have the ability, try to work in some illustrations into your story. Animations and illustrations can bring your story to life. This could be anything from funny comics to hand-drawn cartoons. You can create illustrations in other popular design tools, optimize them and import them into your creation tool as a PNG file. 

6. Post quizzes and polls. 

Web Stories are getting more interactive with quizzes and polls, or what the Stories team calls Interactive Components. Several visual editors are working on supporting these new features so you can use them without any coding necessary on your end. Quizzes and polls can increase engagement and make your stories more compelling. You can also use the quizzes and polls to gather feedback and educate your audience about your brand. 

7. Build excitement through animations. 

Animating objects separately makes visuals more interesting and enjoyable, helping each item stand out. Timing and style add to the tone and message of your story. Choose an animation style that suits your aesthetic, then be mindful of how quickly things move. Here is a great example from USAT. Your story may automatically advance to the next page before some users are able to fully read the text. Consider slowing down auto advance to allow users ample time to read the text on each page.

For Web Creators, holidays can be a great way to connect with readers, providing tips and advice on how to prep for upcoming celebrations. Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, marks the beginning of the new Hindu year and is celebrated by spending time with friends and family, eating delicious foods, decorating with colorful designs and lighting diyas (oil lamps), which represent goodness and purity. 

This year we sat down with two popular Web Creators, Hetal Vasavada (founder of Milk & Cardamom) and Neha Mathur (founder of Whisk Affair) to discuss how they approach the holidays from a content perspective and their must-have Diwali snacks.

How does a big holiday affect the way that you create content online?

Neha: I use Google Trends, Search Console and Google Analytics. From Google Trends I get to know what people are actually looking for and can then work to create a post around that. Google Search Console tells me the in and outs about which posts did well and which season they did well in. Once you start to do it, you’ll automatically start to get the hang of it. 

Have you explored any new content formats on your blog? 

What about Web Stories excites you to create content? 

Neha:One thing I’ve noticed is that not everybody is enthusiastic about reading long articles. The best thing about Web Stories is that they see the snippets and if they like it they will move to your blog and check out your entire process. Let’s take Diwali for example: If I post a step-by-step recipe for Gulab Jamun, sometimes readers don’t have an idea of how easy or difficult the process can be. But after seeing a simplified version of that same recipe on Web Stories, they might be more likely to want to learn more and will go to your blog for the whole tutorial.

What is an unexpected dish that folks have for Diwali? 

Hetal: Mexican bhel puri! Lately everyone is more into Indian fusion meals to make both the adults and the younger kids happy. So I’ll do Mexican Bhel puri where it’s tortilla chips, salsa—salsa is the chutney, tomatoes and guacamole. It’s almost like a mixed Mexican salad. 

Can you give us a tip to make samosas at home?

If you’re already using Web Stories for WordPress, we have a sweet new update for you—and if you’re not, now is the time to get started.

Web Stories for WordPress 1.1 is the first major update after the initial stable release and includes three big updates: Great typography at your fingertips with the help of the new font-aware text sets, countless high performance GIFs powered by Tenor and caption support for videos.

On the text tab, you’ll now find a list of high quality text sets created specifically for editorial use-cases. We partnered with the typography experts at iA, known for its award-winning app iA Writer and  world-class typography craftsmanship. The result is a set of carefully created combinations that let you mix and match different harmonious typography, and a dynamic toggle (“Fonts in Use”) that shows you only text sets that match what you’re already using, so you can be confident that your choices pair well together.

While Web Stories are a natural way to tell editorial stories, that doesn't mean they can't include fun visuals. Go wild and embed the perfect animated GIF into your story, just one click away courtesy of Tenor. And as an added bonus, we use high performance video instead of the GIF format behind the scenes to make sure stories load quickly.

Finally, watching Web Stories is getting a little easier for those who have hearing loss, or are simply in a situation where they can't turn up their volume. You can now upload video captions directly in the editor, making things easier to reach audiences who require text. Learn about the required VTT format and start adding them to all your videos today.

Things are moving fast around Web Stories. To keep you in the loop, we’ll be rounding up the latest news every month. You’ll find new product integration and tooling updates, examples of great stories in the wild and educational content around Web Stories. 

Web Stories arrive in Google Discover

Last month we announced that Web Stories are now available in Discover, part of the Google app on Android and iOS that’s used by more than 800 million people each month. The Stories carousel, now available in the United States, India and Brazil at the top of Discover, helps you find some of the best visual content from around the web. In the future, we intend to expand Web Stories in Discover to more countries and Google products.

New tools for the WordPress ecosystem

There are more and more ways to create Web Stories, and now WordPress users now have access to not just one but two visual story editors that are integrated into the WordPress CMS: Google’s Web Stories for WordPress and MakeStories for WordPress.

MakeStories also gained six new languages (English, German, French, Italian, Portugese and Russian), and has new features including new templates and preset rulers. They’ve also made it easier to publish your Web Stories with a new publishing flow that highlights critical pieces like metadata, analytics and ads setup. You can also now host stories on MakeStories.com, but serve them off your own publisher domain.

There are many different options out there to build Web Stories, so pick the one that works best for you from amp.dev’s Tools section.

Quizzes and polls are coming to Web Stories

We’ll also be covering Web Story format updates by the Stories team here as they’re at the forefront of innovation of Web Stories: you can expect the features they bring to Stories to appear in the visual editor of your choice sometime after.

Web Stories are getting more interactive with quizzes and polls, or what the Stories team call Interactive Components. These features are currently available in the format, and you can learn more about them in developer documentation.  Several visual editors are working on supporting these new features so you can use them without any coding necessary on your end. 

Learn how to create beautiful Web Stories with Storytime

One of the best ways to learn the in’s and out’s of Web Story-telling is our educational Storytime series, with a new episode arriving every week. If you haven’t yet started watching, we encourage you to give it a try.

In October, we interviewed the Product Manager behind the Google Discover integration; talked about the art of writing, remixing, optimizing and promoting Stories; analyzed the fabric of a great Web Story; and covered all sorts of editorial patterns that work for Web Stories.

And you can check out all of these videos as Web Stories:

5 inspiring new Web Stories

We’ll be back next month with more updates. Until then, let us know if you made a cool story you think we should feature. Tell us about it on Twitter or Instagram.

Meet Courtney Quinn, the web creator behind Color Me Courtney, a bright spot on the web where she shares her positive outlook on life. 

“I see my blog as my own little corner on the internet where my community can always find joy, whimsy, fun, love and strength,” Courtney says. “My main goal is to promote self-confidence, celebrate inclusivity and embrace all the special quirks that make you unique–all through my love and affinity for color.” 

That’s a mission we can definitely get behind, especially in these, um … maybe not always so bright and colorful times. 

We reached out to Courtney to learn more about her story and to see how she manages the Web Creator life. Read on if you need a dash of sunshine and color to brighten your day. And stay tuned for our exclusive IRL interview with Courtney, coming soon to YouTube!

What does your average day look like? 

That’s the thing about this job, there is no average day because every day is so different depending on the time of year, my content series, current events in the world, etc. People assume that web creators just create beautiful images and videos with witty captions and call it a day. For me, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because 80 percent of my work is things that people may not see: storyboarding, calls with brand partners, content strategy, emails, backend website developing, editing and engaging with my community.  

What inspires you on a day-to-day basis and gets your creative energy flowing? 

Color Me Courtney at its core is a true reflection of me and my (many) interests–fashion, lifestyle, food, culture, entertainment, etc.– so I don’t have trouble with “turning it on” or finding creative energy. Oftentimes my problem as a creative is actually the opposite, and the challenge is really to be more focused on reining things in and making sure all of the ideas get executed.  

To get into the flow, I try to separate my days into buckets so I can be the most productive. I’ll do one day a week that’s all meetings and phone calls and another where I’m binge watching a show in my pajamas while I’m answering emails and editing and planning content. Then the next day I’ll get photoshoot-ready and dedicate all my time shooting content. Of course, this doesn’t always go according to plan. There can always be interruptions like a timely cultural moment, an urgent email or just being present for my online community. But it does help to plan my day and create some semblance of a structure.

What’s the best part of your job? 

I love the creativity, the freedom to express myself and working with my favorite brands, but the best part of my job is my amazing community and the ability to connect with others. There are so many conversations about the negative aspects of the web, but I love to shine the light on how it can positively bring so many people from diverse backgrounds together. That’s what my community is! It means so much when someone tells me how my post has brightened their day or gave them confidence to wear an outfit, or just let them know that they weren’t alone!  

Sometimes though, people can forget that there is a real-life human being on the other side of the screen and that you’re not always omnipresent. At a normal 9-5 you either have off-days, take vacations or leave your work at the office when you go home. However, in this industry it’s a little tough to take a week vacation or even clock out for the day because there are always alerts and people are constantly reaching out. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but you definitely have to set aside time for yourself because it can be overwhelming if you don’t “turn it off.”

What’s the mission behind Color Me Courtney? 

Color Me Courtney and my online shop, Color Me Magic, is a vibrant fashion, lifestyle and culture media company that is designed to empower others to "Dress Outside the Lines," promote self-confidence, celebrate inclusivity and embrace all the special quirks that make you unique. It’s been great to create a safe space to express my unique thoughts and interests and encourage my community to come together to share theirs as well.    

What is something that inspires and motivates you every day about the web, or in general?

The most inspiring thing is to see how many people your content, conversations and general presence can have on others, whether they are other creators or moms just entering a new career. That relationship is reciprocal in that there are so many times where my community also inspires and motivates me.  

The other inspiring thing is that my online presence isn’t stagnant, but rather grows with me. I’ve been fortunate that it grows in terms of followers and readership, but more importantly it's grown as my interests, hobbies and career have evolved, and that’s amazing to me. Because of this, I’m constantly thinking of new concepts and the process of being able to take them from idea to execution and seeing everything come to life is inspiring and motivating.

What tools do you use to make your stuff? 

I used to be exclusive to Dropbox, but I just switched to Google Drive so now I operate completely on Drive. I use Adobe Suite (Lightroom mostly) for editing but I do it almost exclusively on my phone. I edit video in Final Cut or Premiere depending on the project and I use VLLO and Splice for on-phone editing.

And finally … what advice would you give someone trying to make it in your industry? 

Find the thing that makes you special, different and unique. Then celebrate it and build a brand around it. The number one mistake that I see when people are starting out is they try to be everything to everybody instead of starting with the things they are most passionate about and building a community and business around that. Too many people try to conform to the trends of the moment and get lost in the shuffle, or they fall for the trap of comparing themselves to others, and that’s 100 percent  a losing game.   

Meet Courtney Quinn, the web creator behind Color Me Courtney, a bright spot on the web where she shares her positive outlook on life. 

“I see my blog as my own little corner on the internet where my community can always find joy, whimsy, fun, love and strength,” Courtney says. “My main goal is to promote self-confidence, celebrate inclusivity and embrace all the special quirks that make you unique–all through my love and affinity for color.” 

That’s a mission we can definitely get behind, especially in these, um … maybe not always so bright and colorful times. 

We reached out to Courtney to learn more about her story and to see how she manages the Web Creator life. Read on if you need a dash of sunshine and color to brighten your day. And stay tuned for our exclusive IRL interview with Courtney, coming soon to YouTube!

What does your average day look like? 

That’s the thing about this job, there is no average day because every day is so different depending on the time of year, my content series, current events in the world, etc. People assume that web creators just create beautiful images and videos with witty captions and call it a day. For me, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because 80 percent of my work is things that people may not see: storyboarding, calls with brand partners, content strategy, emails, backend website developing, editing and engaging with my community.  

What inspires you on a day-to-day basis and gets your creative energy flowing? 

Color Me Courtney at its core is a true reflection of me and my (many) interests–fashion, lifestyle, food, culture, entertainment, etc.– so I don’t have trouble with “turning it on” or finding creative energy. Oftentimes my problem as a creative is actually the opposite, and the challenge is really to be more focused on reining things in and making sure all of the ideas get executed.  

To get into the flow, I try to separate my days into buckets so I can be the most productive. I’ll do one day a week that’s all meetings and phone calls and another where I’m binge watching a show in my pajamas while I’m answering emails and editing and planning content. Then the next day I’ll get photoshoot-ready and dedicate all my time shooting content. Of course, this doesn’t always go according to plan. There can always be interruptions like a timely cultural moment, an urgent email or just being present for my online community. But it does help to plan my day and create some semblance of a structure.

What’s the best part of your job? 

I love the creativity, the freedom to express myself and working with my favorite brands, but the best part of my job is my amazing community and the ability to connect with others. There are so many conversations about the negative aspects of the web, but I love to shine the light on how it can positively bring so many people from diverse backgrounds together. That’s what my community is! It means so much when someone tells me how my post has brightened their day or gave them confidence to wear an outfit, or just let them know that they weren’t alone!  

Sometimes though, people can forget that there is a real-life human being on the other side of the screen and that you’re not always omnipresent. At a normal 9-5 you either have off-days, take vacations or leave your work at the office when you go home. However, in this industry it’s a little tough to take a week vacation or even clock out for the day because there are always alerts and people are constantly reaching out. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but you definitely have to set aside time for yourself because it can be overwhelming if you don’t “turn it off.”

What’s the mission behind Color Me Courtney? 

Color Me Courtney and my online shop, Color Me Magic, is a vibrant fashion, lifestyle and culture media company that is designed to empower others to "Dress Outside the Lines," promote self-confidence, celebrate inclusivity and embrace all the special quirks that make you unique. It’s been great to create a safe space to express my unique thoughts and interests and encourage my community to come together to share theirs as well.    

What is something that inspires and motivates you every day about the web, or in general?

The most inspiring thing is to see how many people your content, conversations and general presence can have on others, whether they are other creators or moms just entering a new career. That relationship is reciprocal in that there are so many times where my community also inspires and motivates me.  

The other inspiring thing is that my online presence isn’t stagnant, but rather grows with me. I’ve been fortunate that it grows in terms of followers and readership, but more importantly it's grown as my interests, hobbies and career have evolved, and that’s amazing to me. Because of this, I’m constantly thinking of new concepts and the process of being able to take them from idea to execution and seeing everything come to life is inspiring and motivating.

What tools do you use to make your stuff? 

I used to be exclusive to Dropbox, but I just switched to Google Drive so now I operate completely on Drive. I use Adobe Suite (Lightroom mostly) for editing but I do it almost exclusively on my phone. I edit video in Final Cut or Premiere depending on the project and I use VLLO and Splice for on-phone editing.

And finally … what advice would you give someone trying to make it in your industry? 

Find the thing that makes you special, different and unique. Then celebrate it and build a brand around it. The number one mistake that I see when people are starting out is they try to be everything to everybody instead of starting with the things they are most passionate about and building a community and business around that. Too many people try to conform to the trends of the moment and get lost in the shuffle, or they fall for the trap of comparing themselves to others, and that’s 100 percent  a losing game.   

Today we are bringing visual and immersive Web Stories to Discover, part of the Google app on Android and iOS and used by more than 800 million people each month. The Stories carousel, now available in the United States, India and Brazil at the top of Discover, helps you find some of the best visual content from around the web. In the future, we intend to expand Web Stories to more countries and Google products.

Browsing Stories is simple. When you tap on a Story on the shelf, you enter an experience that’s full-screen and immersive. Tap to move forward to the next page, or swipe to an entirely different Story in the carousel.

In addition to Discover, we continue to surface more Web Stories across Google Search results globally on mobile. 

Made for the Web

For creators and publishers, Web Stories are entirely under your direction, just like any other content on your website. Story authors are in full control of monetization, hosting, sharing and adding links to their Stories. Plus, the web offers one of the largest audiences for creators, with publishers already seeing strong results, as shown in the stories.google showcase. And because Web Stories are just an extension of a website, some early adopters of Web Stories are showcasing their stories on their home page, social channels, newsletters and more.

To help jumpstart the Web Stories ecosystem, we worked with a diverse group of publishers and creation tools in the U.S, India and Brazil this year to collaborate on the product and build out its features.

It’s easy to get started

Web Stories can be created by anyone, whether you are an individual creator or a publisher, and more than 2,000 websites have already published Stories that have been indexed by Google.

We can’t wait to see what stories you tell.