HOW TO FIND THE BEST KEY WORDS FOR YOUR PINTEREST
I think that as a blogger is there is anything that is relevant, it's Pinterest.
Pinterest is your one stop shop to find blogs, be discovered, grow a following, and keep your blogs in rotation for up to 6 months.
When it comes to Pinterest there is a lot of different little tips and tricks that will help your picture be seen more than others but for today's little tutorial, we're going to start with THE CAPTIONS of the picture you're uploading.
In the video below I'll show you my little trick for figuring out what people are looking for so that you can figure out which key words are the most relevant no matter what you're posting about!
THE IMPORTANCE OF FINDING YOUR NICHE
Having a niche for your blog is EXTREMELY important.
When I first started blogging I was using Tumblr as my platform and some days I would write a journal entry type blog that was very personal and then other days I would post a video of me making a juice.
My following was SUPER small at the time and I was mainly just doing it to vent and have a place to write BUT as I started realizing that I wanted to grow my audience, I started feeling less confident about what I was writing.
I wanted to write about personal things, I wanted to write recipes, and of course I wanted to talk about health tips and at home workouts.
I started reading about how other bloggers started to grow their audience and they ALL said the same thing.
YOU NEED TO START WITH ONE THING.
FIND YOUR NICHE.
When someone goes to your blog they need to know what they're going there for. Whether it's interior design tips, gluten-free recipes, or how to create your own clothing brand, it needs to be consistent content that is constantly revolving around the same specific subject.
Don't worry, I'm sure you have a lot to talk about and YES, you WILL be able to start moving into other subjects but FIRST you need to focus on ONE thing.
I started ONLY posting health tips. I felt like I could round up a LOT of content for this subject and it was definitely something that I loved talking about.
You know how you get "lost in the rabbit hole" of people's websites and instagrams? That's the goal. Get the reader's attention, and keep it!
Consistency and quality content of a niche topic will begin to grow your audience because your readers will begin to understand what you can provide for them and they will want to know MORE.
Once you feel like you have really tackled that particular subject (I posted only about health tips for about 6 months, 4 times a week) then you can start to move into other subjects.
Your audience now understands you and probably feels like they know you so they LIKE you. NOW they are interested in other things that you know.
For example, if you are starting a blog about interior design and talk about 'tips for renovating your first home' for a few months, then you can have the option of posting something like 'How I juggle my full time interior deign job with being a mom".
If you try to talk about all these different topics right off the bat then it's much harder for people to really understand what your blog is about.
If you need help just leave a comment below and let me know what you want your niche to be and we can find some topics for your to focus on!
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HOW TO SEND OUT NEWSLETTERS
I remember when I first started by blog I was SOOOO LOST. I was like, okay I have a website but now how do I send out a bunch of e-mails to people that want to subscribe to my website.
How do I even GET someone to subscribe to my site?
HELPP!
I wanted to just die trying to figure it out. I didn't know where to look or what it would even be called. My friend at my gym told me that she had started using mailchimp but I think my response was, "what the fuck is that".
The name itself was a start but it still wasn't very helpful.
Slowly but surely I started messing with it and started to figure it out for the most part.
Here's the basics of what you need to know if you are wanting to start sending newsletters out to your subscribers via Mailchimp.
1.
Start out by going to mailchimp.com and clicking the button that says SIGN UP. Once you get your account set up then it will take you to your dashboard page which should look something like this:
So you'll notice the tabs at the top of the page.
CAMPAIGNS are your newsletters.
TEMPLATES are any newsletters that you create and you want to save the template so that you can use it again.
LISTS are your subscribers.
REPORTS give you all the stats and analytics on your newsletters.
and last but not least
AUTOMATION is where you would set up AUTOMATIC newsletters. Veryyyyy handy.
2.
In order to be able to send a newsletter you have to first have a list aka subscribers. You can either add emails by manually typing them in, or you have already built a large e-mail list and you want to import it into mailchimp then that is also an option.
What's nice is that once you have your website set up you can easily connect your mailchimp to your site (if you use squarespace then it is super easy!) and then whenever someone subscribes, mailchimp will automatically update your list!
You can also create a list from a pre-existing list. SO for example, if I notice that there's 200 people that open every single one of my newsletters then I can create something like a VIP list just for those subscribers and easily save it to my "lists".
Then if I want to send out a newsletter exclusively for VIP members like a discount code or something, then I can click on that list and that newsletter will only be sent to those 200 people.
3.
Now that you have your list, it's time to create your campaign, aka your newsletter. When I click CAMPAIGNS at the top of the page, it directs me to this page where we can find every single newsletter i've ever sent out. This is also where we have the option of creating a NEW campaign (top right).
By clicking on an old campaign I can see who opened the newsletter, who clicked on links within the newsletter and what links exactly. I can see where my subscribers are located which is awesome because it helps you understand the demographic of your readership and it also tells you what times they were opened. A lot of helpful information.
This is always good information to go back and look at because if I included links to 4 different blogs in my newsletter and notice that 80 people clicked on one particular blog while only 10-15 clicks were made on the other blogs, then I have a better idea of what my readers find interesting.
So go to this page to make a new campaign. Once you click on that then it will ask you what you want to name your campaign. I started by just calling my very first one "0001" and I just go up from there.
Then it will ask you to chose a list to send the campaign to, and from there you have the option of designing a new campaign or using the format of an old one from your daed templates.
I like to stick to a theme so I tend to use the same format and just change out the blogs and pictures.
From here I'll just click on the template I want to use and then click NEXT. This is where you can add in pictures or videos and write what it is that you want to say to your readers!
Once you're finished it will ask you if you are ready to publish!! This is the most exciting part because mailchimp reminds you what your sending out and to how many people.
4.
Now this is the part that I LOVE. Once you send your campaign, you can wait like 2 minutes and then go back to your dashboard (homepage) and click reports at the top of your page. You can click on the newsletter you just sent out and start to take a look at who is opening it and if they are clicking through on any links!
This is a really good way to get your website traffic up!
5.
Let's quickly talk about automation.
I used automation a few times and there are many different ways to use it.
You can use automation to set up various e-mails that automatically get sent out as soon as someone signs up for your newsletter. Typically a good thing to do is to have a welcome letter send out as soon as someone signs up and then you can use automation to automatically send out another newsletter 1 day later. You can also do 1 hour later or 1 week later but the point is that the next e-mail will go out automatically after the reader opens the first one.
A good idea for a second e-mail is maybe a few of your favorite blogs so that you're new subscribers can get a better idea of what your site is all about and get a feel for how you format your newsletters.
TIP:
DON'T OVERLOAD YOUR READERS INBOX'S WITH E-MAILS.
Decide if you're going to send out 1 newsletter a week or bi-weekly, or even once a month and try to stick to that.
While you're here, feel free to sign up for m newsletter so that you get all the latest exclusive tips and tricks!
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BLOGGER (with another job).
Ahh, it's kind of crazy to know that I was reading a blog just like this over a year ago and now I'm writing one.
I feel like when I got into blogging it was just like anything else really. You want to do something so you kind of just START without really knowing what you're getting yourself into.
At the time I was just really into writing and felt like there wasn't enough room on instagram for what I wanted to say so I wanted to move it to a website so I guess that put me in the category of a blogger.
I started looking up things like "How to become a blogger" and I read a bunch of things that weren't the most exciting but they didn't seem to discourage me.
I knew that this was what I wanted to do so I continued to just go for it.
That's not to say that what these other websites were saying was wrong though. They said that becoming a blogger is tough. That you have to work on it every day and you usually won't make money for at LEAST a year.
Then you find out that you're content has to be consistent AF, and your pictures have to be of quality and you probably have to invest in a camera and then you have to find your niche and build your audience.
It's allllll apart of it. BUT I knew that these were all things that I was interested in and I would be willing to work on.
SO Let's get into it. Here's what a typical day looks like for me, 1 year into blogging.
7:30 am
Wake up, make my morning coffee free superfood drink, and open up my computer for e-mails. I go through my regular e-mails and then I go through the e-mails that are connected to my instagram and my website.
9:00 am
I try to hit the gym or go to a class at this point for 30 minutes to an hour. When I get home I have my protein shake and get ready for my day.
11:00 am
This is when I grab my computer and head to my office or I get out of the house and go to a cafe to get work done.
I have a "blogger schedule" that I try to stick to for the week so depending on what day it is this is when I work on that.
For example, if it's Monday, I spend this time reaching out to brands or influencers to collaborate. On Tuesday's I write and shoot a blog. Wednesday's I try to film a video and start editing. Thursday I finish up editing and try to post. Friday I write a new blog, Saturday I try to get in some kind of shoot and Sunday is usually my day to chill.
If anything I'll edit photos, get my instagram schedule set up for the week or check in with my intern to make sure we're getting posts up on twitter and pinterest as well as sending out blogs to other blogging platforms.
This schedule obviously doesn't always stick because life happens and sometimes the person you need to help shoot you is busy or a vaca comes up and you don't have what you need to shoot or write or whatever.
But I've realized that having a plan for the week is SUPER helpful because it reminds you of all the things you need to try to get done in a week.
1:00 pm
Quick lunch break where I usually watch 1 episode of Ellen or two episodes of Girls and then I jump back into everything I need to be working on or do house work.
4:00 pm
I get ready for work and leave. I work from 5:30 pm - usually about 1:30 am
1:30 am
Get home, have some probiotic yogurt (the coconut cult), hang out with my boyfriend and maybe do a spirulina face mask and get to bed by 2:00 - 2:30ish.
Then wake up and do it all over again.
Some people might think I'm insane for doing this for a over a year without making any real money from it. I've made money here and there (we'll discuss how to make money from your blog on a different post).
Honestly for me, it's never been about making money. I have a job that supports me and blogging is what I genuinely like to do. I love knowing that I built something from the ground up and I love seeing my progress from day 1 to now!
So don't be intimidated by the schedule or feel like it's too much work IF it's something that you really want to bring to life. Please go through with it! I would love to see your blog!!
Leave comments below if you have any questions!
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