When I first started blogging, I had no clue what I was doing. No idea where I was going or how to get there. Through lots (lots) of trial and error, I’ve managed to create a blog that not only is a ton of fun, but also serves as my full time job. Little Coffee Fox has over 10k email subscribers and over 42k followers across social media. That’s not even mentioning the 300k+ pageviews every month. I get questions all the time about how to start a blog and run it, and I’m happy to share what I know. There’s enough room in this wild west for you, so don’t be shy about jumping in!
Where Do I Find Resources?
There are a million places you can go to find resources for blogging. It’s pretty overwhelming. So why don’t I go ahead and share with you the people I look to for blogging advice? There are two sites in particular that I actively read again and again.
These two ladies know what they’re talking about. I’d definitely recommend checking them out if you’re serious about blogging.
Besides information resources, there’s also the question of blogging related goods and services. Luckily, I have all the brands that I recommend over on one neat little page with a bunch of exclusive discounts to get you started! One service that I wholeheartedly recommend right off the bat is ConvertKit, which is an email service. Every blogger needs an email list, and I’ve found that ConvertKit is by far the best on the market. Just sayin’.
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The Basics of Blogging
If you want to run a blog, then you need to learn a lot of new and unexpected skills. Here are a few posts to help you figure out those blogging basics.
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How to Start a Blog Today: A Step by Step GuideJuly 14, 2016Why Start a Blog? Are you passionate about a subject? Are you an expert in something? Do you enjoy being involved in a community? Blogging can satisfy the desire to be heard and the urge to expand knowledge. Running a blog can range between a fun hobby you do on the side to a full-fledged business. You can talk about your hobbies and passions while connecting with people around the globe. It can change your perspective, change your work ethic, and change your career path. Here I will show you how to easily set up your site on Dreamhost, my favorite hosting provider. I think blogging is especially important for the creatives out there. No longer do we have to choose between being a full-time creator or a profitless creator. With a blog, you can share your voice with a community of like-minded people and make a little bit of cash on the side without quitting your job and moving to Paris. It’s a win-win! I started my blog earlier this year just because it sounded like fun. I had a blog go bust last year, so I almost didn’t do it out of fear of failure. Now, I can say without a doubt that it is the best thing that’s ever happened to me (except my husband, of course!). I have quit my part-time job to pursue this full-time and I am even altering my career plans to accommodate for my Internet family. It has absolutely changed my life. And I think it can for you too. My Blogging Experience I have been extremely blessed with my success. A lot of it has been due to hard work, but mostly, it was just luck. I fell into the right place at the right time. I started the first edition of my blog in May of 2015 and worked really hard for about six months before I finally fizzled out due to lack of audience engagement. Between my husband and I, we have had six websites eventually go belly up. Before my hosting plan came to an end in May of 2016, I decided to refocus and give it one more shot before I gave up for good. That led to the blog you see today. Seventh time’s the charm, right? So many lovely, people have been reaching out to me in this last month with questions about how they might get started with blogging. I figured that I should just put as much information into one post as possible to help you curious souls out there who have been playing with the idea. I mean, if I can do it, then literally anyone can. All you need is to know where to start! I started my new edition of Little Coffee Fox in late March of 2016, and it has been crazy. I’m 2018, this site received nearly 5 million page views! If you are serious about blogging or hoping to make your blog your business, I would recommend Dreamhost. While it might be easier to get started on a drag and drop website building, you really need to be self-hosted if you want to grow as a blog. It is absolutely horrible to transfer your site when it is mature and ready for a service like Dreamhost. By that, I mean that I never want to transfer again, and if I must, I will hire someone to do it for me. It’s that bad. So I would suggest you start with the hosting service you want to eventually end up on. Plus, if you click through my link and sign up for a year-long shared plan, you get my exclusive Dreamhost discount of $50 off your purchase. With the discount, a year-long plan is only $2.59/month, and comes with a free domain and Wordpress already installed. If that doesn’t make it easier to jump in, I don’t know what will! I would also recommend that you start as soon as possible. Don’t wait until the timing is just right, because it never will be. Jump in with both feet! Also, you should know that the longer a domain has existed, the higher it will rank in Google search results. So starting now can actively help you in the long run. How to Start a Blog on Dreamhost This brings me to Dreamhost, my current hosting service. If you have been with me since the beginning, I’m sure you have noticed a few significant differences after I moved services. I feel like Dreamhost is a sea of possibilities! There are so many ways I can customize my site to fit every need, and I have a lot more control over my content. Let’s go over how to get started with Dreamhost, shall we? Setting Up Your Profile Go to Dreamhost.com and there should be a big, bold button in the middle of the page. Click it.The next page has a bit more information about Dreamhost’s features and credentials. Click the button in the middle of the page again to move onward. Remember to click here to get my exclusive $50 Dreamhost discount when you purchase a year long shared plan! The discount makes it only $2.59 a month for the first year!This page will prompt you to create an account. There are five clearly stated steps that you can see at the top of your screen, so you know this is a streamlined process.After that, you can choose your domain. Or, if you want to think about it a bit, you can! There is the option to wait until later. If you are still waffling over a few options, this is wonderful. You don’t have to hold up your process while you are waiting on the perfect domain to come to you. Sweet! It’s also worth noting that a domain is a part of most of the Dreamhost packages.When you have selected your domain or opted to figure it out later, you can click on to the next page. Here are the available plans. Any of these would be great plans, but if you are hesitant, perhaps the monthly plan is for you. Remember that Dreamhost has a great refund policy. If you decide that you don’t like this service or blogging just ain’t for you, you have 97 days to get a full refund. So don’t sweat it!When you have selected the plan that is right for you, you can continue on to “The money part”. You know what to do here!Thankfully, Dreamhost comes with a 1-click installation of WordPress to your site. After you purchase your Dreamhost plan, you will receive an email with instructions on how to install WordPress. Don’t fret, it’s super quick and easy, and customer service will walk you through any issues. After that, you have yourself a website that’s all yours! Picking a Kickass Theme One downside to Dreamhost is that it is harder to design your site. You have more control, but you have more responsibility. This is where themes come in. It’s the same concept as a drag and drop templates, but these are far more intricate designs and you have much more customization opportunities. If you know how to code or want to play with building your website from scratch, be my guest! But for the code-illiterate (that’s me!), I would suggest you hop on over to Studio Press and buy yourself a theme. These are not yearly fees – once you buy it, it’s yours.When you go to StudioPress.com, here is the page you will find. Click “Shop for Themes” to see what cool templates they have just for you. If you like the look of my website and want to figure out what makes my blog tick, I’d be happy to share! I use a Genesis Framework and a Restored 316 Child Theme.The button will take you to this page, which has these big tiles with the front page of each template website. Scroll through and drink in all the gorgeousness. Of course, you can filter the themes and narrow your search a bit. Click on a theme to learn more about it and navigate around the theme’s dummy site.You can see here that I clicked the Simply Pro Theme. From here, you can click “Live Demo” and see the whole site. Navigate from page to page to see how the theme is applied across many different applications. That way you know exactly what you are getting. Neat!Once you purchase a theme, you will receive instructions for setting it up on your site. You can take it from there as you set up your amazing creative blog. Nice job! Start an Email List Right Away Small confession, I didn’t start building an email list until I had been blogging for 3 months. 3 whole months and over 150k people had come to my site, and I had no way to contact them. I am not going to spend much time talking about how to build an email list or why you should do it in this post, but I will say it is the single most important thing for a blogger. Nothing is more important than having a solid email list so you need to start building it right away. I highly suggest Convertkit. I started with Mailchimp and I don’t recommend it if you are serious about blogging. Mailchimp is great (and cheap) when you first start, but it severely limited me after only a few months, and moving my entire list to a new service was an experience I would not wish on anyone. Convertkit is slightly more expensive than Mailchimp in the beginning, but it is about the same price in the long run and is a much more professional platform. Get Your Blog Running Today! So there you have it! You now know everything you need to know to take the plunge and start a blog. Remember that your blog doesn’t have to make lots of money to be fun. You can enjoy the simple pleasure of being a part of a community and finding other enthusiastic people out there. Get out there with your amazing blog and promote your ideas, projects, and opinions – and who knows? You may find yourself in a situation where you can finally fulfill the dream of pursuing your pipe dream. And if you are feeling hesitant, remember to consider that fantastic Dreamhost discount AND the fact that you have more than three months to get a full refund on Dreamhost. There are safety nets all around you! The internet is an amazing place, so why not give it a chance? Bloggers Who Took the Leap: Journal With Purpose Blossoms and Bullet Journals An Anxiety Filled Mum Viv’s Journal -
The Bullet Journal for Bloggers - 13 Easy Ways to Organize Your BlogNovember 15, 2016Blogging is a Tough Job Many people might think that blogging is a walk in the park, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Even hobby bloggers have to put a lot of love and care into their website to make it run – not to mention business blogs like me! There’s a lot of hats to wear: programmer, marketer, graphic designer, writer, editor, photographer, artist, administrator, social media manager…. the list goes on and on. It’s enjoyable work, but there’s still a lot to do. So how does one manage all of these jobs, tasks, and to do lists? The bullet journal for bloggers, of course! Bullet Journal for Bloggers If you’ve never heard of a bullet journal, I’d suggest you pop over here and get acquainted with this fabulous planning system. Essentially, it’s a blogger’s best friend. This planning system is flexible as can be and only limited to your imagination. Cheesy as it sounds, it’s totally true! You can use your bullet journal however you desire, but it is like a Swiss Army Knife for starting and running a business. Are you on the fence about starting a blog? Get your basic info on beginning your blog and a $50 discount on a Dreamhost service in my How to Start a Blog post, then come back here and apply the information in this post toward managing your new blog! I swear it’s the only thing keeping me balanced with blogging and regular life. Let me break down all the ways that I use my bullet journal to juggle all the things that come with running a blog! By the way, I’m going to be showing you lots of different spreads, pens, and other materials. To see what I use and where to grab some of these supplies, head over to my supplies page! And one thing that is pretty darn necessary for my job is good music. That’s why I would wholeheartedly recommend you try Prime Music free for thirty days (or six months if you’re a student) and experience the bliss of ad free stations. It’s magical. Periodic Goals and Trackers Every blogger knows that you need to plan ahead for posts, holidays, and other events so they don’t sneak up on you. The bullet journal is great for just this, because you can select how broad of a scope you want to plan with. Some people prefer to plan week by week, or in biweekly increments. Personally, I like planning in month-long swaths. I use a monthly planner to check in on my goals, both personal and professional. You can peruse my full monthly spreads right here to get a better idea of how I set everything up in my Leuchtturm journal. But there are a few things I want to specifically point out as excellent tools for the blogger. Monthly Master Plan Recently, I implemented a new planning system to help me grab some of the bigger goals for the month and break it down into more manageable pieces. I have the master plan on one page and a four week breakdown on the other. That way I can list out all the things I want to accomplish in the month under the master plan. Then, I figure out the smaller steps to get those big tasks accomplished and place them in the week breakdown. This technique helps me bridge the gap between my dailies and my bigger goals. Blog Check-In Each month, I like to dedicate a page in my monthly spread to looking at the previous month’s numbers and income. I like to see what worked and what did not work for the blog so I can adjust. Then I like to set goals for the new month, looking specifically at social media, projects, and income. This helps me see a general overview of how everything is growing (or not), which is vital to knowing where to go next. Recently, I’ve moved all my financial planning to a Northbooks journal. This streamlines my monthly page to the essential information and lets me ponder the finances in greater depth somewhere else. Habit Tracker The habit tracker is a phenomenal little chart that has a ton of uses. I fill in this tracker every night to record data of how often I am doing certain tasks. This allows me to see at a glance how frequently I’ve been doing blog-related activities, like responding to messages or publishing a new post. It helps hold me accountable and provides me with data points long after the month is gone. And if you know me, you know I’m a sucker for good data points. Also, the habit tracker is a great way to keep yourself from hitting burnout. You can track how often you do self care activities, like exercise or hobbies. It’s a simple way to keep you from getting too wrapped up in work and keeping that all-important balance I was talking about. Enter the Fox Den Resource Library Subscribe to get access to 40+ pages of printables, brush lettering worksheets, and more! Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription and get the password. Don't see the email? Don't worry, sometimes it takes a few minutes. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. First Name Email Address We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. I WANT IN Powered by ConvertKit Daily Planning The bulk of all my planning happens in the humble daily entry. I set it up (sometime with stickers if I don’t feel that I have time to make it look nice) and get right on running with all the things that need to be done that day. A little daily to do list might not sound like a huge revelation, but trust me, it’s amazing. Having all of my tasks in one journal with a mark indicating the level of completeness creates a detailed log that I can reference whenever I need. I can see exactly which day I sent a certain email, make notes for important info in my dailies, and know which day I didn’t complete a task and where the task got moved to. And having it all in one location also makes me 856x more likely to use it each day. Collections One of the things that you can do in the bullet journal for bloggers is brainstorm to your heart’s content. Each new page is wide open for your use, so everything’s fair game! Here’s just a few ways I’ve used these unstructured pages to plan and organize my business. Project Checklists I have used subject-specific checklists countless times, both for the blog and other stuff (like wedding planning). For example, I have a bullet journal presentation coming up on December 3rd in Chicago. To help me organize my speech, I laid out the outline, drew up a draft for the materials I’m designing, and listed a few steps to properly prepare for the event. It’s simple and all in one place. An older example of a project checklist is my email list launch prep. I was hosting a giveaway to kick off the email list launch, so I kept these two batches of tasks together on the same page for ease. If you don’t have an email list for your blog or online business, you totally should! I use Convertkit and I love it. So go build your email list! It’s seriously one of the most important ways to reach your audience. Brainstorming I have also used several pages for brainstorming ideas for the blog. One of the most direct and applicable examples of this is my blog post idea page. It’s a great place to keep all the different ideas for new posts all in once place. This page has helped me tremendously on days when I wasn’t feeling too creatively inspired. Just flip to this page and BAM – inspiration is just oozing off the paper! Another way you can brainstorm is with a mind map. Just let the ideas flow to you naturally with this organic listing method. It’s an excellent way to connect ideas and themes for future projects. Lists to Reference I also keep a few pages that I reference time and time again for blogging purposes. One of the most useful is my password log. Some people might not be comfortable with keeping them all in one place like this, but it’s ideal for me. I used to try to keep them scattered and separate, but then I’d lose them and forget my login. So I said screw it and kept it all right here. I work from home, so I don’t exactly have the chance to misplace my bullet journal in the outside world all that often. Also, I don’t keep passwords for super important stuff, like bank information, in my journal. This is strictly blogging related accounts that I might need on a daily basis for business. Another list I religiously keep is an Instagram hashtag reference. For a business trying to grow an IG account, this is vital. Hashtags are the blood of Instagram, so knowing how to use them is totally necessary for success. Keeping a place to jot down new hashtag discoveries is fantastic to aid in growth. Oh, and while we’re talking about it, why don’t you go follow my Instagram? Thanks! Notes A place to keep notes is another essential in the Bullet Journal for Bloggers. Whether it’s about a specific project, meeting notes, or research notes about a business strategy, being able to keep your notes all together for reference is crucial. Here’s some notes from when I was editing my eBook. Here’s a peek at some of my internal weekly notes. Jon and I try to schedule one meeting each week to determine where we are with our goals, both personal and professional. We chat about the blog, our plans, habits, and his school work. It’s a neat way to hold each other accountable for stuff going on in each of our lives. Pinterest Log One rather unique collection in my bullet journal is the Pinterst log. In an attempt to step up my pinning game, I started to strategically share pins to maintain a cycle and keep to the rules of all the group boards I participated in. While this was a pretty good system, I’ve since moved to BoardBooster to manage all my Pinterest activity. It’s just loads easier to handle and it frees up my time to create more free content. If you’re tired of managing your Pinterest account manually, maybe it’s time to give BoardBooster a try. You can even get a free trial to automate your first 100 pins for free! Blog Brain Dump One of the benefits of planning on paper is the ability to get all those whirling worries and stressors our of your head. Some people call this a brain dump, and it can be extremely cathartic to list out all those tasks. This can be a periodic thing when you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed or it can be a working log of lots of tasks. Personally, I reserve it for the kinds of tasks that have no specific deadline. They just need to be done at some point, and thus they need to be written down. A Blogger’s Best Friend If you are currently doing your research for starting a blog, then nice job! It’s fantastic to make a plan and know what you’re doing before you jump in head first. Make sure you check out my post about how to start a blog so you can see some more technical details and snag that exclusive $50 discount for Dreamhost. It will make the first year of your blog much more affordable! Whether you are just get started blogging for fun or income, a seasoned blogger, or as an addition to your existing online business, a bullet journal can help you immensely. This system is more flexible than any other type of planner, which makes is simply perfect for your job as a programmer/artist/writer/photographer/salesperson. You can manage tasks that must be dealt with each day, plan for future projects, track ongoing efforts, and have a detailed record of your past business dealings. There is no end to how a bullet journal can help your blog – and you – succeed in the online world. P.S. If you sign up to the Fox Den Resource Library right here, you can get lots of tutorials, worksheets, printables, and more. Plus I sometimes send emails exclusively for bloggers like you with tips and tricks from my years as a blogger. So sign up and get in on this!
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9 Tips for Taking Beautiful Flat lay Photography & Impressing Your Instagram FollowersFebruary 22, 2017Flat lay photography is easy to learn and incredibly powerful. Here’s my nine tips for finding the flat lay style that blends perfectly with your brand. The internet is a stunning place. There is so much information and beauty.. But the internet is crowded, and it can be hard to cut through the noise to reach your desired audience. There are several ways to successfully push through, and one of them is Instagram. Instagram is a fantastic tool for finding an audience and connecting with them in a unique, personal way. My favorite way to connect with my Instagram followers is with gorgeous flat lay photography. The Art of Flat lay Photography Flat lay photos are great for all kinds of subjects – books, planners, art, food, jewelry… you name it! The basic idea behind flay lay photography is simply taking a picture from straight up above with no angle at all. But naturally, there is more to it than that. Here’s my tips for getting started! Find Instagram Inspiration Before you start snapping photos, I would suggest you dive into Instagram and find accounts that you love. Find accounts that already attract the audience you want to build. Take notes on the consistent elements in their photographs. How do they use light? Are the photos crowded or minimalist? Do they have a color theme? Here’s a few of my favorite Instagram accounts that display fabulous flat lay photography: @my.life.in.a.bullet @flatlays @phoebesoup @mylittlejournalblog @_foodstories_ Of course, you can always see how I do my Instagram account. And you can follow me, too, because you’re so cool 😉 Use Natural Light Unless you are a professional photographer with a proper lighting rig, you need to always take your flat lay photos in natural light. Brightly lit photos are almost always better than dark ones, and the flash on your camera ain’t gonna cut it. Find a window or simply go outside to get those delicious natural rays. My Instagram photos are taken in an area with three windows for light all around the subject. Be aware of the shadows and take your time to position everything just right. Most of my favorite Instagram accounts have brightly lit photos, but occasionally I find someone who can pull off the dark moody look. @_foodstories_ is a great example of how to achieve a more rustic feel without getting too dark. Play with Color for Your Flat Lay Photography Play around with color themes in your flat lay photo. It’s a great rule of thumb to have a general color theme for your whole feed for consistency. After all, you want your Instagram followers to be able to recognize your style in a second. I tend to have a broad range of colors in my photography, but I keep everything very bright and poppy. In an individual image, you can try different color themes to add intrigue. You can go monochromatic and stick with just one dominant color like my gold photo. Or you can mix multiple colors to create a bright rainbow effect. Play around and you will find something that is pleasing to the eye. Use Texture in Your Flat Lay Photography Try different texture elements to add character to a flat lay photography. Fur, cloth, metal, glass, wood, stone…. there are tons of options! Utilize Plants If you have any small potted plants, they make for great flat lay photography props. I love using my succulents to add color and texture. Of course, larger plants can add gorgeous depth to your photo, as the top of the plant will be out of focus. Create Contrast Creating contrast can really add an extra something to your photography. The contrast can be with any element: colors, sizes, shapes, textures, lighting – you name it. I enjoy using contrast with different sized props. Mixing delicate props like acorns, crystals, and paperclips with bigger elements like plants, candles, and boxes can add tons of interest to flat lay photography. Achieve Balance This tip is essential to pleasing your Instagram followers, but it takes a bit of practice to figure out. Balance is a somewhat subjective measure of a photograph, so here are some basic rules of thumb. Try not to load lots of big items on only one side of the photo. Create balance by keeping the mass fairly equal throughout a page. In the photo below, I have the main subject matter in the center of the photograph with a large bottle and small stone apple on the top left. To create balance, I have the medium plant, a key, some paperclips, and a garland on the right/bottom. This disperses the weight fairly evenly and doesn’t let the photo be dominated by the large bottle. Like I said, it will take some practice, but you will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Edit Your Flay Lay Photography Uniformly After the photos are taken, it might be tempting to slap them on Instagram right away. But if you take a little time to edit your flat lay photos, you can really impress your Instagram followers with a polished feed. If you are wanting to keep things cheap and simple, then all you need to do is pick a premade Instagram filter and only use that one filter. Of course, if you are wanting to step up your Instagram game for your business, I would suggest a more professional editing method. I use Adobe Photoshop and I love it. There are tons of tutorials on Youtube if I ever have a question, and the tools are damn near limitless. For consistent editing, I created an action sequence, which basically means I programmed a certain chain of editing events. I use that on all my Instagram photos to get the exact same lighting, color editing, saturation, etc. It works like a dream. Enter the Fox Den Resource Library Subscribe to get access to 40+ pages of printables, brush lettering worksheets, and more! Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription and get the password. Don't see the email? Don't worry, sometimes it takes a few minutes. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. First Name Email Address We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. I WANT IN Powered by ConvertKit Experiment to Find Your Style Take your time to set up your flat lay photos. Don’t try to rush it, and feel free to tweak your props a few times to get the photo perfect. With a little bit of practice, you will get a feel for how you like your images getting set up. Try using things around your home for photo props, even if they are unrelated to the subject matter, like: Nail polishJewelryPensPaperweightsSmall vasesCandlesPost-It note padsCoffee cups Think outside of the box! I’m sure there are dozens of items around your home that you can use to punch up your photos a little bit. Bonus Tips for the Aspiring Photographer Equipment Matters When you are just beginning, you can definitely use your smart phone as your camera. After all, you have it right there! It’s super easy and convenient. However, the equipment you use can have an enormous impact on your finished product. If you really want to step up your photography game and get into the big leagues, I’d suggest an upgrade. If you are blogging as a business, I can’t stress enough how much you need a decent camera. I used my phone for all my blog photography until I finally caved and bought a Nikon Coolpix last autumn. And wow what a difference! This camera covers all my blog photography (and filming) needs without breaking the bank. It is one step below a fancy DSLR, and is incredibly user friendly without sacrificing quality. If you’re wanting something on the cheaper end, I’d suggest a Nikon Coolpix L32, which will give you everything you need for basic photography. I also love using a tripod and adjustable arm to get a perfect shot over my work space. This really helps me achieve consistent flat lay photos over and over again. It’s also great for filming, but that’s a whole other beast. If you must continue using your phone for budget reasons, I’d suggest you grab a phone mount so you can still enjoy the benefits of a steady camera. If you want a tripod that’s a little smaller or more flexible, I’ve used and loved the Gorillapod tripods – both the small one and the large one. Schedule Your Posts My last tip for anyone wanting to step up their Instagram game is to start scheduling your posts. I was incredibly stubborn about this for months, refusing to make it easier on myself. Looking back on that, I have no idea why. Literally the day after I started using Buffer to plan and schedule my posts, I was saying “I should have done this ages ago”. With Buffer, you simply select an image, write your description, and set your schedule. When it’s time to post, Buffer sends a push notification to your phone so all you have to do is push a few buttons to get the post up. Scheduling your posts ahead of time means you can: Spread your content evenly so you don’t have post-heavy days followed by content droughts.Write all your descriptions and hashtags ahead of time, then just copy & paste them when you post.Save yourself from forgetting to post. I’ve been using Buffer for a few months now, and I don’t stress near as much about Instagram anymore. With regular posting and smart scheduling, my followers have increased by the thousands. Buffer has a free trial, but their paid service has proved itself worthwhile to me. Whatever you go with, scheduling your posts can really take you one more step towards impressing your Instagram followers. Now Go Make Something Awesome With a basic understanding of what works for flat lay photography, you will be off creating an amazing Instagram feed in no time. Just experiment a little bit, try something new, and take your time to get everything just right. You are a busy person, but rushed pictures don’t get the same attention or love as a proper photo. If you really want to get a jump in your Instagram followers, you need to start thinking of your photography as an investment. Build a beautiful, consistent feed and they will come. Now all you gotta do is go out there and build it! P.S. Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram!
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How I Get 2k Email Subscribers a Month - 3 Tips to Build an Email ListJune 7, 2017Where Should You Begin? If it’s your dream to start an online business or blog, then you probably feel overwhelmed with all the things you need to do. There’s a million moving parts, and it’s hard to figure out exactly where to start. With so much to do, how on earth are you supposed to know what you should be spending your time on? I can tell you from my own blogging experience that there is one thing you can do right now that will continue to pay off for years to come – build an email list. Why You Need to Build an Email List Social media platforms come and go, but an email list is an anchor in a constantly shifting online world. Emails are stable, secure, and direct. A strong email list is arguably the best ways to make money as an online business. And it needs to have priority over just about anything else when you are starting your blog. You should start collecting reader’s emails from day one. Actually, you should start to build an email list before your blog even launches. With ConvertKit, you can build a beautiful landing page to begin collecting emails from your excited audience, even if you only have a Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, or Etsy shop. Looking back, I wish I had started much sooner with building my list. I waited until I was blogging for probably four months before I nervously started my email list. If I had known that it’s a fantastic way to gauge interest and hone my future content, I would have been all over that like white on rice. While I can’t go back and tell my past self how beneficial it is to build an email list, I can tell you to not make my mistake. Tips for Building Your List When you are trying to build an email list, you can’t just throw a sign up form on your site and wait for the subscribers to roll in. Well, you obviously can, but it will only end in disappointment and frustration for you. Instead of setting yourself up for failure, try following these three simple tips to kick your list building to another level and get people excited to join! These tricks are the same ones that I use to get over 2,000 new subscribers a month, so I know for a fact that these methods work. Enter the Fox Den Resource Library Subscribe to get access to 40+ pages of printables, brush lettering worksheets, and more! Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription and get the password. Don't see the email? Don't worry, sometimes it takes a few minutes. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. First Name Email Address We use this field to detect spam bots. If you fill this in, you will be marked as a spammer. I WANT IN Powered by ConvertKit #1 – Simple and Clean First of all, you want to have a nice clean site. Make sure that your blog is easy to read, isn’t cluttered with tons of sidebars and add-ons, and is pretty to the eye. When in doubt, head to blogs that you enjoy and study the design. Pay attention to the colors, the fonts, the photos, and the general layout. There’s a reason you gravitate to those sites instead of others in the niche, so figure it out and apply those same elements and styles to your site. Whatever you do, don’t make your blog too busy or chaotic. That’s a common but damning mistake for young sites. Don’t have a site? That’s fine, too! Then you just need a landing page (if you want to start your own blog, here is a step-by-step guide). A landing page is the the page that you direct people to while your site is being built. It should have the same sort of style that your blog will have. And like I said above, keep it clean and easy to read. Perhaps you could add a description of what the site will be about, a short bio, or anything you think will get people excited about your upcoming blog! ConvertKit offers landing pages with tons of easy to use templates to help you create a stunning landing page. That’s how I made this landing page! #2 – Be Visible Make it easy to sign up! By this I mean have sign in forms all over your site. If you notice, I have sign up boxes in just about every nook and cranny of my blog. There’s a box at the end of each of my posts as well as in the body of the posts. There’s a sign up box in my sidebar. I even have an exit-intent pop up. Tons of people are shy about placing sign up forms around their site, thinking that too many boxes will irritate readers. But from experience, I have never had a single person complain to me about too many sign up forms. So don’t be timid about putting the option out there! Keeping your email sign up hidden away is only harming you and benefiting no one. You want to give people every opportunity to sign up. Typically, people will have to see an option to sign up six or seven times before they finally do it, so don’t be shy about reminding them! Another thing that’s neat about ConvertKit is that you can make it so people who’ve already signed up don’t see many of these boxes. Cool, right? So if you are concerned about being a bother, you can take a breath. It’s all good! #3 – Provide Value The final, and perhaps most important tip for growing your email list is to provide value. By that, I mean a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a free worksheet, printable, checklist, or whatever that gives your reader some instant value. It could even be something as simple as one of your most popular blog posts reformatted slightly for download, and people will love it! Emails are currency on the internet, and you can’t expect people to just give that to you for free. You have to give them something in return! My first lead magnet was the promise of a new printable each and every month. This was better than nothing, but it wasn’t a great lead magnet. Then I created a free email course on productivity, which did much better. Currently, my lead magnet is the Fox Den Resource Library, and it does incredibly well! My email has grown a ton since I launched the library, and that’s because it has a ton of value that people are drawn to. Of course, you don’t need something as large as a library to get started. Here are some great ideas for your lead magnet: A worksheet An eBook An email course An infographic A printable A video A cheat sheet Really, anything that is within your niche is a great way to entice people to sign up. Whatever it is, though, make it exclusively for people who sign up! Don’t offer a printable and then feature that printable in a blog post. It tarnishes the allure if it’s not expressly for your email list, and people will be frustrated if they pay for something with their email address only to discover that you’re giving it away for free elsewhere. Make the email list like an exclusive club, and those members get certain benefits that no one else can have unless they sign up. Time to Start Building! While you do have to do work to build an email list, it really isn’t that hard. Just make the choice super easy for your readers by making the sign up forms clear and the lead magnet juicy! You’ll have people scrambling to sign up and enjoy your fantastic content, and before you know it, you’ll find your email list growing like crazy. Remember that the sooner you start your email list, the better. You might be nervous about asking for emails from your audience, but there are people out there who would love to get emails from you. As a blogger, you are a content creator, and that means that your audience wants to hear what you have to say. So give them what they want and build an email list for your incredible content! When I look back on all that wasted opportunity from waiting so long to start building, I groan. I know now that it would have propelled me to greater heights even faster if I had only gotten started. Don’t make my mistake! Head over to Convertkit and start building your list today to start your blog or online business the right way!
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How to Find a Niche for Your Blog - 4 Things You Need to KnowAugust 1, 2019Looking for Things to Blog About Whether you are an artist, writer, photographer, foodie, gamer, or enthusiast of any kind, you probably want to find some way to share your passion with others. That’s exactly why many people turn to blogging — it’s a fantastic way to find your people and create a community. Plus there’s nothing quite as rewarding as building something from nothing and sharing it with the people around you. You can share your work in a ton of different ways, but one of the easiest and most accessible avenues to share your creativity is through a blog. The internet has grown into a vast community of incredible creators, and we are now in an era where a humble blog has the potential to put your work on the map. So naturally, you are drawn to share your work through this medium. But there’s a hitch. You don’t know what things to blog about! While this might be a frustrating obstacle, fear not — this post will help you figure out how to find a niche for your blog and get you started with your awesome new site! Once you are ready to start your blog, make sure to check out my comprehensive guide to help you get started. Why You Need One Narrow Niche You might be wondering why you restrict yourself to one topic instead of several. After all, there are plenty of successful lifestyle blogs that feature all kinds of topics, from child-rearing to cooking to DIY projects. So why only write about one thing? The reason why you need to narrow your blog to a single niche is that you want people to read it. If you are totally fine with creating content and posting it online for your own viewing pleasure, then, by all means, write about any and all topics that you like! However, if you want to have real people looking at your work and you want a chance of making money off of your blog, then you need to niche down. No one will come to your tiny corner of the internet to wade through a sea of unrelated content to read one article — not even your friends and family. As much as it sucks, your interests and passions won’t mean beans to readers unless you’ve got a niche. Shouting into the void isn’t fun. Trust me; I’ve been there. My First Attempt at Blogging Sucked My first blog was a mess. I wrote about art, cooking, leatherworking, and crocheting, among other things. You see, I’m one of those people with a million hobbies. I’m shamelessly enthusiastic about dozens of activities, which makes for a rich an interesting life. But in the year that I had my first blog, I discovered that all my interests made for a boring blog. The site rarely pulled over 100 visitors each month. Without any reader interest or feedback, I slowly stopped posting. It felt like the world was confirming what I already feared — that I was not worthy of anyone’s time and my passions were worthless. That is not a pleasant feeling. It was only when I wrote several posts in a row about a single topic, bullet journaling, that I saw an uptick in readership. It was like a switch was flipped, and everything changed. At the time, the bullet journal community was tiny. That meant that my posts, which weren’t particularly good, were in high demand. People in that community were searching for anything they could find on the topic, and since there was such a content vacuum, my articles were quickly devoured by readers. My posts started getting shared in the small bullet journal circles, and I was gaining a reputation for being a bullet journal blog. This led to more readers, which led to more on-topic posts, which led to more readers. The rest is history. In 2018, this humble little blog received over 4.7 million page views. Build a Reputation in Small Circles If you want readers to flock to your blog, read your posts enthusiastically, and come back for more, then it’s time to find a niche. Make a name for yourself in one narrow topic, and you’ll grow exponentially. The communities for these small niche topics are small (duh), and they are typically enthusiastic readers. If you fill a vacuum in that community with your content, then readers will quickly begin to know your site and get to know you as a person. Once you get people in the door with your excellent content, many will stay because they like you. Your humor, your quirks, and your creative flair will keep people coming back for more. That’s how lifestyle blogs come to be! A site can begin in a narrow niche and slowly build to include more topics. It takes time, dedication, and slow integration of new content, but it can be done. Or if you have two totally different things to blog about, then just start two separate blogs! You don’t need to have all your passions in one place to share them with the world. However you want to do it, you want to find a niche right off the bat and get specific. And when I say specific, I mean specific! Want to start a cooking blog? Narrow down your niche as much as you possibly can. Maybe you’re a 20-something with a passion for vegan dinners. Perhaps you’re a single parent with a love of kid-friendly organic desserts. Or perhaps you’re wild about medieval era recipes! Whatever you’re into, try to get as specific as you can. There are whole communities of people out there right now who are waiting for your marvelous blog to satisfy their online content needs. How to Find a Niche for Your Blog We’ve talked about why you should niche down your blog. Now let’s talk about how you’re going to make it happen. The possibilities are endless, and it can be daunting to pick just one specific topic to base your whole blog around! But there are a few things to keep in mind that can help you narrow down your blog niche ideas. #1 – Follow Your Passion This is the first and most important tip for how to find a niche for your blog. If you want a blog that is successful — whether you define success by the money you make, the number of readers, or pure personal satisfaction — then you need to be passionate about your topic. You’re going to be spending a lot of time with your blog, so make sure you’re focusing on a topic that you really love. Don’t try to write about a niche just because you think it will make you money. Readers can tell if you’re writing from a place of passion, and they can sniff out the deception if you’re faking it. Just figure out what topics you can excitedly gush about and you’ve got yourself a few blog niche ideas. #2 – Share Your Expertise Another great way to determine your blog niche is to assess what you’re good at. What skills do you have? These skills can be just about anything — tying knots, glazing ceramics, gardening succulents, shopping for the best deals, etc. Do your friends or family often compliment you on a particular skill? Better yet, do they ask you to teach them how to do it? Maybe that’s a great niche for your blog! Now you might be thinking that you’re not an expert, so you’re not qualified to write a blog about it. But hold on! You don’t need to have a Ph.D. in a skill to be qualified to teach. You just need to know a bit more than your audience. For example, I am a brush lettering artist, and I have a ton to learn before I’d be comfortable calling myself a master. That doesn’t stop people from buying my brush lettering course for beginners! I’m well beyond the beginner level, so I am more than qualified to help teach the basics of brush lettering to newbies. List out some of your strengths for some blog niche ideas! If there is a particular skill you haven’t gotten around to learning, now’s a great time to pick it up! Head to Skillshare where you can find thousands of online classes that can help you develop a much-desired skill. The skills you’re excited to learn likely make excellent blog niche ideas to add to your list! #3 – Provide Value One thing to help you find your niche is to think about what your audience will get out of your blog. Who is your audience? What do they want from your content? There are three main types of value that you can provide for your readers, though you can create content that satisfies more than one of these categories. Either way, it’s important to keep your audience in mind when you find your niche so you have a better idea of what your blog will become. Entertainment Your blog could simply hold entertainment value. People may visit your blog because your work delights them. Perhaps you want to write poetry, fan fiction, or amusing short stories that will make your readers laugh. Either way, your readers get some sort of entertainment from your work. Perspective Your audience might value your opinion. You can write about the best restaurants to visit in New York City, your favorite books in the horror genre, or your review of the latest RPG video game. Perspective-based content allows you to share your thoughts in a way that helps others shape the way they think about specific topics and might lead to debate and discussion. Educational You take your own skills and knowledge and help others learn. Your audience comes to you to learn how to accomplish something. Hopefully, your readers can walk away from the experience with more skills than before. Whether you’re teaching others how to bake, how to fish, or how to design a logo, you are giving tremendous value. Educational content is my favorite kind of content to both consume and create. It can be some of the more difficult content to make, but it is extremely rewarding. Readers appreciate the high value of the work. There are tons of tutorials and how-to’s (like this very post) on the internet because people love to learn. Making educational content a great option to consider for your blog niche ideas. #4 – Ask Others When you have narrowed your blog niche down to just a handful of options, but you just can’t decide, then it’s time to outsource! Ask your friends and family what they think of your blog niche ideas. If you are considering a knitting blog, then call up your auntie who loves to knit and ask her what she might like to see in a knitting blog. If you want to start a blog about video game design, then ask your gamer friends what type of content they would love. Find people who might fit your audience and ask them whether they might be interested in reading about your topic. Try to take answers with a grain of salt — if your granny isn’t super enthused about your video game blog idea, then keep in mind that she might not really represent your audience. Remember that not everyone will be interested in your blog, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get some valuable perspective and ideas from the people around you. Ask your loved ones, and who knows? Maybe you’ll have an epiphany that will help you jump into your blog. Niche Down to Build Up Starting a blog is a daunting experience. There’s a ton of decisions to make, and it can feel overwhelming. But once you’ve locked down your niche using the tips above, I promise that the whole thing gets easier. Creating a blog based on your skills and passions is exciting and engaging, and it will make you come back again and again to create content. Knowing what you want to create for your audience means that you can go into the process of content creation with precision. Thinking about what you want to get out of your site and what you want others to get out of your site will help eliminate a ton of fear and uncertainty. So if you’re ready to start a site that fulfills you creatively and makes you money, then narrow down your niche and begin building your blog! If you’re ready to start your blog, make sure to check out my step-by-step guide to starting a blog.
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Finding Blog Topics - 6 Questions to Help You Write Amazing PostsSeptember 20, 2019Struggling to write for your blog? Finding blog topics can be daunting, but here are some tips to help you wow your readers with awesome posts. You will also like How to Start a Blog Today: A Step-By-Step Guide and How to Find a Niche for Your Blog – 4 Things You Need to Know Tricky Business You’re sitting in front of your computer with a blank document open. The cursor is blinking. You try to write the introduction of a new blog post, but your mind is empty. Despite having a ton of zest for your blog, you can’t escape the inevitable question: “What do I even write about?” When you first find yourself starting a brand new blog, it can be hard to know where to start. Translating your passion and know-how into an article is tougher than it seems. So how do you figure out what your posts should cover? Today I want to share with you the key questions you need to ask yourself to help you with finding blog topics that will impress your readers. Finding Blog Topics If you’re finding yourself stumped, ask yourself these questions to identify some good post ideas. Keep a list of all your post ideas in your bullet journal, Trello, digital planner, or some other note-taking software so you don’t forget any ideas you cook up. What is Your Blog Niche? The first thing you need to identify is what your blog is all about and focus on that topic. You might be tempted to write about a lot of different topics when you’re first getting started, but as I talk about in my blog niche post, that’s not such a good idea. If your blog is mainly focused on home organization, then write about that. Writing about something different, like technology or fashion, might confuse your readers. Be predictable in your topic but unexpected in the knowledge and content you share. What Do You Want Your Reader to Take Away? Are you hoping to teach your audience a new technique or piece of information? Are you wanting to share your opinion on a subject? Or do you simply want to entertain your readers? You need to figure out the goal of your post. You don’t want to ramble on and on about a topic with no goal in mind. Think about how your post will enrich the lives of your readers and aim your topic toward that. What Do You Wish You Knew Back Then? When you’re finding blog topics to write about, this one question can always help guide the way. When you were a beginner, think about the problems you faced. What obstacles frustrated you? What took you a long time to figure out? These past problems make for excellent blog post topics. There are always going to be beginners, so help them out by answering their burning questions. After you cover the basics, you can begin to write about more advanced topics. This tactic has worked particularly well for me. One of my most successful posts of all time happens to be one of the very first I ever wrote: 30 Fun and Effective Ways to Use a Notebook. I had always struggled with collecting journals and then never using them. So when I was thinking up potential blog topics, I figured it would be a good problem to solve since my audience has likely experienced the same issue. Lo and behold, that post has received over 1 million page views since it was posted. So when you’re struggling with finding blog topics, it’s always worth asking how you solved your old problems. What Does Your Audience Want to See From You? There is no better way to find post topics than simply asking your readers. If you already have an email list (and you really should get on that soon if you want to make money blogging, I use Convertkit, you can check out their free trial here), then send out an email blast asking them what problems they face. For me, I ask about bullet journaling, water coloring, and lettering. And guess what? People will respond! Your readers will love the opportunity to share what obstacle they are facing. These responses will help you figure out what problems you need to solve with your writing. If you don’t have an email list, use social media. Just give people a chance to communicate and they often will. If you’re struggling to grow your email list, check out how I built a list of 50K+ subscribers. What SEO Keywords Can I Snag? One excellent way to brainstorm blog post topics is by finding relevant SEO keywords. These are keywords that have people have been searching on Google. If people are looking it up on Google, then you want to be the one to provide the answer. Find keywords that are attainable and start writing posts tailored to that keyword. My favorite tool for SEO is Mangools. This easy to use suite has everything you need to get started improving your SEO and it’s much more affordable than most other services. What Do You Want to Write About? Writing for your audience is wonderful. Writing for Google is smart. But at the end of the day, you still gotta write about stuff you enjoy. I went through a whole period — over a year, in fact — where I exclusively wrote with SEO in mind. My Google rankings went through the roof, but my passion for blogging began to suffer. After a while, I got caught in a nasty cycle of writing only what I thought my audience would want to see and I lost myself a bit. I realized that the balance was off and I had to get it back. So I spent the next six months focusing as much as I could on covering whatever topics I enjoyed most, and it has helped me regain my love for this job. Have fun with your blog topics and make what you want to make! Sometimes there isn’t a great keyword for the topic you have in mind. That’s fine. Go ahead and write the post anyway! I often see those oddball posts going viral on social media because people didn’t know they wanted an article on that topic until they happened upon it. My advice would be to mix in SEO keyword posts with posts that you simply enjoy writing for a good balance of practicality and fun. You’re The Expert – Find Your Blog Topics At the end of the day, you are the one running the show. You don’t need the perfect lineup of posts when you’re just getting started. Some posts may not do very well while others might go viral unexpectedly. Do your best to provide something interesting for your readers, enjoy your work, and be yourself. You’ll figure it out, I promise! If you’re ready to start your blog, you should check out my favorite web host for beginners: DreamHost. Dreamhost is an affordable host that does not sacrifice quality or customer service. And you know the best part? For as low as $2.59 a month, you can get hosting, a FREE domain, and Wordpress pre-installed on your site so you can start creating today. Head over to Dreamhost to get started!
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How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Blog That You LoveOctober 4, 2019Picking a name for your blog is scary! How do you figure it out? In this post, I share how to choose a domain name for your blog and what you need to know. You May Also Like: HOW TO FIND A NICHE FOR YOUR BLOG – 4 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW PIN THIS POST TO PINTEREST What’s in a Name? One of the most daunting tasks of starting up a new blog is naming it. How do you figure out a name that encapsulates your vision and gets noticed? It’s tough for sure, but I have some handy tips to help you out! Let me walk you through how to choose a domain name for your blog so you can get to building your amazing website. How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Blog Here are the top things you need to think about when you are trying to name your new blog. Think about your niche What is your blog going to be about? You want to make sure your domain name is related to your topic — or at least doesn’t mislead your potential readers. If you are creating a baking blog, then you probably shouldn’t have a name that references knitting, gardening, or something distinctly non-food related. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, mind you. It’s just something to keep in mind when you’re searching for your domain name. Just think — if you were to tell a stranger your blog’s domain name, what content would they expect to find? Create a Mind Map With your blog niche in mind, create a mind map of all the words, phrases, colors, themes, etc that you feel are related. Get creative and think outside the box! This will help you find ideal word combinations later. Feel it Out Now that your mind map is complete, you can begin to highlight words or phrases that mean something to you. After all, you want your domain name to have some meaningful connection to you and your style. For me, I feel drawn to the word “little” because I’m a very petite lady and I just like how it sounds. I also find myself pulled to foxes. So I made sure to incorporate those words into my domain name. Try a winning combo If you’re feeling stuck, play around with fitting words into a winning formula. Just try an article (a, an, the), adjective (blue, quaint, elegant, etc.), and noun (house, kitchen, life, etc.). I like to find a noun and build up from there. For example, say your noun is “kitchen”. What adjectives describe your kitchen? Is it spicy, energetic, slow, young, experienced, herbal, or organic? Find something that sets you apart from the herd and use this formula to come up with some excellent ideas. PIN THIS POST TO PINTEREST See if it’s available Before you get too attached to a name, you should check and make sure it’s not already taken. Head to Dreamhost’s domain name search to see what is available to you or not. You might also want to pop onto Google and search slightly different variations of your domain name idea to see if any existing companies share a similar name. You don’t want to accidentally find your fledgling website competing with an existing business on Google — that will hurt your rankings and slow your growth. Search around and try to make sure your domain is distinct enough that it won’t be confused with any existing blogs or brands. Tip: If there is a business with a similar name already, check to see what they sell/do and where they are located. Sometimes it isn’t a problem. For example, there is a business in Venezuela called Little Coffee Shoppe that is similar in name to my site. However, it’s in a different country providing a totally different service, so we don’t get in each other’s way. Think about Branding Once you’ve picked a few domain names for your blog, you need to consider branding. Think about how you’re going to use words, images, and colors to encapsulate your new name into one distinct branding package. Of course, if you’re just doing a blog for fun, then this doesn’t really matter all that much. However, if you’re hoping to turn your blog into a side hustle or full-blown business, then branding is very important. Imagine the ways you can use your potential domain names in your branding and that might help you whittle down your list. Tip: My blog started out almost entirely about bullet journaling, but I don’t have anything in my domain name that references planning, art, or bullet journaling. You might think that’s a mistake, but it’s actually a tactic. You don’t want to put a huge keyword in your domain name because then your blog won’t come up in search results — only the keyword will. If I had put bullet journal in my domain name, Google would have put my website pages and pages into the search results. But Little Coffee Fox is a unique name that comes up immediately and my readers can easily find me. Think about how your potential domain name will rank in search results and whether it is competing with any other keywords. Sit on It for a Few Weeks Perhaps you’ve narrowed down your domain name search to a single option. Hurray! That’s exciting stuff. But before you immediately begin building your branding and website, sit on the name for a few weeks. Test it out as much as you can — by typing it, by writing it, and by saying it out loud. Ask people you trust what they think about the name. If you still like it after a few weeks, then run with it! If it’s lost its luster, then it’s time to consider something different. Time to Make a Move Once you’ve figured out a domain name that you love, it’s time to lock it in. You don’t want to wait around until you feel perfectly ready because someone else might just jump in and claim your domain name! Domains aren’t expensive, and with the right web hosting, you can even get them free! Dreamhost is a great example — you can get web hosting for as little as $2.59 per month and it comes with a free domain name (among other perks). Once your domain name is secured and you have hosting, you’ll want to start building your site. This part is daunting, but I promise it’s much easier when you get a Wordpress theme. We use the Glam theme for Little Coffee Fox and absolutely love it. There are a ton of beautiful themes out there that will inspire you and get you excited to start your site ASAP! Done Not Perfect You might never feel totally settled on a name. After all, there are so many options! How do you know that this domain name is the domain name? The truth is, you will never know for sure. If you still like the domain name you’ve chosen after a few weeks, then you should nab it and just roll with it. You can’t try to aim for the perfect domain name for your blog or you’ll never get started. Remember: “Done Not Perfect“. Take your new domain name and begin building your amazing new website. If you’re ready to start your blog, head over to my complete step-by-step guide on how to start your blog today! 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16 Simple SEO Tips for New Bloggers (2020)January 2, 2020Did you just start blogging, but have no clue where to start with SEO? No worries! Here are some simple SEO tips for new bloggers to help you figure it out. You May Also Like: FINDING BLOG TOPICS – 6 QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU WRITE AMAZING POSTS What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is the process of optimizing your website in a way that provides you the best chance of ranking in search results. SEO can be used to describe optimizing for any search engine but is most often used to describe the idea of optimizing your website for Google search results. Why is SEO Important For New Bloggers? Search traffic is the primary source of traffic for most sites, and often time it is the best traffic. Search traffic tends to convert significantly better than social media traffic, from places like Facebook and Instagram, for one simple reason. Your article was shown to them to answer a specific question they have (their search) by a credible source (Google). This lends your article credibility that you can never get from social traffic consisting of people who randomly stumbled upon your site. Think of SEO as an investment in the future of your blog. It’s a big investment of time and knowledge, but one that you can tackle with the help of these simple SEO tips specifically for new bloggers. 16 SEO Tips For New Bloggers #1 Don’t Write for Google Making sure your post is well written for SEO is incredibly important, but it does not mean you should write your articles for Google. You should always write your articles for you and your audience. This is a trap we fell into a while back. For over a year, every article we wrote was written to fill a keyword. What’s the problem with that? It makes it easy to lose your voice and make your articles feel robotic. Google wants to rank content that readers engage with and want to read. Think of it this way: Google wants to provide readers with articles they want to read, so the best way to rank is to provide articles that excite your audience. Make sure to keep an authentic voice as you write your articles in order to give your blog a better chance of ranking. #2 Write for Google Wait. What? Didn’t I say not to write for Google? Yep. So what do I mean? The truth is, if you want to rank for keywords, you do need to write for Google, too. But there is a way to write for your audience and Google. The content of your articles should always focus on what your readers want to read while the structure of your article should focus on what Google can easily understand. For example, a tool like Yoast SEO will help you structure your articles in a way that makes it easy for Google to understand. When Google understands your well-structured article, it knows to rank you higher. #3 Do Keyword Research Keyword research can suck, but it is important. Keyword research can take many forms, but in the most basic sense, it is merely trying to find what keywords people are searching for related to your topic. My basic process for keyword research is as follows: Brainstorm a list of potential keywords Plug those keywords into Google Look at the article names of the top results and look for common words used Plug those words into a tool like KWFinder Pick one or two keywords to target Don’t let keyword research wholly dictate what you write. But once you know what general subject you want to write about, it is essential to take the time to do a bit of research to find the best keyword for your article. This may force you to make slight changes to the direction of your article, but it is necessary to give your articles a chance to rank. This SEO tip for new bloggers is really quite simple: take the time to do keyword research and do it right. #4 Make Sure to Include Your Keyword in Your Article I know this seems obvious, but it’s a common mistake for new bloggers. If you want to rank for a term, then you have to actually put it in your article. Write your keyword several times into the body of your article for the best results, but make sure to keep the next tip in mind when including your keyword. Take a second and scan this article and try to find the keyword I’m targeting. #5 Don’t Keyword Stuff It’s going to be tempting to shove your keyword into your article as many times as possible. Resist that urge. Making sure your keyword is present in your article is essential, but keyword stuffing is a surefire way not to rank as Google can read it as spammy behavior. #6 Include Your Keyword in Your Title and Headers Including your keyword in both the title and some headers helps Google establish the hierarchy of your article. It signals to Google exactly what your article is about so it can rank your post appropriately. #7 Focus on Search Volume If your goal for ranking on Google is to get more traffic, then it logically follows that you only want to target keywords that people actually search. Free tools like Google Trends will give you a good idea of the monthly searches a topic receives. However, paid tools such as KWFinder tend to be more up to date and provide more information such as keyword difficulty. #8 Build Authority One of the number one mistakes that new bloggers make is that they try to target keywords way out of their reach. You may be an expert on your subject, but Google doesn’t know that, so it’s unlikely they are going to rank you over the giants in your field. You may make the best meatloaf ever made, but until Google figures out that you have the authority to make that claim, they are not going to rank you over the Food Network. The most significant authority signal for SEO is backlinks from other sites. So how do you build authority? Focus on the first tip: write for your audience. You can try reaching out to other sites for backlinks, which can work sometimes. But the best way to build authority is to write high-quality content that people want to read, and the backlinks will start to roll in. #9 Do Not Buy Backlinks This is a big mistake new bloggers make. All it takes is five minutes in a blogging Facebook group or a search of Fivver to find someone willing to sell you backlinks. You needed to build authority. The best way to build authority is backlinks. So why not buy some? It’s simple. Buying backlinks is against Google’s terms, and you will be penalized if you are caught. A penalty may not seem like that big of a deal. But a Google penalty can have a massive impact on your traffic and take years to recover from. Simply put, avoid Google penalties at all costs. Buying backlinks is not worth it. #10 Don’t Focus on Big Keywords So what do you do while you wait to build authority? Do you just not worry about ranking for keywords until you have enough authority? No. You target lower authority keywords. You may not have the muscle to write for the keyword “Meatloaf recipes,” but you may be able to rank for “Easy meatloaf recipe with ritz crackers.” This is called a long-tail keyword, and they are much easier to rank for since they answer a very specific question. The long-tail keyword has less than 0.1% of the monthly search traffic as the big keyword, but you at least have a chance to rank for it. My biggest SEO tip for new bloggers is this: a small bite of a small pie is infinitely bigger than no bite of a huge pie. #11 Answer the Question You’ve taken the time to find the perfect keyword to target and you’re ready to write your article. Great! But you’re not done yet. If you want to rank, you need to make sure to answer the question that is being asked. What do I mean by that? You need to be sure that your article answers the question the reader is asking when they search for a keyword. If someone Googles “easy meatloaf recipe with ritz crackers,” they are almost certainly searching for a recipe, not the history of easy meatloaf recipe with ritz crackers. Always answer the question the reader is asking for your target SEO term. You want to make sure your audience knows what to expect when they click your article so they stay and read it. If it isn’t answering the most obvious question, they’ll close your article and keep searching. #12 Answer the Other Questions Some searchers may only have one question, but most have multiple questions. You want to answer as many of them as possible in your article. How do you figure out what other questions people may have? Easy! Google tells you. Often, Google will provide a snippet titled “People also ask” that will show you exactly the questions readers want to be answered when searching for a given keyword. It’s always a good idea to try to answer these questions when writing your article. If the question firmly fits within the topic of your article, dedicate a section of the article to specifically address each question. However, just like keyword stuffing, don’t try to force the question into your article. If it does not fit the topic of your article, leave it out. Take the time and be thorough when you’re writing your article and try to answer as many of your reader’s questions as possible. #13 Monitor Your Ranking Keywords After you’ve ranked for your desired keyword and you’re sitting pretty on the front page, your work is not yet done. Search engine results are constantly changing, and you must be aware of how those changes are affecting you. There are many ways to track your keyword positions, such as using Google Webmaster tools, but the easiest way I’ve found is to use a tool such as SERPWatcher by Mangools. #14 Don’t Freak Out Your positions will change, and you are at some point going to get hit by an algorithm update that causes you to experience a significant traffic drop. Don’t panic. If you are writing your content for your readers, your traffic will rebound. If you see a big drop, it may be an excellent time to reevaluate your strategy and look at updating old content. Nonetheless, avoid the temptation to make any big changes immediately following a significant algorithm change. Both losses and gains are often not permanent and may correct themselves in just a couple of days. Just take a deep breath and be patient. #15 Use the Proper Tools Everything you need to do regarding SEO can be done with free tools. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of great free SEO tools, but they can be difficult to find and unreliable. I prefer to have everything I need in one spot, and Mangools is perfect for that. Mangools is a suite of powerful SEO tools that allow you to find new keywords, evaluate their difficulty, save them for later, monitor keywords, and see your site’s overall performance all in one place. You can check out Mangools here and see how it can improve your SEO workflow. #16 Always Be Learning The SEO game is constantly changing, and there is no silver bullet. No SEO tips could ever teach a new blogger everything they need to know. If you are serious about improving your search traffic and growing your blog, you need to take the time to keep learning. This means you need to stay up on all the latest trends and always be experimenting. It will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end. Start Applying These SEO Tips Today There is no better feeling in blogging than knowing that you’re seen as an authority on a subject as you happily sit on top of Google’s search results. But you’re never going to achieve that unless you take the first steps today. Before you go, take a minute to apply one of these SEO tips on your blog and drop a comment to share your work! You May Also Like: HOW TO FIND A NICHE FOR YOUR BLOG – 4 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
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Choosing A Blog Host - 9 Factors To ConsiderFebruary 12, 2020Your blog host is the foundation of your blog, sadly it is often overlooked. Make sure you consider these 9 factors when choosing a blog host. You May Also Like: HOW TO CHOOSE A DOMAIN NAME FOR YOUR BLOG THAT YOU LOVE The Foundation of Your Blog Your blog host is the foundation of your blog; it protects the content you create, your reader’s data, and it allows you to provide a great experience to your audience. But sadly, choosing the right blog host is often overlooked by most new bloggers. So before you jump into writing your first post, make sure to choose the right blog host using these nine factors. Why Is Having Good Web Hosting Important? Web hosting is one of the many unsung heroes of any good website. Though it is easy to see all of the beautiful website designs, fantastic writing, and great images, it is a bit harder to see the web hosting that keep your favorite websites up and running. Think of your blog host as the engine of your website. Without a good motor, your website is not going to go very fast, and it’s going to break down all of the time. Why You Need To Avoid Free Blog Hosts It is tempting to save a quick buck when starting your blog and use free services such as Wix, Weebly, or Blogger. But if you are serious about starting a blog and building an audience, it is imperative that you have your own domain name and host. You cannot expect a reader to take you seriously or trust you if you cannot even be bothered to spend a few bucks each month on hosting. Additionally, most free hosting services make it very hard to migrate away from them when you do start to grow. Little Coffee Fox initially started on Wix, and it grew fast. Which was great until suddenly, our site stopped loading properly when people visited the site from Pinterest (our biggest traffic driver). We spoke with people at Wix and were told there was nothing they could do, so we decided to move to Dreamhost. Sadly, we quickly learned that we could not just export our site to the new host. This led to Shelby and I pulling several all-nighters copy any pasting over every single article on the site. This is just one of the many problems that come from cheaping out on hosting. But the truth is, it’s even simpler than that. Using a free service makes it harder for you to take your blog seriously. Spending a little bit of money to get started goes a long way towards helping you stay motivated. 9 Factors To Consider When Choosing A Blog Host Proper Security Most blog hosts provide basic security in even their most basic packages. The one that is going to be the most important for you is whether they offer a free SSL certificate. An SSL certificate allows your domain to have the prefix HTTPs rather than HTTP. This shows readers that their data is encrypted and secured on your server. If you plan on collecting any personal data from your readers, be it credit card data or email address, having an SSL certificate is an absolute necessity. However, even if you have no plan to collect any data, it is still recommended that your site be securely encrypted. Recently, Google has stated that they are giving preference in search rankings to secure websites, and this trend is only likely to continue. Luckily, pretty much all hosts include free SSL certificates in their paid plans. Dreamhost, which is a great host for any starter, includes free SSL certificates in plans starting as low as $2.59 a month. Good Value Cost is obviously a significant factor when choosing a blog host, but you should be careful not to have it be the only factor you consider. You can get hosting for a couple of bucks a month, but if you are confident that you will grow quickly or you are planning on blogging for several years it may be beneficial to spend a bit extra to make sure you do not have to go through the hassle of moving your site less than a year later. If you are doing this as a hobby, feel free to go with a lower-end plan from a company like Dreamhost. But if you’re planning on sticking with blogging for a while, a host like Siteground will give you a little more room to grow. However, if you already have a large following, you may want to consider a dedicated server from BigScoots. This site, along with several other of our sites, are hosted with BigScoots. While it is expensive, no other host has been able to compete with their performance. Reasonable Traffic Caps & Storage Your needs here are going to be site-specific. For instance, if you are running a large site or have a lot of traffic, it is crucial to keep an eye on what level of storage is included by your host. When running a resource-heavy site with a lot of videos and images, you may want to avoid shared hosting, as your host may not be able to provide you with the resources your site needs. They may even remove your hosting if you use too many resources, leaving you scrambling for a new host. However, if you are worried about a plan fitting your site’s needs, the best thing you can do is to talk directly with any potential hosts about their caps to make sure they meet your needs. Doing so could save you a lot of hassle in the future. Excellent Reliability Your site will go down at some point. The question is how long your site will be down. When choosing a blog host, it is vital to choose a host who stands by their product and has a good reputation. If a company avoids mentions of their downtime, it may be a red flag. However, a company that provides an uptime guarantee is much more likely to provide reliable service. This factor more than any other is going to be governed by the rule of you get what you pay for. If you go with a cheap hosting service, you cannot be shocked when your site is consistently going down. Useful Perks Keep an eye out for additional perks that a potential host may offer when selecting your plan. One plan may be cheaper, but if a higher plan comes with a free email address or CDN, it may make more sense to go with the higher plan. For instance, Dreamhost’s starter plan does not come with email, but their unlimited plan that is only $3 a month more comes with unlimited email addresses. At first glance, the unlimited plan may not seem like it is worth the extra money. But, email hosting through Gmail costs $6 a month, so the unlimited plan could actually save you money. Always be sure to keep an eye for small perks that may make a higher plan make a bit more sense. Email Capabilities Having an email address that is at your domain name is going to make your readers trust you a lot more than an @gmail.com will. But beyond that, if you want to do any email marketing (which you 100% do), you are going to need an email address from your domain name. Pretty much all reputable email service providers do not allow you to send an email blast if you cannot prove that you own the domain name sending the email. Easy Set-Up If you do not have much experience with building a website, it is incredibly helpful to choose a blog host that either comes with Wordpress pre-installed or have some form of one-click installer. Built-In Backups Nothing is worse than putting in hundreds of hours of work only to lose it because something goes wrong on your server. Do yourself a favor and either get a host that comes with automatic site backups or manually back up your site every day. Backups are something you will not realize you need until it is too late. Don’t risk it; make sure your website is backed up. Tremendous Customer Service Something will go wrong while you are building your site. It may be your fault, or it may be your hosts. Regardless you’ll want a host with excellent customer service. I cannot speak for every host out there, but I can tell you from personal experience that Dreamhost and WPEngine all have phenomenal customer service. But BigScoots deserves a special mention here because, after many late-night chats with the BigScoots team, I can tell you they go above and beyond for their customers. My Blog Hosting Recommendation New Bloggers or Hobbyist: Dreamhost provides a great platform for anyone just starting. Dreamhost’s most basic plans start as low as $2.59 a month and come with Wordpress preinstalled, a free domain name, and a free SSL Certificate. Check out Dreamhost here. New Bloggers Planning to Build a Business: Siteground allows you to scale your plan to fit your traffic and storage needs. Their plans start as low as $3.95 a month and include a free SSL Certificate, CDN, and Email accounts. Learn more about Siteground. Established Bloggers: BigScoots is a phenomenal host with a small but dedicated team. They have been our host for the last year, and I honestly see no reason ever to change that. They provide great value at affordable prices for the larger bloggers out there. Despite our high traffic levels, we saw an immediate increase in site speed when we switched to BigScoots. Their team is quick to offer advice as to how you can improve your site for better performance. Check out what BigScoots has to offer here. WPEngine Like BigScoots, WPEngine offers managed Wordpress hosting. WPEngine was our host for about a year and they were great. They provide excellent customer service and have an easy to use dashboard that allows you to do things such as clearing your cache and setting up 301 redirects. They help justify their higher price tag by offering incredible perks, such as a free premium Wordpress with every account. Plus, you can grab three months free on their annual plans by going here. Your Blog Host is Important It is easy to want to jump right into creating, but it’s essential to stop and think about the technical side of your site before you start. Taking the time to do a bit of research before you choose your blog host will save you from endless headaches down the road and help you create a more professional appearance to your readers. If you need help figuring out how to start your blog, be sure to check out our step-by-step guide. You May Also Like: HOW TO FIND A NICHE FOR YOUR BLOG – 4 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
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20+ Tips for Working from Home - How to Stay ProductiveMarch 17, 2020Working in the comfort of your own home isn’t as easy as it seems. Here are 20+ tips for working from home so you can still be wildly productive! You May Also Like: HOW TO FIND MOTIVATION THAT STICKS WITH A WHY STATEMENT Home Sweet Home Most people love the idea of working from home. You get to lounge around in your pajamas all day, eat snacks whenever you want, and there is no boss hovering over your shoulder. It sounds like a dream, right? Unfortunately, working from home isn’t the easygoing utopia you may believe. While there are certainly perks to working at home, there are some serious obstacles to overcome. Without a boss or team to hold you accountable, it can be easy to lose a ton of productivity. Plus, there are countless opportunities to get distracted — all your favorite hobbies, entertainment, and foods are right there at your fingertips. Successfully working from home requires a lot of discipline, resolve, and focus that most people take months or even years to master. As someone who has run my business from home full-time for over three years, I have a few tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your time spent working at home sweet home. Obstacles You Face Working From Home Working remotely will present certain difficulties you may not have expected. Here are the most common issues I ran into when I first started working from home. Not Working Enough Your home is full of distractions like the TV, the full range of the internet, books, games, and the worst offender — other people. I struggled with staying on task and focused on the work in front of me. You may find that you have a hard time getting your normal daily tasks completed while working from home because you just aren’t as productive. Working Too Much If you’re very invested in your work, you might find that you accidentally spend too much time working and not enough time relaxing. Being a workaholic might be lauded as a positive trait in our society, but it is not something to desire. At home, you can work well into the night if you aren’t careful, draining yourself of energy. I have been guilty of this problem as well, and it had a very negative effect on my life for a long time. You should aspire to achieve a healthy work-life balance. Other People’s Opinions One of the more obnoxious things I’ve faced since working from home is other people not taking my time seriously. Some people might hear that you’re working from home and think that means you have time to spare for running errands, playing with kids, or doing chores. You might find that other people forget that working remotely is still working and that you need to remind them you’re not available for other activities. 21 Tips for Working From Home Successfully When I first started working from home, I struggled immensely with being responsible for all my time and activities. I would procrastinate, spend hours browsing social media and Reddit, and otherwise waste time when I knew I ought to be working. If you are working remotely and still have to turn things into a boss, you might have a bit more structure than I had. Regardless, these tips will help you take advantage of all the perks of working from home without falling into the most common pitfalls. Don’t Give In to Distractions You might tell yourself, “I’ll only read one chapter” or, “I’ll only get on Facebook for 15 minutes”. But trust me when I say that these distractions are a slippery slope. Time flies when you’re having fun, and you can easily lose more than an hour to these distractions. You will be tempted but resist. You can relax and unwind with your favorite activities after work. Get Dressed While you certainly CAN wear sweatpants all day, you shouldn’t. At least not regularly. I went through this phase when I first started working from home, and let me tell you that there is nothing that makes you feel like a shapeless grey slug faster than pajamas every day. Dressing in comfortable, public-worthy clothes (like jeans and a nice shirt) and making yourself presentable will go a long way towards making you feel productive and energized. It’s a nice treat every once in a while, but don’t make loungewear a daily thing. Don’t Work in Bed It might be tempting to lay in bed on your laptop for your work tasks, but it will quickly wear on you. Just like sweatpants, it is a great thing to be able to do every blue moon. But doing it all the time will rob you of any sense of being a functioning member of society. Develop a Morning Routine Your first hour of the day can easily shape the way you feel throughout the rest of your day. Create a morning routine that works for you and stick with it every morning. Veterans of working from home will attest that routines are deeply important to having a productive day. Read More: CREATE A PRODUCTIVE MORNING ROUTINE: 13 WAYS TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE Develop an Evening Routine Just like morning routines, evening routines can help you jump into the next day with energy and zest. There are plenty of ways to prepare each night: make sure your coffee machine is primed and ready to go, have the next day’s to-do list written out, or have your outfit planned. Little things like this can go a long way. Read More: CREATING A NIGHTTIME ROUTINE TO KICKSTART YOUR DAY Take Scheduled Breaks Make sure you are taking breaks to give your mind a bit of rest. There are plenty of different schools of thought for how often to take a break, but the frequency and length are totally up to you. Just make sure you are actually taking a break by reading, listening to music, doodling, or doing something that provides something for your brain. Avoid social media or activities that don’t really relax you or add anything to your day. Go for Walks Have a dog? Go for a walk with your pup! Don’t have a dog? Go for a walk anyway! Taking a daily walk to stretch your legs for 20-30 minutes is a great way to get moving, relax your mind, and enjoy a bit of nature. Plus, it’s great for your dog! Track Your Time One thing that I struggle with when working from home is that my time seems to vanish into thin air. To address this, I’ve started tracking my time with Timeular. I purchased the physical device (called a Zei) that I flip as I change tasks. However, Timeular has software that you can use to track your time for free. Knowing that your time is being tracked helps you stay on task and keeps you from losing chunks of time to distractions. Keep a Degree of Separation One of the best things I ever did for my work-life balance was getting myself a designated workspace. When I first started working from home, I was stuck at a desk in our tiny apartment’s living room. Being out in the open next to the TV was terrible for my productivity. When we moved to the next apartment, I was able to move my work setup to an actual office with an actual door and it did wonders for me. If you are able to get yourself a closed-off room or space to be your office, take it. You will thank yourself later. If you don’t have that kind of extra room, you can create a degree of separation with a curtain, privacy screen, or something to that effect. If other people live with you and you can’t get a separate room, try to establish boundaries about interacting with you during work hours. Do anything you can think of to create a different work atmosphere so you can set your work down, close the door, and walk away to have your family/home time. Tidy Up Your Workspace Every day when you are done with work, take a few minutes to tidy up your station. Remove any trash, straighten up your desk, and get it ready for the next morning. This tiny step makes jumping into work the next day immeasurably easier. Block Distracting Websites One of the biggest productivity challenges for me is social media. When I have access to it, I invariably sneak a glance throughout the day and end up wasting a ton of valuable time. Finally, I said enough is enough and took action. I downloaded the free Block Site extension on my browser and blocked my most addictive sites during business hours. Then I had Jon password protect the blocks so I can’t slip up. This might seem extreme, but it has done wonders for my productivity. Now I can stop myself from falling into my addictive social media habits, and I feel so much better for it. This tip for working from home will be a game-changer if you find yourself on those time-sucking websites often. Stretch Whether you’re working from home or in a public office, it’s always a good idea to stretch every day. Working remotely just means you can do it without any weird looks from your coworkers! Have a Start and End Time Set yourself a start and end time to your workday like you are your own supervisor. Then try your hardest to stick to those hours. If you’re coming from a job where you worked certain hours, just keep those as best as you can. Otherwise, just do hours that feel sensible to you. Personally, I try to get to work by 9 am and wrap up work between 5 and 6 pm. It’s a simple concept, but it helps immensely. Get Cozy While you shouldn’t wear sweatpants or lay in bed all day, that doesn’t mean you can’t be comfy! Wear your fluffiest socks, wrap yourself in a blanket, and use a variety of pillows to make your work station the maximum amount of cozy. Leave Your Phone in Another Room A guaranteed way to get distracted is to keep your phone within reach while you work. Notifications, messages from friends, and emails can destroy your focus. One of the most important tips for working from home is that you should leave your phone in another room entirely, put it on silent mode in a drawer, or turn it off entirely. Trust me when I say that this will be the best thing you do for your productivity while you work from home. Make the Most of Your Breaks To maximize productivity at home, make sure to cover all your bases during breaks. Stretch, go to the bathroom, grab a snack or drink from the kitchen, and take a lap around the house. This helps ensure you don’t take multiple unnecessary breaks that disrupt your focus. Set a Timer for Breaks While you certainly don’t NEED to set a timer for breaks, I would suggest you give it a try. I recommend giving the Pomodoro Technique a try! Write To-Do Lists I find that writing to-do lists are effective no matter where I’m working, but they are so much more necessary when you work remotely. The home is full of distractions, so keeping your tasks written out makes it easy to snap back to work after a break. If you don’t keep a regular to-do list in a bullet journal or planner, try writing out 5 tasks every day on a sticky note and stick it on your computer monitor. Write Morning Pages Being in charge of your time management and tasks each day can be a bit chaotic. Something that I’ve found helpful for sorting out my thoughts and finding focus each day is the Morning Pages exercise. Writing in a journal every morning helps me process any mental distractions, plan out my day, and get my head in the right space before I begin work. Read More: WHAT ARE MORNING PAGES? HOW ONE NEW HABIT CHANGED MY LIFE Set an Intention Recently I’ve begun setting intentions for myself every day, and it’s been quite helpful for my productivity. Right after my Morning Pages, I decide one thing I’m going to focus on throughout the day. They can be simple affirmations like, “Today I feel in control,” or, “Today I radiate a positive attitude.” I write it on a sticky note, set it on my desk, and proceed with my day. This small practice has helped me focus on my goals and get through the day’s challenges with a good attitude. Have a Practical Lunch Having access to a full kitchen is both a blessing and a curse. You need to use this power wisely or else you will accidentally waste a lot of time putzing around the kitchen or eating way more than you intend. One huge benefit of working from home is that you likely won’t spend nearly as much money on eating out for lunch. Just remember to keep your lunches practical. Yes, you can cook hot meals for lunch, but keep time in mind. Eat leftovers, sandwiches, or other quick meals for the majority of your lunches to avoid spending too much time in the kitchen. It Takes Practice Remember, as you adjust to working from home that it takes a bit of time to figure everything out. There is quite a learning curve, so don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t perfect from the start. You will develop rhythms, routines, and preferences that will lead to optimal productivity. Just remember to be diligent, avoid the most common pitfalls, and always be looking for ways you can tweak your systems for the better. With these tips for working from home, you can hopefully prevent yourself from running into the same obstacles that I did. Working remotely isn’t as easy as it seems, but it is very rewarding if you can figure out how to make it work for you. You May Also Like: HOW TO START A BLOG TODAY: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE
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14 Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers: Earn More From Your BlogApril 22, 2020To excel in affiliate marketing, you need to be selective about who you promote. To help you choose, here are the 14 best affiliate programs for bloggers. You May Also Like: FINDING BLOG TOPICS – 6 QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU WRITE AMAZING POSTS Making Money From Blogging Is Hard It’s easy to find tons of websites that will tell you how much money they make from their blogs, and how you can do it too. Maybe that’s true. Maybe you can make $10k a month from your blog. But making money from blogging is hard; that is just the truth. You’re going to have to work for it, and I can help you figure out the best way to make it work for you. Affiliate marketing is a great place to start earning some cash from your blog. Shelby and I have been working full-time on Little Coffee Fox for over three years, and for most of that time, affiliate marketing was our primary source of income. But it took us a while to figure out that you can’t just drop links in your posts and hope to make money. There are thousands of programs out there, but they are not all a good fit for every blogger. That’s why if you want to make affiliate income from your blog, you need to be selective when it comes to what you promote. So I decided to put together this list of the best affiliate programs for bloggers to help you find the perfect fit for you. Factors Considered Trying to find the best affiliate programs for bloggers isn’t easy. And truthfully there is no perfect formula for determining which are best. Here are the factors I considered when building this list: Earning Potential: Earning potential factors in the amount that the commissions offer as well as how desirable the products are to widespread audiences. Cookie Duration: In this context, cookie duration refers to tracking cookies and how long they are active after someone clicks an affiliate link. A tracking cookie is attached to your link and is what tells the company that your click led to the sale. However, every affiliate has a different amount of time that the cookie remains active. A longer tracking cookie duration is always better, as it allows you more time to earn a commission. Ease of Promotion: How easy is it to join the program and start earning? Brand Trust: The better respected a brand is, the easier it is to convince one of your readers to purchase from that brand. Personal Experiences: Though what has worked for us is not guaranteed to work for you, our experiences can help you determine what programs are best for you. The 14 Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers 1. Amazon Associates Amazon Associates is probably the king amongst affiliate programs for bloggers. It does not matter what niche you’re in; you need to be an Amazon Associates. The affiliate program offers generous commissions, especially in the beauty and DIY niches. The program does have a fairly short cookie duration of only 24 hours, but a 30-day cookie can be obtained by using software such as AAWP and its “add to cart” feature. People trust Amazon, so it is relatively easy to get people to click over and make a purchase compared to lesser-known sellers. The biggest plus for Amazon is that it credits you with every item purchased using your link. If someone clicks over to Amazon to buy a $3 pen but buys a $1,000 laptop in the same transaction, you get a percentage of both sales! Using Amazon Associates, we earned nearly $19K in affiliate commissions in 2019 from Little Coffee Fox. Sign Up For Amazon Associates 2. Etsy If you are a creative blogger or you are hoping to start a blog in a creative niche, then Esty is going to have one of the best affiliate programs for you. Their program allows you to link to any store or product on their site, allowing you to share with a wide range of unique and handmade items with your audience. Sign Up For The Etsy Affiliate Program 3. SkillShare If you’ve ever watched a Youtube video, then you’ve probably heard an ad for Skillshare. But Skillshare is not only good for Youtubers; it also has one of the best affiliate programs for bloggers. Their platform is quite generous offering $10 per referral that signs up for one of their fantastic welcome offers (usually two free months for new users). The best part? You earn a commission when the person signs up for the free trial, not when they become a paying customer. Additionally, their affiliate program is a great way to see if your audience has an appetite for online courses, which can be a huge moneymaker for your blog if you ever decide to create one yourself. Skillshare courses also offer a wide array of courses cover subjects such as photography, blogging, finance, productivity, and so much more, easily making it one of the best affiliate programs for bloggers in any niche. Sign Up For The SkillShare Affiliate Program 4. Ultimate Bundles This program is a bit different than the rest on this list. Ultimate Bundles is a company that bundles together products from various bloggers and sells them in a bundle for a very short time and at a massive discount. For instance, last year’s Genius Blogger’s Toolkit cost $97 but contained over $5,000 worth of products. This huge discrepancy between the cost and value make their bundles an easy sell! That’s not even the best part, though. Ultimate Bundles offers a base commission rate of 40% per sale, and 70% per sale if you have a product in the bundle. With commission rates this high, it’s easy to see why Ultimate Bundles is by far one of the best affiliate programs for bloggers. Promoting their last bundle, we were able to earn over $2,800 in only six days! Sign Up For The Ultimate Bundles Affiliate Program 5. Awin Awin is actually an affiliate network rather than an individual company’s affiliate program. Affiliate networks are a great way to be able to find a large number of programs to promote without having to spend time searching for each and every company individually. Awin has over 15,000 brands on its platform, including HP, Stubhub, and Etsy, making it a great affiliate network for any blogger. Sign Up For Awin 6. Impact Radius Impact Radius is another network that we have been using for years! This network boasts some major programs such as Target, Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and so many more. It is a must join network for pretty much anyone. Sign Up For Impact Radius 7. ShareASale ShareASale is the last affiliate network on this list, but it is certainly not least. We’ve been a part of ShareASale for years and have no complaints. ShareASale boasts such programs as WarbyParker, Grammarly, and Cricut. Sign Up For ShareASale 8. Web Hosting Services and Blogging Tools Having a good web host is a vital part of blogging, and that’s why web hosting services have some of the best affiliate programs for bloggers! The truth is the best people to convince people to start blogging are other bloggers. This post is a perfect example of that. That’s why oftentimes the most lucrative affiliate programs for bloggers to promote are web hosts and blogging tools. Here are a few of the best blogging affiliate programs for bloggers: Convertkit: Our email marketing platform provides excellent service and a generous affiliate commission of 30% of every reoccurring payment. One single person we referred over two years ago has earned us over $1,100 to date from this program. Teachable: Our go-to platform for all online product hosting. Teachable is another company that offers a reoccurring affiliate commission, paying 35% of all lifetime payments. Tailwind: A must-have for all bloggers. Tailwind is the best tool for Pinterest, and they know it. Tailwind pays 15% of all reoccurring payments BigScoots: Our current host may not pay as much as some other hosting providers, but they provide fantastic service, so you don’t have to hesitate when recommending them to your readers. DreamHost: Our host before BigScoots, Dreamhost is an excellent hosting service for anyone on a budget with hosting starting as low as $2.59 a month. Despite the low price tag, they pay up to $200 per referral! 9. SkimLinks If all of this has been a bit overwhelming, then Skimlinks may be perfect for you. Skimlinks handles everything for you. No need to apply for affiliate programs. No manually adding links. You just write and Skimlinks handles the rest. After adding Skimlinks to your site, it automatically links your text to their nearly 50k merchants without any work for you. It is a quick and straightforward way to earn affiliate income from blogging. So what’s the catch? It’s simple; they take 25% of every sale. Personally, I don’t mind taking the time to run down affiliate programs and links, but if you’re looking for a way to save time or you’ve been blogging for a long time and have too much content to go back and update, than Skimlinks may be the perfect solution for you. Sign Up For SkimLinks Find The Right Affiliate Program For You When exploring what affiliate programs are best for your site, be sure to keep your audience in mind. It’s important only to promote products and services that you can stand by. It’s incredibly easy to convince yourself to promote a product just for the money, but doing so is a mistake. Pushing products that you do not believe in is a quick way to lose the trust of your audience. When you don’t truly enjoy a product or service, it will show in your content. So be sure to not only search for the best affiliate programs for bloggers in general but the best affiliate program for you and your readers. You May Also Like: HOW TO FIND A NICHE FOR YOUR BLOG – 4 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
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8 Ways To Monetize Your Blog (2020)April 23, 2020Whether or not to monetize your blog can be a controversial subject. But the truth is, if you want to make a career out of blogging, you have to monetize. You May Also Like: FINDING BLOG TOPICS – 6 QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU WRITE AMAZING POSTS You Deserve To Be Paid For Your Work Whether or not to monetize your blog can be a bit of a controversial subject. Some readers will get mad if they start seeing ads, sponsored posts, or they notice that you’ve started selling products. They will claim that you are selling out. That you are cheapening your blog. But that does not change the fact that you should monetize your blog. It takes a lot of work to create content, and you need to be compensated for that work. So go ahead and start monetizing, and ignore the haters. You deserve to be paid for your work, and most of your readers will support it! 8 Ways To Monetize Your Blog Ads The classic way to monetize a blog is still one of the best. Ads have been around forever, and they are not going anywhere anytime soon. For the longest time, we resisted putting ads on our site. We thought to put ads up was a betrayal to our audience. In fact, we were so stressed about it, that we wrote a post explaining to our audience why we decided to put up ads. You can see that post here. The truth is, no one cared. We got a ton of messages of support, and only a few complaints. If you are serious about making money off of your blog, then ads are one of the easiest ways to do so. You have to drive a ton of traffic to earn a full-time income from ads, but even without a ton of traffic, ads are a good way to supplement your income as you grow. The main advertising networks for people who want to monetize their blogs are Google AdSense, Ezoic, Mediavine, and AdThrive. Google AdSense is the largest network and is the easiest to get accepted to, but it pays peanuts compared to Mediavine and AdThrive. We are currently with AdThrive and love it, but it takes some time to build up the required traffic to get accepted into their network. Affiliate Marketing Another proven way to monetize a blog. Affiliate marketing is really quite simple, you promote someone’s product, and if your reader clicks through your link and buys that product, you get a commission. However, it is worth noting that it can be hard to make a great deal of money from affiliate marketing. In order to be successful as an affiliate marketer, you need to build trust with your audience. The best way to build that trust is to focus on promoting products that you actually use and love. For instance, our top converting affiliate sales page is our My Supplies page. Why? Because our readers know that these are not just products we are promoting with the hope of making money, but because we actually use them. There are thousands of affiliate programs to help you monetize a blog, but here are my 14 favorites. Sponsored Work Sponsored work can be a great way to monetize a blog, but it can also be a ton of work. Anytime you work with clients; you are at the mercy of those clients’ demands. We don’t do a ton of sponsored posts, but we’ve done enough to realize that demands can differ drastically from client to client. It’s important to lay out clear expectations before you even start the work. Make sure you have a signed contract firmly laying out what is expected of you and what you are willing to do. One of the easiest ways to layout the type of sponsored work you are willing to do early in the process is to put together a media kit. A media kit is just a simple document or brochure laying out your website’s numbers and is an important first step to landing clients. You can see our media kit here. A media kit can be a bit of a pain to design, but luckily you can just buy a template. There are a ton of blog media kit templates available on Creative Market for less than $20. Save yourself the time and grab one. We did, and it’s already paid for itself 100 times over. Sell Ebooks I’m a huge fan of digital products as a way to monetize a blog. I love the passive nature of the products. There is no need to package or ship the products. You simply create it and start selling. If you’ve wanted to give digital products a shot, then an Ebook is a great place to start. An Ebook can be as long or as short as you like. They can be an extended blog post or a full-fledged book. Ebooks also make a great lead magnet to help you grow your email list. If you’re a big fan of writing, then creating and selling an Ebook is a great way to monetize your blog. Sell Ecourses Ecourses are my absolute favorite way to monetize a blog. We’ve been selling Ecourses for years, and they are going to be our main focus moving forward. Why? They are a great way to deliver information to your readers and maintain the same passive nature as Ebooks. Video is the future of the internet, and it’s not going anywhere harness it and grow your income. If you’re serious about making money from your blog, Ecourses are a sure-fire way to do it. We use Teachable for our course creation, and we love it! Teachable is a one-stop-shop for everything you need to plan, create, and sell your Ecourse. Sell Printables or Workbooks I was skeptical about selling printables and workbooks at first. I mean, do people actually buy digital printable products? I didn’t really expect that people were willing to buy something online that they then had to print out. Boy, was I wrong! We recently released our Fancy Flourishes workbook. This simple 10-page workbook helps people learn how to add flourishes and accents to their hand lettering. We decided to kick it off by doing a 72-hour flash sale, where it was available for $6 rather than the normal $12. We were proud of how the workbook turned out, and we knew it provided great value to our readers for only $6, but we really didn’t really expect to make much money off or it. However, by the end of the 72-hour sale, we had earned over $1,300 from this simple workbook! You can now consider me a believer in printables and workbooks. If you want to create printables or workbooks of your own, but don’t really see yourself as a designer, you can grab easy to use templates from Creative Market. Sell Physical Products Physical products are great, but they can be really time-consuming. We sell stickers in our Etsy shop, but the truth is it’s more of a labor of love than anything else. Physical products can give a great deal of satisfaction. Knowing that you’ve created something beautiful, taking the time to lovingly package up your products, and hearing how much your customer loves the product can be a great feeling. But physical products will never be as scalable as digital products. Your margins are thinner and you’ll need help in order to grow. Does that mean you should not even consider creating physical products? Absolutely not, but just remember that you can only sell as much as you have time to package. Coaching We’ve never done coaching, so I really do not have much to say on this topic. But I know some people swear by it, so I wanted to make sure to include it on this list. Email Marketing Although you may have hundreds, if not thousands, of unread emails in your inbox, email marketing is still the best way to make money from your blog. Unlike the rest of this list, email marketing is not something you can sell. Rather email marketing is how you make money from the things you do sell. Building an email list allows you to stay in constant contact with your audience, and gives you direct access to them at all times. And unlike social media, no one can take that away from you, you and no one else owns your email list. We get a ton of traffic from social media and Google, but almost all of our product sales come from emails. Sending someone an email is a great way to build a personal connection with your audience. It gives you a chance to speak directly to them and their needs. No matter how great your products are, no one will buy from you unless they trust you, and email marketing gives you the tools to build that trust. My Favorite Monetization Tools Here are a few of my favorite tools to help you monetize your blog: SamCart: We’ve been using SamCart for years, and use it to sell and deliver all of our digital products. Teachable: Are goto software for making all of our eCourses. Teachable is an incredible tool for anyone wanting to create courses. The best part? You don’t even need a blog to start selling courses. ConvertKit: I can not stress how important email marketing is to making money from your blog. Pretty much all of our sales come from email marketing, and Convertkit makes creating and sending emails easy. Don’t Try To Do Too Much When you first start to monetize, it can be a bit overwhelming, but there is no need to panic. You don’t have to change how you run your blog overnight. Just try one thing at a time until you form the perfect monetization methods for you. And remember, just because you try something, doesn’t mean you have to stick with it. Go ahead and put ads on your blog; if you realize they are too invasive, you can remove them later. But you’ll never make anything unless you try. You May Also Like: 16 SIMPLE SEO TIPS FOR NEW BLOGGERS
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6 Ways to be Successful on Social Media as a BloggerApril 24, 2020If you want to blog, then you have to be on social media, it’s that simple. Here are 6 actionable ways to can be successful on social media as a blogger. You May Also Like: HOW TO START A BLOG TODAY: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE Social Media Is A Great Place To Start When you are first starting your blog social media is a great place to start building your community. If you’re interested in starting a blog, then there is a decent chance that you already have a social media platform that can be used to drive traffic. When we first started Little Coffee Fox, we turned Shelby’s personal Instagram and Pinterest accounts into the blogs. Why? Because she had already started to build an audience on those platforms by sharing bullet journal related content. Those personal social media accounts ended up being the number one source of traffic for this site and allowed us to go from less than 5k page views our first month to nearly 35k our second month. 6 Tips To Be Successful On Social Media Don’t Be Afraid to Share It is scary enough to press publish on a post when you’re starting out. But actually sharing it and trying to get people to read it? Downright terrifying. But the truth is, there is no need to be afraid. Chances are there are plenty of people out there who are interested in reading what you have to say. Likewise, there are plenty of people out there who do not care at all about your blog post, but those people will just ignore it. Think about it, how many articles do you see as you scroll through your Facebook feed. Are you annoyed by them, do you read them all, or do you ignore the ones you don’t care about, and click on the ones you do? If you are not willing to share your content with the world, no one will ever read it. It really is that simple. Don’t Be Afraid to Share Again Just because you shared an article once does not mean you should never share it again. You need to share your content again and again. No, it is not spamming. It is making sure that people have a chance to actually see your content. We have nearly 30k Facebook followers, you know how many see an individual post? If we’re lucky, maybe 2k people will actually see it. The other 28k took the time to like our page, and it’s likely they are interested in our articles. But if we never share that article again, they are unlikely to see it. Share Other People’s Content Variety is the spice of life, and it should be the spice of your social media marketing campaign as well. Sharing other creator’s interesting content helps you build trust with your audience, and can help you build connections with other bloggers in your niche. Make Content Specifically for Social Media Every time we make a video here on Little Coffee Fox, we make several versions. One each for Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. When creating content it is important that your content meets the specifics dimension and design requirements for each social media platform. Doing so will make it much more likely for that platform to show your content, and readers more likely to engage. Additionally, you want to make sure that your graphics used when sharing your content on various social media platforms are sized appropriately. A tool such as Social Pug will help you make sure that your graphics are the correct size when sharing your content on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Engage With Your Audience Taking the time to reply to every comment that comes in is a great way for new bloggers to build a loyal social media following. As you grow it may not be able to keep this up, but when you’re first starting out, this is a surefire way to start building your audience. Pay Attention to What Works You do not need to reinvent the wheel every time you post. If something worked well, do it again! It’s not uncommon for us to reshare a post on Facebook with the exact same caption that was successful several months ago. Doing so allows us to save time, and provide valuable content to readers who may not have seen it the first time. This is especially important for content curators like Pinterest. We use Tailwind to help us find our most successful pins, and make sure that they get reshared with our audience. Don’t Try to be Present on Each Platform Trying to give each social media platform equal attention is a surefire way to not be successful on any platform. I recommend that when first starting out you focus on just two or three social media platforms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with realizing that a social media platform does not work for you and directing your energy towards more fruitful endeavors. We have not been present on Twitter for over a year, and I have no regrets. If it does not work for you, ditch it. Automate, Automate, Automate My biggest social media tip for new bloggers is to automate everything you can. There are only so many hours in the day, and every minute spent working on social media is less time you can spend creating new content or products. I used to spend hours upon hours every week maintaining our Pinterest account. It was our biggest social media traffic driver, and I felt like I had to do everything myself. Then I discovered Tailwind. Tailwind is an incredible social media scheduler that allows you to take a hands-off approach to your social media strategy. Tailwind works for both Instagram and Pinterest and is one of the few official Pinterest Partners. Using Tailwind, we received nearly 1 million pageviews from Pinterest in 2018, while only spending a few hours a month loading our schedule. The best part is you can use Tailwind completely free! Just click here and sign up for your free account to get started. Social Media Is Hard Sharing content on social media is scary. You have no way how people are going to react, and you will probably get a few hard comments, but it will be worth it in the end. Harsh comments cut deep, but just remember that you are blogging to help share your knowledge with the world, and to do that you’ve got to put yourself out there. As long as you are not going around spamming your content at every chance you get, you can rest assured knowing that you are doing everything you can to share your content with the world. You May Also Like: 9 TIPS FOR TAKING BEAUTIFUL FLAT LAY PHOTOGRAPHY & IMPRESSING YOUR INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS
Keeping Your Blog Organized
Blogging is messy business. There’s a ton of information to keep track of, and it gets chaotic really quick unless you take strides to organize it all. Here are some organization tips for your blog!
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Creating a Productive Workspace - 9 Easy Tricks to Try Today!July 10, 2016You know that I’m all about organization and planning. I’m a big believer in having an efficient bullet journal. But an aspect of planning that is often overlooked is a productive workspace. It is hard to think about organizing your brain when you are working in a dark, cluttered space. So I propose you do a little sprucing up! Don’t worry, none of these will break the bank. You only need a little bit of time and a little creativity to make your workspace beautiful and productive! My (mostly) productive workspace I do not have an office, so the desk is out in the living room. This presents some problems in our 600 square foot apartment, so being organized is a necessity. I like to keep my Leuchtturm on my desk at all times when I’m working, along with my Staedtler pens for any color coding. My Pilot Metropolitan is within reach at all times because I like taking my important notes with an important pen. I also like to keep the book I am reading on my desk and visible, which is currently The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. If you’re curious what exactly is so motivating about this book, check out my post about the Morning Pages to get a glimpse of the book’s purpose. I bet it will make you more productive just like it did for me! 9 Ways To Create a More Productive Workspace 1. Just add light A huge part of a productive workspace is the lighting. While all this light makes photography difficult, it makes work easier. There is something about that natural sunshine that makes people feel more happy and productive. I love using my bullet journal in a patch of sunshine – that’s why I moved my desk into a window nook! If you don’t have access to a window, invest in a good lamp that will give your eyes a break from that computer screen. An LED lamp will especially be helpful in the depths of winter when the light is scarce or when you find yourself working late into the night. 2. Declutter your desk I know you’ve heard this advice before, but you need to do it! If you need a quick fix, just get rid of the trash and square away the rest. Having a small trash bin next to your desk can go a long way toward habitual decluttering. Taking things from chaos to neat little stacks makes a big difference when you’re just stressed, and you need to do something. Of course, you still need to go through all the stacks later and actually organize them. I would suggest a file organizer for keeping stuff from accumulating directly on your workspace. I use a hanging file organizer to keep our mail from ever touching the desk, and I love it. Don’t forget about pen holders if you’re a pen addict like me! 3. Add some green Human beings really respond to plants. Why not use that to your advantage? Introducing plants into the workspace can increase productivity by 15%! So get yourself an orchid, a succulent, an air plant, or whatever suits your style. Put it in a cute pot to add some cheer and personality or get hanging pots to keep them off your desk. Or you can just get a regular pot and decorate it yourself with paint pens or metallic Sharpies. Just don’t forget to water it! A sad, unhappy plant is not going to be very cheery, now is it? 4. Try a standing desk This is one of the more radical tips to try out because it is so far out of the norm. However, studies have shown that it’s not only healthier than sitting all day; it also leads to more productivity. Isn’t that crazy? Of course, if you don’t want to buy a brand new desk, there are desktop extenders to cater to you! 5. Rearrange Sometimes all you need is to spice up your workspace by rearranging it. At your home, try moving furniture around for a different flow. Move your hanging pictures and paintings for a new aesthetic. The new look might spark some creative ideas. 6. Get a dry erase board Having a dry erase board is a great way to keep paper from cluttering up your desk. You can keep a fairly permanent display for your information or clear it at the end of every day. It’s hard to deny that it is a ridiculously versatile tool. Don’t forget your bright dry erase markers! 7. Listen to the Right Music Music can be the key to finding the perfect groove for work. Prime Music is perfect for working. There’s no commercials, a huge variety, and the option to download whole playlists for your convenience. I’ve been using Prime Music for months, and it is absolutely wonderful. I can listen to ambient music, nature sounds, alt-rock, oldies, electro – whatever I’m feeling. You can try it free for 30 days and see what I mean. What’s even better is that if you are a student, you can try it free for six whole months! So yeah, you don’t have an excuse to not give this a shot. I promise you’ll love it. 8. Hang some inspiration I like keeping a few motivational quotes and pretty things in a little space next to my desk. Use some pretty yarn or rustic twine along with adorable little clothespins to display your favorite sayings or small pieces of art. I used my Tombows to create a pretty brush lettered quote to remind me to keep hustling. Maybe this is a good opportunity to apply some craft of your own to give it a personal touch. A little bit of inspiration can go a long way. 9. Use sticky notes As a rule, I don’t like to use sticky notes for impermanent information. I use my dry erase board for that. But I do like to use them for permanent information that needs to stay visible. For example, I write the size properties of typical images on my blog, so I can glance up and see them right in front of me. As a plus, you can use colorful sticky notes to create pretty designs on the wall. How Do You Create A More Productive Workspace? You can do one or all of these to create a brighter, happier, and more productive workspace. You can try any of these with little to no money, and surely you can find something that will work for you. What do you do to foster a productive workspace? style=”line-height: 1.5;”>
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Pen and Paper Financial Planner - Common Sense Money ManagementSeptember 19, 2016Finances can be so scary to deal with, so lots of people (myself included) try to avoid dealing with financial planning. But in the end, the best way to save money and prepare for the future is to bite the bullet and set up a budget. Walk with me through my pen and paper financial planner and see how I use the magic of an analog system to make sense of my money! The Budget Struggle For most of us, a large portion of our lives is ruled by money. Specifically, by not having enough of it. It sucks, but that’s the world we live in. It’s easy to procrastinate dealing with your finances because you’re afraid of looking at the numbers in your bank account. But as I’m sure you know deep down, that’s only going to hurt you later. In order to take control of your finances, you have to face them directly and address the issue. You need to make a budget. You might let out a deep sigh at this point. I know this is not the most exciting topic ever. But you know what is exciting? Going on vacations. Buying a car you love. Putting a down payment on a house. Getting a puppy. And in order to do all of these things, you need some cash, my friend. So yes, financial planning talk is dry and dusty, but it can be extremely rewarding if you give it the attention it deserves. Lots of people have tried budgeting before and given up. It was too tough to track, or one unexpected expense blew everything out of the water, so they just stopped trying. Believe me, I understand this frustration. I know what it’s like to be slowly saving up some money and have it all go down the drain because of a small medical bill or a car repair. It’s so easy to say “What’s the point?”. But I know how you can keep a budget and not sweat the surprise expenses. The Solution There are two solutions, actually. You need to set up an emergency fund and find a way to easily track your money. Track Your Cash You can do the latter right now by going to You Need a Budget and signing up for their one-month free trial. New users save $200 on average in their first month, and that’s just by keeping track of all your dollars and cents. Yes, it’s a digital system, which is not my typical M.O., but this system works. It’s free to get started, so what are you waiting for? Emergency Fund And then there’s the emergency fund. You need to build up at least three months of expenses as an emergency fund, preferably six. When you have an emergency fund, you won’t need to dip into your savings account. If you get laid off or fired, you won’t be forced into the very first job that opens up. You can take time to find something that’s right for you. The way to start building up your emergency fund is to take all the money not spent in your monthly budget and divide it. For every four dollars, one goes into your savings and the other three go into your emergency fund. When that pot is all topped up at six months, you can start pouring all your extra cash into savings. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, an emergency fund is essential. Even a minor expense can knock you down if you don’t have anything extra. Build yourself this safety net now and you will be thanking yourself when life deals a wildcard. Extra Income If you are living paycheck to paycheck, there are a few things you can do for a little extra dough. I personally use Check Out 51, an app that lets me get cash back on select groceries. It’s like couponing without all the work. I’ve made about $10 so far this month, which is not a ton of money, but I’m getting the groceries anyways. I also use Swagbucks to earn quick rewards while waiting for the bus, in between tasks, or when I’m just plain bored. Plus you get five bucks right off the bat! The last thing I do to make side cash is Usertesting. When I get a test, all I need to do is talk out loud as I navigate tasks on a website for 15-20 minutes. One test pays out $10, and I can make $30-40 each month. It won’t make you rich, but it can be the difference between under budget or over budget. Of course, my main income is blogging. For many people, blogging can be an amazing source of side income alongside their day jobs. It’s easy enough to start with a little bit of planning. If you want to look into it, I can help you get $50 off your startup costs. Who knows? Maybe you’ll do what I did and quit your job to pursue it full time. It happens! Save More With Good Planning One of the biggest expenses for anyone is food. You can cut the cost of groceries with simple meal planning. Plotting out a week’s worth of meals at a time can help you pare down your grocery list. It also will keep you from wasting time and gas by running to the store for forgotten items. I use a combination of my Recipe Bank and Master Grocery List to knock out groceries with precision. It’s also a great way to prevent impromptu take out nights, which are bad for your budget and health. If you feel that you don’t have time to plan for and prepare meals, then consider trying out Blue Apron. You can have three meals each week shipped straight to you with detailed cooking instructions. If you click my link, you can get your first three meals free, or get $30 off your first family plan order and see how you like it! How a Pen & Paper Financial Planner Works with Your Digital Budget If you’re anything like me, it’s tough to keep things in line using only digital tools. I’m a hands-on kind of girl. I need to be able to manipulate something with my own two hands for it to really cement in my memory. That’s why I am always using my bullet journal. I love writing things out with fountain pens in my Leuchtturm. It grounds me, aids my memory, and is essential to my planning. Lord knows that one of my biggest struggles with budgeting is simply forgetting all the numbers. I can’t keep them all in my head, and that has always led to me giving up. But now, I’m using a two-tiered system to help me set my goals and keep them. Using YNAB is exceedingly helpful to me, but using a paper financial planner is just the kick I need to take it seriously. All the numbers feel a bit abstract in the digital realm. Writing them down helps me internalize their financial weight. My Set-Up To manage my money, I bought a brand new Northbook dot grid softcover notebook. I wanted to give financial planning its own space so it can grow and shrink as needed without butting into my daily bullet journal. I created a simple system with which to track it all in a more graspable way. I took my budget from YNAB and wrote down all the different categories. I wrote the name of each section of my budget (electric, fun money, etc) and put the budgeted amount next to it. Then I drew out a progress bar so I could visualize the data more intuitively. If it goes over, like it did with Medical, then I continue coloring in the money used with a red Staedtler instead of a green one. For some categories, like clothing and auto maintenance, the leftover money rolls over to the next month. That way I can accumulate a fund when I need it and not worry when I need a new pair of jeans. Other categories, like bills and groceries, don’t roll over. That means that whatever money wasn’t spent gets put into the emergency fund or savings. I want my paper financial planner to be minimalist, but I still want to add a bit of spunk. I used my Tombow Brush Pens to add a dash of color and my Faber-Castel Big Brush Pen to write out a simple header. Who said that such a serious journal couldn’t be a little bit fun, too? I left half of the next page blank so I can evaluate how much is left over at the end of the month. Then I can divvy it up and put it in my savings or in my emergency fund. At the bottom, I have progress bars for both. I love seeing how close to my goal I am. My savings doubles as a vacation fund. I enjoy planning my budget for our big Las Vegas trip in my bullet journal, but it makes sense to track it in this new journal, too. By the way, I used a Tombow to fill in that big progress bar. It was much faster than a regular pen! The Argument for Digital The digital part of financial planning isn’t too bad when you use YNAB. You can download the app and add transactions on the go to the appropriate categories. That means you don’t need to keep all the receipts stored away at home. Just add the total cost to the app and you’re set. You can also link your bank accounts, which is super handy. If you have a separate account for savings, you can keep an eye on its growth through YNAB. Your account balance stays up-to-date so you can see exactly how much money you have at all times. I don’t know how I ever survived without this system! Plan for Your Future As time goes on, I will create a new budget spread for each month and move all my progress bars. It takes time, but it’s worth it so I know where I stand with my finances. I want to take my time to get to know my finances, or else I’m afraid I’ll slip back into a fog of financial uncertainty. And nothing good comes out of that fog. If you are afraid that you can’t possibly make a budget, I challenge you to try. You Need a Budget users save an average of $3300 by their ninth month using the system. That more than covers the cost of the subscription. You can use that money to climb out of debt, save money for a house, or chase your dream. Yes, this system can work for you if you give it a try. Budgeting has never been easier, and if you prefer analog systems, then I’ve got you. You can pair a digital plan with a paper financial planner and have enormous success if you only give it a shot. I know finances are scary, but you’re tough and you can handle it. So go out there and get your money! You May Also Like: 30+ BULLET JOURNAL TRACKER IDEAS
General Organization Techniques
Running a blog successfully, whether you’re a hobby blogger, part time, or full time, depends upon your overall organization. If you have a generally disorganized life, then you’re going to have a disorganized blog. Here are some posts to help you keep on top of everything so you can focus your time where it counts – your budding blog!
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What are Morning Pages? How One New Habit Changed My LifeJune 19, 2016Busy Busy Everyone has so much going on in their lives: school, jobs, kids, lovers, hobbies, bills, disasters, accomplishments, worries, joys. There’s so much rattling around in our brains all the time and we usually don’t realize it. We carry this weight with us wherever we go — all the stress and anxiety and planning. It can bog us down and get in the way of the important things in life. While it can often feel like this is simply the burden of being human, I am here to tell you that there is a way to lighten this load through a technique called the Morning Pages. What are the Morning Pages? The method of writing Morning Pages comes from the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. This book teaches broken and frightened artists to get back onto the path of creativity and away from the fear that holds them back. The point of the book is to encourage artists to overcome the voices within and without that spew negativity. You aren’t good enough.Everyone is better than you.You are unworthy, your work is unworthy, so why bother?There is no point in trying- you’ll only fail. Familiar? Everyone deals with this inner critic, whether they come from your middle school teacher, a “friend”, or that nasty voice in the back of your head. And these nasty voices follow us around our lives, infecting more than just the realm of art. The Morning Pages was originally designed to help artists break through their creative blocks and get back to living a creative life. However, the power of the morning pages doesn’t just stop at creative pursuits. This journaling technique is valuable for every aspect of life, from marriage to parenting to daily stressors about work. Anyone can start writing Morning Pages to inject clarity, focus, and direction into their lives. Sale 10,367 Reviews The Artist's Way: 30th Anniversary Edition Cameron, Julia (Author)English (Publication Language)272 Pages - 10/25/2016 (Publication Date) - TarcherPerigee (Publisher) Get The Audiobook Buy on Amazon But I’m Not an Artist! You might scoff right here and say “Well I’m not an artist, so this doesn’t apply to me.” To this I say PHOOEY. Art isn’t about paint and canvases and clay. Art is about creating something from nothing and diving into your passions. If you cook, write, sing, dance, design video games or play baseball, you are an artist. Any act of creation or honing of skill is art, so don’t feel bogged down by the narrow constraints of what society defines as an “artist”. So yes, the Morning Pages can work for you even if you don’t draw. How the Morning Pages Work The actual exercise is simple enough. Find a notebook or journal of some kind – it can be a cheap spiral-bound notebook or a hardbound Moleskine journal. It doesn’t matter, as long as it has a blank page. Grab a pen that you enjoy. Make sure you use a pen that is easy to write with and feels comfortable in your hand. Personally, I bounce between a Lamy Safari and a Pilot Metropolitan. Get up a little bit earlier every morning and complete three pages of longhand stream of consciousness writing. That’s it, baby. What Do You Write? There might be days that you don’t feel like writing. Write anyway. Write down your first thoughts. You might forget to do it in the morning. Do it in the afternoon instead, or right before bed. You might start writing and feel like you can’t fill out three pages, it’s too hard. But fill all three anyway. The magic comes from pushing yourself to complete your pages. It doesn’t matter what you write, either. There is no wrong way to fill your pages. You could write down what dreams you had the night before, what you are currently worried about, the cat’s litter box habits, the chores you don’t want to do, the way your coffee tastes, your errands, a grocery list, a to do list, affirmations… Write whatever pops into your head. Dealing With Distractions This time is for you and the pages and nothing else, so don’t compromise your you-time for someone else’s needs. Distractions can wait most of the time, and you losing focus and giving in to a distraction could be that little negative voice in the back of your head pulling you away from clarity and confidence. Don’t give in. Write, and the truth will fall out of your pen. Because slowly, without your realizing it, the Morning Pages are healing you. Whatever injury you suffered, whether that be a blow to your confidence, a lack of certainty, or a sudden devastating change in your life, the Morning Pages act as a rock you can rely on and a pillow you can cry into. You can bounce ideas off the page, revel in accomplishments, rant about how your kids are driving you nuts, or vent your emotions in any way you want. No Sharing! Besides showing up to write every day, there’s one other thing you need to do: Don’t let anybody read it. I’m dead serious. Do not let ANYONE touch your journal, not even a peek. You shouldn’t even read it – not for at least a few months, anyway. If you are afraid that someone is going to read this, you will not be honest with the pages and there will not be any magic. If you’re afraid of prying eyes, hide it and be careful about who knows about the journal. You can also simply shred your pages after every writing session if you are concerned about privacy. Do whatever you have to do. Don’t Censor You need to let go of the fear of judgment and write what’s on your mind, no matter how petty, silly, stupid, or crazy. Have you been considering leaving your significant other, or thinking about a wild career change, or contemplating moving to another country? You need to be able to spill all of your dark desires onto paper. And the funny thing is, the Pages won’t let you lie. Somehow the act of writing a lie, even if you are lying to yourself, makes it laughably obvious that it’s fake and you have to face it. This is something that makes the Pages a little bit scary, because if you have been living in an unhappy situation and you have been lying to yourself about your contentment, the Pages will make you look at your life with honest eyes and you will need to do one of two things: Get out of your comfort zone and do something about itContinue living in the crappy situation knowing full well that you could get out Often it is easier to continue living in a lie than to move on into the unknown and try your luck. But it is not better. Living an honest life is the best way to live. My Morning Pages After seeing The Artist’s Way referenced all over the place, I finally ran to my library to borrow a copy. I read it voraciously and eagerly bought my very first Leuchtturm for writing my Morning Pages despite having a history of only using journals for a few weeks before abandoning them. It’s the nasty side effect of a journal addiction — collecting new journals despite the large pile of half-used notebooks on the bookshelf. I bought the journal anyway despite my better judgment and started writing my pages. In my life, I had never successfully been able to keep up a habit of writing in a journal, not even short little one-page entries. I have known since high school that keeping a regular diary has a ton of benefits, but I could never hold on to it for more than a month. I was endlessly frustrated with myself on that front, and I always figured there was something wrong with me. But something changed in me when I started my Morning Pages. I started writing each day, sometimes it is part of my morning routine, sometimes in the afternoon, but I actually did them. I was skeptical that this would be another passing fancy and I’d drop it after a while, but I kept plugging along. Suddenly, I realized that I was nearing the end of the Leuchtturm. With amazement, I went to purchase another and did something I’d never done before – I wrote on the last page of the journal. And that’s when I realized that somewhere along the way that the Morning Pages performed their magic on me. How the Pages Helped Me I used to be constantly bogged down with procrastination, and all the demons that come with that curse. But the Morning Pages helped me climb out of that mindset and into a healthier, more productive one. While the Morning Pages weren’t a cure-all, they did serve as the catalyst to me turning into the exact type of person I’d always wanted to be. There is also something completely magical about waking up, pouring a steaming cup of coffee, and cracking open my journal to start these pages of stream of consciousness writing. If the weather is nice, I will open a window and feel the breeze. I listen to Prime Music, which helps me tremendously with writing consistently and not spacing out. I can listen to different kinds of ambient music or nature sounds and really feel focused when I write. The beauty is that there are no commercials to interrupt my train of thought. Try it free for 30 days and experience it for yourself! And if you’re a student, you can actually try Prime free for six whole months, which is absolutely fantastic. 15 Morning Pages Tips Now that I’ve been writing Morning Pages for several years, I can comfortably say that I know my way around this journaling technique. I’ve run into lots of challenges and had to get creative with my solutions. Just picking up your pen and beginning to write is an excellent place to start, but check out my 15 tips to accelerate your growth with the Morning Pages! Start Writing and Never Look Back So is it obvious how zealously I adore the Morning Pages? I seriously cannot sing enough praises for this technique, and I hope you try it. So pick up a copy of The Artist’s Way or listen to it for free with a trial of Audible.com if you’re not sure. Or just start writing your Morning Pages today, no strings attached. If you can get through a month of writing, I know you will not want to stop. You will find yourself thinking clearer and being more creative, and you will begin to recommend the Morning Pages to your friends, too. So what is there to lose? Grab a pen and paper, darlin’, and start decluttering your brain today. Sale 10,367 Reviews The Artist's Way: 30th Anniversary Edition Cameron, Julia (Author)English (Publication Language)272 Pages - 10/25/2016 (Publication Date) - TarcherPerigee (Publisher) Get The Audiobook Buy on Amazon If you’ve already read The Artist’s Way and are still looking to awaken your creativity. I also recommend Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and A Trail Through Leaves by Hannah Hinchman. Both are great books that really helped me grow as an artist and as a person. (Remember you can listen to two free audiobooks with a free trial of Audible.com that you can cancel at any time!) Whatever you do, remember to keep trying. Starting the Morning Pages can be a bit terrifying, but the release it provides is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced. Maybe it doesn’t stick for you at first. That’s fine! Keep at it and you will develop the habit. The point is that you strive for growth and put in the effort. Adding this ritual to my daily routine completely changed how I live my life, and I know it can help you too.
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Creating a Productive Workspace - 9 Easy Tricks to Try Today!July 10, 2016You know that I’m all about organization and planning. I’m a big believer in having an efficient bullet journal. But an aspect of planning that is often overlooked is a productive workspace. It is hard to think about organizing your brain when you are working in a dark, cluttered space. So I propose you do a little sprucing up! Don’t worry, none of these will break the bank. You only need a little bit of time and a little creativity to make your workspace beautiful and productive! My (mostly) productive workspace I do not have an office, so the desk is out in the living room. This presents some problems in our 600 square foot apartment, so being organized is a necessity. I like to keep my Leuchtturm on my desk at all times when I’m working, along with my Staedtler pens for any color coding. My Pilot Metropolitan is within reach at all times because I like taking my important notes with an important pen. I also like to keep the book I am reading on my desk and visible, which is currently The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. If you’re curious what exactly is so motivating about this book, check out my post about the Morning Pages to get a glimpse of the book’s purpose. I bet it will make you more productive just like it did for me! 9 Ways To Create a More Productive Workspace 1. Just add light A huge part of a productive workspace is the lighting. While all this light makes photography difficult, it makes work easier. There is something about that natural sunshine that makes people feel more happy and productive. I love using my bullet journal in a patch of sunshine – that’s why I moved my desk into a window nook! If you don’t have access to a window, invest in a good lamp that will give your eyes a break from that computer screen. An LED lamp will especially be helpful in the depths of winter when the light is scarce or when you find yourself working late into the night. 2. Declutter your desk I know you’ve heard this advice before, but you need to do it! If you need a quick fix, just get rid of the trash and square away the rest. Having a small trash bin next to your desk can go a long way toward habitual decluttering. Taking things from chaos to neat little stacks makes a big difference when you’re just stressed, and you need to do something. Of course, you still need to go through all the stacks later and actually organize them. I would suggest a file organizer for keeping stuff from accumulating directly on your workspace. I use a hanging file organizer to keep our mail from ever touching the desk, and I love it. Don’t forget about pen holders if you’re a pen addict like me! 3. Add some green Human beings really respond to plants. Why not use that to your advantage? Introducing plants into the workspace can increase productivity by 15%! So get yourself an orchid, a succulent, an air plant, or whatever suits your style. Put it in a cute pot to add some cheer and personality or get hanging pots to keep them off your desk. Or you can just get a regular pot and decorate it yourself with paint pens or metallic Sharpies. Just don’t forget to water it! A sad, unhappy plant is not going to be very cheery, now is it? 4. Try a standing desk This is one of the more radical tips to try out because it is so far out of the norm. However, studies have shown that it’s not only healthier than sitting all day; it also leads to more productivity. Isn’t that crazy? Of course, if you don’t want to buy a brand new desk, there are desktop extenders to cater to you! 5. Rearrange Sometimes all you need is to spice up your workspace by rearranging it. At your home, try moving furniture around for a different flow. Move your hanging pictures and paintings for a new aesthetic. The new look might spark some creative ideas. 6. Get a dry erase board Having a dry erase board is a great way to keep paper from cluttering up your desk. You can keep a fairly permanent display for your information or clear it at the end of every day. It’s hard to deny that it is a ridiculously versatile tool. Don’t forget your bright dry erase markers! 7. Listen to the Right Music Music can be the key to finding the perfect groove for work. Prime Music is perfect for working. There’s no commercials, a huge variety, and the option to download whole playlists for your convenience. I’ve been using Prime Music for months, and it is absolutely wonderful. I can listen to ambient music, nature sounds, alt-rock, oldies, electro – whatever I’m feeling. You can try it free for 30 days and see what I mean. What’s even better is that if you are a student, you can try it free for six whole months! So yeah, you don’t have an excuse to not give this a shot. I promise you’ll love it. 8. Hang some inspiration I like keeping a few motivational quotes and pretty things in a little space next to my desk. Use some pretty yarn or rustic twine along with adorable little clothespins to display your favorite sayings or small pieces of art. I used my Tombows to create a pretty brush lettered quote to remind me to keep hustling. Maybe this is a good opportunity to apply some craft of your own to give it a personal touch. A little bit of inspiration can go a long way. 9. Use sticky notes As a rule, I don’t like to use sticky notes for impermanent information. I use my dry erase board for that. But I do like to use them for permanent information that needs to stay visible. For example, I write the size properties of typical images on my blog, so I can glance up and see them right in front of me. As a plus, you can use colorful sticky notes to create pretty designs on the wall. How Do You Create A More Productive Workspace? You can do one or all of these to create a brighter, happier, and more productive workspace. You can try any of these with little to no money, and surely you can find something that will work for you. What do you do to foster a productive workspace? style=”line-height: 1.5;”>
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