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Double Your Blog Readership

Lesson 21 from: Double Your Followers with Creative Marketing

April Bowles-Olin

Double Your Blog Readership

Lesson 21 from: Double Your Followers with Creative Marketing

April Bowles-Olin

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Lesson Info

21. Double Your Blog Readership

Lessons

Class Trailer

Marketing that Doubles Your Customer Base in Two Months

1

One Introduction

00:56
2

Bootcamp Introduction

34:49
3

Why Your Business Success Depends on Marketing

53:36
4

Why Your Customers Should Choose You and Your Brand

50:29
5

Your Target Market and A Day as Your Ideal Customer

1:03:03
6

Make Marketing Fun so You Actually Do This Stuff

34:09

Build A Brand Your Customers Love

Lesson Info

Double Your Blog Readership

Thank you very much and we're back with less in nineteen double your blawg readership before we get into this let's talk about what we just covered in less than eighteen email segmentation in the process of using other responders we talked about how to use email segmentation how to use lane pages to grow your following how to set up a sales funnel that really works for you twenty four seven and now we're going to talk about doubling your blogged readership. The objective is to learn why blogging is one of the best ways to grow your online following and how to include prove you're blogging and double your readership what you'll learn why social media shouldn't replace blogging thirty five types of content and the quickest way to get out of your blogging rut the foolproof way to come up with a year of weekly block content that your target market can't resist immediately reading and sharing the ten biggest blogging with stakes you might be making and how to avoid them in the blogged post ...

blueprint we got a lot to cover in this one blogging is one of the best ways to market your business and so many creative entrepreneurs throw away that opportunity with blog's that haven't been updated in months or poorly written post it's if you're making one of the big blogging mistakes you might be losing hundreds of potential followers every month or even worse turning off potential customers I want to know what do you struggle with most when it comes to blocking regularly what is angie consistency yeah and what about the consistency what is it that you can't stay consistent just sitting down and just coming up with content I feel like I may run out of ideas sometimes so we're gonna come up with lots of content okay do you have a day that you're like this is the day I sit down and I do my block post used to be tuesdays and thursdays so you're probably meaning you work on the same block post on tuesdays and thursdays or you do different block posts well different look each tuesday was like tuesdays was the day that I wanted to post something and then thursday but I think my mistake is that I tried to sit down and do it all and that one crunch and I think that's where I just you know get myself yeah where you where you get overwhelmed right you don't like oh this laugh it up the headline oh out of the air that's good sinned oh really it calm it exactly yeah eso also you might be trying to do too much blogging twice a week is a lot it's such a lot of work blogging more than once a week is a lot of work even bloody once a week is a lot of work but I recommend that you blogged once a week but that's enough for most people unless there's a really reason why you're going to block more than once a week, I suggest once weak, because when you're spreading yourself so thin, your blood post also tend to not be is good, and if you're focusing on just one post, that one post is gonna be so much better for it, okay, anybody else? What were the big issues? I think it's compelling content content that's really going to resonate? Because they do use an editorial calendar and I am using the writing process, but I'm finding maybe I'm not finding the right content to post yeah, yeah, it's hard, it's hard. We're going to come up with some steps to take that are going to get you through that and give you so many ideas that you're going to be able to fill up a year's worth of content that is not just a claim. I think everybody here will be able to do that with this one lesson so that's exciting, great, yeah. Anybody else? They just content content wondering what to talk about. Yeah, I, um my problem that I come into is that I want to talk about lots of different things, and then I started second guessing what I can actually conceivably get away with on my blogged which is silly because I see you post recipes and creative projects that you're working on, but for some reason when it comes from my block, I'm like no, I can't talk about that, so somebody asked something like this in the facebook group they asked about I'm in I'm interested in all of this stuff and so what do I d'oh? Well, my first thought when it comes to that is that you want to focus in the beginning so that you're making money you want to be bringing in the right people to make money once you've got them there and you know the world that they like to be in, you can create different types of content that's going to excite them and inspire them and get them interested and that's totally fine. So in the beginning, I tell people to really focus on getting the right people and in making money because this is a business and then ad tio all of that fun stuff that you want teo include because you absolutely can't. This is your blawg it's your business, you're allowed to decide, but you wanted to make sense for your brand yeah, you might think that social media platforms like instagram and periscope have taken over and that it's no longer important to blawg or right actually, I think it's just a cz important if not more because your writing really shows who you are to me when I go to your website, if I feel like it's a rush job, I feel like you don't really care you don't care a cz much. So what is your writing saying about you that you're smart, that you're boring, that you're a mess, that your creative that you have lots of quirky personality traits that everybody wants to know about? What is it saying about you? This is your opportunity to stand out because you're writing your blonde posts, they're going to be different than anybody else's stuff you're using stories like we talked about, you're going to be using the different methods that we talked about trance description, method one person method zooming in using details so yourself is going to be different, you just have to take that opportunity and use it because we've been given this amazing opportunity to connect. So the common question I get is khun social media take the place of my block. No, I'm saying right now for the record, no, nobody asked me this question again because it's not going to change it cannot take the place of your blogger website. This is why you don't have any control of her social media I got kicked off of twitter for a couple of weeks because they accidentally grouped my email address with spam emails and when I contacted them you can't talk to a person on the phone I emailed them through there a little form somebody got back to me maybe a week or two later saying oops we made a mistake will try to fix it as soon as possible took another couple of weeks but in the meantime it said like warning this person has been blocked from twitter people were emailing me saying like what's going on why are you black from twitter? What didyou d'oh you have no control they could have said sorry lady or they could have just not even looked at it I bet they get tons of e mails all the time saying why did you block my email account? Why am I no longer allowed to post on twitter and it could have just gotten brushed under the rug I don't know I'm lucky I'm lucky that they didn't do that other people have gotten kicked off of social media platforms that I know because when you sign up you sign a contract saying that they can kick you off at any time for it for no reason whenever they feel like it and that's it you have no say about it so you can't take the place of your block with social media you cannot replace it and you never know when people are going to change things when platforms are going to change we don't know if instagram is going to get so big like facebook, where they can't possibly put people, everybody's, pictures and feeds, and so on, ly the popular people are going to get the most playtime we don't know that could happen, and so if we're counting on instagram, we could be up be up a creek without a paddle, you know, we don't want to do that to ourselves, so the blogger is the place where you want people to be going on a regular basis. Social media is like this sprinkles the extra, the cherry on top it's the lazy option, in my opinion, I sometimes get a little pushback for this, but in my opinion, it's the lazy option it's easier to post a pretty picture on instagram than it is to put together a completely high quality block post. It just is, but that's why great block content rises above that's why it stands out that's why I'm getting tons of comments on every single one of my block posts because I'm putting in the effort and it stands out, but a valuable block post has the potential to go viral, and it will help your business much more than a well loved instagram picture on instagram picture can't do as much for you as the viral block post still it's worth that. Every time you post on your block give your readers a reason to come back don't publish a post just to publish something cut all the crap respect your readers time and she'll give you more of it cut all the stuff you don't need to be sharing and on ly share the stuff that's worth it okay if you feel like you're in a blogging rut how many people feel like you're in a blocking rut yeah a bunch of us okay I get that way too what I do usually change up the type of content I'm publishing that's one thing I d'oh the other thing I d'oh it's kind of get myself out of that environment I moved to a different environment or I get my favorite cup of tea I get my candle going I kind of create that atmosphere fear of I want to be writing and this feels really nice fall is my favorite time of year because we've got our wood burning stove we have that crackling I've got my dogs at my feet it's like this perfect set up and then when I'm sitting there and I can't think of anything I'd like this is the perfect setup but yet usually usually it works for me and not against today but normally if I'm in a rut I think what can I do to switch up the type of content so let's talk about the different types of content we've got how two's case studies editorials, infographics, a booker viewer summary, an app or tool review, a giveaway interview list, quiz survey quote and this is just twelve of them. I'll give you guys a second to jot some of these down the ones that you really want to jot down if I'm getting bored with hearing my own self talk on my blogged, I could easily do case studies with customers that have been successful and share their stories, and in fact, that's something that I would love to do with some of you were in the studio audience, and that helps me to kind of take the back seat and change up the content, and it also is exciting for my reader. Some more options podcast if you do a podcast, you khun, just send out the intro you could put up the intro on your blogged the benefits of listening to the podcast and then send people to the podcast. You don't have to then create extra blawg content photos you can build a block post around great photos a beautiful mess builds a lot of their block post around really pretty photos, and they have hundreds of thousands of readers news, an announcement, a guide, a resource list, my audience, they love resource lists and those air pretty easy for me to put together research a live stream you could do a live stream periscope get on spree cast into a live stream q and a then you can embed that into a block post so that you're using it in another way illustrations if you're an artist, you're art can be the main part of your blogged lisa cognitive does a great job of this on her blogged and I'm constantly looking for more I always go to her block to see what's on it and it's not a ton of content but what she puts up there I want to see because I love her yeah downloadable like a downloadable print or olivia does her brush lettered quotes that's a great block post worksheet or workbook a template a webinar an e book and if you're going to make an e book a block post make it short not something that's super long an opinion piece people love opinion pieces this is one of the blogging mistakes we're going to talk about later is not sharing your opinion they love it when you share your opinion don't give me that look trash don't give me that look girl frequently asked questions thes air also some of my popular block post when I released something new and then I use my frequently asked questions as a blogger post as well I don't just email it to my list or put it up on my sales page I make it its own block post top post or categorized content if you're like really I just can't pull it out this week I cannot pull out some new content this week put together a list of some of your best stuff categorize it olivia could dio her top ten most popular brush lettered quotes just categorize put some content together your readers love that stuff because it's all in one place for them then and that's the kind of stuff that people will share over and over again a guest post you don't even have to do all the writing you could have people guess posting for you now if you are a personality brand that doesn't work is well, but it is an option cheat sheets a checklist a playlist I shared my playlist from creative live like my pump up jams the last time I was here a creative live and my readers loved it you could do a playlist patty of playlist for knitting songs to listen to while you net and I bet people would love it of log or a product or service reveal and there are more types of content besides this. When you say personality brand, can you clarify that meaning it's built around you know, okay, so it's built on your personality people want to hear from you they don't want to hear from other people they really just want to hear from you I got around that obit because my yeah, my stuff is all like the kris with a k it's all about, you know, it's all coming for me. And I got around that when I was leading up to my the blogging boot camp thing, uh, because a lot of people were asking about adding images and adding photos to their block and saying that that was something that was really tricky and that's, not my expertise. So I did a co authored piece instead of having it completely written by someone else. I invited sarah shots, who was at your last creative life with us. Yes, she's, my samwise she's, my accountability buddy, and she came and we kind of co authored it, and I ended up doing a couple of posts because she was awesome and gave so much amazing information. So I gave sort of my, you know, amateur hack version of how I did it, and then she was, like, actually way, probably do it. It was like, if you want to hit somewhere in between the eyes. Maybe we'll be ok. Yeah like with the photo lesson I'm like this is how ideo thankfully we have ah professional who's going to show us how we actually do this kind of thing. Yeah, exactly and it ended up being really popular and she ended up sharing in and it was really fun to do together too, so it's kind of like a way to do the gas posting if your personality brand anyways just yet share a great tip and that goes back to lesson one with the quiz collaborating with somebody who has a differing strengthen you it's a great way to do that my and I, my carly's from heart made blogged we collaborate a lot and we have different strengths. We have a lot of things in common like our love for anthropology, but we have different strengths. She is this amazing illustrator and she can just take an idea and map it out creatively in this way that would take me years to dio and so us teaming up together is perfect. So yeah, it's a great example of that on it. Fun too when you saw that feeling that you're in a rut and you don't want to do it and I mean, I'm like, yeah, I'm the writing teacher on the blogging teacher, but I have days where it's like nope no sir that's not what I want to do today and it's far easier to get over that when particularly if you're a friend who's helping you is someone is lovely a sarah is because it's like I like talking to you let's talk about this and it feels better yeah, it was actually and if you are in a rut you could also think about doing some sort of video interview siri's if you get a lot of energy from being around other people, you could interview other people and use that and that way your interacting with somebody else and making it something easier for yourself sometimes even though I am introverted and I get a lot of my energy from being alone on working alone when I do work with somebody else it feels really, really, really good like chris and I have had some skype calls and we're on there for forever and afterwards I've I'm buzzed I'm really excited we spend a lot of time there sometimes it's like well, there's two hours you should probably get after we owe all right let's talk about the foolproof way to come up with a year of weekly block content that your target market can't resist immediately reading and sharing and this is the truth I really am going to help you with this I know lots of people say that they're gonna help with this I am step one don't brainstorm content for your competitors or peers always focus on your ideal customer always, always focus on your ideal customer, keep her in mind every step of the way. So we're gonna start by thinking about what would my ideal customer like to hear from me? So you're going to start jotting that stuff down it's on page one eighteen of your workbook step one you're just going to start jotting down ideas for what you think she would like to hear from you. Step two is to fill in the blanks when my ideal customer buys my blank, whatever product or service she's trying teo blink when my ideal customer buys my blink, she is trying to blank when my ideal customer buys this course she's trying tio double her followers figure out this thing called marketing creative strategic marketing plan make more money or make money period because she hasn't been making money and she feels really frustrated by it she's trying to get over all of those humps. So when your ideal customer buys your blank she's trying to blank another example for a different business, let's say homemade dog treats or handmade dog treats the kind that come in those special little bags and they has a little eh, seeing that rok for dogs when I buy those I'm trying to pamper my dogs I'm trying to be the best doggy mommy that there ever is and make my dog so happy because when they're happy and they're tales are going like this and their feed or princeton like this because they know something good's coming I'm excited and I'm happy so I am always looking for ways to pamper my dogs so if somebody is trying to come up with content for me they're not going to tell me like what how they make their handmade dog treats I just want to know that they're good for my dogs that they're organic that the ingredients are human grade if I know that I'm I'm cool I'm good with that what I want to know what the content that would help me is like five cute dog collars that your dogs will love wearing for the holidays or something like that that would get me to click you don't have to keep telling me about your dog treats you could tell me about other dog things or the top ten most popular dog toys or the reason why you would choose this flea product over this flea product for a healthier dog those are the kinds of things that are going to draw me into that brand in that block so they don't have to keep talking about their product so what you're going to dio is you're really going to think about what this means for you and you were going to with that second blank, whatever you put into that second blank is what you're going to revolve content around what you two start brainstorming content. I'm gonna give you some examples, let's say we've got a boudoir photographer and let's say her ideal customer is a twenty six year old woman buying it as a gift for her soon to be husband. When she buys the photography package, she's trying teo turn her fiance husband on, feel sexy and seductive, capture her beauty in the prime of her life and probably be the cool girl blawg content that's not going to resonate with her, but that I found when I was looking at boudoir photography blog's I actually found very similar content to this. This is not going to resonate. How to create a fresh face look for work it's probably not going to be the right content to get this person in fashion friday style chunky fall sweaters I found that number three photographing fish net stockings, that's for a competitive er that's the that's the kind of mistake that lots of us fall and we create content for our competitors styling a boho boudoir shoot again competitors your your ideal customer is not gonna want that stuff that's not going to resonate with her or attract her so let's talk about what will attract her why you should always wear sexy lingerie even to the office ninety two percent of men said they'd trade in their bachelor party for this talking about a boudoir shoot twenty one sexy romantic wedding day lingerie options if you've got it flaunt it ate racy bikinis for your honeymoon the five things you're man wish you knew in the bedroom impress your fiance with these five football terms and lady on the streets freak in the bed is pole dancing exercise class right for you this is what's going to get her to click not the other stuff this is what's going to get her to get onto your blogged and reading your block on a regular basis you don't have to keep talking about your photography every single time yes you want teo regularly but this kind of content is going to get keep her reading your block because she's not going to just want to look at the same thing over and over again lots of photographers fall into the trap of just sharing their photography and nothing else and you need to share your photography we want to see what your photography looks like but that could be part of all of these blonde posts pretty much we're all while you're also sharing content okay let's take another one for a different ideal customer for a boudoir photographer let's take a thirty six year old woman buying as a gift for her husband she's trying to get the spark back in her marriage, show herself that she still got it impress her friends because oftentimes ladies we do this stuff more for our friends than anybody else be a sexy way for a day instead of a stay at home mom was spit up in her hair so what's not gonna resonate can men be boudoir photographers that's one of the block post I found top ten broads for a boudoir session that's probably even not going to get her to really click unless she's already super interested example after example of boudoir shoots of women in their early to mid twenties and if that's not your target market that's not your ideal customer that's not the person buying from you over and over again you got to switch it up so here some things that would resonate got a baby sitter top ten most romantic restaurants in the blank area your local photographer right some local blawg posts I hate your muffin top so did amy until dot dot dot dot dot and show how you photographed her in this really great way that she's in love with her body and wants to share everybody wants to show it to everybody, not your grandma's nineties sixteen nightgowns comfortable enough to sleep in but sexy enough to get your man panting husband reveals how his wife transformed after boudoir shoot some sort of case study high would click on that why the advice toe love your body no matter what is wu baloney and ten romantic date ideas you'll both enjoy that's the kind of content that's going to get your ideal customer on your block and it's not what you would necessarily think off right it's different than what most people would think of so we need to think about what is that fill in the blank and how do I create my content around it now? Of course you would wanna have plenty of post interspersed with this with your boudoir photography but this is to get people staying on your block in reading your stuff. So who wants to brainstorm some content with me? And I would love to have the flip chart if we can. Trish all right, truce! Come on up here. Come on on your trash and elise, can we grab that flip chart? All right, so tell us what your sentences when my ideal customer buys my jewelry's necklace she's trying teo feel pretty feel pretty. Tell me more. Um she wants to feel put together. What up? Um she feels frump a lot short yoga pants a lot so she has trouble kind of matching things two outfits, so she's um I don't know how to put put together in a different way so she wants to be stylish she wants to be stylish she's not necessarily trendy yeah um but she does want to she doesn't want her girl friends to look at her oh, and so maybe she wants to buy a necklace that she can wear with a bunch of different things yes and she also when she buys joys she wants to fill pampered even though she's buying it for herself um she wants to feel special and pampered okay, so this is what we're going to create coffee and content around your blogged post should be all about getting this type of person in and so what do you what comes to mind when you're thinking about this and also we're going to come to you guys for your ideas as well but let's start off with trish? Does anything jump out at you that you're like, yes, I can go with this angle um she really, really wants to feel pampered I feel like that's one of her key motivations for buying jewelry. Okay, so I'm just gonna go with d I y bath sauce like how to pamper yourself for five minutes pamper yourself in five hundred right? She does and she's busy she's a busy mom and she really doesn't have time to take care of herself the way she knows that she should, what else? Who else has got ideas think about when you want teo feel stylish, but you feel like you're not stylish what would help you in that area something like you can do because you're talking about making a style guide or something like that and you could have almost like, um a lot of fashion bloggers do this kind of thing where they'll pick different things that they love and put together in an image and build a yeah building outfit and then have feature one of your necklaces as the as the actual piece you're giving them information about different things that go well together and they're comfy so you can go from yoga to wherever whatever and then you can also have that little showcase of your sparkly goodness at the same time this one could be done over and over and over again. You could have this every single month I'm actually working on one of those, but the titles got me stumped cookie got in shrieking it's what's your title right now um three key pieces um to accessorize your fall outfit yeah, that feels confusing to me um three key pieces to accessorize your falls out that what we're going to switch in and out of outfits said that she has, um like a scarf she can pull out o r a bracelet that she can put on with different outfits okay, so get her from because she goes to soccer to pick up so and so and she goes to tennis practice. So yoga class right? Like three key? Yeah. Um xx accessories that will take you from yoga class to picking up johnny at soccer to dinner with your husband, right? Or something like that specific what does it look like? Yeah, what does it like, really men in? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I love that. Jenna did you have in a suggestion just gonna add to that, but maybe like, you know, your outfit complete when you put on one of these three things are you know what a complete earpiece is? You can even ask a question so that people will click. Yeah, I'll tell you, you can do this in a couple different ways and kind of switch it out and have different things each time and share different scar of share, different pieces of jewellery. So a lot of these you can do over and over again like a teacher that you do regularly, like olivia's, quote that she does every friday. Yep. And you are super cute. And so I would love to see, like, your style in your outfits and the outfits that you've been wearing here are really cute. I would love to see how you style your jewelry with your outfits, okay? I feel like an outfit of the day everyone can see that you photograph really well, tio thank you, yeah, you d'oh! And so even if you're using that on instagram on a regular basis or on social media, that could be content for that too, and then you could pull it together so let's say you do that a few times during the month and then you pull those together in a block post and and share some of your outfits from the month god, you can do that. So one of the things that you're saying was the wearing over and over again, so maybe feature like a piece of the week and then have different outfits that go with e I love that you do it feature with different outfits. I love that, and that would really get me to buy your thing because I can see howto wear it with a different things, so it would really get me to buy your thing. Michelle, I think you need to share, but I don't think you need to show how you can wear your jewelry with different things because I think that that might be one of the one of the reasons that people don't nest that's one of the objections I bet because when I got this necklace I thought I am so in love with this necklace, and then my next thought was how do I wear this? What I wear it with? And then I put on this outfit, and a soon as I put on this outfit I knew immediately were shells necklace goes with this outfit, we had another necklace picked out and immediately in my head, I knew this is what I was gonna wear it with. But at first I was a little bit stumped as teo. How am I gonna wear it? Because it's such a special piece and it needs its own a thing, you know what it means? I can't be wearing something that's too overwhelming it's gotta work, so I think that that's one of the things that could help with yours even if you just did it one time, styling some of your jewellery with different outfits and showing how it works with people who are wearing your jewelry. Really people? Awesome, thanks. So anything else for you guys for this that you're coming up with? We could I think we could do this pretty much all day, and we can't keep giving you ideas with the feeling pretty you could dio I don't know if you feel comfortable doing anything with makeup or hair or anything like that, but you do your hair really nice did to periscope with makeup, okay? So that's icing, wash and things like that I love it so you could repurpose that you could record it use that as a block post that would work really well for your person so makeup and hair because she wants to feel pretty you kind of have to convince these ladies that they should take care of themselves so you could do one of those posts where you're sort of turning an idea or taking a ah limiting belief and turning it upside down and do that whole like, you know, you should be taking care of yourself first, even though your family need thio, right and how good it feels when you d'oh yeah, and even having women talk about before and after because I used to wear when I was working, I got into this funk where I was wearing pajamas all day I was wearing yoga all day. In fact, during that time, amanda sue commented on my block, saying that one of the things that she had done for herself is getting dressed and getting ready, and I don't need to do that. I wear pajamas on, I don't need to get myself ready, and I remember thinking that to myself and feeling like defensive about it, and it was because I knew I should be doing that my husband would come home from lunch and be like, oh still in that uh dressing up for me so I could say the same kind of thing so it feels really good when you get yourself dressed up in ready and so even having women talk about that I would talk about that because it makes a difference for me now that I'm doing it so once people get past that point that's another thing like almost a case study of why and you could use statistics like you could find interesting things like what happens to you emotionally when you're dressed up versus when your jammies and yeah that would be cool all right thank you does this help this house this helps a lot alright ha moment I love it I write e thank you thank you all right and we're not even done with coming up with content that is the way to get a ton of content ideas yeah you can you can absolutely have it I think you are very welcome all right step three is getting clear on what your ideal customer finds interesting, fascinating and relevant to go back to your answers and lesson three interview your ideal customer figure out what she really likes and brainstorm content based on that stuff so let me give you some examples an example for knitting pattern designer let's say your ideal customer listens to audio books and podcasts while knitting so your block post ideas my top ten favorite audiobooks of twenty fifteen that could be a yearly post five inspiring podcast to listen to all knitting ten podcast to learn from while knitting if you're an entrepreneur, my top five favorite romance audio books my top five favorite young adult audiobooks seven audio books you shouldn't waste your money on listen to audio books and podcast while knitting to more options you might love you could do a lot with just one idea, so the one idea is that your ideal person likes the audio books in the podcast, and then you can create content that you use pretty much every month like you could pick out a new one of these and use it every single month. So we're talking about only doing one post a week, and this would be one of those post I'm just trying to get out of my head on because you were are so conditioned to think we have to talk about her stuff, the board of that you don't want to hear about your stuff all the time. Instead, what you do is you say my top ten favorite audiobooks of twenty fifteen this is what I knitted with it here's, how you can get that pattern in it, it yourself so you still talk about your stuff, you're always constantly bringing it back to your business and your stuff. So when trish is talking about pampering yourself herself in yourself, then she can then bring it back to her jewelry and linked to a piece of her jewelry. When you're talking about this, you can say, if you listen to a certain book while you were knitting something, then share the link to the pattern and people are going to buy it because they're coming to your post to read it because they're not coming to your post just to look at your pattern, most people are not. They'll go to your shop if they want to see what you're what you're selling, they don't want to come to your block and just see blawg post after block post of what you're selling here, that's not going to interest them this well, another example let's say you are website designer and your ideal customer loves getting organized. How to organize your block post so you and your readers can easily find them. Organize your side bar in ten minutes how to create a system for your block content calendar that you actually use the biggest mistake you're making with the categories on your blogged how to organize your brand inspiration before you hire a website designer and why you always feel like you're block is an unorganized mess and how to fix it. It took one thing that your ideal customer might be interested in and turned it into all of these ideas, and I did this in about ten minutes because I was thinking, what would this person find interesting? And you can keep coming back to your business, so you talk about how to organize your block post so you and your readers can easily find them, and then you talk about something that you can help them with if they want even more than that. So that's, how you bring it back to your business on a regular basis and you don't need to talk about your products every single time. One of the examples I've already used is luxi hair on youtube. They have youtube videos, they do not talk about the product every time, and they are, I believe, a multi million dollar company. Last I heard their multi million dollar company, they sell hair extensions, it's a couple that works on it together, and she does all of these hair tutorials, they talk about the hair extensions every once in a while, like maybe every other video she'll say, I have, in my luck see hair extensions, but that's a ce faras ago, she doesn't say you should buy these it's just oh my gosh, that looks so good! Maybe I should buy those this is six ideas so that could be a month and a half of content right there and that's just one of the pieces of brainstorming this block content step four is using geet google keyword add a word tool to brainstorm other words and phrases and I did this I was looking up brush lettering and one of the most common searches has to do with lettering brushes so lettering brush set pintel brushes tom bo brushes water brush so I came up with some block post ideas pintel brushes versus tom bo brushes I don't even know if that makes sense but that's what I came up with water brush versus watercolor markers review of tom bo dual brush pin art markers your d I y lettering brush set five must have for your lettering brush set top three tools I use most often in my personal and custom brush lettering that's six ideas once again that's a month and a half a block content for blogging once a week just from using google keyword add tool to see what people are searching with when I put in brush lettering that's how I built up these ideas so you can easily come up with a year of content from this stuff and then there's even one more way step five look at your competitors blawg comments there blawg comments you don't want to rewrite what they're writing look at what people are asking and what they're confused about and use that to build more blood content or what they're really excited about and then how you can take that and use it for your blogged here are some examples for my business comment question wass what happens if I have more than one ideal customer block post idea what to do when you have more than one ideal customer very easy I'm using the language that the person used in the block comment I actually found this another one you say that one of your best marketing tools is a fifty percent off sale? Can you really afford to cut your prices in half? Do most of your customers wait for sales blogged post idea the pros and cons of having big sales and then comment question how do you come up with so many good block post topics? Somebody asked that to somebody who was really great at blogging block post idea the foolproof method to come up with a year's worth of weekly block content so that's another way. So with all of these different ideas you should be able to come up with a year's worth of content and a year's worth of really good content that your people are really gonna want so let's talk about some of the fastest ways to grow your block because I know you guys want teo grow your following always post valuable content that is a number one it's never going to get better than that posting valuable content means that other people are going to share it for you and you don't have to do all the work yourself guess posting guess posting can do wonders for you if you're picking blog's that have really high readerships you're writing something that's really valuable you don't want to just slap something together when you're doing a guest post or it won't work because people won't take that step to come to your website it's not just about the opportunity and that you're getting featured on the website you have to come up with your best work guess post should be your absolute best work you can possibly dio interviews interviews are a great way to get in front of other people's audiences and get them to your blogged features. Getting your products featured especially for product based business is getting your products featured on blog's websites, magazines teaching on large online platforms creative live hello skill share they're a bunch of online platforms that if you get onto one of them you could really grow your blawg creative bug. They're done that it's growing and growing and growing, so if you're a teacher, then this is a great way to grow your block following emailing your block post to your list because they're going to forget to check him were talked about this collaborate with somebody with a larger audience ask piers to share your best block post, so just like you might ask them to share something for a launch. If you write a really good block post, you can email some of your friends and say, hey, I've written this block post here some easy click two tweets would you mind sharing it for me? You don't want to do this for every block post or gonna annoy them, but if you do it every once in a while, they would probably be happy to help you share valuable giveaways and giveaways have that balance with them because some people are coming just for the thing just for the free stuff, but you can really grow. You're following from them in speaking engagements, it's another great way. And then there are some more creative ways leaving valuable comments on other blog's sage grayson from sage grayson dot com she participated in the block tour for this course, and she talked about how one of the ways that she grew her blogged was by leaving valuable block comments on other blocks. Now this is a slower way to build a blogger readership, but it worked really well for her. She was leaving, I believe, she said, like seventy comments a day. In the beginning, she did not have a day job. And she was focused on that technique. She was focused on that strategy, so she was doing it a lot might have been a low it might have been fifty I forget exactly how many, but it was so many that I blew my mind. I was like what? And it really worked very well for her. Hosting a block tour or participating in a block tour can help bring in new people and liven things up using landing pages, which was in the last lesson and getting active in other communities. Facebook groups like the one for this course periscope communicate communities, online courses, the communities for those ifyou're really active people come and check you out, you do that all the time, probably when you see somebody post something in a community and you see them post over and over again, it's really valuable you're like trying to check out that person, and we've got the ten biggest blogging mistakes and how to avoid them to some of these air repeats, so we will go over them more quickly. One of them is using the first title and first paragraph you come up with, we've talked about this, I feel like a lot, but it's super important, and I have an example amanda creek, looking at photos on instagram can feel can fill us all with photo envy. So that if we zoomed in really close on what that looks like, I think you could come up with something that kind of gives a little punch in the gut that really makes me feel something because I almost do with this almost you almost got me there e think you need a zoom in a little bit tighter and see what that really looks like. When you're scrolling through, you feel like you, I don't have the kind of photos as everybody else and what that really feels like changing that up could make this block post a lot stronger. Number two talking to your market like every other blogger saying the same things in the same way, so break the pattern, provoked curiosity, get them to sit up and pay attention, do something different, use those details uman really tight because I bet other people say that kind of thing all the time, like you've got indy from looking at other people's instagram, we hear that, so we need to break the pattern and say something in a different way, same idea, a different way. I have another example with cindy says years ago, I found my love of mixed media, art and art journals when I first started creating layered backgrounds with it was a mystery, too. Me, I couldn't seem to get past the fear of the blank page and when I did get over the fear I couldn't seem to get past the first layer, so I feel like this needs to be really zoomed and on and broken down and thinking about what does this really mean? What does this really look like? Because this is something that as somebody who likes mixed media, I hear this kind of a lot and how it's hard to get past the blank page, but what does that really look like when you're sitting there and you're at that blank page and you're struggling breaking that down so that the language doesn't sound like anybody else but you you haven't made your block post scannable so bullet points and italics and headings and photos and short paragraphs and I have examples of good good examples for this one one is from chris this is how she's broken things down she's got some color and there she's got heading she's got bullet she's got a numbered list she's got shorter paragraphs this looks really easy for me to read and digest and heart block post our log so they need to be yeah, they need to look easier to read and digest so you do a really good job of that this is the beginning of my guest post for creative live we're using bolding were it's very short very short sentences very short paragraphs to get people going you've got to get them getting moment um in the beginning buildup that moment um this one this was a lot of content altogether and so one I needed to break it up so I made it a list just then I bolted the stuff that is most important so that people would pay attention to that because I knew they weren't going to read every single word, so I bowled id phrases that were the most important number four you've turned into writer robot just be you use your stories right? Like you talk you don't revise or edit your writing you have to spend plenty of time on this step. The drafts help seems to take a lot less time than the revision editing step if you're doing things right, most people spend a lot of time on the draft or more time on the draft and not very much time on the revision and then it sounds like everything else that's out there that's not your best work and you want your best work you write a block post without thinking about what it's what's in it for your reader that's the first thing you want to be thinking about what's in it for my reader they don't want to know why you decided to write the block post they want to know why they should read it you write to a group of people or even tow everyone instead of writing to your ideal reader or customer, even for blogging. You want to be thinking about your ideal customer that one person it's gonna help you do a much better job of connecting you? Don't consider how you want your customer to feel while and after reading your block post think about the feeling so what's in it for them what's the feeling I'm trying to create if you just think about those couple of things you're blogging is going to get better. The emotional brain also determines what we choose to pay attention to the more emotionally charged, the more likely your brand will stick out or break through the clutter, forcing people to notice your message. Emotions are important, and lots of times we don't thank what do I want my block reader to feel? We doesn't get in there and start writing. You don't use examples that are relevant to your target market that don't matter to them and number ten, you're afraid of ruffling feathers so you never share your opinion. You've got to share your opinion, don't couch it don't say this side and this side, just give your opinion people respect that create a common enemy, even people love that when there's a common enemy now you don't want to ruffle feathers just to do it you want to do it when you really feel something and when it really matches your brand and now we're going to go through the block post blueprint workbook pages one nineteen to one twenty one step one what's the main topic idea step to break down the main topic if it's too general how to make your block successful versus how to get comments on every block post the second one tells you really what you're going to get as opposed to the first web step three what's in it for the reader what's the benefit what's the takeaway step four who's the ideal reader who were you picturing in your mind? Step five what's the feeling you want to create for the reader so we've gone over these steps but they're listed out for you nice and neat so that you'll be able to do this step six outlined the main points you want to cover we talked about outline and how chris used to fight it with everything she had, but it makes it easier step seven writer draft of the block post including the main points you've outlined step eight revise, revise, revise and then I say step away, take a break maybe use this time to take some photos for your block post step ten revised again reading it out loud and fixing everything that doesn't sound quite right that doesn't sound like you that you're stumbling over you're giving it that friend test step eleven brainstorm at least ten title ideas and pick the best one that step twelve and ask if there's anything you could do to make it better if you need help with that make sure to go back to the lesson on headlines step thirteen used the takeaway benefit from step three to write a solid call to action step fourteen spend at least fifteen minutes working on the first senate's paragraph making the best it can possibly be keep asking what does this really look like what does this really mean zoom in really tight then we're getting close to the end of it upload your post your block editor add headings bullets numbered list bolding italics all of this is in your workbook by the way so it'll be easy for you to go through and follow along scroll through it is it scannable if not keep working add photos and visuals read through it one more time and then publish sounds like a lot of steps but when you put them into action you'll get faster and faster at it the beginning it takes a while but you're going to be publishing block content that your readers are in love with so it's going to make it worth it it makes it so exciting so today's mission is using the full proof method of brainstorming content. Ideas. Fill in the next year of your blogging content calendar and write your next block post, making that the best it can be. Share it in the private facebook group with the hashtag bell live blogged post so that we can all check it out. Give you lots of love and support, give you some high fives and give you some comments and chairs.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials

Glam Your Site Workbook
Balancing Blogging & Life Bonus Video MP4 (635 MB)
A5 Planner Pages
Double Your Followers Bonus Videos PDF

Bonus Materials

CreativeLive Spreecast QnA Calls
Double Your Followers Workbook
Your Dream Life & Business Workbook
Kris Windley - Trust Your Voice - Design Your Process Workbook
Double Your Followers Private Facebook Group

Ratings and Reviews

Ana CR
 

This Boot camp came on the best moment. this is the best way to introduce the arid topic of marketing to creative people that really dread to deal with this part of their business. I am in the middle of creating my web site, brand, everything, and all the ideas and tips given here are going to make a real difference in the way I approach my tasks for the next few weeks. I find it so amazing that you and CreativeLive offer this course! It is an amazing, outstanding qualtity and even though we are in Lesson 5 I learnt so much already. I don`t want miss a minute of what is said and offered here. My view of Marketing changed already and is moving forward. I love the easy to swallow way of presenting all the topics. I am very visual so I love your presentation style and the level of detail you go into to make the course come alive. All the pictures and the color palette you use really make me feel welcome and happy to be here. I really appreciate the effort April puts into making this a comprehensive and engaging course. April & CreativeLive have been above and beyond generous in what you have provided for free for the ones seeing it LIVE, I just feel that the price of the 5-week course is an incredible deal and I am sure I will hit the buy button before this is over just because I want to see what more is in the rest of the material. Thank you very much CL and April, keep up the good work!!!

Denise Chakinis
 

I haven't completely finished the course but I have been working through the wonderful workbook. My time to listen is very limited but the book alone is worth the cost. I love April's spirit and openness to share so much information. I also love many of the things that she loves such as Anthropology candles. A beautiful person with a lot of knowledge to give. Once again Creative Live thank you for bringing such inspiring people to our world.

Josh McLaglen
 

I have just found PinPinterestand it is so amazing .Pinterest has never been so easier before. I used to feel Pinterest is so time-taking and still not getting preferable results. I was kind of demotivated due to unsuccessful results after spending a lot of time on Pinterest. Then I started searching for a tool that can help me out from my busy schedule and I found PinPinterest being the easiest yet valuable asset to my successful Pinterest account now. Schedule as many pins as you want to and to as many boards you want to by pin scheduling feature. The main catch is that it’s free to use tool and with easy setup. In all, I just loved PinPinterest and I can’t think my Pinterest account this much successful without PinPinterest having my back.

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