ProBlogger: Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately

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Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately Posted: 27 Aug 2015 07:01 AM PDT Coming to you live from the depths of Melbourne winter – while the rest of the country (almost) is springing into spring, we’re still freezing our butts off. Fingers crossed we’ll start to see the sun soon! Here’s what I found interesting lately around the web: How to use a $5 Twitter ad To Redefine Your Digital Strategy //  Jon Loomer The Facebook Advertising guy changes tack with a cheap but effective way of getting audience insights on Twitter that you just can’t get anywhere else – advertising gold. 13 Lessons on Viral Content that got 36,177 Shares in One Year // CoSchedule With great traffic comes great responsibility. The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog, Attracting Readers, and Making Money // The Penny Hoarder A very humorous (and useful!) description of those foundational things you really need to get your blog running as fast as you can – but also a few tips for us old fogeys like great places to find images, finding readers, SEO and more. 15 Useful Tips for Attending an Event Alone (and Actually Enjoying It) // Hubspot There were a few nervous newbies at PBEVENT a few weeks ago – it IS daunting to go to events on your lonesome. Hopefully these tips will help for next time. How to Tell Stories with Instagram and Facebook Carousel Ads // Social Media Examiner I have seen some very clever versions of this lately, and I’m left wondering how I could make it work for my own blog. Some are incredibly creative!   What news have you read lately? Stacey Roberts is the Managing Editor of ProBlogger.net: a writer, blogger, and full-time word nerd balancing it all with being a stay-at-home mum. She writes about all this and more at Veggie Mama. Chat with her on Twitter @veggie_mama or be entertained on Facebook. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately The post Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately appeared first on @ProBlogger.

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Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

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John Reese’s Epic Journey Posted: 27 Aug 2015 07:00 AM PDT I was a moderator on Digital Point forums back in 2007 when I heard about this John Reese guy.  One of the other moderators had a VB plugin and was blown away when Jon promoted it and he sold over 10,000 units of it. This was at the time I just had launched AuctionAds and I wanted to get this guy onboard. So I looked up John Reese’s information at DigitalPoint and shot him an email.  His first response was something like “How the hell did you get my personal email?”.  LOL.  So I told him.   He offered to do a interview with me about it  and send it out to his list. We did and he sent so many users… like 3x what I already had.  Really a turning point in the companies launch.  I would go on to sell the company for millions a few months later. John was the original pioneer of informational products.  Everyone was selling e-books for $9 back in 2004 but John put out a product called “Traffic Secrets”,  priced it at $997 (It was one of the first video training series) and launched it with a big affiliate push giving half of the money to affiliates.  He made over 1M dollars in the first 24 hours.  Other people took note and that begin’s the product launch of “guru’s” selling $1,000 to $5,000 info products for years to follow with the prime being 2009 where I participated in 4 of them and did well over half a million in commissions. I got to know John really well.  Since 2007 we have met up in person many times and talked on the phone regularly about new businesses we were working on. I went on to do the ShoeMoney System,  Offer Pools,  FreeSEOreport, LinkControl, ParProgram and other companies.  With every one I consulted with him on the marketing approach and overall products. Meanwhile John went on to follow his passions.  He opened a custom automotive shop in Orlando that became the “go-to” place for souped up cars. John also started a video game development company in Hong Kong that focused primarily on building Xbox games.   He gained a ton of experience and connections outsourcing programing tasks that he created another company called “Outsource Force” that was all about how to find great developers overseas, how to negotiate price, how to build specs properly… etc etc.. John also engineered the marketing,  training video’s, and got all the affiliates for the “Amazing Selling Machine” product which is now located at amazing.com.  It has generated tens of millions in revenue. So today John is launching a new product called GERU.   It is truly amazing and a must have for any business.  I have been using it since early beta last spring and seeing its evolution to being released is unreal. GERU has many features (watch the video to see all I wont go over it forever). I use GERU primarily to do business modeling.  With the ShoeMoney Network its VERY complex with TONS of moving parts.  So with GERU I plug in what I am doing and I can simulate exactly what changes what does.  Like if my conversion rate goes up X much here what does that look like.  If I were to put in an affiliate product at X dollars and it converted at X what would that look like? But it does so much more.   Like CRAZY amounts of more. Just check out the video cause I can’t possibly do it justice. What I can tell you is that it totally opened my eyes to possibilities of scenarios of what if’s and help me make decisions that has made the ShoeMoney Network such a success.

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“10 Ways To Stay Productive as a Work-at-Home Blogger” plus 1 more

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10 Ways To Stay Productive as a Work-at-Home Blogger Posted: 26 Aug 2015 07:04 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Larry Alton. Working from home sounds like a pretty cushy job. You can wear whatever you like, eat as often as you want, text your friends, run errands, and be at home with your family, all while being employed. However, that list of things can often make it difficult to accomplish your work. If you're struggling to find a productive schedule as a freelance blogger, consider these tips. Find Your Groove Everyone has a groove that spurs productivity. Maybe you need to sit in your office chair with the lights off, blinds shut, and a fuzzy blanket on your lap. Or maybe you need to have a clear view of the sunshine and wear your lucky socks. Maybe your groove requires waking up and going straight to work without eating or showering. Everyone has a different groove, and if you find yours, you'll find your most productive hours. Dress Up It's pretty cool that you can go to work in your pajamas and fuzzy slippers, wrapped up in your Snuggie. However, that comfort zone may be your downfall. Wearing clothes that are too comfortable can often lead to a stronger desire to relax rather than work. Dressing up in your business professional clothing can help working at home feel more like working in an office, and you might find your productivity spike. Manage Projects Stay organized by managing your projects. Whether you write just one blog or you ghost write for 20, there are several tools you can use to stay organized both on the computer and off. For example, there are software tools and apps that make invoicing, scheduling, and emailing extremely easy. Or if your projects aren't very complex, you can use a simple white board to keep track of your daily tasks and mark them off as you go. Either way, stay organized to help you stay on track. Remove Distractions Email, cell phones, kids, roommates, pets, food, television—all of these are some of the most tempting distractions for freelance writers, and if you want to find productivity, you'll get them out of the way. Go somewhere to work where you won't be distracted by your surroundings, and set aside separate time to check your phone and email so that you're not doing it during your most productive time. Set Specific Work Hours Scheduling your time is extremely important for having a constructive day if you make a schedule that works specifically for you. Choosing your own schedule is one of the better perks of working at home, after all. When are your most productive hours? When do you work most slowly? Some bloggers have their most productive hours between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Others have it from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Whatever time works best for you, make sure you build your schedule around that. Make Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Goals Both short and long-term goals do wonders for inspiring creativity and helping you stay productive. If you're a work at home blogger, you're probably goal oriented and deadline driven. Each day, write out your goals for your desired progress and tack it to your office wall. Similarly, define weekly and monthly goals that you're constantly striving to achieve. Log Out of Social Media Social media is incredibly useful for promoting your writing and networking with others. However, when you're supposed to be writing, it's basically the antithesis of productivity. During your scheduled work hours, log out of social media. Better yet, block your favorite networks on your computer until a certain time or ask a trusted friend to change the password for you until you've finished your work for the day. Make Time for Exercise Sitting at your desk chair all day long not only contributes to lost muscle mass and definition, but it also makes you feel less alert and can contribute to lost productivity. When you stay stationary all day long, it can make you feel sleepier and fog your thoughts. Setting aside time for exercise on a daily basis can boost your efficiency by making you more alert and motivated, all while leading to a healthier lifestyle. Eat Healthy Meals Another thing that contributes to fatigue and lack of motivation is sugary, unhealthy food. These make it so that you don't feel 100 percent, which makes it difficult to work efficiently. Healthy meals and reduced snacking on sugary treats can make you feel more alert and healthy, which enhances your abilities to perform your daily tasks. Prepare the Day Before As a work at home blogger, your schedule can fluctuate from day to day, but you can still benefit from preparing for your workload a day in advance. Write out all of the tasks you need to complete the next day and even a tentative schedule for completing them. Furthermore, prepare yourself and your office space. You might set out your clothes or prepare your lunch. You might also clean up your office and pull out any resources you might need for the next day's tasks. A cleaner, more prepared office makes it easy to go straight to work without worrying about a mess. Further Reading: 5 Ways to Make Your Blogging Life Easier. Productive blogging takes practice and a series of trial and error, but once you figure it out, the freer lifestyle is worthwhile. How do you stay productive when goofing off is a more appealing option? Larry Alton is an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 10 Ways To Stay Productive as a Work-at-Home Blogger The post 10 Ways To Stay Productive as a Work-at-Home Blogger appeared first on @ProBlogger.

The Biggest Lesson I Learned About Building a Profitable Blog in 2015 Posted: 20 Aug 2015 04:52 PM PDT Episode 38 of the ProBlogger podcast is focused on something I’ve learned in the course of the past year that I think has the potential to transform not only your blogging, but many areas of your life. Today’s episode is personal – my personal journey of the last nine months. I talked about it at the ProBlogger event a few weeks ago now in my opening keynote – an unexpected topic perhaps, but one that I think is so useful as the foundation of everything, including building a profitable blog. The question I want to ask you today is the question we get asked all the time: “how are you?”. Not your blog, not your business, but you? Not just answering “good”, or “busy”, but finding out how are you really? Don’t gloss over the question – really ponder the answer. The biggest lesson in blogging I’ve learned this year, is that if I want my blog to shine, I need to move beyond the minutiae of monetising, finding readers, creating content – I need to work on making myself shine. The wellbeing of my blogs is directly linked to the wellbeing of me, and I had been letting myself go. Late last year I went to the doctor for my annual health checkup, and what he told me changed the trajectory of not only my life, but my blogs as well. He gave me a list of things to work on to get my health back up to speed – a whole list. It was stuff I already knew but had never really done anything about. Seeing it there, in list form, was confronting. I left that doctor’s office feeling pretty low. I didn’t sleep well that night, as I thought about all the things I needed to change in my life. I even pondered the stuff that the doctor didn’t know, but that I knew was an issue. The story I want to tell you today is how that day was a pivot point for me, and how putting my health and wellbeing first has made such an impact on my blogs and my work ever since. I hope it inspires you to examine the parts of your life that need changing, to inspire you to take your health seriously and to stop forgetting to exercise, forgetting to eat well, forgetting to get your priorities in order as we churn on through the hamster wheel of work. I hope it helps you set a solid foundation from which your blogs and online endeavours can grow. Click here to listen to episode 38 of the ProBlogger Podcast: The Biggest Lesson I Learned About Building a Profitable Blog in 2015. I’d also love to hear your feedback on today’s episode, either here or at ProBlogger.com, and your answer to the question: “how are you?”. Further Reading: Sitting is the New Smoking: Sydney Morning Herald How to Get in Shape after Being Sedentary: LiveStrong Five Best Standing Desks: LifeHacker The 5:2 Fast Diet: How Does the Fast Diet Work?: TheFastDiet.co.uk The Important of Rest and Relaxation: University of Washington The Practice of Stillness: Michael Hyatt Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger The Biggest Lesson I Learned About Building a Profitable Blog in 2015 The post The Biggest Lesson I Learned About Building a Profitable Blog in 2015 appeared first on @ProBlogger.

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Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

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Let Your Personality Show On Your Website To Attract A Bigger Audience Posted: 26 Aug 2015 04:50 AM PDT What’s missing from most people’s websites? A personal touch. Business often has an impersonal feel to it, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can share who you are with your audience, and you’ll probably be better off for it too. The hardest part about this is being vulnerable. It can be difficult to open up to your followers and share who you really are. However, overcoming that fear is all part of growing your online business. Here are four steps you can take to let your personality show through on your website and begin to attract a bigger audience. Step #1 – Identify Your Values What do you stand for? What drives and motivates you? What is most important to you in your life? When you know what your values are, difficult choices become much easier. You’ll always make better decisions concerning your business, your life, and your family if you make them with your personal values in mind. As you are in the process of identifying your values, remember that there are no right or wrong answers. There is virtually no limit to what you can include on your list (but it is good to keep your list on the shorter side). Here are some examples of common values: Achievement Family Challenge Freedom Creativity Integrity If you aren’t sure what you value, then take some time to think about what makes you happy. That’s usually a pretty good indicator of what’s important to you. Finally, there is some value in prioritizing your values too. Some might be more important to you than others. If you resonate with that, then take a moment to order your priorities. Step #2 – Make A List Of Your Passions What do you like to do with your time? What are your hobbies? How do you spend your days off? Identifying your passions shouldn’t be hard. In fact, it should be a lot of fun! After all, this is the stuff you already care about and spend your time doing. You would probably do these things even if you weren’t paid to! You might be passionate about technology and gadgets, playing guitar, watching your favorite basketball team, going to movies, or spending time with your family. Guess what? Other people are passionate about that stuff too! Sure, you and your audience might not have everything in common, but the more you let on about your passions, the more you’ll give your followers an opportunity to feel a sense of connectedness with you. It doesn’t matter if you’re marketing affiliate products or selling your own resources; if you’re open about who you are, your audience will grow and you’ll sell more. Additionally, some people like to separate personal passions from professional passions. That might be a good thing to do, depending on what your goals are. For example, if you started a blog to land your ideal job, separating your passions might be helpful in evaluating offers that come your way. Step #3 – Talk To Those Closest To You Do you want to know who you really are? Do you want to get a sense of how your audience views you? Although it’s a good idea to look yourself in the mirror (both literally and figuratively), it’s the perception of others that matters. This isn’t to say that your view of yourself isn’t important, but in business, you also need to be thinking about how you’re coming across. Who knows you better than those closest to you – your family and friends? You should spend some time with these people. Share your values and passion with them and ask them what they see in you. Who knows? You might discover some rough edges that you need to smooth out. You might find that your values aren’t totally in alignment with your actions. Or, maybe you’ll discover that you’re exactly the kind of person you thought you were. Regardless, this is a valuable exercise. Asking what other people think of you requires a certain amount of vulnerability; the same vulnerability that will be needful of you as you are in the process of building a bigger audience. Step #4 – Determine Your  Goals By now, you should have a much better idea of who you are. Now it’s time to take a look at where you want to go.. What do you hope to achieve in your personal and business life? What activities have you found to be the most rewarding in your life so far? Where do you see yourself ending up; five, 10, or even 50 years down the line? It’s entirely possible that you already have goals for yourself and your business. If so, do you have them written down? And, if they are written down, are your goals in alignment with the person you’ve identified in the last three steps? Congruence is important. It seems obvious, but when who you are matches up with where you want to go, getting there is going to prove much easier. Now that you know what your life vision is, don’t forget to take the time to think about the steps you need to take to get there. You have to break your goals down into smaller steps; otherwise, your dreams are merely wishes. Conclusion The steps outlined here might seem overblown. It may seem like a lot of trouble to go through just to attract a bigger audience. But there is a lot of power in knowing who you are and sharing that with others. When they know what you’re after, it makes it easier for them to rally behind you. More than likely, you’ve taken the time to find out who your audience is. You’ve figured out what age they are, what their interests are, and where they like to hang out online. This is marketing 101. Personal branding 101 is knowing who you are. If you’ve taken the time to get to know your target customer, then you should take the same amount of time and effort in understanding your own desires and motivations.

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How to Email Busy Bloggers and Get Response - DailyBlogTips

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How to Email Busy Bloggers and Get Response Posted: 25 Aug 2015 07:37 AM PDT Do you know what happens after you click send an email to a busy blogger? Well, you guessed it right. It gets ignored. Most top bloggers are busy. They're extremely busy. At an average, every influential blogger receives anything around 150 to 200 new emails every single day. Unless and until he's a superman, he won't get enough time to read each and every email he gets. So what busy bloggers generally do? They ignore most of their emails! How do they decide which emails to ignore and which ones to respond? And how can you write emails that get response? Are you curious to find out? Let's figure out what makes busy bloggers to read and respond to your emails. Before diving into the details, we'll first talk about the need of sending emails to busy bloggers. If you're blogging for a while, you already know that, connections with top bloggers play a crucial role. If contacted correctly, influential bloggers can change your blogging career completely. If a top/busy blogger in your niche responds to your email and does a favor, you'll get the following perks. You'll increase your sales You'll increase your traffic You'll get more social shares You'll attract more quality links And most importantly you'll connect with the awesome people Emailing influential bloggers and getting response is a science. Sending good emails to others will not only open the doors for you to create great relationships but you will drive more traffic and sales to your websites. So how to approach busy bloggers through emails? Let's find out. Using nudges to get response Want to get a link from top blog in your niche? Instead of directly asking for a link, use nudges. Nudge #1: Ask them for a tweet or share Asking others for small favors can persuade people to do big favors in the long run. If you want to get something done, instead of seeking help in the first place, do favor for others first. So when you are asking for a tweet from someone, it's always better to build a connection with them. Follow the bloggers who you want to contact, connect with them and frequently share their stuff. That way you'll be able to build strong connections with them and once you have posted something awesome on your blog, ask others to tweet about your stuff. Nudge #2: Ask them for feedback Once you are succeeded in getting a tweet from your favorite blogger, it's time to persuade them into jumping another hoop. Ask for an honest feedback about your content. Most bloggers won't say no and they are always happy to help others to improve their blogs. Take this step to improve your quality of your content and keep engaging with them. Nudge #3: Ask for a link Now that you've already built good communication with your favorite blogger, ask for a link after publishing a problem solving post on your blog. Make sure the content is top notch and is very detailed that will help their readers to gain something. What happens when you ask for a link? Mostly you'll end up getting a link (viola) from them because they already know you and possibly know the quality of your stuff. It's easier to get a link from a friend rather than a stranger, right? Refine and repeat the process until you succeed. All the above nudging process will be done by emails. So it's advisable for you to hone your email writing skills. Let's now talk about how it can be done. What captures the attention of busy bloggers? It's important to know what makes a busy blogger to respond. Let's find out what are the things that will make an influential blogger read and respond to an email and include them while writing emails to busy bloggers in the future. Short and sweet emails Don’t waste others time by writing long and boring emails. Brevity matters when writing emails that get response. Be concise and your email response rate will be high. Writing short emails that convey your whole ideas and message is really hard especially if you're a beginner. Just like anything, by practicing and learning few effective email writing strategies will help you write your emails like a pro. Here are few suggestions for writing shorter emails. Don't beat around the bush. Just come to the point. Introduce yourself in the first line and directly talk about the subject you want to discuss. Never ever write your whole story. It is the surefire way to turn off anyone with your emails. No one is interested in reading your life story in the emails. Proofread thrice. Sending emails without proofreading can do more harm than good. Edit before you send the emails. And make sure your emails are grammatically correct. Interesting subject lines The first thing that gets noticed on any email is the subject line. If you are mailing to busiest people, you need to make sure that you have compelling subject lines that immediately grab attention. Unfortunately, most people don't know how to write subject lines that will dramatically increase their email open rates. If you're one of them, don't fret much here are few tips for writing stunning subject lines that increase your email open rates. The best email subject lines are always short and they give clear ideas to open your emails. Never sound like a sales guy. Don’t use cheesy words (or capital letters) to grab the attention of others. They won’t get you any attention, they often turn off the people. Using names on the subject lines is always better. It adds personalization and originality to the emails you write. Keeping your subject line to under 60 characters or less is one of the best email subject line writing strategies to boost your open rates. Personalization is key When writing emails, use names of the people. This adds extra value to your emails. People always love when someone mentions their name. Never send an email by pitching something like "Hi there" etc., It's always better to use names from the beginning of the email to the end. Why should anyone respond to your emails if you don't have enough time to even find out their name? Win/win approach “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar No one will help you by default. You have to help others before you seek out help. Blogosphere works on win/win approach. If you help others, they will reciprocate. In the beginning, when you have no real online connection with others, offer help without wanting to get anything in return. This strategy works like a charm if you are focusing on getting massive results in the long run. If you want a tweet from your favorite blogger, instead of asking him directly, follow him on twitter and frequently retweet their stuff. If you want to get a link from a blog make sure to frequently linking out to the blog you are targeting. Before asking for any help, make sure to do it first from your end. End every email with a proper call to action Want to get the response from busy bloggers? Make sure to include a clear call to action at the end of every email you write. If there's only one effective thing that bring you great results from your emails, it is the "effective call to action". Never end your emails without including a call to action if you want to get a response or help. Include social proof If you want to immediately grab the attention of other bloggers, make sure to include social proof in your emails. For instance, let's say you want to write a guest post for a top blog in your niche, instead of randomly pitching the top blogger, you can send few of your writing samples to add more value to your email pitch. Few email samples that are proven to get response Here I'm going to give you few email samples that got more email responses. Just observe the pattern and you can use these email samples for almost anything from asking a tweet to landing a guest post on top blog. If you're asking for a tweet or link: Hi [name], Just linked to you from my blog [include the post URL]. If you like it, I'd appreciate a tweet from you. If you think the post is highly relevant to your blog readers, you can even link to it. Cheers, Your name Why it works? The above email is really short and you're not beating around the bush to get a tweet or link from the bloggers you have linked it. If they really like your post, they will tweet about it. If they really read your post and find it useful, they may even link to it. If you're seeking help: Hi [name], My name is [name] and I blog at [blog url]. I'm a regular reader of your blog and I'm really inspired with your writing. I need a feedback from you. My blog is [mention the problem, lack of traffic or sales or anything]. I hope I'll get an insightful suggestion from you to solve this. Awaiting for your reply. Why it works? The above email pitch is super short and you're directly asking for the feedback. If the busy bloggers in your niche find your problem painful, they will either create a specific blog post for you or they'll email you about solving your problem. Both are good! If you want to send a guest post pitch to a busy blogger Hi [name], My name is [name] who blogs at [blog name]. I know you're a busy blogger so I'll directly come to the point. I've noticed the blog readers mostly enjoy [type of content]. And I've written a detailed guest post solving [a particular problem], I hope your readers would find it really helpful. If love the guest post idea, please see the attachment for the guest post. Just in case if you want to see my writing abilities. [2 to 3 writing samples] Let me know what you think. Why it works? The guest post pitch shared above is short and really effective. You've introduced yourself and you also said that you're a loyal reader to the blog you're going to pitch. You're also sending your writing samples by including a detailed post on particular problem. Mostly, you'll get a yes if they think your post is unique and really helpful for their readers. Final thoughts about emailing busy people to get response Your online success largely depends on creating great emails. If you don’t learn compelling email writing strategies, you will suffer later. Effective email writing also helps you connect with the great people in your industry. But the only problem with emailing busy people is that your email gets ignored most of the time (especially if you don’t know how to write emails). It doesn’t matter whether if you want to set up a skype call or ask for an advice from an influential blogger in your niche, if used proven email scripts, you’ll definitely get a response. As you can see, I've included a lot of interesting things that capture the attention of busy bloggers. So make sure to use most of them to get a response from the top bloggers in your niche. Also use the email samples shared in the post to your advantage. You can directly use them or make some changes to your needs. Hopefully the tips and strategies mentioned in this detailed guide will help you approach busy bloggers. Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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ProBlogger: How One Couple Drastically Changed Their Life by Blogging

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How One Couple Drastically Changed Their Life by Blogging Posted: 25 Aug 2015 07:00 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Gina Horkey. Two years ago, my husband and I were just like any other American couple. We were both working in Corporate America, had a one and a half year old and another on the way. Our work schedules and commutes weren't bad, we just weren't doing work that we were passionate about. Someone else was also raising our child. It could have been much worse – our son was maybe in daycare for 30 hours per week. And the provider was great! It just wasn't what we wanted. Plus, with another on the way, daycare was about to get real expensive! Since I'm not one to sit back and accept less-than-ideal circumstances, we decided to make some changes. Here's our story of going from a dual income, Corporate America household, to a single earning one dependent on just my freelancing income. Buckle up! Finding a Better Solution Even though I was a financial advisor, we never thought it'd be possible for one of us to quit work and stay at home with our growing family. After a couple failed nanny attempts and the end of my pregnancy looming, we got desperate and finally entertained the idea. My husband had always expressed interest in becoming a SAHD and my career was more promising at the time, so we set out to see if it was possible for him, the carrier of all benefits to quit. By significantly cutting our expenses (cutting cable, reducing our dining out, raising our insurance deductibles, stopping our retirement savings, etc) we were just able to make it work! Thank goodness we had the good sense to pay-off most of our debt the year or two before. Fast Forward a Year Our second child was going on a year old and Wade was enjoying staying at home. All should be well then, right? Wrong. It should have been. But I couldn't help to acknowledge the growing discontent I was experiencing with my work. My clients were great and so were my colleagues. I just didn't really enjoy talking and reading about investing, tax law or compliance all day long. I tried to throw myself further into my career by enrolling in an accredited program and pitching a plan to buy into the larger practice. I began studying and we began talks to make it happen. But then I realized it wasn't what I really wanted. And I actually listened to myself for once. Starting a Freelance Writing Side Hustle So, I did what any other "normal" person did and turned to the world wide internet! I explored my passions, my available options and started freelance writing on the side a little over a year ago. I secured an unpaid contributorship with The Huffington Post, got some samples by guest posting elsewhere and started my own blog. I would get up every weekday morning at 4:30 and write for an hour or two before my family woke up and I had to get ready for work. I also had a four-day workweek at the time, so I used Fridays to work on my writing business as well. I even hired a babysitter from time to time on the weekend to give Wade a break and get some time-sensitive client work done. It was fun, I saw the potential and I was committed to taking charge of my own career future. All of my hard work and perseverance started to pay off. My income grew month-over-month and I figured out I really enjoyed this world of freelance. I had blogged socially for years, but this was the first time I was treating blogging like a business and reaping the financial rewards. Putting In My Notice Eventually things came to a head at work. I opened up about my freelance success and that I had changed my mind about what I wanted for my career future. I was super nervous about it, but the conversation went better than I had expected. I had been an advisor for almost a decade at this point and with this particular practice for six years. We had a great relationship and I considered them almost like family. But it was hard to disappoint a father-figure! Due to our great mutual respect, we worked out a plan for them to buy my small practice, for us to find my replacement (for the support duties I performed for the office) and that I'd have a long transition schedule to both train in said replacement and continue to build up my freelance career into a viable business that would support my family. Becoming a Full-time Freelancer Right around Christmas, 2014 I had my last day of work. I was now officially a full-time freelancer! It was exhilarating and a bit frightening all at once. But now, six months later, I can happily say that I made the right decision. I may work more than ever, but it's work that I'm passionate about (I write, am a virtual assistant, coach newbie freelance writers and have a course to help aspiring writers for the web launch their own business in as little as 30 days). We also own our schedule, our time and choose how we get to spend it. Better yet, we choose WHO we get to spend it with. In Conclusion Blogging changed our life. We now decide our schedule, rather than our Corporate America jobs dictating it. For us, it’s not about being rich or continuing to earn more money – it’s about defining and living out our own priorities, which just so happens to include spending as much time as we can raising our own children. Want to know my favorite part of each workday now? Coming in for lunch with my family and laying my two toddlers down for their naps. I never would have been able to do that a year ago! How would your life look different if you felt empowered to make big changes? Gina Horkey is a writer for hire, with a background in personal finance. She also offers coaching services and really enjoys helping other freelancers gear up to quit their day jobs and take their side hustles full-time. Please stop by Horkey HandBook and say hello and download a free copy of 8 Tips to Start Your Freelance Career off on the Right Foot! Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger How One Couple Drastically Changed Their Life by Blogging The post How One Couple Drastically Changed Their Life by Blogging appeared first on @ProBlogger.

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ProBlogger: How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Through Your Archived Material on Facebook

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How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Through Your Archived Material on Facebook Posted: 23 Aug 2015 07:25 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Jonathan Goodman. I love discovering systems that work in the background so you can focus on your blog. What I'm going to detail is like the concept of compound interest. At the beginning, the effects will be small  – but over time, as the system continues to work and you keep adding into it small bits, it becomes a monster. It involves Facebook. And while much has been said about Facebook's diminishing reach, it still stands as the best platform to find and gather a purposeful audience and promote a blog. What I want to share with you isn't how to spam. It's not how to copy and paste a quote onto a pretty picture and hope that it somehow goes viral. And it's definitely not how to steal somebody else's video and upload it as your own. I want to share an intelligent way to generate a perpetual promotion engine. A couple screenshots taken on a random day to show that I'm not some guy who just talks about this stuff. I use it to build my own site.   But don't get me wrong, this is not about vanity metrics like Facebook likes. It's about email list growth. A good string of days for email growth, admittedly, but it does happen. 150-350 email leads per day, much of it from Facebook, is where the site sits at right now and each week those numbers continue to inch up. So what is this magical system? First, it's nothing magical. This is about embedding videos from your Facebook page on your blog. After showing you how to do it, I'll describe the power with it for promoting your blog and gaining leads. Beyond that there's a few details to generate more traction both on your videos on your blog. First, the tech stuff In order for the embed to render on a WordPress site, you'll likely have to embed some code into your site. I'm technologically illiterate but sent this post from Facebook to my web guy. From there, it's easy. Here's a walk through: Step 1: Upload a video to Facebook (sharing a YouTube link won't work. You'll have to upload the video manually) Step 2: Navigate to the videos permalink page by clicking on the date just under the video's name. Step 3: Click the "embed video" link on the bottom right side. Step 4: Copy the embed code that pops up. Step 5: Paste the embed code into the HTML editor of a blog post wherever you want the video to appear. On the top is the technical mumbo-jumbo and beneath it is how the video renders on your site. The above is from an article that serves as a good example of this system teaching how to fix butt wink in the squat. Note: You can take any video from any page on Facebook and embed it into your blog the same as you'd embed a YouTube video. Not a bad idea but you miss the real value of these embeds. Now that you know how to embed videos, let's look at all the components of the video once it renders on your site: The video will show two ways: One if it's not currently being played, and one if it is. If the video isn't being played there's three places to click other than the play button: Along with the clickable parts, the existing video views on the bottom left adds a level of social proof. The video name – takes the user to the video's permalink page hosted on your Facebook page. Your Facebook page name – takes the user to your Facebook page. The Facebook logo – takes the user to the video's permalink page hosted on your Facebook page. Note: All links open in a new window so don't worry about it navigating the user away from your blog post. If the video is currently being played there are five places to click other than the regular video navigation buttons:   The video name – takes the user to the video's permalink page hosted on your Facebook page. Your Facebook page name – takes the user to your Facebook page. A Facebook "like" button – The user can "like" the video right from your blog. A Facebook "share" button – The user can share the video right from your blog. The Facebook logo – takes the user to the video's permalink page hosted on your Facebook page. Now comes the ninja stuff Facebook's putting a big push on video. They autoplay all over your feed and spammy videos stolen by unscrupulous page owners are everywhere. Before going further – don't steal videos! I'm sure that you see other disrespectful page owners doing it. Not only is it illegal but you'll also get shut down. It's simply a matter of time. I'll show you the different ways to get videos to use in a bit. The first benefit to using video on Facebook is that it has a high organic reach. You can then embed that same video into as many blog posts as possible. As you've seen above, each video embed has a number of different options to generate traffic for your Facebook page but also share and/or like your video directly from your blog. Having a video embedded into your blog will also increase the average time a user spends on your site decreasing "bounce time." Facebook views your page as more valuable if users click a link from your page and stay there for longer. It's also an important determinant for search engine visibility. That's not the fun part – this is: In August of 2013, Facebook announced a change to its algorhithm called "story bumping." Facebook's old formula, while not completely known, was largely determined by something they called "time decay" — if your status update was more than a few hours old, there's not much chance it would ever be seen again. Story bumping changed things. If an old status update (i.e., a video) is getting new interaction, Facebook will selectively "bump" this story to the top of the news feed for people who haven't seen it. Both users of your page who didn't see it the first time and new users who might be highly relevant to you based off friends of theirs who "like" your page. The result is that old, archived (video) status updates that are getting new interaction can and do get "bumped" to new viewers. The result, well, looks something like this every time that you log in when you do it right: Two random screenshots of my notifications list for the page. In the second one you see 11 different things being shared within a 12-hour period. And this process compounds upon itself. I can't login to Facebook after leaving for a few hours without at least 40 new notifications (that's 40 different things happening when I was gone. 100 people sharing one status update counts as one). I should also note that all shares and interaction are not equal. Aim to share high-value materials and include a call-to-action to join your email list on almost every one. Interaction is the name of the game. What I'm about to describe will get you interaction perpetually on old status updates. Archived materials go to work for you while you sleep finding you new readers and email subscribers. Here's why: Embedding videos into blog posts allows them to sit forever on your blog. A user who sifts through your archives and "likes" a video embed from a year ago could cause that video status update to "bump" in Facebook, thereby showing it to new users who then bump it more and give it new life. Apart from hoping that old blog posts rank in search engines or users sifting through your archives, we also re-share old articles periodically on our page. An old article share with three Facebook embeds is like sharing four status updates at once. Let’s say all get interaction and all have a call to action for a squeeze page at the bottom. Now you've got four status update sharing to four different audiences, all promoting your email opt-in. How to Generate Videos to Use? To share videos you've got to have ones that you own or have permission to use, obviously, but too often people scrape videos and upload them as their own without permission. Here are three ways to get videos to use: Scrape your own YouTube channel: If you've got an existing archive of videos on YouTube, start systematically uploading them to Facebook one at a time. We do 6-10/week now. YouTube is Google property and Facebook will look at them as unique content. Ask for permission: I never did much with YouTube, so asked a few dozen fitness coaches who had great channels to repurpose their videos at my discretion on my Facebook page. I've got access to over 2500 videos to use. In the video description I give full attribution with links to the owner's materials and make sure to note whom the video belongs to and that it's used with permission. Film your own: For every article that you write, film a 1-2 minute video highlighting the benefits of the main points. Upload this video to Facebook first and embed it into the blog post. After you've started to upload some videos, you can organize them into playlists on your video page as well. Some notes on the small details to get more out of your videos Generally videos lasting 1-2 minutes work best. That said, I've had 10-minute videos that have done well, but they've got to be good. The title and video description is where most miss the mark. A video simply uploaded to Facebook won't drive a lot of email opt-ins or generate a lot of videos if you don't do it right. Write the video meta-data the same as you'd write a sales letter: Title – Give the video a short, descriptive and punchy title. Lede – Use 1-2 short sentences to hook the reader and expound upon the benefits that he/she will gain from the video. Steps to solving (optional) – I'm not sold on the importance on this yet. We've got to do more research, but it doesn't seem to hurt. Add a paragraph or bullet list summarizing the actionable steps gone over in the video to achieve the benefits in the title/lede. Call to action – Tell them what to do next. I use a short line to first identify them as a personal trainer and then entice them to come to the PTDC's about page (that we use as an email opt-in). "Set it and forget it" systems that work for you and get better with time are fun to discover. Facebook video embeds aren't being used but can explode views on your website, generate a perpetual audience to your old material, and grow your email list. I hope it works as well for you as it has for us. Jonathan Goodman likes to think and experiment with better ways to “do” new media and live a fun, successful, and fulfilling life. He's been called "Sun Tzu" buried under 40 layers of fun. If you want to know more about high-potency Facebook promotion, click here to claim a free guide to improve the reach of your status updates. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Through Your Archived Material on Facebook The post How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Through Your Archived Material on Facebook appeared first on @ProBlogger.

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