So many times I hear my clients and my peers talk about how they “feel bad” or feel too “salesy” when they talk about making money and charging people for their services or adding an affiliate link to a piece of their content. I can relate. When I first started getting paid for my content marketing and content creation I would sometimes question “can I ask for this much?” or is it “too pushy to add an affiliate link to a post that I might make a small commission from?” Those were not fun times. I found myself overworked, underpaid, burned out, and stuck in my business growth. Everything changed when I made one huge mindset shift.
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Top Tips For Work At Home Moms
My 5 tips for work at home moms will have you enjoying your day and being more productive if you are a homeschool mom or have younger kids at home with you all day.
Being work at home mom can go from dream to nightmare real quick. You have a client deadline, the kids are giving killing each other their best shot, and suddenly it is 4:00 and you haven’t even thought about dinner yet. Before you let more days spiral out of control here are my top tips for work at home moms that will help you be more productive and less stressed during your day. ( hint it’s not about managing motherhood and work separately, it’s about harmonizing them.)
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Gift Guide For Entrepreneurs
This Gift guide for entrepreneurs has a gift idea for every biz builder on your list. All that hard work this year deserves a great reward.
These pens are golden, just like the ideas entrepreneurs are jotting down on the regular. Always match your writing tools to your gold star status.
Of all the must-haves for entrepreneurs, a planner that increases your productivity by 95% has to top the list. Erin Condren Life Planners do just that.
Wall art to motivate those big moves is always a loved treat. Who doesn’t want to look up from their computer and see some words of encouragement?
Another from Kate Northrup- this book is another must for entrepreneurs who are looking to get control of their money situation and create the life they want. Priceless info inside these pages.
And now, onto cozy. Whether you work from home or out of an office, a cozy poncho is a must for work days.
Hands down, Warby Parker has the coolest glasses for pretty much everyone’s style. Bonus? They will send your fave entrepreneur 4 pairs of glasses to try on at home. Saves time and high on style? win-win.
I hope you found the perfect gift for your favorite entrepreneur- and maybe even a gift for yourself 😉
Do you know someone who could use this gift guide? Please share!
20 Content Ideas For Holiday Blog and Social Media Posts
The holidays are here and if you are scrambling to pull together ideas for what to share for your holiday blog and social media posts, we’ve got you covered with these holiday content ideas. Consider us your Secret Santa of content! Use these ideas on your blog, your social media, in your emails to your list- anywhere that you want to connect and engage your audience, increase your following and sales this holiday season!
Here are our top 20 content ideas for holiday blog and social media content.
- Create gift guides for your readers. You can post a few different gift guides on your blog and also share items from each week you post them on our social media accounts. Create a guest list for moms and dads, girlfriends, kids, co-workers, sisters, brothers, all that are under the umbrella of your blog niche.
- Post 12 days of something that is on-brand for you. You can do this with any niche. Create your own hashtag to accompany your posts when you share and encourage your readers and followers to share their 12 days posts with you and the community via the hashtag.
- Run a holiday contest. An on-brand contest is a great way to offer readers a way to sample your product or services for free when you offer them as prizes for contest winners. Be sure to add in like, follow, and share incentives for your readers in the form of an extra contest entry or another reward.
- An extensive list of how to celebrate over the holidays. Create a list of 50+ ways that your readers can celebrate Christmas and New Year. Make the list a nice mix of traditional, creative, and trendy ways to spend time celebrating this holiday season.
- Host a photo challenge for the 12 days of Christmas or the week after Christmas into the New Year. Choose a topic for a photo contest that is in your niche and host a contest that lets readers share their best pics based on the list of topics you share. Again, don’t forget to create a hashtag for your challenge.
- Focus on goal setting. Do an email series, a blog series, a series of social media posts, or a combination of all three that focus on how to help your readers set goals for the new year.
- Create an Ebook especially fo the holiday season. An on-brand Ebook will be a great way to give your readers all of their favorite things they love about your blog in one place. You can also combine this with one of the challenge posts and have your Ebook be the giveaway fo winners.
- Create a playlist for your readers and followers that you can share with them.
- Favorite holiday movies list. You might share why each movie is special t you. You could share this as a long-form post or share one movie a week, say on Friday, up until Christmas. Start a conversation around your posts- people love to talk about movies.
- Share how-to posts in your niche. Share your expertise in your niche with your readers by sharing a specialty how- to in whatever your niche is. Your readers will love your special spin on what you share, after all, they read your blog because they want to hear more about how you do what you do!
- Create a bunch of holiday-themed memes. Everyone loves a good meme. Your followers will love sharing these with their friends- bonus: more exposure for you.
- Host a make a wish event. Followers can post your products and services that they wish for, with a hashtag of your choosing, and be entered to win their wish at the end of the contest.
- Tips and hacks for preparing for the holidays. No matter what your niche is- food, fashion, makeup, home decor, organization – you have some tricks up your sleeve that your readers will love to get read. Share your best holiday prep tips and hacks. Your readers- and your traffic-will thank you.
- Do a “best-of” post that is on-brand for you. Look through your year and create a fun list of the most innovative, fun, heart-warming, or important things that happened in your niche this year.
- Do a time capsule post. On your blog, on social media, or on both, create a time capsule of the best things of the year. Turn it into a community event by asking your readers what they would put in a time capsule and have them use a designated hashtag to share.
- Share what you are looking forward to in the new year and ask your readers what they can’t wait for. Everyone wants to share what they are excited about.
- Sales and discounts. Everybody loves a good deal. Share sales with your followers. Are you closing out last year’s products or services? Let your readers know and give them an extra incentive if they share.
- Do a share for share style contest where readers can highlight each other’s products or services over the holidays. This is a great way to show off your own products while building community among your readers.
- Share a Favorite Holiday memory. Readers love personal posts and learning more about you behind the scenes. Share something that is special to you about the holidays and ask your readers to share as well.
- Share a DIY post. These posts are super popular around the holidays. Do some keyword searching for things that are popular to DIY in your niche for the holidays and share it with your readers.
Grow Your Business This Holliday Season With Great Content
The holidays are a peak time for bloggers and businesses. Try out some of these content ideas and your readers will be more engaged with you and your content during this time. Remember that people online are flooded with ads during this time of year. Mixing in some personal posts and some interesting and fun content for your readers will be very welcomed and well-received by all. Check out our 50 Holiday blog post ideas in our free resource library for even more content you can share. Get access for free right here.
As we enter the full-on chaos of the holiday season, be sure to do yourself a favor and chose a day or two to schedule out all of your content for December well in advance so you are not scrambling a the last minute. By scheduling your posts ahead of time you will be able to relax and spend more time with friends and family, and your posts will be more intentional and focused on your business goals and less rushed and all over the place.
Need A Hand With Content or Strategy?
What are your biggest challenges with your business as we enter the holiday season? Drop a comment below and I will get you started with some useful tips or tools! You can also check out our list of essential tools for bloggers and entrepreneurs.
Know someone who would love this post? Please share! and don’t forget to pin this post for reference when you are scheduling that content!
How to Use Stock Photos That Fit Your Brand
As a blog, website, or business owner you know that if you have an online presence you constantly need fresh, new images to share with your audience. Stock photos can be a great solution. Paid stock subscriptions as well as pay per download sites are an option, but what if it’s not in your budget or you are just looking for another way?
Read on for my quick tips on how to use Unsplash, a FREE stock photography site, to curate a collection of images you can use on your blog, website, and social media that fit your brand
Getting Started
The first thing you want to do is to head to Unsplash.com. Once you get there, you want to create your free account. This will allow you to collect all of your photos in a way that allows you to visually see everything together and make sure all your images are on-brand.
Search for your Images
Enter any keywords into the search bar. For example, if you have a food blog, you might want to type in “soup.” When you see an image you like, hover over it and click on “collect.” This will take you to a section that will ask you to create a collection.
Create Collections
Enter a title for your collection. Here is where your curating begins. Think of all of the different categories of images you use across social media, as well as on your blog and website.
Create a collection for each of these categories as you search through the images on Unsplash. You can create as many categories as you need to. I like to create general categories, like “food and drink” “entertaining” and then more specific ones for detailed projects like “November Blog Posts” or “Grow Your Biz Email Series.”
Organize
I like to take a day or two a month to look at my content calendar and my social media posts and collect a bunch of stock photos I know I will be needing and add them to existing collections or create new ones. You can even create collections for months, events, launches-it’s really a super flexible and customizable way to organize photos.
How To Use Your Images
You can use these Unsplash stock photos in so many ways. Insert images into blog posts, create graphics, create pins for Pinterest, use the images for social media posts or Ebooks- you get the picture!
You can also use these stock images along with PLR or done-for-you content to create quality content that your readers are searching for in record time. Save time and money while growing your business? Yes, please!
Conclusion
No matter what kind of business you have, if you are online you need images. If you are looking for a budget-friendly way to use great stock photography and stay on-brand for your business, creating collections in Unsplash is a perfect option. Want more tools to grow your business? Check out my post on that HERE.
Rank Your Site Fast with These SEO TIPS
Use these proven SEO tips to improve your site’s rank.
SEO can sometimes seem overwhelming, after all, at any given time there are countless articles and gurus telling you the “secret” to growing your website overnight with the right SEO. The truth is, SEO is not magic. But, it does have its own set of rules, that can change rather quickly, leading to a confusing reputation.
Guess how many changes Google made to their algorithms his year? 3200. Yeah, that’s kind of a lot. As an entrepreneur, you will fare far better if you avoid “hacks” and trying to “crack the codes” of SEO. Your best path to success is to follow these tried and true methods for boosting your organic search engine traffic with a few easy to implement SEO habits.
