Okay, I took up this 30-day blogging challenge because I constantly have to prove things to myself and to others. This will be my 300th post since I started blogging in January of 2013 to promote my memoir Greenwich Meridian on the WordPress platform. The blog’s name is EW Emma’s Writings.
Amaryllis
I am halfway through the book about our family immigration saga. I’ve written about everything from last year’s eye ordeal with cataracts to blogging, and to Earth Day.
After years of writing for both print and digital media, I feel like I am running out of ideas.
In August, I took on a client blog Fallasburg Today @fallasburg and I will have another one @ lmason2016, a political campaign.
I did everything according to Learn to Blog guidelines including E-newsletters. I designed my first one on a cell phone on mail chimp.
Now, my husband wants me to go back to work to do whatever. I’ve already done whatever from working for Women’s Department for a Midwest chain Meijer to a bunch of newspapers and magazines.
I’ve had front page stories published and I’ve received several awards. But, what really bothers me is that I haven’t been able to get my fiction published. I’ve written a collection of short stories “Glass Flowers,” a screenplay “Riddleyville Clowns,” a book “Fire on Water” and I am working on the memoir.
I hope this challenge helps me regroup my thoughts and focus again. This is my plan for the challenge:
Here is something that I put together for the board and the membership of the Fallasburg Historical Society (FHS) about Facebook status. Please share this with all.
Social media: Facebook
The most popular social media platform is Facebook. However it’s far from being the only one. Although it may be the most user friendly, Facebook moves a lot of data while twitter limits posts to 140 characters. It does allow for pictures. Recently, twitter has merged with LinkedIn, the biggest professional career social media site.
Both have news feeds based on your friends or followers.
Anything you post stays on your wall or timeline. You can check other people’s timelines to see what they have been up to.
Fallasburg Covered Bridge
To open an account on Facebook go to https://www.facebook.com. Enter your email and pick a password. And you can start posting. The most effective posts are short…
Lowell, MI- The “Fallasburg Today” blog with the Lovecraft theme by Andre Nores is up and running with three initial posts, a Facebook page plug-in and a twitter page @fallasburg.
The Fallasburg Historical Society (FHS) is celebrating 50 years of historic preservation of the 1830s village founded by John Fallass.
I consider it a sign of times that the quaint pioneer village nestled in the northeast corner of Kent County is now marketed on WordPress and on social media.
New interpretive markers at the Fallasburg village.
In an effort to bring awareness to the village, the FHS president Ken Tamke and the board asked me for some technology help last week.
I share their passion and love for history and I live three miles away from the Fallasburg Park. And I love nature at its best.
I embraced the project with fervor because of the dates of the upcoming First Annual Village Bazaar set for Sept. 19 and Sept. 20.
We had a good start: a Facebook page with 245 likes, a website www.fallasburg.org and the excitement of all.
I did the twitter first and then the blog and connected all that. My unifying theme has been “bringing the village alive” so the name “Fallasburg Today.”
Today, there is a live discussion on Facebook and twitter is starting up. People and other organizations like Whites Bridge Historical Society are interested in what is happening at the Fallasburg village.
They are sharing the posts on Facebook and tweeting.
I am a deep believer in progress otherwise we would still be walking and living in caves.
I improved it with writing and blogging tips, a photo gallery Moments in time, Summer 2015. I added a 25 percent coupon off on summer blog design, a schedule of upcoming events and partner badges. Look for it in your in boxes and if you haven’t yet subscribe to it on the main site EW Emma’s Writings at http://emmapalova.com
The design on mailchimp is simple with themes available. However, I do find some of the steps cumbersome, but it is a great free service with most features until you get into analytics and automation.
Lowell, MI- Leigh Ann Dickey aka Coach Leigh Ann founded Soulpreneurs.co two weeks ago to further pursue her dreams. She is a registered respiratory technician residing in Gainesville, Georgia. Dickey is a freelancer for Learn to Blog and she works with 100 clients in web and blog design.
Coach Leigh Ann Dickey started up Soulpreneurs.co
Emma: When and why did you start blogging?
Leigh Ann: In the spring of 2013 when I had joined the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and lost 35 pounds. I just hit 40 and I wanted to share my story.
Emma: Where did you gain your online expertise?
Leigh Ann: I am self-taught. I have 12 years of website coding experience and I took some WordPress classes. I took a Learn to Blog class in 2014 because I wanted to master WordPress.
Emma: What do you feel was the biggest challenge in the beginning?
Leigh Ann: Determining your niche. I went all over the place. I was posting and sharing, and I started my design business, Coach Leigh Ann.
Emma: So, what do you suggest to WordPress newbies or any blogging newbies? Where should they start?
Leigh Ann: It starts with ourselves, knowing what we like to do all day long.
Emma: What do you like about blogging?
Leigh Ann: I enjoy the process of creating. It plays into my geeky side telling the story.
Emma: What kind of satisfaction do you get out of blogging?
Leigh Ann: It’s natural to get that feedback and I enjoy helping people. Blogging has changed me. It helped me pass obstacles in life and I relate that to overcoming obstacles in business.
Emma: Many newbies worry about analytics. How do you feel about it?
Leigh Ann: Until your blog is fully functional and you have an opt-in page to get emails, you don’t need to worry about it.
Emma: What do you suggest bloggers use for analytics once they’re ready with an opt-in page and the launch of a product?
Leigh Ann: Definitely a WordPress jet pack plug-in that shows where the comments came from.
Emma: What about Google Analytics?
Leigh Ann: Google Analytics is much more involved. Jet pack is more newbie friendly.
Emma: Now the big one that concerns most bloggers not just newbies. Let’s talk about monetization of blogs. Can we make money on blogging?
Leigh Ann: Monetization is complicated. It entails keyword blogging using AdSense and getting that SEO. The best way to make money is with info publishing, creating your own products and services.
Emma: What do you think about affiliate marketing?
Leigh Ann: It’s a good idea to partner with others to promote their product or service along with yours.
Emma: What is the recipe for success? Be it monetization, increased traffic or SEOranking?
Leigh Ann: The best model now is to have a combination of things; blogging, having an affiliate in combo with your own products and services. Affiliate linking is a good way to make money.
Emma: What is the best way to promote your niche business?
Leigh Ann: Building a following on social media so people recognize you as an expert in a certain area.
Emma: Specifically what social media would you recommend?
Leigh Ann: Start a Facebook group not a page, join other groups of like-minded people.
Emma: What helped you get ahead?
Leigh Ann: I did market research inside the Facebook group and that helped me develop products and services.
Emma: Tell us about your most recent venture, Soulpreneurs.co.
Leigh Ann: I launched this membership site because people are hungry for information. It delivers automated info on regular basis. It took me two weeks to solidify my ideas on it.
Emma: How do you balance out your regular job and your online business?
Leigh Ann: I have critical thinking skills with quick decision-making from my RRT full-time job that I can apply in my online business.
Emma: How many hours a week do you spend on your online business?
Leigh Ann: 20 hours promoting and developing the websites.
Emma: Where should newbies start?
Leigh Ann: Create a checklist of what needs to get done now to get the results you want. On the side you list things you want to do. First you find hosting, then create an About page and have the e-mail subscribe or opt-in page.
Emma: What are your short-term goals?
Leigh Ann: To gain social recognition for design. I also set a financial goal to develop a new product each month to keep people interested.
Emma: What are your long-term goals?
Leigh Ann: Teaming up with Clark Hosp of Learn to Blog to offer live online interactive training focusing on WordPress next month.
Emma: What is your biggest accomplishment in blogging?
Leigh Ann: I work with over a 100 clients and I have the Soulpreneurs membership site.
Emma: What do you attribute your success to and what do you recommend to others:
Leigh Ann: To the mentors that I follow and my determination. I have a relentless spirit. I will keep trying until I have success. Stay focused on one path until you get a result and then you can redirect and follow through.
Emma: What keeps you going?
Leigh Ann: Lots of coffee, seven to eight hours of sleep, downtime away from the computer, eating healthy, moving my body and time with my friends.
Emma: What makes you feel good about yourself?
Leigh Ann: Any type of feedback.
Emma: What keeps you motivated? What do you suggest to others who feel like giving up?
Leigh Ann: Having a plan of action. It may be making money online and you might have to get a real job. Go back to why you started doing this? For me personally it was sharing my story.
Stay tuned for more blogging tips and advice coming to EW Emma’s Writings.
I am sharing this through my new blogger friend Cheryl Stober, a syndicated blogger on the BlogHer platform. She has been blogging for eight years, at a time when I was chasing after stories and yawning at township meetings for print media.
“You gotta cover that,” said the editor also yawning, “It’s our bread and butter you know.”
Among hundreds of posts, Stober caught my attention with her nice piece about getting ready for the conference. I was bummed that I couldn’t go so I literally devoured the article and commented and I got a comment back. And there you go we were friends.
My new BlogHer buddy Cheryl Stober
“I hope to meet you at the conference next year,” she wrote. “Follow me on @cherylstober.”
Her article included getting new business cards and clothes for the event. Of course fashion police at these conferences are on their toes.
Today, Stober tweeted she had lunch with my favorite Glee star, Gwyneth Paltrow. who is a keynote speaker at the conference. I am jealous, no just kidding.
Education: associates degree in health sciences-respiratory therapy, certificate in health coaching from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Oct. 2014
Residence: Gainesville, Georgia
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI – Leigh Ann Dickey wanted to share her story of losing 35 pounds when she joined the nutrition school. Dickey started out with a page on facebook, Instagram and a blog on WordPress two years ago using tutorials and mentors.
“I developed a nice site,” she said.
Coach Leigh Ann Dickey loves helping people.
Dickey was offering a weight loss product. But when she sustained a head injury on her bicycle, Dickey took the site down.
Since she has always liked design Dickey wanted to master WordPress. She already had a great feather in her cap; 12 years of HTML coding. Dickey completely coded her animal charity site herself from the start.
She took a WordPress class to get up to speed in 2013 & 2014. Dickey joined the Learn to Blog in 2014, but found out that she already knew a lot of the stuff from the WordPress classes.
The biggest challenge of blogging for Dickey was targeting her niche.
“I felt tossed around,” Dickey said in a Skype interview last week. “I was posting and sharing trying to target my niche. I went all over the place.”
She tried health & fitness, business coaching and design. It wasn’t until recently she found that her real passion was teaching and coaching. So, Dickey launched her Soulpreneurs this week. Soulpreneurs is a membership site on the Genesis framework.
But, before that Dickey started a WordPress support group on facebook.
“It used to be enough to have a facebook page two years ago, but now you have to create a group,” she said.
Two years ago with a budget of $150, Dickey could increase traffic to her facebook page to 3,600.
However, two years in an online business is eternity.
“That was old school,” she laughed. “Start a facebook group not a page. Find like-minded people. Join other groups inside of facebook.”
Dickey offered a lot of advice for newbie bloggers. Number one on the advice list is determining your niche.
“It all starts with ourselves knowing what we enjoy doing,” she said, “And then turn that into business. People should ask themselves what is it that they enjoy doing all day long.”
According to Dickey, the advantages of realizing what you really like to do are the following:
You best will know a lot about it.
It will be easy to develop products and services around your niche or like.
Then you have to boil it all down to specific types that is; rather than pets narrow it down to dogs and then go further, different breeds and such.
In response to what she likes about blogging, Dickey was very spontaneous.
“I enjoy the process of creating that plays into my geeky side telling the story,” she said. “I enjoy helping people.”
Blogging was a life changing experience for Dickey who had suffered a head injury.
“Blogging helped me get past something and I relate that to overcoming obstacles in business and in life. It’s just human nature to get that feedback.”
The second part of Dickey’s story with more valuable advice will appear later this week. Stay tuned and feel free to comment with your advice.
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