Category Archives: writing

blog design, blogging, business, coaching, consulting, women's, WordPress, writing

Interview with Soulpreneurs founder Leigh Ann Dickey

July 20, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

Coach Leigh Ann Dickey starts up Soulpreneurs

By Emma Palova

EW Emma’s Writings

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 SEO ranking?

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.

For more info on Soulpreneurs go to http://soulpreneurs.co

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blogging, business, community, content writing, women's, WordPress, writing

BlogHer conference connects

July 17, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

BlogHer conference connects. Connect with your BlogHer.

blogging, business, community, support, Uncategorized, women's, WordPress, writing

BlogHer conference connects

July 17, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

BlogHer conference in NYC July 17 & 18

By Emma Palova

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.

“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.

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baking, celebration, food, newsletter, women's, WordPress, writing

Cervencove novinky CJ Tety Jarmilky

July 16, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

Cervencove novinky CJ Tety Jarmilky.

Subscribe to CJ Aunt Jarmilka’s newsletter. This is EW’s sister publication newsletter for July. Sign up for great recipes and info about Czech baking, canning and cuisine.

blog design, blogging, business, coaching, community, consulting, Uncategorized, women's, WordPress, writing

Coach Leigh Ann Dickey

July 13, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Coach Leigh Ann Dickey.

blog design, blogging, coaching, consulting, support, WordPress, writing

Coach Leigh Ann Dickey

July 13, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Coach Leigh Ann Dickey shares her passion for design & blogging, inspires others

Name: Leigh Ann Dickey

Occupation: registered respiration therapist, self-employed, website design

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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blogging, content writing, writing

Greenwich Meridian memoir update

June 26, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

The featured image is the Greenwich Meridian memoir on the screen surrounded by various memorabilia like the economy class menu of the Czechoslovakian Airlines. I flew with them in 1989 for my second immigration to the USA.

Blogging anchored, Greenwich Meridian memoir evolves forward

By Emma Palova

EW Emma Writing

Lowell, MI- Now, that I am firmly anchored in the blogging world with Emma Blogs, LLC, a portfolio of blogs, I resumed working on the Greenwich Meridian memoir in mid-May. The blogging part may seem like a detour to many, not to me. I feel like I can take the book to its finale. I didn’t have that feeling before.

It took me a year-and-a-half to set up the blogging portfolio under the umbrella of http://emmapalova.com. Fellow blogger Leigh Ann Dickey said it took her two years to prove herself. So, don’t believe the hype out there like “Get a blog in 60 seconds,” or in five minutes, in an hour or in a day. And definitely, don’t pay any money for that pitch.

It just doesn’t happen. It’s like saying you’re going to learn calculus in a day. You may get the template like you would get a college-ruled notebook to start your math, and then what? Do you start with fractions, trigonometry or double integer?

Of course you start with the About page in the world of blogging. After all, you know the best what you are all about. Add a picture, it’s worth a thousand words.

Many blogging colleagues out there don’t know what their niche or target audience are. How are they supposed to pick a theme? Should they post every day and what should they post to attract that ever elusive traffic?

Maybe Stephen King asked himself the same question before his big Carrie break, “What should I write about so I make it big?”

I know I ask myself that question every week before posting, “What am I going to post this week or what is the next chapter outline?”

Other than King, I always think about German Martin Luther posting 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517 according to the student custom. The theses were a catalyst to a change.

Blog posts carry those same signs of a changing world. A shorter, faster world of pixels that has no time for long “expose” articles. Readers want to know everything and immediately.

Without the “how to” knowledge, blogging can feel like sailing on vast seas after you lost your compass. You started out right, what next?

Stay tuned for more.

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blogging, editorial calendar quarterly, writing

Summer 2015 editorial calendar

June 25, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

Editorial/marketing calendar for July, August, September

Dive into summer fun with Emma

The editorial/marketing calendar for Emma Blogs is flexible and I invite anyone who wants to contribute whether with stories, photos or ideas.

As you can see the topics range from blogging to vacationing, and everything in between. I am looking forward to the new summer series, Living in the country vs. living in the city. I bet anyone can attest that both have their advantages and disadvantages. So, feel free to write about your take on where you live and why. It will be hilarious.

Kathleen Mooney's abstracts. — Kathleen Mooney’s abstracts.

Also sign up for Emma Blogs July newsletter for blogging/design tips and How to get story ideas and bring them to fruition.

July

Blogger of the month

Creativity

Independence Day

Vacationing

Summers in Czech

Riverwalk 9, 10, 11/local

Summer series

Living in the country vs living in the city

August

Summers in Czech on the ranch

Vacationing

Mom’s birthday

Lowell youth fair/local/Aug. 6-13

Summer series

Living in the country vs living in the city

September

Fall fest with Fallasburg village bazaar /local Sept. 1&20

Fairs/expo Brno

Socialist brigades for students and army

Summer series

Living in the country vs city

Schools/universities

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astrology, names, writing

Czech calendar names-part II

April 17, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

Names show personality traits

By Emma Palova

EW Emma’s Writings

Note: I often write about different names in the Czech calendar and in our multi-cultural family. In the memoir “Greenwich Meridian” I write about the people behind the names. Recently, I found out that each name has certain characteristics that may be a perfect fit or a perfect misfit. This is a second part of a mini-series about calendar names. The first part ran on April 10. Look for the greeting card logo. I focused on female names first.

Another name in the family is Julie. That was my late mother-in-law. I have very fond memories of her. Julie lived to be 92 years old, she was up and running until the very last minute when she passed away peacefully in her nap. She took care of our daughter Emma, while I was studying at the Technical University of Brno.

The name has bold characteristics. According to Soul’s Touches, Julie is a dragoness, who is both sensitive and attractive. She takes deep interest in men into late years, caused by the vibrations of Mars. When she falls in love, she tears down bridges, and rebuilds them again. But, most of all she’s a woman. As a mother, she can be both loving and strict. The name is right for all zodiac signs except for Scorpio. Julie celebrates her name day on Dec. 10.

Mother-in-law Julie Palova was very beautiful.

Anna, was my grandmother and her daughter Anna is my aunt and godmother. The characteristics for the name are: a true woman, loving, devoted, but living her life through others. It is a troubled life of labor & worries, a constant circle of obligations and feelings of being in debt to all. Anna is foremost a mother and a wife.

The astrologist does not recommend this name, because it carries the premonition of a hard life. Anna celebrates her name day on July 26 in the Czech calendar.

Martha is the name of my paternal aunt, as well as first and second cousin’s names. According to Soul’s Touches, the name carries traits of satisfaction. Even though Marthas do not reach the most coveted goals, they end up usually married. Martha is foremost a woman. She matures emotionally later in life, quite often divorces. Not recommended in Gemini, Libra and in Capricorn. Her name day is on July 29.

Mary is my mother’s cousin name, and we probably had a lot more Marys in the family.

Mary is a universal name used in all languages. She is motherly, devoted and hardworking.

The traits: always willing to learn, intelligent, sensitive and strict. Only a bad coordinate with the last name and birth date can worsen her life’s path, according to Soul’s Touches.

The feast of Saint Mary falls on Sept. 12 and it is celebrated around the world with festivities and pilgrimages to sacred places like Hostyn, in Moravia.

Lenka is the name of my second cousin, the daughter of Mary. The name has bad karmic vibrations. Lenkas do not have an easy life or a happy life. There are only a few exceptions depending on the birth date and coordinate with the last name. The biggest problem can be in relationships. The astrologist writes, “When a relationship ends and Lenka asks why?” I answer “Because you have bad vibrations. I would recommend to shorten the name to Lena at the birth registry.”

The name is influenced by Mars, Sun, Venus and Saturn. The Saturn negatively impacts Venus. That’s where the bad karma comes from.

I covered only a few female names in the family, and a fraction of female names in the Czech calendar. From time to time, I will be coming back to this subject, because it fascinates me. Most descriptions fit like a glove depending on the zodiac sign, and sometimes on the last name.

Trending names in Czech are: Tereza, Natalie, Anna, Adela, Eliska, Karolina, Katerina, Barbora, Lucie, Kristina, Michaela, Nikola and Veronika.

Next week I’ll write about the characteristics of male names in the family.

See you then. Hope you find your name a great fit.

Sources: “Soul’s Touches” and “Greenwich Meridian”

Here is a link to American family names:

jmenaprijmeni.blog.cz/1309/americka-prijmeni-zebricek-top-100-a-vyznamy

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blog design, blogging, business, content writing, editorial calendar quarterly, WordPress, writing

Emma Blogs Newsletter

April 3, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

April newsletter brings blog news in a capsule

Hello to all,

The April newsletter is here. It’s been on my radar screen since I’ve established Emma Blogs, LLC. Every month, the newsletter will feature news from the blogs portfolio, blogging tips and editorial/marketing calendar. Features will include en excerpt from the story of the month and a featured blogger. You can submit who do you think should be featured and why, as well as a story,a poem or a photo with links to your blogs. You can also submit a story about your niche business with a link.