Create If Writing

The term copywriting often sends writers (especially creative writers) into a tailspin. But did you know that copywriting can improve your other kinds of writing? (Yes, even fiction.) And that studying poetry can help you write better copy? This interview with Bryan Cohen will help you rock those copywriting basics. 

About Bryan Cohen

Bryan Cohen is an author in several genres, a podcaster, and sits at the helm of Selling for Authors, a site dedicated to author training. You can read his fiction on Amazon or pick up his non-fiction such as How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis. You can listen to his podcasts, like the Sell More Books Show and the comedy podcast Something Nice to Say. Or find out more about Selling for Authors. 

Copywriting is targeted writing or writing with an agenda. That doesn't mean it can't have a particular style or voice, but that it has a specific PURPOSE designed to get someone to DO something. 

It's a mix of attitude and bad reputation where people feel like it's difficult, so it's difficult for them. When you write a 60,000 word book, not every word or sentence is a winner. But when you write something shorter or more condensed like a book description or Facebook ad, everything needs to be gold. But it's possible to not hate it and do it well. You CAN get better!

The surprising thing that helped Bryan with his copy was studying poetry. When you have to pay attention to syllable and the sound of words and how they work together, you will become better. 

Great copy grabs your attention right away with a hook. It's a hook related to that genre and the readers of that genre that you're trying to reach. You have to make a connection to the readers that helps you sell more books or achieve your goals. It has to make the expectations for that particular situation. Our brains filter out the things that don't matter to you because we can't possibly take in all the information and data we encounter. If a piece of copy doesn't match our expectations for the particular situation, we tune out.

The next important part is the flow. You don't want to set the expectations and then veer off into a strange place. The pieces need to fit together. 

Calls to action round out your copy. Calls to action are phrases that tell you to do something and without them, you are unlikely to see effective copy. People need a strong call to action at the end of copy. 

We should have the best covers for our books or design for our books or blogs or products, but people will have more points of contact with our writing. If we can work to improve our copy at these various points from sales pages to book descriptions, we can impact the response of our readers. 

Forget the way you typically edit things where you write it and then go line by line. Write a handful different ideas (some of which are drastically different) for your hook and your call to action.

Often we make the mistake of falling in love with a line that's problematic and slows down the whole process rather than coming up with five versions and then ditching the one that is slowing us down. Because we are often working with less text than longer-form content, we can actually play with each line, rewriting in different ways that can help us see it in a new way. 

Sound like a lot of work? Start with the first line of your email, sales page, book description, or whatever. Write a lot of versions and choose the best one. 

If you are planning to write a ton more books, you could learn to do it yourself and become a better copywriter AND writer as you value words a bit more. Learning through self-instruction or a course, you will save yourself money in the long run and become a better writer. But there is a time when you may want to focus on the things you do best and hire out. 

If you want to hire Bryan, find out more about his services here! 

Coschedule Headline Analyzer

Emotional Marketing Analyzer

ShareThrough Headline Analyzer (the one that loves celebrities - this one is more FOR FUN, not real headlines)

Affiliate sales can be a lucrative revenue stream, especially during the holiday season. If you aren't using affiliate marketing, this means that you are recommending another person or company's product and will get a commission upon sales. Sometimes it can be hard to get started, so here are my best tips for affiliate marketing.

This post contains affiliate links! This means at no extra cost to you, any purchases made through links in the post may result in a commission for me. Thanks for your support!

Thanks to the sponsor of the show, Go Lance! Need a virtual assistant or copywriter? Many people use Facebook groups to find and hire help. But there aren't ratings and reviews. Every few days, I see a post warning people against using a certain person who didn't do their work as promised. With Go Lance, you can see how many hours people have worked and read reviews of their work. Sound good? Set up a free account today with Go Lance! 

Thanks also to Jasmine Commerce for the music for the show!

So many different tools, apps, and courses have affiliate programs. Make a list of the things you use, from web hosting to your note-taking apps. Once you have a list of the things you use, check to see if they have an affiliate program. Usually this will be listed somewhere on the website. If not, google it or email the contact person. 

A few times this year I received emails about courses or summits that were a great fit for my audience. I hit reply and asked if they had an affiliate program because the promotion would be  perfect for my people. Sometimes programs are only open to people who have purchased them. But other times, the creators are open to interested people. When in doubt, ask. 

Some people will only promote things they have or currently do use. I like to promote things that I have used in the past, use now, or are from someone that I trust enough to recommend without actually using or taking them. There are VERY few people I trust that much. You should decide what feels right for YOU. The programs and items you recommend should be things that you can stand behind or you may risk the trust of your audience. 

You will make the best affiliate for products that you are PASSIONATE about. [tweetthis twitter_handles="@kikimojo" display_mode="box"]You will make the best affiliate for things you are passionate about.[/tweetthis]

Evergreen products or programs are things like items on Amazon. They are available at all times (though prices may fluctuate). Promotional products are things like courses that open or close, bundles that are limited times, or sales for specific days. Often the promotional launches will have a larger-scale affiliate program where you'll get daily emails and sales copy that are designed to help you sell. Which leads me to the next tip.

Especially when it comes to big launches of courses or larger products, you don't want to layer too many on top of each other. If you are launching your own products too, you especially need to watch out for this. Try to plan out what launches will happen when (most course creators know months or a year ahead of time when they will run promotions) and put that on your calendar so it doesn't get too crowed. 

When you are running promotional affiliate sales over a period of time that will have multiple emails, offer your readers an opt-out. Depending on your email service provider, this may not be possible. In ConvertKit, I simply create a link with a tag that will automatically attach to that person's email. Then when I send the next promotions, I can exclude the tag from people who aren't interested in the promotion. This will cut down on the number of unsubscribes. (Read more about why I love ConvertKit!)

For more on this, listen to episode 33. But in short, when it comes to affiliate marketing, you must disclose. This means that in your social media links, you will use a word like ad or affiliate or sponsored. NOT "aff" or "afflink" or "spon." Those words are not clear to the general masses. Your disclosure should be clear to people who don't know what affiliate marketing is. In a blog post you should have a statement before any outgoing affiliate links where you state that any sales made by clicking through links may result in a commission for you at no extra cost to them. If you want a longer disclosure explanation, you can have a post and link to that post, but you still need to have a statement that is clearly understood in your post, not simply a link to a post about disclosure. Read a great breakdown of the FTC rules on disclosure here. 

Looking for some good affiliate programs? 

• ConvertKit (an email service provider)
• Site Ground (a web host- this is my affiliate link!)
• AppSumo (has deals on apps and programs-- gives credit, not cash)
• Affiliate Window (a central program with many brands within it)
• Share-a-Sale (same as above- this is my affiliate link!)
• CJ (same as above)
• Ultimate Bundles (sells bundles of digital and physical products a few times a year -- this is my affiliate link)
• Amazon (offers a low commission and a short-lived cookie, but has tons of products many people use)

ConvertKit is having a special November 28 & 29! You can get one month free, plus a month of Meet Edgar, a month of Teachable, 6o days of Samcart, 45 days of Wistia, and a ConvertKit tee. Get your free bundle here! (This is my affiliate link!)

SiteGround is offering 70% off hosting through Monday! If you're tired of having your site down with Blue Host (that was the story of my life! Use Down Notifier to make sure your sites are up), then switch to Site Ground. They'll even move you! Sign up for the hosting deal here! (This is my affiliate link!)

The Foundation Series is 50% off through the end of November 28. That's only $24 for over four hours of workshops helping you bring clarity to your blog, email list, social media, and images. Use the code blackcyber. 

I've opened up the beta price of the Create If Community Membership through the end of November 28. Use the code BETA to get grandfathered into the membership price. Find out more and sign up for the Create If Community Membership here!

Blog traffic is useless. Traffic is nothing but empty numbers of people who have stopped by your page. And if that's all that happens---stopping by---then traffic is useless. But if you can figure out how to optimize that traffic and get them to DO something, then you can really get the most out of those blog visits with some help from Melyssa Griffin!

This episode is sponsored by GoLance! If you do freelance ANYTHING, you need to check this global platform where you can post your profile OR look for people to hire for some of those jobs you need to outsource. It's free to sign up and post. Get after it!

Connect with Melyssa on her blog, Melyssa Griffin, or on Pinterest, YouTube, or in her awesome Facebook group. 

If you break it down, traffic comes either through social sharing (like Facebook) or through search (like Google). Pinterest, though often considered a social platform, is actually more of a search engine or discovery platform. Once people realize this and apply strategies geared toward search & discoverability, they can find much better results from Pinterest. You need a strategy that is current because SEO changes on a almost a yearly basis. 

Platforms like Facebook or Instagram are more about engaging and inspiring content, while search traffic is more about answering a question or solving a problem. If you want to have traffic from search engines, make every blog post solve a problem. Google likes lengthy, meaty articles that solve problems that they can have show up in their search results.

The benefit of focusing on search is that when Google or Pinterest update their algorithms, it's to try to help people get more relevant answers. (As opposed to something like Facebook, who SAYS that it's about relevant content, but is very much about getting people to pay for things to be seen on their page.) 

• Find what questions people have. 
• Find the words they are using to search for answers to this problem. (Use the Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, or Buzz Sumo.)
• Chose a keyword phrase. 
• Use that keyword phrase in your title, the blog post content (1-2% of how many words are in your post), headlines in your post (the H1, H2 settings), in the meta description, as the image description, and as the url. It should feel natural, not like keywords stuffed into a post.

• Create a Vertical Image with post name over the image
• Use the keywords in the pin description. (Update the alt tag of the image in your blog post so that YOUR pin description with the keyword will show up when people click pin it.)
• Use the keywords in the board descriptions for the board you are using (if that makes sense for your board)

If you don't DO anything with your traffic, there is no guarantee that people come to your site once will ever come back. Once people are on your website, you want them to take an action once they are on your site. Melyssa's number one recommendation is to grow your email list. Social media doesn't have the permanency or the intimacy of what an email list has. You OWN those emails, whereas your social followers are out of your control. (If you need more on how to use email, check out the Free Email Course!)

• Have an email subscription form before people have to scroll on your page
• Make it easy for them to opt into your list
• Incorporate content upgrades in posts

Content upgrades are specific downloads tied to a particular blog post. You can create these thinking about what the next step for people that should be taking after the blog post. Create something that will help them get to that point. It can be super simple, like a checklist or a helpful calendar or outline. Use a button in your post and something like LeadPages to get people to sign up.

Melyssa's Tip for the Welcome Email - Be really clear in your first email (or emails if you are doing a sequence) about who you are and the kind of content that you write. Share content that gives them a clear picture of who you are. And then ASK THEM TO UNSUBSCRIBE. The psychology behind this is that if they stay, it's more of a commitment and more of confirmation that they DO want to be a part of your list. This also gives an easy out for the people who don't feel like they are a good fit. 

SumoMe - has welcome mats and other pop-up options

ConvertKit - an email service provider with advanced features (read why I love Convertkit!)

OptinMonster - can A/B test the opt-ins on our site

[My Recommendation is Popup Ally Pro, which gives you 12 different kinds of opt-ins, from welcome mats to pop ups to smart bars. You can also choose whether you want them to show on both desktop and mobile or choose only one or the other! Check them out with my affiliate link HERE.]

Despite the fact that I say every week on the podcast that my audience is writers, bloggers, and creatives, today I'm going to talk about why you DON'T need a blog. No, REALLY. This may go against a lot of common advice, but I think it also relates to the current state of the internet as well as common sense. So, should YOU be blogging? Let's find out!

This episode is sponsored by GoLance! If you do freelance ANYTHING, you need to check this global platform where you can post your profile OR look for people to hire for some of those jobs you need to outsource. It's free to sign up and post. Get after it!

The common advice if you want to make money online is to start a blog. If you want to publish a book, often you will hear that you need to start a blog. WHATEVER IT IS YOU ARE TRYING TO DO ONLINE, people will tell you that you need a blog. But DO you actually need a blog? 

Maybe. But maybe not. 

Before you decide if you need a blog or not, you need to consider your WHY. There are really two things you need to think about this: your end goal in terms of what you want to DO as well as what you want to get OUT of it. In other words, consider what you want to be doing and what the benefits of that thing will be. 

An example would be that you may want to be a writer as your end goal. Your benefit could be that you make a full-time living. OR maybe you want to be a writer, but you mostly care about seeing your books in the hands of readers, not so much about the finances. 

Before you can answer the question of IF you should blog, you need to know the WHY. You should also know what a blog is and what it can or cannot do. So let's take 20 steps back to the history of the blog. 

"Blog" actually comes from the term "web log," which referred to the earliest days of the world wide web as we know it in the 1990s. Livejournal and Blogger became two very popular platforms, launching in 1999. 

2003 saw the launch of Wordpress and Google Adsense, two huge moves. Wordpress would eventually grow to overtake Blogger (which Google purchased in 2002) as a blogging platform. Adsense brought in the idea of monetization, which would gradually and continually shift the nature of blogs. 

In 2005, the first blogger was granted White House Press credentials, marking a shift and a blurred line between blogging and news reporting. The launch of The Huffington Post that same year only solidified this opening of the blog space to include more editorial and news angles than simply the personal. 

With the arrival of Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006, people began engaging on these social platforms in addition to blogs. Soon people used these platforms as vehicles to promote blog posts as well. This plus the Panda update in Google brought the gradual end to the age of "if you write it, readers will come." 

The 2009 film Julie & Julia became one of the first mainstream pop culture references to blogging as something that provide and income and personal success. By 2010, 11% of bloggers were earning their primary income through blogging. 

The past five or so years have seen the rise of more and more blogs as viable income streams and other social media platforms as microblogs, also able to provide an income. Blogs are now much more indistinguishable from web SITES, a far cry from their roots as online diaries. 

For a much more comprehensive timeline of blogging, check out this post from Hubspot!

• You love the blogging platform
• Your end goal is to be a BLOGGER and bring in income through a blog
• You have the time and ability (and enjoy) doing all the social media-building and promoting that goes along with a blog

• If your end goal is NOT blogging
• If you don't have the time to write a blog PLUS do all the things that will drive readers to your blog
• If you don't love writing a blog
• If a blog takes the time away from your WHY (as in, if you are so busy blogging that you can't write your book)
• If you don't have the money or effort or know-how to create a professional blog

A blog can be a vehicle for platform-building. But it may not be the BEST vehicle for you, depending on your goals and how you feel about blogging and all that goes along with it. 

Social media of some kind is a MUST. But rather than simply use it as a vehicle to promote your blog, you could use a particular social media platform INSTEAD of a blog. It could be your main platform and way of connecting with readers. (Check out my Seriously Simple Social Media Guide to help you figure out which platform you need.) 

You can also use other people's platforms. (Read my tips on  leveraging the power of someone else's platform!) Write guest posts or write posts on Medium. Become a contributor on a large site. Apply to have your posts go up on the Huffington Post. 

Consider your best medium. Maybe that's NOT writing. Perhaps it's video. Or more specifically, LIVE video vs edited videos. Maybe you love audio and want to launch a podcast as your main platform and way of connecting readers. 

If you choose NOT to blog or to use another platform, you DO need a website. Many blogs look like websites these days, so I'll be clear about what you need in terms of a website. 

• A static home page with info about your & an opt-in to your email list
• A contact page
• A page about your books, your speaking, or the main thing you do
• Links to your social platforms
• A blog page -  IF YOU WANT ONE

Is a blog right for you? Maybe. Maybe not. Circle back to your goals and your why. The blogosphere is really crowded and a lot of work these days to get traffic and find readers. Which may mean that a blog would take way more time than what results it would bring back. It simply may not be the best vehicle for what you want. 

If you haven't started a blog yet, I might recommend getting your static site up and then considering guest posting or focusing on another social platform that might have an easier entry point than a blog. 

So do YOU need a blog? Leave a comment to let me know what you think about the idea of blogging or NOT blogging. 

When I graduated with an MFA in Fiction in 2007, the publishing landscape was totally different. In fact, traditional publishing and indie publishing were not locked in the awkward battle they are today. Indie publishing was not really a thing. There was only self-publishing, which was viewed as vanity publishing and generally disdained. You only published your own work if you weren't good enough to get published and not realistic enough to admit that to yourself. You would pay a lot of money up front for 500 copies of your book, which might gather dust in your basement. Or the trunk of your car. 

So, where are traditional publishing and indie publishing in 2016? Let's hear what Jane Friedman has to say about it. 

This post contains affiliate links, which means that any purchases you make may provide me with a commission at no extra cost to you! Thanks for supporting my site in this way!

If you are a freelancer or need to hire a freelancer, GoLance makes it free to post jobs or post your resume of the kind of freelance work you do. All my freelancers out there, go check out GoLance! 

Jane started working in publishing right out of college and started the blog at Writer's Digest, There Are No Rules. She has worked for the Virginia Quarterly Review, teaches at the University of Virginia, and has a long speaking and writing career. I love that Jane has an understanding of both traditional publishing and indie publishing. Find Jane on her site, follow her on Twitter, and follow her on Facebook. I would HIGHLY recommend her monthly newsletter, Electric Speed!

• Authors interests and goals are largely the same, not matter how they publish
• What often does separate them is the feeling of being snubbed by the traditional publishing world (Smashwords founder Mark Coker started the company after this kind of rejection!).
• Really successful indies hire formatters and editors and take it seriously. They invest time and money, sometimes more of an investment than you'd get from a traditional publisher. 
• While you may not always know the reason you don't get a (or another) book deal, sometimes the reason is your platform. Publishers need to see that you can sell books. 
• Indies can have more control in many ways because they don't to go through a publisher and can control things themselves. At the same time, the control is now most often in the hands of Amazon, which isn't quite transparent with its business practices. 

Today you have to commit to self-publishing for a few years to see success and traction. Once you are with one, you want some consistency to have a longer time to grow your audience. With traditional publishing, you can easily become a one-and-done deal because if your first book doesn't do well, that's it. Literary writers and poets will not find the same kind of recognition outside of traditional publishing. For those who write genre fiction or really want control, you'll find that with indie publishing. 

Either way you plan to publish, you need a visibility that will translate into book sales. This could be a blog or a social media presence or a podcast. Or it could be offline where you connect with other influencers or with your audience other places. There aren't as many hard and fast rules about exact numbers, but more a sense of what kind of sales you can achieve through your influence. (See my post on Jane's blog about how to leverage other people's platforms for more ideas!) 

You need an author website that is a hub for your content. The site itself doesn't need to change a lot, but will contain all your author information, bio, books, and information. A blog should be connected to that site so that all your traffic is going to one place. If you are sitting there unsure of what you should blog about, may you don't need to. It should be something that is consistent over years. It's  a helpful tool, but you can utilize other social platforms or do interviews on other blogs. You do not HAVE to blog. 

Human beings are marked by curiosity. We often love that peek behind the curtain, both at the writing process and also our personal lives. It requires a level of charm and being able to create an online persona that draws people in. There is a balance where you don't want to crash your career by the way you express yourself online as an author. (I love YA author Sarah Dessen's blog!)

As an instructor, a writer, a coach, and someone with an active online space, Jane has to wear a lot of hats and keep them straight. She breaks up the days and also the weekdays vs weekends, blocking out certain pieces of time for particular tasks to make sure those tasks get done. 

In the past few years, books have move primarily to Amazon, not through brick and mortar stores. 50-60% of all book sales are coming through Amazon, which affects traditional publishing AND indie publishing. The United States is moving toward subscription models (think: Netflix for books) like Kindle Unlimited or Scribd. The traditionally published authors get paid differently-- traditional by a set price per "borrow," while indies get paid by pages read. (Jane doesn't see this lasting and guesses that there will likely be a move to ALL authors paid by pages read, though traditional publishers will likely balk at this. PS- Read about some of the issues with this pages read model HERE.) 

Another trend is serialization, where authors release chapters at a time of their books through something like Wattpad or Tapas. People also read more on mobile devices and this changes how publishers market books for commuters specifically and in other ways. 

The Life House in Wales 

An Intimate History of Humanity

Super Mario Brother's Theme Song with a Trumpet and Handgun

Raise your hand if you've ever been a part of a failed collaborations? Working with other people means you WILL run into trouble. Of various kinds. 

Here are some of the issues you may run into and some tips for dealing with your difficulties!

The famous quote tells us that "the money's in the list." As in, your email list. But for many people, this is still somewhat of a mystery. Marketers and entrepreneurs have this DOWN, but for writers and bloggers, monetizing your email list is often a foreign concept. I'm going to break down a few main ways that you can monetize your list and some best practices to sell to your list without being smarmy. 

For more on email lists, you can check out my Free Email Course or snag my book (which is currently 99 cent!), Email Lists Made Easy for Writers & Bloggers. 

**This post contains affiliate links!**

There are a few main ways that you can monetize your email list as a writer or blogger. You may choose one main way or a combination of a few. 

Affiliate sales are when you promote products for other people and earn a commission when people buy through your link. There are a number of great affiliate opportunities for email, but be sure you check the Terms of Service for your email service provider and also for the company you are an affiliate for. Amazon does NOT allow for affiliate links in email, PDFs, or ebooks.

Be sure that you ALWAYS disclose affiliate links. You should be disclosing BEFORE the first outbound link and in a way that is clear to someone who isn't marketing savvy. (Don't use aff or spon. Those words are not easily understood by a general audience.) Even if the gateway to a paid product is through a free product, DISCLOSE. If there is a cookie involved, you should disclose. (More on the FTC guidelines or check out my post & episode on disclosure!) 

Here are some other sources for affiliate programs: 

Shopping

• Ultimate Bundles - A few times a year there are some high value, great cost bundles of digital books and courses. The Genius Blogger's Toolkit launches this week! Want to be notified when it launches? Click HERE to sign up and hear all about it!
• Grove Collaborative - This is a great affiliate program if you have an audience that deals with the home. Whether that's moms or simply people who want more sustainable and green products, Grove Collaborative has great products & deals.
• Share a Sale - You'll find a number of companies in different niches from parenting and kids to computers and business.
• Commission Junction - This site also has a number of advertisers you can apply to promote as an affiliate.
• Affiliate Window - Another program with a lot of brands including Etsy, Fiverr, & EZPrints! You can also use tools like Convert-a-Link, which will automatically change any links in posts going to an affiliate program with AW into affiliate links.

Tools & Tech

• ConvertKit - This is my top affiliate program. It's my favorite email service provider---not just because of the affiliate program, which pays out 30% every month of what people who sign up under you pay. (Read my post about why I love ConvertKit!)
• Genesis - The Genesis framework is really popular with Wordpress users and has a great affiliate program.
• Your Web Host - I used to recommend BlueHost because I used them and they had a great program. But I had to leave because of service issues. I'm now with SiteGround, but not an affiliate yet. Check out your web host to see if they have a program!
• Tailwind - This Pinterest scheduler is fantastic and also offers $15 or sometimes $30 for anyone who signs up under you.
• Board Booster - This is another Pinterest scheduler that has a $5 referral fee when someone signs up under you.
• AppSumo - I love the deals they offer and you get credit when people buy in with your link. This has enabled me to get a ton of great tools and resources for free.
• Courses, Summits, eBooks & Programs - Many marketers have affiliate programs that they open up. If you hear about a course that suits your audience or really love a particular content creator, contact them to see if you can sign up for their affiliate program. These often pay 30-50% of each sale of several hundred to a thousand dollars.

Do you create online courses or write ebooks? Many people say you SHOULD, but I want to argue that you COULD. This may not be for you if you don't like creating and teaching. (In which case you could be an affiliate for products that relate to your audience.) Some people are afraid to teach or create courses or digital products because they don't feel like enough of an expert. Don't sell yourself short, but don't do it because everyone else is. 

If you aren't sure where to start, consider your most popular posts, the questions people always ask you, or what you're really passionate about. You can also check out the market. Finding other courses or ebooks on the same topic doesn't mean you shouldn't create your own. It's a good validation that there is a market for it. And YOUR people on YOUR list who love YOUR style are more likely to buy YOUR course or product. 

You may be a coach or virtual assistant or help people with the backend of their Wordpress site (like Merri Dennis of WPTech Cafe, my go to when I break things!) As with courses, your people who know you are more likely to hire you for their needs.

Your email subscribers are like validated customers in that they have already taken the time and effort to sign up for your list. They are your BEST chance at making sales. Unlike a follow on Twitter or a like on Facebook, people don't let EVERYONE into the sacred space of the inbox. So if you land a spot there, you are already a step closer to having someone be a customer. (But stay tuned for best practices on how to treat your email subscribers!) 

I don't have a LOT to say here because I've found a few ad networks that do email, but haven't vetted them and can't recommend them. I DO think that sponsored content and ads are going to continue moving into the email space since blogger and writers are way more savvy now than they have been in the past about growing an email list. 

If you already work with brands, your email list is something that you could leverage, either on its own or as part of a package deal with a blog post and other social media shares. Consider reaching out to a brand you've got a relationship with and ask if they'd like to sponsor an email or a month's worth of emails. I do foresee this being a direction that email moves into as more and more bloggers take their lists more seriously. 

The thing about monetizing your email list is that you can't JUST sell. If you've ever been on a list like that, you know how impersonal and how smarmy it feels. You don't feel like a person. You feel like a number or a customer. Here are a few tips to treat your people well. This will establish a better relationship with your people which should naturally result in more sales. 

Always treat your email subscribers like your inner circle. They really have jumped through all the hoops to let you in their inbox, so they should receive great treatment from you. I often give out exclusive content or let them know what I'm up to first. I speak to them more intimately and personally and I encourage replies to email so that I can actually have a RELATIONSHIP with them. Most of the other best practices fall under this umbrella. 

I heard someone once say that if you don't know how to treat a list of 200, you won't know how to treat a list of 2000. No matter what the size of your list, connect. Don't focus on growth alone, but quality growth and actual relationship with those people. If you can effectively reach your small list, you'll learn to scale as you go. 

Make sure your list is valuable. Offer great content that's free before you ever try to sell things to your people. There should be a nice balance when it comes to the proportion of value offered and sales presented to your list. 

A lot of this (to me) hinges on disclosure. I've gotten so many promotions for so-and-so's free webinar/book/video series. No disclosure. But having been on the back end of these same programs, what I know is that there are cash prizes (SIGNIFICANT cash) for those who get the most signups. And that those free things attach a cookie that result in a commission if there is a sale down the line, even months later.

This feels like a breach of trust when there is no disclosure. Because it DOES affect how I feel if someone promotes simply because they support the product OR because they get a commission. It doesn't mean the product is any less good, just that we should KNOW about that relationship. The FTC agrees, so remember to disclose clearly. 

I think a lot of bloggers and writers struggle with selling if they haven't been trained in business or sales copy. This means that often when we try to sell, it feels stiff and awkward and it's overall ineffective. What you need is to find your selling "voice."

I've talked about finding your writing voice before and your selling voice is similar. It's the way that you sell that feels and sounds natural to you and to your readers. It should feel familiar and authentic. It should be confident. It should be clear. 

If you are struggling with confidence, you should ask yourself these two questions:

1. Am I not confident because sales makes me uncomfortable?
2. Am I not confident because I'm selling something I feel uncomfortable about? 

If you fall into the first camp, then you simply need to sell more. Get more comfortable and confident in your sales. If it's the second, then you need to consider NOT selling that product or being an affiliate for that product. There is nothing worse than promoting something you really aren't sure of just for the money. Ew! Don't do that. 

I don't think that you have to have tried or currently use every product you promote. But be sure you can stand behind it (because you trust the creator or have seen the back end or used it in the past when it was a better fit for you) and that it's a good fit for your people. 

Monetizing your list can result in more income than monetizing your blog or other social media. It can be more enjoyable too, because you are providing for a need that your audience has through a personal relationship. 

Facebook groups are a useful tool to build your business, either as a group owner or a group member. Much of the advice recently about finding your perfect readers or customers is to use Facebook groups. The only problem? This has created a culture of people behaving badly in groups. From shameless self-promotion to poaching group members, people seem to have forgotten their manners. 

The easiest, overarching thing to remember in a Facebook group is that it's not YOUR group. 

• Follow the rules (listed usually in a pinned thread or in the description in the side)
• Listen before you speak when you join a group- see the culture
• When in doubt about posting, ask the group owner. 
• DON'T JUST DROP LINKS TO YOUR POSTS/SALES PAGES/OPT-INS. (unless that is allowed in the group)
• DON'T POST YOUR AFFILIATE LINKS TO PRODUCTS. (unless that is allowed in the group)
• DON'T POST YOUR PRODUCTS IF THEY DIRECTLY COMPETE WITH THE GROUP OWNER'S PRODUCTS.
• DON'T COPY AND PASTE THE SAME MESSAGE TO MULTIPLE GROUPS AT THE SAME TIME. IT'S GROSS. 

If you want to bring value to the group, you can engage in conversations and respond if people ask questions. When it comes to posting content in the group, make sure what you are posting is not a thinly guised, smarmy promotion, but something that's actually helpful.

Remember that you didn't build the group. This is someone else's work. If you feel bitter that you can't share or build your own platform from the group because of the rules, you may be there for the wrong reasons. Build your OWN group. 

Many people join the larger groups because they are unhappy with their own group and want to access more people. 

REMEMBER that at one time, that giant group was small. It grew because that group owner valued the people in it. 

• Don't add people without permission. 
• Promote discussion. 
• Allow people to share links, even if that's within threads, not on the wall. 
• Be a good moderator. 
• Be present.
• Don't just schedule all the posts for the group. 
• Value members with exclusive content. 
• Use Facebook Live. 
• Disclose Affiliate Links. 

Pinterest is my favorite social media platform. Well. My favorite for TRAFFIC. As an introvert, it's also my favorite because I DON'T HAVE TO TALK TO PEOPLE THERE. Pinterest is actually more search engine than social platform. Surprised? This interview with Alex Evjen from AVE Styles is going to give you Pinterest best practices so you can use the platform like a pro to drive traffic. 

 Connect with Alex!

Find her on her blog, Pinterest, or Instagram. If you gel with her style, she also has some fabulous (and affordable) classes! I'm an affiliate for them (and you KNOW I'm only an affiliate if I love things, right?) if you want to dive deeper with Alex after this interview! Browse her Pinterest classes to see if one suits your current needs. 

Alex was an early adopter, using the platform for her personal stylist business. She was able to replace bulky binders of magazine clippings with a simple, easy-to-use digital format of Pinterest. As an avid user, she gained the attention of Pinterest's founder and has actually been invited TO Pinterest headquarters where she has received training on Pinterest best practices. Who better to share with us today? 

• Be a great content curator. Share content from other people that lines up with your overall brand. Pin what you love and are genuinely interested in. 
• Being a curator establishes you as an expert. 
• Be an early adopter! Pinterest isn't new, but it is rolling out new things like VIDEO. When you get on board with a platform's new direction, that platform often gives back to you. 
• Even though there are some great tools and schedulers, you should log into the Pinterest platform daily and interact. 
• Alex repins 90% from other people and 10% from her own site. (That 10% includes repinning her pins that are from her site, not just pinning from her site directly.)
• Use rich pins. This means that Pinterest has approved your site and knows it's legit. It helps your pins show up higher in search. 

Interaction on Pinterest looks like: repinning content mostly. Likes and comments can actually help, but most people don't do them. 

• Don't hate the algorithm! It helps bring up the best content and doesn't favor the power pinners like Alex with millions of followers. 
• Older pins have years or months of engagement, so those pins may surface higher. Don't delete your old pins! Give them time to grow. 
• Create evergreen content that won't become obsolete in years to come. 
• Seasonal content does do well, but 
• The half-life of a pin is 30 days, but the full life of a pin is well over a year. This means you won't see the full potential for over a year and that you should be pinning time-relative content 30 or more days out. 
• You want content that's attainable and actually will help someone. 
• Your descriptions should contain keywords and robust descriptions. Think of what people will search for. Describe what's in the photo and maybe add how someone could use the thing or a context in which it might be used. 
• Board covers now show your latest activity, so you need to make sure you are pinning great images so that your board covers will show the things that are the aesthetic of your brand. 
• Every pin should be a quality pin that is an extension of your brand. 

• People are more likely to follow ALL of your Pinterest board if you have fewer. 
• If Pinterest sees that your boards are active, Pinterest is more likely to recommend them and have them show up in the algorithm. 
• The algorithm scores your profile. Dead, inactive boards hurt you. 
• Don't delete boards because that could get rid of followers. Repin those pins to other boards. Check analytics to see how many people follow those boards. (Tailwind is an approved third-party app that can help with that.) 
• You CAN move a board to secret, but that will take away the followers. 

She logs in daily and uses Pinterest itself, not a scheduling tool.

Her perfect number of pins/repins is around 25 a day. 

She shares 90% of other people's content and 10% her own.

If you are on boards that are just made up of bloggers pinning their own and each other's content, Pinterest KNOWS. These kinds of boards are having their content pushed down. It can hurt you to be on these boards and the boards can even be shut down. 

Group boards are supposed to be collaborative and share great content, not a way for bloggers to game the system. Consider your group boards and how people behave. If your traffic is dependent on this traffic, then beware because this is not going to last.

She has four classes (or a package of all) that are affordable and deal with creating the perfect pin, how to create a strong business profile, driving traffic to your blog, and how to grow your following. Find her classes through my affiliate link HERE. 

If you hadn't noticed, many people are utilizing challenges and courses to grow an audience, bring in revenue, and build their brand. You can create free or paid challenges and courses, serving to explode your email list or bring in passive income. Ready to learn more about using challenges and courses for YOUR brand?

***Can you take a moment to tell me about yourself? Click HERE to fill out a super simple 5-question demographic listener survey! ***

Connect with Jennifer

• Blog
• Smart Detox (starting in December!!)
• Info on Sabbatical Sessions
• Instagram

How Jennifer Runs Her Detox Challenges

• When people sign up, they get the content dripped out over Mailchimp autoresponders.
• The content is a mix of PDFs and video content shared or linked to in the emails.
• You can sign up evergreen and go through the detox or at one of a 3-4 times a year with a group.
• There is a Facebook group for the detox that mostly is active during the group challenges.
• Once you buy, you are in it for life and still have access to the program guide and can restart a challenge when another group challenge starts up.

Evergreen Challenges vs Group Challenges

If people want to buy and are interested, evergreen offers a chance for people to start now and not wait. But the accountability piece and the group piece of doing a challenge together has been more popular and more successful for people. People can post successes or slip-ups, which helps them and also the group as a whole. 

Promoting a Challenge

• If there is a time that makes more sense (like right after Christmas for a health challenge), plan around that. Start promoting ahead of the event, but have the start date relate to that key time of year. 
• Have pictures that promote on Instagram and social media that give a teaser for the content of the challenge and have links in social profiles go to the signup page.
• Ask other people to share images and posts on social media for you to help promote. 

Planning a Course

Start with a targeted audience in mind

Solve the problem or pain point that you know that specific target has

Speak the language of those people so they resonate

How Content Will Be Consumed

Decide between dripped content (released one week at a time), evergreen content (where people can access everything and bing if they want), or live courses (where you literally set dates and show up live to teach.

What Kind of Content 

You can have live videos (for the live course option), videos of you talking to the camera, or videos of you talking over slides. Or you don't have to use video at all! I've taken courses that are a mix of video and audio or written content. Just know that many people EXPECT video, so if you are using another format, be up front about this. 

Where Content Will Be Hosted 

You have the option to build out a course yourself using membership software and course software OR hosting it somewhere else like Teachable, where you pay monthly and/or transaction fees to have someone else host your content. With both, you own your content, but when you host it yourself you have more control, which ALSO means you are responsible for the issues that arise. (Story of my life as I type this.) Even things like an affiliate program are tied into Teachable's platform!

When you use another platform, you don't have to worry about the tech side, but it means your things are at another place and you are dependent on that platform's limitations. There are not great free options, so realize that you will be paying either monthly/transaction fees (with another hosted program) or paying for the course/membership software. 

If you can't decide between self-hosting and having it hosted somewhere else, don't let this decision hold you back if you're ready to get moving. Consider your big picture why and your current needs. If you take the time to learn all the software yourself, will you be losing out on potential revenue? Worse-case scenario, you can put things up on Teachable and move the content later if you want a membership site or something self-hosted. 

When looking at software and plugins for hosting yourself, consider all the pieces you will need. For courses, you'll need to set up and take payments, protect content, have a course interface, and a way to capture emails and communicate with the students. Those are the BASIC needs. You may also want to have the option to drip out content through the software or have it connect to your email service provider to drip content that way. Each of these pieces may be included or may be extras that cost more money. You'll also have to consider how to run an affiliate program. Sometimes this may be included and sometimes you will need a separate plugin to handle the affiliate piece. 

Using an Affiliate Program

Teachable makes this SIMPLE and people can automatically be added to the affiliate program. Your happy customers are the best salespeople for your products. You may want to consider using different language for your affiliates (but still clear under the FTC for disclosure!), but you can control how you talk to your people about being an affiliate and help train them to be better affiliates and share with their people in a way that isn't smarmy. 

Final Thoughts from Jennifer: Consider your actual passion. Where can you take less time to do something that ISN'T your passion or isn't something that needs YOU in it, you can save more of yourself to do the things that you really love or that need you personally involved with them.