Grow Your Audience

Just a few months ago, Facebook announced (another) big algorithm change that will make it even more challenging for businesses to gain exposure and connect with their audiences. But are we really that surprised? We’ve seen it happen again and again and again, not just with Facebook, but with Pinterest and Instagram and even with Google. And I suppose if we are relying solely on Facebook to build our business, these algorithm changes are a HUGE blow. But that’s the point — we should never be building our businesses on someone else’s platform. Facebook (and Pinterest… and Instagram… and Twitter… and all the other platforms out there) are amazing tools to expand our reach. And if we can ride that wave and use it to connect withRead More

In my experience, there are two common types of people in the blogosphere. On one end of the spectrum is the total perfectionist. They’re so worried about their post being completely perfect that they never actually write or publish anything. On the other end of the spectrum is the “just get it done” person. They just slap whatever they feel like on a page, hit publish, and move on. And unfortunately for both types, neither of them is the most effective way to blog. Whether you’re a total perfectionist or a “get it done” kind of person, we’ve got a solution that will help you make sure you’re getting the most out of every blog post: An after-writing-your-blog-post checklist. Because the truth is that writingRead More

Let’s start with a quick little exercise — you ready? It’s time for a pop quiz! Without looking at the rest of this post, grab a pen and write down how many hours you spend on your blog each week. Then I want you to break that number down into how you’re spending your time. Are you writing posts? Brainstorming topics? Posting on social media? Doing research? Anything and everything you do for your blog, write it down — and write down how much time you spend on it. Got it? Great. Now, I want you to go back and look at that list. Is one of your items “building your email list”? If so, what percentage of your time are you spending on buildingRead More

Have you ever noticed that sometimes, when it comes to blogging, writing is the easiest part? Because after you’ve written a really great post, then comes the real challenge: promoting it! After all, when we promote our content, it’s like we’re saying to the world, “I made this.” We’re really putting ourselves out there, and every time we put ourselves out there, it’s a little bit scary. Because once we put something out into the world, it’s open for people to judge. Because we tend to put our hearts and souls into what we write, and it’s easy to get into the mindset of “if someone hates our content and thinks it’s terrible, it means they hate us and think we’re terrible.” Obviously, that isn’t true, but it canRead More

So many of the questions we get here at EBA are about social media. “How do you find so much content to share on social media? I barely have time to focus on my business, let alone read and share other people’s content!” “When it comes to sharing my own posts on social media, how much is too much?” “I have more than one blog and I’m really struggling to manage all the platforms — Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ — for both. How do I find the time to manage all of my social media profiles?” “Which social media platforms are the best bet for bloggers?” And so on and so forth. Social media can be totally overwhelming — especially for new bloggers. There’s soRead More

Guest posting can be a really amazing tool for new bloggers. When it’s done strategically, guest blogging is a great way to get our content in front of a new audience, make valuable connections, and tap into a whole new traffic source. The keyword here is strategically. Writing a guest post takes time and energy, so if we’re going to do it, we want to be sure it’s time and energy well spent. It’s not about guest posting wherever we can. It’s about guest posting on blogs that will justify that time and energy, and deliver the results we’re looking for. But how do we decide which blogs are best for our guest posts? And once we figure out which blogs we want to post on,Read More

Have you ever noticed, whether you’ve been blogging for a while or are just getting started, that bloggers tend to be a tiny bit–dare I say it–obsessive when it comes to traffic? “I need traffic.” “Where is my traffic coming from?” “How do I get more page views?!” And while I totally get the logic behind this thinking (more people = more money, right?), the reality is that in the long run, obsessing over traffic is not the line of thinking that will get us to where we want to go. In other words? If you really want to take your blog to the next level, you need to stop playing the traffic game. A Quick Overview of Traffic Now, don’t get me wrong — I’mRead More

Here’s a scenario I see happening a lot in the blogging world: Karen started her blog about 10 months ago. She has a TON of content… but unfortunately, that’s about all she can say. She’s not seeing any results — not a lot of traffic, not a lot of income. She can’t quite figure it out and all she knows is that it’s not working. She’s so frustrated! She’s been writing and writing and writing — and it feels like nothing ever comes from it. Every day she wonders, “should I keep going… or should I throw in the towel?” On the one hand, Karen doesn’t want to give up on a blog she feels passionate about. But on the other hand, she doesn’t wantRead More