Lesson Info
21. Hot Seat: Four Blog Post Ideas
Lessons
Class Introduction
03:40 2How to Get Traffic to Your Online Store (With One Simple Marketing Action)
16:56 3But I Don't Have Time to Blog
12:36 4Setting Up Your Blog (as Quickly as Possible)
15:35 5Hot Seat: Choose Your Blogging Platform
03:32 6How to Turn a Social Media Post into a Blog Post
19:59 7Challenge: Turn a Social Media Post into a Blog Post
02:17 8The Role of Blogging in Your Business
21:15Creating Ideal Customer Profiles for Your Blog
18:30 10Hot Seat: Ideal Customer Profile
18:16 11Choosing an Angle for Your Blog
16:59 12Hot Seat: Choosing an Angle for Your Blog
05:14 13Challenge: Find Blogs to Inspire Your Content Strategy
02:46 14What Should You Blog About: Content Ideas for Your Blog
21:48 15Choosing Your Content Mix
01:47 16Hot Seat: Choosing Your Content Mix
06:58 17Creating Compelling (and Search-friendly) Post Titles
13:18 18Using Images in Your Blog Posts
22:51 19Tutorial: Creating Product Round-up Images for Your Blog
11:14 20Challenge: Brainstorm Your Next Four Blog Post Ideas
01:44 21Hot Seat: Four Blog Post Ideas
09:48 22Tutorial: How to Put a Blog Post Together
10:21 23Promoting Your Blog Posts
14:57 24Getting the Most Out of Your Blog
10:25 25Hot Seat: Blog Critique
06:22 26Measuring Results and Maintaining Momentum
25:37Lesson Info
Hot Seat: Four Blog Post Ideas
I wanna start by running through this process with our in-studio audience, and make sure that they feel comfortable and have their four blog post ideas, which, remember, if you're posting once a week, gives you a whole month worth of content. So who wants to jump up here and talk about blog post ideas? Tawny? Sure. Do it. (laughter) Let's just continue... We've been talking to you for a while anyway, so let's just get you up here. So, especially because I know we're pushing you to maybe do some posts that feel a little less comfortable. So let's come up with some ideas for those. So, if you think about it, remember, it's topic plus our post type equals our content idea. And we've got some product posts to choose from. And if you're like, no, I wanna do a lifestyle one we'll flip over to that list, or a brand one, we'll flip over to that list. So, remind us again first of all who you are, what you do, and then what topics you're focusing on for your blog. Tawny Reynolds. I make je...
welry at Sundrop Jewelry. And I'm focusing on jewelry and ecosustainability. And I don't remember my third one. I believe it was color. Thank you. (laughter) This is why I bring people up who have already done this. So I can help you remember. (laughter) Alright, so let's start thinking of some blog post ideas. What's a topic you wanna cover first? A preview post of new colors that I'm coming out with. Ahhh, okay, so new colors. OK, I'm gonna, we're gonna, alright... I'm gonna make you come up with four post ideas that are about bringing in new customers because I'm gonna push you outside your comfort zone while I'm here right now. So a preview post about new color ideas is a great idea, but what's something you can do with color and maybe a roundup post, if you're thinking about that, or any kind of post. What's something to do with color that's going to attract new customers instead? (laughter) This is why you're up here. Yes. Okay, so, it could be this or it could be... Remember again, it can be, like, more of a brand post too. But ideally it's great if your product is involved. Yes. So what's something with color that you think your ideal customer, might attract them in? Well, inspiration posts were also kind of for existing customers. Some of them, yeah. Usually those, usually inspiration is kinda more about what's behind the scenes in your product and existing. So, tell again, remind us... I still don't have a good... Sense of your customer. Sense of, well, I don't have a good sense of which ones are best for new customers. Okay, so generally, some of the ones that you're probably looking at are either just general lifestyle posts, non-product how-to posts, or like a product roundup or how-to product and use post can also work that way, as well. So let's maybe start with an easier one because I know we're thinking about this ecosustainability thing. So, maybe, what's a non-product how-to post idea around the ecosustainability thing that your customer would be interested in? We'll circle back to the harder ones. OK. I had a "what to buy your bridesmaids for your eco-friendly wedding". Perfect! Perfect! Look at that. So, what to buy... That's exactly something that someone would look for. ...bridesmaids for eco-friendly wedding. The other thing, so when you're thinking about ideas like this, too, so you have the question, but in this case you can also think about search terms they might literally just search "eco-friendly bridesmaid gift" so that you may want to throw the word... So if you know that, you know that with this question you're missing a keyword, which is "gift". So, somewhere, like, I would use this if you were using this as your post title, then maybe in your alt-image text or somewhere like that, you could use "eco-friendly bridesmaid gifts". Or even, like, gifts, or even "gift ideas". Right? So, sometimes I like to just run through these options and then I'll dump some of those in other places so that I'm hitting some more keywords. But that's a perfect one. Alright, what else? Well, with color... Inspired one of my jewelry designs that's inspired by flowers and that happens to be in one of the new colors or that really matches up with one of the new colors. So, it's an actual, is it an actual Pantone color? Or new colors of what? New colors of jewelry, so like this. Right, so your new colors matches up with a particular flower. Yes. Okay. Wisteria, it's, yeah. So, what about something like, what do you think we could do with that? I was going for something like the one you showed us (laughter) was where my mind was going with that. Okay, you mean like an outfit roundup post or something like that. The earlier blog post with the monastery earring. Oh, okay, right. So, something like that, like inspired by wisteria, right. Yeah. Or you could even do, another thing would be like, "how to bring wisteria into your wardrobe" maybe, or something like that. Right? So that's a way to kind of... That sounds great! More how-to helpful. So like, how to bring... I have no idea how to spell wisteria. W-I, yeah. Wisteria? Cool. Into, I like alliteration so that's why I thought of that immediately. And again, maybe this is not exactly what you want to do. I'm clearly coming at this with some of my own bias. But again, something to think about. And maybe, like, because not everyone is going to search for that, then like again you could use like, "how to bring", like, "how to wear pale purple" or something like that, too. So you can think about what they might actually search for as well. Yeah. Okay, what about, maybe it's like a roundup post using color or using something. Or is there another ecosustainability post that you can do? I've already talked a lot about the recycle aspect, and none of the new colors are recycled, so... Okay Can't really go there. Gotcha, alright. But that doesn't mean, again, your blog doesn't have to necessarily always be about new things, right? It can be about old things. So you may have already talked about it, but it doesn't mean that you, that there aren't other angles to talk about it. And again, you could talk about it. It doesn't always have to be specific to your product. Right, so if you're thinking about this ecosustainability angle, are there just other general lifestyle posts or other things like that, that you can do, as well. Again, the ones that go back to your product are the best, but they don't always have to be like that. Because I think that may be your challenge. Is that you are trying too hard to make everything go back to your product and because of that you're not creating enough content that might just bring in your ideal customer. Sure. So what else do you think you could do around maybe, like, an ecosustainability post? Maybe in the brand standpoint. And in your case, too, I mean you could do... I haven't looked at your blog to go through all of your content, but, you could think about doing more of, like, the general behind the scenes or inspiration and tying it in with the ecosustainability angle to make it feel like it's going to attract new people, right? Yeah. So that's something that I would think about, as well. So maybe it's something like, you know, just "what inspires my eco-friendly jewelry" or something like that? Sure. Because then you've at least got the keyword of, like, "eco-friendly jewelry". Okay. So starting to think about it that way, as well. Yeah. What else can we do? Another idea? What do you, do you actually have a few? What do you got? Let's talk about some other ideas that you have. I had an awesome testimonial about a pair of cobalt blue earrings that I made from Skyy vodka bottles. Okay. And she said that they got more attention than her diamond and sapphire ring. Alright, so, which is awesome, that's an amazing testimonial. But, literally, maybe the post title is "jewelry made from Skyy..." Is Skyy two y's? Yes. "Skyy vodka bottles". Right? And then we throw in the customer testimonial from there. So we can use this amazing customer testimonial, but maybe try to do that. And here's the thing. Someone may not be searching for jewelry made from Skyy vodka bottles. It's not something you probably wake up and think, I'm gonna search this, but this is the kind of content that I think would do really well on Pinterest. Because someone's gonna say, like, "jewelry made from Skyy vodka bottles, "that's so cool! "I'm gonna pin that. "I'm gonna click on that." So then you can use the customer testimonial but think about what the right keywords are or what the idea is that's going to attract people. So it's probably not going to attract people to say, like, "my blue earrings, "my cobalt blue earrings got more attention "than my diamonds and sapphires." That's not really the phrase that people are looking for, but they might be looking for something like this and then within that you tell the story. And then they're like, "whoa, that's so cool" and then when they click over to your shop, you're like, "well that's so much cheaper than (laughter) "a diamond or a sapphire, right?" So sometimes it's just taking some of those ideas that feel like they're not about attracting new people and giving them this kind of spin. Okay . Does that feel easier to do than always coming up with the other ideas? Yes. Okay. So that's where we're going to start you down that path for now, is thinking about how you can take those ideas that you're having that are more about the building trust and the overcoming objections and give them these little spins that are going to help you attract new customers. Okay. Perfect.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Trang Le
I don't agree with Megan's assessment that writing a how-to process will only attract your peers and competitors, not your ideal customers. I know a lot of graphic designers who post design tutorials frequently and it only helps raising their profiles. Writing a how-to post doesn't have to be like shooting in your foot because: * You don't have to share everything. There's more to great designs than knowing how to draw a certain thing. Composition, color, typography etc all come into play. * Even if you're given a step by step tutorial, it's very likely that you will stumble into a lot of issues or it takes you too much effort and time to complete it and it's better to hire a professional designer. Web building tutorials are everywhere, but web developers and designers still have their places. There's a big difference between knowing and understanding. * Even if you're professional designer, sometimes it's better to buy from your colleague than to make it on your own because no designer is excellent at every aspect of design and for a designer, time is as much valuable as money. For example, web designer may need to purchase custom typefaces from a font designers, and reading a blog which indicates that the writer knew his stuff will inform the web designer to make a rightful decision. Other than that, the course is rich information packed with a lot of actionable strategies and real fact about the blogging landscape.
Varvara Lyalyagina
I went straight to Polyvore and created a blog post. Not as fast as Megan was talking but who cares the blog post created and this is the best result of the training. http://hometocome.com/2017/05/plany-na-leto-2017.html Feeling super motivated. Megan makes it sound easy to complete and absolutely not overwhelming. This training is like a fresh air. Thank you!
a Creativelive Student
Lucky me! I stumbled upon this class and watched in live on air last night. I've now bought it! There is gold in this class and totally recommend it to anyone. Megan is so easy to listen to and I'm looking at her other classes too! Thanks Megan. You just made blogging a lot more fun! x