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T H E B LO G G I N G B U N D L E W I T H L AC Y B O G G S

2© FEMALE ENTREPRENEUR ASSOCIATION

The Blogging Bundle

With Lacy Boggs, founder of The Content Direction Agency

Discover how to create your editorial calendar, write powerful blog posts to get your audience to love you more & promote them effectively.



Blogging is one of the most valuable tools us entrepreneurs have as a way to communicate and engage with our audience. In fact, a HubSpot survey found that 60% of businesses that blog acquire more customers. Why? Because your blog gives your business a voice. It ’s a way for you to communicate what’s at the heart and soul of your business, it ’s a way for you to communicate your value to your audience, it ’s a way for you to add value to your audience and get them to fall in love with your brand.

When you create amazing blog posts that wow and delight your audience they will keep working for you over and over again.

FOR EXAMPLE…

In the past 30 days 8880 people visited one of my blog posts...

It was a blog post I published back in May of 2015 called, “How we made $250k in 5 days using Google Hangouts”. I haven’t touched that blog post in months, but it ’s out there in the online world, working its magic for me and attracting my dream audience to the online home of the Female Entrepreneur Association.

I have to do a good job at delighting my readers...

Once those people hit my site, the blog post has to do a good job at delighting them - I aim to do this by sharing really actionable steps and teaching people something that will enable them to build their business.

I have to lead them to take the action I want them to take...

So I’l l include a lead magnet to encourage those people to get more involved with FEA - it could be a specific lead magnet we’ve created that goes along with that particular post (in the case of the post I mentioned above, I created a worksheet to help them put the tips into action).

I build the relationship with them...

Once they sign up I build the relationship with them, by sharing more valuable content with them - more blog posts, every week. Consistency is the key :)



Are you ready to get started?

Since starting FEA in 2011 I’ve been working away on weaving my web of valuable blog posts to help me expand my reach and wow my audience. These blog posts have helped me to turn website visitors into fans, subscribers and customers.

So many people joined the Members’ Club, because they’d been receiving my blog posts for months and really loved what I was creating and so wanted to check out the Members’ Club (maybe you were one of them).

One way or another you have to communicate your value to your audience and blogging is a fantastic way to do that, so my goal with this bundle is to help you weave a wonderful web of powerful blog posts that can work their magic for you.

I realise that there’s a very high possibility that you’re already blogging, if you are, don’t fret, this bundle will still be helpful for you. It will help you to blog more effectively and efficiently.

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR FEATURED EXPERT

LACY BOGGS

For this bundle we collaborated with the amazing wordsmith Lacy Boggs, founder of The Content Direction Agency. In this bundle Lacy is going to share with you...

EDITORIAL CALENDARHow to create an editorial calendar, so you can keep up with blogging! No more feeling like you’re on a content creation hamster wheel that you can’t keep up with!

POWERFUL BLOG POSTS How to create a powerful blog post that your audience will love.

PROMOTINGHow to promote your posts and get them in front of your audience.



We all need an editorial calendar of some kind, without one, creating regular content is overwhelming and hard to keep up with! It ’s best to sit down and create one either at the beginning of every quarter or every six months.

Let’s start now by making a plan for the next quarter!

As we create your editorial calendar we’re going to focusing on the 5 Ws:

PART ONE

CREATING YOUR EDITORIAL CALENDAR

WHY WHO WHEN

WHERE WHATHOW

(BONUS)

These elements are going to help make sure that the content you create is going to get you the results you want. There’s no point in writing for the sake of it.



STEP ONE • THE WHY

Look at your launch & sales cycles

When we dedicate time to blogging for our business, we’re not doing it for ourselves, we’re doing it to impact our audience. We want to add value and delight them so much that they’ll want to hang out with us more, we’re doing it because we want them to take specific action: either becoming a subscriber or becoming a customer. We absolutely do not want them to come and read our post and then disappear forever.

However, the big thing to remember is that MOST people are not going to buy something straight from your blog. So the blog is the first step in your marketing funnel.

I l ike to think of your business’ blog as a long-form sales letter dripped out over time. You’re leading people down a predetermined path, grabbing their attention, holding their interest, generating desire, and asking them to take action. If you do this regularly with your blog you will sell more. Easy as that.

So, when I’m planning out an editorial calendar, I l ike to put blog posts into a sequence that leads people to a purchase. It ’s called AIDA, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

ATTENTION

In an ideal situation, you start maybe six weeks before your launch with a big Attention-grabbing post; this should be something that challenges their assumptions and grabs onto them. It ’s also great to promote your opt-in here, or a content upgrade (which is smaller opt-in that goes with just that post).

The idea is to get as many eyeballs as possible on your blog and get as many people as possible opting in. Plan to promote this post HEAVILY. You might even do two big attention posts back to back if you can swing it, or one on your blog and a guest post somewhere else. The goal is LOTS of people seeing this post and opting in.

INTEREST

Next you want to do a series of Interest posts; these are going to hold your readers’ interest and make them want to keep coming back for more. You want to expand on the ideas you were challenging in your attention post, analyze WHY your method/product/ideas are different, and really give them a taste of what your product is all about.

In these posts, you’re going to sprinkle in priming phrases that get people comfortable with the idea that you’re selling something. You might say, “I go over this in much more detail in my upcoming course,” or “There’s just no way to teach all of this in a blog post, which is why I’m going to be offering one on one consults.” Etc.



DESIRE

You want to end with a couple of posts that generate DESIRE for your product. Case studies are great for this, but you might also just write a post highlighting your own experience or asking them to imagine how different their life would be with your product.

With ALL of these posts, your goal is to get people to opt-in, so you want to tie in your opt-in or a new (smaller) content upgrade at every possible opportunity.

ACTION

Finally, you can choose to write a post announcing your new product (which would be the ACTION part of the equation) or you can do that announcement through email. If you’ve set up your offer to be irresistible to your ideal reader, you should be good to go.

You can also choose to REPEAT the sequence (AIDA) through your email during your launch period, writing new content that hits the same buttons. In this case, the final action email is probably a “Last chance! Cart closing!” sort of email.

HOW TO USE SALES CYCLES IF YOU’RE NOT LAUNCHING A NEW PRODUCT

(EVERGREEN PRODUCTS OR SERVICES)

With evergreen products and services, I l ike to go through the calendar and mark off big holidays and events that might tie in with your product or service: back to school, Christmas, Valentine’s day, etc. and start from there and work backwards.

So, let’s say you have a product that kids might need for school, and you want to do a back to school push. You pick a date and work backwards. So on, say, September 1st, you’re going to have the “action” part of your cycle, suggesting they buy your product for the school year. From there, you work BACKWARDS to support that call to action.

Two or three weeks before Sept. 1, you would be posting interest posts, educating your consumer on why the product is good for school.

And the week before that, you would put together one or more big attention-grabbing posts, getting as many eyeballs as possible on your blog.

Now, what do you do if those holidays are more than 6–8 weeks apart?

Well, in those “down” times when you’re not “launching” something, I’d focus on producing more epic content: It could be a series of posts, an ebook, a webinar, an interview series, a single post… anything that hits all the requirements for an epic post (we’ll talk more about creating epic content later on).



ACTION TO TAKE

What are your goals for creating blog posts? Why do you want to create them?

What launches or sales cycles have you got going on that you want to align your blog posts with?



STEP TWO • THE WHEN

Put your launches, sales or sales cycles in the calendar

Now that you’re clear on your writing goals, let’s map out your calendar with your launches and sales cycles over the next 90 days, so that you can start planning your content.

MONTH 1 MONTH 2 MONTH 3



STEP THREE • THE WHAT & WHO

Create the topics

Now, take some time to brainstorm relevant content ideas that go with the freebies, products or services you want people to sign up for/buy over the next 90 days.

What kind of posts could you create that would go hand in hand with the goals you have for the next quarter?

Remember the AIDA formula when you’re brainstorming as well.

1.

WHICH TOPICS WILL GRAB THE MOST ATTENTION?

2.

WHICH ONES WILL TEACH THEM SOMETHING NEW AND

HOLD THEIR INTEREST?

3.

HOW CAN YOU GENERATE DESIRE FOR YOUR PRODUCT

OR SERVICE?

4.

WHEN (AND HOW) WILL YOU ASK THEM TO TAKE ACTION?

If you’re promoting something for more than 4 blog posts, you can always double up on any of the first three kinds of posts in the sequence. (You probably only ask them to take action once, though!)



MY CONTENT IDEAS



Carrie ’s experience of this . . .

Whenever I have a launch coming up I always create relevant blog posts to go along with it and get people excited about it. For example, when I run the Mission for March challenge I kick it all off with a blog post that leads into Mission for March.

My aim is to add value, raise awareness of the free challenge and get people to sign up for it.

Every Tuesday while the challenge is going on I create blog posts that are relevant to the challenge in some way to get people involved. I do the same thing when I open enrollment for the Members’ Club - I plan out my blog posts to go hand in hand with the launch.



1. Share your manifesto

2. Write connection content — makes a connection between you and another post/blog

3. Interview frenemies (or profile bigwigs)

4. Share reviews of other products/services

5. Host blog carnivals/linkups — this is where you invite other bloggers to link their posts on your page, with the idea being that you will get lots of traffic, and the other bloggers will l ink back to you.

6. Influential people round-up post — ie: 35 graphic designers to watch in 2016

7. Share an over-the-top generous free-resource post — make a list of all of YOUR free resources, or of all the free resources you can find out there

8. Share an (almost) too good to be true results post — this is like a case study, but with a crazy click-bait headline like, “How I Grew My Email List 1547% in Two Days!” (could also be a desire post)

9. Write a soul-baring personal post

10. Write the “Ultimate Guide” post — create the ultimate guide to *something* that your audience is interested in; Neil Patel of Quicksprout is the master of this (also an interest post)

11. Answer a question no one else in your industry is answering

12. “What other people are saying about X”

13. What if X? (try to find something outrageous to draw attention, like what if the Internet had never been invented)

14. Write a parody post

15. Create and share a checklist

16. Create and share an infographic

17. Moderate a debate between two experts — if there are two experts in your niche who disagree, lay out both of their arguments and compare

18. Share your data (traffic stats, expenses, income, whatever)

19. Host contests, drawings, etc.

20. Share a presentation you gave (SlideShare, audio recording, etc.)

21. Share “where I’ve been” or “where I’m going to be” post of your speaking/blogging/whatever schedule

22. Live-blog a conference or event

HERE ARE SOME BLOG POST IDEAS YOU COULD THINK ABOUT CREATING:



23. Give kudos — X people doing it right, brands I love, etc.

24. Write an opinion / editorial

25. Riff on things happening in the cultural zeitgeist: memes, holidays, current events, pop culture

26. Create shareable images

27. Share your autobiography

28. Answer a question from your email, comments section, or social media

29. Confess a weakness

30. Showcase a new product, app, or tool you purchased for your business and how you plan to use it

31. Profile an employee or partner

32. Answer your fan mail or hate mail

33. Explain a law or regulation that your reader needs to understand

34. Describe a law or regulation you wish existed for your industry

35. Share about legislation you support or oppose

36. Expose a scam

37. Share cool photos or videos (memes) that your readers will appreciate and want to share

38. Ask a question and start a discussion

39. Gush about your personal heroes

40. Raise awareness for your favorite charity

41. Share what you’re reading or what’s on your bookshelf

42. Do a “Cliff ’s Notes” or executive summary of a book your readers would be interested in

43. Describe a local or industry event you attended (with photos!)

44. Create a wish-list of tools you wish were available for you or your industry

45. Transcribe or imagine a typical conversation between you and a customer

46. …or a typical conversation between you and a vendor

47. …or a typical conversation between you and a competitor (etc.)

48. Describe some changes you’d love to see in your industry

49. Talk about what you’ve learned in the past year

50. Answer the first question most potential customers ask you

In the bundle you’ll find a separate spreadsheet with a list of 201 blog post ideas for you to use to get inspired :)

Use the spreadsheet included in this bundle to write out your editorial calendar, so you know exactly what you’re going to be creating over the next 90 days.



Once you’ve brainstormed your content, take it a step further by planning out how you’re going to write it.

What other information do you need to write this post?

1. Research?

2. Quotes?

3. Links?

4. Notes?

5. Etc.

Use the space below to plan this out. It ’l l make things so much easier when you come to write it.

STEP FOUR • THE HOW

Gathering the information



STEP FIVE • THE WHERE

Figuring out how you will promote it

The last piece of the editorial calendar is writing down where you plan to promote your piece of content. We’re going to talk about this in a lot more details later on, but make sure that you include your promotion strategy in your editorial calendar, so that when you look at it you can see the full picture of what you need to do in order to make your blogging a success.



• The first place I heard the term was from Corbett Barr, who says “write epic sh*t,” which he says is to “Write things that make people think. Inspire people. Change lives. Create value. Blow people away with your usefulness.”

• Demian Farnworth of Copyblogger says that it ’s content that will help you crush your competition.

• Joe Pulizzi, author of Epic Content Marketing says “the goal with content is to “move” the customer in some way. We marketers need to positively affect them, engage them, and do whatever we must to help stay involved in their lives and their conversations.”

• And a lot of less altruistic experts would define it as something that goes viral and attracts a huge amount of traffic or attention.

PART TWO

CREATING EPIC CONTENT

Now that you know what you need to create, here’s what you can do in order to make it epic, after all, you want people to LOVE what you create.

What is epic content?

This is a pretty big question, and it has no clear dictionary definition. (It ’s a little like the Supreme Court’s definition of porn: “I know it when I see it.”) Many experts will define it many different ways:

So, great. It ’s useful, inspiring, and engaging. Those are helpful.

But how do you actually write something like that?



LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT EPIC CONTENT MIGHT LOOK LIKE FOR YOU:

It’s useful.

And not just a little bit useful; this is the kind of content that makes your readers wonder what they ever did without you. A lot of business owners are worried about giving too much away for free, but in my experience, this is never a valid fear. Rather, look at it as an opportunity to show how you can get RIDICULOUS results, and people will think, “Wow, if she can get these results for me with a blog post, I can’t wait to see what she can do with her product/service!”

It’s detailed and in-depth.

Many business owners make the mistake of thinking that blog posts should be bite-sized chunks. That’s the old way of blogging. Right now, Google is giving preference to long content — and so are your readers. You might worry that your readers have a short attention span, and you’re right, some will . But as I said above, for you, it ’s not necessarily about the quantity of readers, but the quality that counts.

It’s emotional.

There are some of you reading this (especially my product-based business owners) who are probably wondering how you can be useful when your content isn’t necessarily educational or how-to based. That’s where emotion comes in. If you can make yourself laugh, cry, or get worked up about something, chances are you can do that for your readers as well.

It’s unique.

OK, it ’s not totally unique. There’s so much content out there that you’d be really hard pressed to find something that nobody’s ever talked about before ever. But what you can do is put a unique spin on it. Maybe you’re demonstrating a new technique for solving an old problem. Maybe you’re laying out information in an infographic that makes it easier to access and understand. Maybe you’re inspiring someone to take action in a new way.

It’s better than what’s already out there.

“Better” is a subjective term, I know. One of the blog traffic suggestions I’ve seen out there is to look up a search term, find a list post, and then double the number of items you have on your list. While I think that’s a VERY simplistic way of looking at it, the core idea is sound: research what’s already been done, and then take your content one step further. That might mean more content, that might mean more details, that might mean more attractive or easier to read content.

It makes your readers’ lives easier or better.

Whatever you create, it needs to improve the lives of your readers in some way. It solves a problem, saves them time, saves them money — improves their life in some way that they care about.

It has a measurable impact for your business.

This is really the kicker, the one I think most discussions about epic content miss. Your post must serve some measurable purpose for your business — or what’s the point?



So how CAN you tell if you’ve written epic content?

Anyone can say you should create epic content; only your readers can say if you’ve succeeded.

You have to define what your epic content will do for you. Will it drive traffic (and what’s a reasonable amount for your business to shoot for)? Will it drive opt-ins? Get linked-to by thought leaders in your industry? Get shared a certain number of times? Your metric will be unique based on the goals you’ve set out for your business and your blog.

EPIC CONTENT CHECKLIST

Provide the exact tools, steps, references or actions needed to get amazing results. Do the work for them.

DETAILED AND IN-DEPTH

Put your own spin on the information rather than just repeating what others have said.

UNIQUE

Solve a problem, save them time, save them money — make a measurable impact.

IMPROVES READERS’ LIVES

Aim to get a specific, measurable result for your reader with this piece of content. Have

them thinking, “If she can do this with a blog post, she must get AMAZING results with her

product/service.”

USEFUL

Aim to make yourself laugh, cry, or get worked up about your topic to elicit the same

emotions from your readers.

EMOTIONAL

Research what’s already available on the topic and go one step further.

BETTER

Does your content have a measurable impact for your business? This is THE MOST important element. Don’t publish a piece of

epic content until you can mark this one off.

MEASURABLE IMPACT



WRITING THE CONTENT

So, now you know how to write epic content, here’s an outline of a basic blog post to help you put it all into action.

Before you start, ask yourself:

1. What is my mission with this post? What is my why? Where am I taking my reader with this post? Remember: Pick ONE topic for a blog post and focus.

2. What’s standing in the way of my mission? What does my reader not know or understand? What’s the first thing they need to learn? What objections do they have? (These are your subheads.)

Attention Grabbing Title

Make a promise: what will you teach, why should they care? Try to make sure your headline has each of the 4 Us; it should be Urgent, Unique, Useful, and Ultra-specific. I love to use the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer to help spruce up my headlines.

Opening

Think of a funnel: Start broad, maybe with a story or a generalization, then get more specific until you land on your exact topic. Remember: The purpose of the first few sentences of your post are to get people to keep reading the next few sentences. So surprise them, challenge an assumption, or tell a story that they simply must hear the ending of.

Big Promise #1 Subhead

Informative, intriguing subhead that answers a major question/objective your reader has. Go back to the questions or objections you identified before you started.

Readers tend to skim online, so they are likely to read your subheads first to decide if they want to read the rest of the article. If you posed a question or problem in the title, DON’T answer it in a subhead! (Because if you do, they have no reason to read the rest of the post!) Instead, make a promise about what the section will deliver.

This first section is usually the WHY section. You want to connect emotionally with your reader. It ’s especially helpful to remind them of their pain point — whatever the problem is that you’re going to solve, and how it affects their life. Remind them WHY they need to solve the problem.

Add a “click-to-tweet” soundbite

Try using http://clicktotweet.com



Another informative, intriguing subhead that poses a major question/objective your reader has.

This second section is usually the how-to section, where you provide the answer to the problem you posed in the headline and introduction.

• Bullets help break up the copy and make it easily scannable.

• Be very specific about how to solve their problem.

• Use research and quotes to back up your claims to add more credibility and paint you as the expert.

From here, you rinse and repeat for as many sections as you need. For example, if you’re teaching something very complicated, you may need multiple how-to sections. If you’re NOT teaching something, you can simply add intriguing subheads where your story naturally breaks to keep people reading; think about the way a novelist uses chapter breaks to keep people turning pages.

Big Promise #2

Wrap everything up and draw the conclusions FOR your reader, for example, “If you do A, B, and C thing that I mentioned above, you will be able to solve your problem and be happier.” Try not to introduce new ideas in the conclusion.

FINALLY, Be SUPER clear about what you want your reader to do after reading. Leave a comment? Click a link? Tell them EXACTLY what to do.

Conclusion and Final CTA

• How does this post serve my greater purpose?

• Is this post valuable content to my ideal reader? Could I make it more valuable?

• What purpose does this post serve to support my business? Is it generating attention for my blog? Holding the interest of existing readers? Generating desire for my products/services?

• What action do I want my reader to take after reading this post? (Hint: Pick ONE!) Did I tell them exactly what I want them to do and why?

When you finish writing, ask yourself...



TIPS FOR WRITING YOUR CONTENT

PLAN

Every piece of writing you tackle should have a plan. If you’re writing off the cuff, or just when “inspiration hits,” you’re actually making things harder for yourself than they need to be.

If you have a list of topics you’ve brainstormed, go through and pick the one you want to write next, then use the following prompts to create a plan.

• Topic:

• Type/Format: (Is it a list post? An interview? An infographic?)

• AIDA?

• Sales Cycle?

• Business goal:

• Proposed publish date:

List what you need to do to create this post:

• Research?

• Contact experts?

• Have graphics made?

• Write it?

• Etc.. .

Every time you sit down to write, you should have some form of this laid out that you can look at. It may be more or less detailed depending on how epic the post is going to be.



WRITE

My favorite thing to do is to block out a chunk of time with nothing else to do but write. I tend to write my own blog posts and copy on Saturday mornings. I don’t have to worry about doing work for clients or anything else: it ’s all about the writing.

• Write as though you’re addressing one person. Picture your ideal reader in your mind and write directly to her.

• Start in the middle. I find it ’s often easier to develop my thoughts if I start with one of the sub topics. This is why having an outline is helpful.

• Develop your introduction. It ’s usually easier to come up with a compelling introduction when you already know what the rest of the article says.

• Write a strong conclusion. Tie up all your points together and give the reader a takeaway.

• Include ONE call to action. Be very specific and tell them exactly what you want them to do.

• Spend a good deal of time on your headline. I l ike CoSchedule’sHeadline Analyzer, which can help rank your ideas.

COOL OFF

It may sound silly, but it ’s important to schedule a break between when you finish writing and when you edit or publish.

Why?

Because when you’re in the thick of creating, you’re too close to the information to be a good judge of it.

Professional writers almost always plan to step away from a piece before they edit or publish. That’s why it’s important to PLAN to create your content in advance — so you’re not rushed up against a deadline, and you have time to take a break.



EDIT

Read through the whole article from the perspective of your ideal reader.

Then...

• Does it make sense?

• Is it logical?

• Does it serve a need?

• Is it unique?

• Is it useful?

• Is it in-depth?

• Is it unique?

• Is it emotional?

• Is it better than what’s already out there?

• Does it improve your readers’ lives?

• Will it have a measurable impact for your business?

• Fix organizational problems first. Rearrange sections or sentences as necessary to create a more logical flow.

• Look at your introduction next. Make the first sentence and paragraph as intriguing as possible. Stick to your main point.

• Finally, finess your language.

• Make your verbs active. Replace “is, are, was, were, be, being, been” with active words wherever possible.

• Wherever possible, replace adjectives with more specific nouns.

• Cut unnecessary words and phrases.

• Simplify complicated sentences and paragraphs. (Aim for an 8th grade reading level.)

• Check spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

You may choose to do more than one round of edits on an epic post (the bigger the post, the more attention you need to give it), or bring in a friend or editor to help.

And then, you’re done!

The final steps might be to format the post nicely in your blogging software, create and add images, add “click to tweet” tweetables, etc. But your post is now written, and you can schedule it to be published.



Get creating your epic content!

ACTION TO TAKE



• ASK for the share. It seems silly, but even just asking for people to share your work increases the likelihood that they will .

• Put sharing buttons in your layout to make sharing easy. There are lots of plugins to accomplish this.

• Include “tweetables” in your post. I use the plugin Click to Tweet to create little pull-quote boxes that a person can easily click and tweet out to their followers, but there are lots of similar plugins and free tools out there that accomplish the same thing.

• Include multimedia elements — ESPECIALLY in your epic posts. These days, people share things on many different social media sites, and gorgeous media will entice them to share. Make lovely images pinnable, include videos that can be shared, infographics, slide decks, worksheets, etc. Heck, put some music in there, too, if you think it will help.

• Ensure your images are sharable. All the different social media outlets have different image sizes, which can be frustrating. That’s why I was singing hallelujah when I found this article, which discovered the perfect way to create ONE image that looks good across almost all channels.

• Work on your headline a little bit more. Headlines go a long way to determining what gets clicked, opened, read, and shared online. Make sure yours is a doozy.

PART THREE

PROMOTING YOUR POSTS

Once you’ve created your posts you have to get them in front of your audience.

CHOOSE YOUR PROMOTIONAL PATHS

I’ve identified four main promotional paths you might take to promote your blog, and the specific steps you might take to achieve each one. But each promotional journey will be different. Only you can choose your promotional adventure.

PATH 1 • MAKE SURE YOUR CONTENT IS SHAREABLE

You secretly dream of having something you post go viral. But for something to go viral, it must first be shared, and many bloggers don’t make it easy for their content to be shared. For every blog post you publish, be sure you’re taking these steps:

Completed this Adventure? Go on to Path two…



PATH 2 • PROMOTE TO YOUR TRIBE

Once you hit publish, you want to promote to your tribe: those people who have liked, followed, and subscribed. These people who have already positively selected themselves as WANTING to hear from you are the ones most likely to interact with your post and share it more widely.

Email your subscribers.

Email is still the best way to reach people, so whether you have 2 subscribers or 20,000, send them an email to let them know you’ve published something new. You can also ask them to share with their friends and followers.

Tweet out your post.

Twitter is a great place to start a conversation. Tweet out your post and include a request for retweets. (The Twitter shorthand is “Pls RT.”)

• The best way to determine WHEN you should schedule those Tweets is to look at your Twitter analytics. This will show you when the majority of your followers are online.

• I use CoSchedule to schedule my social media shares, but Buffer, Hootsuite, Edgar, or any other program you prefer will also work well.

• Use JustRetweet for more shares. This site works on a tit-for-tat model; you share a certain number of Tweets to earn credits, which you then “spend” to “pay” people to share yours.

• Use RiteTag to optimize your hashtags. This site will suggest hashtags for every post.

Schedule additional Tweets.

Of course, Twitter moves so fast, if you only Tweet once, you’ll be lost in mere minutes. But when and how often to Tweet? Guy Kawasaki Tweets his content 4 times, 8 hours apart. This is a great article that goes deep into this question.



Similar to Twitter, you want to share to your fans and followers on Facebook. Because of the way Facebook works, unless you pay, you’ll never reach 100% of your audience — but it ’s still worth it to post.

• Use big, eye-catching images. Images are still hugely popular on Facebook, so use that big beautiful one you created when you made your post.

• Share “quote” images. Use those Tweetables to create quote images that people love to share on Facebook. Canva is an easy way to do this. You can link to the post in the description of the image.

• Share video. Facebook is pushing video hard, so share one if you have it; more of your followers will see videos than any other type of content.

• Write a long text post. One thing I’ve seen working well is to take the first few paragraphs of your post, and put them into a LONG post on Facebook. Then, include the link to the post in the first comment.

• Share with relevant Facebook groups. Just be sure to read the rules of participation carefully. Many groups I belong to have one opportunity a week to share.

Share to Facebook.

There’s a lot of noise lately that Google is phasing out Google+, but until they do, G+ communities are one of the best — and most overlooked — places to share your content. Remember to engage first; ask and answer questions and participate in the group instead of just spamming. Find several relevant communities to share your post and share away. Use that lovely image you created.

Share on Google+.

If your content is in any way relevant to business interests, share on LinkedIn. If your peeps don’t hang out there, skip it.

Share to LinkedIn groups. Another overlooked traffic driver, if you can find the right LinkedIn group, it can be traffic gold.

Share on LinkedIn.

Another good reason to have that lovely optimized image — but you might want a Pinterest-specific image, as they like tall images, while the others prefer wide.

Pin to group boards. A great way to reach new traffic is to pin to group boards. PinGroupie is an excellent resource for finding these boards.

Use Viral Content Buzz to get more shares. Works like JustRetweet, but for Pinterest.

Pin to Pinterest.



Submit to any other social media sites you use. Big on Instagram? Screen shot your blog. Make a Vine, queue it up on Tumblr, Snapchat that sucker or do a Periscope.

Additional Social Media

• BlogEngage.com (Business)

• BizSugar.com (Business)

• Blokube.com (Blogging)

• Kingged.com (Internet Marketing)

• Inbound.org (Business)

• GrowthHackers.com (Business & Growth Hacking)

• Hacker News (Startups, Programming, Technology)

• Dzone.com (Programming & Website Development)

• Sharebloc.com (Business)

• Filmwatch.com (Films)

• N4G.com (Gaming)

• Techspy.com (Technology)

• 11×2.com (Sport)

• DesignFloat.com (Graphic Design)

• TheWebBlend.com (Web Design, Programming, WordPress, & Photography)

• Care2.com. (Green Lifestyle)

• Designm.ag (Design News)

These sites aggregate content in different, specific niches. Here are a few examples:

Share to niche social bookmarking sites.

• Submit to content aggregator sites. These include big ones like AllTop.com, Affposts.com, AffBuzz.com, and AffDaily.com, but you may find others in your niche.

• Put a link to your latest epic post in your email signature. You can also put a click-to-tweet here.

• Join a social sharing group. I run one called The Network, but there are plenty of them out there. Find one in your niche and use it religiously.

• Thank everyone who shares. They’ll be more likely to share again.

Additional Ideas...



• Email anyone you mentioned in your post. You can use this template to construct a friendly, non-demanding email to ask for a share. In fact, it is a good strategy to mention tastemakers regularly in order to use this strategy to its maximum potential.

• Tag, @ mention, etc. anyone you mentioned in your post. When you’re writing all your social media shares in the previous strategy, be sure to tag anyone you mention in the article. Many people are more likely to respond when you Tweet them than when you email them.

• Set up a Google Alert for your topic. When you do, you’ll get an email as soon as anything new is published on that topic. When you see a new article, jump over and leave a brief, relevant, and useful comment, ideally with a link back to your epic post. If you leave the comment early enough, it will drive traffic from other commenters. But it will also get you on the other expert’s radar as a contemporary.

• Monitor relevant hashtags. One free service for Twitter hashtags isWarble. When you see a conversation happening, you can jump in and offer your thoughts — and your link — as an addition to the conversation.

• “Pitch” your topic to reporters and writers. Got a favorite writer on a big site like HuffPo, Lifehacker, or Forbes? If not, you should. Go to your favorite BIG sites, and find out who covers your topic, then follow them on Twitter. Any time you see them Tweet about your topic, you can tweet back and say something like, “Loved the article! I ’ve written something that would be a nice companion.”

• Email 100 bloggers in your niche. Whew! Sound like a lot? It is. But if you really want publicity for your epic post, this is a good way to get it.

• Start by going to sites like Topsy.com, BuzzSumo.com, Alltop.com, WeFollow.com, Twellow.com or CircleCount.com and use their free tools to make a list of 100 (or really, any number you choose) influencers in your niche.

• Then, when you’re ready to promote your EPIC content (and really, this should only be used for the best of the best), send them a brief email, asking if they’d be interested in reading your article. IF they respond, go ahead and send them a link and ask for the share. Easy and pretty painless.

• You can also try tweeting them or sending them a direct message on LinkedIn.

PATH 3 • OUTREACH

Strategy 3 is all about outreach — reaching out to trendsetters and tastemakers who can help promote your content to their audiences.



Reach out to influencers who are sharing similar content. True story: Here’s an email I got once:

Hey Lacy, I was checking you out on Twitter and noticed that you retweeted one of my favourite articles a little while ago: [link to article].

Reading it gave me the idea of putting together a helpful resource filled with all of the tips and tricks I could think of to help people get ideas for blog posts. As such, I’ve written a post that I just published on the topic and would love your feedback: [link to article].

Might be worth a tweet or share if you think your followers would find it useful.

Either way, keep up the great tweets! Cheers, A.

• Submit and publish on other sites. You can also publish your work to other websites, like Medium.com and Quora.com. If you’re writing a how to article, submit it to tutorial sites like Tutorialized.com, Pixel2Life.com, Good-Tutorials.com and CraftGawker.com. Find sites that might accept your articles in your niche.

• Subscribe to HARO and pitch the press. Help A Reporter Out sends out an email (you pick the frequency) with info requests from reporters. Browse for topics that fit your niche and pitch yourself or your blog post. You never know!

• Find bloggers in your niche who do “link roundup” type posts, and pitch your post. You can google your keywords with “roundup” or “newsletter” and see what you can come up with.

• Email your commenters. When someone leaves a positive comment on your post, send them a quick email to say thanks and ask for a share. You’d be surprised how often they are happy to do so!



PATH 4 • PAID PROMOTION

I ’m not going to say too much about how to do paid promotion here because it’s too big a topic to cover in this post. There are entire courses and program dedicated to Facebook ads alone - checkout the one we have in the Members’ Club!

What I will say, however, is that this is a viable option for anyone at any level. No matter how small your marketing budget, you can afford to run a few small ads. You can run a Facebook ad for as little as $5 and reach thousands of fans, if you set it up correctly. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Reddit, YouTube, and many other social sites have ad programs you can use affordably.

Each platform will have its pros and cons. My best advice to you would be to choose ONE on which you will focus and then put in the time and effort to get it right — or hire someone to do it for you.

A marketing guru I respect recently said that anyone can buy an audience and notoriety and a 10,000-person email list these days if they have the advertising budget.

Paid promotion is certainly the fastest way to promote your blog and your business, but it ’s also the most expensive. It ’s up to you to weigh that balance.



FIGHT YOUR BATTLE

Creating your Promotional Plan

So, now that you’re totally overwhelmed with all the options for promoting your work (and believe me: this is only a hand-picked selection!), I want you to take a step back and look at this from a standpoint of what you can and will do for your NEXT epic post.

Basically, I believe there are two levels of promotion:

YOUR EVERYDAY (WEEK, MONTH.. .)PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

YOUR EPIC POSTPROMOTION STRATEGY

Obviously, if you’re spending a lot of extra time and energy to create an epic post, you should spend at least an EQUAL amount of time and energy to promote it. Don’t you think?

In other words, if you spend 8 hours creating it, you should spend 8 hours promoting it. Have you ever spent that much time promoting a post? (No, neither have I!)

Derek Halpern of Social Triggers says that you should spend 80 percent of your time promoting content you produce for your blog. Does that number sound high?

When I was in a slump one month, my business coach asked me how much time I was spending marketing myself. I made up a number (not having been keeping track of that sort of thing), and she told me that it ’s a generally

accepted rule that if you’re actively looking for new customers, you should be spending fully half your working hours marketing yourself. (In other words, if you work 8 hours a day, 4 of them should be spent on some kind of marketing work.)

This is a pretty widely held understanding, and it makes me think we should probably ALL be paying more attention to our promotion and marketing.

So, to get down to brass tacks, keep this in mind when you’re planning your promotion strategy. Remember that, while it is true that you’ve got some momentum when a post is brand new, not everything has to happen on the exact day you push publish on your post.



ACTION TO TAKE

What strategies are you going to use to promote your next post? Get clear on them and make a plan of action for making it happen…

You can also grab Lacy’s checklist of 40 potential places to promote your blog here.



Hopefully by now you know exactly how you can use your blog to attract your audience to you, connect with them and wow them into wanting to subscribe to your mailing list and hopefully become a customer too!

We’d LOVE to hear what your biggest takeaways from this bundle are and we’d also love to hear what content you’re going to be creating… so make sure you come and share with us over in the Facebook group.

We’re also here to help you, so if you have any questions, ask away!

IN CONCLUSION

Head over to the Facebook group and share your blogging experience with us!

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