BUILDING THE FRAMEWORK: EVERYTHING I LEARNED MY FIRST YEAR OF BLOGGING

ABBY L AWSON, JUST A GIRL AND HER BLOG

IntroductionPart 1- Starting a Blog: My Story Chapter 1: Why I Started Blogging Chapter 2: What I Did WrongPart 2- Starting a Blog: The Technical Stuff Chapter 3: Choosing a Blogging Platform Chapter 4: Setting Up the Essentials: Domain & Hosting Chapter 5: Choosing a Theme Chapter 6: Plugins Chapter 7: 10 Essential Pieces to Include In Your BlogPart 3- Content Is King Chapter 8: What is “Good” Content? Chapter 9: On Writing Chapter 10: On PhotographyPart 4- The Importance of Relationships Chapter 11: Connecting with Other Bloggers: The “Why” Chapter 12: Connecting with Other Bloggers: The “How” Chapter 13: Guest Posting & Contributing Chapter 14: More on Link PartiesPart 5- Growing Your Blog: Conquering Social Media Chapter 15: My Social Media Strategy Chapter 16: Pinterest Chapter 17: Facebook Chapter 18: Instagram Chapter 19: Twitter Chapter 20: Google+ Chapter 21: Giveaways and Social Media Chapter 22: Other Ways to Be Social: Get FeaturedPart 6- How I Make Money Chapter 23: Getting Started with AdSense Chapter 24: Working with Affiliates

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Chapter 25: Landing Sponsored PostsPart 7- Working with Brands Chapter 26: My Big Secret Chapter 27: Targeting Brands & Making ContactPart 8- How I Built My List Chapter 28: 4000 Subscribers in Three MonthsAfterword

ResourcesAcknowledgmentsAbout the Author

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If you would have told me eighteen months ago that I would be writing an eBook about blogging, I would have laughed. I knew nothing about blogging. I knew what blogging was, sort of, but I had never read many blogs before and I had no idea of what all went into them. I’m also shy. When you blog you have to put yourself out there and ask people to read your posts and connect with other bloggers and talk to scary brands and things like that. I could never do that… or could I?In January of 2013, I started on the amazingly wild ride that is blogging, and since that day I have been learning and studying and consuming everything I could possibly find about how to do it well. I’ve been testing some of my own strategies and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I talk to other bloggers on a daily basis about what’s working for them. Since January 2013, I have been building a framework. What started out as just a blank website has evolved into a blog that incorporates technical elements, creative elements, personal elements, relational elements, and as it has evolved, my framework has grown and gotten stronger. I have been building the basis of what has started to become a successful business, and since I know there are others out there who want to do the same, I’ve decided to share everything I’ve learned in this eBook.My hope is that this will help new bloggers or soon-to-be bloggers build a solid frame-work for their blogs, so they can go out and conquer the blogging world. I hope that people who are blogging already will read this and pick up on some ways to strengthen the framework they already have in place. And I hope, in turn, when you have learned and mastered some strategies that have worked for you, that you will also share and help others along on this journey.I am a part of the home/DIY/crafting niche, so many of the strategies I discuss in this eBook will be viewed from that lens. The major overarching principles, though, are ap-plicable to most blogging niches, so keep that in mind as you’re reading. Also, I would recommend reading this eBook with your web browser open. Because I am talking about such a wide breadth of information, I included the essential elements of each

INTRODUCTION

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concept, but since I didn’t have room to include detailed tutorials for every single area I covered, I tried to link to related articles whenever possible in case you were in need of more information. And now without further ado, I present... Building a Framework: Everything I Learned My First Year of Blogging.

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How I Use My Facebook Business PageOh, Facebook. Most bloggers are cursing Facebook these days, and if you have a busi-ness Facebook page you know why: they are limiting the reach of our posts more and more because they want us to pay to reach our followers. When this screen shot was taken, I had 4,150 Facebook followers. As you can see from my stats below, my most popular post in the list reached a whopping 379 of those followers. That’s only 9%!

For this reason, many business page owners have given up on Facebook. I don’t spend an eternity trying to build my Facebook following, but I haven’t completely given up on it either. When I did my reader survey in February 2014, I asked my readers how they usually found out about new posts from my blog, and 21% of them said they dis-covered new posts via Facebook. That’s a large percentage! It was second only to “Email Notifications.” Granted, it was probably my most loyal readers that took my survey, so they may go looking for my Facebook posts, but even if it’s just to keep them “in the loop,” I’ll keep up with my Facebook page. To really set up a Facebook page for success from the beginning, here are my top 5 tips:

FACEBOOK

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1) I Matched My Business Page Profile Picture to My Personal Profile PictureYou may find some differences of opinion on this one; some people prefer to have their blog’s logo as their business page profile picture. The reason I chose to have my own picture is because I do a lot of networking in Facebook groups using my personal profile. I want the bloggers and brands I network with to recognize that my blog is mine as soon as they come to my Facebook business page, and if they’re seeing the same face as they did in our Facebook group, they’ll  know they’ve come to the right place. I then include my logo within my cover photo to make my page recognizable to followers who may know my logo better than my face.

2) I Make It Easy to Get to My BlogSo I’ve gotten someone to my Facebook page-- awesome! I’m glad they’re checking out my page, but hopefully they’ll want to pop over to the blog and read some of my posts as well. To make sure they can hop over there easily, I provide several ways that they can get there. First, I make sure my “About” section includes a link to my blog that is visible from my Facebook page. Then I also personalized the buttons to the right of the “About” section, having one link directly to my blog and the other to Pinterest, where I also want to direct followers. To set up these buttons, I used this tutorial by Alex Haral-son.

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Update: Shortly before this eBook launched, Facebook began changing the layout for business pages. As of the date of this writing, some busi-nesses pages still have the type shown above while others have moved to the view shown to the left. As you can see, the same information is shown (though the link in my “About” section is no longer clickable, they’ve added a clickable one below), it’s just in a different location, and there are still a few different ways that readers can eas-ily navigate to my blog or Pinterest page if they’re interested in doing so.

3) I Had Help Getting Started I think the hardest part of building any social media channel is definitely getting those first followers because a lot of people will see a page with three or ten or thirty follow-ers and think it’s not worth their time. {Little do they know what awesomeness you have in store for them! ;) } To avoid the awkwardness of being the only follower on my page, I asked some friends for help. I was {and still am} in a Facebook group of moms who all had babies around the time I had Caleb, and I posted in our group asking them

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to like my page and telling them to leave a link to any business pages that they were a part of and I would return the favor. {Always “give” as much or more than you “take!”} Since they are amazing, they helped me out and were my first 50-ish likes or so. You could also use this same method on your regular Facebook page or by inviting your Facebook friends to like your page; I was just too nervous to tell people in “real life” about my blog just yet, and I knew my mommy group would have my back! It was much easier to build momentum with some likes to my page rather than zero!

That being said, don’t get discouraged when you first start to build your page. I feel like I had to work so hard for each individual like in the beginning, but it does get eas-ier. As I mentioned in my strategy section, I visited other blogs’ Facebook pages (usu-ally from link parties), left them a note sharing what I liked about their blog, telling them I had “Liked” their page, and would make a point to interact with their posts when I saw them in my feed. A lot of times this would result in a returned “like,” and my numbers continued to grow and grow. {Just a note on liking pages… Be sure to “like” from your personal account. You can definitely “like” from your blog page too, but the personal account is the only one that “counts” and raises the number of follow-ers on their page.}

4) I Learned about the “Schedule” ButtonThis might seem ridiculously simple, but I seriously blogged for months before I knew I could schedule my Facebook posts. See that little clock symbol down in the corner there?

If you click that it will let you schedule your posts for whenever your little heart de-sires! I use this for everyday posts, but also to do things like schedule a reminder to people who use my budget binder to print a new set of pages at the beginning of each

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month. I can schedule several months’ posts at a time and then forget about them-- Facebook does the work for me!

5) I Figured Out a Posting Strategy that Works for Me….for Now Facebook changes its algorithms often (meaning it changes up what people see most in their feed), so I’ve had to adjust my posting strategy right along with it. As of the date of this writing, this method is what’s doing well for me. As far as promoting my own work, when a post goes live (I usually set my blog posts to run at 5 am so I can catch the people who wake up and check their email/feed right away in the morning), I will post on Facebook around 7 am announcing the post that went live on my blog that day. I give a little teaser line and a link to my main blog-- not the post itself-- and I do not include an image in this post.

Facebook usually allows the largest number of people to see this kind of post, but with-out a picture, they usually don’t get as much interaction.

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Then later in the day around 2 pm, I’ll do another Facebook post that links directly to my blog post and includes a picture. Facebook typically does not allow as many people to see this type of post, but it usually gets more interaction than the picture-less post. (See how Facebook makes it hard on us little bloggers? Ugh.) This particular post wasn’t being seen by many people, but then two of my followers shared it to their own Face-book pages, which really helped with visibility. Sharing = good!

Actually, all interaction is good, and I try to spur that on by responding to as many followers’ com-ments as possible. The more I take part in my own page and invite others to join me, the more it will become a “community” where people feel like they’re part of something. Another thing I’ll do to foster the community feel is ask for my followers’ opinions or advice. People love to share their expe-riences and give input, so not only do I meet my “interaction” goal, but I also get really awesome advice from people who have done similar projects or been in similar situa-tions.

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I also try to post pictures of my life on my Facebook page because they’re great for interaction, too, and I think readers feel like they get to know me more that way and aren’t just seeing me promoting myself all the time.

And this holds true for every form of social media-- share the love any time you can! I try to find posts I’ve en-joyed from other bloggers and share them on my Face-book page as well so that other bloggers can get some ex-posure to a different audience than their own.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, Face-book is always changing the “rules” on us little business pages. It used to be that pictures got the most views. Then they started emphasizing posts that linked to news sites. Who knows what it will be next! I will frequently check out what other bloggers are doing on their Face-book pages to see what is working for them (Take a look at Donna’s Facebook page from Funky Junk Interiors-- she is amazing with her posts and drawing out interac-tion!), and I am continually tweaking and improving my strategy to get better and bet-ter.

As far as posting on my business Facebook page, that’s all I do. The Facebook gurus would probably put me on time out. I know a lot of people schedule their old posts to run on Facebook periodically to bring traffic back to them, and maybe when I can hire a virtual assistant I will too. But right now, I feel like that’s about all the time I have to devote to Facebook, especially with their limitations, and I’d rather spend my “work” time improving my content or doing other things like writing an eBook. :-D

How I Use Facebook for NetworkingNow as limiting as Facebook is for business pages, it has been an extremely valuable asset for me as far as networking with other bloggers goes. There are tons of Facebook groups out there where bloggers meet up, exchange ideas, collaborate on projects, plan giveaways, share strategies, share each other’s posts, etc. I have learned SO much from the blogging Facebook groups that I’m a part of. If you’re looking to join one or a few, just search “blogging,” check out the groups that come up, and request to join.

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Make sure the administrator can tell what your blog is from looking at your Facebook profile so they know that you are actually a blogger and not a spammer. Like I men-tioned, there are a lot of groups out there, so I usually test them out for a little while, and if I don’t feel like one is “clicking” with me, I leave and find others.

Along with these larger groups of bloggers, I am also part of a few smaller groups. The smaller groups are great because they are usually more close-knit, and I’ve been able to ask more specific, detailed questions that I wouldn’t ask in a larger group. As I’ve mentioned a few times already, I have one small “mastermind” group in particular that is my go-to if I ever have any type of question about my blog. There are only 10 of us, and they’re all bloggers I admire. We’re all at a similar place with our blogs, so it is really helpful to be able to put our heads together and help each other grow. I highly recommend finding a go-to group like this! Mine formed when I had been blogging for about six months, and I truly do not think my blog would be where it is today without these girls. Find your “people”!

In ConclusionAs frustrating as Facebook can be sometimes because of their limitations, that’s where a lot of blog readers “hang out,” so that’s where I try to be too. It really is a great place to be able to build relationships with readers, bloggers, and even brands sometimes, so while I don’t spend quite as much time working on Facebook as I do with Pinterest, I still value the relational aspect of it a ton, and therefore put forth the effort to build a loyal following for my page and build relationships with other bloggers through groups.

Takeaways:

• Make your business page profile picture match your personal page profile picture.• Make your blog easily accessible from your Facebook business page.• Ask for help with getting your first Facebook likes. Don’t forget to be willing to “give” as much as or more than you “take”!• Make friends with the “schedule” button.• Use your blog’s Facebook page to promote your posts, share life updates and sneak peeks of projects with your readers-- interact as much as possible!• Share other bloggers’ posts that you think your readers will enjoy.• Find some blogging Facebook groups to join and get networking!

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