What Can A Blog Conference Do For You?

April 24, 2015 By: Stephanie3 Comments

When people find out that I run the BlogU conference, the first expression on their face is usually confusion. Sometimes people have a hard time understanding exactly how much awesome is involved in attending a blog conference and how much it can fast-track the success of your writing career or small business. It’s not just about hanging out with friends and meeting the people who live in your computer (although you totally get to do that too). Attending a blog conference is a solid career move and will almost always translate into earning you real money and getting your foot in the door for great opportunities.

You will get face time with brands and sponsors who want to build a relationship with you.

The first time I went to a blog conference it was a big sacrifice for our family monetarily. Between the ticket, hotel, and travel costs, we spent hundreds of dollars. But while I was there I made connections with big-name brands and sponsors and when I got home I had their contact information. I was able to create relationships with them and for the rest of that year I did monthly sponsored posts for one brand in particular. Just eight weeks after the conference I had earned back every cent I had spent on the conference and was making hundreds of dollars a month in extra income for our family. The investment in myself was totally worth it.

There are hundreds of influencers in one place.

If you are a writer of any sort, blog conferences are a great place to network with other people in your field. Many bloggers have transitioned their blogs into books and some have even become New York Times best selling authors! Blog conferences are the place where they spill all of their secrets, tell you exactly how they built up their large social media followings, and share all of their other tips and tricks for getting noticed in the sea of internet anonymity.

If you are a business owner, hosting a vendor table, becoming a sponsor, or donating an item to the swag bag can get your brand noticed by a large group of people with an even larger social media influence.

You will learn from the best.

You can spend all day every day searching the internet for tips on how to build your blog or business, but the speakers at conferences have already been vetted and determined to be the best of the best. They know their chosen topics. You will be learning from some of the top earners and performers in the field and you will be live in the room with them, able to ask questions and interact in person.

You will get unique opportunities.

At our 2014 BlogU conference NickMom and The Huffington Post presented a joint lunch panel where representatives from both gave a presentation and told the attendees exactly what they were looking for in submissions and how to get published on each of their platforms. In 2015, HuffPost Parents is the media partner for the BlogU conference and we are partnering with them to hold our Term Paper of the Year contest, which is open only to BlogU attendees. Four winners will each receive an award during our conference and have their winning piece published on the appropriate HuffPost vertical. That is only one example of the many unique opportunities that attending blog conferences presents.

Our conference is different.

I started BlogU after going to several blog conferences and being consistently disappointed that I bought my tickets to see certain speakers and I never got to really talk to any of them. The speakers would give their presentations and then they would seemingly disappear. BlogU breaks down those “us” and “them” boundaries between those who are successful and those who are just starting out. After our sessions are over we hold “office hours” where all of the BlogU speakers are available to mingle with attendees and answer questions.

We also hold BlogU on a college campus and give attendees the option of staying in dorm rooms. This means that you can buy a ticket to BlogU for the same price as many other blog conferences, but you don’t have to worry about the additional cost of a hotel or food. Because we host BlogU on a college campus with its own catering staff, we are able to include all of the meals in the ticket price as well. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks–once you get there everything is included.

You will find your tribe.

I often hear bloggers talking about finding their tribe. I was lucky enough to find a very supportive group early on. In fact, that “tribe” of women became the same group who helped me start BlogU. If you have been finding a hard time finding your tribe, then a blog conference is a great place to start. Making those face-to-face connections with real people in real time is special. It’s something that can’t always be done through the computer screen.

If you think you might want to consider coming to BlogU this year, you can check out our website here.

Facebook Advertising: Is It Worth It?

February 26, 2015 By: Stephanie16 Comments

One of the most frequently asked questions by bloggers who attend the BlogU Conference is about Facebook advertising. Is it worth paying to boost your posts? Will you gain more Facebook fans? Will more people see your posts? There are some very mixed reviews floating around out there, so I figured there was only one fair way to find out for sure. I took $100, I gave it to Facebook, and I kept track of the results for a week. Here’s what happened…

I already have a decent following built up for my own blog. I wanted to see how well Facebook advertising worked for small businesses or start-ups. So we advertised my husband’s band’s Facebook page for this campaign. They were starting with 206 Facebook likes.

I wanted to track three different areas:

Advertising (or “boosting”) the entire page.
Boosting one individual post
Boosting a post on a Facebook page with a larger reach for comparison.

PART 1: BOOSTING THE PAGE (Budget $35)

This is the only area of advertising in which Facebook will actually estimate that you receive “likes” in exchange for your investment. So if you are going to pay to play, I’d say this is the most valuable place to do it. It’s also very important to note that after reading several articles ahead of time and feeling armed with my research, I targeted all of my ads toward a very specific audience: women in the age range of 18-35 who have an interest in contemporary Christian music. You’ll see why that comes up in a second.

I created an ad with a specific call to action that let our audience know who we were and that we were giving something back to them.

That ad ran for 7 days with a budget of $5 per day and the final results were that we paid about $0.60 per like. Honestly the numbers were not all that impressive. Facebook originally estimated that we would receive a minimum of 8 likes per day, and they fell short of delivering even that. However, they did come in around 15% under budget in this area, which I appreciated.

Although, I do feel like I have to note here that I was highly suspicious of several of the “likes” that were coming in during this time. Not only did we receive several new fans who had names that sounded like Bart Simpson made them up for prank phone calls, but when I clicked on their profiles, they did not have any actual photographs of themselves, just screenshots of flowers or pictures of magazine covers, and little to no interaction with people on their Facebook walls. Also, remember how I targeted all of our ads specifically toward women? We still had an equal number of men coming in all week, so either the ads were not targeted in the way they were supposed to be or those particular likes just were not coming from this advertisement in the first place– which made it a waste of money either way. (Either they weren’t delivering what they said they were or we didn’t actually need their help to get random people to find and like us. Or both.)

PART 2: BOOSTING AN INDIVIDUAL POST (Budget $40)

If I was going to pay $40 to promote one Facebook post, I wanted to get the most bang for my buck. I wanted a post that would engage people, so I chose one that had video and was already the most shared post on their page.

This kind of campaign keeps running until the budget is drained, so there is no time limit. It’s still running as I write this post, and has gained 44 likes for the post it promoted. That’s a price tag of $0.88 per like. Remember those likes are only on one post, they aren’t on your actual Facebook page, so those people might never come back or see anything you offer ever again. Not to be a Debbie Downer. But this is getting expensive.

PART 3: BOOSTING A POST ON A LARGER PAGE (Budget $20)

Ok, we saw what it did for a fan page with a small audience when we boosted the page and when we boosted an individual post. What happens when we boost a post on a larger Facebook fan page? Let’s find out.

I paid $20 to boost a post that featured Simple Tenants (the same smaller Facebook page I was boosting in my other ads) on my Binkies and Briefcases Facebook page. I have over 18,400 Facebook fans on that page. I targeted the ad the same way I did the others: women 18-35 who were into Contemporary Christian music. Facebook estimated 41,000-110,000 people would be reached.

What they told me before my ad ran:

It ran for 3 days. The results were…well…sad.

What they told me after:

Not only was the paid reach less than 10% of what they told me the estimated reach was going to be (3,900 instead of 41,000 or more), the larger page only got 1 page like and 7 posts likes– a grand total of 8 likes for $20. That’s $2.50 per like! Um…ouch.

Conclusion:

At the end of the week the band had 282 likes on their Facebook page. They gained 76 likes during this campaign. We came in slightly under budget and spent about $90. That’s an average of $1.18 per like. This assumes that each and every one of those likes were a direct result of Facebook advertising. (Which I know isn’t actually true, because some of them were personal friends, but for the purposes of this post, and because I can’t prove they didn’t see my ads, we’ll just go with it.)

Was it worth it?

Honestly, we might have had better luck if we had just taken a stack of $1 bills to the food court at the mall and offered people a dollar to like our Facebook page. At least then we would have the added bonus of knowing we were dealing with real people. (That’s a joke. I don’t recommend that, obviously. But it is hard to argue that it wouldn’t be faster and more affordable.)

Hey, look. I love Facebook. I recognize that they offer a tremendous service to me as a business owner. That is definitely valuable! I am still not opposed to the idea of paying Facebook for advertising if they can get their act together eventually. As it is, I was really turned off by their high “estimated people reach” and ridiculously low paid reach once they actually had my money. A 91% deficit between your lowest estimate and what you actually deliver is not cool. At all. So, for the time being, I think there are better ways to acquire Facebook fans.

What are they?

OTHER WAYS TO GET FACEBOOK FANS:

1. The easiest one is to actually invite your friends to like you. It’s free you can do it on the left hand side when you are logged in to your personal page, but looking at your fan page.

Because there are five people in this band, plus me as their social media manager, together the 6 of us have over 2,700 Facebook friends. I’m willing to bet that we can get better results than we did with our Facebook advertising campaign for free just by clicking that button. I’m going to be pushing the band a little harder to use it over the next few weeks.

2. The other thing you can do is reach out to influencers. Bloggers have a lot of influence. I didn’t make that up. There’s an entire Digital Influence Report about it. And guess what? Blogs and Facebook are tied in that report in terms of Online Service Most Likely to Influence A Purchase. It also says that, “When it comes to community size, 54% of consumers agree that the smaller the community, the greater the influence….” So think hard before you decide where you want your money to go. Maybe it’s not a great idea to give it to a huge company for advertising after all.

“The survey findings also indicate that many of those consumers are turning to blogs when looking to make a purchase. Blogs were found to be the third-most influential digital resource (31%) when making overall purchases, only behind retail sites (56%) and brand sites (34%). In fact, blogs were found to be the fifth-most trustworthy source overall for information on the internet.” -Technorati 2013 Digital Influence Report.

Our next move to promote the band is to partner with 5 other bloggers and do a group giveaway. We are giving away a $50 iTunes gift card and a free mp3 download on their blogs. (You can enter here if you’re interested.) The bloggers are getting something of value to offer their readers, the band is introduced to new audiences, we are using Rafflecopter to host a group giveaway… it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved. It’s half the cost the Facebook campaign was, this strategy has already proven more successful in terms of helping me build my Binkies and Briefcases audience, and we know we are reaching a large audience that is definitely targeted by the kind of blog they are reading. I just feel like it makes better sense all around.

Phew.

This post turned out much longer than I intended.

To sum up, is Facebook advertising worth it?

Right now, I really don’t think so.

UPDATE:

I’ve received some questions about whether I found that paying to promote my posts decreased my reach after this experiment. The answer to that, in my experience, is no. My reach, according to Facebook, was about the same. They were showing my posts to about 600 out of my 18,400+ fans before I paid to promote and they continued to show them to about that many after.

HOWEVER, not long after this experiment I wrote a blog post that did exceptionally well for me. (It was this one.) I shared it only once from my own blog’s Facebook page and linked to it from my personal profile. Then this happened:

That was entirely organic with no paid advertisement. Which just goes to show that content really is king. If only there was a Magic 8 Ball that would tell us when we have struck that golden content.

The Grey Area

February 14, 2015 By: Stephanie2 Comments

Ugh. You guys.

I didn’t want to write this post, to be honest.

Frankly, there are other things I would rather be doing.

It’s Valentine’s Day and I’m about to go out to dinner with my husband. Our family is traveling because his band, Simple Tenants, is recording their first album this weekend.

I was trying to stay silent, fly under the radar, and not weigh in on the Fifty Shades debates that are all over the media. I really was.

But in my little world that revolves around the internet (because I am a professional blogger who hosts a national blog conference, after all) something started happening.

Many, many, many Christian bloggers began to come forward with posts about why they are boycotting this movie and these books. They spoke about how they are bad for marriages, about how they are pornography, about how they didn’t want to read them because they thought they promoted violence. And they didn’t want anyone else to read them either. I understood that. And I thought, “Good for them.”

Then something else started happening. I started seeing more and more comments in my feed like this one (paraphrased):

Do these Christian mommy bloggers truly not understand that they are doing more in terms of free advertising for this movie than its PR team? Every five minutes I see the stupid movie poster in my Facebook feed attached to one of their blog posts. I swear I had no desire to see it in the first place, but now I’m going to, just to spite their judgmental censorship.

Then I thought, “Uh oh.”

That wasn’t the only post I saw that had that message, but it was the most articulate. Actually, I understood exactly the place that it came from because it is the same reason that led me to buy the books in 2012.

Yes, I admit I bought them. I’m not proud to own them, but I do. I bought them because they were being banned from public libraries and my reasoning at the time was very similar to the comments above.

While in our minds we are trying to help educate and share our beliefs and spread the Gospel message, what people are hearing is that we think we are better than they are. Because when we write posts about why we would never do things because we think God hates them and we don’t think anyone else should ever do them either, that is exactly what we are telling them.

We think we are helping. We’re not.

Friends, we are hardening hearts. Whether we mean to be or not is irrelevant.

No one was ever trying to argue that God did like pornography. No one needed a list of reasons not to see Fifty Shades any more than they needed a list of reasons not spit on their next door neighbor. Everyone already knew that it was naughty. That’s kind of its deal. That’s what got it banned from libraries in the first place. Sin is pleasurable. It feels good. If it didn’t, no one would do it. The fact that those sentences make us uncomfortable does not make them untrue. Our friends and neighbors are not stupid and they are not blind. They know we have our vices too, whatever they may be.

It has been my experience that scolding from afar has changed approximately zero hearts.

We may get a nice boost in pageviews and a few virtual fist-bumps from like-minded individuals, but that is not the way to accomplish our goal.

I’ve found that the best way to spread the Gospel message is to stop trying to change other people, turn the mirror around, point it towards myself, and expose my flaws.

God uses imperfect people who do imperfect things to accomplish His perfect plan.

We need to let people see our imperfections so that God can shine through them.

Instead of lecturing our friends, we need to reach out to them and say, “Hey. You’re broken? Me too. Come over here and sit next to me. I’ll show you who can fix it.”

So that’s what I’m going to try to do now.

I wrote more about my own imperfections and my admission that I read the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy for a guest post on In The Powder Room today. Before you read it, I need you to know that In The Powder Room is a humor website and this post is a bit snarkier than you may be used to seeing from me. I am honored to be over there talking about God and having a new conversation with a new audience. As always, please remain respectful in the comments.

Ten Things I Learned When My Blog Post Went Viral

October 23, 2014 By: Stephanie8 Comments

Please note that this post contains affiliate links.

I have no idea if there is a secret number of shares or likes that make a blog post count as “viral.”

But, I’m guessing that since this one was picked up by The Huffington Post, Elle.com, Redbook.com, Today.com, featured on Good Morning America, and I keep being asked to do tv and radio appearances, it is safe to officially use the “v” word now.

My social media following has quadrupled over the last few weeks and my pageviews shot up into the hundreds of thousands over night. I’m trying my best to respond to every email and Facebook message personally, but there have been thousands, so I really am very sorry if I have missed a few.

I don’t know if this post will be of any interest to my regular blog readers, but I know there are other writers out there who are curious about exactly what happens when a blog post goes viral. I can only speak from my own experience, but here is my list of Ten Things I Learned When My Blog Post Went Viral:

Get Yourself A Good Hosting Company: Now. My blog crashed several times during the first few days that the post was starting to gain popularity. I had previously been on a shared server and the extra traffic kept crashing it. I cannot thank A Small Orange enough for all of the time they spent on the phone with me, transferring me to my own VPS hosting, helping me set up CloudFlare, and just remaining patient, calm, and working fast behind the scenes while I freaked out. (UPDATE: since this post was written, we have switched out hosting to Servously.)
Set Up Google DFP or join a network like The Blogger Network. I don’t care what your page views are. I don’t care if the “experts” say to wait until you have at least 200K views per month. Just go ahead and set up DFP right now. I did have AdSense ads on my blog, but I literally lost thousands of dollars because I did not have DFP (DoubleClick For Publishers) set up before I went viral. It’s a giant pain in the butt and it takes a lot of time, but just do it. Ironically, I had tried to hire someone to set up DFP for me before, but he told me that it would be a waste of his time and my money until my pageviews were higher. Guess who was wrong? Yeah, that guy. Just do it now.
Choose Your Words Very Carefully. I used the word “partnership” in that blog post because Target did, in fact, offer to work with me as a consumer. Although, they did not put me on their pay roll or make specific promises to change any designs, only to take in feedback from me and my audience. We had several phone calls, they gave me a direct line to their PR department, they offered to set up a phone call between me and one of their designers, and to send samples. In my mind, “partnership” is a perfectly decent word to describe that situation, and I was thrilled that they were willing to be open to a relationship with consumers. In the minds of large retailers, not so much. I don’t think they were thrilled that I used that word. (Actually, I’m quite sure they weren’t thrilled.) I’ve had to make several statements since to the tune of “I am NOT working FOR Target.” I’m not working for anyone, actually. And, for the moment, I intend to keep it that way so that I can continue to address this issue without any sort of conflict of interest.
Most People Are Really Nice. Of the thousands of emails and comments I have received, the majority have been overwhelmingly supportive. Thank you all so much for taking the time to reach out and make me feel like I am making a difference! This has been my favorite part of this whole experience.
Some People Are Not So Nice, And Some Are Just Plain Ol’ Crazy. I don’t mind when people disagree with me respectfully and use well thought-out arguments. I will happily publish comments that offer differing opinions. However, this space on the internet is mine. I pay for it. I own it. So, yes, if your comments are attacking me, my children, or other readers, and I see them, I will take them down or just not publish them in the first place. If I wouldn’t let you say it to my face in my house, I’m not publishing your comment on my blog, and I will ban you from my Facebook page. Not sorry. See below for an example. (I apologize for the language. This was a relativity mild one. I’d also like to note that I actually did publish the first one, so the new more hateful one wasn’t even necessary.)
People Do Not Understand Copyright Laws. The words and pictures on my blog and everyone else’s are protected by copyright. I created this content, so I own it in much the same way that a small business owner who was selling handmade items in a brick and mortar store would own the items in their shop. You are welcome to take a few sentences of someone’s blog post, quote them, and link back to the original post. It’s even fairly common practice to share one picture (with permission) and give that person credit for their work. But please do not take my entire post, copy it, and paste it into your own blog because you “love it so much.” It penalizes both of us in terms of search engine optimization and it’s illegal. So, just don’t do that. Please.
You Never Know Which Post Will Be “The One” for You. When I walked into Target and pulled a tape measure off the shelf, I had NO IDEA how much attention that post was going to get. There was no way I could have known it was going to be on the national morning show in Canada, or translated into German, or that I would be hearing from parents in Australia and Ireland. I have been blogging for 5 years on this little corner of the internet. In two weeks, it blew up and all of the sudden I was “The Mom Who Took on Target” and Good Morning America was in my living room. It has been a crazy ride.
Do Not Stop There. Have An End Game In Mind. Once it becomes clear that something you wrote has struck a nerve, don’t just stop. Since my new audience seemed so interested in finding more modest clothing options for their daughters, the very first things I did were to start this Pinterest board and the #ModestMavens hashtag and Stamp of Approval. I am reviewing clothing from large and small retailers, but I am not accepting any sort of monetary payment for these reviews because I want those reviews to stay fair and unbiased.
Let Your Writing Speak For Itself No matter how many nasty comments come up on pages like The Huffington Post or other large websites, do not jump into that conversation. Just stay out of it. Detach yourself from the comments and discussions, unless it is just to offer a quick “Thank you so much for sharing my piece!” on someone’s Facebook page. Other people will jump in to defend you, your job as a writer is just to start the conversation. Besides, polarizing views can actually be good for you. Whether people are sharing your piece because they think you are brilliant and you touched their hearts, or because they are asking their friends, “Can you believe this idiot?” they are still sharing it. And that is ultimately good for you.
Surround Yourself With People You Can Trust. This is true in pretty much any aspect of life, but be very wary if you are standing in the middle of a media blitz and people start reaching out and asking you to do things. Some of these opportunities might seem amazing, but take a minute to step back and reflect and talk to people you have known for years, who are familiar with this business, and can offer you solid advice. And remember, “No.” is still an acceptable answer.

To follow the Pinterest board I started for cute and less revealing clothing for little girls, you can click here:

Follow Stephanie {Binkies and Briefcases} ‘s board Cute and Modest Options for Girls on Pinterest.

I’m still not entirely sure that it has been revealed to me yet why exactly all of this is happening to me, but I am grateful that it is and I hope that this post and the others here on the blog are able to help all of you in some way.

Thank you again for all of your support in this crazy journey!

BlogU was AMAZING!

June 9, 2014 By: Stephanie31 Comments

It was so fun to watch everybody #GetSchooled at #BlogU14 over the weekend!

This conference was a year and a half in the making, but this weekend it finally came to fruition, and it was FABULOUS.

It was surreal sitting at the registration table with Meredith and watching everything we had worked towards for so long transform into reality.

Photo credit: Motherhood, WTF?

From the cocktail party on Friday night sponsored by American Public University, where everyone loved the Full Tilt beer tasting, the book signings, and especially the open mic portion of the night. My favorite part was that the attendees continued the open mic back in the dorm rooms until the wee hours of the morning.

Photo credit: Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

To the amazing keynote panel with Jen Mann, Karen Alpert, Ilana Wiles, and Susan McLean…

To all of the professional sessions. I only got to sit in on one for a little while, unfortunately, because I had a lot of running around and signing for deliveries to do, but I heard great feedback from all of the attendees. Two people told me that the graphics session taught by my dear friend Robyn was going to completely change the way they approach their blogs, and I can’t even count how many people said that the Pinterest and Instagram session taught by Anna and Ilana was “life-changing.” If you are not a blogger, that might seem silly, but the information shared in those sessions is the kind of thing that transforms hobby bloggers into professionals.

Did I mention that we had a cupcake bar? Thanks, Macklin’s!

Or that the editors and content curators from NickMom and HuffPost Parents joined us for a lunch panel and told the attendees exactly how to get their work published?

Or that NickMom also sponsored the best retro prom that ever happened in the history of the world?

Because, yes, that all happened. I was also so proud to share my beautiful Alma Mater with everyone. The campus of Notre Dame of Maryland University made a gorgeous backdrop and did a fabulous job with all of the catering and guest services, as I knew they would.

We wrapped up yesterday with a closing speech from Yours Truly and a fun awards ceremony for our attendees, sponsored by Trim-A-Rim.

But don’t just take my word for it. A bunch of other people thought BlogU was fabulous too.

I will leave this link-up open for the next month or so, so that the other attendees can link up their wrap-up posts and you can see all of their pictures and stories too.

If you were at #BlogU14 and have a post on your blog about the conference, please link it up here!

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The BlogU Radio Show

February 26, 2014 By: Stephaniecomment

How can I get featured on The Huffington Post?

What do I wear to a blog conference?

What will the bathroom situation be like?

What can a blog conference do for me?

I’d love to go, but…

If you are thinking any of those things, please listen to the recording below. I recorded my very first pod cast yesterday to tell everyone a little more about The BlogU Conference and answer some of our most frequently asked questions. You can listen to it here. If you are on the fence about buying your BlogU ticket, I hope you can take a few minutes to listen to it and see if I answered some of your questions. I hope to see you in June!

You can register for BlogU here!

Current Training Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with The Blog University on BlogTalkRadio

My Top 3 Tips for Aspiring Writers

July 11, 2013 By: Stephanie3 Comments

It’s feels a little weird that people are starting to come me asking for advice about how to break into a writing career. I still consider myself “just a mom” with a relatively small blog. I’m not a NYT best-seller or anything. Yet. (UPDATE: Heck yes I am! I Just Want to Pee Alone, the book I co-authored with several other bloggers, made the New York Times Best Sellers List in 2015.)

However, the past year has brought unbelievable blessings to my career as a writer. I started writing print articles for a local magazine and receiving actual paychecks. I signed 3 book contracts in 2013, met my professional goal of being on the Huffington Post (multiple times), and was featured on The Today Show’s blog, so I guess I’m getting there.

I was invited to participate in our library’s Local Authors Week this year. When I shared on my Facebook page that I would be talking about transitioning from writing as a hobby to writing as a career, a few readers who are not local requested that I share some tips here on the blog. So here you go, my Top 3 Tips for Aspiring Writers:

1. Start a blog, a professional Facebook page, and an author website TODAY.

This is not optional. When I did eventually sign with a publisher for my children’s book, after about 7 years of sporadically submitting manuscripts and getting “no thank you” letters, these were the first things they wanted to see. Buy the domain for your name and create a separate website. A blog provides you with the opportunity to find your authentic voice and practice writing to and interacting with an audience and it also gives you the opportunity to start monetizing your writing and other skills (graphic design, photography, and social media development are all things I learned through blogging that have brought extra income to our family) building a following, and making professional connections.

2. Put yourself out there.

About 20 percent of the work I do is actual writing at a desk. The other 80% is publicity, self-promotion, and paid work for other people like designing a button for someone else’s blog or doing a family photo shoot. Send resumes to local media, look for opportunities to guest post for other blogs, send press releases about your blog or your self-published book to radio and tv stations, send a blurb to your alumni newsletter, etc. Aim high (but also be realistic) and set goals.

Last year I sent a resume to the editors at our local paper. I knew I wasn’t the least bit qualified to be a professional journalist, so I expected to be rejected and, not surprisingly, I was. But the editor promised to pass along my resume. He actually did do that and a few months later I was contacted by a local women’s magazine and they offered me two articles in their next issue. Now I’m a regular contributor. Even rejections are connections. Don’t let them upset you and don’t take them personally, try to use them to your advantage. Ask, “If I’m not a good fit for you, can you give me the name of a different publication/website/editor where I might be a better fit?”

My professional goal this year was to get noticed by the Huffington Post. When you are pursuing a goal like that, be strategic and ask questions. I asked people who had been featured on HuffPo how they got there. I tried their techniques one by one. Not all of them worked, but eventually, I found one that worked for me. (Although, it’s important to note I tried not to inundate them with self-promotion. You don’t want to wear out your welcome before you even get an invitation to the party.)

One of the best tips I can give about self-promotion is to know that not everything you do is news-worthy, but you can spin just about anything to be relevant to a certain time frame or holiday.

Know how you will be seen. I am a “mom blogger,” whether I like the title or not. I sent most of my pitches this year out just before Mother’s Day when publishers and readers had moms on the brain. We also tried to use this time frame to our advantage and get as much media attention as possible while we were promoting I Just Want to Pee Alone. In the past I’ve gotten my blog featured on the local news by sending press releases around the holidays about projects that could make great homemade Christmas gifts. They came to my house and filmed an entire segment about it.

3. Network.

It is impossible to be successful in this field on your own. Your writing is a product and you are going to need buyers. You need friends. Be friendly with other writers in your “niche” and support their book or their blog. It seems counter-intuitive because they are your competition, but it’s not. If readers like someone who has a similar style to yours then they will probably like you too. (How many times have you heard someone say something along the lines of, “Oh, you liked The Hunger Games? Then you will love this other book I just read by a different author!”) Capitalize on the connections those other writers have and share your contacts with them. Contacts are key. Don’t be secretive about your writing or it will never be successful.

I’m naturally shy, so this part doesn’t come easy to me, but it’s the most important part on the road to success. Don’t try to walk alone. You need connections and lots of them. If you want to make money you need your hand in several different pies. Even if you get a book deal, it will probably not make you rich and the money you do make will be fleeting. I’ve read that over 90% of professional writers do not make enough money from book sales to support themselves. You have to plan to supplement. To have a steady income, you will need as much freelance work as possible, preferably from local sources where people get to know you and your writing can lead to other paid opportunities like speaking engagements.

The most common question I get is, “But how do I make those connections?” Talk to people and be friendly. It really is that easy, but it takes time. Comment and email bloggers you love telling them why you love them. Don’t ask them for anything, just consistently show your support and they will remember you. Start a local group on Facebook or go through Craigslist to connect writers in your area. Email editors of local websites or newspapers and introduce yourself as a local blogger looking for freelance opportunities. Include links to relevant posts you’ve written in your email. Carry business cards and act like a professional in any other field. If someone asks you what you do tell them you are a writer and hand them your card. Tell people what you do and they will be interested. Sell your stories the same way you would if you sold life insurance or Pampered Chef.

One of the best ways to network is at a professional conference. I happen to have founded one of those. 🙂 We’d love to have you at BlogU this year!

“But I write for me, not for other people and definitely not for money.” That’s awesome. If that is your goal, I have no problem with that at all. In that case, all you need is a notebook and a pen and you can ignore everything I just said. That’s not my goal.

My goal is to have a career as a writer. I want to use my stories to connect with people, share my faith, stay home with my children and still contribute to my family financially. It took a while, but I’m actually making more money now than I did when I was working part-time away from home. Eventually, I’d like to earn as much as I did when I was working full-time. I try to do one thing per day to work towards that goal. I might email an editor, search for writing jobs on Monster.com or Craigslist, submit a query, etc. Right now I’m planning ways to monetize The Cookie Jar Parable, using it as a fundraiser to help schools and churches. You have to be willing to WORK and recognize that very little of that work is the actual writing you will do. I’ve found that being consistent and intentional in treating my writing as a career has been very beneficial.

I know that’s a lot in of advice to stick in one blog post! Thanks for reading!!

Bloggy Boot Camp: Charlotte, NC

May 20, 2013 By: Stephanie11 Comments

We got back last night from the 4 day trip that I WON to Bloggy Boot Camp in Charlotte, NC. (Thank you SITS Girls, I’ll love you forever.)

We left on Thursday from Pennsylvania and drove down to Charlotte. We spent all day driving, and pulled in at 1am, so we didn’t technically get there until Friday. Eddie went with me. It was a kid-free long weekend! (our first one since 2011.)

I will have more posts coming telling you all about Charlotte. Today I want to focus on the conference.

It started Friday night with a kick-off cocktail party. I buddied up with Brenna from Life After Laundry. We “met” online last year during Online BlogCon, but this was the first time we met in real life. Brenna is adorable and so sweet and I could listen to her southern accent ALL DAY.

Saturday was the day of the actual conference. Eddie booked tee times at two different golf courses and was gone all day, so don’t worry about him. We were told to dress casually and that the room might be chilly because of the air conditioning, so this is what I wore.

Shirt: Calvin Klein
Jeans: the Limited
Flip Flops: LL Bean

We got our name tags and were assigned seats for the first few sessions. Brew Over Ice was there with Keurigs so that we could make iced coffee or Snapple. (Did you know they make Snapple K-cups? I didn’t.)

Tiffany and Fran, founders of the SITS Girls and Bloggy Boot Camp, did some talking and then the presentations began.

First we heard from Ashley and Shell, two bloggers who had been able to turn their love of social media into real jobs (making real money) managing Facebook or other social media accounts for businesses.

Then we heard from Casey, the Director of Analytics for Collective Bias. He spoke about Search Engine Optimization and Analytics. A year ago I might have fallen asleep, but I’ve fallen deep enough down the blogging rabbit hole that these numbers are important to me and I was really engaged.

Then we heard Brittany from That’s Vandy speak about blog design. She had some great tips that I definitely plan to implement. I think her talk was my favorite of all the tech-focused. (I’ll do another post soon with my top 10 take aways)

We broke for lunch (chicken, veggies, and key lime pie) and then my favorite part…

I got to hear Robin O’Bryant! Robin is the author of the hilarious book Ketchup Is a Vegetable and Other Lies Moms Tell Themselves. I was offered a trip to the Bloggy Boot Camp of my choosing, but I chose to go to Charlotte because I knew Robin would be speaking. She spoke about the world of publishing and how to break through the door.

With Lori from Loripalooza and Robin O’Bryant.

Then Cynthia from Nap Warden designs spoke a little bit about photo editing, specifically using PicMonkey. I got a few take aways from this session as well, like the way I save my files. I’ll be saving as .png instead of .jpeg from now on.

Then Tiffany and Fran from the SITS Girls spoke some more and we all broke for a wine tasting. I don’t drink alcohol, so this normally wouldn’t be up my alley, but I had a great time.

I got to meet Stephanie from When Crazy Meets Exhaustion and a lot of other new friends.

I had an awesome time. I think if I was a new blogger I would have been completely overwhelmed and curled up in the fetal position after all of the tech-speak and business talk, but I am at a point in my blogging career that made everything very relevant and super helpful.

Thank you SITS Girls!!!!!

Blogger or WordPress?

May 7, 2013 By: Stephanie7 Comments

I make no claims to be a tech expert. I’m just a lady with a blog who writes funny stories about my kids and is hoping to parlay that into a writing career. (So far this plan is going surprisingly well. Don’t let the powers that be in on our little secret that I have no idea what I’m doing, k?)

Lately I have had “quite a few” people tell me they were interested in starting a blog and ask if I would give them tips on how to get started… Okay. Fine. You win. It was only two. Two people asked recently and one more asked a few months ago. Regardless, I know a lot of other people have the same question, so I thought I would spend some time focusing on it today.

The first thing people need to decide when they are starting a blog is if they want to use Blogger or WordPress, the two main platforms available.

I will tell you that I started out on Blogger and I loved my little site over there for several reasons. I stayed over there for years.

WHY I LOVED BLOGGER:

It is very user-friendly. Anyone can set up a site in a matter of a few hours, sometimes less.
It’s free
It’s easy to customize. There are tons of great resources on Etsy for very affordable customization options or you can easily design your own headers, buttons, etc. in a software program like PicMonkey.
The community is nice. It is easy to follow other blogs right from the reader on your dashboard. The people who use Blogger tend to comment on each other’s posts more often, participate in link parties, and just check-in regularly, in my experience.
You can pay to have the .blogspot removed from your name and make yourself appear more professional. I know A LOT (I have connection, yo. Actually, what happened was I somehow managed to weasel my way into a book with several of them.) of very successful writers who use Blogger and it works for them on a professional level. These ladies use Blogger and are still swimming in money a la Scrooge McDuck. I actually do personally know-because of my involvement as the founder of the BlogU conference- several prominent writers who get literally millions of pageviews per month who are very loyal to Blogger because it is free and can handle their traffic.
You don’t have to worry about things like plug-ins and widgets, for the most part. Google owns it, which helps with the usability, and it is very easy to track your stats and create your design. It’s simple to use upfront AND it is easier to customize, in my opinion.

Blogger is perfect for you if you just want to start a small family blog or if you are a small business or a student.

Having said all of that, I still made the choice to switch to WordPress last year. There was a BIG learning curve for me. For starters. I learned the hard way that WordPress.com is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than WordPress.org.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO GO WITH WORDPRESS, YOU WANT TO BE SELF-HOSTED ON WORDPRESS.ORG!

I’m sorry I yelled at you. I just can’t stress that enough. WordPress.com was nothing but a big headache for me. You can only use certain templates, so if you have a specific design in mind, you can’t do it and it is just very limiting all-around. It was not a good match for a creative type like me. They also do not allow sponsored content, so you can’t make money. However, WordPress.com is free, so it does have that going for it.

If you want to be self-hosted on WordPress.org, which tends to be what all of the pros recommend, you need to know some things up front:

Make the switch early. It is a big pain in the neck to switch from Blogger to WordPress if you are keeping track of your stats. If you work with sponsors your stats are very important. When you switch you will basically be building your following from scratch. It is not fun and it takes a while to regain momentum. If you think you may ever want to become one of the “big guns” and turn blogging into more of a career than a hobby, just start on WordPress from the beginning.
Have a budget. It can be kind of expensive in comparison to other options. (Because the other options are free.) You will need to purchase a domain name and hosting and a good theme. I like the Genesis theme because it has a lot of nice child themes that fit my style and it has some great plug-ins.

Now that I am over the initial learning curve for WordPress I am glad that I made the switch.

REASONS I LOVE WORDPRESS:

The plug-ins. Think of a way you would like to improve your blog. There’s a plug-in for that. I never even thought of SEO before switching to WordPress, but now I use the SEO by Yoast Plug-in to optimize every post and it makes a big difference in my traffic. I also like Jetpack and the social sharing plug-ins.
It’s social media friendly. It’s VERY important to have options for sharing on social media on your posts and it is much easier to do that with WordPress. I have plug-ins that puts options for sharing my posts to Facbook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Pinterest with one click. (This feature has been updated on Blogger since this post was written.)
Less spam. SOOOO much less spam. I get at least 30 emails every day from anonymous commenters on my Blogger blog trying to hype their diet pills or whatever. I’ve been blogging on WordPress for about 7 months and I think I’ve only gotten about 5 spam comments.
Connecting to readers. It’s much easier to find a reader by clicking on their name in the comment they left on your blog and getting an email address than it is to get in touch with the readers who comment on Blogger blogs without any contact information in their profiles. I find that it is a little easier to build an internal community with the people who read my blog now, but WordPress users tend to be on their own little islands and it is harder to find connections between bloggers, if that makes sense. I think it has a lot to do with the dashboard not having a reader on it. Now I have to seek out other blogs to read and I often forget to do it because they just aren’t right there in front of me like they used to be. WordPress users also tend to be more “seasoned” and focused on their own blogs and will not usually return a comment for a comment, as was a little more common when I was on Blogger. However, it is easier to see a response from a blogger using WordPress because it will often be emailed to you that you were given a reply on a comment you left on someone’s post. On Blogger if you left a question on someone’s blog, you had to remember to keep going back and checking to see if they answered you. If they sent you a private email response, no one else who read the post and had the same question would get to see the answer.
Expanding your reach. In the 7 months since I’ve switched to WordPress I have seen my traffic and following expand to about 10x more than it used to be. A lot of that has to do with my own networking, but I attribute a great deal to the WordPress SEO and social media factors above.
You own it. Kayla of Sweet Anne Designs recently pointed out in a discussion about this very topic that she would not feel comfortable setting up a client on Blogger because Google owns your site if it is hosted on that platform and they could possibly decide to shut it down in the future (re: the recent Google Reader fiasco). If you are self-hosted, you own your own site and you have all the control and peace of mind that comes with that.

I like to think of the difference between Blogger and WordPress as the difference leasing and buying a car. With Blogger you are just leasing your website from Google, you don’t actually own it. With WordPress, it is completely 100% yours to do with as you please. There have been cases where blogs have been marked as spam and removed from Blogger for months. If your blog is a main source of income for your family, that is a serious problem. I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not here to give you business advice, but I do I do think that it’s preferable, at least for me, to have complete ownership in every aspect of my company.

However, there is a much bigger cost factor involved with WordPress, especially as your blog starts to grow. Once your traffic reaches the point where you need to move to a dedicated server, you should be prepared to spend anywhere between fifty to several hundred per month in addition to your domain and hosting fees. That is the trade of for the security of ownership.

I made this handy-dandy chart for those of us who like visuals.

That’s pretty much all I know. I hope it helps a little. 🙂

Blog Tip: Adding a Blog Button With Code Underneath

October 18, 2012 By: Stephanie10 Comments

Whew. I finally figured out how to add a blog button with code to my sidebar. (That “with code” part was killing me) Do you see it over there? I’m so proud of myself. 🙂 If you are wondering what in the world I’m talking about, a blog button is a picture like this. When people click on it, it takes them right to your website. You can add it to your blog with the code underneath for people to copy and paste, like this:

It was actually really easy once I found the right tools.

Step 1: Create an image.

I like to do this in Picmonkey because it’s easy. Click “Edit a photo” and upload any image. It doesn’t matter which one because you are going to cover it up. On the left sidebar you will see a gray picture of some shapes, those are the overlays. Put a Geometric overlay over your photo in whatever color you want to be the background. Add your text and any other graphics you like with the other tools in PicMonkey.

Once it looks the way you want it to, click save and change the dimensions to make it button size. Mine is 145 & 160-ish. A lot of people recommend 125 x 125.

Step 2: Create a Draft Blog Post

You need somewhere to host your image. All you have to do is create a draft blog post and upload your image there for safe keeping. Don’t publish it. Name it something easy to find in the future like “BUTTONS, Do Not Delete.”

Step 3: Use This App

I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how to do it myself, but why bother when there’s a free app for that?

The Grab My Button Code Generator from My Cool Realm.com worked well for me on the first try.

Type the name of your site and your blog address in the appropriate spaces.

To find your image url, go into the draft blog post you made with the image in it. Click on html. Somewhere inside the code you should see a line that starts with http and ends with .jpg, like this:

http://binkiesandbriefcases.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/button2.jpg

Copy and paste just that part of your code into the line that says image URL.

Generate the code, then copy it.

Step 4: Add the code to your sidebar

In Blogger you would do this by going to Layout, Add a Gadget, HTML/JavaScript, then pasting the code in the box.

In WordPress I went to Appearance, Widgets, Text (arbitrary text or html) and pasted my code in the box.

You are probably smarter than I am and have already figured this out for yourself, but just in case, I hope it helped. 🙂

Check out more of my blog tips, like how to add customized social media icons and whether you should choose Blogger or WordPress for your blog.

And make sure to check out The BlogU Conference this June!

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What Can A Blog Conference Do For You?

Facebook Advertising: Is It Worth It?

The Grey Area

Ten Things I Learned When My Blog Post Went Viral

BlogU was AMAZING!

The BlogU Radio Show

My Top 3 Tips for Aspiring Writers

1. Start a blog, a professional Facebook page, and an author website TODAY.

2. Put yourself out there.

3. Network.

Bloggy Boot Camp: Charlotte, NC

Blogger or WordPress?

Blog Tip: Adding a Blog Button With Code Underneath

Step 1: Create an image.

Step 2: Create a Draft Blog Post

Step 3: Use This App

Step 4: Add the code to your sidebar

Binkies and Briefcases with Stephanie Giese

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1. Start a blog, a professional Facebook page, and an author website TODAY.

2. Put yourself out there.

3. Network.

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Step 1: Create an image.

Step 2: Create a Draft Blog Post

Step 3: Use This App

Step 4: Add the code to your sidebar

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Binkies and Briefcases with Stephanie Giese

What You’re Saying

Latest Posts

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