Platform Archives - Page 27 of 27

Building an Email List Full of True Fans – 006

May 12, 2015 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com

How many fans does it take to make a living as a writer or artist? And do those fans HAVE to be on your email list or can they be spread across your social media platforms?

This week I’m answering Kelli‘s question about whether it is better to build an email list or find followers through other social media platforms. I have a LOT to say about email lists. And audience.

Listen on YouTube to Create If Writing – Episode 006 – Building an Email List Full of True Fans

At a Glance: Email Lists vs Other Social Media Platforms

An email list is integral because it allows you to reach into someone’s personal space in a way that is more intimate than Twitter or Facebook.
Email lists are set up through a host, NOT your personal email account. (I use Mailchimp for one list, but for serious list-building, I’ve moved to Convertkit. Read WHY.)
My biggest numbers in terms of traffic come through Pinterest and Facebook, with Twitter at a VERY distant fourth. My email list brings my blog more traffic than Twitter, but not by too much. Then again, I have a few hundred people opening each email, which makes it about as popular as my second or third most popular blog post on any given day. (Looking at my email list the day after recording, the open rate bumped up to 30%, which is pretty normal for me.)
Other platforms may change (like Facebook’s algorithms that make your visibility disappear), but your email is under YOUR control.
Publishers would generally say that around 10,000 email subscribers is a good number to see for a non-fiction book deal. 5,000 would get attention, but 10,000 is the sort of “golden” number. (More on that in episode 007!)
Kevin Kelly introduced the theory that 1,000 true fans (who will buy everything you make) is enough to make a comfortable living.

My Big Takeaway

Get an email list. Decide what service to use (always use a service, not your gmail or hotmail) and what kind of content/how frequently. Think about what best serves your goals. Do your best to grow your list authentically so you have people who really LIKE you and want to support you and buy whatever it is you sell: book, album, class, coaching. But ALSO keep growing your social media platforms. You may connect with different people in those spaces and find real fans and real traffic.

The email list should be your foundation and your true fans, who will buy anything you create. (So when someone unsubscribes, rather than feeling sad, think about the fact that they are NOT your true fan and it is one less person to pay for when you get to that point.) Having a smaller number of loyal subscribers is great, but those bigger numbers can matter to publishers or for other reasons. Intentionally grow your email list, but definitely use a combination of platforms for growth.

Relevant Links

–Kevin Kelly on having 1,000 True Fans
–The Problem with 1,000 True Fans
-The Blog Tyrant’s 41 Tips to Get over 10,000 Email Subscribers

What I Want to Know from YOU:

If these numbers sound crazy scary to you (they alternately do and don’t to me, depending on that day’s optimism/pessimism/realism balance), don’t fear! What is YOUR goal for your email list or platform growth?

Where are you finding social media or email working for you? Is my experience that I share in the podcast similar or different to yours?

Holly Homer on Using Facebook without Formulas – 004

April 28, 2015 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com

I talked to Holly Homer and finally have the Three Keys to TOTAL DOMINATION online! Simply pay me $50 in three easy installments plus $9.95 for shipping and handling and you can learn Holly Homer’s Three Keys and the secret formula for Facebook success!

JUST KIDDING. But does that sound at all familiar? I feel like I see this sales pitch from different places every single day. Spoiler alert: THERE IS NO SECRET FORMULA IN THIS PODCAST. Holly, who speaks at conferences all over about Facebook and blogging, does share how often Quirkymomma posts every day. (Your jaw might drop.) But this conversation is more about creativity and inspiration. She talks about how she used analytics to make Facebook work, but also how she likes to throw the rules out the window. If you are feeling pressured by the so-called “rules” of social media, this episode is for YOU.

Listen to Create If Writing – Episode 004 – Holly Homer on Using Facebook Un-Formulas

You can find Holly at Kids Activities Blog, Business 2 Blogger, as well as on Facebook at Quirkymomma, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. If you are a blogger, you MUST check out her newest venture with Paula Rollo & Becky Mansfield (both also coming up on the podcast!), Blogger 2 Business. B2B is all about education and training for bloggers at all levels to kick it up a notch. Or ten. Right now you will get 30 days of tips delivered to your inbox when you sign up!

At a Glance

I personally subscribe to the school of making mistakes until you figure it out, as Holly does. Is that how you work through things? (I also like learning from other people’s mistakes.)
Fun Fact: Holly suspects that she has more domain names than shoes.
Holly said that we are living in an age when you can start with an idea to making a living in your living room. It is a time like no other! Have YOU experienced this? Do you see the possibilities or does that seem like a reach?
For success with Facebook, Holly & her blogging partner Rachel Miller paid attention to the analytics to see what Facebook liked and didn’t like. They tailored posts in that way.
At the same time, they chucked out the “rules” and suggestions from other people. For example: the Facebook page QuirkyMomma isn’t branded to the name of the blog, Kids Activities Blog. They also post a crazy amount per day instead of the two times a day that people were suggesting at the start of their growth.
Blogging was a gift to Holly at a time when her kids were small. It gave the gift of being able to step back and think of how to tell the story even of a bad day with a silver lining.
If you get caught up in numbers and the pressure, take a step back. Strategize about how you can reach your goals without losing your voice.
“The end product is so irrelevant in what we do. It’s more about…the process of sitting down with a child and having and experience, having an adventure.” -Holly Homer

Should you be using a Facebook page or a Facebook group? Read my tips here.

Relevant Links

Facebook Organic Growth – an interview with Holly for the Social Media Examiner
101 Kids Activities book from Holly Homer and Rachel Miller

My Big Takeaway

I loved what Holly said in that last quote. It’s not about making something beautiful that will show well in a Pinterest photo. It should be about the process, the adventure, the experience. Doesn’t that hold true with our art? Though I will say this: I want to find that perfect marriage where I make something I’m truly proud of as an end product, but where I also enjoy the PROCESS. As a writer, I want my words to come together in a remarkable way. But I want to ENJOY writing. Most of the time, I do!

What I Want to Know from You

-Do you enjoy the process of what you do? Or is it more about accomplishing goals and having that end product? (No judgment here! I’m simply curious.)

-Have you found your own “formula” that works for your goals?

When Fear Comes

April 7, 2015 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com

I say when, not if. Because there WILL come a time in your journey where you are knock-kneed with fear. We should probably discuss how the affect of fear on creativity. If you are like me and don’t like at admit fear, perhaps you cloak if with something that seems less shameful to admit. For me, that less shameful thing is busyness.

“Oh, I will send my manuscript to my agent,” I say. “But right now I am too busy.”

(There ARE times where this is true. Read here to know the difference between legitimate excuses and lame ones.)

I am afraid. But sometimes I say I’m busy instead.

Tweet This

My busy is sometimes legitimate. Four kids ain’t no joke. But sometimes I KNOW. I know that I am not, in fact too busy. Or, I am too busy but it’s because I take the time that would be writing and editing and I use it to do something else. Like start a new blog. (Or a podcast. Oops.) Or write a NEW manuscript.

I’ll do anything but face my REAL fear. Which is this: that the manuscript I have worked so very hard on is really crap. That my agent will say so. Or that someone will buy it but it will hit the bookshelves and I and every review says I’m a hack. Or perhaps worse: just meh.
I am afraid. But sometimes I just say I’m busy instead.

What do you do when the fear comes? Share your deep secrets in the comments. We will be nice. (Because we’re afraid too.)

Other people talk about the crippling nature of fear. Or why you should embrace it.
(One thing they agree on: use numbers in your post titles.)

8 Habits That Crush Creativity from CopyBlogger
The 7 Deadly Fears of Writing from Men with Pens
4 Reasons Why Fear Is a Creative’s Friend on Life Dev

Twitter Is Not Simply Shouting into a Crowd

April 7, 2015 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com

Sometimes when people start out on Twitter, they feel as though they are shouting into a crowded room. I think this is because people are accustomed to the easy Likes tossed around on Facebook and we aren’t thinking about how Twitter works. We expect Twitter to act like another platform. Almost every single thing you post on your Facebook (profile, not page) will have at least a Like. On Twitter, people do not give away favorites, replies, or retweets so easily, which can lead to a sense of isolation.

But it is not hard to build connections on Twitter. You know how I know?

Because Vanilla Ice once retweeted me.

Though it was likely Vanilla Ice’s assistant, that moment was the unimagined culmination of so many of my 7th grade dreams. It also illustrates this great fact: Twitter makes the world small. It is a tool for connecting that reaches people in a way that email and Facebook cannot.

If you feel like Twitter is shouting into a crowd that doesn’t care, chances are that you are ACTING like Twitter is a crowd and you are shouting. You shout with links to your content and with a photo of your breakfast and more links to your content. You may be ignoring how Twitter works.

Perhaps this is because you have heard that you should post your content multiple times a day on Twitter. (You should.) But you also need to interact. You need to retweet Vanilla Ice or (a better idea) the people in your field. You need to reply to Tweets that resonate. Let Twitter make the world small.

The first way to do this is to find great people to follow and then share their content without expecting anything in return. Be intentional and share things that are relevant to the audience that you want to build.

If you are not sure what kind of audience you want to build, this is the time to stop, get a sheet of paper and do some brainstorming. Without intentional goals, you may not make connections or build the wrong kinds.

As with all social media platforms, you want to be a creator of content and a curator of content. The first is obvious: if you have a blog or an online space, share links to that content. Your email list signup. Your latest blog post. Old blog posts. Your Instagram photos. Your Pinterest pins. Your books on Amazon.

Want to get my workflow for using Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day?

As a curator of content, think of yourself as the person in charge of hanging paintings in a gallery. You want to give a variety, but each gallery has its own vibe and sense of space. Don’t be one-note, but there should be a sense of wholeness. A theme. Something tying all the shares together.

You don’t simply want to be a robotic retweeter. Share with spice. Be yourself, or at least, be the persona or brand that you want to portray online. I consider my persona an authentic but edited version of me that best fits with my online goals. I try to pepper my feed with tweets that contain no links: questions, observations, smart aleck remarks.

In the same way, I like to share a mix of scheduled content and live content. A few times a week I sit and do a batch of auto scheduled tweets, sharing from lists I’ve created on Twitter. (Read more on my process in this guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog.) Some relate to writing, some relate to social media, some relate to food, and some are just people I think are interesting or funny.

To make connections, sometimes you have to forge them. This is much less work than it sounds. Respond to interesting tweets. Say thanks when someone shares your content. Be a PERSON. Not that hard, right?

Twitter still has a different level of interaction than Facebook. Each social media platform has its own personality. Don’t expect something from Twitter that it won’t give.

Do you feel like Twitter is a crowded room that isn’t listening? Or has it made your world small? Share your Twitter thoughts in the comments like a civilized human.

Oh, you wanted me to give you tips? Here are some fabulous people for that.

The Twitter Smarter Podcast with Madalyn Sklar
50 Tweetable Tips from Hubspot
5 Ways to Increase Your Twitter Interaction from Social Media Examiner
7 Counterintuitive Twitter Tips from Buffer
3 Myths about Social Media for Authors from Tim Grahl

Why You Should Own Your Name dot com

April 4, 2015 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com

Do you own your name dot com? Here is my take on why you should own your own name as a domain.

But first: Stop reading and go buy your domain name. NOW.

{If you already own it, give yourself a high five & skip to the next post.}

What if your name isn’t available? Try with your middle initial. Or if you’re a writer, try YourNameWrites or YourNameWriter. Don’t be fancy or clever with a dot anythingelse. Get your dot com. Once you have YourName dot com, try to keep it consistent on social media. (More on that later.)

Why? For authors this makes the most sense because you will be known by your name. Say you become super famous and get speaking gigs. Unless you are The Bloggess, you will be introduced as your name. Plus? You AREN’T The Bloggess. Few of us are. One, to be exact. And she does also go by her real name. Just check her latest book.

Perhaps my favorite reason to own your own dot com is this: Owning your own name lets YOU control the narrative. You are the authority. You are YOU. As Dr. Seuss puts it in The Birthday Book, “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” You are YOU. Own YOU. Be YOU.

There may be good reason for exceptions to this, like a giant platform under a blog name. Or you are an anonymous blogger. Or you write under a pen name. (But you should then own that pen name.) Even if you still choose to blog or write under your clever blog name, at least BUY your name. For a rainy day, perhaps. Like when it’s raining money and they need to know where to send the check. You can simply say, “Send it to MyName@MyName dot com, thankyouverymuch.”

Agree? Disagree? Let’s have a civilized discussion in the comments about why you should own your name dot com.

More People Who Say So:

Why You Should Own Your Name as a Domain from Amanda Formaro
Why It’s Worth It to Purchase Your Domain Name from Life Hacker
Why You Should Grab Your Domain Name Now from Gary Matthews
(and by “now,” he wrote this in 2013, so you REALLY better hurry)

*This post contains affiliate links! Which means that, at no extra cost to you, if you purchase something linked through this site, I will get a referral commission. Thanks for the support!