Tag: blogging

What’s your writing goal for the rest of the year?

by Maria

One of the best blogging classes for writers: this is my favorite blogging class to learn the nitty gritty of writing!

It’s back-to-school time! Meaning that it’s time to check in on those 2018 goals and light a fire under your buns to get them checked off.

One of my goals last year was to take a copywriting class, because even though I’ve been writing copy for books for nearly a decade, I’d never been formally trained.

And there’s something about “formal training” that’s more fun and effective than just cobbling tips together from online articles, right?

best blogging classes

So last year, I took Kelly Holmes’s Sticky Blogging class and learned a crazy amount. I will admit that I was a little doubtful that I would learn that much—Smug, Annoying Maria thought she was already pretty good at copywriting.

But NOPE. Smug, Annoying Maria is also Perpetually Wrong Maria.

I was really surprised by how much I learned in Kelly’s class, and how it made me rethink so much of the writing I was doing. I loved that her process helps you get off the hamster wheel of chasing page views so you can build true fans for your work. But I also I realized that basically everything I learned in her class also applied to writing more effective and persuasive book proposals, book descriptions, cover copy, etc.

It’s essentially a masterclass in making readers feel things. And isn’t that what we’re all here for?

It’s easily one of the best blogging classes I’ve taken, and the checklists and worksheets are also primo for making sure you don’t forget what you just learned. I still look at Kelly’s Brainstorming checklist nearly every time I sit down to write anything, and I have once or ten times shoved it in Jarrett’s face when he’s writing. (That’s luv.)

Unfortunately, Kelly is only opening up her class to new students one time this year, so if it sounds interesting to you, this is your chance!

You can sign up for the free intro workshop, How To Get More Traffic with Fewer Posts, here, and there are several time slots to choose from.

And if you end up registering for the class, I’d love to hear what you think of it!

 

Click here to register!

 

5 quick reads for the week

  1. Ever read a full page and forgotten it all? (Gulp.) Here’s how to retain more.
  2. They’re really stepping up the door prizes for raffles in the small Welsh town of Cardigan.
  3. 10 Instagram tips for writers (plus one more from me: follow this account!)
  4. Nonfiction is all about niche.
  5. Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy and I had THE most fun conversation about cookbooks and fiction on her podcast, What Should I Read Next. (And what a unique horror it is to hear your own voice played back to you. 🙉)

What we’re eating this week

You know those complicated weeks when you have oddly timed and unavoidable events at dinnertime, and you can’t for the life of you figure out what you could possibly cook? We’re having one of those weeks our life is one of those weeks, which is why I was SO excited to finally get a finished copy of my author Tiffany’s book, Eat at Home Tonight.

best blogging classes

It’s organized by obstacles that stand in the way of dinner, and it’s literally the book I’ve needed all my life. See?

best blogging classes

Here’s how it works in real life:

Monday: We’re volunteering at 7, so we’re cooking Eggs Run Through the Garden from the “I Only Have 15 Minutes Tonight” chapter. And you won’t believe this, but it really did only take 15 minutes, and it really did taste better than if you had left me alone with a cartoon of eggs and my own brain. Praise hands up!

Tuesday: We are maybe-ish fishing with a friend after work but definitely-ish low on groceries, so we’re making Black Bean Burgers from the “My Fridge is Empty Tonight” chapter. (Does anyone else feel outnumbered by the cans of black beans in their pantry? I can’t stop buying them, and it makes no sense.)  

Wednesday: Out! I think? Or maybe we’re in? I’d like to opt out of Wednesday from now on, please.

Thursday: Some nights I actually have time to cook a big batch of something, but then I want it to magically not be the same boring thing the next day. Hence, the “I Want to Cook For Tonight and Tomorrow” chapter. So Greek Soup tonight becomes…

Friday: Greek Nachos that I barely did any work for, because: Friday! 🙌🏻

Cheers!

Get one free tip for reading more + living better each week!

4 Common Blogging Mistakes That Kill Traffic

by Maria

I spend a lot of time looking at blogs and websites and seeing common blogging mistakes. Maybe too much time. Sometimes I feel like if I have to see one more watercolor Facebook icon or read one more About Me page, I will just flop over, dead from too much Interneting.

But 95% of the time, I just love it. It’s fascinating to see the front end of a blog or website and then talk to its owner and find out how they rank on the 5 most important analytics for bloggers. I guess it’s sort of like seeing how the blog sausage is made. (“Blog sausage” sounds wrong. In a hilarious way. I will now have to dedicate my remaining years to proliferating this phrase.)

common blogging mistakes

ANYWAY. It’s become so incredibly important to have a strong online author platform before you launch a book that it’s impossible to overlook the power of a well-done website or blog. Yet the most common blogging mistakes are so incredibly rampant that it’s hard to miss them, if you’re looking.

But if there’s one thing I’ve seen from speaking to hundreds of bloggers, it’s that very few of them know what the heck anyone else is doing on the back-end. Sure, there are plenty of online courses you can take that could help you build traffic and avoid common blogging mistakes, but there’s nothing like seeing how that traffic converts into book sales to show you how important certain overlooked areas are.

There are 4 common blogging mistakes that I think are especially overlooked, and where I think many people are stifling their engagement, throttling their traffic, and overall slowing down the growth of their businesses. Here are the common blogging mistakes I see most often:

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Read, Eat, Drink: William Zinsser on Nonfiction and a Wild Feast

by Maria

Literary Agent Advice

Read:

How to Secure a Traditional Book Deal by Self-Publishing (Jane Friedman at Writer Unboxed): “It’s not any easier to interest an agent or publisher when you’re self-published, and since new authors are more likely to put out a low-quality effort (they rush, they don’t sufficiently invest, they don’t know their audience), chances are even lower their book will get picked up.” As Jane puts it, “we have a serious epidemic of impatience.” The truth is that publishing a book is easy, but finding readers for a book is hard. More here on how to decide if self-publishing is right for you.

What’s Your Book Marketing Plan? 6 Crucial Steps to Include (Maggie Langrick on The Write Life): “I now counsel all of our authors to build a relationship directly with their readers.” The wonderful thing about this Internet age is that no one can keep you from your readers but you. That’s a lot of responsibility, but it’s also a lot of opportunity.

The Biggest Business Mistake I Ever Made (Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer): “My big mistake was ignoring my email list. I just didn’t understand why it was crucially important until a friend showed me the light.” From my data, there are tons of bloggers and aspiring authors who are making this same mistake. In fact, of the last 10 calls I had with aspiring authors over the past few weeks, exactly ONE understood the importance of building an email list. Guess which one I offered to represent.

The Art of Science Communication: William Zinsser on How to Write Well About Science (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings): The day William Zinsser passed away, I picked up my old yellowed copy of On Writing Well, and it pulled me back to my journalism days in college. I didn’t realize it then, but Zinsser, McPhee, Mitchell, and the whole crowd from my Literary Journalism class are the ones who dragged me, happily, into making a career in nonfiction. I remember picking up The New Yorker sometime in high school, spotting an article about UPS, and being so riveted I couldn’t stop reading. Good nonfiction makes even the most dense and mundane subject fascinating. As Zinsser says: “Writing is not a special language owned by the English teacher. Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything at all. Science, demystified, is just another nonfiction subject. Writing, demystified, is just another way for scientists to transmit what they know.”

Eat & Drink:

Before I jump into this week’s Eat & Drink, an important question: Does your diet consist almost entirely of chicken tenders, mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and other delicacies from the kids’ menu? If so, please avert your eyes. Things are going to get what you would consider “gross.”

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How to Measure Engagement and Why It Matters for Your Platform

by Maria

How to measure engagement

A few weeks ago I was asked about how to measure engagement, and I gave a quick answer in a comment thread. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I spend a lot of time talking about how crucial engagement is, and not enough time talking about how to measure it.

When I was an editor at a New York publisher, I would have anywhere from 7-15 meetings a week. Mostly that was because I had to be at meetings for two different teams, but it still meant anywhere from 1-2 full work days a week spent sitting around a conference room with a group of people.

Some of the meetings were awesome and energizing and full of smart people brainstorming about our books. But some of them were painful. If anyone has ever been in a production meeting where you’re reviewing deadlines title-by-title, you’re probably as accomplished of a doodler as I am. I can now draw quite a menagerie of miniature animals. This is in no way a life skill.

But the point is that it was the content of the meeting that determined whether I was an active or inactive participant. If we were talking about one of my books, or about marketing strategies, or about titles, I was usually giving my full attention and input to the meeting. If we were talking about production dates that had nothing to do with me, it was giraffe-drawing time.

If you had put a two-way mirror in that conference room and placed a randomly selected group of people on the other side, they could have easily told you which people in the meeting were engaged, simply by looking at who was interacting with the meeting content—by offering opinions, asking questions, or expressing emotion.

The meeting of the minds that is your blog/vlog/website is no different. Some people are just popping their head into the room and leaving, some people are present but not engaged, and some people are all in. The people who are all in will be interacting with your content in one way or another. So measuring engagement is really about measuring action.

How, exactly, to measure engagement on different platforms:

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