For Beginners

The Fight with Facebook-Tips to Help You Win!

March 28, 2016 by amber@crazylittleprojects.com 3 Comments

If you’ve been blogging for a while and if you are consistently using social media, you may have found yourself in a bit of a fight with Facebook recently. It’s been a while since they changed their algorithm, but where once you could post something and your followers would all see it on Facebook, now they might show your post to only a handful of your followers. And that can be FRUSTRATING!

How can you get your followers to see your stuff on Facebook and how do you grow your following?

How to Succeed on Facebook:

Let me start out by telling you a little bit about my own experience on Facebook. (Feel free to join me there!)

I have been blogging for 4 years now. At the start of December 2015 I had about 32,000 Facebook followers and I had hovered right around that number for well over a year. Each week I gained about 100 new followers. I didn’t post super consistently-just a little here and there when I felt like it-but mostly I considered it a waste of time. And also something that would take up too much time if I tried to put much effort into it.

Early in December I decided to start giving Facebook a solid effort and to see what happened.

I started posting consistently every single day. And I was AMAZED what happened. New followers started to flow in. My reach grew. I was seeing Facebook traffic. I could tell something was working, so I kept plugging away.

Today it’s March 28, 2016-so just shy of 4 months since I started my Facebook experience. I now have about 71,000 followers-more than DOUBLE what I had in December when I started posting consistently. I have great reach on many of my posts and I am currently gaining about 3800 new followers a week-so growing very rapidly!

I want to share with you some very basic tips that have helped me. This CAN be done! Don’t get discouraged, don’t get frustrated, just give it a try.

Facebook Tips for Bloggers:

How to Share: You probably already know this, but just in case, let’s talk about HOW to share things on Facebook. If you are sharing your own, original content (meaning it’s something originating with you on your page, not shared from another page), save an image of it either to your computer or your phone (I usually work from my phone on this-it’s easier. Click Photo and then select your photo. Edit it to make it square, add some text and a link (if needed) and you are set!

If you are sharing from someone else, you’ll need to do one of two things. Either use the share button in the bottom right of the post:

And copy the link and then paste it into your Facebook page, or click the time stamp at the top of the post: (see the 1 hr below)

That will pop open a new window-then copy and paste that URL into your Facebook page.

Wait for the content to populate, then delete the link text, add your own text, and share. (Delete that link showing below and add your own text).

Post Consistently: The very first thing to do is to start posting. And don’t post in spurts-do it regularly. Pick an amount of Facebook posting that will work for you and stick to it. I started out posting about 6 times a day. I would recommend at least 6 times a day to get going. You can go quite a bit higher than that-probably up to about 15 times a day (certainly some bloggers do more). Just figure out what works for you and do it consistently.

What to Post: I used to just post a link to my post, let Facebook populate it with an image and a little text and I would call that good. I’ve learned that that is not the way to get the best reach. I recommend posting a variety of the following:

Images: Post a square image with a link to tutorial, recipe, story
Videos: Videos get a better reach for me 99% of the time than other posts. So I try to work in about 1 each day. (I’m talking about videos that play automatically when people are scrolling through.)
Memes/Sayings/Funny Things: You know they’re all over Facebook. Things that make people laugh or think or want to share with their friends. They are Facebook gold. Find some that fit with your brand and share them.
Viral Content: Share content from other Facebook pages that is performing well. These will often go very well. Find pages that you love and see what they are sharing and share something from there.

Pay Attention: Start posting and pay attention to what goes well. Look at your Facebook reach at the bottom of each post. Here’s a look at a post I shared earlier today:

Here you see how many people have seen this post so far. I have posts from today that have been seen my about 1,500 people and other posts that have been seen by 30,000 in the last 24 hours. So quite a variety. That’s ok! There’s going to be variety-don’t stress. But DO pay attention to what does well and share more of it. I’ve learned there are some things that FLOP on my page, so I have stopped sharing those. I try to focus on things that I know my readers will love.

Shares and Engagement: The number of shares you get on a post, as well as the engagement (likes, clicks, and comments) will greatly enhance the reach of a post. Do what you can to get your readers talking, sharing and engaging on your page. Ask questions. Make them want to click on the link (although frankly I HATE click bait so I am careful not to do that), find things that are very sharable. This is why funny memes work or things that readers will want to share with their friends. Watch your engagement and see if you can get them talking and sharing!

Share Your Own Content: In the midst of all this, be sure you are sharing your own content! I post about 8-10 times a day on Facebook right now. I typically post 2-3 of my own posts in that mix. Don’t share too much of your own, but be sure to get some of it in there.

Schedule Ahead: It’s very easy to put together your Facebook schedule ahead of time. On a good day I will sit down first thing in the morning and schedule out the posts for the day. That way I can be sure a get a good variety-a few recipes, something funny, a sewing post or two, maybe a video. Several of mine in the mix along with others. Some are shared content, some are originating from my page.

To schedule, click the publish button and choose Schedule from the drop down menu:

You can then choose your time frame.

I typically post about 1 an hour spaced out through the hours of the day between about 8:30 am and 7:30 pm.

You can also Save Drafts. When you find great content, create your Facebook post and then click Save Draft. (See above again.) When you are ready to schedule you can then go into your Drafts folder and choose from the things in there.

This is at the top of my page:

If I click drafts this is what I see:

I can then choose from the posts there and schedule them out. I love to keep this draft folder full of at least 20 posts at a time so that it’s easy to schedule things.

2 Week Facebook Challenge:

You ready for this? I want to give you a challenge!

Over the next two weeks, start posting to Facebook and follow the tips I gave you. Post consistently, post a variety, put stuff on Facebook!

I want you to pay attention to your reach and followers but I DON’T want you to stress over it. Pay attention to see what is working but keep plugging away anyway. Just keep going for 2 weeks. You can tweak a little, but mostly I want you to just post and post and post and don’t give up.

I think you will see a change for the better in those two weeks. Will you let me know?

Then keep going from there!

How to Make Money Blogging

February 5, 2016 by amber@crazylittleprojects.com 1 Comment

That’s the ultimate question isn’t it? How can I make money blogging? Maybe it’s not the main reason that you started blogging (or maybe it is, which is fine too), but it’s a very nice perk to blogging and it is very doable. Initially I started blogging as an experiment to see if I could make money because at the time I owned a business and was burned out and wanted to move on. The answer was yes, I could make money, and within a year I was making enough to sell the business and blog for profit. Yes, money can be made blogging. It will take time and work and persistence, but it is very possible to make a very good income blogging.

How to Make Money Blogging:

Let’s just start out by saying, that when you start a blog you are going to need to be patient and willing to invest some money in order to see a return come in and to start making money.

I started blogging in March 2012. I saw my first paycheck in August of that year and it was for maybe $200, maybe less. But within about a year I believe was making about $1,000 a month. And it’s grown since then. The end of the year 2014 I had made a solid full time income and 2015 proved even better. But you need to know that it took work and a lot of passion to get there.

There are a number of ways to make money blogging. Let’s break them down.

Ad Revenue:

By far my number one source of income is ad revenue. This is not true of all bloggers-there is a lot of variation in how bloggers make their income, but for me, this is the biggie.

What is ad revenue and how do you get it?

You see those little ads hanging out on my side bar over there? —–>

(Or here’s a peek at them on my main blog). See it there on the right side?

That’s an ad. You know that. I have quite a few of them on my blog. Six or seven usually between my sidebar, banner ads, footers and ads after posts.

These ads pay me money. Now, each ad does not pay a lot-maybe even only a few cents each, but the cumulation of lots of ads and lots of page loads can add up to a lot of money. The amount that you make per 1,000 page views is called your CPM. Typically my CPM will range from about $4-$10 throughout the course of the year (with it being much higher in quarter 4 than quarter 1.)

I don’t select the ads that run on my site. I don’t do anything to place each individual ad on my site.

I work with various ad networks and simply install a bit of code on my site and then the ads load automatically each time my page loads. Simple enough right?

To start running ads on your site, you will want to sign up with some ad networks. If you are just starting out, I recommend getting set up with Google Ad Sense right away. You can have ads on your blog in minutes. They aren’t the best paying ads, but they are a place to start. (Just a note-google ads pay per click instead of page view, meaning that you make money each time someone clicks an ad, not just each time a page loads.)

As you get bigger you can begin to apply for more ad networks. I work with a company called AdThrive who not only runs their ads on my site, but they maintain all of my other networks and all of my ads. You need to have at least 100,000 page views a month in order to work with AdThrive, but if you are there I highly recommend applying to work with them. (If you’re not there, I highly recommend doing what you can to increase your page views.)

A few other ad networks that you can try if you are looking for some: Federated Media, PulsePoint, Sovrn, Rivit, The Blogger Network, or just run a google search for ad networks. There are plenty. You will need to apply and be accepted and then they will send you code to put on your site.

Sponsored Content:

Another big way to make money, and one that is the biggest source of income for many bloggers, is sponsored content. Simply put this means that a company hires you to create content that features their product and you post it. This might mean a blog post, it might mean a post on social media. Typically it will involve guidelines from the company about what they are looking for and then you create the content and post it. And get paid. Simple enough right?

Here’s a sample of a sponsored post on my blog:

I was working with Nestle on this project. They asked that I take a certain product and create a stocking stuffer with it.

There is a lot of money to be made this way, though it’s important to be careful that you aren’t overdoing it on sponsored posts and making your whole blog seems like an advertisement. This can ultimately drive your readership down which could hinder your income rather than growing it.

As you grow you may find that companies come to you to ask you to work with them. Before then it can help to sign up with an agency to help you get sponsored content opportunities. Just like ad networks, there are tons of these can you can apply to work with, but here are a few to help you get started: IZEA, Linqia, PopSugar, TapInfluence, Social Fabric.

Affiliate Marketing:

Depending on the type of blog you have this can be a HUGE source of income. If you’re good at it it can probably be a HUGE source of income no matter what type of blog you have.

Affiliate marketing is a system where you use a link to refer your readers to a specific product that you are recommending and if they buy the product, you make a portion of the money.

So for example, if I told you that I love this book that you can get on Amazon (and I really do by the way-one of my favorites!) and you head to Amazon and buy it with that affiliate link that I just posted, I make a portion of the money. This can really start to add up if you are referring a lot of people and especially at Christmas season.

When you sign up to be an affiliate with different companies, they give you unique links that track your sales so that they can pay you. For me this is just a small portion of my income-I could certainly work harder to grow this, but it’s very passive income for me. I have some links in some of my posts and they make me money now without me having to do anything.

Some big affiliates that you can sign up for are Amazon, Shareasale and Commission Junction. When you sign up with Shareasale or CJ, you can then sign up for lots of store’s programs under them including places like Target and Joann’s. One thing to note about affiliate sales is that you are required to disclose that you are using an affiliate link. My link to Shareasale in this paragraph is an affiliate link as is the Amazon one above.

Those are probably the top three ways the bloggers make money, although there are certainly plenty more.

You can also has your own shop and sell things whether digital or tangible, you can do consulting, write books, really whatever strikes your fancy.

This post was just a general overview of how to make money when you are getting started. In future posts I will break it down more and get into the nitty gritty of how to increase your income. Stay tuned and be sure to subscribe! (Top right corner of the blog.)

How to Start a Blog: Step by Step Guide

January 6, 2016 by amber@crazylittleprojects.com 1 Comment

If you just showed up here at Blog-Crazy looking to start your very first blog, you’ve come to the right place! (If you already have a blog you have also come to the right place, you just might not need this post. Check out some of the others!) This post is simply a basic, step by step guide to how to actually start a blog. It’s a simple process, but can be confusing if you don’t know what you are doing, so let me walk you through it so that you can focus your time on the fun stuff like creating blog posts.

Let’s do this! I will walk you through the basics of registering a domain and getting your web hosting. (These are the two things that give you a space on the internet.) It will only take you a few minutes. I am going to show you how to do this using BlueHost, which is a good starter package for web hosting. Read the steps below and you will soon have your blog ready to go!

How to Start a Blog:

Step 1: Choose a Name and Register Your Domain and Web Hosting

First things first-what are you going to name this blog? This part (to me) is SO tricky! Hopefully you are better at coming up with names than I am! (If not, enlist friends and family-that’s what I do. My husband named Crazy Little Projects and my best friend named this blog. They’re handy to have around.)

Get some name ideas ready. Just remember that you want your blog name to be easy to remember and something that you will be happy with for a long time.

With name ideas ready, get online to register a domain. This is your web address on the internet. (i.e. blog-crazy.com). You will also need a web host. The web host is where your blog is housed-what makes it visible on the internet. Don’t worry, they pretty much take care of everything for you.

Go to BlueHost and choose the drop down menu that says products, then choose shared hosting: (or go straight to the get started now button)

Now click Get Started Now:

This is going to open an option that allows you to see all of the hosting plan options. Select which one you want. For now the basic is probably plenty:

This will take you to a page where you can register your domain. Word of warning-many names are already taken, so be prepared to get creative if need. Add a hyphen (ie. blog-crazy.com), use a .net if you feel comfortable with that or change the name a little until you can find something that is available and works for you:

Then fill out your info:

And choose our package information. You can decide how long to sign up for (1 year or more) and choose from other options. Most of these options are probably not necessary except maybe the Site Backup. All are optional.

Now you should get an email with your next instructions. Open this email and make sure to save this email. You might need it again!

Click the link that says Update Your Password. This will take your to your control panel. Change your password if you would like.

In your main control panel, click Use WordPress:

This is automatically going to install WordPress for you, which is a platform that you can use to run your blog.

Enter your domain name:

And let it install. When it is done you should see a screen like this. Click the red button to get your login info:

It should show up something like this:

Click on Admin URL and login using the username and password it gives you.

And that’s it! You are up and running! You should now see a dashboard that looks like this:

This is where you will do all of your behind the scenes blog work like writing posts, uploading images and customizing the look of your blog! Play around here a little and get familiar with it.

If you need help with how to design your blog and all of the steps beyond, try my Free eBook!

How to: Edit Images

January 5, 2016 by amber@crazylittleprojects.com Leave a Comment

This post was originally over on my blog Crazy Little Projects, but I think it is appropriate to move it over here too, since these tips could really help bloggers! It’s a simple little tutorial that can improve your pictures in a quick, easy, anyone can do it way! This could be great for bloggers who want to make their pictures stand out more but aren’t professionals at photography. Here you go-How to edit pictures online:

How to Edit Pictures Online:

A few months back my old computer keeled over and died. My husband was insistent that this time around I needed to get a Mac. I was indifferent, so I let him talk me into it. Now I am a happy Mac user, BUT with the transfer I lost my program for editing pictures. I used to use Paint Shop Pro which is similar to Photo Shop but maybe dumbed down just a little. It was a difficult program to learn, but I had a good handle on it and used it daily.

Once I had my new computer I struggled to find a photo editing program that would work for me. After trying out several options I found myself using PicMonkey.com for most of my photo editing. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s free! (Though you can upgrade to a membership that costs $5 a month and I do love that membership!)

Can I walk you through a handful of easy steps that will improve your pictures?

Go to PicMonkey.com and select Edit from the menu bar on the top. You can then select your images from your computer (or the other options). Select one picture to edit:

Here’s a picture that I recently edited for the blog. (Check this post out here.) This is what it looks like in my workspace when I open it in PicMonkey:

Once I have this opened it is going to take me less than 5 minutes usually to edit this. Often about 2 minutes. Just a few simple changes are going to brighten this picture up and make it pop much more.

To start, make sure you are working in the menu that is shown in the picture above. You should have the cropping tool icon clicked (the little square looking thing on the left) and should see the drop downs starting with Crop then Canvas Color and so on.

If you need to crop your picture, this is the first thing to do. Select crop and a box will pop up like this:

I can then drag that box around, resize it and get it centered just how I want it on my image and press crop. Also, if you picture is at all crooked try the rotate tool.

Once I have my image cropped, I resize it. Now, if this is a portrait that you want to print, go ahead and leave it at full size. But if this is an image that you are wanting to use on the internet, you can size it down.

Select Resize from the bottom of that menu:

Then size it how you want. For blog images I size mine to about 600 wide and for sure leave the keep proportions button checked.

The next step I use is to play with Exposure. Select this from the list. In this section you can do a number of things. I start by clicking the auto adjust button. This will make some automatic adjustments to your image. Usually these are subtle and don’t make enough of a difference for me, but it’s a start.

Then you can play with the others. I start with brightness. I almost always want my pictures brighter, so I start there and drag the little dot to the right. Here you can see that I dragged it clear over to the 16. It’s TOO bright at this point, but I am going to adjust that with some other settings:

Next I do Contrast. This will enhance everything in your picture. You need to be careful with this one because if you use it too much your pictures will start to look over exposed. This is an extreme example of contrast set too high:

Here is a more reasonable version. You can also play with Highlights and Shadows in this tab too.

Next I move on to Sharpen and pull the Sharpness and Clarity up just a bit. This is probably more for object photography rather than people. It just gives your picture a little bit more of a crisp look:

And then if you feel like the coloring looks off on your picture you can also play with temperature and saturation under the Colors tab. I felt like this one was slightly bluish so I pulled the temperature up slightly.

And then we have a finished image.

Let’s compare the before and after:

You can see that it is more bright, colorful and crisp. In my case I was using this for my blog and want the pictures to really stand out for Pinterest and things, so I want it quite bright and bold. If I was editing pictures of people I would tame the contrast and clarity down a bit.

Do what works for your image and play around with things a little. You will be surprised how easy it is to get a nicer looking picture without a lot of effort!