03/14/2017
HOW TO BECOME FILTHY RICH FROM DESIGN BLOGGING!
THE KALEIDOSCOPE PARTNERSHIP.SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING.HOUSTON·SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2017
Did I get your attention? LOL! Read on, because this tip, from Laurel Bern, was one of my top takeaways from attending the Design Bloggers Conference!
First, for new friends to my Page, a bit of background:
Recently, I attended my 7th Design Bloggers Conference in Beverly Hills, California, known by its hashtag: . This conference, produced by Adam Japko’s company, Esteem Media, is one I look forward to each year.
I have been a speaker at this conference in the past, and have attended each one since its inception. I so enjoy the relaxed camaraderie that exists and every time I attend it, I learn something new!
Today, I’d like to share my top takeaways that will help you make money from your blogs and also build your brands and businesses, faster...and if you desire, to become filthy rich by design blogging!
Ready? First let’s talk about 2 key ways you can generate additional money from your blogs, IN YOUR SLEEP, 24/7, FOREVER.
We all need more sleep, right?
And probably most of us would not mind making money, 24/7, while we are enjoying more free time doing the things we love, and being with the people we love!!!
Friends: unless you LOVE doing interior design, and it is your absolute vocation and passion, there is ANOTHER WAY to make money, real money, better money, in most cases, than can be done doing design work ( or most other kinds of work! )
And, before you start thinking: “it’s not about the money for me,” I get it, I do, but it IS - at least partly - about the money for many people, and for those people, I hope this post will be of tremendous value to you and if it is, please consider sharing it with your friends! Thank you!
Are you ready to read the rest of this VERY LONG post carefully? This post with no images?
Because I promise you, if you do, you WILL SEE the light, and a way forward. It won’t be easy, it won’t be fast, but it will work.
1.
E- PRODUCTS & EMAIL LISTS
Laurel Bern shared during her excellent presentation on “How to Build Your Blog Into A 6 Figure Money Making Machine” ( my new title for her preso - after learning from Laurel the importance of catchy headlines ) this nugget:
“If you are not pinning your pins to Pinterest > from your blogs < you are missing out on the #1 source of traffic to your blog.”
So friends, pin those images ( Laurel recommends 5x a day ) from your blog/website, to your Pinterest boards.
Re: email lists: build them, and do it by giving something truly valuable away, in the form of a PDF, to everyone who opts in to subscribe.
Don’t skimp on this email signup giveaway! Make it a tasty appetizer of what they will get if they buy any of your other e-products!
And FYI: Laurel is making a comfortable 6 figure income from the e-products she is selling from her blog ( she gave me permission to say that), and she showed us the slide that showed exactly how much, from her analytics. My mouth dropped open.
2.
AFFILIATE MARKETING:
Holly Hollingsworth Phillips shared during her excellent preso on affiliate marketing how her main business is still interior design, (unlike Laurel who is now, almost completely, a full-time blogger) but how, through affiliate marketing, (placing links on a blog that lead out to products, where, if your readers click on the link, or buy from the link, you receive a commission- hear that: you can make money from affiliate links on your blog even if people CLICK without buying ) that she is making additional revenue of somewhere between 2-3000.00 month, and, in some months, more.
The number one site for luxury affiliate marketing? Re/Style, but you have to apply.
There are other ways to make money from your blogs like:
1. Sponsored content - where brands pay you to put their content on your blogs. The best brands, like , let you do it in your own voice.
2. Partnerships with brands on various campaigns they are running. Talk to speaker, , who is in charge of all things blogger partnerships at Wayfair, about this.
BUT, these things do not make you money, forever, 24/7, while you sleep.
I don’t know about you, but making money in my sleep makes me happy!
And speaking of happy, I’ve started a new Instagram feed: http://www.instagram.com/_designhappy!
Please use the tag: to tag anything that makes you design happy, whether it’s a product you love, a room you’ve designed, a room you’ve been in, a quote you love, etc.
If it’s a beautiful image, full of light and color, that generates a feeling of *design happy*, I will feature it on my new Instagram feed, with a link back to you!
( See the very first image on the tag, taken by Linda Holt, of sponsor Serena & Lilly’s LA showroom. It truly is a great example of: !)
and this brings me to my own, and 3rd major idea for you, on how you can build your blogs and businesses, faster:
3.
COLLABORATIONS THAT ACCELERATE.
Find a way to collaborate with other designer/bloggers in order to help AMPLIFY each other’s businesses and blogs, faster!
A great example of this comes from Houston based friend and interior designer, Carla Aston, who has collaborated with Feng Shui practioner Amanda Gates on a telecast series.
See an example of what they are doing here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-t...
Another great example of collaborating to increase blog growth and business faster, comes from my own professional work for my long time client, Midland, TX based interior designer Leslie Hendrix Wood, the owner of the Hadley Court blog.
Here’s that story:
I have now written 180 posts for Leslie’s blog, and partly because of my blog management, content creation and content marketing work for her over these past years, she was asked, in 2016, to become a design blog contributor to Martha Stewart’s site. She graciously made me her co-contributor on the first 2 posts.
When that happened, we put out a request, into some of the Facebook Groups we belong to, asking designers if they would like to have their work featured in Leslie’s posts on Martha’s site.
Several responded positively, including Jill Abelman, Laura Schwartz-Muller, Joann Carlozzo Kandrac and Kelly Murray of Kandrac and Kole, Linda Merrill, Cheryl Nagle Kees Clendenon, Carla Aston and Lori Gilder, and, in this way, Leslie’s fellow designers had their work published out to millions of consumers on www.marthastewart.com.
Here are those two posts featuring the work of those designers:
First post:
http://www.marthastewart.com/150210...
We did not suggest this headline, by the way, they changed it to attract more readers and it worked! How do we know? The statistics:
The first post, so far, has been shared from Martha’s site 2800 times, the 2nd post, 1400 times, and the 3rd post, 528 times.
Second post:
http://www.marthastewart.com/150300...
and here is the 3rd post, where Leslie was able to publish her own design work, out to Martha’s readers:
http://www.marthastewart.com/150758...
PS: Leslie Hendrix Wood was not paid to write these posts for Martha’s site.
4.
FOCUS ON WHAT DRIVES TRAFFIC.
A. Which Social Media Site To Focus On For Blog/Website Traffic? Instagram, Pinterest, Google, You Tube, Facebook, or Snapchat?
Why does traffic matter? Because the more traffic you have on your blog, the more you can sell from your e-products and affiliate links, and the more brands will pay you for collaborative campaigns.
Answer: GOOGLE & PINTEREST
B. Which Social Media Site [ besides your blog ] To Focus On For Getting Design Business?
INSTAGRAM
It was very clear from listening to speakers: Amber Lewis of Amber Interiors [ who started from zero and now has 30 employees working for her and is under 30 !] ,Brooke and Steve Giannetti of Velvet and Linen (hello exquisite home - may I please come visit - forever - even if only to help take care of your new goats: velvet and linen?), Shea McGee of Studio McGee, ( 350K Insta followers) and Conner Dwyer,( Insta celebrity photographer that works, in a major way, with brands ) that Instagram was THE WAY they had attracted the majority of their clients.
Keys:
ONLY POST BEAUTIFUL, EDITED IMAGES. (Brooke and Steve use an IPhone 7 and take their own images! )
BE INTENTIONAL. Think about the story you want to tell before you post.
DEVELOP YOUR OWN HASHTAG and invite your friends to use it! .
Need to schedule your Instagram posts because you’re busy?
Schedugram was recommended, but there might be others that are even better, I don’t know.
I’ve put a link, in the first comment, to an entire list, of Instagram scheduling apps.
If you have a favorite, please!! > leave it in the comments on this NOTE. Thank you!
5.
ANALYTICS:
( I know, the numbers are boring, but essential if you want to make money from your blog and understand what people are interested in. )
Two key ones to pay attention to from your Google Analytics that you have installed on the backside of your blog/website:
Don’t have it installed? See the video tutorial I found for you below.
Ok, back to the two MOST important analytics to stay on top of:
1. Find and click on the Google Analytics link that says: User Flow. This will show you where are people accessing your site and where were they before they jumped off of your site, or before they converted into buying a product or clicking on an affiliate link?
Why is paying attention to this SO IMPORTANT:
Because then you can hyper target your content to what your statistics show you that people are most interested in reading.
How do you install Google Analytics on your site?
Here is a great video tutorial that will show you exactly how to do it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpR...
This video tutorial I found for you is not one shared by any of the presenters. I hope one of them will share it next time.
2. Pay attention to your site traffic. You want to know how much traffic you are getting to your site.
BONUS TIP:
CONTENT MARKETING:
The excellent content marketing speaker from Hubspot gave us this great tip, below, for better search engine optimization, which means in plain English: your posts will have a better chance of getting found when consumers are typing in keywords to Google or the other search engines that relate to the topic of your posts.
Think TOPIC. Then, develop sub-topics around that. Very specific sub-topics. OWN A TOPIC.
~~~~~~~~
Are you thinking: STOP, LESLIE? “My brain is spinning!” I get it. So was mine!!
And if you’ve made it this far, the truth is: you have to decide: what is my passion, because there is only so much time and money available to execute and make your dreams come true.
So: WHAT ARE YOU TRULY PASSIONATE ABOUT?
1. Do you have a passion for interior design? Do you absolutely LOVE everything about designing spaces and/or events for other people?
2. Do you have an absolute passion for seeing your aesthetic footprint out in the physical world, through developing products, like furniture and lighting?
3. Do you have a burning desire to share your lifestyle view with the world through a book or an online magazine?
4. Do you have a passion to help others succeed, faster, in their own businesses?
5. Do you have a PASSION (and the time for) writing great blog posts with images, e-books and setting up affiliate links, to help educate and inspire others, while making a great living, 24/7?
AND MY VERY LAST TIP: THE CALL TO ACTION:
And the very last tip I learned { that I am really bad at...but no longer: make sure you have a CALL TO ACTION in every single thing you write!
So:
If any of you would ever like to talk further about working with me professionally on:
1. Blog management, including writing your e-products and setting up your affiliate programs.
2. Social media PR { ask Rebecca Reynolds of The Kitchen Design Network or Laura Schwartz - Muller of www.fourpointdesignbuild.com about my work in this area for them }
3. Content creation.
4. Content marketing.
5. Influencer marketing campaigns { I conceptualized and executed the first major online multi-brand influencer marketing campaign in our country, 8 years ago, between brick and mortar retailer, Room and Board, Cargill’s BiOH Polyols division and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design} and was hired by Meredith Corporation to help them with their first StyleMakers program for their Better Homes and Gardens title }
6. Website and social media site reviews and development. {See www.wilsonkelseydesign.com for an example of my work in this area.
7. Facebook video advertising { which absolutely works to drive sales: see the reviews on my page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheKale...}, please feel free to contact me here:
[email protected]
www.about.me/tkpleslie www.facebook.com/thekaleidoscopepartnership www.instagram.com/tkpleslie www.linkedin.com/in/lesliecarothers
www.twitter.com/tkpleslie
POSTSCRIPT:
What is more and more apparent to me as I get older? Noone has all of the answers, no matter how experienced we are in our respective fields. It takes a village.
Each of us has a piece of knowledge, gleaned from our experiences, and together, we make a beautiful circle, a kaleidoscope, if you will, that, when turned, offers each other multiple points of view and new perspectives.
My thank you to all of you who were speakers this year, and to the team at Esteem Media. I appreciate you all.
Leslie Carothers
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