Reminder: Google Reader Shuts Down July 1, 2013

Reminder: Google Reader to Shut Down July 1, 2013

The news broke in March that Google decided to shut down their popular RSS reader, Google Reader, at the start of the fiscal year. The internet went into the typical we-don’t-like-change tizzy and while some quickly started using the many alternatives, others (like me) are trying to ignore this whole thing.

In March, I shared 6 RSS Alternatives to Google Reader and am only now trying to decide which one will win my heart…for now.

I currently use Reeder for iPhone to read blogs and it looks like it will continue after July 1st, but I’m thinking now be time for a change. Maybe.

While I try to decide what I’m going to do with myself, I’m going to encourage you to start now.

6 RSS Alternatives to Google Reader

What will you be using to read your favorite blogs?

Not sure how to subscribe to Campfire Chic? Try it through Bloglovin’, Email, and RSS.

June 20, 2013 { 0 comments }

Get a FREE Copy of the Simple SEO for Creatives Ebook

Search Engine Optimization is difficult, huh?

Imean, if it takes so much time that people can do it as a full time job, how can I be expected to do anything SEO-related for my site that will make a difference?

Let me help you!

I put together 15 tips to get you started on your SEO journey and put them into a short ebook…and all you have to do is subscribe to the Campfire Chic newsletter to get your copy!

The Campfire Chic newsletter is a monthly (generally) one-sided chat I have with you from the comfort of your inbox. I talk about some things I’m thinking about and we try to give each other a mutual kick-in-the-butt so we can even more awesome than we already are. Because, let’s be honest, Campfire Chic readers are awesome.

This year, you’ll find a trend with my newsletters: they’re all centered around my BRAVE intentions for the year. It’s not your usual newsletter that’s a pretty sales pitch…we talk about things like holding ourselves back by making excuses and taking brave steps.

If you are already subscribed, you will have the opportunity to get your free copy with the next newsletter…which I plan to send out this week!

Click here to subscribe to the Campfire Chic newsletter

June 19, 2013 { 0 comments }

How to Launch a New Product: My Favorite Resource

Nearly everything I learned about launching digital products and online courses I learned from this ebook.

This ebook has taught me you can’t just put something out in the world and hope people will see it, like it and buy it.

You’ve got to lead the way.

PLEASE don’t just put up a blog post saying ‘I made this; here’s where you buy it.’

PLEASE don’t just tweet a link to your shop saying ‘new stuff here!’

From the ebook: “The bottom line is that if you want to sell your [product or service], you’re going to have to get involved with that dreaded ‘M’ word: Marketing.”

Over the last few weeks you’ve probably seen some posts or tweets or excitement about my upcoming BUILD ecourse. Kam and Mollie and Megan and Allie have all posted about it, and I’ve already got a list of bloggers looking forward to the official launch – and it is still weeks away.

Any excitement you see from Listers pre-March or pre-September 30 Days of Lists? A huge portion of all registered participants join us in the first couple days after opening registration. That’s all from having a strategy behind launching our registration.

This isn’t just a put-it-out-there-and-see-what happens. This is a carefully planned, honed and strategic approach to making our products and services available.

Which, again, I learned from this ebook: How to Launch the **** Out of Your eBook by Naomi Dunford and Dave Navarro.

NOTE: That IS actually the name of the book. Replace the four asterisks in your head with whatever word you prefer.

This 100+ page book comes with worksheets and very clear steps for how to plan your product launch.

But that’s the thing. You have to PLAN.

I have read this ebook about 3 times – It’s so good that every time I read it I learn something new….. so when I started to plan the release of my BUILD ecourse, I knew I needed to give myself plenty of time.

Four months, to be exact.

It’s still a bit too early to see exactly how my BUILD launch will do, but I’ve already got WAY more interest than the 1 ebook I released without any kind of launch strategy. And we’re still weeks away from the ecourse even being available!

Keep in mind that this book is all written from the point of view of selling an ebook (pdf download), but I have used it very successfully for all kinds of online offers (30Lists, Onward and Upward and ebooks). The basics are easily adaptable.

Modules included:

Analyzing the market for your ebook
Finding and wooing your ebook buyers
Setting up your mailing list
Writing your ebook
Launching your ebook

Module 5 (Launching your ebook) is broken farther into 5 stages:

Preparation: Getting things together before you launch
Pre-launch: Where you make your first batch of money
Launch: Build up the buzz, build up your list, and let it fly
Post-launch: Where do we go from here?
Ongoing: Even more opportunities to make money via your ebook

My one disagreement with How to Launch the **** Out of Your eBook is that the ‘writing your ebook’ is step 4.

I totally understand making sure there are people who would buy the ebook you have in mind before writing it, but for me personally I need to do the bulk of the writing first so I know what I’m dealing with. Often my ideas change partway through and I don’t realize the CORE of what it is I am offering until I’m editing the finished product.

I (personally) couldn’t craft a launch around something not at least close to being done. But maybe you’re different.

But, here’s the deal. If you want to get started making money from your blog … and you want to create and sell your own products or services…. You’ve got to get invested in MARKETING (or hire someone to help you).

And this ebook -
How to Launch the **** Out of Your eBook -
is a GREAT place to begin.

At the daily blog Lemon and Raspberry, Amy T Schubert writes about blogging, memory keeping, doing what you are meant to do … and how those all combine to help you live your best creative life. She has been a writer, photographer and encourager for most of her life. If you’re looking for a free guide to jumpstart your creativity or one-on-one blog-business coaching, head over to Lemon and Raspberry. For more day-to-day fun (including cat photos), follow Amy on Twitter and Instagram at @amytschubert.

June 12, 2013 { 5 comments }

3 Ways to Capture Your Ideas While on the Run

Sometimes I sit down to brainstorm blog posts or new products or some sort of new campaign and my mind is blank…but when I’m sitting in a waiting room, I’m struck with inspiration and scrambling to capture my ideas. It may be an idea for a guest blog post to pitch or simply a way to share my next adventure with readers so I don’t want to lose any of those ideas. It is important to me to not forget them because I’m the type to dwell on knowing that I had an idea and promptly forgot what it was.

You can’t plan out when inspiration will strike, but you can plan ahead so you’re ready to capture your ideas. Today, I am going to share three easy ways for you to capture your ideas while you are away from your desk/workspace.

Yellow legal pad

As a new fan of How I Met Your Mother, I was thrilled when Ted pulled out a yellow legal pad (and backup yellow legal pad) in P.S. I Love You in order to work out a big problem. Let’s start with the science behind using a yellow legal pad: studies show that color helps us remember things – hence why many teachers encouraged us to use colored index cards to make flash cards when we were younger. Having that pad available only for notes makes it part of a ritual or habit. You’ve set aside that specific thing for notes and brainstorming…don’t add your grocery list to it, it’ll throw things off. If you have a large enough bag, carry your legal pad with you and take it out when you reach the coffee shop just in case you have an idea and keep it handy while you work at home.

Go digital

Evernote and other apps are perfect for organizing your ideas. You are able to sync your accounts between devices so you can pull up that photo you took on your phone with your tablet. Evernote lets you organize voice recordings, text, and photos in handy folders so you can take a moment once a week to organize your thoughts and get things settled. By having an app that syncs, you don’t need to worry about forgetting your yellow legal pad at home – you probably have your phone or access to a computer most of the time, right? Another option? Email yourself! I do this all the time: I send myself a few emails with ideas for blog posts and open them up as I go and start drafting. I also send myself notes via email when I find articles online I want to share in an Essential Reading post. You’ll find my to do lists and deadline reminders in my inbox, as well.

Put it on your calendar

This works with paper and digital calendars, which is awesome. Say you come up with a few blog post ideas (5 ways to style a sparkly scarf, a dehydrated meal for backpacking, and a post showing off your recently decorated den) and don’t want to just write them down someplace to possibly be buried in your other amazing ideas (because your ideas are probably amazing, that’s why you have so many!). Plop those ideas onto your calendar ASAP. Use a pencil for your paper calendar if you’re like me and have issues committing to a finalized editorial calendar, or throw your ideas into your digital calendar and make it easy to move things around. Another tip: after you create the event in your digital calendar, add some notes to it! I like to outline some blog posts right away so I don’t forget where I was going with something (like 5 ways to live a more balanced life).

How do you capture inspiration when it strikes?
What do you do with your ideas once you’re able to sit down and evaluate things?

June 11, 2013 { 10 comments }

Newsletter Checklist: Things To Triple-Check Before Hitting Send

Learn from my mistakes:
Triple-check your newsletter
before hitting publish.

You know what? I made a pretty dumb mistake with my latest newsletter…I didn’t triple check it. I have my cool people-will-totally-open-this-email subject line swapped with my Mail-Chimp-dashboard-friendly title. I lost more subscribers and had fewer opens than in the previous four months.

Let me tell you, if I was a bigger company or trying to sell something in the last newsletter, it would’ve been a terrible campaign. But because I use my newsletter to connect with readers I just feel like I did a poor job of reaching out…the newsletter landed in my inbox Tuesday morning and all I thought was, “what the hell is this???” and my heart sank.

If I wasn’t willing to open MY OWN EMAIL why would anybody else open it. Seriously. So I want to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who did end up opening the newsletter…you’re a better person than me.

5 Things to Triple Check Before
Sending Out Your Next Newsletter

Subject Line

The subject line is so so so very important. It really is. Think about all the junk mail that comes into your inbox on a daily basis…how do you decide to open something? Based on the subject line, most likely. The same goes for blog post titles, but we’ve talked about that plenty of times in the past. Don’t make my mistake: The subject line is the first line of your copy and what is the one thing you need to remember about good copy? The each sentence is designed to get the reader to continue reading. A crap-tastic subject line of “Campfire Chic Newsletter” doesn’t quite have the same impact as “Are you ready to take some brave steps? // Campfire Chic May 2013 Newsletter“.

Call to Action

Why are you emailing people and taking up space in their inbox if you don’t have some sort of call to action? It’s like calling me in the middle of the newest episode of Mad Men and not having anything to talk about. It just doesn’t make sense. Your call to action is a verb…what do you want your subscribers to DO? Do you want them to read through, get inspired, and buy your ebook? Do you want them to see that you have cool things planned for the next month and they should advertise on your site? Or maybe you want them to help you boost your Facebook page and throw a “like” your way. Whatever it is, make sure you have one and make sure it is pretty evident.

Invitation to Connect

Like I said…you’re taking up space in somebody’s inbox. That’s kind of personal, you know? They’re allowing you to queue up next to emails from their grandmothers, offers to connect via LinkedIn, and the blogs to which they subscribe via email. You’re lucky to be included, let’s be honest. So why not connect with your subscribers more? They took the time to subscribe to your newsletter, why not give some of that time back? You know the basic ways of getting people to connect with you: follow me on Twitter! etc. So why not be different than your counterparts and ask your subscribers to respond to a question you pose via email? I subscribe to an awesome newsletter that starts out with a short ancedote and then the author tells readers what he’s drinking and asks us to hit reply and let him know what we’re drinking that morning. It’s something that makes me feel like I know him more than if he was just some guy sending out a newsletter. Connect: you won’t regret it.

Take Away

Okay, so we’ve checked the subject line, the call to action, and asked tried to connect with readers in a different way. What’s next? Oh yeah, what do your subscribers get out of your newsletter? You’re taking up space in their inboxes, you are trying to sell them something, and you’re wanting to know what they drink…but what are they actually getting out of reading what you have to say? A take away is something that your reader gains from opening your email…exclusive content (interviews, tutorials, reviews), discounts on products or services, and even homework count as take aways.

Spelling

I’m not going to include grammar in this section because I’m sure I have a hanging preposition or split infinitive floating around in here someplace. But at the very least, check your spelling on some common words: your name (my phone thinks my name is Jam)…your brand…and the word ‘newsletter’ because I type it as newslelerr a lot when I’m typing quickly. Just do a quick scan.

What other tips would you add to this list?

June 5, 2013 { 4 comments }