a thrift-or-treat blogger Halloween

Really what I wanted was an excuse to get together with a few blogger friends and chat for a bit. I also wanted a way to ease into Halloween. (I have major Halloween grinch tendencies, and most days I think Halloween is the holiday you have to get through before the real holidays can begin.) A Halloween blogger party was the perfect way to combine the two.

I prefer my Halloween more classy than tacky, and heaven knows I got enough of black + bright orange in the four years I spent at Beaverton High (go Beavs). So I chose a simple black and silver color scheme, and Savers sponsored a fun, spooky, classy Halloween tablescape for my blogger party.

Here's how I put this table together using only my insanely affordable thrifting supplies and some help from my amazing crafty sister-in-law Ellie.

We started with a black tablecloth (Savers, $5) and added accents by wrapping around some silver pillowcases (Savers, $3) and a black feather boa (Savers, $1). This candy dish was one of our main inspiration pieces - it was silver, tarnished, and beautiful. And you guessed it, we got it at Savers for only a few dollars.

 The skulls ($2 each) were one of our favorite touches. You can also see the little mirror squares that reflected the silver and contrasted with the black. We got the mirror squares by peeling them off a masquerade mask (Savers, $3).

 This pumpkin was our center piece and a lot of fun to make! When we picked it up at Savers ($6) it was bright orange, but one quick coat of spray paint totally changed the way it looked.

Sticking out of the pumpkin were fake corn stalks that we spray painted black - except for a few, which we spray painted silver to be accent pieces. It made for a great center piece. In fact, it's still on display at my house.

 Homemade bats! You can find a simple tutorial here.

 Our host, Janssen, happened to have a gorgeous chandelier that fit perfectly with the feel we were going for.

 A huge thank you to Emily, Janssen, Jen and Camille for taking time from their crazy lives to come chat. It was so great seeing them, and even if lots of the time was spent wrangling our children, it's nice to chat and sympathize with each other during all the wrangling. :)

 Black roses in vases ($0.99 each) and old tarnished candlesticks finished off our look. A huge thank you goes to Savers for sponsoring our party decor. Savers has aisles and aisles of new and used Halloween costumes to help you find your perfect #thriftortreat ensemble.

Happy spooky Halloween! 

PS - Local bloggers, if I put together a little Christmas tablescape, who would want to come and enjoy it with me and take pictures? Any volunteers?

Current Facebook Strategy: How to Increase Your Reach

I spent years and years using my Facebook page for only one thing: posting links to my blog posts. That's literally the only way I used my page from 2011-2015. "Here's a link to my blog post!" "See the full story on the blog today!" "Check out my blog for the details!" It was great at first, but as Facebook algorithms changed over the years, fewer and fewer people were seeing my posts, and even fewer were engaging with them.

I knew it was time for a change. So I did hours and hours of research about the latest Facebook algorithms, trying to figure out how to organically increase my reach (AKA how to get a lot of people to see my posts without paying for ads or likes or followers).

As I closed out August 2015 with almost three times more blog pageviews than the previous month, Facebook was my number one referral site. By a long shot. An average post a few months ago was reaching 6-18% of my Facebook fans. Now, I average 83% of my Facebook fans reached per post. This is obviously a significant increase, and there's a direct correlation between my new level of engagement and my spike in pageviews.

Today I want to share with you how I did it. I believe blogging should be all about community, not competition, and when I find something that works for me, I want to share it!

Your Facebook page is an extension of your brand

I thought my Facebook page was a place to link to my brand. I was wrong. The page itself is an extension of my brand. Instead of just promoting my latest blog post, I started posting relevant content from other sources interspersed with my own content. If I saw an article that fit really well with my blog aesthetic, or was about a topic I frequently discuss on my blog, I posted it. People started seeing these posts, interacting with them, and getting to know my brand on a more comprehensive level.

An example: If your company sells watches, your Facebook page should definitely have promotions and links to your watches, but it should also have content that has to do with fashion accessories, current trends in the world of watches, or time as a whole. You could post articles, photos and videos with titles such as "5 Surprising Time-Saving Tips," "Best Watches for the Professional Woman," or "Anyone else ever get a lovely tan line like this from forgetting to take off your watch? Oops!"

See what's happening here? Fans aren't just seeing a picture of your newest color of watch band. They're getting an entire experience from your Facebook page. Engagement will go up, and readers will continue to click on and see more of your future content. If they recently commented on your funny watch tan line, they're more likely to see your next post announcing this weekend's watch sale.

I'm very picky about the content I choose to repost on my page. I don't want to flood my fans with links all the time, and I don't want to share anything that doesn't reflect who I am or what my blog's about. But I've had lots of success engaging my audience by asking for their opinions (see my latest opinion post here) and posting content that relates to what I blog about (see my latest outside source link here). As a result, people like and comment a lot more, and the number of people reached per post has gone WAY up. That way, when I post links to my latest blog post, I have a large audience who knows what I'm all about and knows what to expect when they click through to my blog.

Capitalize on trending topics

One of the tricks that has brought me huge success is capitalizing on trending topics. If I'm scrolling through Facebook, and I see that a few friends have shared the same link, I'll click on that link. If it fits with my blog, I'll share it on my page. That way, even if people don't click on the link, they see your name as it says, "Silver Lining and three other friends shared a link." This helps readers see your name often, and expands the engagement to your page.

Figure out the best times to post

This is the most obvious tip in the whole post. Use your Insights page to see when people are viewing, and engaging with, your post. Surprisingly, a lot of articles I read in the past few weeks recommended the "infomercial" approach: post in the middle of the night! Nobody else is posting anything, so there's no competition, and then your content is the first thing people see when they scroll through Facebook the next morning. I haven't tried this yet, but I want to. Anyone out there had success posting in the middle of the night?

Engage your audience

Facebook has a hierarchy of interaction. Likes are the least rewarded. If someone likes your post, awesome for you, but your reach won't go up significantly. Shares are second best for increasing your reach, and comments are the absolute best! The more people that comment on your post, the more people will see your post. Try asking an engaging question to encourage people to comment on your post.

These are the four biggest things I did to increase my Facebook reach organically. However, there are a lot of other tips and theories out there. Here are some of the top trends:

Other current Facebook trends:

1. Become personal friends with your blog readers. Lots and lots of bloggers are sending personal friend requests to their readers now. Why? You are way more likely to see what a friend posted than what a fan page posted. Bloggers are capitalizing on that opportunity by becoming Facebook friends with their readers and then posting their blog links to their personal page. Some really big bloggers have started setting up a second personal account just for this use.

2. Using a Facebook group to promote your posts. I'm a member of a few grow-your-blog type of Facebook groups, where we all help promote and share each other's posts. I have mixed feelings about this. It might help me get lots of likes on a certain Facebook post, but it rarely results in more long-term readers, which is what every blogger needs.

3. Post videos! One of the latest algorithm updates (April 2015) gives slightly more preference to videos. I posted my first video last week and it had a big reach.

4. Don't sound like a salesperson. Less preference is given to posts that sound overly promotional. Do not use a lot of salesperson phrases such as, "Click now! Comment and share! Enter the giveaway! Sale ends tonight! Don't miss out!"

5. Buy ads. If you do decide to pay to promote your post, it is relatively cheap. I also like that you can specify your exact target audience. I'm planning on promoting this post (only my second paid promotion ever), and I'll be sure to update this post on my reach and whether it was worth the money. But again, I grew my Facebook reach significantly without paying for a single ad.

____________________________

Now it's your turn. Tell me what works and doesn't work for you when promoting your posts on Facebook. Or are the Facebook algorithms just getting too demanding so you promote elsewhere now? If so, on which sites have you found the most success?

Related posts:
Two of the most helpful articles I found about increasing your Facebook reach: here and here
Why nobody's reading your blog: the hard truth and how to fix it
How to write an awesome pitch email
Quality vs. quantity: Which is more important and why it matters

tripling my pageviews in one month (a teary thank you)

The truth is, I'm just sitting at the table with my little laptop, looking at my blogging numbers and trying not to cry like the sappy weirdo that I am.

This August, I got more pageviews on my blog than any other month. Like, a lot more. Like, almost three times as many. In the spirit of being open, honest, and vulnerable, I'll share my numbers. For the past few months, I'd been averaging about 23,000 pageviews a month. It was fine, and put me on the low end of smaller lifestyle bloggers. My numbers had been about the same (and even going down a little bit!) for the past few months, and I was starting to wish I could see a tangible reward from all my hard work. I really recommitted to putting everything I had into my blog for the month of August to see how much my blog and readership could grow.

On August 31, I closed out the month with well over 66,000 pageviews.

I know there are a lot of bloggers who might see this number and laugh out loud. 66,000? Ha! That was me in 2009! Call me when you're at a million views per month! And that's fine. But for me and my blog and my goals, going from 23K to almost 67K in one month made me really really happy.

Well, first it made me apprehensive. For sure this has to be spam! I thought. At least 40,000 of these views have to be spam! I even posted in my Arizona Bloggers Facebook group about this. Here's my post for your viewing pleasure:

"Have any of you ever dealt with spam pageviews? It seems like almost overnight all my posts in the last month have 1500+ more pageviews per post than I usually get. The weird thing is that when I look at my referring sites, the numbers don't match up at all. My regular traffic driving sites are reporting only my regular numbers, and there's no new referral site to account for the thousands of extra pageviews I now have. Where are all these extra pageviews coming from, and why doesn't it show up in my referring sites? Not complaining if my blog got super popular overnight (ha!), but it's so sudden and abrupt that I'm wondering if it could be something else."

And then I spent the next two weeks searching Google Analytics tutorials. I probably should have figured out Google Analytics months ago, but I guess it took a huge rise in traffic to me to finally research and interpret my statistics. I figured out what spam pageviews are, how they happen, why they happen, and how to get rid of them. I watched tutorial after tutorial about how to remove these spam pageviews. I was still operating on the assumption that all those pageviews were not legit.

And it turns out some of my pageviews were spam. I had a few different spam bots pushing traffic to my site, and all together, they accounted for 5.25% of my pageviews for last month. Apparently that's a pretty average number for blogs of my size. (If you're interested, this is the most helpful tutorial I found for targeting and eliminating spam pageviews from your analytics.) But still, that leaves a lot of pageviews from amazing people like YOU!

Sometimes blogging feels like such a waste of time. I love it, and I'm passionate about it, but sometimes I feel like if I calculate the per hour income from my blog, I would make more money flipping burgers at McDonald's. (Teaching, writing, blogging - why do I always choose such low-paying professions??) Behind every seemingly simple post is hours of planning, preparing, styling, photographing, editing, drafting, publishing, and promoting. It can be exhausting.

Some days, I feel like quitting. Some days, I feel so filled with fear at all the terrible things people do to exploit innocent people on the Internet that I want to shut down my blog permanently. Some days, the Internet seems so vast and negative and vicious that I don't see how one little tiny happy space can make any difference.

But then, so many affirming interactions come from being a blogger that make all the difference. I get the chance to connect with thousands of self-motivated, creative individuals each day. I get to work with brands whose mission, values, and product I genuinely love. I get to intentionally create a space that's free from the negativity, shaming, and accusatory links you usually happen across as you scroll through Facebook. I get to share my struggles and triumphs, and learn from the experiences and comments of my amazing readers.

Right now, we're on a very tight grad student budget. I'm not teaching this year, so my only income comes from tutoring and this blog right here. This month, my blog has made more money than ever, and every cent counts for so much in our family right now.

So I guess I'll keep sitting here, embracing my little weepy moment, and feeling so so grateful for everyone who's ever read my blog. Thank you for every single pageview on every single blog post. Thank you for every single like on Instagram and Facebook, every single retweet and repin and social media love. Thank you for every time you've graciously overlooked all my many flaws and typos and photo imperfections. Thank you for supporting me through sponsored posts and the brands that help me pay rent each month. 

Thank you thank you thank you. I have such big plans for this blog, and it's people like YOU who make it all possible!

And now - think I can get 100,000 pageviews a month by the end of the year? That's the goal I set at the beginning of the year. It's going to be dang hard and take a lot of work, but I'm ready to tackle it! Who's with me?

P.S. Would anybody be interested in posts about how I tripled my pageviews in one month? Tips and tricks to create a strong online presence? The best strategies that worked for me? Just trying to see if there's any general interest in posts like that. :)

how to write an awesome pitch email

I've sent (and received) many pitch emails during the course of my blogging career. Sometimes I'll never hear back from the company, or they'll tell me I'm not a great fit for them. But many of my emails have turned into really successful, awesome collaborations. (Recent favorites that came out of pitch emails can be found here and here. Can you tell I'm on a baby product kick?)

I've learned a lot about pitch emails over the years, and I want to share my tips with you. I believe blogging should be about sharing success, not hoarding it for ourselves, so read on to learn how to write an awesome pitch email!

WHAT IS A PITCH EMAIL?

If you understand cold calling, you'll understand a pitch email. In the business world, cold calling is when you call potential future customers out of the blue and try to get them interested in your product. Pitch emails are the blogging equivalent. A pitch email is an email you send to a company that will hopefully begin a business partnership with their product or brand. In a pitch email, you introduce yourself, your product, and your collaboration ideas.

Here are some tried and tested ways to improve your "cold call" pitch emails:

1. DO YOUR RESEARCH

I can't tell you how many pitch emails I've received that say something like, "Hello Silver Lining, Are you interested in posting about X product?" I honestly don't even open the full email. It goes straight to the trash! If they didn't take three seconds to learn my name, they're not a company I want to work with.

Research who you're pitching to! Take a few minutes to browse their website, favorite their Etsy page, like their Facebook page, or retweet them on Twitter. Find the specific name of the person you're emailing. This shows your potential collaborator that you're serious, interested, and willing to invest in their brand.

2. INTRODUCE YOURSELF

Spend a sentence or two telling your potential collaborator about you, your blog and your audience. Don't be shy or talk yourself down! I usually write one sentence about my blog, and one sentence about who my audience is.

This is also a great time to mention why their product is a good fit for your lifestyle. Maybe their product solves a problem you had, or looks beautiful in your home, or makes your work day three times easier. Tell them why you are the perfect person to promote their product.

3. PITCH!

This is where you tell the company your awesome ideas for working with them. Whether it's a product review, or working their product into a lifestyle post, or including them in a curated list you're making, this is where you get to say your specific ideas for working with the company. Include an estimate of how many times you'll promote your post and their product on your social channels.

I like to pitch two clear ideas. One usually is more comprehensive, and one is less involved. That way, companies feel like they have options and can begin talking about which option would work best for them.

4. SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

In one of my very first pitch emails, I felt it was too brazen and forward to ask for money right away, so I kind of skirted around the payment issue until the very end of our collaboration, only to find out we both had different (unsaid) expectations about compensation. It became a terrible sticky mess while we sorted things out.

This is not the time to be shy about payment and compensation. This is a business email, so don't be afraid to get down to business! Be very clear and specific. The details can be worked out in later emails, but make sure to mention if you're expecting to be paid in product or actual dollars right from the start.

5. THANK THEM AND INVITE THEIR FEEDBACK

You're almost done! Ask your recipient their thoughts, which option might be the best fit, and if they have any specific promotions or new products coming up they might like you to rave about. As always, end with thanking them for their time.

6. ATTACH YOUR MEDIA KIT

Don't forget to attach your media kit! At the very least, leave links to your main social sites, and your monthly reach and audience size. That way, the company can combine your numbers with your creative pitch ideas to get a feel for what working with you would be like.

And that's it! My pitch emails tend to be about three paragraphs long. If you follow this format, you'll end up with a clear, concise, professional pitch email that will impress potential clients and start a great business dialogue with them. Don't be afraid to send a quick follow-up email if you don't hear from them after 4-5 business days.

What tips do you have?

What do you like to see when someone sends you a pitch email?

Any other great ideas for improving pitch emails?
I'd love to hear your thoughts!

the hard truth about why nobody is reading your blog

When I started blogging, exactly three people read my blog: my dad, my aunt, and my boyfriend. Three pageviews a post. Then, I realized there was a world of bloggers out there, and that I wanted to join that world as my blog evolved. I started networking and growing my blog. In the last five years, I've seen practically every pageview trend in my blogging numbers. Times when my pageviews grew exponentially. Times when they decreased exponentially. Times when they stayed the same, or grew only slightly month to month.

So what makes the difference? Why do people return over and over again to some blogs, while clicking away and never returning to other blogs? Why is one blog hugely popular while another blog with similar author, content and audience fades into the oblivion of cyberspace? Why, as I've heard so frequently lately, do bloggers spend so much time trying to grow their blog, but with no results?

There could be any number of reasons why people aren't reading your blog. Some of them are quick fixes, such as people who can't read your blog because it isn't optimized for mobile readers (more than half of my readers browse from their phones!). Maybe you have a crazy font that's hard to read, or maybe your site's ads and large picture files take up too much space or loading time. Maybe you're not investing time into growing your blog, connecting with other bloggers, or cross-promoting your posts across social media channels. (I could spend hours talking about how important connecting with other bloggers is when you're trying to grow your blog.)

But the real reason people don't read certain blogs is harder to hear. But it's true.

People may not read your blog because it's not offering them anything. Let me put that another way: Your blog needs to offer something that the reader can't get anywhere else. To put it a third way: Readers will come back to your site if they get something out of it.

Think of the blogs you read. I bet they're similar to the blogs I read. I bet they fall into the following two categories:

1. THE HOW-TO BLOGS

I read some blogs because I get specific knowledge out of it. For me, these are primarily craft blogs, cooking blogs, photography blogs, and teaching blogs. Fashion blogs fit into this category as well. When I read these blogs, I learn the best camera settings for bright daylight conditions, or how to properly use a knife when chopping veggies in the kitchen, or how to make a coffee table from discarded wood pallets. These type of blogs have clear, step-by-step instructions with helpful videos or pictures to support their how-to. When I read these blogs, I gain specific knowledge or inspiration about a topic or skill I'm interested in.

2. THE LIFESTYLE BLOGS

I also read some blogs because I relate to the blogger's life and the way they choose to document it. These are primarily lifestyle blogs. I read these blogs because I connect with humorous tales of zombie new moms who forget their baby's name, or beautiful bloggers who share their day-to-day life with amazing positivity, or well-worded articles about the struggles and triumphs of social media.  I am invested in these people's lives, and excited to read about their latest trip or realization or funny moment. These posts have me nodding along, thinking "I feel the same way!" or laughing together with the blogger. When I read these blogs, I gain a feeling of connection, fulfillment, or inspiration.

Do all blogs have to fit into either of these categories? Of course not! First of all, lots of my favorite lifestyle bloggers also post successful how-to posts. Occasionally my favorite how-to blogs will break their norm and write a beautiful, heartfelt post about what's going on in their life. And of course every single post on every single blog I read isn't going to be perfectly crafted or life-changing. I hope we don't hold anybody to that standard!

But overall, think of your favorite blogs. Why do you read their blog consistently? I bet it comes down to information, inspiration, or connection.

So, if you're doing all the basics like posting consistently, networking, and promoting your posts, why aren't you seeing your pageviews go up? Maybe you're not offering information, inspiration, or connection to the reader. Maybe your how-to posts don't have clear visuals to go along with them, so readers find a more detailed version of the same craft somewhere else. Maybe they don't feel connected to you or your writing style, so they forget to find time to read about your ups and downs. 

This is kind of a hard truth to swallow. Sometimes I feel like since I'm trying really hard, I deserve to get a million pageviews each week. Well, I could be the most deserving person in the world, but in the end, people aren't reading my blog because I deserve it. They're reading my blog because they're getting something out of it.

And it doesn't end with blogging. I see this all the time. When you're applying for a job, you feel like you deserve to get it because you're a really good person working to support your really good family. You can be the best person in the world, but you won't get the job because you deserve it. You'll get the job because you have the qualifications, commitment, and work ethic the company is looking for.

When you're a student, you feel like you deserve certain grades because you're a really good person who is also balancing extra-curricular commitments and a part-time job. You can be the best person in the world, but you won't get the A because you deserve it. You get the A because you put in the work, time, and studying necessary for it.

When you're a single person going on a date with someone, you feel you deserve a relationship with someone because you're a really good person who has had terrible luck in the past, and you deserve a turn at love. You can be the best person in the world, or the most deserving of love, but in the end, your date isn't going to pursue a relationship with you because you deserve it. They're going to pursue a relationship because they like that you're smart or funny or a great listener - with a smoking hot body to boot!

WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

If your pageviews are stagnating, and you wish they were increasing, there's actually a pretty quick fix.

First, ask yourself - why do people come to my blog? Do they like hearing about my life? Do they gain insights from the things I have to say? Do they like that I teach them how to do something new? Read through all of your recent comments. What are readers commenting about? Comments can show you what your readers appreciate in your posts.

Second, figure out what you want people to gain from your blog. Do you want to provide a little spot of happiness on the internet, where they can click away from the snarky comments on Facebook articles and find happy words and bright pictures on your blog? Do you want to provide readers with easy tips on how to improve their communication within their marriage? Do you want them to be inspired about how to wear next season's latest trends?

Once you've figured out what people like about your blog, and what you want people to gain from your blog, it's easy to tweak your future posts to meet this goal. Am I saying blogging has to stop being personal and start being 100% business-like? No way! This doesn't mean you have to completely change your blogging identity and purpose. All it means is that if you want your pageviews to increase, make sure your readers are getting something out of your posts. Give readers the information, inspiration, or connection they crave.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this topic.

Why do you read blogs?

What do you hope to gain from blogs?

What do readers love about your blog?

How can you incorporate this in every post to increase your views?

Related: This blog post about quality verses consistency in blogging.

Consistency and quality: why they matter and which is more important

One of the biggest conflicting pieces of advice in the blog world is the debate between posting consistently and posting highest-quality material. Is it more important to post on a regular basis, or is it more important to have high-quality posts?

There are blogger gurus firmly camped on both sides of the debate. I previewed a blogger boot camp in which one of the three main sections was "Consistency Matters." I've also read many highlights of Alt Summit, and the focus was on less frequent, higher quality posts. 

Here are some of the main arguments for both sides.

WHY CONSISTENCY MATTERS

• One of the most vital things you can do to build an online presence is posting and promoting regularly. The more frequently people see your name across all social media sites, the more likely they are to recognize, remember, and connect with you.
• Pageviews, pageviews, pageviews! The more you post, the more clicks you'll get. Of course your monthly pageview count will be much higher if you post twenty times in a month than if you post only three or four times that month.
• SEO benefits. Search engines prefer to rank sites that publish content frequently and regularly (source). Simplified, this means the more you post, the more likely your blog is to come up on a search engine like Google. And since only 8% of people go on the next page of results in a Google search (source), you want your blog to make the first page.
• Consistency is a sign of a well-organized, committed blog. It's not the only sign, but it is an important one. Brands are much more likely to invest in reliable bloggers who make and stick to a posting schedule when it comes to promoting their products.

WHY QUALITY MATTERS

• Quality is what makes a lifelong reader. Quality is the difference between a blog you stumble across, scroll through, and think "meh," and a blog you stumble across, read ten posts in a row, and then subscribe to future posts. It is the difference between a one-time browser and a life-long reader.
• Quality is more marketable. Readers get something out of a good quality post: either they learn new information, or they are inspired creatively, or they connect emotionally with your posts. Content like that is more likely to be shared, repinned, liked, and otherwise promoted online. Good quality blogs make it worth the readers' time.
• Quality helps you stand out. We live in a world of information overload. Millions of bloggers/ authors/ journalists write millions of articles about millions of subjects, every single day. Quality is what makes people return to your blog. 

WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT

Of course the short answer is both. My favorite blogs post consistently and have high-quality content. They maintain a schedule and each post is significant. Blogging truly is a business for these people, and they're really good at their business.

However, I think every blogger is faced with the quality versus consistency dilemma at one point on their blogging career. If they haven't posted for a while, should they post something for consistency's sake or should they keep holding off for quality's sake?

Hold off.

Never sacrifice quality.

You know that saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?" In the blogging world, it's "If you don't have anything meaningful to share, don't share anything at all."  

I did not understand this as a new blogger trying to grow my blog. All the time, I'd tell my husband, "I haven't posted in four days! Let's do something fun together so I can put in on my blog!" The result was a lot of lower-quality posts that weren't meaningful to anyone, not even myself. And that's the type of blog nobody wants to read.

So don't make the same mistakes I made! It's okay if you haven't posted in a few days. If you don't have anything meaningful or important to say, just hold off until you are inspired by something and are passionate about sharing it with the world. After all, that's what is so awesome about blogs. They're purposeful and creative and inspiring. 

What are your thoughts?

Is quality or consistency more important?

And how do you strive to maintain both?