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    Meet Our Speakers from SLC 2013
    Friday
    Apr052013

    Friday Links - Standing Out From the Crowd

    By Piper Toth. Photography by Herroitt Grace.

    Have you ever wondered what the trick is for standing out online? Learn from this list of awesome sites (& people) that are definitely not blending in!

    Tips, exercises & articles

    People & stores that know how to do it!

    Thursday
    Apr042013

    Why You Need An Editorial Calendar

    By Chris Gardner. Photography by Karina Perez.

    In my personal life, I’m not much of a calendar person. When starting a new school year each year I’d buy a brand new day planner, full of clean white sheets and all kinds of boxes ready to be filled in. Then I’d use it for a week and then leave it in my bag. Or, during the last sixty seconds of a session, I’d dutifully copy the info from the course syllabus into my planer, and then never actually look at it when it came time for homework.

    And, as you've probably guessed, I’m not much of a list maker either. Sure, I’ll create a grocery list every third trip to the market, and I’ll brainstorm ideas for a specific project. But as far as a master list with the stuff I’m working on, painstakingly synced between my paper notebook and that account on my computer with the accompanying app? Yeah right! It just becomes an end in itself - I’ll make a list of to-dos, not to remember them, but just so I can check them off my list.

    Click to read more ...

    Wednesday
    Apr032013

    Preparing for The Next Tax Year

    By Helena Swyter. Photography by Johnny Miller.

    Let's pretend April 15th has come and gone. Your taxes are filed and the annual stress is starting to subside. Before you put all your tax documents away, take a second to evaluate how this year went. What can you do now to make April 2014 less stressful?

    1) Keep your bookkeeping up to date

    If you are self-employed, it’s very important to keep accurate books and records detailing the income and expenses related to your business. It’s easy to let the bookkeeping slide when you are busy with projects, but the scramble to get everything entered and organized by April 15th can be avoided by keeping your system up to date throughout the year.

    Take the time to find an accounting software option you like so you will be more eager to keep up with this task. Bookkeeping will also be easier if you have a separate bank account dedicated to your business. This will keep you from mingling business and personal expenses and keep your books cleaner.

    2) Start a filing system

    Throughout the year, you will want to keep track of all receipts for large purchases related to your business. This can either be done in a file folder or by scanning your receipts and storing them on your computer.

    Click to read more ...

    Tuesday
    Apr022013

    For Sponsors: Successful Contests or Giveaways  

    By Sara Urquhart. Photography by Annakelle.

    This post is a part of our blogging series for sponsors. See the rest of the series right here.

    First, you must know what your goal for the contest or giveaway is—Twitter followers, Facebook likes, or simple brand exposure—and then find a blogger who has the ability to help you achieve that goal. Find out more about discovering the right blogger here.

    Once you’ve established your desired outcome and talked about compensation, work with the blogger to establish a time frame and rules. She may have a standard protocol for giveaways on her blog, and that may be agreeable to you. If you’re working with several different bloggers, establishing one set of rules that everyone follows may be in your best interest. If you’re including cross-promotion with another blogger, blog promotion plus additional promotion on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you can offer one generous price for the entire project, or break down each item by individual price.

    Click to read more ...

    Monday
    Apr012013

    5 Best Practices for Monetizing a Personal Blog  

    By Melanie Blodgett. Image by Audrey Moore. 

    You've been posting consistently and your readership has grown, so now you're looking to earn some money. But where do you begin? Here are our five best tips for getting started with monetizing your blog. 
     
    Landing Sponsors
    The first step in landing sponsors is to recall your school fundraiser days. First, you start with your family. Mom, dad, grandma, cousins - no one is off limits. Once you've exhausted those relationships, start going door to door. And don't forget to send a sign-up sheet with your friend or spouse who works in an office. They can put it in the break room for maximum coverage. 
     
    Pay Per View Content 
    Evaluate what your most popular posts are (check Pinterest to see what's going viral) then only post a teaser of it with a read more link at the bottom. Once readers push the link, have a Paypal window pop-up so they have to pay to view the rest of the content. They'll love it! 
     
    Start a Newsletter
    A newsletter is a great opportunity to add more exposure to your sponsors. To get a lot of subscribers fast, ask the leader of your church congregation for an email contact list for a service opportunity and add them all to your list. For minimum turnover, make sure to hide the unsubscribe button as best you can. 
     
    Text Links
    At least once a week, create a post entirely from sponsored text links - Mad Libs style. 
     
    Giveaways
    Make sure you're not only charging for giveaways but go ahead and rig each one so you're the winner then sell the product on Craigslist. 
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