Getting comments on my blog used to be the highlight of my day. When I got an email notification in my inbox, I would rush to open it, thrilled that someone had taken the time to comment on something I had written. These days — not so much. Almost every day I receive an abusive comment… Read More
I‘ve been trying to make money online since I first started blogging back in 2007. I have followed all the advice and tried more schemes than I care to remember. But none of it worked. Until now that is. Before we get to the “what works” part, let’s pause briefly to consider what hasn’t. Making… Read More
Colum McCann, author of Thirteen Ways of Looking, shares some advice for the young (and not so young) writer. It is also wonderful advice for anyone who wants to live life with purpose and meaning. Colum McCann’s Letter to a Young Writer Do the things that do not compute. Be earnest. Be devoted. Be subversive of… Read More
Bloggers who write about their lives don’t always feel at home on Pinterest, but by following these 6 steps you can attract massive traffic to your blog.
I have owned these bedside tables since the 1980’s. I bought them in natural pine, but soon painted them black to match the waterbed(!) I had at the time. They have been through a marriage, out the other side and are still used in our master bedroom. After all these years a makeover was well overdue. My boyfriend… Read More
My holiday gift to you is 10 inspirational quotes from Rumi for you to use however you like without attribution. Please feel free to share them on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. {Please wait a moment for the gallery to load} → Need help with your social media images? Click below… ≡
In the last month Pinterest has sent me 14,324 page views. If you would like a slice of this kind of traffic, let me share my pinning strategy using Trello – a free project management tool. People tell me they don’t ‘get’ Pinterest as a business tool. Let me try to explain. Think of Pinterest as a boutique, user-driven… Read More
The most popular advice given to writers is to find your voice – to showcase your unique personality and view of the world through the words you choose and the sensory details you describe. As well as having a literary voice, it is also important to have a visual voice. The internet is a visual medium,… Read More
When the photos we use for our blog posts are horizontal, it is challenging to make them into a vertical pin. The problem is that when making them the right portrait proportions, we lose too much of the edges of the photo. A simple way to alleviate this problem is to make the photo take up… Read More
In the control panel of my blog, the counter for the number of posts sits at 999. I hesitate to write the 1,000th post because it should have some kind of significance. I can’t just write a flippant flyaway piece, it has to be memorial and interesting, it has to mark the occasion with importance. Then, as… Read More
I have been implementing a new social media strategy which focuses on sharing the work of others, especially on Twitter. I love reading your posts, articles and stories, but sometimes I am unable to share them. If you want your work to be given its best chance to be seen by a wide audience you might… Read More
You can find a whole world of beautiful free stock images on the web these days on sites like Pexels and Pixabay , but sometimes you see the same photographs popping up all over the internet. Here are seven simple ways you can transform stock photos into something that is uniquely yours. 1. Add an overlay… Read More
When I blog, I usually spend more time finding and formatting a photo than I do writing the post. I pay careful attention to my pictures because I know that 63% of social media is made up of images and engagement with images is a whopping 77%. In an online world filled with short attention spans,… Read More
