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7 Important Things to Know if You Do ‘Follow for Follows’

August 13, 2018 by Deja 9 Comments

Recently I decided to join a ‘Follow for Follow’ thread on Facebook.

In case you’re not familiar with them, a follow for follow thread is where everyone drops a link for a social media account, blog post, Pinterest pin, etc and everyone follows each other back. 

Up until this point in my blogging career, I’ve been leery about doing follow for follows but you never know until you try so I gave it a shot. 

Before I continue, let me say that I’m not bashing any of the bloggers I followed. We are all doing the best we can with the knowledge we have. 

 I just want to share some of the things I noticed- both good and bad- so we can all continue to grow as bloggers. Now, let’s dive in. 

Lessons from My First Follow for Follow Experience

Lesson 1: Your Subscriber Box Should Be Easy to Find

There were so many sites that I couldn’t find a subscriber box on and if a reader can’t find what they need in 8 seconds, they will leave.

Make your subscriber box easy to find and put it in a lot of places. 

WordPress.com currently has their follow button hidden at the bottom of the page BEHIND the Cookies consent which is ridiculous.

A few great places you can add an opt-in box are: 

  • Notification bars
  • Welcome mats
  • The TOP of the sidebar (don’t bury it after your about me page or recent posts)
  • At the bottom of posts
  • In the middle of posts with a content upgrade

Because of my experience, I plan to add a ‘subscribe’ button to my menu.

Lesson 2: Do Not Ask for Last Names

I’m a big fan of asking for a reader’s name when they subscribe so you can personalize emails. However, asking for their last name is overly personal and will likely scare people off. 

The more you ask of people the less they will give so keep it simple by asking for first names only. 

Lesson 3: Feedburner is Redundant

Feedburner is an email collection service which I’ve never seen before and I was less than impressed.

I found it to be redundant and it didn’t look good. Something about the colors and the way it’s put together makes it look really old school.

Each time I hit subscribe a separate box popped up that I had to confirm a Captcha for and then click subscribe. Then I had to go to my email and confirm my subscription again and another separate tab opened up. 

I understand double confirmation but this seemed like triple confirmation.

Unfortunately, the more actions we ask a reader to take, the less likely they will be to complete a sequence and this will cost you readers. 

Lesson 4: Have a Welcome Email

I got a lot of plain ‘Thank you’ emails. This is such a waste of an email. 

The average open rate for most emails is 20-25%. But, the open rate for the first email is often over 80%.

Take advantage of this and introduce yourself, let your readers know what they can expect, give them a freebie, and encourage them to follow you or join a group. Help them remember you and give them a reason to open future emails.

Lesson 5: Don't List ALL of Your Social Sites in One Email

It’s tempting to list every social media account you have in your welcome email but don’t.  Studies have show that the more options a reader has, the less likely they’ll be to choose any of them. 

Pick your top three social media accounts and list those. You can invite your email list to sign up for other platforms in other emails. 

Lesson 6: If you plan to use Amazon Don't email your posts

When I first started blogging, I used to send my blog posts to readers inboxes until I discovered you can’t email Amazon affiliate links. It’s against their Terms of Service and they can kick you out of their program for doing it (yikes!).

The simple solution for this is to include links to your blog posts in emails and people can click to read your posts on your page. 

In my most recent email to my subscribers I gave them a link to follow AND a link to pin for later by saying:

Have you seen my newest post about ‘Follow for Follows‘?  If you’re interested in reading it later you can save it to Pinterest. 

Convenient for them and it encourages people to share my content. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. 

Lesson 7: You Won't find your tribe

Your tribe are the followers and fans who love you. They love your posts, your emails, and they closely relate to a lot of what you have to say. If this person was a real-life friend of yours, it would be the person that you could sit for hours and talk with without any awkward silence. 

Those are the fans you want. 

Those are also the fans you will most likely not find in a follow for follow thread. You may find one or two but that’s about it.

This isn’t a huge deal except that: 

  1. You could probably be using your time to do something that would help you really find your tribe and 
  2. Once your email list gets to a certain size, it goes up in price so as you grow, you will probably find yourself pruning the dead weight from your list anyway. 

Final Thoughts

Are ‘follow for follows’ a good way to increase your numbers? Yes.

If you’re brand new to blogging and need a few followers to your social accounts then trying a couple follow for follows will increase your numbers (albeit temporarily). 

However, if you are an established blogger then I wouldn’t suggest doing a follow for follow. There are many other activities you could be doing with your time to help you find your true fans. 

One final tip- if you decide to do follow for follow threads, find ones that are NOT follow all.

If you can find threads that are follow 2-10 then you can pick and choose the posts or social media pages that fit the best within your niche instead of sharing random posts or following random niches. 

Are there any other tips you would give people who do ‘Follow for Follow’ threads? If so, drop them below!

Filed Under: Grow Your Blog, Quick Tips

How to Dominate the Keyword Game and Get Found on Pinterest

August 9, 2018 by Deja Leave a Comment

How to Dominate the Keyword Game and Get Found on Pinterest

Learning any new platform can be challenging and Pinterest is no different. As the saying goes- you don’t know what you don’t know.

So it’s no wonder that when I first started blogging I had no clue what I was doing on Pinterest.

Thankfully, I have learned quite a bit over the least year- especially how to properly use keywords to my advantage which is what I plan to share with you now.

Pinterest: Social Media or Search Engine?

One thing you should understand before we get started though- Pinterest is often grouped in with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and all of the other social media platforms but- Pinterest is not a social media platform.

Pinterest is a search engine just like Google, Bing, and YouTube.

Why is this important? Because knowing this will help you succeed at promoting your content on Pinterest.

What Are Keywords on Pinterest?

Keywords are the words that Pinterest looks for to figure out what your pins and content are about.

Pinterest also uses keywords to help people find what they need.

To assist them in this, Pinterest suggests keywords to people as they search.

Let’s say you want to search ‘bedroom decor’. Below is what you will see if you search ‘bedroom decor.’

The words in the light brown boxes are keywords associated with the words ‘bedroom decor’ and there are a lot more if you push the arrow at the end of the words on the right.

How to Use Keywords to Get Found on Pinterest

Every time you do anything on Pinterest you want to make sure you are using keywords relevant to your main topic and niche.

You should include keywords in your:

  • Personal Profile
  • Board Descriptions
  • Pin Descriptions
  • Pin Tags
  • Meta Descriptions (located in WordPress when you create a post.

You still want the descriptions to sound conversational. People are reading your descriptions- Pinterest is just analyzing them.

For example, if you have a ‘Bedroom Decor’ board then you will want to try and include as many relevant keywords listed as possible.

In this case, the words include bedroom decor, master, apartment, DIY, cozy, for teen girls, for couples, rustic, on a budget, small, boho, ideas, glam, and farmhouse (there are many more listed but we can’t see those).

The board description should say something similar to:

“Discover the best bedroom decor ideas for your home or apartment. Plenty of DIY ideas for a cozy farmhouse home or small apartment for couples on a budget. You will even find ideas for the glam teenage girl who wants nothing more than a boho style bedroom.”

As you can see, almost all of the keywords were incorporated but in a conversational manner which reads like you’re talking to a reader- not a computer.

Getting found on Pinterest can seem like fighting an uphill battle but incorporating the keyword tips above will guarantee you more traffic to your page and more followers.

Want more Pinterest tips? Check out these tips taken directly from a Pinterest rep!

Filed Under: Grow Your Blog, Quick Tips

How to Explode Your List on Autopilot with Post Gopher

August 6, 2018 by Deja Leave a Comment

If you’re new to blogging then you’ve probably been overloaded with information. 

  • Create and format great content. 
  • Make sure all of your posts are optimized for SEO.
  • Learn how to make your own graphics. 
  • Create a business account and start circulating your pins on Pinterest.
  • Build an email list.

The list goes on and on (no pun intended).

With everything you have to do and learn when it comes to blogging, it’s nice to come across something that you can literally set it and forget it. That’s exactly how Post Gopher works.

What is Post Gopher?

Post Gopher is an awesome WordPress plugin that puts a button either at the top or the bottom of your post that allows readers to have the post emailed to them in PDF form. 


A reader clicks on the button, enters in their name and email address, and the post is emailed to them. 

Post Gopher is perfect for those longer posts that we all leave open on our phones but never get around to reading.

Since installing post gopher I have seen a 10% bump in my sign ups and it was something that took very little effort from me that my readers love. It doesn’t get much better than that. 

How to Get Post Gopher

Getting Post Gopher is easy. Simply go to their site and sign up for a free 14 day trial. 

Be careful because they do have one of those auto-enrolls that if you don’t cancel (not that you’ll want to!) you’ll get charged at the end of the trial period.

How to Set Up Post Gopher

After you’ve signed up for Post Gopher, download the zip file for the plugin. 

Head over to your WordPress Dashboard and hover over ‘Plugins’ and then select ‘Add New’. Upload the Post Gopher File and then select ‘Activate’.

Post Gopher will then show up in your WordPress Dashboard. Simply walk through the steps and configure your buttons, opt-in box, and email. 

Setting up Post Gopher is simple but I made a quick tutorial for you below just in case. 

I hope you get as much out of this plugin as I have. Happy Blogging! 

[hss-embed-video videoid="86405" version="full"]

Filed Under: Grow Your Blog, Quick Tips

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Hi, my name is Deja Cronley and I’ve managed to build two successful blogs including this one- it launched in April 2018 and already has over 1,000 subscribers and followers. You can read about my journey ‘From Bankruptcy to Financial Freedom here. Want to chat about your blog? Contact me- I love hearing from my readers.

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