Lesson 4: Building Your Empire

Description

Now your blog is up and running, and we want you to tell everyone about it! In this lesson we’ll give our best tips for building your professional reputation and gathering a thoughtful, engaged audience via social media, search engines, giveaways, and more. This final lesson will prepare you to promote yourself — and your brand — to the world!

This lesson includes the following sections:

• Introduction: JoEllen and Epiphora get real about The Writing Side of Blogging and The Business Side of Blogging — what inspired them to blog in the first place, and how those blogs became their sources of income.
• SEO & Google Analytics
  • SEO: The eternal blogger buzzword. What the heck is it and why should you care?
  • Google Analytics: This tool is invaluable to a blogger, but can be difficult to navigate. We’ll decipher it for you.
• Social Media
  • The social networks: There are many, and they all serve different purposes. We’ll help you decide where to spend your time, plus a video on the topic from Sunny Megatron!
  • Social media dos: What makes some social media accounts grow while others struggle?
  • Social media don’ts: Tips to avoid committing the missteps we’ve seen time and again. Get ready for an awesome video of Epiphora and JoEllen discussing their social media pet peeves.
• Cultivating Your Audience
  • Getting — and keeping — readers: Wondering how to attract an audience? Fear not, we’re on it!
  • Giveaways: These can be fabulous and successful or badly-run and ineffective — we’ll show you what makes the difference.
  • Comment moderation and reader questions: Your readers will have many questions for you. Here’s how to handle them with grace.
• The Readers You Don’t Want: Critics and Content Stealers
  • Critics: Some people might criticize you, but we’ve been there, and so has legendary sex ed cartoonist Erika Moen. Learn from our experiences.
  • Haters & creepers: How to handle troublemakers getting up in your business.
  • Content stealers: Your work has turned up on someone else’s site. What now?
  • Time wasters: Learn to distinguish worthwhile emails from time-suckers.
• Becoming a Brand
  • Keep learning: Why the biggest mistake you can make is thinking that you’re done.
  • Media interviews: How to maximize your opportunities when the media comes a-calling, with tips from powerhouse sex educator Tristan Taormino!
  • Writing elsewhere: Want to take your writing beyond your blog? We rounded up several folks, including prolific writer Rachel Kramer Bussel, for info on pitching and freelancing.
  • Speaking gigs: Transitioning from writing to teaching is a big step! Here’s how to do it.
  • A short intermission and reminder: If the idea of “branching out” beyond your blog sounds hellish, don’t worry. You don’t have to do everything, and we explain why in a video with a special appearance from Epiphora’s cat, Chowder.
  • Crowdfunding: Could your audience help finance your work? We talked to several bloggers with differing opinions of blogger crowdfunding, including Erika Moen and Sinclair Sexsmith!

Purchase the add-on, and you’ll receive an assignment at the end of the lesson, plus critical feedback from JoEllen and Epiphora — giving you concrete takeaways that you can implement immediately to boost your writing and online presence.

The details

This lesson will be held online, at our BeASexBlogger.com class portal, on your own time. Course work will consist of copious written content from JoEllen and Epiphora, plus one assignment (if you purchase the add-on).

Purchasing this product grants you access to the content for a duration of 3 months. Assignment add-on must be completed within 3 months to receive feedback from instructors.

Cancellation policy: Non-refundable.