Sheri Ann Richerson

I often wonder if other writers feel like they are alone in their profession. The writing life can be lonely, at least for me. Would hiring an assistant help? It would be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of. The problem is if they were also a writer would they steal the ideas …

You do sponsored posts to monetize your blog but just sitting and waiting for the offers to pour in isn’t working so well.  How can you find more sponsored post opportunities? How to Find More Sponsored Posts Respond to Press Releases and Media Alerts Although press releases and media alerts are usually being sent by …

Blogging is fun and challenging and there are lots of reason to start a blog but there are also reasons not to start a blog. Someone Else is Pressuring You To I love blogging so much that I wish more people I know in real life blogged. So I know I encourage my family and …

Interest lists are used to group pages on Facebook (not personal profiles or groups, just pages) by topic. There are some premade interest lists you can follow or you can create your own. When you are viewing an interest list, you are seeing a feed of most recent updates from the Facebook pages that are …

Which link would you rather click on? bit.ly/0s4yaPB bit.ly/newblogplanner I’m guessing you probably said the second one. That’s because it gives you a clue as to what you will be seeing once you click the link. Many of us are (rightly so) a little leery of clicking short links just because you can’t see where …

© Flickr User barkbud Do you remember a few years ago when blogs were ‘cool’? Back then every wannabe metropolitan city dweller between the ages of 13 and 40 had one, but it meant something very different to what it means today. Back then running a blog meant keeping an online diary of your personal …

Move over content, there’s another new king in town. That’s right. Blogs are starting to make a shift from being completely text-based and now utilizing the power of photos and videos to help solidify the topic. Many bloggers are realizing that their readers are turned away by blogs that contain only content. Sometimes, their readers …

Why do people go crazy over reality shows about the lives of stars and celebrities? Why do artists have so many followers on their Twitter? Why do they have so many Facebook fans? Social networks made it possible for fans to reach out to their idols and favorite stars in a very convenient and easy …

Today is Google’s birthday, sort of. The exact date of Google’s birthday has changed and been debated a bit through the years. Google filed for incorporation on September 4, 1998, was established three days later on September 7, and the Google.com domain was registered September 15. All have been considered Google’s “birthday” at one point, …

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is almost as important on Facebook as it is on your blog. Facebook pages show up in search as well as in Facebook Graph Search. If someone is searching for a topic you cover, you want your page to show up. Basic Facebook SEO 1. Pick a good name You …

So you’re reading up on blogging or you are chatting in a forum or group with other bloggers and they mention something and you have no idea what they are talking about and you are too embarrassed about your lack of knowledge to ask. Allow me to help you out. Below are some common blogging …

Whether your blogging break was planned or not, when you come back to blogging after being away for a while, it can seem very overwhelming. Over the many years I’ve been blogging, I’ve taken a few breaks. Some were because I lost internet access at home for a while. Some were vacations, some were from …

I have been writing every since I can remember, reading since I was 2.  I have loved to read Shakespeare from the time I was old enough to remember. I began reading Nancy Drew books at the age of 5. I remember my Grandma King being concerned that I was reading things that were far too old …

By now many people have heard about the Status People web app that determines if your twitter followers are fake. I briefly contemplated buying followers way back when I had 500 followers and I wanted to get the bigger review opportunities. I quickly realized though that it was stupid, dishonest and unethical and I didn’t …

If you are a professional blogger at some point you will need to find a way to keep track of your finances. Your income (sponsored posts, ad revenue, affiliate ads, product or service fees) and expenses (conference fees, design work, office supplies, internet fees.) Many bloggers have created printables or spreadsheets to track these things. …

Whether you are looking for help starting your first blog or you already have one or more and are planning another, it pays to put some thought into you blog before you actually make it. Especially if gaining a large readership and/or monetizing your blog is important to you. Knowledge and planning will lessen the …

Have you heard of Domain Authority? If you don't know what it is or if it applies to you, this post should help. Domain Authority (DA) is a website metric which was developed by Moz. It takes many different measurements into consideration and changes regularly. DA has to do with how a website might perform …

1. Create Your Page. 2. Go to layout or just your blog if have quick edit enabled. With quick edit you can click the little edit button on your menu bar. If you don't have that enabled, use layout to edit the pages/menu   3. When the box comes up, unselect the page(s) you don't …

Disclaimer: I JUST learned about this, I JUST signed up and I’m since today is Day Two, I’ve only done TWO lessons and I get NOTHING for telling you guys about it but I just HAD to because it’s so awesome! Ask a PR Girl is a brand new blog by Cassie Boorn, a writer, …

Okay so you registered your blog with Picket Fence and added a button to your blog to gain votes. Now what? How to Find Out Where You Are in the Ranking If you are lucky enough to be in the top 20 or so, you can probably see your blog on the first page. Otherwise, …

  Does SEO leave you baffled? © Ivelinr | Dreamstime.com  Do you need help figuring out keywords, backlinks, categories, tags, plugins, where to get indexed, best permalink structure, site speed and more? Are you tried of trying to figure out all this yourself and just want someone who knows what they are talking about to …

I am guessing that if you are reading this, you are a blogger. That also tells me, you are reading this because you either have heard of Gleam and are curious what it is or how it works; or you are curious if this new 'thing' (e.g. Gleam) is something that could benefit you or …

Did you know that Pinterest boards and pins show up on Google? That means that you need to SEO your Pinterest boards too. Or maybe you just have a messy Pinterest account and you want to sort it all out but it just seems TOO overwhelming. Mandi from Blog Assistant Media offers a Pinterest SEO …

There are lots of ways to promote your blog but do not promote your blog these 5 ways. Send an Email Asking for a Link When blogs were new, emailing a blogger to ask if they would like to swap links in their blogroll was the thing to do. But that is so 2005. Most …

1. Favourites List Your favourites list is what shows up on the left in Facebook under News Feed, Messages, Events and Browse. Use the favourites list to keep the pages, groups and interest lists that matter to you most on the sidebar in the order you want them in. When they are in the sidebar, …

Have you ever wanted to easily make videos to add to your blog posts or share on social media or add to YouTube? I discovered a cool tool called Lumen5 which allows you to easily do this for FREE. You can take a blog post you already have and convert it into a video. I’m …

You should never stop learning but it can be tricky to learn new things without getting overwhelmed. We are surrounded by how-to videos, self-help books, people with well meaning advice and blogs and websites (like this one) with how-tos and tips. So what’s a person to do?   Learn New Things Without Getting Overwhelmed 1. …

Can TV shows teach us about real life? Sure! Here I cover What Can Grey’s Anatomy Teach You About Blogging. Grey’s Anatomy is a popular medical drama about surgical interns and residents and the drama associated with their lives both in and out of the hospital. So how can a medical drama teach us anything …

Have you ever scrolled ALL the way down to the bottom of a website and noticed a bunch of small text links? There is usually an about us and a contact me but there is also usually a privacy policy, terms or service or other long documents. If you frequent other blogs, perhaps you’ve noticed …

After your first few weeks or months of blogging, you probably started hearing people talk about their PageRank or Alexa Ranking or Klout Score. It can seem a bit overwhelming trying to figure out what they all mean, if low or high numbers are good, if you REALLY need to worry about the numbers and …

This is a Guest Post Mini Challenge for the Biannual Blogathon Bash event. Anyone is welcome to read this post and try the challenge but only blogathon participants are eligible to win prizes for completing it. It’s not too late to join! You can read more about the guest author at the end. Add a …

One of the main ways to promote an online or offline business today is by using a Facebook business or fan page. You can do more with your page with a custom static HTML tab. You can read more about the post author at the end of the post. Learn how to create a custom …

This is a Guest Post Mini Challenge for the Biannual Blogathon Bash event. Anyone is welcome to read this post and try the challenge but only blogathon participants are eligible to win prizes for completing it. It’s not too late to join! You can read more about the guest author at the end. Maximising Your …

The Trick to Productivity is just to actually DO it. This sounds like a duh but seriously, how many times do you… read about doing something think about doing something plan to do something write something on your to-do list try to do something while doing something else do something else before doing IT wonder …

Today is Recess at Work Day and for bloggers, most of whom work at home, it can be easy to take a recess instead of doing the work we are supposed to be doing. So I asked a bunch of bloggers, what fun things do they do when they are supposed to be blogging? Today …

Not all bloggers need to be on Linkedin but I do think brand friendly bloggers should be and here are some LinkedIn tips for brand friendly bloggers to show you how you can use your LinkedIn profile to it’s full potential. Contains affiliate links I’ve already written about creating your profile on Linkedin and I …

  © Bogdanzagan | Dreamstime.com People have very short attention spans in this digital age. If they don't find what they want in a few seconds they will click away. There are just so many things fighting for our attention that it doesn’t take much for us to say “never mind”and go looking for something …

This is part three of a three part series covering what Klout is, why you should bother with it and how to improve your score. Part One: What Is Klout Part Two: Why Klout is Important for Bloggers So we’ve covered what Klout is and why you should care about your score. Not the big …

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about blogging self-esteem which is how you perceive your worth as a blogger. You can be blogging along, just fine. All of a sudden you suffer a setback such as lower stats or a campaign that falls through or a mean comment or email and all of a sudden, …

This is a Guest Post Mini Challenge for the Biannual Blogathon Bash event. Anyone is welcome to read this post and try the challenge but only blogathon participants are eligible to win prizes for completing it. It’s not too late to join! You can read more about the guest author at the end. Maximising Your …