Building online community

3 Tools Digital Media Companies Use to Create Compelling Content and Maximize Web Traffic

June 10, 2016

At the digital media company where I work, we’ve dubbed this “the year of science.” We’ve long relied on intuition and experience to create content that will engage readers and drive clicks to The Penny Hoarder. And while that has worked well, growing the site to 20 million readers a month, this year we’re putting […]

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On the Rise of Content Marketing and the Outsourced Newsroom

April 30, 2015

I didn’t choose content marketing as my second career because it was hot. In fact, when I first began offering blog management and social media services in 2011 on the side of my day job, I didn’t even realize the work I was doing fell under the content-marketing umbrella. I simply enjoyed using my writing, […]

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How We’re Monetizing The Write Life: An Income Report (October 2014)

October 21, 2014

Fifteen months after launching The Write Life, a website and community for writers, we’ve turned the corner toward profitability. Because of that momentum, and because I’ve been inspired lately by income reports from Pinch of Yum‘s food blogger duo, Kindle author Steve Scott and passive income evangelist Pat Flynn (who launched a niche site on […]

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What We’re Launching Next at The Write Life, Plus 8-Month Progress Report

March 7, 2014

Ever since we launched The Write Life eight months ago, writers have told us they want to improve their writing, with the goal of getting published, making a living as a freelancer or growing a following online. So we asked ourselves: What can we provide, beyond the blog posts we offer already, that will truly […]

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MeetingBurner: The Affordable Alternative to GoToWebinar

January 14, 2014

About a year ago, I began experimenting with webinars. They proved to be an effective way to share my expertise, build my email list and engage the readers of this blog. As I explain in this post, which details my return-on-investment from webinars, there’s something powerful about interacting with readers in real time, when they […]

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Progress Report: How The Write Life is Faring After 4 Months

November 11, 2013

One of the ways my team measures our results for clients is by offering an end-of-month metrics report. What it details depends on exactly what we do for the client, but it could include Twitter growth and engagement stats, blog growth stats, newsletter open rates and more. Because we are treating The Write Life like […]

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A New Way to See the Person Next to You

August 1, 2013

After the World Domination Summit, one of the things I heard myself and other attendees saying again and again was how great it was to be surrounded by people who want to live remarkable lives. People who want to live differently. Who have great stories to tell. Who see the world through a lens that’s […]

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The Greatest Gift the Internet Gives Us (and What’s So Great About WDS)

July 4, 2013

It’s nearly that time of year again, when thousands of entrepreneurs, digital thinkers and other creative go-getters descend upon Portland for Chris Guillebeau’s annual World Domination Summit. I’m en route as we speak, excited for an event I’m betting will be even better than last year’s. Many of the attendees at this conference have huge […]

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Offering Free Webinars: Are They Really Worth It?

May 27, 2013

Last year I decided to run an experiment. I wanted to offer free webinars. I did this with a specific goal in mind: to grow my email list. Growing my list has been one of my primary goals over the last year because it’s my most direct line to my community. It’s how I foster […]

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Wow-Worthy Tool for Building Your Online Brand: Rapportive’s Raplets

April 15, 2013

I’ve long touted Rapportive as a must-have networking tool. The free Gmail add-on pops up as a sidebar anytime someone sends you an email, so you can easily see more about them — their photo, where they live, job title and links to whatever social networks they use so you can easily connect with them […]

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