ALWAYS TELL A STORY: ENGAGING CONTENT
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y blog, Ever After in the Woods, is a place where I love to share great recipes; awesome DIY and fantastic travel experiences. I love that I can take the things that I am passionate about and create a career from them. For me it is all about a strong photograph - it can speak wonders. As I am still relatively new in the world of blogging, I can honestly say that I learn something new every day and I try to incorporate that into my next post. This can be as easy as what works for photographic backgrounds to when the best time of day is to post on social media. Keep trying new things until you see what works for you. I think what I do best is photography—and I say this because I enjoy taking pictures. Capturing photos from different angles, unique compositions and strong color is really important to me. There is nothing better than feeling accomplished after putting together a blog post. Always tell a story. Having a lifestyle blog where I incorporate product reviews can be tricky and when I first started I would just photograph a product, do a little write up and be done. But for me that didn’t feel right—I needed more and I found that by incorporating the products into MY STYLE, worked so much better. My best work is when I can seamlessly incorporate a product in a way that feels natural. So when receiving products and weaving them into a post it is important for me to number 1 actually like the product and number 2— combine it with a post that I would be doing anyway so that it doesn’t feel like a sponsored product review. This can be challenging at times, but I truly believe my readers enjoy more of what I am sharing when it comes from the heart. Videos are definitely the hot trend right now and I have not tried my
hand at publishing them into my posts on a regular basis yet, but it is on my to do list! I need to step way outside my comfort zone to have these videos of myself out there if you know what I mean and I have not gotten there yet! With that being said I still think a strong photograph can speak wonders. A little tip—when working with sponsored content lately I have been using part of the money that is compensated for social media campaigns. For example, if I was paid $200 for a post, I use $5-10 for a sponsored Instagram/Facebook/Pinterest campaign. There are times where I think it is worth the extra effort and others where it falls flat. Again—everyday I am learning and trying to be better at what I do and I love every minute of it. It takes a village- I have learned so much from watching other bloggers, asking questions and being part of great forums where other successful mavens are willing to share, give advice and help. We are all in this together and there really is room for everyone to succeed.
Jenn Powell
www.everafterinthewoods.com Twitter: @everafterinthewoods
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