You may have noticed that there are new video pins on Pinterest when before it has always been a still image. They recently added this new feature and I am loving it. It is pretty cool to be scrolling along and see a pin start playing. It makes me love Pinterest that much more! Now I can see even more detail about what that pin is about before clicking through! But for a business owner, video pins on Pinterest means something more than to a normal Pinterest user.
Yes, as a normal Pinterest user you get to enjoy videos sharing all the cool ways you can braid your hair, but as a business owner, you now have more opportunity to share your business with your potential customers!
First let me say, don’t worry if you don’t have the option yet to create video pins on Pinterest yet. It is fairly new so it will be available soon if you don’t have it yet. If you do have the option to create a video pin then let’s dive into why this is so awesome for you and your business!
Video Pins Can Benefit Your Business
1. People Like to Watch Videos
It is pretty obvious that people like videos. YouTube, TikTok, SnapChat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all have videos on them. Not all of them have always had videos but they have evolved to all cater to videos because people love to watch them! You can tell so much more of your story with a quick video than trying to explain it all over text and with an image. Even blogs have turned into vlogs!
2. Video Pins on Pinterest are Eye-catching
Videos catch your eye when they start playing, you can’t help but watch. If the video is good you are likely to stay and watch it until the end. When you could easily scroll right on past images.
3. Video Pins on Pinterest Stand Out in the Crowd
On Pinterest, it is a sea of images. There aren’t personal posts to break up the images, it is only images. With that said, it is very easy to just scroll and scroll. However, if a pin starts moving and playing an eye-catching video, you can’t help but stop and watch what’s happening at least for a few seconds. And those few seconds of your attention are more than the other pins got!
4. Video Pins Share More Than a Still Image Can
With a video pin, you are able to share with your potential customer more about your pin that with a still image. If your pin image is a delicious recipe but it is a still image that is just one shot to show them how amazing your recipe is. With a video image, this gives you the opportunity to show them how amazing your recipe is. I love watching those quick cooking videos! And I don’t even like to cook! I just love watching them and it gives the illusion that this is quick and easy to make, even when it may not be.
But that video got me to stop, watch, think, and possibly click through. That is MUCH more than a still image recipe pin gets from me.
5. Video Pins are Listed at the Top of the Mobile App
On the mobile Pinterest app, there is a section of video pins at the top after you search for something. I searched for fall soup recipes to show you what I mean. In the search results, there is a list of video pins at the top of the feed. There were also several promoted video pins as I scrolled down that were by big companies like the Food Network. That should tell you that video pins work right there!
Well, now that we have covered the video pins are awesome and everyone’s favorite let’s talk about how to make them so you can join the cool club of video pin makers!
How to Make a Video Pin on Pinterest
My favorite way to create animated pins is with the Adobe Spark App. Since my pins are all about blogging tips, it is an easy way to add some zest to my pins without completely creating an entire video. With the Adobe Spark App you can create your pin very simply and then you click on effects and from there you can animate your text on your pin.
This App is free and makes creating pins very easy. It is something I actually just started using last week. That was when I realized that you could animate your text turning it into a short video that would be perfect for grabbing your reader’s attention out of the crowd of other pins without creating a video.
As with anything, there is more than one way to create a video pin and yes, luckily some of them are free! As I mentioned you can use Abobe Spark but here are some other free options to help you get started.
Free Options
Wave.video
Giphy.com
Adobe Spark
iMovie
Powerpoint
Video Speed App
Wave.video and Giphy.com
I have not personally tried the wave.video option yet but I used giphy.com to create the video above showing you the fall soup recipes example. I just read that the wave.video was an option another blogger used so I included it for you.
The video above from giphy.com would be able to be a video pin because it falls into all the criteria listed for a video pin on Pinterest. That said, that means you could use giphy.com to create animated pins or video pins as well.
This pin was created with giphy.com too and I am going to use it on Pinterest to advertise this blog post. I created three pin images like I normally would do. Uploaded them to giphy.com and set the time fo 3 seconds per image. Then the final step allows you to add an animated sticker. I added the arrow and hit complete!
Now I have a video pin that showcases all of the three pins I created. This is an easy way to set your pins apart from all of the others!
iMovie
If you are an Apple user you can use iMovie to create a video right from your phone. This is where creating an actual video and editing it would come in. If your blog is about cooking you could video the process of cooking something and edit it in iMovie to shorten it and create a video pin.
PowerPoint
You can even use PowerPoint to create a slideshow video. You just need to make sure that the slides are the pin image size but I tried this method and was able to get it to work! It didn’t work for GoogleSlides though. You have to save the movie in a correct format and GoogleSlides didn’t have that option. Also, PowerPoint let me set a timer to automatically change the slides turning it into a movie similar to the pin above and GoogleSlides didn’t have that option either.
Video Speed App
I included this App in the list because it helps you speed up your videos faster than iMovie will let you. Let’s say that your video is of you drawing something and you want to speed it up but iMovie will only go 2x as fast and you need 4x. The video speed app will speed up your video for you so that you don’t lose your viewer’s attention.
I love to watch those videos of people drawing things out but if I have to watch it in real-time I would give up very quickly. When they speed through it I stick around to see the end result because I know it’s coming quickly.
Paid Options
Animoto
Lumen 5
Canva (paid option)
Again, I read about Animoto and Lumen 5 so I wanted to include these options but I haven’t tried them myself. I have tried Canva (the free option) and I do enjoy it so if Canva is something you already use then it may be worth the small investment to enable to video option.
Video Pin Specs from Pinterest
How long can videos be on Pinterest?
File type
.mp4, .mov or .m4v
File size
2GB max
Encoding
H.264 or H.265
Length
4 seconds – 15 minutes
Description
up to 500 characters long, though only the first few lines will show in feed
Aspect ratio
We accommodate standard video sizes including widescreen (16:9)Horizontal -Youtube, square (1:1)-Instagram, FB, and vertical (9:16, 4:5, 2:3)- Pinterest.
Pinterest has a lot to share on their business page on the basics of creating pins on Pinterest. Of course, going there and reading everything straight from them is always the best. This is some advice from myself and other bloggers on what makes a good pin and what to avoid.
Also, you can check out my Free Pinterest Image Course that walks through this information and the programs I use to create my pins.
Are vertical and not horizontal bc they are easily scrolled right past. You can, however, do the square video pin bc they are used at the top of the mobile app.
Add Text overlay with clear easy to read font, avoid too much script font.
Bright colors (or at least contrasting colors).
Watermark – make sure to put your URL or logo somewhere on the image to avoid others stealing your pin and to make it easier for it to be repinned by others.
Eye-catching.
Saveable – the point isn’t to just get an ad of your blog out there in front of people but it is to get people to:
a) save it because then it goes to more people but also
b) to click through
An attention-grabbing title.
Solves a problem.
Branding colors (or at least colors that go well together).
A keyword filled description.
Keep it short (doesn’t give away too much and keeps attention).
Use beautiful images.
Don’t rely on audio with video pins.
Link to Pinterest Business page.
Rich pins added to your account.
How to Upload a Video Pin to Pinterest
Once you have created this masterpiece all you need to do next is to upload it to Pinterest. To do this it is just like adding a regular pin to Pinterest. Click the + sign that can be found on the top right corner of the screen and follow the steps from there.
There is an approval process for video pins, unlike normal pins. I’m sure this is to verify that all videos being uploaded to Pinterest are appropriate. Which I for one am very thankful for! I don’t want to be scrolling along and seeing something I don’t want to see.
Promote Your Video Pins
How do you promote a video pin?
You can promote your video pins by following the steps explained on Pinterest’s business page and after reading up on promoting pins I see that you can not promote GIFs so just be aware of that if promoting video pins is something you think you might do. I would hate for you to create a video pin from a giphy.com and then not be able to promote it later if it took off.
How to Schedule Your Pins
Tailwind
Now that you have creating video pins for Pinterest down, let’s talk about scheduling them out to automatically pin on Pinterest. If you have made it this far to learn how to create video pins on Pinterest I am sure that you have already been pinning regular pins and have either realized it is too much to do all on your own or you have already signed up for Tailwind.
If you haven’t yet signed up and you are feeling a bit overwhelmed on how to possibly be pinning all day every day then I am here to tell you that Tailwind is a lifesaver! I have two different success stories I will share with you on how amazing Tailwind can be.
My Success Stories
When I first started using Tailwind on my new blog within a week my traffic spiked. It went from a couple people a day to hundreds of people a day visiting my blog. I had over 7,000 page views on my very new blog in 30 days. The last week of January is when I started and 30 days later I had over 7,000 page views. I go more into detail on that in this blog post.
Fast forward to me not staying consistent on neither creating content nor adding it to Tailwind and my traffic had gone down. I only have myself to blame but it’s the honest truth I let it all go and basically went back to where I started. I reloaded my Tailwind with all new blog posts and did my normal leave it and forget about it until a couple days later. My traffic took off again! This time I tried my best to keep it alive and I was able to off of that one blog post that was driving traffic in. I was able to get over 20,000 page views in 30 days. I talk all about which pins too off and why in this blog post.
If you actually use Tailwind the way it should be used (and if you are paying for it then you should – unlike me!) then it definitely works. My traffic 100 percent reflects my Tailwind strategy. If I am keeping up with it and adding new content to my blog and to Tailwind then my traffic goes up. If I get behind and I don’t then my traffic goes down. Learn more about how to use Tailwind and give it a try and see for yourself!
5 Reasons I Had 4 Viral Pins on Pinterest in One Month
After 4 of my pins went viral in one month, I took a step back to analyze why and I came up with 5 reasons I had 4 viral pins on Pinterest. In this post, I go into detail with each pin and explain why I feel each pin did so well. I also share a few pins that didn’t do so well and why.
As you continue to grow your blog and share your blog posts you will find that certain topics do better than others. That doesn’t mean that you have to only write about those topics but you can count on them bringing in new traffic.
For example, I share blogging tips for new bloggers and when I write about making money or getting traffic to my blog those topics do better than others.
I still share other tips because you never know who is in need of that specific tip. Once I wrote a blog post on how to set up your sidebar. It received a very kind comment from a reader stating how thankful she was for that post because it helped her.
I love those comments! Even though it isn’t a super popular topic it still helped someone!
By always writing about all the tips I can share and not just sticking to the popular topics it helps me find new popular topics. That is what happened when I wrote a blog post on something I found that I thought was better than the bullet journal.
New Topic
This was a new topic for me. I haven’t written any blog posts on note taking but it is a popular topic because everyone is always looking for better ways to organize their lives. So I wrote this blog post one day just sharing how I found something that (in my opinion) is better than the bullet journal.
First, in case you don’t know what a bullet journal is, it is a journal full of empty pages and each page has dots for guides on it.
I had first heard of them through another blogger. She shared some of the ways she uses hers to organize her days and keep on task with her blog.
I ended up getting one to try for myself. There were some flaws for someone like myself. Such as I have horrible handwriting and I am not the most artistic person. Yet I am a perfectionist so each page I felt like I was constantly trying to fix it.
If you look at some of the amazing ways bullet journals can be used you can see the appeal but that only works if you have a steady hand. For me, it was more work than fun and I didn’t end up using it.
Another reason is I would always forget it or decide not to bring it because it didn’t fit in my purse and I didn’t want to carry around 50 different colored pens.
If you check out my post I share that I had just recently purchased an iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil and used the free notes app to create my own bullet journal. This improved the handwriting issue because I could easily erase any mistakes. I go more into detail about why I like it better in that blog post so I will skip all of that for now.
Hot Topic
Little did I know while writing that post that it would end up being a very hot topic. I shared the post on Pinterest and with the help of Tailwind the pin took off!
I had over 24k impressions on that pin in 24 hours. Today after being pinned a little over 30 days ago it has over 201k impressions. My blog traffic for the month of June 2019 was over 20k page views. Which let’s just say that is MUCH higher than normal.
I had no idea that it was going to be such a hot topic.
How I got so many page views
As I said it was definitely thanks to Tailwind and Pinterest for sending all of that traffic to my blog. I usually create several images for each blog post and pin them to Pinterest at different times.
With this particular blog post I originally only created one pin and that is the pin that took off. To test it out and see if it was the content (topic) of the pin or the visual look of the pin that made it go viral, I created others to put to the test.
What I found out is there are 5 main reasons this pin took off compared to my other test run pins.
Hot topic
Visually appealing pin
Enticing Title
Keywords in the pin description
Scheduled to pin to all group and personal boards and Tailwind Tribes
While I was creating the test pins I also scheduled out the first pin to all of my group boards, personal boards and added it to all my Tailwind Tribes. I knew that I needed to get this pin out there since it was doing so well from just one pin to one of my personal boards.
Then I created several other pins for my test run. A few did very well and a couple did not. I noticed there was a trend on the ones that did well and the ones that didn’t.
Test Run Results
The main difference was the enticing title. Take a look at these results to see for yourself.
Enticing Title – Pin 1
This pin has a very enticing headline. It creates curiosity and I feel like that was why this pin had the best click-through rate compared to the others.
Visually it is a pretty pin so it was easy to save but I believe the curiosity is what made this pin do so well. It had the most impressions and saves of them all. It was also the first one I pinned so that could be why because the next one did very well too.
This is the stats after a little over 30 days of being pinned.
Enticing Title – Pin 2
These two pins I did the same enticing title because my test on these was to see if it was the pin image or the content that made the first pin so popular.
This one did fairly well. It didn’t receive as many impressions or saves but it came very close and still did very well. What is interesting is this pin had fewer impressions and saves but yet had more link clicks than the first pin.
I’m not quite sure why on that. They were both pinned to all the same boards and all within the same time frame.
Here are the stats after a little over 30 days for this pin.
Enticing Title – Pin 3
However, this one didn’t do well at all. I am not sure why this one didn’t do as well as the first two because it has the same catchy title with similar colors and fonts but for some reason, this one was not a winner.
Looking back I think I forgot to schedule this pin out to all the group boards like the other two did. I just looked back through my pins and I don’t see it mixed in like the other two are. I only pinned it once and must not have scheduled it out. It will be interesting to see what happens after I add it to the schedule!
Freebie – Pin 1
These next two were to test and see if the freebie inside the blog post was popular. Once readers click through and read the blog post many of them signed up for the freebie I put into it after it started taking off.
Originally, I had the normal freebie that I always offer in the post and it always does well because it teaches readers how to start a blog. That freebie always gets sign ups but none of these readers were signing up.
This told me that the people reading were bullet journal folks and not blogger folks. I created a freebie from my other blog that I am starting up because I felt like it fit with that niche better. My other blog is going to be about planning and productivity tips. I created a freebie that was a digital bullet journal which ties into that.
Around 30-50 people a day were signing up for that freebie after I added it. Once I realized the amount of traffic going to the post and yet no email subscribers were coming out of it I knew I needed to switch freebies and it worked.
Like I said I could tell the readers were not interested in my other freebie about blogging. So, I was happy to see they wanted the free digital bullet journal. I did learn though with these two pins that it still was the curiosity the first pins had that was bringing readers in.
These pins did not do well, however, once in the blog post they did sign up for the freebie. But the freebie alone was not bringing in readers.
Freebie – Pin 2
The first freebie pin looks like the second popular pin. I made another that looked similar to the first popular pin to again see if it was the look of the pins that made them do so well.
Neither of these pins did that great. So this told me it was bullet journal folks curious about what I had found that was better than the bullet journal. Not people excited about a freebie and not people that only saved the pins based on their looks.
Safe Title – Pin 1
The other clue was the backlash I received on the two popular pins. I received about 6 comments and most of them were mean.
They were from personal accounts of people who clearly were die-hard bullet journal lovers. They did not like my opinion of the notes app as being a solution that could be better than the bullet journal.
They also did not like my idea of a digital bullet journal also being a solution. Apparently, the curiosity pins made it sound like there was some new amazing thing that was better than the bullet journal that they did not find after reading the post. I personally love the idea of going digital. It works so much better for me. I have found so many amazing fun resources too that solve all of my personal issues with a physical journal.
These were just folks that mean and grumpy and taught me a valuable lesson on how to handle mean comments. One told me my freebie was ugly. There is no reason other than being mean for that to be commented. I had to remind myself that over 300 people had signed up for that ugly freebie so one person’s opinion shouldn’t matter.
However, to make the pin less “deceiving” because I was also told I was fake advertising pretty much. I made this pin to explain a little bit more without giving away all of the info or I wouldn’t get click-throughs.
It seemed to have worked. I stopped receiving very mean and hurtful comments and still was able to have a pin that had good numbers. This is about 30 days of the pin being up. I don’t have as many click-throughs (because of the less enticing title I’m sure) but I still reached a good amount of impressions off of this pin.
Safe Title – Pin 2
I created this pin with the same theory in mind. Again, I just wanted to test out the different titles and see what was working and what wasn’t. This pin is still going so I don’t have a full 30 day stat on it but so far it is doing okay but not a crazy good as some of the others.
It doesn’t have as catchy of a title but I feel like it is less likely to make any readers feel tricked as well.
Here are the stats so far on this pin. I know that is says published May 31, 2019, but this pin was definitely not. The first pin I created (which would have the same URL) was. This one has only been on maybe 2 weeks.
What this has done for me
By continuing to write blog posts on other topics other than just my main popular ones, I have come across a great topic that ties right into my new blog that I just started. I was nervous about branching out but this helped show me there is an audience out there for my new blog.
I have heard other bloggers say this but I didn’t understand until now but they say you never know what blog post is going to just take off! That is so true! I had no idea when I first wrote it that it would bring all of this. This is what this one blog post has done for me.
Gained 378 email subscribers in 30 days thanks to this hot topic and my viral pins.
Made 6 Amazon affiliate sales and my Amazon affiliate account was officially approved! (most of my affiliate links in my blog posts are for blogging resources so I don’t have many with Amazon affiliate links so I always had to reapply since it wasn’t my target products. Thanks to the bullet journal Amazon affiliate links in this blog post I was finally approved!)
Made $30.13 with Google Adsense which is the most I have made in one month from ads.
Broke two records of blog traffic to my blog. Not only did I hit 10k page views for the first time but I broke through and had over 20k pageviews!
I was only 7,000 sessions away from being able to apply for Mediavine!
Gained over 100 Pinterest followers.
My monthly views on my Pinterest account went up from around 75k to over 400k!
I had not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 viral pins in one month!
It was definitely a crazy and amazing month for my blog and all because of one post on a completely different topic than I normally write about!
Have you heard of the bullet journal? I thought surely everyone had but I met someone the other day that had no idea what a bullet journal was. Maybe it is just popular for us mom bloggers and the crafty Pinterest moms? Isn’t it funny how something you see all the time seems like everyone else does too?
Well, I pinned my post on Pinterest and it took off! Traffic started rolling in!
It was wonderful, however, it was not my target audience. I am used to my audience being mom bloggers. I knew it wasn’t mom bloggers though because no one was signing up for my freebie that always gets sign-ups. That freebie is geared toward moms looking to start a blog.
However, I was also receiving some comments on my pin (again from loyal bullet journal folk) that nothing is better than the original bullet journal.
My Audience
Again, I am used to talking to bloggers. And I, a blogger, love my new alternative to the bullet journal! But I can see why maybe the loyal fans would not.
So I decided to write a different blog post (this one) that is tailored to my peeps specifically – Bloggers!
The Alternative
I will cut right to the chase. The new alternative bullet journal that is perfect for bloggers that I am talking about is a digital version. Now before you get all worked up, let me explain my reasoning.
Digital Bullet Journal Benefits:
1. Easy to erase and edit
I am a perfectionist when it comes to writing things out. I end up erasing and rewriting 100 times because I hate my handwriting. Yes, I know I could use a pencil but it still shows. Yes, there are erasable pens but they show too. Digital is 100% erasable, clean, and it is much faster too.
One of my favorite options with a digital version is that I can move my text around easily. The apps I use let’s you circle your text you just wrote or typed and then drag and drop it somewhere else.
This is perfect for a to-do list! If something needs to be moved to the next day I just circle it and move it over!
2.) You only need one pencil (or finger)
The point of the bullet journal is to create your own pages and customize every detail. Therefore you have to have a bunch of different colored pens, markers, pencils, and tapes. So that means you have to store all those and lug them around when you go anywhere.
It’s summer right now and we go to the pool, the park, or the library and I like to take my work with me. Well, I have to carry that all around with me to still be able to use my bullet journal. With the digital version, you can do all of that and more with just your iPhone or iPad.
And let’s face it you aren’t going to forget your phone so it is always accessible!
Note: You do not need to have Apple products to utilize a digital bullet journal. I am an Apple user so that is just what I refer to.
3.) No need to replace supplies
With the physical bullet journal, you are going to run out of pages and you will have to buy another bullet journal. Your pens and tape are going to run out and you will have to buy more of those as well. Our puppy chewed up half of my supplies that I never even got to use! With the digital version, you will never have to buy more supplies. You can purchase designs already made for you but you can also create your own for free.
Again, with the app that I use, there is an option to add more pages and to bookmark pages. This means I can add more pages to my bullet journal and bookmark where I have important pages to not get overwhelmed.
(The app I use is Goodnotes)
4.) Efficiency
We are bloggers. We like digital things. Turning anything digital is much more efficient so making your bullet journal digital makes it more efficient too!
You could track all of your blog posts, images, social media posts, pins and more! That is why I feel like it is the perfect bullet journal for bloggers.
5.) Endless customization
There are many different options. A physical bullet journal has endless options as well but with a digital bullet journal you can get free fonts, borders, premade layouts, stickers, designs, and images!
Adding images is perfect for tracking your blog posts, ebook progress, pins, and so much more!
You could even turn one section (or the whole journal) into a baby book or scrapbook and upload pictures and memories!
Grab a free digital bullet journal and give it a try for yourself!
If digital bullet journals are not your thing and you would rather have a physical version I completely understand! I myself have a physical version but it wasn’t working for me.
After I did some research and came across digital planning that’s when I realized the possibilities of a digital version of the bullet journal!
I would much rather have all of my work and notes be digital. It just makes more sense to me. Now again, I had some backlash from loyal bullet journal fans who did not like this option.
That is fine too! No big deal!
However, if you are like me then you may find this to be a wonderful idea! I hope you try out the free digital bullet journal and see how it works for you!
Here is a glimpse of how you can use this digital bullet journal for blogging!
Sorry about my horrible handwriting!
Yours will be much prettier I am sure! But as you can see you can still customize each page with the added benefits I talked about above.
This would be a great way to look back through your daily/weekly schedule and quickly at a glance see what posts you published, what images you created, which freebies you created, and what you posted to social media.
It would also be a great way to track your pins visually!
This is why I feel like the digital bullet journal is the perfect bullet journal for bloggers!
How will you use your digital bullet journal?
I would love to see how you could use this digital bullet journal for your blogging business! Send me a screenshot of your layouts on how you use it to track the process of your blogging business!
It is too easy to have an ambitious dream to start something but the follow through is really the true test. This could be as simple as deciding to paint your living room a different color. But this is what happens when you take a year off of your new blog.
Starting a Project
You can picture the end product of painting your living room. You know exactly what you want it to look like and it shouldn’t be too hard! Easy peasy!
The beginning part is also the fun part. It’s not hard work. It’s fun! You go to the store and buy all your supplies and then head home.
You are still be excited at this point to actually get started and change the whole look of your living room!
But after you move all the furniture and lay down all the drip cloths you are starting to lose steam. Then (for me anyways) you get to the least fun part of it where you have to tape it all off.
The Fun is Fading
By the time you finish taping everything off the fun has pretty much wore off of this project and you haven’t even started painting yet!
So you start painting and you gain some momentum in seeing it start to finally come together! But as you paint your arm starts to get tired and you keep dripping paint on the one tiny spot of wood floor that’s not covered by the cloth.
You keep trucking along and hours go by and you stop to look at your project to see that you are almost done with the walls but then you realize that you still have to paint another whole layer as well as paint the trim edging twice.
All of a sudden you feel tired and overwhelmed so you decide to finish this layer and take a break and finish up tomorrow.
Two weeks later your living room is still half done and every time you look at it you just get overwhelmed and you remember how tired you were last time so you keep pushing it off.
Can anyone relate to this story? Or is it just me?
I am the master project started but not so much the master project finisher. It sounds fun when you first start but then when it gets tough it becomes less of a priority.
Also there are only so many hours in the day and I run out of time doing the things that really are a priority.
However, being a project finisher has become my new thing. I see this as an area that I struggle with so I have been working on fixing that.
I have been able to do that by breaking things up into smaller tasks so I don’t feel overwhelmed.
This is What Happens if You Don’t Finish
(stay with me here)
We bought our house this past November and luckily for us the house we bought was across the street from the rental we were in and we purchased it in the middle of the month which gave us half a month to paint before we moved in.
I would go over everyday and paint. The goal was to paint the whole house before we moved in. I did most of the painting myself while my daughter was in school and my husband worked long hours.
I got it 90% done when my husband couldn’t wait any longer and started moving things over when he was off for Thanksgiving. Because we (him) jumped the gun and moved in before we were done painting it has never been finished…and it’s now May.
Everytime I think about getting out the paint I think of how long it’s going to take and the mess it’s going to make plus I have too many other things to do.
I know what you are thinking. Just take one weekend and whip it out! Well, my husband still works very long hard hours and runs a mowing company on the side.
We spend our weekends either mowing yards or trying to spend time together on the boat or doing something fun.
So what I have decided to do is to do one small section a day. Then I will be tackling the project without feeling like I am giving up a whole day of work to do it.
The same has to go for your blog.
Now if you have stuck with me this far this is where I am going to tie it all back into blogging. You are reading this because you too started a new project (blog) and put that project off but you are wanting to finish it!
I have done that myself with my own blog. Honestly I think we all have at some point!
There is a lot that goes into a new blog so it takes awhile to just master the concept of a blog and actually get it started.
Then once you start your new blog you have to maintain it. If you step away it could start to fall apart. It might float for a little while depending on how well it was doing beforehand but eventually it will sink without maintenance.
But don’t worry if you have started a new blog and let it sink you can still build it back up! That is what I am here to help you with!
I started my new blog in September of 2017. I let the holidays get the best of me and the next thing I knew it was January! In January of 2018 I regrouped and added a Tailwind strategy to bring in traffic and boy did it!
I had over 7,000 page views in 30 days when I normally had maybe 300!
Then February I was asked to help at the Church Preschool as a lead teacher and I took the position.
Working full time with 13 one year olds plus doing all the lesson plans was tiresome. My daughter was in 2nd grade (which turned out to be a very hard year compared to previous years) and juggling gymnastics, our dog got sick and passed away, my husband was never home, the house was a wreck, it was flu season so we were all always sick….I was exhausted.
As hard as I tried my blog went to the wayside and I told myself I will pick it back up in May.
May came and it was my first summer home with my daughter ever and for no other reason then being out of the loop and more focused on enjoying the break with her, my blog once again went to the wayside.
When she started school back up in August I tried to pick it back up. It didn’t come easy. I felt like I was starting completely over. I ended up watching videos and reading more than anything. Trying to get back into the game.
I watched neighborhood kids from home for some extra money so from 7:00am-6:00pm I had kids at my house so I was now running into a time crunch again as well.
For all of you full time working moms that rock a side business you are amazing!!
My husband loves a clean house so since I stay home (even though I watch kiddos) I work hard to keep the house clean and organized so that does take priority.
After we got all moved in to our new house and the holidays were all over it was now the spring of 2019 and I really thought about what was important to me.
As much as I love helping the neighbors with the kiddos its not my passion. And with summer coming most of them didn’t need help anymore so I needed to make my new blog priority to bring in money and replace that loss.
So at the beginning of the year I cut back on the amount of time I was watching kids and focused back on my blog.
April 2019
I drew a line in the sand at the end of March. I told myself I was going to solely focus on my blog.
My goal was to prioritize my day better and just put my head down and focus on my new blog only. Then I would see how things looked at the end of April.
This is what happened.
Since it has been a year since I had that spike in traffic from Pinterest and Tailwind I decided to focus on that and simply updating my blog as well as adding consistently to my new blog.
I implemented that same Tailwind strategy, consistently added one new blog post a week and sent out a weekly broadcast to my email list (after explaining why I was MIA previously).
Plus I updated my 30-Day Challenge Workbook to Start a Blog and my Free Pinterest Image Course. Then lastly I updated a few blog posts.
Results
Here are my results after 30 days of focus.
Besides feeling like I now have the confidence to keep going strong and being extremely proud of all my updates and accomplishments, I made $152.62!
My traffic didn’t spike like before but I feel like I am in “time out” with Pinterest and I have to earn my traffic back. They sent me a bunch before but then I didn’t do anything for a year!
So after only one month I think I still need to show them I am consistent and serious this time.
Now you may be thinking well $150 isn’t that much? And you are right. It isn’t that much. However, it is! That is my best month to date of starting my blog!
I made money with my new blog but if you followed along you see that I didn’t stay consistent at all! Since I started my new blog I have not been steadily consistent.
So the money that I made would be one or two sales here or there. Not 5 sales in one month and $150.00 in my pocket in one month!
Again, you may be thinking that is not much money at all and again I agree with you to an extend.
It isn’t anything to go brag about however it is very exciting and shows me the major progress I made this past month!
May 2019
Now here we are getting ready to start May this week. I had set a goal of $200 in April and I am very happy with my results so now I have a goal of $500 in May.
I would like to break through Tailwind and Pinterest again but instead of looking too far down the road and getting upset I have to remind myself that I pretty much started completely over in April. It’s only been one solid month.
I can’t look at it as if I have been for a year and a half because I haven’t honestly been consistently blogging that long.
My blog as been up for that long and I have wrote many blog posts but not like I should have been. So that is what I am focusing on now.
Sharing my experience (like I always have) even the less flatting ones like this blog post. But my hope is that it will speak to someone in a similar position.
As moms we are constantly putting everyone and everything before ourselves but sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand and rearrange your priority list so it benefits everyone.
With this new outlook I have been able to accomplish everything on my priority list.
Tips for Success
Rearrange To Do List
Sometimes just rearranging your to do list and doing it in a different order will help.
I break up my cleaning throughout the day so I can till work on my blog and keep the house clean at the same time. Before I would do all the cleaning first but then I was running out of blogging time.
So I switched and would blog first then the house ended up being a major task.
Now I clean for the first hour of the day and work on my blog throughout the morning. When I break for lunch, I switch the laundry and unload the dish washer. Then I work on my blog in the afternoon and when my daughter gets off the bus it’s homework and supper time.
This way when my husband comes home the house is all clean, supper is ready, and homework is done. This gives us family time together and I was able to work on my blog too.
Same exact things I normally do just in a different successful order.
Plan Ahead
I plan ahead if there are going to be busy days full of appointments. I make sure that I keep that in mind as I am working on my blog throughout the week. Before it seemed like I was running around to appointments and running out of time to work.
Just planning ahead and seeing what’s to come for the month helps give you a bird’s eye view of how your going to get everything done.
Those are simple tips but you would be surprised how you get stuck into a routine (even if it isn’t working the best) and just a few little tweaks could fix it all!
Goals
Everyone is always telling you to have goals and to write them down. I always did this but I think I shot too big. I would think right away there is no way I can get that all done so I was okay with it when I didn’t get it done.
This time I set realistic goals and I was very pleased with how I ended the month!
Now I have written out how May will go and I am so excited to look up at the end of the month and see how I did!
Your Turn
I am here to tell you that YOU CAN DO THIS! You may feel like you have let it go too long to bring it back to life. I don’t agree. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, call it like it is, and move forward!
I didn’t like sending out an email at the beginning of April telling everyone what I had done but I did it.
I don’t necessarily like sharing this all in a blog post but I am.
Mom Blog From Home was made to help moms like me start and grow their blogs.
I am far from perfect and I will never be perfect. Honestly, that is a scary thought trying to pretend or shoot for perfect.
That’s not me. I am just a normal mom trying to share my experience and knowledge on blogging with others in hopes to help them learn and grow from my mistakes and my successes!
Now get out there and kick butt with your blog momma!
I don’t know if you are an Apple fan like me but this right here is a huge game changer for me! I feel like there is so much that can be done with this amazing app I am going to share with you. For sure it is the new way to create pins with your apple pencil and you’re going to love it!
Why Apple
If you aren’t an Apple user then let me just break down quickly why I love Apple so much! I wasn’t an Apple fan at all until I won my first iPad back in 2013 and then I was hooked! Before the iPad, I was one of those “I hate Apple products I don’t know how to use them so they are dump” type of people.
Then again I won that free iPad and realize just how “undumb” Apple products really are!
User-Friendly
They are extremely user-friendly and that is probably my absolute favorite part about all my Apple products.
Right now in May 2019, I currently have that same iPad, MacBook Pro, Apple mouse, two iPhone 6s’s (that we keep for back up phones and for my daughter to play with), a series one Apple Watch, two Phone Xr’s, two Apple Air Pod sets, the Apple TV and I just bought last week the new iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil and keyboard.
You could say we love Apple Products for sure.
Yes, as new updates come out the older Apple Products slow down a little but for example that first iPad I won still works great and it is 6 years old which is old in technology years!
My daughter uses it to watch her videos or she can FaceTime and play Roblox at the same time with my niece. So that’s impressive to me to be able to handle all that while being one of the first iPads that came out.
Hold Value
Surprising they hold their value really well. You wouldn’t think that anything older than a year or two would still be worth as much as you can get out of them. At one point I looked into upgrading my Apple Watch to a newer version only because I do feel like with the new updates it doesn’t hold it’s charge as long and I was surprised at what it was still worth.
I could sell this watch and only pay maybe $100 out of pocket and get the newest watch. I assumed it would be worth maybe $50 but it’s not!
When I looked into selling my daughters barely (and I mean barely) used Nintendo 2DS and with the DS, the case, the chargers, and all the games it was worth $50. That doesn’t seem worth it to sell it all for only that. But we spent almost 4 times that amount when we bought it a few years back.
It isn’t that old and didn’t hold it’s value at all!
They All Connect
This is the main part I wanted to get to about how awesome Apple products are, everything connects!
It is all connected to your Apple ID so if you sign into each one with the same ID it is like being on the same device.
My iPhone XR (which is just flat out awesome), my MacBook Pro, my Apple Watch, my Air Pods, and my new iPad all connect together. If I want to put my Air Pods in then it will connect to the most recent one or whichever one is right next to me. There is no trying to connect and trying to pair. It just connects and pairs.
A window pops up for you to verify and that’s it. So as soon as I open the case my phone will alert me they are connected. If I am listening to music I just take one out to pause the music. Crazy cool.
I love how I can receive messages, phones calls, and FaceTime from any device as well! The Watch doesn’t FaceTime but other than that they all do.
It just works so well for me to not have to adjust when switching devices. They all worked seamlessly together!
The New Way to Create Pins with Your Apple Pencil
I could go on and on but let’s get to why you came here. To find out the new way to create pins with your Apple Pencil. If you are reading this then I am sure you already love Apple products so let’s talk about the new Apple Pencil on the new iPad Pro!
Creating Pins
Bloggers are always creating new pins for Pinterest to drive traffic back to their blogs. We are always looking for creative ways to make pins that are eye-catching and don’t blend in with the crowd. Well, I have some good news for you! I came across this app that is a game changer!
You want to create pins that make pinners on Pinterest save your pin and to do that you have to create beautiful useful pins. I created a free course on how to create Pinterest Images that you can learn more about the different programs bloggers use.
My goal has been to find a better way to streamline my work. I feel like I am tied to a computer when I work on my blog and summer is literally right around the corner and I can’t be stuck inside all day. My daughter is going to beg to go to the pool or be out and about.
I don’t want to sacrifice time with her or working on my blog. So I decided to look into a way to be more mobile. My husband’s job just gave him a Microsoft Surface Pro with a keyboard and pencil. I watch how easy it is for him to just work all off of that.
I did research on the new iPad Pro and thought about it for a couple weeks and then decided to run it by my husband. He is beyond supportive so he didn’t blink an eye and said let’s get you one!
I ended up getting the keyboard so I can type a blog post easily while at the pool and the pencil too for all it’s amazing functions.
iPad Pro
This is the exact ipad that I bought. I did go with the lower storage because I need to get a hardrive anyways so this way I can just get one of those and save money on buying the extra storage. We looked into purchasing it through our phone carrier to add data to it but that costs more also. Plus we found out that our T.V. provider has hotspots I can use when I am away from home.
Just some things to think about!
I wanted the bigger screen so that was my main priority. I wasn’t as worried about storage because I have a bigger icloud storage plan and then again I plan to get an external hardrive to save all pictures and important documents on it.
Now I don’t pretend to be all tech savvy, I know just enough to get by. I know that I am a busy mom and this all makes my life easier and more portable.
I do want to say that it comes with a completely new charger. Supposedly it is to be able to connect to your computer better or other techy stuff I don’t understand but my point is no more USB and no more other end. The cord has the same end of each end. So either way it connects to your converter to plug into the wall and then into the ipad to charge. Just a heads up.
Keyboard
Then since I got the bigger screen I had to get this keyboard that fits it. They are both 12.9 inches so that gives plenty of room for using your screen and typing on a good sized keyboard not a tiny one.
The ipad connects magnetically to the keyboard and there are three dots on the back of the ipad that connects it to the keyboard. Then you can have it in different positions to adjust it to your liking while typing.
Then you can fold it over and closed and you will hear the ipad lock. Also you can flip it around and under the ipad to quickly use the ipad only.
Apple Pencil
Then of course I got the Apple Pencil 2nd Generation that is compatiable with the iPad Pro. It is very sleek and easy to use. There are no buttoms it looks and feels just like a regular pencil.
It doesn’t erase like one although I think it should. I keep wanting to flip it around and erase with the pencil eraser like you normally would. But just a heads up it doesn’t work like that.
Another fun feature of the Apple pencil is that it connects to the side of your ipad magnetically to charge. This is great to keep track of the pencil and know that it is always charged up.
No plugging it in or cords involved! Once you connect it to the ipad it will tell you what charge the pencil is at as well.
Pin Creating App
After I got home and started playing with it and watching tutorials on what all it could do I came across this app. I became very interested and spent the next 3 days just learning more and more. After much research, I finally decided I wanted it and purchased it for $9.99.
I know what you are thinking…you just spend a lot of money on an iPad Pro, keyboard, and pencil and you hesitate about a $10 app? Yes, to me $10 is an expensive app! I expected the others to be expensive but I don’t buy apps without a lot of research!
Maybe you have heard of it or maybe you are like me and you have never heard of it.
All the amazing possibilities with this app are just mind-blowing. If you are an artist you are going to be in heaven!
If you aren’t then no worries NEITHER AM I! It is very user-friendly and not overwhelming at all! I will add that I am not affiliated with this app either I just love it this much! Just check out some of these examples from their website!
Amateur
Don’t worry if you aren’t a professional. Again, I am not an artist in any way shape or form. But I think this app is perfect for on the go designing from anything to logos, freebies, pins, printables, graphics designs, you name it!
But let’s talk about creating pins for Pinterest.
Pinterest
There is an option to create the image as a custom size. You can then create it as a pin size and add pictures, import fonts, make amazing edits, layer it for quick changes, and so much more! It does take a bit to learn all the features it offers but this is perfect on the go pin creation with your Apple Pencil.
There are so many videos on YouTube that walk you through how to use the app but if you are looking for a way to use your creative side and give your pins a leading edge I think this app is perfect!
Again, I don’t have any affiliation with the app besides that I downloaded it, love it, and had to share!
All the Same
If you have been blogging for long you can see that many pins look the same. It is hard to not look the same some what but there are certain stock images that are way over used. I read an ebook that was full of case studies that shared how the author feels free stock images can arm your pins reach.
Pinterest also recently went public on the Stock Market. Things are about to get alitte harder for bloggers. There are going to be more people that are willing to pay for space on Pinterest. Because of that you need to really show Pinterest you are a creator worth sharing.
Many bloggers are saying you should be adding a new pin everday. Well, I don’t know about you but I don’t have time to sit at my computer and create pins all day. I do use a program called RelayThat that creates multiple images for you with just a few clicks so that saves a bunch of time.
However, they also seem to only have the same layouts. It can be customized a hundred different ways but it is still the same layouts so you can’t solely rely on that.
With this app and my new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil I can be mobile and creating pins on the go all the time!
Accessories
Because I will be on the go I did get myself a case and as I said I also have the keyboard too. I have seen some creators have these cool pencil gripper sleeves. I don’t know if I will do that or not because with the new pencil it senses when you double tap to erase when using the Notes App. Also I don’t know how that affects it charging magnetically or staying safely on the side of the ipad.
I worry that it might come off and I would lose it.
Another reason I love Apple Products…all their amazing apps! I use the Notes app all the time. My whole life is in that thing. All categories and accessible on any of my Apple Devices.
If I am sitting at the computer working and I make changes on in my Notes App then later when I only have my phone I can see see those changes. It is like the perfect Notebook that I never forget at home!
Free Pinterest Image Course
Well there you have it! I hope you check out the Procreate App and enjoy it as much as I am! There are so many possibilies I can’t wait to see what all I can create! The best part is this is a way to be artist (or try) without the mess!
Don’t forget to check out my Free Pinterest Image Course for other tips and programs to use to create Pinterest images! I will be adding this information with this app to it soon!
Happy blogging!
Vanessa
P.S. Comment below with some of your beautiful pins you create using Procreate! I would love to see them and share them!
Then of course I got the Apple Pencil 2nd Generation that is compatiable with the iPad Pro. It is very sleek and easy to use. There are no buttoms it looks and feels just like a regular pencil.
