Nowadays it’s easy to find a blog on almost any topic. Actually, it’s easy to find countless blogs on any topic. Needless to say, though, not all blogs are created equal, and there’s a big difference between simply being a blogger and being a successful blogger. How can you set yourself apart?
Thankfully, success is within reach! This week on “The Manly Pinterest Tips Show” we talk with Megan Sheakoski, who has worked her way to phenomenal success both as a blogger and on Pinterest.
Megan is the creator of “Coffee Cups and Crayons,” a blog that draws on her background as a teacher and her experiences as a parent to share fun kids’ activities and useful ideas for modern parents. If the catchy title is helping to pull people in, her top notch content is making loyal followers out of them. In the three years since she began, her blog has taken off. Amazingly, each year it is visited by millions of parents and teachers.
Megan also developed and hosted a monthly parenting series on Google Plus and can often be found pinning fun things to do (and recipes she’ll never make) on Pinterest. Her Pinterest boards boast over 43,000 followers, many of whom are also visitors to her blog.
This week, Megan shares what she has learned about getting followers, coming up with content (she does 3-4 posts per week for her blog), and collaborating with others. According to Megan, collaboration is key and, although the tendency might be to view everyone else as “the competition,” there really are more than enough followers to go around.
So, in the spirit of collaboration, she offers us some valuable tips on what anyone can do to really boost a blog.
And, yes, her house really is full of coffee cups and crayons!
- Tell us a little about your journey. How you went from teaching to becoming a successful blogger. (1:44)
- How long has your blog been around? (2:44)
- How did you come up with the name “Coffee Cups and Crayons”? (3:10)
- What is your typical publishing schedule for your blog? (4:00)
- How big is your team? (4:55)
- How many writers do you have? (5:16)
- How did you find your writers? (5:40)
- Where do you come up with new content ideas? (6:41)
- A lot of bloggers struggle with images. Do you take your own photos for your articles? (8:38)
- Does most of the traffic for your blog come from Pinterest? (11:24)
- How do you build a community around a blog? (11:55)
- How do you share and grow your audience by working together? (14:16)
- Do you cross-promote your community to other networks? (19:34)
- How did you start monetizing your blog? (21:35)
- Let’s talk about Pinterest group boards for a minute. You’ve got 124 boards and 66 are group boards. How many are your own and how many are you contributing to? (27:16)
- I’m interested to know your strategy with group boards and how you manage so many? (28:40)
- Are you pinning every day to group boards? Do you have a schedule? (31:33)
- Would you say that one of the most important things you’ve done to grow your following on Pinterest is using group boards? (36:48)
- Do you have any advice for guys who are just getting started on Pinterest? (41:14)
- Where can we find out more about you and your services? (42:51)
You can follow all of Megan’s kids activities, learning, crafts, family travel and kindness ideas by checking out the links below!
Website: www.coffeecupsandcrayons.com
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Thanks For Watching And Listening!
I really appreciate you joining me for this week’s episode. Have questions or comments? Leave a message in the comment section below!
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Thanks to Megan for being such a great guest. See you for the next episode where we’ll be adding testosterone, one pin at a time!
Great interview! Megan was so fun to watch, and super helpful. Pinterest in my number one traffic source, so I’m working on improving my presence there. I’ve been hesitant to pin my content over and over, but Megan’s advice really gives me the courage to pin my stuff!
Awesome Tiffany! Really appreciate you watching the show. Megan was a blast! Loved her high-energy. I’ve struggled to pin my content multiple times too but have found some success with using Tailwind to schedule my pins. Extremely helpful, especially using their interval pinning feature for group boards. That way I can pin my own content to group boards without feeling spammy. Hope that helps!
A very interesting interview and topic Megan,
Depending on your niche, Pinterest can really be a huge traffic source if you know how best to use it. But i strongly believe that if one can patiently follow all the tips mentioned in this interview, he will certainly become the next Pinterest marketing superstar :).
I’m going to give some of the tips a quick so shot and see what the outcome will look like.
Thanks for sharing Jeff.
Thanks for listening Theodore! Let me know how the tips work out for you!