Angela England

Jun

I’ve learned a lot recently about living intentionally and engaged with my children. My followers will notice that instagram happens in spits and spurts, sometimes tweeting a sunset picture the next day at noon. I’m learning the secrets to being both present with my family and being public in a way that makes sense for my family. And my sanity. And here’s what I am beginning to realize about how to blog those stunning, living moments, without killing them.

1. A Moment Lost is a Moment Lost, Even if There are Millions of Moments

When we are in a moment of active parenting with our kids, and my mind breaks to “Oh gosh I need a photo so I can instagram this and facebook it,” I’ve pulled myself out of the moment. In the 30 seconds it takes to crop, filter, and feed that photo out, the moment may fly away. Sure, there are thousands of moments a day to potentially spend with my child, but not THAT moment.

In a recent BlogCastFM interview with Damon Brown this phenomenon is mentioned and Damon introduces his book, Our Virtual Shadow. One of the things he mentions is this idea that it might not be that big of a deal – once. But once an hour? Once a day? How much do we lose cumulatively?

2. Your Mindset and Intention Matters

I know that when I was in theatre I was, in many ways, a better director than actress. While I did have a few sparkling scenes where I could let go and BE in the moment with completely pure intentions, I am in many ways a better director. I see the possibilities in the scene. A benefit – if you’re directing. Potentially less so if you’re trying to just enjoy the moment with your kids.

3. Postpone What Can be Postponed

Sure – you’re an artist. A content creator. I get that. So snap the photo with your phone or camera if you want. But does it need to be tweeted that instant? The reason #latergram is a popular hashtag on Instagram right now is because of this very principle. Capture the images you need to tell the story as they are happening. But wait for the downtime to actually TELL THE STORY. (Click to Tweet) There’s nothing that says I can’t post a week after the fact about my garden, my project, my dinner recipe, etc. In other words, wait until the butterfly has flown away to stop looking at it’s beauty.

4. Never Miss a Chance to Get Your Hair Wet

If you allow yourself to be so removed from the moment that you’re not even in the same swimming pool, you’ve lost a precious opportunity. Read this post about Get Your Hair Wet Parenting. I’ll wait. Doesn’t that just about sum it up? Never miss a chance to get your hair wet. (Click to Tweet)

5. There is No “Balance” – Only Collaboration

You might ask, “So, Angela! How do you balance living a life worth writing about with writing about your life? How do you balance your family and your content creation?”

Hint: There is no balance. There’s a synergy that happens, a little bit of normal and collaborative dance that develops based on needs, time, and your to-do list. Book due next week? Frozen pizza and mother’s helper! Posts scheduled ahead for the next two weeks? Not so much!

My collaboration with my family happens with that give and take dance. For example, many times MY plate of food is the one that becomes the photo-plate. Everyone else is served and eating and I take my plate out to the porch for photos in natural light. I write and format the bulk of my posts (and most of the pages in my book for that matter) after 8pm. My husband gives me one full day at minimum each week. I give the family one full day at minimum each week. I make a concious choice to do promotional things with my phone during the down times. The naps. The waiting rooms. The car passenger seat. The movie queue. The times when my presence doesn’t matter one way or the other.

How do you handle the juggling act of living and creating? How do you avoid being pulled too far from the moments you know others will want to hear about?

May

Is Blogging Dead or Just Developing?

By AngEngland | Blogging

21 Comments

Has your blog been abandoned? Photo by Artotem.

I’ve heard a lot of people saying lately that blogging is dying or blogging is dead. And I disagreed with them because my own experience is one of growth right now – Untrained Housewife is up 82% this year over last year and I’ve authored two books this year (I know – it’s insane even for me) so everything is growing for me.

Fostering Someone’s Content

And then I got the second email in as many months – a blogger who has been doing this for about as long as I have wants to consolidate her online holdings. This is the second person who is bringing all her posts over the Untrained Housewife (assuming they pass copyscape searches) so she doesn’t have to bother maintaining a blog any longer.

Of course I’m happy to house her content. And from a hands-off perspective the move makes sense – she enjoys using my editor, my social media network, and doesn’t have to maintain or pay for the website at all. And she recoups 100% of the Adsense revenue from her own posts once her Adsense codes are inserted. Consider Untrained Housewife the fosterhome for her content – it’s still her’s but it’s living at my house now. It’s a win/win/win for her and for me.

The Ebb and Flow of Settling New Territory

But once is a fluke. Is twice a trend? I don’t know. Maybe what some people are saying is the death of blogging is really just the development of this new country. Blogging, for awhile, was a completely new territory. As in America’s time of huge expansion settlers braved out into new territory and became the first people to settle in that spot. You could even call the domain-purchase-website-creation boom a land-rush of sorts. And sometimes towns sprung up around these new settlements. But sometimes not.

Over time communities developed and people often moved and settled into a more comfortable place – not where they had originally landed most often, but rather closer to their community. Sometimes abandoning their old homesteads in the process.

Blogging’s Next Stage of Development

And that’s what I see happening in the blogging world. Overwhelmed newcomers or weary veterans alike are finding that they no longer want to live independently. Status quo and solo-preneurship are equally fatiguing, so bloggers are banding together to form stronger communities. Untrained Housewife is only one such community, it just happens to be the one I’m most familiar with.

What do you think? Is blogging really dying? Or are we seeing the inevitable banding together of strong communities that was bound to occur after such rapid and scattered expansion?

And hey – if you are closing your blog and want somewhere to stick your content let me know.

Apr

Untrained Housewife Takes on Self-Publishing With First Guide

By AngEngland | How Tos

3 Comments

As the founder of Untrained Housewife one of the things I initially had in mind for the site was to make it a venue for sharing the wisdom, thoughts, and opinions that other people had to share. I have been blessed to have many writers leave their bits of wisdom over the past three years – some just a post or two, and some as regular contributors. Either way, their contributions have helped me build up a site that is uniquely placed to benefit readers – by sharing true, heartfelt, and empowering stories of intentional and self-sufficient living.

And now Untrained Housewife is upping it’s game by releasing the first of what will be several guides this year. The Untrained Housewife Guide series are an exciting new book series to fill the need for beginning information for those who feel overwhelmed. When I started Untrained Housewife, it was with the realization that we have a problem in our culture….amazing, brilliant, well-educated women would walk into their kitchens and feel defeated by their pantry cupboards. Or kids’ closets. Or gardens.

What I’m realizing through my experiences both with ebooks and publishing two print books in the last year, is that there is more than one way to spread your message. And a message worth sharing, is worth sharing in multiple ways. The first Untrained Housewife Guide is about preparation. Getting Prepared: Surviving Emergencies Without Stress brings an exciting voice to this space, Robin Egerton, who has a vast life-experience with how to develop a REAL LIFE working plan for emergency preparation and long-term food storage. Real life experience without zombie-slaying-fanaticism – exactly what Untrained Housewife is all about.

The thing about this book is that we discovered a new writer. Someone who got their blogging start with Untrained Housewife and isn’t a “professional writer” with book after book to their resume. What we brought was authenticity. Someone who is living this and breathing this. Polishing was easy enough with my amazing editor and graphic designer when you’re working with a writer as passionate as Robin is!

I have five additional titles planned this year and am bringing in an amazing set of voices. Some are blogging powerhouses in their own right. Some have been quietly successful in their lives and businesses and just doing their thing with brilliance. But I’ve pinned them down, roped them into this huge goal of mine and will be publishing everything from raising fiber rabbits to running a homebased business to crafting with kids. It’s going to be a busy year for me but the Untrained Housewife brand is rapidly expanding. The message of “you can do it!” and empowering others is an important one. And I’m excited to see it grow.

Feb

Protected: Romancing the Blog Recording

By AngEngland | How tos

Take Control of Your Blog Calendar – Live Webinar

By AngEngland | Conferences

4 Comments

One of the topics I get asked about most often is how I manage to write about multiple topics, produce content so frequently between book projects and websites, and – frankly – get stuff done. So as I develop a month-long intensive workshop, Sprout to Harvest – Blogging Like a Master (coming this summer), I wanted to make sure I cover how to think of creative content and take control of it.

That’s why I’m offering Romancing the Blog – Transform Your Content Strategy Into an Affair to Remember as a beta webinar before I add it to the $200 course. For this first group of testers only, the price will be only $10. The workshop is February 19th starting at 8pm Central (9pm Eastern) and will last an hour plus Q&A time. You can register here.

The workshop will cover how to brainstorm blog ideas (or book ideas!), how to organize your ideas into a logical editorial calendar, and how to work through that material as effectively as possible. You’ll come away with extremely usable, very practical tips you can immediately put into action. You’ll also have printables and handouts for you to keep for future reference.

As a mother of five kids, founder of Untrained Housewife manager of the online women’s magazine Blissfully Domestic, and author of two books in the past year, you better believe I know how to get stuff done without going insane. Please have Google Analytics installed on your blog and come ready for a personal Q&A session at the end of the workshop!

Updated to fix the registration link – Apparently what I saw while logged in was different. Enjoy!

Nov

Ebooks to Hone Your Focus

By AngEngland | Ebooks, Making Money

Stepping into Self-Publishing the Smart Way

By AngEngland | Ebooks

Choose a Smart eBook Topic

You want your eBook to do one of three things:

1. Save people money

2. Save people time

3. Teach people a new skill

Ideally your ebook will do MORE than one of these three things, but for a successful non-fiction ebook, you will see that they fullfill one or more of those three areas.

Have a Smart eBook Hook

You need your eBook focus to avoid the two greatest mistakes that beginner eBook authors make. They either have an eBook that is too broad, or they have an eBook that is too narrow. By finding that sweet spot of a focus that makes sense for your audience and fullfills a concrete, definable end goal, your readers will buy with better confidence.

Using my eBook, 30 Days to Make and Sell a Fabulous Ebook as an example, the title clearly demonstrates this principle. There’s an inherent promise built into the book – If someone buys this book they will be able to make, and begin selling, a FABULOUS eBook within 30 days.

Connecting With Others for Your Ebook

If you are going it alone you are not working as smart as possible. You should be partnering with others who are also working! Whether it’s through writing sprints, help with professional aspects that are challenging for you, or even crowd-sourcing with your audience! You can work a lot smarter when you are tapping into the wisdom of those around you.

Oct

Write an Ebook in 30 Days #NaNoWriMo Alternative

By AngEngland | Ebooks, Making Money

10 Comments

It’s time for NaNoWriMo! But not everyone wants to write a novel. For many bloggers there’s a dream to create an eBook, whether for financial traffic-building, or message-sharing purposes. What better time to do so than when your writing colleagues are busting their tails with writing sprints.

I’ll be doing daily writing sprints myself as I have not one, but THREE works in progress. I know, I’m a glutton. But I don’t want to work by myself. Want to join me?

For 30 days in November I’m going to be working feverishly on a new print book project and a new eBook project. It’s SO worthwhile to tackle an eBook. Want to hear some of the benefits and success stories I’ve seen?

~ I published a 15 page eBook on Untrained Housewife called 7 Principles of Intentional and Self-Sufficient Living as a newsletter subscriber bonus gift. Since launching the eBook I’ve had triple-digit newsletter subscribers each month.

~ Melissa Culbertson wrote Do-It-Yourself Blog Critique last year as an eBook that guides people through a critique of their own blog designs. She just recently signed a contract with Wiley to write Blog Design for Dummies.

~ Prerna Malik has a website about making life easier for the Working From Home Mom and used her book, How to Be a Work-at-Home Mom: The Happily Ever After Guide to Leading the WAHM Life as an additional way to spread her message. She knows the eBook will reach a broader audience than her website alone.

Whatever your reason for wanting to create an eBook NOW is the time! We can do it together. Who’s with me? All you need is your own copy of 30 Days to Make and Sell a Fabulous Ebook.

Sign up as an affiliate and invite your friends to join you in your rebellious Non-NoWriMo efforts and earn money when they pick up a copy of the book using your link. Join me on the journey – use the hashtag #30Days on Twitter to share your progress!

Sep

How to Get Started with Pinterest: Pinterest for Dummies Review

By AngEngland | How Tos

2 Comments

Pinterest is one of those sites that I originally looked at and said, “oh gosh, not one more thing to learn.” with a sigh of resignation. But then I had a post about how to make your own wall hanging go viral on Pinterest to the tune of tens of thousands of page views and suddenly I saw the point.

It wasn’t until I reviewed the book, Pinterest for Dummies by Kelby Carr, however, that I began to appreciate the full potential of Pinterest and understand how to engage with others. Now I use it for market research on my websites and for clients which is amazing. Here are ten tips for Pinterest to help maximize what you are doing there.

1. Use Group Boards When Appropriate to Extend Your Reach

For example, I was invited to a group board called Southern Comfort Food and it is solely dedicated to a particular style of recipe. The group of pinners often repin contributions to that board, and the amazing content share (seriously delicious recipes) means that the board has a lot of followers. I know anything I pin there will likely result in 50-100 repins right off the bat.

2. Check Your Source URL to See What People Have Pinned

Do you have some older archived content that people are pinning a lot? Make sure the post looks good, is formatted correctly, etc. I like to check and see if any of the images need to be updated to make it easier for people to pin.

3. Pay Attention To What You Name Your Board

Your pin board can actually appear in Google results so don’t be afraid to change it from the default settings that Pinterest suggests. And while there is certainly nothing wrong with punny titles, it should still be clear about the board’s topic.

4. Use Appropriate Hashtags for Your Topic

Just as with Twitter, the use of Hashtags on Pinterest can help connect pins that are about related topics. Users will search for specific things using hashtags so don’t forget to include some relevant tags when you pin.

5. Comment on Pins When You Are Repinning

While always being careful to pin from original sources (see #6) you still want to create connections with active Pinterest users. I’ve discovered that if I comment, then repin someone I’ve followed I will almost always (so far it’s been 100%) get followed back. Compared to about 75% follow back when I just follow without the comment.

6. Pin From Quality Sources

Do not pin OR REPIN from websites like tumblr, or other poorly curated, even scraped content. Take the extra 30 seconds to click through to the original source. If you repin from another Pinterest user’s account that is a great way to build relationships, just make sure that they have pinned from a quality source.

7. Put Seasonally Relevant Boards On Top

You can rearrange your Pinterest boards on your pin board so try putting your most popular and seasonally relevant boards at the top of your page to make it more eye-catching. This will help maximize your pinterest followers.

8. Check Your Site Source to Connect to Fans

You can check the Pinterest URL for your website which I call the source link. For example, http:://Pinterest.com/source/untrainedhousewife.com shows the pins that have untrainedhousewife.com as their source. In other words all the recent pins that have been pinned from Untrained Housewife!

9. Follow People Who Regularly Pin You

Do you see that someone is pinning you and pinning to a board your site fits into? Or someone who’s pins get comments, repins, and likes? Make sure you follow them so they will connect with you and be more likely to repin, read and enjoy future content you produce.

10. Use Pinterest to Brainstorm New Ideas

Photo by @hydropeek on Flickr

Look at the board titles that people are pinning your content to and use that to create future content plans. For example I had a salsa recipe pinned to a board “Garden Veggie Recipes” by one of my readers. Not only is that a great idea for a series of posts in the future, but it’s also the theme of an upcoming book I have planned.

Using Pinterest doesn’t have to be overly complicated or difficult and you can easily add engagement and additional page views to your website with just a few added minutes each week. What is your favorite Pinterest tip? You can find tons of additional ideas for using Pinterest in Pinterest For Dummies or Pinterest Marketing For Dummies by Kelby Carr.

Aug