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Today, we’re sharing some insights from my recent conversation with Camille Gerrick. Camille is a neurodivergent artist living in Charlottesville, Virginia. And while her narcolepsy and ADHD present challenges to running a business and doing all the normal things grownups are supposed to do, she prefers to think of these conditions as her artistic superpowers.

What does it mean when someone is neurodivergent?
Being neurodivergent or neurodiverse means that the brain is wired differently from everyone else’s. Some conditions that might fall under this spectrum of neurodiversity are ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. When you think about neurodiversity, it’s important to acknowledge that just because that brain is different, it doesn’t mean that it’s any less than a neurotypical brain. Instead, it’s more about focusing on the strengths that neurodiversity will bring to the situation. For example, people with ADHD may be notoriously bad with time management, but they can also be very passionate and driven. And when we’re interested in something, we can spend hours on it and not even realize it—thinking of our differences as strengths. 

You grew up as a kid in the 80s and 90s; how has that affected your art style?
I remember having a lot of really obnoxious outfits like these crazy patterns with squiggles and triangles and loud colors. The big scrunchies, the side ponytails, and I guess I just never really grew out of that, to be honest. Colors just make me happy. When I was a kid in elementary school, Lisa Frank was a big deal, and everybody had the folders with the cute rainbow animals and the trapper keeper for all their school stuff. And I just never grew out of that phase. Maybe it’s childish, but it’s fun. And it’s harmless.

I just started reading the Aesthetics Of Joy by a designer named Ingrid Fetell Lee. The premise of the book is that we’ve been taught through ancient traditions that the source of joy lies within us. But, a growing body of research is starting to support the idea that tangible objects can also spark that feeling of joy. In the book, Ingrid embarks on this study to find out what things spark joy, and color was one of her findings.

How did you get started?
It always sounds cheesy to say; I’ve been creative since I was a child. But there’s really not a time I can remember not being enamored with drawing or painting or the creative process. Growing up, we had this little kids’ table with chairs that had pockets on the back full of all our crayons and markers. I remember sitting at that table and coloring away. My dad is a writer and a musician, and my mom is a teacher, so it’s just something we grew up with, being encouraged to be creative. My mom was very anti-TV as well so that probably helped, if we can’t watch TV,  maybe we’ll make something. 

As a kid, I was always given craft special interest books like learning calligraphy or origami with a dollar bill, and oftentimes, they came with all the supplies you need to do what was in the book. Specifically, there was one book about macrame friendship bracelets, and I latched on to that book; I learned how to do all these different knots. I actually started my first business when I was in elementary school, selling macrame friendship bracelets on the playground. I would take my little box of embroidery thread and pull custom colors for people to make them custom color friendship bracelets during recess. Around this time, my grandfather, who owned his own landscaping business in South Florida – landscaping was a big deal – started having conversations with me about charging for my products. He’d say you need to think about how much it costs you to make it and make sure that you charge the right amount so that you’re not losing money. And then you need to decide what percentage of what you make you’re going to invest back into materials or growing the business and what percentage do you want to save. So from a very young age, those conversations about entrepreneurship were had through my grandfather.

You’ve mentioned throughout your story (you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out more) that you also cope with chronic issues like pain; how do you do art while dealing with those issues?
Yeah, I have a lot of chronic pain from when I was in the military and art helps me cope with that. With art, I get into that flow state where your sense of time, like physical sensations from your body, kind of cease to exist, and you’re 100% in the moment, focused on what you’re drawing or creating. I need that in my life on a very regular basis. It helps me feel sane. It’s something that takes my mind off these health issues – it’s a mental escape from really anything adulty in life.

Where You Can Find Camille:

• Website: www.camilovescolor.com
• Facebook: camillegerrick
• Instagram: @cami.loves.color
• TikTok: @cami.loves.color
• LinkedIn: camille-gerrick

This podcast and all past episodes are available to listen to now. You can also subscribe to Get Under The Surface podcasts on all major platforms (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, etc.).

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Once Labor Day is over, businesses start to come out of the woodwork, in need of services, as well as spending their budget before the end of the fiscal year.

This fall is a big question mark.

What will business be like? Will organizations be reaching out for services as usual, or holding onto their cash because of the pandemic?

From what we’ve see thus far at Cuppa SEO Web Design, it’s probably going to be a mixed bag. Some businesses will still want services performed, while others will opt to wait — or simply won’t be in a position to spend.

Regardless, there’s one thing you can start doing today that will help improve your visibility through the fall, winter and beyond. Because no matter what the pandemic brings, more visibility is ALWAYS a good idea …

What I’m suggesting you do is blog.

Blogging once a week, consistently, will help improve your website’s visibility by adding fresh content to your site. Fresh content makes Google happy, and more likely to bump you up in search results. It adds SEO value to your site (as long as you’re writing rich, relevant content), and also gives you something to share on social media — which of course can drive even more people to your website.

Now, if you’re sitting there thinking the you don’t know how to blog, don’t have time for it, or simply don’t have anything relevant to say — you are not alone. Many of our clients feel the same way. But it’s still advisable for you to blog, so here are a couple of resources to help make blogging less stressful and more doable.

• Watch our Blogging 101 Webinar
• Download our complimentary Blogging 101 E-book

It can take up to 90 days for the fresh content you’re writing to start to take hold within Google’s algorithm, so technically the best time to make sure you’re blogging at least once a week would be the beginning of June (you can always create a calendar reminder for next year). Since June is already gone, the best thing to do is start this initiative ASAP!

If you have any questions, just let us know!

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

The post The Top Thing B2B Businesses Can Do STARTING TODAY in Preparation for Fall appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Why are you writing a blog in the first place?

Are you hoping to drive traffic to your website? Are you trying to establish yourself as an expert in the field?  Maybe you want to generate discussion on social media. No matter why you are writing, one critical question is “How Long Does My Blog Have to Be?” Not too long ago, just about any SEO expert would have given you the same answer: around 500 words. Today, the answer may be more nuanced. You could probably cover some topics in less than 300 words, while others may need 3,000 words.

The short answer to this question is, it depends. Your blog posts should have enough content to cover your topic but be readable enough to keep your audience coming back for more.

Longer Posts or More Posts?

The word count for your blog affects your publishing schedule. If you write shorter posts, publish more frequently.  In any case, don’t overdo it. This will only lead to you getting burnt out and your readers getting overwhelmed.

Three Best Practice Guidelines

Are you ready to get started?  Here are three main considerations:

1. What Works for Your Topic?
   If your blog focuses on in-depth analysis and journalistic style writing, you’ll probably be writing longer posts.  If you prefer topics like “Strange Things I Saw on the Way to Work,” you’ll probably be better off with short posts.

2. What Works for Your Audience?
   Who are your readers?  Why are they reading your blog? No matter what the topic is, every good blogger writes for their audience. Write what works for them, and you are more likely to succeed. If you already have many readers, you may consider a reader survey. If you’re not there yet, check out your analytics to see which posts are more popular and get the most comments or shares.

3. What Works for You?
   What kind of writer are you?  Is your style more concise or wordier? If you’ve been struggling to write long posts, maybe you should try your hand at shorter content. If you feel you’re leaving too much left unsaid, why not see how a longer post works?

The best thing about blogging is that you have the freedom to do what you want to do. If you want to write 10,000-word blog posts, you can. If you’d rather post a picture of a kitten with a clever caption, you can. The content you create is completely up to you. Look around and see what other people are doing. Look at your numbers and see what your audience is responding to. In the end, go with what works.

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

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In other words, there is no silver bullet answer, no best way for everybody to write a book. What you will find, either by understanding your writing style, or simple trial and error, is a best way for YOU to writer a book.

That said, if the idea of staring at a white screen with a blinking cursor has you terrified, fear not. You don’t have to write a book to write a book. Yes, you read that right — it’s not a typo. You can simply begin writing blog posts about your book’s topic(s), and these can become part of your book.

Writing a book by writing a blog is a great way to make things manageable while fleshing out your topic, characters, point of view, or whatever else you want to get on the page.

When I decided to write my book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing (available soon!), I knew what my topics were but I didn’t want to write it chapter by chapter. I wanted to write it in bite-sized steps, so I blogged about each topic. This helped me get valuable, insightful pieces of content written quickly, and eventually I had a clear framework for the book.

This process felt very organic to me, and definitely made the book writing process less daunting. Once I had enough material, I organized it and moved it all into a Google Doc where I could flesh out each topic and fill in the blanks. For the most part, it was actually fun and easy to write the book.

One of the benefits of writing the book this way meant I was also writing fresh content for my blog — and fresh content is super important if you want to rank well on search engines.

Is this the best way for you to write a book? Maybe. Maybe not. Some people like to start by making notes in an actual notebook, some in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. I know some writers who dictate ideas to themselves and then write about them later on.

There IS one thing in common in ALL of these cases. You must begin. You must actually decide a course of action to write your book and start. When will you begin?

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

Related Posts:

• How to Write a Book, Part 1: Patience, Patience, Patience …
• How to Write a Book, Part 3: Organize Your Images
• How to Write a book, Part 4: The Proof is in the Proof

The post How to Write a Book, Part 2: Start by Blogging appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Yet somehow, you still haven’t started actually blogging yet. What’s holding you back? There are a number of things that might be doing it. Here are some of the most common blocks that keep brands from blogging regularly, and how you can overcome them.

“How Will I Find the Time?”

Your brand’s marketing department has a thousand other tasks to perform at any given time. The team is stretched thin as it is. How will anyone manage to write and research three or four high quality, engaging blog posts every week on top of their regular duties?

There’s a very simple solution. If you don’t have anyone on staff available with both the time and the writing talent to maintain a good quality blog, you can simply outsource it. By hiring professional writers, your brand can produce high quality content, week after week, that will engage your audience and generate interest, while at the same time freeing your own team up to focus on the myriad other tasks on your plate.

“How Do I Come Up with Topics?”

This is another issue that can turn people off of blogging. They start out strong at first, creating three or four brand new blogs each week, each on a different topic of importance or concern to their audience.

But after a while, their ideas start to run out. Three or four times a week becomes once a week, becomes once or twice a month at most, simply because they don’t know what else to write about. Even if you’re outsourcing your blog, you’ll likely have to come up with many, if not most of the topics, yourself. So how do you keep things fresh, week after week?

Keep your ear to the ground. Search popular news sites for new stories about your industry. Set up Google alerts for the most popular keywords related to your brand, industry, and products, to be notified whenever someone else posts about them. Check LinkedIn and other sites to see what people in your field are talking about at the moment. All of these things are fodder for blog topics. The potential is limitless, if you just know where to look.

“What If Nobody Reads It?”

Maybe you maintained a blog for a while, but you couldn’t get anyone to take notice. With nobody reading it, it didn’t seem worth the time and resources to continue blogging.

Well, just writing the blog isn’t enough. You need to promote it. Post it to social media. Share it with friends and connections in your industry. Develop an e-mail list and send it out as part of your weekly newsletter.

Also remember that building up a following takes time. The readers won’t come overnight. But if you continue blogging consistently, and continue promoting your blog, then people will start to take notice, and you can build up a loyal readership that’s invested in you and your brand.

You can always find plenty of reasons not to blog, if that’s what you’re looking for. But in the end, you have to remember that there are many more reasons TO blog, and a lot of success to be had by creating content for your brand. But the only way to see that success is to get over your aversion and blog, blog, blog!

Want to Jumpstart Your Blogging?
Download Cuppa SEO’s complimentary Blogging 101 ebook for tons of tips and strategies!

The post How to Overcome Your Aversion to Blogging appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Scheduling allows you to completely prepare a post so it’s ready to go — but it won’t publish until the designated time. Let’s take a quick look at how to do this …

Once you’re logged into WordPress, and you’ve started working on a new blog post, you’ll find the scheduling option under the Publishing tab on the right-hand side. If the tab isn’t already expanded, click on the arrow in the upper right corner. You should then see the following:

By default, your blog post is set to publish immediately. But if you click on the edit button, you have full control of when the post will actually go live:

Once you’re done, be sure to click the “OK” button, and then click on the “Schedule” button to complete the process. When the day and time you scheduled arrives, your post will publish immediately!

Once it’s published, be sure to share your latest content on social media!

I hope this blogging 101 tip helps you brew a better blog!

The post Blogging 101 Tips: How to Schedule Blog Posts appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

In this installment of the series, we answer an important question regarding the “freshness factor” and your website: what is the best way to brew fresh content into your website?

There’s a lot of value packed into these five minutes, so be sure to check it out!

If you need assistance creating fresh content for your blog, optimizing your existing website — or web design services with SEO brewed right in, feel free to contact Cuppa SEO anytime.

The post The Best Way to Brew Fresh Content into Your Website appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

In this installment of the series, we cover an important blogging tip: why your blog needs to be a subpage of your website — not a subdomain.

Check it out to make sure your blog is working to improve engagement AND your overall website authority …

We hope this tip helps you brew a better blog!

The post Two-minute Tuesdays: Why Your Blog Needs to be a Subpage of Your Website appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Being an expert in your industry makes it possible to provide relevant solutions to your customers. It also makes it easier to identify trends that can help your customers even further.

And although experience can make you an expert, constant learning is also a key component to your remaining one. Whether it’s from articles, blogs, a mastermind group, trade shows, or some other medium, fresh input is critical to remaining a thought leader in your industry.

What I’ve found, though, is that people who are experts in their industry often feel that they have nothing to write about. They don’t feel like an expert, or they believe nobody would want to read what they have to say.

Although there are many reasons behind these concerns, there’s one thing I’d like to share. To you, what you do every day feels common place — it’s natural to you, so it’s easy to believe everyone has the same information/understanding you do.

This is simply not true. You’ve probably worked for years to become really good at what you do, and what’s “well-worn” knowledge to you is BRAND NEW to the rest of us that don’t do what you do. Sharing this knowledge can be super helpful — and has great value — to your clients.

And that’s what a blog is all about — sharing relevant, useful information with people who need it.

Think about it. You know what your customers’ biggest problems and pain points are. You know exactly how your products and/or services can solve their problems. The only difference is, instead of discussing these pain points and solutions face-to-face with a client, you’ll need to put it into words and write about it on your blog.

So, if you’re thinking “why would anybody want to read what I have to say?” The answer is, it’s the same reason your clients come to you in the first place — because you have something of value to offer.

Remember, things that are common place to you, are NOT common place to your clients! And I don’t know anybody who finds a solution to one of their problems boring or irrelevant, do you?

In my industry, clients want to know more about SEO, user experience (UX), web design, conversion (CV), blogging and social media. Each of these main topics has many, many sub topics that I can focus on in a blog post — giving me hundreds of things to write about.

This is quite possibly the most important of all the blogging tips I share, because a blog cannot exist without content. And it will never engage with readers unless that content is relevant and useful.

Want more blogging tips?
– Blogging 101 Tips: With Inconsistency Comes Weakness
– Blogging 101 Tips: Set Up Your Blog as a Subpage (good) vs. a Subdomain (bad)
– Blogging 101 Tips: Creating a Blogging Campaign

The post Blogging 101 Tips: Be the Expert
 appeared first on Cuppa SEO.