The Branded Solopreneur

Where Cult Brands Are Born

14 Ways To Take Your Newsletter From Half-Ass to Bad-Ass

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How To Create A Newsletter That Kicks Ass

**This is a guest post by Whitney Hitt from TheCommonGreat.com**

I’m not kidding when I say – I want your subscribers to re-freaking-joice when they see your name in their inbox. I don’t want them to consider, even for a second, hitting the evil delete button (how dare they?) when they see your emails…at LEAST until they’ve read the whole thing approximately 3 times.

Which is why today, I want to share with you 14 quick and easy tips on how to create a newsletter that isn’t a snoozeletter (Ha! I just made that word up! You like it?) and that makes the people on your email list oh-so-happy they subscribed.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

[Read more…]

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A Solopreneur’s Guide To Creating A Kickass WordPress Website

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A Solopreneur's Guide To Creating A WordPress Website

Do you have website shame? Or maybe you’re just totally overwhelmed by the tech side of WordPress. If so, you’re not alone!

In fact, admitting it is the first step.

The next step is to commit to investing your time and a small portion of your piggy bank into creating a WordPress website, which is exactly what this post is all about.

I’m going to walk you through the entire process of creating a WordPress website {from domain to launch and beyond} that people will love to visit and devour again and again, including my go to WordPress and website resources.

So without further adieu, let’s dive right in!… [Read more…]

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How To Use Transparent Overlays To Put Text On Your Blog Images

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How To Use Transparent Overlays To Put Text On Photographs & Patterns

There are two sure fire ways to make a blog image {whether that be a photograph, pattern, screenshot, etc} more powerful….

  1. Adding your headline
  2. Coordinating it with your signature brand style

One of the easiest ways to kill both of those birds with one stone is to use a transparent overlay!

A transparent overlay is simply a shape with the transparency dialed down that lays on top of a background image.

Transparent overlays are perfect for blog images because:

➽They offer an even backdrop of color for adding text so it’s actually readable

➽Gives you an aesthetically pleasing way to infuse your branding color palette into your images

Here are 3 types of transparent overlays that work like gangbusters on blog images: [Read more…]

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The Ultimate Visual Blogging Resource Guide

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The Ultimate Visual Blogging Resource Guide

Being a thriving and profitable blogger comes down to creating a visual presence that will stand out online in the sea of bright lights.

Sure killer content is a necessity, but it’s badass visuals that will garner you attention and drive inquiring minds to your slice of the web.

Finding the visual blogging mastery you need can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack when it comes to the ever saturated information superhighway…until now!

I’ve gathered and categorized all the visual blogging badassery you need to step up your blogging game and propel your brand into the instantly recognizable stratosphere.

A one stop shop that will take you from half-ass to bad-ass on the visual mastery scale! To make sure you find what you need in the quickest amount of time I’ve organized this resource guide into 5 categories. [Read more…]

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How To Build Brand Recognition: A Solopreneur’s Roadmap

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Solopreneur's Guide: How To Build Brand Recognition

Starting a business is like birthing a baby, without the hormones, stretch marks or hospital stay, of course.

Think about it…

You spend months planning for its arrival. You introduce it to the world with beaming joy. You spend sleepless nights tending to it. You nurture it, invest in it ,and worry about its future.

Like a child, unwavering love, sacrifice and dedication doesn’t guarantee a success story. When it comes to your business you have to stop searching for guarantees that don’t exist and start focusing on ways to increase your odds.

One of the most valuable ways to do that is by building brand recognition!

While brand recognition isn’t a guarantee it IS the cornerstone of entrepreneurial success! Why? Because brand recognition fosters awareness, traffic and trust, among a laundry list of other beneficial results.

The truth is, it’s vital that you invest in learning how to build brand recognition IF you want your baby business to grow up healthy, stable and thriving. [Read more…]

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{Free Mini Course} How To Promote A Blog Post Like A Boss

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How To Promote A Blog Post Like A Boss

Would you like a complete road map for promoting your blog posts?

Blogging has broken many well intentioned entrepreneurial freedom seekers, and it’s usually for the same reason.

The demise can usually be traced back to a lack of traffic. It’s tragic but true!

Without a steady stream of eyeballs devouring your posts your blog will quickly become a deserted waste land where your content goes to die.

See, writing a killer blog post is only half the battle. Scratch that, it’s less than half! Let’s get real, if no sees your content it doesn’t really matter how killer it is.

‘Badass Blogger’ status = Traffic generating Jedi

The one recurring theme that every badass blogger has in common is that they’ve got a blog post promotion process that runs like a well oiled machine.

The bottom line is, IF you want to reap the real rewards that come from using a blog to drive traffic and drum up business for your brand you need to implement a system for squeezing every ounce of boom juice from your posts.

Which is exactly what I’m tackling in this blogging mini course! [Read more…]

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How To Use Pinterest Promoted Pins To Grow Your list…Quick Style

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How To Use Pinterest Promoted Pins To Grow Your list

If you’re like most solopreneurs out there pounding the pavement on the information superhighway you know advertising on social media could propel your email list BUT you’ve been gun shy with a wicked case of ass sweats over the whole ‘where and how?’ of it.

I’m right there with ya!

Facebook is daunting as hell with a wallet depleting learning curve and Twitter is just flat out confusing as f*ck. Pinterest on the other hand is a tall glass of water in a desert of advertising overwhelm.

I’ve been guzzling the Pinterest promoted pin Kool-aid for a while now, because:

  1. I’m genuinely coo coo for cocoa puffs about Pinterest
  2. They make shit scary easy {what a concept!}
  3. I don’t have to rob a bank to fund my ads
  4. I saw results right away that I didn’t need a secret decoder ring to decipher
  5. You’re only charged for clicks to your website NOT repins…but the repins can keep driving traffic long after you stop your ad campaign

It took a hot minute to get past them hating on my ‘badass’ movement {apparently that’s a sexually explicit word, she says rolling her eyes} and a fair share of trial and error but I finally crafted a winning Pinterest promoted pins formula.

Soooo, I want to share with you exactly how to use Pinterest promoted pins to grow your list…quick style! [Read more…]

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5 Ways To Make Your Content Stand Out From The Crowd

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5 Ways To Make Your Content Stand Out From The Crowd

**This is a Guest Post by Sue Ann Dunlevie From Successful Blogging**

Let me set the scene…

You’ve been blogging for a while now. Maybe it’s been 3 months, maybe it’s closer to 3 years.

You read The Branded Solopreneur religiously…

…because you know how important it is to make your blog stand out by distinguishing your website from everyone else’s.

After following Dre’s badassery, you are creating incredible blog images that are branded with your brand’s color palette and font theme.

But you are probably still wondering:

How do I differentiate my content from all the other blogs out there?

Here’s the deal:

The days of simply publishing articles and being done are long gone.

These days if you want your blog to out shine the rest and get noticed, you need to do more than just publish a plain text blog post.

What you need is some different content flavors! [Read more…]

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{Mini Course} How To Create A Logo You Love

By 19 Comments

 

How To Create A Logo You Love

Want to learn how to create a logo you love?

First things first, stop thinking about your logo as an ‘end all be all’ stand alone type of thing, and start basking in its true boom juice.

A logo is a brand insignia that’s rooted in meaning and visually embodies the essence of your brand.

There are 5 attributes of a badass logo:

➽ That it entice exploration from new customers
➽ That it evokes positive emotions
➽ That it lends itself to the nature of your business
➽ That it’s unique and iconic enough to be instantly recognizable
➽ That it establishes the foundation of your brand identity

Quite a tall order, but by no means impossible! It’s simply another piece of the visual side of your branding. It’s the proverbial root where everything else branches off from. It’s visual branding step #1 in the Creation Phase.

I know creating a logo can be daunting and seem unattainable but once you understand the purpose, fundamentals and best practices of logo design you too can be off creating a iconic logo of your own.

Which is exactly what I’m tackling in this mini course! [Read more…]

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20 Visual Marketing Strategies To Help You Propel Your Brand

By 49 Comments

20 Visual Strategies For Marketing Your Brand

Visuals are all the rage these days and for damn good reason.

Our eyes are inundated with text!

We’ve become a society that’s too busy to invest in devouring words as a means of communication.

It’s why we shorten everything to acronyms. It’s why we rely on scanning headlines and sub-headlines as a means of determining if deeper exploration is warranted.

Being swallowed in a sea of bright lights has become part of life for us. Rather than fight that ‘Squirrel’ syndrome, we’ve adapted without even realizing it.

More than ever, visuals are the superior form of ‘pattern interrupt’ to the textual and bright light ridden overwhelm of this technological era. Without realizing it we’ve come to rely on visuals to communicate with one another.

And why the hell not? I mean, if a picture can say in a brief moment what it takes 1,000 words to convey, why wouldn’t we?

Visuals have the power to evoke emotions in a visceral way. They can tell us whole stories in a fraction of the time reading text would take. Visuals are the least inhibited way we have of conveying our message, while simultaneously being the easiest for others to consume.

For these reasons, among many others, visuals have become an intricate piece of business success. Especially in terms of branding and online marketing. [Read more…]

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About Andrea Beltrami

I’m a straight shooting, wine guzzling, shoe hoarding, sassy Italian, born and raised in California whose favorite word starts with an F and rhymes with “tuck”.

There’s not much I won’t say or do for a laugh, even if (and it usually is) it’s at my expense. I’ve spent most of my life pinging and ponging between the black and the white, searching for that perfect shade of grey.

Click here to hear my story…

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