Artful Blogging by Kathy Cano-Murillo

Notes from  Kathy Cano-Murillo‘s talk at WordCamp SF 2014 on “Artful Blogging
Official description:

In this session, Kathy Cano-Murillo, the Crafty Chica, will share how she took her knowledge and experience from being a newspaper features reporter and applied it to create her award-winning blog, CraftyChica.com. She’ll also share her comical-yet-insightful lessons learned, as well as her insider tips that elevated her blog to a lifestyle site that spun off a series of books, a product line, web series, brand partnering and more. She’ll share her best practices for pinpointing a mission statement, and creating engaging content to support that. While Kathy‘s blog is grounded in DIY, she will share how she takes liberty with that “creativity” theme and applies to food, shopping, diary, entertainment, books and more.

GlitterMy notes:

  • Her first time. Blogging is her life
  • Started as a newspaper journalist
  • She didn’t know she was building her own brand while blogging
  • Spreading the gospel of glitter.
  • Weekly column was picked up by 100 newspaper
  • She has books, deals now
  • Tools she used
  • Passion: is the source, the nucleus, the foundation, the heartbeat.
  • If you don’t have the passion, don’t do it
  • Have purpose and personality: know why you are doing this. Make all arrows point to that.
  • Look at your personality and be that. Embrace who you are. She loves micro-crafting
  • It is OK to go against the grain what everyone is doing.
  • Lots of people who have minimalist site. not her.
  • Now she has magazine format. With features, including the 3000 tutorials.
  • People come back to the home page.
  • Right style /theme increased her site’s traffic.
  • Brand recipe: create a visual representation that shows what your brand is. Need elevator speech, but need more.
  • Her brand: Hallmark channel, Oprah positivity and add glitter
  • Use pop culture references
  • WOW factor: Make them smile, sniffle, or say OMG. Leave them wanting more.
  • “How to glitter your floor”
  • What’s the big WOW project of the month that will get people’s attention
  • Dia de los muertos craft.com , because that’s what people were looking for.
  • Think about what’s coming up, what’s trending.
  • Roundup of friends; site is good traffic generator.
  • Diversify: Chubby girl delights food), Crafty Cinema (movies), Geeky Chica (tech), Reader Chica (books)
  • Brand is universal
  • “Don’t reinvent the wheel, but find new hubcaps”
  • Be newsworthy. Always have something press release worthy
  • Find your lane. research what works for you. build your platform. Focus on what’s best for you. Go with that and make the most of it.
  • Visual Destination: Plan to “level up” to give your brand legs. Plot a goal roadmap, with timeline.
  • Brand everything: make your own font…
  • Prepare for opportunity: book, product line, meeting, media kit, hi-res photos.
  • Be truthful: always have a takeway, offer solutions, inspiration, ideas. Tweet it out to celebrities. She made an “Orange is the new black” dessert that got retweeted.

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