Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

How to Grow Your Email List With Giveaways

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Person's outstretched hands holding small gift wrapped box
Photo by Ben White
Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

This November, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my soon-to-be-released eBook How to Grow Your Email List: A Step by Step Guide for Writers.

In this in-depth book, I’m compiling all of the strategies I’ve used to grow my email list from 200 to over 2,000 subscribers in just one year. And I show you step-by-step how you can use them to grow your online audience too.

I’m planning to release the book this December. But in today’s blog post, I’m sharing a sneak peek of one of the chapters. It’s about a very cool email list building strategy: giveaways! 🙂

Running a giveaway is one of my favorite email list building strategies. It’s a fun way for you to show your current subscribers how much you appreciate their support. And, at the same time, it’s an effective way to attract new subscribers to your list. (Don’t have an email list yet? Check out my blog post here for how you can get started.) [Read more…]

What Charlotte Brontë Taught Me About Being a Writer

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Portrait of Charlotte Bronte
Public Domain Image via WikiMedia
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Charlotte Brontë dips her pen in the inkwell and begins to write. She and her sisters, Anne and Emily, have brought their desks into the parlor and are busy working on their stories. The rain taps soothingly on the windows of the parsonage, and Charlotte pauses from her work to stare out into the garden. Though she feels in her heart that this is the best story she has ever written, she still fears that the publishers might turn it down as they did with her last manuscript.

The gentle scratching of her sisters’ pens against paper rouses her from her thoughts. Shaking off her doubts, she examines the paragraphs in front of her. There isn’t time to worry about the future — she must only worry about putting her words on paper and getting her protagonist Jane out of this latest predicament with Mr. Rochester.

That was how I envisioned Charlotte Brontë, the author of Jane Eyre, as I gazed at her portable writing desk last December. No, I hadn’t been transported back to the 1840s to her home in West Yorkshire, England. (I wish I had, just for an afternoon! I would have loved to have taken tea with Charlotte and talked about writing with her and her sisters.)

Rather, I was visiting the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City for a special exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charlotte’s birth in 1816. [Read more…]

How to Start Building Your Email List: 3 of the Best Email Marketing Services for Writers

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Mac Computer next to stack of books and a vase of flowers

Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

Back in May, I wrote a post about how I grew this blog’s email list from 100 to 1,000 subscribers in less than a year. The email list is now nearing 2,000 subscribers (!!). To celebrate, I’m expanding on that blog post and writing an in-depth step by step guide. It’s going to share all of my tips and strategies that will help you grow your online audience too. (Update: Get the book here!)

Since I’m terrible at keeping things under wraps, I couldn’t wait to share a sneak peek of the book with you. Today’s post is from an early draft of the book’s “getting started” section where I explain why an email list is important, and I narrow down the top three email marketing services for writers who are just starting out.

If you’re overwhelmed by all of the different email marketing options out there and aren’t sure which one to choose to get started, this is the post for you.  [Read more…]

How to Edit Your Writing: An Effective 7-Step Process

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Photo by Jeffrey Betts
Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

A reader recently asked, “What is your best advice for editing?”

I was about to type up an email in reply, but then I realized that I’ve never shared my editing process here on the blog. Since this might be of interest to all of you, today I’m sharing the seven steps I follow to edit my work along with the editing advice I’ve gleaned from various famous authors over the years.

This post focuses on editing nonfiction, but I follow a similar process for editing both my fiction and nonfiction writing. You can adapt this advice according to your own writing projects. Read on for my editing tips.

[Read more…]

20 of the Best Free Web Applications for Writers

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Computer on desk next to keyboard, mouse, and mug
Photo by Ryan Riggins
Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

Last year, I put together a list of 15 of the best free web applications for writers. It’s currently the most shared article here on the blog. But when I read through it the other day, I realized that many of the links are no longer active. So, it’s time for an updated and expanded post!

I’ve kept the links to all of the applications that are still active, and I’ve added several new ones. Read on to discover this year’s list of 20 of the best free web applications for writers.

[Read more…]

How a Mastermind Group Can Help You Reach Your Writing Goals

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Group of people around desk with computers, drinks, notebooks, and pens
Photo by Startup Stock Photos
Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

Has this ever happened to you?

You’re out to dinner with friends (none of whom are writers), and everyone’s answering the question, “What have you been up to lately?” Your friends talk about their jobs or upcoming trips, and then it’s your turn to answer.

Excitedly, you begin to explain how your blog is growing and that you’ve been asked to guest post. Or you tell them that you’re in the midst of plotting your new novel.

Then you get that look. You know the look. The bored look that’s usually followed by, “That’s cool.” And then they quickly change the subject.

You feel slightly disheartened. But you’re used to it by now.

You’re a writer, and you’ve come to learn that seldom do non-writers share your passion. Your friends might be supportive of your writing endeavors, but they don’t really understand what you’re doing.

What’s a writer to do? Though you love writing, it can sometimes feel a little lonely.

You’d love to have some friends to bounce ideas off of, who could help you brainstorm new strategies for getting your first 1,000 email subscribers, who could read your latest story and suggest how you can fix that glaring plot hole.

Many writers have been in the exact same situation as you. Their solution?

They do what C.S. Lewis did when he created The Inklings. They form a mastermind group with fellow writers. [Read more…]

Why You Should Have More Than One Backup of Your Writing

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Half-open Mac Book Pro
Photo by Michail Sapiton
Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

Last week, my dad sent me an urgent text message: “Lost all my work! 800 words gone.”

“What happened???” I wrote back.

It turned out he had been using an online word-processor called Draft to write a blog post. But, suddenly, Draft went offline. He kept refreshing the page, but it seemed like the entire application had crashed.

Not only had he lost his blog post, but also four other posts that he had written that month.

If you’ve ever lost all of your work, you know how awful it feels. First, there’s that moment of denial, and then there’s the absolute heart-rending dismay. I think I might have felt worse than my dad did, especially because I was the one who had recommended he try Draft last year. [Read more…]

How I Grew My Email List From 100 to 1,000 Subscribers in Less Than a Year

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Open laptop on a wood table next to white mug of coffee

Want to connect with other writers? Make sure to get your invitation to my private writing community on Facebook!

Can we throw a party?

Last month, we passed 1,000 subscribers on the blog’s email list.

One Thousand Subscribers.

I can still hardly believe it when I press send on the email newsletter and realize that it’s just landed in the inboxes of more than 1,000 amazing readers.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much to each and every one of you who has subscribed. Since starting this crazy blogging adventure last year, I’ve been overwhelmed by all of your kind comments and messages.

Growing an audience for your writing isn’t easy. At the beginning of last year, I didn’t really know how to find my audience online. My email list grew slowly, and sometimes it felt like hardly anyone was reading my work.

But in late March 2016, I won a contest for a year of blog coaching with bestselling author Jeff Goins. Thank you, Jeff! This included access to a course by email marketer Bryan Harris which I began working through in June when I had about 100 subscribers.

With Jeff’s and Bryan’s coaching and a lot of hard work, I soon discovered the most effective ways to reach a wider audience with my writing.

In today’s post, I’m looking at why every writer needs an email list, and I’m sharing the top five strategies that brought me the biggest number of subscribers.

[Read more…]