Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

How a Mastermind Group Can Help You Reach Your Writing Goals

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Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash

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

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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Photo by Christin Hume

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.

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5 Writing Tips from Ernest Hemingway

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In the spring of 1934, an aspiring writer named Arnold Samuelson hitchhiked from Minnesota to Florida to see if he could land a meeting with his favorite author. Feeling discouraged over his writing, Samuelson believed he needed a mentor to help him improve his craft.

The writer he had picked to be his mentor? Ernest Hemingway.

Samuelson showed up at Hemingway’s front door and begged the famous author for just a few minutes of conversation. Much to Samuelson’s delight, Hemingway agreed to talk with him and read some of his work. Although Hemingway wasn’t particularly impressed by Samuelson’s writing, he was impressed by the 22-year-old’s seriousness and dedication.

Unfortunately, Hemingway had planned to leave Florida soon on his boat Pilar. But luckily for Samuelson, Hemingway invited him to join the crew. While at sea, Samuelson had the rare opportunity to pick Hemingway’s brains about writing.

In a 1935 article for Esquire magazine, Hemingway shared some of the advice he had given Samuelson. Read on for five of Hemingway’s tips that we can use to improve our own writing.

[Read more…]

How Tea Helps Boost My Focus and Creativity in the Afternoon

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Steaming mug on table in front of window
Photo by John-Mark Smith on Unsplash

Do you ever begin to feel tired and have difficulty focusing on your creative projects as the afternoon wears on?

In the late afternoon when I begin to feel my creative energy take a nosedive, I pause from my writing projects to enjoy tea time with my family. This is a tradition passed down to us from my British grandmother.

She saw afternoon tea as just as important a time in the day as breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I remember a conversation I once had with her when she was telling me about her experiences as a child in London during WWII.

Her family eventually sent her to the countryside during the Blitz, but she remembered before that how they would sit together in an Anderson shelter in their neighbor’s yard. She told me they put the kettle on before heading to the shelter. When the kettle whistled, one of her sisters dashed to the kitchen to prepare the tea and brought it back to the shelter.

Clearly, not even a war could come between a Londoner and her tea. The tea must have helped my grandmother cling to a sense of calm and normalcy as she waited out the air-raid warning.

In fact, when I did a little digging into the benefits of tea, I discovered that thanks to a special ingredient, tea really does relax you. Additionally, because it has less caffeine than coffee, it doesn’t cause caffeine jitters that mess with your focus and concentration. But it does give you a boost of creative energy. 

Maybe this is why so many of us writers like to drink a cup of tea while we are writing.

Read on to discover several of the famous writers who loved tea and how tea can improve your health and enhance your creativity. [Read more…]