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Having scrutinised it, I have to say I highly recommend it as a design site. For those of you who don’t have photoshop and illustrator its the perfect substitute. It has a plethora of professional looking templates for everything from book covers, blog photos, infographics, flyers, posters, cover photos… anything you could want it has pre made templates which you can edit to your hearts desire.

If you want to increase your blog traffic next year I am certain this tool will help.

ONE – Templates Galore

Canva has templates with the optimised sizes and pixels for everything from:

Every type of social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. It has a variety of book cover templates with fully customisable functions, magazines, letters, presentation templates, infographics, album covers, cover photos for all social media, invitations, event designs and much more.

TWO – Infographics

The reason I find this such a useful tool is for its infographic capabilities. I have for a long time, searched for a tool with the mechanism to create infographics for free. With Canva, as long as you have your own photos or use their free ones – you can. Every image you create otherwise is the standard price of a dollar.

Infographics if you don’t know, are long thin images with standout facts and figures, or hints and tips,  this is one I created in just a few minutes.

I know infographics aren’t everyones cup of tea, but they are hugely popular on Pinterest, which drives an obscene amount of traffic to my site – if you want to up your traffic this is a no brainer, especially if you get them onto Pinterest.

THREE  – Attracting Traffic

Everyones knows photos attract people to your media, I wrote about how to create them in this post: 4 Easy Steps To Seriously Awesome Blog Post Photos. This is a catch all site that gives you the ability to create photos and media for all your sites in one quick go AND they are already set up in eye catching templates. Which means, traffic, traffic, traffic.

FOUR – Functionality

It’s functionality its intuitive. With a panel on the left for all the icons and an easy drag and drop system into the main panel for anything you want to pop into your graphics.

Fonts are changeable, text moveable and just about everything can be edited. If you can use wordpress, you can use Canva. Not because it looks and works the same, but because its as simple and intuitive as wordpress.

It also has a tutorial if you get stuck.

FIVE – Motivation & Inspiration

Have ever wanted to have a book cover before your book is finished? You know just to see? To play around and see what it would be like to have your name on a cover?

Maybe for motivational purposes to help you carry on but you can’t afford a designer incase your book changes and the cover needs to as well. Well Canva is your tool.

I made a pretend cover for Adultland, the second novel I am drafting as a result of this writespiration. Clearly this isn’t what I would put on the actual cover, firstly I’d get it designed professionally, I’d want a girl walking up the path anyway and it’s not right on a lot of levels. But, it is motivational. Plus not having published anything yet, it was kind of cool to see my name on a book. Definitely motivation to hurry the F up!!

Thoughts? Have you ever used Canva? Have you created a pretend cover to drive you on? What kind of graphics do you use? What do you think of infographics?

If you liked this post, subscribe here to get more FREE writing tips, tools and inspiration as well as information on the release of my books.

The post 5 Mind Boggling Reasons Canva is YOUR Blogging Design Heaven appeared first on Sacha Black.

I came across Flipboard completely by chance. I was browsing my stats page and seemed to be getting an increasing number of referrals from this ‘thing’ called Flipboard. However, when I clicked through to the links they just failed so I thought it was spam.

The following day, I had over 100 referrals just from that site, so I decided to actually Google Flipboard, and low and behold its pretty awesome.

Anyway, if you’re anything like me, you might spend hours reading other blogs or trawling the internet for story research, but where do you put it all? I never really know what to do with all the things I want to read again, it’s not like the old days when you shove crap from magazines a in a folder or scrap book – I miss getting my fingers smeared with pritt stick and having a physical project book that never quite looked right!

These days I clog my laptop up with dozens of open tabs in my browser, (which stay open for weeks) and then I get mighty irritated when my laptop does an automatic update and closes everything. LOST FOREVER PEOPLE.

Sure, I could bookmark pages but isn’t that so last decade?! Plus I must have at least a thousand bookmarks none of which are particularly well organised.

Sigh.

Flipboard is a kind of Pinterest but for word oriented people rather than visual people. It works on the basis of you creating ‘Magazines’ which are effectively a storage folder. You can ‘flip’ articles, blog posts or pictures into your magazines. You can title, rearrange and organise your magazines and articles however you like.

It’s basically the ideal solution to storing those interesting blogs, pictures, research or articles you want to keep. It’s minimal effort, sleek, neat and can be visual for those who want it.  But more than anything, its tidy and doesn’t require hundreds of bytes of data to store.

They also have a ‘flip it’ button you can install onto your browser so that you can flip things from anywhere. They have apps for your devices and all the mod cons of a normal social media site, like the ability to follow other peoples’ magazines or general ‘topics’, of which there are thousands.

I am only just getting to grips with this little discovery, but it appears to be a bit of an (undiscovered to me) gem.

Have you heard of Flipboard? Do you use it? Like it? Let me know in the comments.

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome writing tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains. Click this link and just tap the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page. 

You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet and a villain’s short course by joining my mailing list just click here.

Read Keepers, the first book in my Young Adult fantasy series now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post The Minimalists Guide to Storing Interesting Articles appeared first on Sacha Black.

I read recently (I forget where – and I have already scalded myself for not saving the link) that every aspiring writer should have an electronic platform namely, a social media presence.

What that media presence is, and how effective it is has until recently seemed to me, to be knowledge only for the elite and all powerful superb loggers, and not something I was that bothered about until I read about the importance of having an electronic platform. So I set about doing some research on how to boost traffic and network better.

I am guessing that most aspiring authors, myself included, started a blog to do one or more of the following:

a) Network, meet other aspiring writers and build contacts and if your lucky friendships

b) If and when you are brave enough to post work, build some kind of appreciative base of friends, acquaintances, people (fans?!) who don’t think your utterly useless (like my own brain does).

c) Learn from, and share your own learning on the writing process (this one is important to me)

d) Write more

e) Procrastinate writing blogs instead of stories, and claim it’s writing (I do this, it counts in my head and somehow gets me closer to finishing my novel)

If we are honest, B – is probably the one lots of us secretly hope for? I do, not ashamed to admit it. I am  a writer, and although I write because my brain gives me no other option (characters scream at me if I don’t). I dream of one day  selling thousands of books. This means having people that God forbid, actually read my work! But what better place to do that, or at least start that conversation than on social media.

But how do you actually build a follower base? Well, I can’t claim to have an extraordinarily large base yet, but it is growing, and there are a few things in particular I have done that have helped. So I thought I would share the nuggets I have found with you so far.

Here is an infographic that gives you some ‘headline grabbing’ (see what I did there!) stats on blogging

Twitter

Thanks to Norah Colvin for introducing me to some writing Hash Tags on Twitter.

I saw a 400% increase in twitter followers in 10-11 days using these hashtags so if you want traffic use them!

Click #MondayBlogs to links to their twitter account. If you post on Mondays tweet your post with the hashtag #MondayBlogs. If you tweet and retweet others, trust me when I tell you you will get a ton of followers – take a phone charger to work your phone battery will die! Posts must have been posted on a Monday.

#SundayBlogShare Same thing – Links to the account but use the hashtag on a Sunday and tweet and RT others, you can tweet anything you like from your blog though.

#ArchiveDay not quite sure who created this one, but same thing – tweet any post from your archives on a Saturday, tweet and RT others.

#wwwblogs This ones for ladies (sorry guys) same principles – but on a Wednesday

I read an interesting post the other day on Twitter Tips there are 50 things to do, or not to do on twitter, some basic but others actually quite interesting.

The other point to note is that when someone follows me now, I respond thanking them and pointing them in the direction of my website. This has helped a lot, and I have connected with lots more writers, and even started to make friends with fellow writers.

Pinterest

I’ve written about the benefits of Pinterest before here. Mandy Wallace who I have also talked about before here has mastered Pinterest for writers. She now has thousands of re-pins and refers from Pinterest to her website everyday. Mandy has written an excellent tutorial about how you can get your posts to go viral like hers here.

Mandy discusses things like, the size and importance of the size of photos you put on your blog posts, the importance of having the right headlines and having good images, and ensuring you post them to Pinterest.

I have also read recently that to get featured on Pinterest there are a few key things you can do – like ordering your boards to reflect who you are, titling your boards something relevant to the content and similarly having a reflective picture of the content. I had never been that bothered about being featured on Pinterest, I just used it for inspiration and completely selfishly just pinning things I thought were interesting or useful. Despite that, I was actually featured for a few days – my writing board – which you can find here. Although quite why I was featured, still remains a mystery, but I have to say if you are interested in increasing traffic it is a really good way to do it, my followers on there exploded over night. But I do think with most of these ‘being featured’ like on freshly pressed, it’s mostly a matter of luck.

I haven’t seen much luck with Pinterest in terms of referrals or viral posts, so I am still looking for more hints and tips to share.

Facebook

This is an obvious one. I haven’t ever posted my articles to Facebook before, partly because I blog under a pseudonym and had previously wanted to remain anonymous. I posted my interview with James Howell on the 13th, and I got 44 refers just from that one post on Facebook. I don’t know what everyone else finds when you post your blogs to Facebook? But I would be interested to know what you find on traffic from facebook?

Google Plus

Google plus is completely new to me. It wasn’t until I spoke to my friend who works in marketing that I really understood what it was. It’s a new platform that is similar to Facebook. But it is quickly becoming THE platform in social media. The biggest reason for it’s success is what it can offer you. Your google plus account directly affects your visibility on google. The better more prolific your google plus account is, the more searchable and visible you are on google searches… ideal for any writer. I have only just signed up for an account so I am not sure theres much I can offer by way of intelligence other than to suggest its a ruddy good idea for networking. There are dozens of communities and groups on google plus dedicated to writers, so it is already proving to boost networking.

Headlines

In Mandy’s post there are some links to a post about headline grabbing titles which I have now added to the Free Resources Page, alongside Jon Morrow’s website where you can download his headline hacks article, which is fantastic. It’s a complete tutorial all about how to create the perfect headline to grab readers attention. I have to say, it is very interesting how many more clicks an refers they suggest you can get just by changing the title of your posts. I’ve noticed a small increase, but as yet, nothing major.

Interviews and Guest Posts

It’s fairly common knowledge that guest posts and Interviews give your blog credibility. They show an ability to network, and sharing of expertise knowledge. I was skeptical as to whether and actually, why, interviews and guest posts had such an impact. But after posting the interview with Howell, I got the most hits in one day I had ever received – so it obviously works. I guess the importance here is to choose your guests wisely and your interviews more wisely in order to keep your credibility and boost your networks.

Timing is Everything

Now, if you’re anything like me, then you post when you post, and you tweet when you tweet. I have a full time job, and child, so I don’t have the luxury of much free time to do any of the things I am suggesting. But timing is another really important aspect of social media. There are key times in the day for each social media platform. It’s not something I had thought about until I found the infographic below. But I guess it makes sense. If you want to post at the ideal time for the social media site of your choice, use the below timings for your benefit.

 Imagery

Imagery is essential for any writer, so why should it be any different for blog posts, they are of course ‘writing’. Images for writers though can be hard to find, particularly free ones that you can manipulate to your hearts content, in the knowledge you aren’t breaking any copyright laws. Creative Commons is excellent for this. Just go to the explore section and choose where you want to search. I use it ALL the time. I am drawing together a list of image databases which I will put in the free resources section once it is complete.

That’s it for now, but I will be sure to share any other intelligence I glean

The post Writing Tips #16 The Secrets of Social Media – Everything A Writer Should Know appeared first on Sacha Black.

Not everybody thinks the same way. Ok, that obvious. But what does it mean for your writing? I am incredibly visual. So for me, when I read, my eyes switch off; I just see images. When I think, despite being a writer and thinking about writing a lot, I still think in a mixture of words and images, when I am being explained something I need a diagram. But, even if I wasn’t a visual person, I would still value ‘images’. Pinterest is a secret obsession of mine. It truly is an endless supply of muse’s, inspiration, character ideas and writing tips. If you don’t have an account get one, you won’t regret it.

Every time I get a new idea, I create a new board, I have boards for settings, locations, characters, tiny details of worlds and characters, boards for research, boards just for inspiring images to take my brain away to other places, I have a board for just about everything, including Christmas present ideas and games to play with the kid!

My point is, Pinterest.com is possibly one of the most useful sites I have ever been on or signed up to. It is my constant referral page, a mood board I can carry with me in my pocket with 10,000 images all at my fingertips. You could have ten million pictures if you really wanted, your only limited by the amount of time you have! My only negative about pinterest is that as much as I am visual, I also like to see and touch my mood boards, so for me this is a downside, but the ability to be able to have SO many images in one place, far outweighs the fact I can’t touch, re position and faff with the images.

If you don’t have an account, and you signed up as a result of this, let me know how it goes. Happy Pinning!

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