hacks Archives | Megan Garwood

April 25, 2018 by Megan Garwood

How to repost content you wrote for another site on your own blog without provoking the wrath of Google

As a blogger and business owner, your time (and your content!) is precious. None of us have unlimited resources, so we should be making the most of each piece of content we produce…including pieces we write that are originally published on other sites.

Think beyond simple repurposing, or promoting the post on your social media and calling it good: consider reposting content you wrote for another site on your own blog, also known as “syndicating”.

Syndication (in this instance, sharing content that was originally published elsewhere on your blog) is a great way to make sure your guest post gets seen by more of your audience…and that you’re making full use of the time you spent creating that content in the first place!

Want to reuse blog content without being penalized by Google? Follow these best practices to learn how to repurpose those guest blog posts you've written for maximum impact. | megangarwood.com/blog

April 9, 2018 by Megan Garwood

Are you making one of these 5 mistakes bloggers often make with their affiliate disclosures?

Business / Marketing / WordPress

It’s no big secret: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been catching up with the times lately. They’re getting hip to the more subtle ways that advertising works these days, including sponsored content, endorsements from social media influencers, and affiliate marketing.

They’ve taken action against some prominent influencers for failing to disclose their material connections to companies already. Technically, if you’re promoting affiliate products and failing to properly disclose your material connections…they could come after you, too.

Before you start freaking out and getting all paranoid, I’ve got some good news: all you have to do to avoid trouble is comply with their regulations for influencers and affiliates.

Don’t breathe too easy just yet. Despite greater scrutiny from the FTC and lots of information published on disclosures that comply with policies, I still see a lot—and I mean A LOT—of bloggers and business owners, both big and small, making mistakes with their affiliate disclosures.

These mistakes just might get them in hot water with the FTC, and I don’t want you to emulate their disclosures that aren’t up to par and end up in that hot water alongside them.

Want to improve your blogging social media game? If you're on WordPress, follow this easy how-to tutorial that tells you step-by-step how to add a hidden Pinterest image to your blog posts in just a few seconds with NO code necessary using one surprising tool. | megangarwood.com/blog

March 23, 2018 by Megan Garwood

How to add a hidden Pinterest image to your blog post in 10 seconds or less with NO code

Business / Marketing / WordPress

If you’ve been around the strategic blogging world for long, you know how vital Pinterest can be to the success of a blog. In fact, as far as “social networks” go—social networks is in quotes here because I don’t really consider Pinterest a social network—Pinterest is arguably the single most important one to be sharing your blog content on.

This visual search engine has the potential to drive some serious traffic to your blog…if you take the time to optimize your posts to utilize it best.

One easy way to get more eyes on your pinned blog posts? Use a vertical (tall) image when you pin your post!

Because of the way Pinterest lays out their content, vertical pins tend to get the most traction. That traction—the views, clicks, and repins—is what has the potential to explode your traffic, so we want to optimize for it in as many ways as possible.

It isn’t necessarily as simple as slapping a vertical image in your post and calling it good, though. Tall images look awkward when left as-is in a blog post and make it more difficult for readers to consume your content, which is never a good thing.

The solution a lot of bloggers employ for the vertical image problem is adding the image into their post, then manually hiding it with a little bit of HTML. So tedious! There really isn’t a better solution…until now, that is.

Now, however, there’s an easier, more automated way to add a hidden Pinterest image to your blog posts.

March 8, 2018 by Megan Garwood

Optimize your blog for Pinterest, part two: Automagically pin your hidden vertical images with JavaScript

Development / Tips & Tricks / WordPress

Disclaimer: I may receive a commission if you purchase something I link to in this post. I only recommend tools or services I love, use personally, and wholeheartedly believe will help you do business better. Read more here.

NOTE: Not so fast! Make sure you complete part one of this series before you start on the instructions contained in this post. Step two is dependent upon step one.

Now that you’ve got your hidden Pinterest image added to your blog posts, we’re going to take it a step farther.

If you include images in your blog posts that aren’t hidden, your readers may try to hover over those images and pin them instead of your hidden vertical image. If all your other images are “Pinterest-worthy,” this might not be a big deal to you. But, if those other images aren’t the best representation of your post’s content or your blog, you might want to discourage pinning them.

That’s what we’ll cover in step two of this post series: using JavaScript to help your readers pin your hidden vertical image instead of the other, less desirable images in your post content.

This method does require you to be at least comfortable enough with PHP, CSS, and WordPress theme development to follow along with the steps outlined below. If you take a peek and the steps make your head spin, no worries — just skip to the bottom and download the free plugin I wrote to do it all for you! ?

July 13, 2017 by Megan Garwood

Optimize your blog for Pinterest, part one: Easily adding hidden vertical images to your blog posts using ACF

Development / Tips & Tricks / WordPress

When you’re blogging for business, there are a lot of extra tasks that you need to perform in order to get the best “bang for your buck” out of your blog content. Making sure your blog is set up to convert readers to subscribers, optimizing your posts for search engines and social networks, properly disclosing affiliate links, formatting everything consistently from post to post…it can get exhausting just to keep up, and that’s not even considering the actual writing!

One of these oh-so-essential extra tasks is optimizing your blog posts for Pinterest. Pinterest is arguably the single most important social network for sharing your blog content because it has the potential to greatly increase your traffic. And, what’s rule number one for getting more eyes on your pinned blog posts? Use a vertical image when you create your pin.

Vertical images come with their own set of problems for blog owners, though: they’re awkward when left visible in your post and make readers have to work harder to consume your content (bad!). They can be hidden with a little bit of HTML—the most common approach is wrapping the image in <div style=”display: none;”></div>—but it’s so tedious to manually insert that code for every post.

What if I told you there was an easier, more automated way?

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