Business, Blogging
Lauren Hooker
40 Ways to Use Adobe Illustrator to Improve ...

Adobe Illustrator is my go-to software for anything and everything design-related. It's the one program I truly couldn't work without.

And while it's easy to assume that the program's primary focus is illustration based on the name, there is so much more to this design software. 

With tools for type, color, photo cropping, image tracing, drawing, and much more, it has innumerable benefits for bloggers and business owners, alike.

To get your creative gears turning, here's a look at 40 ways Adobe Illustrator can take your blog and/or business to the next level.

40 Ways to Use Adobe Illustrator to Improve Your Blog and Business
Blogging, Business, Branding, Design
Lauren Hooker
How to Create Eye-Catching Blog Post Graphics

First impressions are crucial, especially in business.

Potential customers and clients make judgments about your business within the first few seconds of coming into contact with it, whether it’s through your website, your social media accounts, or a simple blog post graphic.

And those initial thoughts - whether they’re spot on or far off from what you want them to be - are within your control. You have the opportunity to make a killer first impression through high-quality, branded visuals.

If your blog is a large part of your business or you’re hoping to drive more traffic back to your site through your blog, you have to have eye-catching blog graphics to not only generate a positive first impression, but to encourage readers to share your posts on sites like Pinterest and be seen by an even wider audience.

So how do you create eye-catching blog post graphics? And better yet, how can you set them apart so they’ll stand out from the rest and be recognized time and time again?

How to Create Eye-Catching Blog Post Graphics
Business, Visual Marketing
Lauren Hooker
40 Easy, Engaging Video Content Ideas for Your ...

“When I discovered YouTube, I didn’t work for 5 days.” - Michael Scott

Video platforms like YouTube (and more recently, Periscope) are easily the world’s greatest time-wasters. We’ve all been guilty of losing track of time on YouTube at least once, because videos are easily consumable, very addicting, and highly entertaining.

As a matter of fact, studies show that a whopping 78% of us watch videos online every week and 55% watch videos online every day.

Which is why Youtube is also the world’s greatest overnight-success-maker. If you’re on the production-side of a video and you’ve come up with a clever idea, you might just have a viral hit on your hands.

Video holds a lot of potential for interaction, engagement, and shares for creative businesses. And for that reason, it’s one of the best visual marketing tools you can use.

But it producing videos can be a little overwhelming, can’t it? Even with helpful video tools out there like Animoto, many of us struggle to come up with simple ideas for video content that would appeal to our audience. 

And that’s where this post comes in. I’ve rounded up 40 easy, engaging video content ideas to help get your creative gears turning. My hope is that you’ll find a few ideas to implement and as a result, bring your business more exposure.

40 Easy, Engaging Video Content Ideas for Your Creative Business
Business, Visual Marketing
Lauren Hooker
Why You Should Be Using Infographics for Your ...

If you’re looking for a good way to kill at least an hour of your time, type in the word “infographic” in the Pinterest search bar.

Thousands of clever graphics will pop up on everything from “how to make a salad taste awesome” to a baby’s first year in a review. There’s even an infographic that answers the pressing question, “Is your dog sleeping a little too much?”

Then, after you’ve admired the genius creativity behind them, take a gander at how many repins and likes each of those infographics receives. Thousands upon thousands.

In fact, infographic volumes have increased by over 800% in 2 years. Publishers who use infographics grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t. 

What is it about infographics that makes them so appealing? And better yet, how can you come up with some clever infographics for your business so it gains more exposure through likes and shares?

I have all the answers for you in this post.

Why You Should Be Using Infographics for Your Business (And How to Create Them)
Blogging
Lauren Hooker
How to Create Catchy Headlines

Is your headline the first thing you consider when you sit down to write a post?

Probably not, but creating a catchy blog post title is one of the most important aspects of each blog post. It's the gateway to your content; it convinces people to click or scroll right past your latest post'. 

In fact, studies show that 8 out of 10 people will read your headline but only 2 out of 10 will read your entire post. 

Here are a few pointers for drawing in potential readers and a couple "templates" to help you create a catchy headline for your upcoming posts. 

How to Create Catchy Headlines

Business

My Pared-Down Approach to Planning and Goal Setting

My Pared-Down Approach to Planning and Goal Setting

It’s that time of year!

Tomorrow marks the start of 2019 and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the fresh start and clean slate that January 1st brings.

I’ve tried my hand at many different goal-setting planners, journals, and apps for both business and personal use in the past, like the Best Self Journal, Cultivate What Matters PowerSheets, and the 5 Second Journal. And all of them worked well for the season I used them in.

But this year I’m paring down and taking a slightly different approach to setting goals, mapping out my time, and keeping up with my schedule.

7 Things I'm Doing to Prepare My Business for the New Year

7 Things I'm Doing to Prepare My Business for the New Year

I know there’s nothing magical about January 1st.

But every time December rolls around, I can’t help but look forward to the fresh start that a new year brings. Especially this year.

2018 was a year of many firsts for us with having our first baby and buying/renovating our first house, and I underestimated how long it would take to get into a regular rhythm for Elle & Company.

Now that my son is 8 months old and we’re all moved into our house, I finally feel like we’re reaching a new normal. The new year couldn’t be coming at a better time.

But before I dive into some exciting new ideas and projects, there are 7 things I’m doing to tie up loose ends, cap off the year, and start 2019 with a clean slate.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Elle & Company From My Assistant's Perspective

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Elle & Company From My Assistant's Perspective

Hi! My name is Marisa and I am one of Lauren’s assistants. I graduated with my degree in Public Relations and Marketing in 2015. I currently work full time as a Communications/Marketing Specialist in higher education (at my alma mater) and work for Elle & Company as the Content Marketing Manager part time.

Like you, I used to avidly read the Elle & Company blog.

I first stumbled across Elle & Company in the Fall of 2015 when I was researching SEO for Squarespace.

I came across The Truth About Squarespace SEO blog post and instantly become obsessed with reading all of Lauren’s blog posts and soaking in her colorful graphic design style all over her website.

As I continued to devour blog posts, I came across 20 Business Tasks You Could Be Delegating and I thought to myself, “Hey! I could do/have done all of this stuff.”

In a moment of bravery, I reached out to Lauren, pitched myself, and asked her if she needed an assistant. At the time, she had just hired her first assistant, Jenny, and wasn’t looking to hire someone else so quickly.

So I continued to read her blog posts and newsletters, I subscribed to the Library, and I tuned into Ellechats when I could.

About a year went by and Lauren had just launched her Freelance Academy course for the first time and I wondered if she could use any extra help. So I emailed her again, thinking it would be a long shot.

But to my surprise she emailed me back within an hour with the craziest story! She had been meaning to reach out to me for weeks to see if I might still be interested in the assistant position - she even had the email sitting in her drafts folder but had been too busy to push send.

Before I started freelancing for Elle & Company, I was so curious as to how Lauren ran things behind the scenes and always wished she would share more “intimate business details”. Now that I’m on the other side, I constantly see requests from readers for this very thing. So today I’m taking you “behind the scenes” to talk to you about Elle & Company from my perspective.

A Comprehensive List of Tools and Resources I Use to Run My Business

A Comprehensive List of Tools and Resources I Use to Run My Business

There are a lot of great tools and apps out there to help you manage an online business. So many, in fact, that it can be hard to know which ones to use!

And that’s probably why I receive so many questions related to the tools and resources I use and recommend for starting and scaling an online business.

I’m a big fan of sharing tools that work and don’t work for me. But nonetheless, I’ve curated a list of my most highly recommend tools and resources for an online business so you can view them all in one place.

In all transparency, I do receive compensation for mentioning some of these resources and any commission I earn comes at no additional cost to you. But I never recommend tools that I don’t use, love, and believe to be extremely beneficial for starting and scaling an online business.

How to Build a Quiz Content Upgrade

How to Build a Quiz Content Upgrade

Have you ever been scrolling through Buzzfeed or Facebook and got sucked into taking a quiz about “Which Friends Character Are You?” or “What City Should You Actually Live In?”

Quizzes can be addicting because when taken, with a grain of salt, quizzes can give you insights about yourself. And we love learning more about ourselves and our preferences.

So it’s no wonder that businesses are now creating quizzes similar to those found on Buzzfeed and Facebook as a means for generating leads, driving traffic, and segmenting your audience.

I recently jumped on the quiz as a content upgrade bandwagon and created my “Which Squarespace template is right for you?” quiz. I used Interact to create it and in this post, I’m taking you behind my screen to show you how I did it.