Author: Amber Olsen

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FREE Instagram Training – Top 15 Tips: Part 2

Did you miss Part 1? Click the link to read the first six tips! 


In the first post of this series, I discussed the first 6 of 15 tips to grow your instagram. Let’s jump right into the next five! 

7. Engage your niche

Get to know your audience and other content creators in your niche. You probably already know you should do that, but how, exactly? Start by going into the hashtags of your posts and find other creators. Comment! Ask questions! It is best to spend five minutes a day getting to know other people. Are you a makeup blogger who admires someone artwork? Send them a message and ask if you can do a makeup look inspired by their creation! It is always flattering to see your content inspire someone else to create something more (But remember, ALWAYS ask permission and ALWAYS credit appropriately). By getting to know your community in the daily interactions, you will naturally thrive and grow organically. 


ALWAYS ask permission and ALWAYS credit appropriately.

8. Interact with your audience

When you post, try asking your audience an open-ended question. (For a quick refresher, an open-ended question cannot be answer by “yes” or “no.”) Simple posts asking “Which is your fave? A or B?” or “Using one word, describe your day!” are effective because they require very little feedback from your followers. One word or simple answers are best for the casual follower. Be sure to reply and like every answer you receive on any of your posts. Your followers and their interaction are golden, so treat them like royalty! 

9. Utilize Videos

Using video on instagram is a great way to increase engagement. It also allows your viewers to see a different side to you. I can’t give you advice on what to post in your videos, but I can tell you how to spiffy it up! First of all, youtube is a great resource for learning how to edit. My current favorite video app is InShot. For a few dollars, you can purchase the pro version and access many more features and eliminate their watermark from any saved files. If you have any specific questions about videos, ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. 

10. Add to your Story

Since the change a few updates ago, Instagram has jumped into the story-like format, mimicking the very popular Snapchat. Since this addition, almost all of the accounts I follow utilize this feature. It’s a great way to let people into things like “behind the scenes,” “a day in the life of,” and offer teasers for upcoming content. You can make announcements for your blog, go live for a demo . . . the sky is the limit! This is a great place to let loose and have fun. Unless your instagram is only about being comical or sarcastic, be consistent to a theme and keep your feed in accordance with your theme. In your Story, however, you can be whatever you want! 

11. Use the available Tools

There are a lot of apps out there that are helpful to someone who really wants to take their instagram to the next level. In my upcoming Instagram Training, I’ll be taking you through a deep-dive of my favorites with live demos and more. But here, I want to focus on just a few. (Keep in mind that I have an Android phone, but most apps available for Android are also for iphone as well.) 

For quick reference for hashtags, try a hashtag app! Hashme, All-Hashtag, and Display Purposes are all great places to start. Sometimes, you will get suggestions that are completely useless. That’s the downfall to automatic algorithms. But what they lack in perfection, they make up in ease. Simply weed out the ones you won’t use, copy, and (here’s the magic) paste it into your notepad app. That way, you don’t have to keep waiting and weeding out results. You can just copy and paste at the end of your post! Be sure to check the relevancy of your hashtags at least once a month and update your notepad “cheat sheet.” 

That’s it for this post! Subscribe for part 3, the conclusion. If you want to dig deeper with direct mentorship, post prompts, photography tips, and more, then be sure to join my Facebook group to take advantage of my FREE training course!

Ciao! 

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Best Gifts for D&D Lovers

So – you have someone in your life who just looooooves the world’s greatest roleplaying game. Maybe that makes sense to you. Maybe it doesn’t. Either way, I’ve curated some pretty cool stuff for the roleplaying gamer in your life, perfect for Christmas, birthdays, or anytime you want brownie points. (Kiss up to the DM, maybe?)

This post may contain affiliate links. (Spoiler alert: it does.) For the legal jargon (and my personal stance on recommendations) click here. 

1. Party Mug

Trust me, any D&D player will definitely appreciate the humor in this amazing mug.  Label it as a “measuring mug for healing potions” for critical effect!

2. Player’s Travel Bag 

Any prepared player has several things they take with them: a handbook, characters sheets, dice, spell sheets, a notebook, dice, writing utensils, mini figures, and have I mentioned dice? (More on dice later!) This bag looks small, but it really does fit two standard books inside, three if you squeeze. It really let’s you keep all the necessities in one, easily portable bag for going to your friend’s place to play.

3. Awesome Dice Bag 

Since playing DnD, I caught something, a bug, a virus. It worms its way down into the very fiber of your soul. Like tapeworms, I guess. But instead of craving food, you must. Have. DICE. ALL THE DICE. And every DnD player I have met has a respectable fear of this disease or infestation. It can become a real problem. Oh, and in case I’m not clear, I don’t mean hoarding all of the dice is a problem; I meant storing and transporting them can be a real pain.  This dice bag not only holds up to 300 dice, it has POCKETS to SORT your various and sundry dice, and it comes in eight different colors. Go take a gander yerself here. 

4. 100-side Die

You don’t get to roll a 100-sided die (called a D100) very often, but trust me: it is way more satisfying to be able to whip out one of these polyhedral giants and let ‘er rip versus pressing a button on your app.  Imagine it: pressing a button and instantly having some randomizer algorithm provide with any number between 1 and 100, or watching the fate of your character, your entire party, and ultimately the entire game universe literally roll across the table in front you! Get the die.

5. A Fuzzy Blanket

I was recently gifted this exact blanket, and let me tell you, it is FUZZY.  In fact, I have had it with me for four constant days. I rue the day I will have to wash it, but at this rate, I fear it is coming soon.  I know it isn’t available online, but I can’t help but sing it’s praises. Everyone needs an awesome blanket like this. It is the perfect accompaniment to playing and pretending it’s the skin of a soft, fuzzy beast. Since it isn’t going to be available everywhere, here are some pretty great options, too! 

6. More Dice

Duh! You should have expected this to be on the list. I mean, I sort of listed a single die above, but that doesn’t count. My favorite dice are from Kraken, which you can find at www.krakendice.com. If you can’t find the perfect fit there, Chessex makes my second favorite dice! Of course, this little things only matter to dice connoisseurs. For someone who doesn’t have a robust collection, these are actually really great!  They are even good for the seasoned player who likes to have extras on hand for newcomers (because who wants to let someone else use up all the luck in your dice?) or DMs.

7. Character Notebook

This has got to be the coolest and most fun way to keep track of character inventory. Any RPGer would be happy to have this in their arsenal. And you are supporting an individual artist who can keep making more awesome things like this! Snag this here!

8. Dice Earrings

Yes, all of your geeky jewelry dreams have come true. Who DOESN’T want a dodecahedron hanging from their earlobes?! And yes, I promise that’s a real word. Enter jewelry Valhalla here.

9. Erasable Gel Pens 

Roleplayers do a lot of writing, which comes with its fair share of erasing. Pencils are great, and easy to come by. But an erasable gel pen? This stuff is gold, and it blows peoples minds whenever I bring it to a session and they see it do its magic for the first time. It just brings something to the table when you can write with the finality of pen, the smoothness of gel, and any color you want – but still have the confidence to know you can erase it, just in case.

BONUS ITEM!

10. This Awesome Shirt

This shirt is super comfy, unisex, and available in ten colors and in sizes XS – 4X so that anyone can flaunt their love of the dice. (It is also designed by yours truly!)

So there you have it! Ten awesome things I think any RPGer would love to have gifted to them, no matter the occasion. My favorite holiday is DM Appreciation Day, colloquially known as “thanks for not killing my character” day. Word of advice: celebrate often.

Cheers!

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FREE Instagram Training – Top 15 Tips for Growth

Do you want to grow your instagram community? Have you struggled with gaining traction or knowing what to post or when? Then you are in the right place! In the post, I will share my top 15 tips for growing your influence on instagram. And if you want to dig deeper with direct mentorship, post prompts, photography tips, and more, then be sure to join my Facebook group to take advantage of my FREE training course! No email list sign up, no gimmicks or hidden fees, just me showing you what I do!

Top 15 Instagram Tips – Part 1

One: Be consistent
Whatever this means for you (once a week, once a day, morning, noon, and night), keep it consistent. Consistent content is going to improve your ability to be seen within Instagram’s algorithms.  While I won’t get into teaching the algorithms in this post (that will be in my upcoming free training ), I will recommend you post at least once a day!

Two: Utilize all your hashtag realty
If you were to pay for an ad in printed media, you would be granted so many words. A wise advertiser would work his thoughts into concise, action-oriented directions and use every single word available. So why not use all of your advertising space in hashtags? Not using all of your hashtags is like stopping at offering your name in an introduction.  You get THIRTY hashtags! You should use as much of those as you possibly can, and no less than twenty every post. Need ideas for helpful hashtags? Feel free to follow me (instagram.com/ambertheblog) and steal my hashtags, join my group for the free training, or study some of your favorite “grammers” for inspiration. You get free advertising. Be sure to use those hashtags!

Not using all of your hashtags is like stopping at offering your name in an introduction.

Three: Post your hashtags with your image
You’ve probably seen two types of grammers (that’s the term for people who use the gram, aka instagram). There are those who post their content and hashtags together, and those who post their hashtags in a comment. You can do it either way, but the most effective way to be at the top of the hashtag feed (which is how others will find your content) is to post your tags along with your image. The delay between adding the tags in the comments can be the difference between someone seeing your content or seeing what others have posted!

 

Four: Offer value
The number one mistake people can make is to use instagram as a marketing tool.  Instagram c an be and is a very powerful marketing platform, but it is not by actively marketing that you build a community. Consumers look for products. Communities look for service. A product is the same whether you get it on Amazon, in Wal-mart, or Target. Where do you buy it? What drives your loyalty? The service. The dictionary defines service as the following:

1. the action of helping or doing work for someone.
synonyms: favor, kindness, good turn, helping hand;

Wow! That is definitely different than simply marketing a product. What do you offer your community? Position your service, not your products.

Consumers look for products. Communities look for service.

Five: Practice your photography
There’s no getting around it – instagram is a visual community! If you want to get attention, you need to up your photography game. As a retired wedding photographer, I can definitely write way too much on the subject! While I plan on getting more involved and doing a photography workshop during my instagram training, I will keep this portion here brief.

Remember the phrase “shoot in the shade.” Direct lighting is going to be the harshest to view and hardest to correct. Look for shade and indirect lighting or shoot on an overcast day. This is going to get you the softest shadows and the most flattering lighting for just about everything!

Utilize your camera’s brain. Unless you’ve done training on using a camera in manual mode, learning what auto settings are available are going to be your best tool. I specifically purchased my Samsung Note 8 because I liked the options it had as a camera. Get to know everything about your camera and you will inherently learn how to take better photos!

Use apps to improve your photos before uploading. I suggest Facetune, Pixlr Express, Handy Photo, and PicsArt. I’ll show you how to use them in detail in my training! Facetune is great for polishing up portraits, while I use Pixlr for cropping, adding text, and basic color correction. I use Handy Photo for the amazing magic crop feature, as well as making my backgrounds have that studio feel. Seriously, this app has so much power! It’s like Photoshop on my phone. Try them out!

Six: Eliminate ghost followers
While it might really stink to intentionally make your follower count go down, it is actually imperative to building an engaged, organic community. Plants need pruning to grow to their best potential. Your community is the same way. Spam account, ghost followers, or automated accounts that never engage with you are actually harmful to your engagement percentages, which ultimately tells instagram that your content isn’t that interesting to your followers. And then it decides that it won’t be that interesting to new people, too! Yikes! Culling disengaged followers is an imperative step to keeping your community to members who enjoy in what you have to offer.

That’s it for part one of my Fifteen Tips for Instragram Growth! Be sure to subscribe for part two and three, and join my facebook group for the free intensive training to make your instagram rock!

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20-Day Mental Wellness Challenge

It’s coming.

You know what I mean.

The advertisements, the holiday parties, the pressure. The glitz and glam and delicious food are all really fun aspects of the upcoming season, but man, holidays can wear you out sometimes, right? So this year, I’ve decided to bulk up beforehand. And no, not physically. I stumbled upon a 20-Day Mental Health  Challenge on pinterest. I thought, “Well, gosh, that sounds like a great idea!” Except . . . a lot of the suggestions did not really apply to me or my situation. I tweaked it to my needs and I will be sharing it with you, too. You are 10000000% invited. I even made it Facebook official, see?

Trying to do something new is always easier when you have others doing it with you. So come join the community! I’ll be posting facts and thoughts for the day along with the daily challenge. From things like taking a walk to journaling your gratitude, these twenty days are bound to include something that will give your mind some additional peace. I can’t wait to see you there!

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How to Hit Your Goals

A fellow military spouse asked a question about goal setting in our facebook group, and I got so excited, my reply turned into nearly a novel! (Sorry, fellow milspo!) So instead of giving everyone a novella reply,  I kept it to the bullet points and decided to share the rest here! (P.S. If you want a supportive place of fun, positivity, and pretty things, come join us!)

1.) Know your goals!

 
If you have nothing as your goal, you’ll hit it every time! Good goals are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound.
 
  • Be specific. This works for fitness, work, house cleaning, ANYTHING! For example: If you want to hurt less and have more energy, be specific, ex: “I want to be able to play with my children without losing a breath. I want to be able to lay down to sleep without needing painkillers.” Are you in the blogging world? Trying to make a break into social media influence? What about, “I want to create an organic community/following of 1,000.”
 
  • Make them measurable! Something that you can track. Start easy. I’m always running gung-ho into things, and end up hurting more than helping myself. So take it easy!
 
  • Make it relevant. Use what matters to YOU, not to anyone else. If you want to lose a pant size or two, that’s great, but why? Why do you want 1000 followers? Make your goal matter.
 
  • Give yourself a time limit. “I want to be able to lay down to sleep without needing painkillers in two months,” or, “I want a community of 1000 organic followers by December 31st.”
 
2.) Try something new. If you’ve been avoiding working out because its, well, boring (guilty!) then ask about something new to switch it up. Don’t be afraid to ask. Everyone there wants you to succeed! Feel stuck in a writing rut? Try writing a genre you’ve never done before. Give yourself a wacky makeover. Try learning a new makeup technique from YouTube. 
 
3.) Get a battle buddy. Going to the gym is always more fun if you have a buddy, plus, you have built in accountability. This is one of the essential facets of being successful. In the blogging industry? Get yourself a blogging partner who can keep you accountable! When you can learn together and share ideas of what works and what doesn’t, you can build each other up – and helping people succeed is extremely energizing and inspiring for yourself! Give it a try! (If you need help finding someone that shares similar goals as you, you can search Facebook for interests groups! And feel free to join ours – you are welcome!) 
 
4.) Keep track of what you do. Write in a workout journal what you do each time you go to the gym, find something that works in your blog, facebook group, etc. For working out, I record my reps, weight, and sets. Since I started almost six months ago seriously, I’ve maxed out one of the machines! When it comes to blogging or social media, there are helpful apps and tools that can show you what you’ve done and what’s working. However you document your progress, be sure to check it regularly. It is so cool to see where I started, and it gives you motivation. When you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere, it’s so cool to look and see that, yes, you CAN jog most of that ten minutes without blowing your heart rate through the roof, and YES, you consistently lift 10lbs more than when you started, and you actually DID make progress on your follower goal – GO YOU!

Psst! If something seems too daunting to start, break it down in smaller chunks. Don’t be afraid to give yourself “room to grow.” Give yourself permission to not be perfect and hit your goal all of the time. Calculate human error. Whatever you want to call it, leave room in your schedule for not doing anything. If you miss a goal, you have built in room to catch up! And if you don’t need to use the day, you can choose to use it to get ahead or take it easy and rest to reward your hard work. It’s up to you! 

 
5.) Most importantly, HAVE FUN! When it comes right down to it, we never do anything we don’t really want to. So work with your brain and your emotions and find something that seems fun. Do that dance workout. Share what really matters to you. Find what you want and pursue it.

What goals do you have your heart set on? 

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Natural Brow Formula – Quick and Easy!

Have you wanted to sculpt a brow that is right for your face? If you are just starting into brow territory, it can be an intimidating task. But do not fear! Amber the makeup geek is here to save the day with a handy-dandy video tutorial that is fool proof to getting brows that perfectly suit your unique features.

Watch this video and ask me any questions! I would be happy to help.