How Content Marketing Can Build Your Personal Brand

How Content Marketing Can Build Your Personal Brand Its easy to think that content marketing is just for the big startups and web app companies, but the truth is, a huge part of the content marketing community is made up of  solo bloggers. They are writing in the niche they are passionate about, but they have a peculiar challenge that an agency or web app startup doesnt have: what are they selling? Solo bloggers are often selling their expertise, and building a platform to do it. Their name is their brand. They might rely on freelancing gigs, affiliate and ad revenue, or sales of services they can provide. Their blog provides the proof of their skills. They have no one but themselves to do all of the heavy lifting, whether that means getting their content out onto social media, taking photos, brainstorming blog post ideas, editing their own work, managing their website, and publishing. Lindsay Livingston is a great example of a solo blogger who is hard at work establishing a trusted platform and loyal fan base. Tell us about yourself, Lindsay. Im a Registered Dietitian from Columbus, OH. I work in nutrition communications and am the author behind the healthy living blog, The Lean Green Bean. My husband and I are expecting our first child in October and in my free time I enjoy doing Crossfit and spending time outdoors with our two dogs. When did you start content marketing? Ive been blogging for 4 years. I started because I was looking for a place to store all the recipes I was making for dinner. I started on Blogger and after about 6 months, I made the switch to WordPress. After about a year, I really started focusing on increasing my readership and growing the blog. Do you have a personal blog outside of your work blog? Im lucky that my personal blog has grown enough that its now part of my job as a self-employed RD! What tools and platforms do you use to help you with your content marketing and social media? Im self-hosted. Dreamhost is my host and I blog with WordPress. I use as my editorial calendar and also use it to schedule my blog posts and social media posts. I use Buffer and Hootsuite to schedule the tweets I create to share blog posts of others, news articles, etc. I use Pinterest to pin and promote my own content as well as building boards to gather recipes, tips/tricks etc for my followers to use. I have a blog Facebook page where I share my blog posts and Instagram photos. I use Instagram to share pictures of the food I eat, workouts and snapshots of life. I also use Google+. How big is your content marketing team? Just me! What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to content creation? The biggest challenge is finding time to do it all. There are so many social media platforms that its impossible to excel at all of them. Im working to figure out which are best for promoting my content and engaging my readers. What changes have you noticed in content marketing over the past year or so? Pinterest has exploded. It can be a huge traffic driver if you use it correctly. Instagram has also become really big as a way to market your content. I dont think either of these will go away anytime soon. Visual content is what people like and want more of. What are the most common mistakes you see people making when it comes to content marketing? Some people struggle to find a balance between self-promotion and promoting others. Its a delicate balance but Ive found that if you spread the love, the love comes back to you. People struggle to find a balance between self-promotion and promoting others. What were you hoping would happen once you began content marketing? I was hoping to drive more traffic to my blog. Yes it has happened, slowly. Now that Im more established, I can definitely see the general dips in traffic that bloggers experience across the board i.e. lower traffic in the summer, more in the fall and winter. It took several years to grow my audience to where it is now. Im still working on ways to capture the one-time visitors that come from sites like Pinterest and make them returning visitors.

Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel Facts

Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel Facts The Virginia northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus and abbreviated as VNSF) is a subspecies of northern flying squirrels (G. sabrinus) that lives in high altitudes in the Allegheny Mountains in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia. In 1985, this squirrel was listed as vulnerable in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), but after its population rebounded, was delisted in 2013. Fast Facts: Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel Scientific Name: Glaucomys sabrinus fuscusCommon Name: Virginia northern flying squirrelBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 10–12 inchesWeight: 4–6.5 ouncesLifespan: 4 yearsDiet:Â  OmnivoreHabitat:Â  Allegheny mountains of Virginia, West VirginiaPopulation: 1,100Conservation Status: Delisted (due to Recovery) Description The Virginia northern flying squirrel has dense, soft fur that is brown on its back and slate gray colored on its belly. Its eyes are large, prominent, and dark. The squirrels tail is broad and horizontally flattened, and there are membranes called patagia between the fore and hind legs that serve as wings when the squirrel glides from tree to tree. Adult VNFS range in size between 10 and 12 inches, and between 4 and 6.5 ounces. Diet Unlike other squirrels, the Virginia northern flying squirrel usually feeds on lichen and fungi growing above and below ground instead of eating strictly nuts. It also eats certain seeds, buds, fruit, cones, insects, and other scavenged animal material. Habit and Distribution This subspecies of flying squirrel is typically found in conifer-hardwood forests or forest mosaics consisting of mature beech, yellow birch, sugar maple, hemlock, and black cherry associated with red spruce and balsam or Fraser fir. Biological studies have shown that it prefers mature growth red spruce trees at high altitudes, because of the presence of downed trees which promote the growth of fungus and lichens. The Virginia northern flying squirrel currently exists in red spruce forests of Highland, Grant, Greenbrier, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Randolph, Tucker, Webster counties of West Virginia. Behavior These squirrels large, dark eyes enable them to see in low light, so they are very active during the evenings, especially two hours after sunset and one hour before sunrise, moving among trees and on the ground. Virginia northern flying squirrels live in family groups of adults and juveniles that share ranges. Home ranges of males are approximately 133 acres. The squirrels fly by launching themselves from tree branches, and spreading their limbs so the gliding membrane is exposed. They use their legs to steer and their tails to brake, and they can cover more than 150 feet in a single glide. They may build leaf nests but often opportunistically reside in tree cavities, underground burrows, woodpecker holes, nest boxes, snags, and abandoned squirrel nests. Unlike other squirrels, Virginia northern flying squirrels remain active in the winter instead of hibernating; they are social animals and have been known to share nests with multiple males, females, and pups in their families over the winter for warmth. Their vocalizations are varied chirps. Reproduction The breeding season for Virginia northern flying squirrels falls between February to May and again in July. Gestation lasts 37–42 days and one or two litters of live pups are born with two to six individuals and averaging four or five. The squirrels are born from March through early July with a second season in late August to early September. After theyre born, the mothers and the newborns move to maternal nests. The young stay with their mother until they are weaned at two months and become sexually mature at 6–12 months. VNFS have a lifespan of about four years. Threats In 1985, the primary cause for the decrease in population was habitat destruction. In West Virginia, the decline of Appalachian red spruce forests was dramatic beginning in the 1800s. The trees were harvested to produce paper products and fine instruments (such as fiddles, guitars, and pianos). The wood was also highly valued in the ship-building industry. The single most important factor in the squirrels population resurgence has been the regeneration of its forested habitat, reports the Richwood, WV, website. While that natural regrowth has been ongoing for decades, there is considerable and growing interest by the U.S. Forest Service Monongahela National Forest and Northeastern Research Station, the state of West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Department of Forestry and State Park Commission, The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups, and private entities to foster large spruce restoration projects that restore the historic red spruce ecosystem of the Allegheny Highlands. Since being declared endangered, biologists have placed and encouraged the public placement of nest boxes in 10 counties of western and southwestern Virginia. Primary predators of the squirrel are owls, weasels, foxes, mink, hawks, raccoons, bobcats, skunks, snakes, and domestic cats and dogs. Conservation Status The loss of red spruce habitat by the end of the 20th century necessitated the listing of the West Virginia northern flying squirrel under the Endangered Species Act in 1985. In 1985, at the time of its Endangered Species listing, only 10 squirrels were found alive in four separate areas of its range. In the early 2000s, federal and state biologists captured more than 1,100 squirrels at over 100 sites and based on that believe that this subspecies no longer faces the threat of extinction. In 2013, the Virginia northern flying squirrels were delisted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, due to population recovery. Sources Cassola, F. Glaucomys sabrinus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T39553A22256914, 2016.Diggins, Corinne A., and W. Mark Ford. Microhabitat Selection of the Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys Sabrinus Fuscus Miller) in the Central Appalachians. BioONE 24.2 (2017): 173–90, 18. Print.Ford, W. M., et al. Predictive Habitat Models Derived from Nest-Box Occupancy for the Endangered Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel in the Southern Appalachians. Endangered Species Research 27.2 (2015): 131–40. Print.Menzel, Jennifer M., et al. Home Range and Habitat Use of the Vulnerable Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel Glaucomys Sabrinus Fuscus in the Central Appalachian Mountains, USA. Oryx 40.2 (2006): 204–10. Print.Mitchell, Donna. Spring and Fall Diet of the Endangered West Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys Sabrinus Fuscus). BioONE 146.2 (2001): 439–43, 5. Print.Trapp, Stephanie E, Winston P Smith, and Elizabeth A Flaherty. Diet and Food Avail ability of the Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus): Implications for Dispersal in a Fragmented Forest. Journal of Mammalogy 98.6 (2017): 1688–96. Print. Virginia northern flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus). ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System.