How A Blog Can Boost Your Filmmaking Career

I talk a lot about blogging and marketing your blog on this space, but I also throw in the odd film marketing post as well. As a blogger and film graduate, I've come to see how the two can work hand in hand to really boost each other. 

Blogging is usually seen as a very personal space, more like an online diary than anything truly productive, but that is so far from the truth! Blogging is quickly becoming a must have digital marketing tool. Creating useful and interesting content around your business subject can hugely enhance your visibility and boost your sales. This is also true in the world of filmmaking. 

During our final year at University, we were encouraged to write a blog around one of our projects, we were to write about what inspired us, what are processes were and document the overall production of the piece. This is an excellent way to gain exposure for any filmmaking project but also shows your skills as a filmmaker. So what can a blog really do for your filmmaking career? 

Positions you as an expert in your field. By showing that you have a knowledge and passion for filmmaking and film in general, people will start to see you as an expert in that area. Make yourself the place to go, for people who are also passionate about filmmaking, to get their information when they're stuck or need inspiration. 

It can be used as your online portfolio. Many filmmakers have showreels but very few of them show their processes. If you are a cinematographer, director or editor, it can be hugely beneficial to document your processes and sources of inspiration. This will give any potential collaborators an idea of who you are, how you work and wether you will be a good fit for their crew or as a collaborator on a project. 

Increases your visibility as a freelancer. Most filmmakers, no matter what area they work in, will be freelancers. Being a freelance filmmaker is all about who you know so it can be difficult to really get yourself out there and get work. Creating a blog and promoting your content will greatly increase your reach and will get you noticed by people you never would have met under normal networking circumstances. Using Twitter and Facebook to promote new blog posts (the helpful and informative content mentioned in my first point) can open you up to an international audience and will show that you are active in the world of filmmaking. 

Blogging is a great way to support your brand and it should always be considered in any digital marketing pal, wether that is marketing your film, marketing a product or marketing yourself.

Have you ever considered starting a blog to support your filmmaking? Have you always thought of blogging as a bit 'wishy washy'? 

How To Manage Stress And Focus Wayward Ambitions

When I first re-branded this blog I decided to keep all of my focus on building up my new content. I really wanted this new direction to work and to do so, I needed all of my energy to go into my content. 

However, soon my ambitious mind took over and started to run away with me. I was soon planning to switch my CMS, write an ebook, open an Etsy shop filled with premade designs and create a monthly newsletter for my readers. My 'to do' whiteboard on my desk would be filled with tasks to cram into my evenings after work and my stress levels soon started to rise. 

In the past I've head mental health breaks due to stress and my last one was just under a year ago. The cause of said break still fresh in my mind, I decided I'd catch it before it could escalate into something serious. I've made such a massive amount of progress in the last 3 months and the last thing I want to do is send myself hurling back to square 1. 

So, I wiped everything off my whiteboard and sat down to think about the key things I wanted to focus on. I decided I would pick the 4 main areas of my life and choose 1 thing to focus on in each of those areas. So, I chose blogging, entertainment, health and education and really thought about what I wanted to achieve in each of those categories. 

Blogging. Scheduling as many posts as possible when I'm in my writing mood. Some days I just don't want to write and I wanted to make sure I had posts scheduled for if one of those days landed on my posting days. On the days when I do feel inspired, I try and write as many posts as possible until I think 'I just want to go downstairs and watch Pretty Little Liars now'. I made the decision to not force myself to write if I didn't really want to, blogging is a hobby and a passion and the last thing I want to do is make myself hate it. 

Entertainment. Read as many books as possible. I've said a few times in my posts that I am terrible at reading books, I have the attention span of a 2 year old. This however, does not stop me buying the books. I have so many that I want to get through stacked on my bookshelf, but I never could be bothered to pick them up. It's now the beginning of March and I'm already half way through my 3rd book! For me that's a pretty big deal as I usually wouldn't even get through 2 books in a year. I've been taking them on my commute and using that time as reading time. I've even noticed that by reading on the train or waiting for the train, I'm not as stressed with my daily commute to and from work. 

Health. I've been forcing myself to go on late night runs after work, as I'm training for Race For Life's 5K in May. I've never run a 5K before and after my knee injury about 2 years ago, my fitness became non existent. Now I'm back on the NHS Couch 2 5K podcasts and doing great! I've even added in 15-45 mins of Yoga everyday for some strength training. Now I'm pretty much in the swing of working out regularly, I don't have to force myself to do it. 

Education. I've been learning coding with Treehouse for a while now and I'm really starting to enjoy it again! I'm currently doing the PHP track and my brain is definitely being tested. Because I've been so organised with blogging, it has given me that extra time in the evenings and at weekends to do a little bit of course work here and there. 

Giving myself these areas to put all my energy and focus has really made a massive difference. I now don't have that feeling of 'all I do is eat, sleep, work repeat', I actually feel like I have more free time because my brain isn't thinking of a million and one things all at once. I have my time when I focus on my blogging, I have the time when I focus on having fun etc and by allocating my time properly, I feel much happier and healthier. 

Remember, you can have it all, just not all at once.

Find Confidence In Being Your Own Brand

One thing you have to accept when you decide to work for yourself, is that you immediately become your own brand. This can be a horrifying thought, especially for those of us who hate to talk about ourselves, as being your own brand means marketing yourself as a product. You have to be the sales person of you, you have to make yourself the best thing anybody could ever want and that isn't everyones cup of tea. If you've not even thought about branding yourself as a freelancer or blogger yet, head over to my post on Personal Branding and Why It's Important to get an idea on how to get started. 

So how do you find the confidence to really sell yourself as a brand? You might already be the most confident person in the room, but for those that are shying away in the corner at the thought of selling yourself (and I mean that in a non illicit sort of way) here's a few things you could do to boost your brand confidence. 

Create a list of all your achievements up till now. Focusing on your achievements and the goals you've reached so far can really boost your confidence. You'll be able to clearly see where your strengths and weaknesses are and it'll give you a better idea of what you need to improve on. The better you know what you're good at, the more confident you can feel completing those particular tasks. 

Plan, plan, plan. Create a plan of where you want your business to be in 1 months time, 3 months, 1 year or even 5 years! Then come up with the smaller steps you need to take to get to those milestones. Having a strong idea where you're going will give you a better idea of how your brand should develop month by month. If you can create a detailed plan for just the next month, then you will feel a lot more self assured about what you should be doing to get there. It'll also give you points to get back to if you find yourself straying off the beaten track, which you most likely will at some point.

List your USP's. One of the hardest but most rewarding things to do. If you can pinpoint your unique selling point (USP), creating your brand will be a hell of a lot simpler. You'll be able to structure your content/business plans around your USP and know what areas to push on with. 

Don't compare yourself to others. Something that every body says when talking about confidence and self esteem, but it's so important to drill into our own heads. Comparison is the thief of joy as good old Theodore Roosevelt once said, if you keep comparing yourself to others in your field, you'll never feel confident with what you have. Admire, take inspiration and network all you like, but when it comes to comparison, put those blinkers firmly on and focus on improving your work based on your last project, not someone else's. (something I still need drilling in to me as my last Sunday Strip Down post suggests)

Have you developed the confidence you need to grow your own business yet? Are you struggling to really sell yourself to your clients? 

*Wondering what some of the more technical words and acronyms mean in this post? Head to my glossary page for a full list of technical jargon and some explanations on what the hell I'm talking about. 

Why You Should Know Who Your Competitors Are

When you're blogging as a hobby or just starting out as a freelancer, you might not want to go down the seemingly negative path of competitors. The word competitor naturally makes us think of aggression and battling against each other, but that isn't always the case.

A competitor is someone in your field that is offering the same or similar services/content you are. Thy aren't your mortal enemy, they are not solely there to bring you down and laugh at you as you lie in the smouldering rubble that was your business or blog (maybe a tad dramatic). If anything, competitors can be the driving force behind your business, they can push you to reach goals you never even dreamed of. 

There's nothing wrong with some healthy competition and if you've got a firm list of your main competitors, it could greatly improve your business. You can keep track of their social activities, offers, business decisions etc to really get a feel of what direction you want your own business to go.

Really do your research and pay attention to there comings and goings, make notes of what you feel they could do to improve their business and then see if you're doing it for your own. Sometimes analysing someone else's work can shed some light on things that are missing from our own projects.

Once you've written down your competitors, the positives and the negatives of their businesses/blogs and have a firm list of what aspects you want to include in your own, you can set yourself some goals. Maybe one of your competitors has 10,000+ followers on their blog and you want to be able to get to that point as well, you can use your findings to develop your own path. 

Finding your competitors doesn't have to be a negative thing, use them as your goal setters and inspiration and you could see a massive improvement in your business.

Have you identified your competitors yet? Does the word competitors scare you a little?