At the tender age of eight, Emma Loggins had an appetite for entrepreneurship. “I look back at some of the weird hobbies I had as a kid and I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I would sit down with the Office Depot catalog and give myself a budget to create my office,” Loggins explained. “I would structure it all out, and I’d make a business plan.”
In the years that followed, it’s no surprise that Loggins primarily worked on her own ventures, holding down a handful of modest gigs that weren’t her own, two of which were during her high school and college years. Since then Loggins has developed a love for web design, UX/UI, designing, content strategy, and blogging (the list could go on). Two of her primary projects to date are FanBolt, an entertainment-based site that gets over 1 million hits a month, and her most recent female-focused publication, Women’s Business Daily.
We recently caught up with the woman behind the screen on her passion for fierce females in technology, why she dove into digital publications, and how she keeps her entrepreneurial spirit in stride.
What publications are you primarily working on and what’s your experience in this field?
I have FanBolt, my original one, which is an entertainment-based site and then Women’s Business Daily. I have written for a number of publications over the years, I wrote for Geek Out with CNN for awhile. I’ve also done a little bit of lifestyle blogging, but I enjoy the tech space, travel, and entertainment the most.
And you’re fully sustaining yourself through these publications?
I am. However, I also have a digital marketing and design company, so I’m working in a number of different areas that all correlate with one another. It keeps me on my toes and there’s never a boring day. I do a lot of design and development work in addition to the publications.
What sparked you to start Women’s Business Daily?
I feel very passionate about the topic of female entrepreneurship and how we’re not really that well represented, especially in the tech space. I wanted to do my part to motivate and inspire women to take the leap into starting their own business. Having that freedom and that adventure and that motivation to get up and be like, “Today, I’m going to make it happen.” The time is going to pass anyway. You can either do it today and be glad that you did, or a year from now you could be like, “Well, I could be a year into doing it. It could be a success if I had only started it a year ago.” So I wanted to inspire people to take the plunge.
What type of content are you sharing through your publication?
On Women’s Business Daily, I describe it like Forbes or Entrepreneur for females. It’s everything from business tips and tricks and finance pieces (we did a beginner’s guide to the stock market), but there’s also tips on what to do to jazz up your home office. Every week we also do an outfit inspiration piece, like a power outfit or something that creates a little more visual interest. Fashion is another big passion of mine. When you’re put together, you feel it and you feel confident.
Do you have other people featuring content for you?
On Women’s Business Daily, my plan is eventually to bring in different female entrepreneurs from different spaces to contribute content, but it’s still very new. I just launched it in May, so we haven’t brought in additional contributors yet.
On FanBolt, I do have a number of different writers. It’s still, I would say, about 95% me. I have a an amazing friend that goes with me to Comic-Con every year. She does a number of interview pieces for me throughout the year as well. I also have a handful of other contributors who are also incredible, so there’s a little bit of help here and there.
What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
My dad is also an entrepreneur. He started his own accounting firm and I think seeing him do that and just having that desire in me to do that as well and create my own path — I just pursued it. I had a couple of jobs along the way when I was younger. I worked at an ice skating rink when I was in high school, and I worked at a GameStop when I was in college. I also had an independent contract job with Warner Brothers for a few years, but aside from those experiences, it’s been all my own companies.
How do you distribute your content? You’re writing things, but do you have a newsletter? Do you have a schedule where people can go to your site and see new articles everyday?
I’m really big on content strategies, so I have an outline for myself as far as when I’m going to be publishing content. It all goes through a number of different social media accounts whether it’s my personal Twitter, FanBolt’s Twitter, Women’s Daily Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook. It gets dispersed at different times and through different mediums and that’s been really successful.
The newsletter thing I’ve dabbled a little bit in, especially on the FanBolt side of things. Since Google started dividing things off into ‘Promotions’ and ‘Social’ so many newsletters find their way into the unknown black hole, so I haven’t done a whole lot in that space as far as newsletters recently. It’s more just distributing it through social media as I’ve seen such success with it there.
What advice do you have for people who want to develop their own social media presence and sharing their own content?
I would say be patient, it takes a lot of time. I started FanBolt in 2002 and it was a really long journey for me before I started making money and seeing success. Then in the social media space, it’s the same thing — a lot of patience, a lot of trying to share as much content as you can and engage with as many people as possible. I also found that incentive works really well too so I would host a contest on FanBolt and I’d say, “In order to enter this you have to follow me on Twitter or Instagram.” So that’s really helpful as far as building that social media presence. Time, good content, and consistency.
Do you have any tips for fellow entrepreneurs?
Your business has to be something you’re really passionate about, it can’t feel like work to you. I do so many different things, and it’s so time-consuming, but it never feels like work to me. Make sure that you have the passion for it so it doesn’t feel like work, then that shows through and your work is better as well.
I’m also a huge fan of lists. I’m a very list-oriented person. There’s something very satisfying about checking something off, it’s one of my favorite things in the world. Also, being able to prioritize your time and stay organized in terms of what you need to do and creating a content calendar for the things you have to do on a daily basis. Creating a schedule for yourself and sticking with it even if you don’t necessarily feel the motivation that day, you have to just power through it.
What upcoming information can you share?
There are some cool things coming down the line with Women’s Business Daily that I’m in the beginning stages of planning. There will be an app and really the main goal for it is to inspire and motivate women to chase their dreams and not be afraid to get out there and do it. Especially in the tech space, it’s such a man dominated area. So getting out there and supporting other female entrepreneurs and creating a support group that you can lean on for inspiration. Creating a community of women who are all chasing their dreams. There is something very inspiring about that and being able to see that and represent that through the website and through everything with social media whether it’s sharing our content, other’s content or whatever it may be. Really just creating a strong foundation for female entrepreneurs through content that supports that message.
Interview by Editor-in-Chief Kiki Roeder. Transcription and Introduction by Reporter Kristyn Back