Areej AbuAli’s Post

It's done ✔ I just finished writing my Community Building for Marketers book (& actually reached my contracted word count). I'm just sitting crying at my laptop right now. This was the hardest thing I've ever worked on. I put down the first words back on October 15th. That's 328 days, of ups and downs, of being on the verge of quitting so many times, of so many tears - I lost count of how much I cried through this process, and of finally (only a few weeks ago) realizing for the first time ever "Wow, this is actually a really good book" I have so many people to thank; they're all written up in my 685-word acknowledgment. There would be no book without each and every single one of you. I now need to sit down and do one final read, from start to finish, before sending the final manuscript to my publisher. As my very wise, confident and brave 2-year-old likes to say over every single thing she does: "I did it"

"My company won't approve buying a conference ticket, so I'm just going to buy it myself." This week, I've had several Women in Tech SEO members tell me exactly that. We have the best community members ever 💙 Almost 70% of our #WTSFest ticket sales were bought directly by people, not their companies, for our 2024 festivals. This number keeps increasing each year, because unfortunately many companies are no longer providing a training budget, or are massively cutting them, so that even a £199 conference ticket isn't covered. It's a big reason why even though all our venue and supplier costs keep going up, we still decided to freeze our ticket costs for the third year in a row, because we want to keep them as accessible as possible for our members. & we're working hard in getting more scholarship sponsors on board to increase our scholarship ticket fund. I don't know what the solution is, I know that everyone is impacted by the current economy, there's no easy answer for this. But in the meantime, I'll keep doing my part, ensuring our ticket prices are accessible and providing as many scholarship tickets as I can provide.

Our 2025 Women in Tech SEO Festivals are now all live! https://lnkd.in/g8swR9W I want to start by saying a massive thank you to Erin Simmons, who spent several weeks putting together our brand new #WTSFest hub and location pages. When they shared with me our new festival slogan, I had a little cry, because it's exactly us. 🌟 A digital marketing conference designed with intention 🌟 🇬🇧 London: Feb 19th & 20th - Our flagship event will return as a two-day event! You can opt for a two-day experience (workshops and conference day), a one-day experience (conference day only), or a pay-what-you-want recording ticket option. 🇺🇸 Portland, Oregon: Apr 3rd - We're heading to the West Coast for the first time ever, and we picked Portland, Oregon, as our location, because so much about it feels like us. 🇩🇪 Berlin: June 13th - We're going back for the second year after the success of our first year there. 🇺🇸 Philadelphia: October - Our waitlist will open right after our event later this month. 🇦🇺 Melbourne: November - We're heading to Australia for the first time ever, and the waitlist is now open! Four things: ✔️ All our venue hire and supplier costs are up, BUT we froze all our ticket prices and kept them the same as this year - we're keen to keep ticket prices as accessible as possible ✔️ Sponsor form is open, and the sponsorship package is transparently shared - we're looking for sponsors in all locations ✔️ Speaker pitch form is open for London, Portland & Berlin - we pay a speaker fee, cover travel expenses, and provide lots of training ✔️ Ticket scholarship form is open for London, Portland & Berlin - we give out hundreds of scholarship tickets ➡️ Full honesty: I am absolutely terrified. I've put off launching this in the last two weeks because of a deep-rooted fear that we won't sell any tickets or sponsor slots. Failure scares me, and even though 2025 will mark our fifth year running events, that doesn't make me feel any less scared. Thank you all 💙

Heeeeey, you don't need to use words such as "the only" or "the biggest" or "the best" to express how brilliant what you're selling is and what differentiates it from what's in the market. Firstly, these are fluff words - as awesome as what you're selling is, it's fairly unlikely it's actually the only or the biggest or the best. But more importantly, being the only or the biggest or the best won't even matter to your audience. What matters is how it will make them feel. So instead, talk to them about what's in it for them. Focus on: ✔️ How will it help them ✔️ How will it impact them ✔️ How will it genuinely make a difference to their lives