Welcome to part 2 of the Ultimate Guide to Creating a Free Resources Library in Squarespace. If you haven't already read Part 1 where I show you how to create your library on your Squarespace website then be sure to read that first.

Ok. So now that you've created your free resource library it's time to give your subscribers access to it. In this part of the guide I'm going to show you how to set up your resource library delivery system using the email marketing software ConvertKit. 

I used to use Mailchimp as my email marketing system because it's free for the first 2 000 subscribers and it integrates directly with Squarespace opt-in forms.

However I made the switch earlier this year to ConvertKit because it is designed specifically for professional bloggers and the opt-in gift delivery system in ConvertKit is, in my opinion, better and easier to set up than Mailchimp. 

ConvertKit also has amazing email sequence functionality which makes setting up autoresponders and email e-courses really easy. There are so many other reasons why I like ConvertKit which I won't go into here as it could be an entire post in itself.

I highly recommend making the investment in this software, especially if you are serious about growing your blog or business. It is the software that I use and will be showing you how to set up in this tutorial. So let's get started!

Having a free resources library as an opt-in incentive has become very popular in the blogging and online entrepreneurial world recently, and for good reason.

One of the main reasons for this is the rise in popularity and demand for blog posts with content upgrades. The trend in blogging now is quality not quantity. People want to read blog posts that provide them with value and tangible results. Adding content upgrades such as worksheets, templates and cheatsheets is a great way to do this.

When you start adding content upgrades to your post the question becomes how do I store, organise and easily deliver all this cool free stuff to my readers. 

The answer is a free resource library!

It's a win-win. A free resource library is an easy and convenient way for both you and your readers to access all your free goodies in one place.

So now that I've got you all excited about creating a free resource library, let me show you how to do it.

A few months ago I was talking to a friend about the current blogging landscape and we were both saying how we felt the pressure to post regular, valuable content because that is what you are 'supposed' to do as a blogger.

Basically we were both struggling with this idea of the 'perfect blogger' and why the hell we were finding it so hard to do when everyone else seems to manage just fine, at least so it seemd from our distanced perspective. 

A few days later it clicked for me. The issue here was comparisonitis. I didn't even realise it at the time, but what I had been doing was comparing myself to, not just one, but ALL the amazing bloggers out there and holding myself to the highest standard possible. And this, as you can imagine, resulted in what I call perfection paralysis. 

I originally wrote this post the week after having this conversation with my friend but it's been sitting in my drafts since then. Between then and now that pressure I felt from comparing myself to other bloggers has since diminished significantly as I have stopped focusing so much on what others are doing. As a result my motivation and inspiration has returned.

I wanted to write this post today because I know this is an easy trap for bloggers and solopreneurs to fall into, and it can be detrimental to our motivation, work and spirit.  It's so important that we are aware of this entrepreneurial ailment so that we can avoid and/or snap out of it.

Believe it or not, having branded blog post feature images is great strategy for driving traffic to your website. How, you may ask? By sharing your beautifully designed blog post images on Pinterest. To stand out on Pinterest your blog post images need to be well designed and consistent.

The easiest way to do that is to design a blog post feature image template that you can use to quickly create an image each time you have a new blog post. In this post I'm going to show you how to create a branded blog post image templates with content upgrade mockup previews that people will be unable to resist clicking.