Alexis Grant explores the intersection of content and business. In 2010, she founded the content marketing agency Socialexis. In 2015, the business was acquired by Taylor Media, the brand behind The Penny Hoarder, and she became the EVP of content. She draws from her years of experience to write compelling articles for those looking to take their content marketing business to the next level. Currently, her blog focuses on the business of content, scaling a company and the difficulties of being a working mom.
Current Projects
The Write Life
The Write Life is a blog targeted at writers, covering everything from fiction to productivity to promotion. Alexis launched it in 2013 and wrote detailed posts about the early years of the website.
- A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Launching a Big Website
- Our SEO Strategy for Pushing The Write Life to the Top of Google
- Progress Report: How The Write Life is Faring After 4 Months
- What We’re Launching Next at The Write Life, Plus 8-Month Progress Report
- How We’re Monetizing The Write Life: An Income Report (October 2014)
She also wrote about the launch process in her newsletter.
- How to convince big names to help launch your project
- How long it took to create The Write Life
- How The Write Life will make money
- How a stranger’s kindness helped launch The Write Life
She considered shutting down the website in 2017. Instead, she pared back and let the site run on auto-pilot. In 2019, she returned to the site after leaving The Penny Hoarder. She wrote about her goals and placns for the website at The Write Life’s 2019 Audit: How We’re Growing and Monetizing a Website for Writers.
The Writers Bundle
The Writers Bundle is a flash sale offered to readers of The Write Life.
She earned $34’000 from their first flash sale in 2014, despite the website being just 9 months old. She ran a similar launch in 2015.
She started offering The Writers Bundle again in 2020 after resuming her work at The Write Life. She shared her experiences in the following posts:
- What Our Tech Stack Looks Like for The Writer’s Bundle
- How I Set Revenue Goals for Online Product Launches
Retreat & Create
Alexis had planned to run her first work + Nature retreat for women in May, 2020. This was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Previous Projects:
Brazen Careerist
She was the managing editor at Brazen Careerist. She wrote 5 Tips to Convince Editors to Say “Yes” to Your Guest Posts for Problogger.
Socialexis
The Penny Hoarder:
In 2016, they were named the #1 fastest-growing private media company by Inc. 500.
She has written useful posts about her experience:
- Hiring at a Startup: How We Managed to Go From 3 Employees to 55 in Just 18 Months
- Big News: My Content Marketing Company Has Been Acquired
- This personal finance blog bootstrapped its way to $20 million in revenue
- ThePennyHoarder.com No Longer Has a Comment Section. Here’s Why
She stopped working there in April, 2019. She wrote a Twitter thread about her departure.
Her Travel Book
Alexis wrote a memoir about ‘a journalist who backpacks solo through Africa.’ It was tentatively titled ‘Please Send Pants.’
Check out: What I learned from the query process
She and her agent parted ways after they failed to find a publisher. Read: When You Have to Admit You’ve Failed. She is looking at exploring self publishing, but has paused work on the project so she can focus on other opportunities.
Past Blog/Career Iterations
Previously, she branded herself as ‘The Travelling Writer.’ She changed her focus to ‘making your own luck in work and life’ in mid 2013. You can learn about her redesign here.
Products:
She had created a number of guides and courses. They have since been taken off the market.
Kindle Book
In February, 2014, she released You Deserve to Love Your Job: 20 Big Ideas for Succeeding in the New World of Work as her first kindle product.
You can read the behind the scenes details at We’ve Got to Change How We Think About Jobs — That’s Why I Wrote This Book.
She initially launched the product for 99 cents. She said that Is $.99 the New Free? The Truth About Launching and Pricing Your Kindle Books was “One of the most helpful resources we used to launch my first Kindle book”
Personal Life
Marrying Ben Collins
In 2011, Alexis posted this tweet:
Twitter: I would like a smart, outdoorsy guy around 30yo, based near DC. Bonus points for stubble. Go.
— Alexis Grant (@alexisgrant) November 10, 2011
Ben Collins responded. They got married in September, 2014. The story even got featured on People.com.
In 2015, they welcomed their first son.
Moving To West Virgina.
In 2019, Alexis and her husband left their jobs and moved to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. She wrote about the journey at Change Can Be Scary… And So Worth It. She shared her decision making process at How We Decided Where to Live, and Chose An Unexpected Place.
The change meant her time was spent differently compared to when she was working at The Penny Hoarder. She wrote about these changes at New Home, New Work, New Life. How I’m Spending My Time
Combining Work And Parenting
- My Company Was Acquired and I Had a Baby 2 Months Later: When Career and Mommyhood Collide
- What It’s Really Like Being a Working Mom Becoming a (working) mom has been the most joyful transition of her life — and the most challenging.
- I Used to Love Productivity Advice. Then I Had Kids. Alexis shares productivity advice for ambitious, career-loving parents of young children
- Here’s How I’ve (Barely) Juggled Work and Kids This Year Tips that helped Alexis stay sane in 2018 while balancing a young family, a demanding job, and her own life.
- A Dilemma for Working Mothers: Fix the System, or Go Around It
- How We Outsource Meal Prep for Our Family and How Much It Costs
- Mourning the Women-Owned Businesses That Never Were
Useful Posts
- Tale of Two Ebooks A really interesting post for Problogger about what she’d learnt from releasing two ebooks.
- 6 Tips for Managing Multi-Author Blogs Without Losing Your Mind
- Why an Entrepreneur’s First “Small” Exit Can Be So Meaningful
Interviews
How Alexis Grant grew several successful media ventures from the ground up