The Blogger Genius Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#124: What You Need to Know About TikTok for Your Business Jun 10, 2020

Show notes

There's a new kid in town called TikTok, and it's not just for thirteen-year-olds.

In this podcast episode, I'm talking to Evey Alvarez-Flores from Evey's Creations about what you need to know about TikTok for your business.

One thing I always recommend is to jump on a platform before it gets too popular. It's the easiest time to grow your page.

Of course, you have to take a risk to do that because what if that platform fizzles?

But TikTok is exploding as we speak. I think you are going to be hearing more and more about it. And I believe it's here to stay. So listen to this episode to begin to understand the power of the platform.

And I definitely recommend you download the app, if you haven't. Start playing around with it. One thing I have to say... it's fun!

Show Notes:

Subscribe to The Blogger Genius Podcast:

Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… It can be with MiloTree!

Try the MiloTree pop-up app on your blog for 30 days risk-free!

Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by turning your visitors into email subscribers and social media followers on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube.

Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes.

#123: How To Know if You're Made To Be An Entrepreneur Jun 03, 2020

Show notes

It takes a special kind of person to strike out on their own and start a business.

Today I'm interviewing Jennifer Allwood, business coach, author, entrepreneur, and thought leader.

We are talking about how to know if you're made to be an entrepreneur.

Are you able to deal with the ups and downs, the uncertainty, the hard work and long days?

Plus, how will you deal with self-doubt, uncertainty, and the world continually changing around you? It's a tough road, but for some of us, it's the only road.

Does this sound like you?

Or maybe you'd be better suited as someone's number 2, helping support their vision without having to take on all the responsibility of it being your business.

Listen to this honest, intimate and fun conversation between Jennifer and me. It's definitely entertaining and it might help you find out what your true calling is.

Show Notes:

MiloTree
MiloTree Membership Program
Jennifer Allwood
Catch My Party
The War of Art

Need Ongoing Tech Help? Join our MiloTree Membership

Hello friends. Before I get started, I wanted to share about our new program. It's called the MiloTree Membership Program.

And as part of it, you get ongoing tech support for your blog or online business.

You get community filled with other bloggers and online entrepreneurs. And you get one teaching session a month, where David and I talk about a current topic in online business.

And there's one Q&A session a month where you can come and ask any questions you have related to technology, blogging, marketing, selling products, whatever, we're there to answer them.

I'd love you to check it out. Head to MiloTree.com/membership. So come join and there are no contracts or anything. We would just love you to be a part of it.

#122: How To Figuring Out What Your Audience Will Buy From You May 27, 2020

Show notes

If you want to know how to successfully sell your products online, you are in for a treat. I'm interviewing my friend, Monica Froese, from Redefining Mom, on how to know what products to sell, how to find product opportunities, how to build highly converting sales funnels, and how to provide wins for your customers so they keep coming back. We do a deep dive into the strategies and frameworks you need to know to build compelling products for your audience and market them successfully so they happily buy. Show Notes MiloTree Pop-Up App MiloTree Membership Group Redefining Mom Catch My Party Host 0:04 Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian Leslie 0:11 Hello, everyone. Welcome back to The Blogger Genius. Looking for tech support, teaching, and community? Join our MiloTree Membership Group Before I get started, I want to announce that we have a program called the MiloTree Membership Group. We were listening to what you guys were telling us in terms of feedback. And one thing that you kept saying is getting tech support is difficult as a blogger. Bloggers have to wear so many hats. So the idea that you have to dig in and deal with all of the back end technology related to your blog can be difficult. Also, we've heard that you want ongoing teaching sessions and workshops, like in the podcast, and third, you're looking for a community of like-minded bloggers and entrepreneurs. So within the MiloTree Membership Group, we offer tech support. We offer workshops, and we offer community. It's all of that rolled into one. We're very excited about it. It's like having a whole support system behind you. So if you want to learn more head to milotree.com/membership. It's a monthly membership, but you can cancel at any time. We, as you can tell, are really committed to helping you succeed. For today's episode, I have my friend Monica Froese back on the show. What we are talking about is business building. And we are talking about how to think about your blog as a business, how to roll up your sleeves and really get to know your audience, how to solve problems for your audience, an dhow to sell to your audience. We give you the whole framework in this podcast episode. And I love Monica because she is so straight. And her advice is so clear. I think you are really going to get a ton out of this interview. So without further delay, here is my interview with my friend Monica Froese from Redefining Mom. Monica, welcome to the show. Monica Froese 2:51 Thank you so much for having me again. And I was just saying to you that your episodes are some of my most popular so I was very excited to get you back. Monica Froese 2:51 I think we've recorded some really good ones like the first one was right after I had the baby, which I still think is one of my favorite because it's a it's like a snapshot in time. I get to listen to how I was feeling in that postpartum period. Jillian Leslie 3:03 Yes. And I think that you were so authentic and honest about the struggles. Yeah. And I found that. Yeah, but I think that there was something. I think other people could see themselves in that struggle to go. Yeah, that explains all those feelings that I'm having. Monica Froese 3:19 Yeah, for real and that and I've gotten emails with people who told me that that really helped them. So I appreciate you having me on so that I can share that kind of stuff with people. How to Build Online Products Jillian Leslie 3:28 Absolutely. So what I wanted to talk about with you today is products. You've built your business— you tell me if this is true—by serving needs, finding needs, serving those needs to your audience. And we talked about this before, which is when you started Redefining Mom, you were a variety of different things. And I think that you've been able to potentially find your sweet spot. Monica Froese 3:58 Yes, even a lot has changed since the last time we talked in terms of my product strategy. So when Redefining Mom started in 2013, there were no products because I was working full-time corporate, didn't have time for that. When I decided to start taking it seriously, I knew that I really wanted to do products, but I needed somewhere to start. So I had this brand Redefining Mom, which is for working moms. Now it was for corporate working moms and like time management for corporate working moms, and we've morphed into helping moms balance running a business and motherhood. So it's taking them out of corporate and moving them into like the entrepreneurial space, but we still cater to the mom needs and the business needs. But what has happened is so when I got started with Redefining Mom and creating products, it was very much geared towards the stuff that moms needed to address. And I started with a product. The Importance of Experimentation in Building Products online Jillian Leslie 5:02 You started with like a Google Sheet or a spreadsheet or something for yourself. Monica Froese 5:07 still one of my best selling products. Yeah. So I basically when I in 2016, I remember this, it was June of 2016. And I wanted to accelerate the process of leaving my corporate job. And I wanted the quickest win I could get. And my husband actually said to me, because we had this really awesome family budget spreadsheet that we had developed while we were in corporate, to manage our finances, we got out of $65,000 in debt doing it or using it. And he's like, moms need this. Why don't you just throw this up as your product and see how it goes? Well, it ended up going very well. Which was like my first sign of understanding what people need and then how to fill that gap. Jillian Leslie 5:55 So it was like a light bulb moment. Monica Froese 5:57 It was a light bulb moment and I would say it took a few months for the light bulb moment because I, I didn't really know what I was looking at, like, why are all these people buying this stuff and or buying the spreadsheet and I had to like back into it. So it took a few months to try to dissect what was going on. Like, why was this such a big hit? And, you know, part of it was the uniqueness of Pinterest at the time, and still the uniqueness of Pinterest, which we can talk about. But at the time in 2016, you could get a lot of organic traffic pretty fast, like you could rank under keywords pretty fast in 2016. And this happened to take off for me. And now you can still rank but it's a little bit different. Creating a Product for Pinterest by Using Pinterest And I've I look at creating products for Pinterest a little bit differently than I used to, which I know you're probably gonna talk about, but what happened after the budget spreadsheet was I started creating more products for moms. Specifically, I had a course which I've since retired, which was to help moms take their corporate skills and repurpose them into the online world. But what happened was I ended up getting really good at Pinterest ads because I'm impatient. And I got to the point where I was sick of waiting for organic traffic to come to me. I really wanted to have more metrics that I could look at. I love looking at data, you only have so many metrics that you can go off of like you can't see specifically what keywords are getting you traffic clicks, conversions, but promoted pins would tell me that. So I got really good at that. And of course, as soon as you get good at something that nobody else is doing, everybody wants to know how you did that. And so teaching Promoted Pins took on this life of its own. I developed the Promoted Pins course right before I had the baby at the end of 2017. And I would say for all of 2018 and all of 2019, it was all about refining that course like I put all of my energy into making this the best Pinterest ads course that it could be. There's no recurring fee to be in my student group. And so like people who bought the course two years ago are still getting support. I do monthly office hours. And so I really became known as the Pinterest ads girl. But there was a part of me that still felt this pull to help moms and create products that I knew would help them. And for reasons that they were coming to Redefining Moms so we made the decision, which we hope to finish this year, which is to break off all of the Pinterest products under my own brand. Creating Products for Women Balancing Careers and Motherhood So just MonicaFroese.com and bring Redefining Mom back to what it was originally intended to do, which was to help moms, particularly with balancing motherhood and their careers, specifically bringing them from their corporate career into the online world. So this really has created this opportunity to create two distinct products sets for two different audiences. Jillian Leslie 9:00 That's terrific. Again, we have Catch My Party we have MiloTree. They don't look at all alike, but one came out of the other one. And one is a SaaS business, which means software-as-a-service and one is a B2C business which is, you know, consumer-facing. And most people have no idea I'm the person behind both, you know, there is some crossover, but not a lot. But again, it was organically how we grew our business. Right? Nobody said, you know, you didn't start off and go, I'm going to become Pinterest expert. You started using it. It started working for you. And you thought I can teach this. Monica Froese 9:37 And I really feel like now that I'm a few, like four years into really taking this as a serious full time business. My corporate skills were invaluable to me for where I ended up here because I looked at Pinterest differently. All the people who are teaching Pinterest back in 2016 were not looking at it in the same way. All I care about is ROI and what I'm getting from it. So, like I got very hyper hung up on the fact that everyone was talking about all the pageviews they could get from Pinterest. And I just was sitting there scratching my head thinking, why do I want a pageview? I don't like what comes after the page view and see, you know, sale. Yep. And that's the thing, like, you know, a lot of bloggers at the time and still, are monetizing through ads and sponsorships and stuff. But you don't have as much control over that. And I couldn't get, I could not get away from, why am I going to spend all of this time getting traffic to my site for them to click away from my site. It just never resonated with me. And when I put into place the principles that I executed in corporate, which was like the ROI principles that I was accountable for when I ran large marketing campaigns. It just seemed logical to me that paid advertising was the way to go, and the most targeted way to go. And that's kind of how it ended up happening. And honestly, I don't regret it at all. Because while I still have this pull, I want to help women get out of corporate into this world and repurpose their skills. I couldn't have funded that part of the business if I hadn't gotten to be known for something. And if that happened to be Pinterest ads, that's great. And that has served me too. So it's been an interesting ride, to be honest with you. I couldn't have predicted it a couple of years ago. How to Create Emergent Online Products Jillian Leslie 11:30 There is this concept that I think about a lot. I talk about it a lot, and it's called emergent business building. And what that means is bottom up, not top down. So top down would be, I have this hypothesis, and I'm going to go toward it and not be open to what my audience is saying to me. What people are coming to me, for that kind of thing. And, again, I have used this example I live in Austin. An Austin is all about emergent development, meaning it's the antithesis of the planned community. You go down some street and like there's a shopping mall, and it looks like it's out of the 70s. But there'll be one cool coffee shop in there. And then all of a sudden, you notice, like, there's the record store, or there's something else is coming, like right next to it. And it's because all of a sudden people are discovering this. And then other businesses are drawn to those businesses. So it looks really messy. Yes, but it's emergent. And I believe when you are building businesses on the internet, that is definitely the way to go. Because if you think you're going to plan this out, that it's going to work the way you think it's going to work, I think you are setting yourself up for a world of hurt. Should you Niche Your Blog Down? Monica Froese 12:53 I completely agree. And actually, because I originated in the blog world, I hear a lot of conflicting advice about you have to niche down right away, or it's okay to go broader and then niche down and I am all for the broader first to see what resonates. If you think about it, I had no business putting any budgeting stuff on Redefining Mom, it wasn't the purpose of the site. But I did it anyways, and it ended up being a huge smash hit, which has made me a ton of money. And I wouldn't have done it if all I listened to were the people who told me you have to niche down, you have to niche down, you have to niche down. I'm to the point where I firmly believe if you know how to drive targeted traffic, then you can really have a funnel about anything as long as you're, I mean, don't be a fraud, like be able to give the advice that you're saying that you can give, like for me with the budgeting spreadsheet. I literally had at that point used it for five years. We did use it to pay down $65,000 a debt. It's the only thing that saved us from literally going completely broke when we had our daughter because we were paid on commission, and it was how we estimated out, like the highs and lows if we hit commission if we didn't, how we, you know, literally could pay our bills. And because I used it, I was able to authentically speak about it and the tools that we use every day. Like, I would have sat back in 2016 and said, doesn't everyone have a budget spreadsheet? And my husband said to me, he's like, No, your father is a CPA, and drilled this into your head. Ordinary people don't actually do this all that often. And I was like, Really? Jillian Leslie 14:34 I know. Yes. Yes, yes. So we call them "at bats," which are, how many times are you at bat? And the goal is to increase the number of experiments that you are running, because you don't necessarily know what's going to hit, and you think you have a hypothesis, but I can't tell you how many times we've been wrong, or it's morphed into something. We could never anticipate it. And that is always the surprise. You are trying to attract the audience that you think is the right audience, but you have to be open to I always say like, hold your hypotheses, have them, but hold them lightly. Because you can get blinded thinking, Oh, no, you're the wrong audience for me. So I'm going to kind of push you aside trying to attract the quote-unquote, right audience, when you need to recognize No, no, this is the right audience. They just look different than I thought they were gonna look. How to Attract an Audience on the Internet Monica Froese 15:34 So I get asked all the time, because I bring on thousands of people through my budgeting stuff onto my list, which my email list is integrated with these both sides of the business, and I've gone back and forth about are we gonna divide out the email list or are we not at this point. I don't think I will. Because the thing is, if people are interested in saving money, they're also interested in making money and bec…

Full show notes at the publisher

#121: How To Explode Your Niche Blog May 20, 2020

Show notes

Have you been thinking about starting a blog and selling products? If so, you'll want to listen to this episode.

My guest on today's podcast is Suzy Karadsheh. Suzy and her husband have built their site, The Mediterranean Dish, into a thriving online food blog and business. And because it's all about Mediterranean flavors, their blog is what I would consider a niche food blog.

Suzy started the blog as a hobby when she began staying at home with her young child.

She chose the niche of Mediterranean food because she grew up and lived on the Mediterranean and was familiar with cooking in that style.

Monetizing a Niche Food Blog

The hobby blog that Suzy started in 2014 has turned into a profitable business, and Suzy's husband recently left his job as an insurance executive to join the business full-time.

It was in 2016 that Suzy realized that blogging could be a source of income for her. She began to research blogging as a business and she joined a few blogging groups to understand how to turn her hobby into something more.

Today, Suzy and her husband sell their own private label ingredients such as spices, oils, etc., that are used in the dishes she shares.

Sponsored campaigns and ads are additional streams of income for the blog.

Learning How to Sell Food Products

As Suzy has developed the site's product sales, she has learned a lot about inventory, shipping costs, and customer satisfaction.

Because the products they sell are produced by small, family-owned businesses, Suzy and her husband aren't able to stock thousands of, say, bottles of olive oil or jars of spices. Their inventory is smaller and not yet handled by a third-party company.

Shipping costs are kept low and packages are typically received by customers in just a couple of days after ordering.

Selling food products is a tricky business to learn, as you don't want to stock up on too much inventory until you can see how much you are going to be able to sell.

And because Suzy wants to sell the freshest ingredients possible, she doesn't buy in huge amounts upfront.

This side of the business continues to grow though, and as it does, Suzy is growing with it and making changes that make her products available to more customers.

Marketing Food Products Through Email

We all know how crucial an active and engaged email list is for online business, and it is no different for a niche food blog.

Suzy currently has around 80K people on her email list. She cleans her list regularly, so those people are her most engaged audience. And those people bring the greatest returns.

When you have a super-engaged audience and you reach out to them with products that fit their life and solve their problems, that's where your biggest sales come from.

Suzy emails her list 2-3 times a week, offering recipes and the ingredients to make them.

Her goal is to serve her audience, not just sell to them. And it shows in her success.

Her audience enjoys the free content that Suzy creates, and is eager to support her by purchasing the products she sells.

Creating Content for a Food Blog

I was curious about how many people are helping Suzy with content creation since she had told me that her husband is mainly in charge of running the storefront.

She does have someone who manages her Pinterest account and a mom friend who helps with some Pinterest and Facebook content. But Suzy manages her IG alone.

She has great IG story engagement but admits to sometimes simply forgetting to do them. (Who can identify? I can!)

The thing that blew my mind was when Suzy shared with me the amount of content she is currently creating for the blog every week. She single-handedly creates 3-4 recipes per week.

And of those, Suzy does 100% of the recipe development, creation, photography, and writing.

*Suzy shared in the episode her process of creating 5-8 videos per month of recipe creation, so be sure to listen in to hear the insane amount of work involved in that kind of content creation.

How to Deal with Blogger Burnout

I didn't have to chat with Suzy for very long to wonder if she ever experiences burnout.

She maintains a grueling schedule that not many of us could handle without struggling with burnout. And she was very transparent with me that she deals with burnout on a regular basis.

When asked how she deals with it, she said, "I cry and I play with my puppy."

In all seriousness though, Suzy arranges her schedule so that after an especially grueling day or week, she has a day off.

Her video days are the busiest for her business, so she is sure to take a day off after a day on camera.

I'm curious, do you struggle with burnout? If so, I would love for you to email me at jillian@milotree.com and tell me how you deal with it.

How Building an Online Business Affects a Family

Because my husband and I work together in all of our businesses (Catch My Party, MiloTree, our BlogStart service, and our Entrepreneur Coaching group), I know what it's like to have the business be a topic of conversation all the time.

It can be difficult to remember that the dinner table might not be the best place for discussing business, especially if you have children.

Our daughter is quick to remind us if we get too far into business discussions at dinner, and Suzy shared that her older daughter does the same thing.

We also have to remember that we are husband and wife before we are business partners, and sometimes we need to spend time together not talking about business stuff.

Sometimes we just need to laugh at a show on Netflix and enjoy each other's company.

How to Sell Products Online

I asked Suzy for some advice on selling products and she gave a few things to focus on:

Research, research, research -- it's a lot to learn and takes a while
Go slow -- Don't try to ramp up too quickly.
Try different things, different sources, and different products --You don't have to go with the first company you try.
Solidify your niche first --What do people come to your site for? How can you supplement that with a product that makes sense for them?
Choose a product that serves your audience -- This is the only way you'll be successful

Episodes like this one with Suzy are some of my favorites because you get to see the full, behind-the-scenes picture of what goes into running a successful blog.

And it is a ton of work!

Suzy found a way to serve her audience with fantastic and consistent content, and in return, her audience is highly engaged with both her content and her products.

So, I want to hear from you on how you're serving your audience and engaging with them.

Join me in my MiloTree Mastermind Facebook group and share your tips with those of us in the group.

Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… It can be with MiloTree!

Try the MiloTree pop-up app on your blog for 30 days risk-free!

Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by turning your visitors into email subscribers and social media followers on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube.

Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes.

#120: How To Look at Your Blog with Fresh Eyes May 13, 2020

Show notes

Intro 0:04 Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian Leslie 0:11 Hello friends. Welcome back to the show. I hope you are staying safe and healthy during this unusual time. Before I start with today's episode, I wanted to announce that on May 26 we are starting our next coaching group. Join Our 6-Week MiloTree Entrepreneur Coaching Group Starting May 26th It's a six-week coaching group. It is for new bloggers and experienced bloggers where we dig in, get to know you and your business, and teach you really how to grow an online business today. Especially, during this time. There's a lot. There's a lot that's the same and a lot that's different, and we break it down piece by piece. In fact, don't take my word for it. I'm going to read what Clara said about our coaching group. Coaching Group Review She said, "Being part of the group was such a great experience. Jillian and David provided so much valuable information, tips, ideas and help. They shared all their expertise and that is a lot. I strongly recommend anyone join. It's empowering. It's helpful, dynamic and fun. Every session with them opened my mind and gave me fantastic insights and support for my own business. It's totally worth it." Well, Clara, thank you for saying that. Clara has continued on with us in our monthly membership. This is just a great way to get some momentum. That's what I would say. And we'd love to have you. If you want to learn more, head to MiloTree.com/group. Email me at Jillian@MiloTree.com. If you want to get on a call to talk about your business and how I think we can help you, I would love it so please reach out. In today's episode, I have David as my guest. He is, of course, my husband, my partner. He is a technologist. He is really insightful. I learn from him every day. What we are talking about is how to look at your blog with fresh eyes. Show Notes MiloTree Entrepreneur Coaching Group MiloTree Pop-Up App—30 Days Free MiloTree BlogStart MiloTree Downloadable Blog Checklist MiloTree Mastermind Facebook Group Episode #110:Why Site Speed can hurt your blog and How to Fix it GTmetrix Google Site Speed How to Look at Your Blog With Fresh Eyes We get really comfortable with our own blogs and we almost become blind to that. So what I've been doing in my Facebook group, my MiloTree Mastermind Facebook group, (If you're not a member, please go to Facebook and join.) is I will ask people and say, "Hey, do you have something you want us to review?" And people will say, "Yeah, will you look at my blog?" So, what I'm doing in this podcast is outlining how David and I take a look at your blog. What's great is we've got fresh eyes, but we also have a systematic way of looking at the pieces of your blog to see if you are making good choices to help move your business forward. I'm going to give you some insights into how we think about it. If you want a free download, a checklist of what we're talking about, please head to MiloTree.com/blogchecklist. You can go through this and hopefully see your blog in a new way. And if you want help doing this, that's where David and I come in. Please join our coaching group. What's great about it is that David is there to give technical and design help. If for example, you look at your blog and you go, "Oh my God, I really need to change this or whatever." We're here! Reach out at jillian@milotree.com and we will help you. That's what we are here for. So, without further delay, here is my interview with David. David, welcome back to the show. David 4:05 I'm glad to be back. Jillian Leslie 4:06 It's fun. It's funny because we're sitting here close together, talking. David 4:10 Sharing a mic. Jillian Leslie 4:11 Sharing a mic. Thinking about whether we should have two mics but realizing that it's probably logistically somewhat difficult. David 4:19 I don't want to have to Skype from another room. Jillian Leslie 4:21 It's cute. It's like we're all cuddled up here next to the mic. Okay. We just finished our first coaching group. And it was really fun, wasn't it? David 4:32 It was good. Jillian Leslie 4:32 What was cool about it was getting to know the bloggers and entrepreneurs in the group and really getting to understand their businesses and they are our friends. David 4:41 Yeah, especially during the time we're quarantined and not seeing anybody. It's kind of nice to meet new people and talk to them. Jillian Leslie 4:49 Yeah. And that you have this ongoing relationship. It's funny, we started the group before quarantine, and then all of a sudden the world shut down around us. And it was something that I started to really look forward to not just because it's fun, and we want to help people succeed, but it was like, "Hey, we could just show up with this group of people." Because the truth is we've been hanging out a lot together for a while. So it was really nice. So anyway, we are starting our second coaching group on May 26th. And what's cool is that we have really been able to take this time to synthesize how we teach, and what we think is really important. Has Your Blog Gotten Cluttered? We thought about doing this episode and sharing how we look at blogs, especially you David because you have such a technical foundation. Our blog is kind of like your home, which is you move into your home with your stuff and you put everything in place and it looks really nice, let's say. And then over time, you start to bring in more stuff. You might bring in a tchotchke or a decoration. David 5:59 Some souvenirs from the vacation trip. Jillian Leslie 6:01 Exactly. And then there's the stuff that is kind of functional, but you don't really have a place for it. Like the big mixer ends up on your countertop in your kitchen. And then, the pile of papers. And at a certain point, you step back, and you go, "Oh my God, my house is so cluttered, and it used to not be cluttered." David 6:25 Or you never step back and you never realize it. Jillian Leslie 6:27 Exactly, yes. David 6:29 But when your friends come to visit, they might go, "Hmm." Like, "How do I get to the kitchen behind that pile of books?" Jillian Leslie 6:37 And in fact, I think a blog can be somewhat similar, which is, it's really easy to add stuff. I think that we get used to our blogs and how they work and we forget to take stuff off, or we forget to pare it down. In our Facebook group, the MiloTree Mastermind Group, and we just did this recently. I'll say, "Hey, do you want feedback on your blog?" And somebody will give me their blog URL. We're always happy to do this. What I do behind the scenes is I say to David, I go, "Hey, David, look at this blog with me." And so, usually we sit by your computer and you call it up and you start looking and kind of how… If I were to think like you, what are your first thoughts of when you're evaluating somebody's blog? David 7:18 Right? Well, the advantage we have is we may not have seen the blog before, so we can really bring fresh eyes. Jillian Leslie 7:23 And we've seen hundreds and thousands of blogs. David 7:26 Right. So I think as we give this advice to you, having you lived in your blog. The main thing I would say is you're trying to bring fresh eyes. Bring your own eyes in a fresh way looking at your own site. Putting yourself in the position, a new visitor coming in for the first time. People Don't Start on Your Homepage Anymore As content creators, we are intimately familiar with our blogs or sites. I think inherently you kind of think of it hierarchically, right. Imagine you're putting up your blog. Start with what is my homepage going to look like? And then, what are my sections? And then, I'll put the blog post in the sections. But, you know, in the world today, it's the opposite. Right? Someone's out on the internet, they're on Google searching for a recipe. They're on Pinterest looking for a cool photo of some home decor. Hopefully, your site comes up and they're going to click on it and they're landing deep in your site, like they're in a blog post. Ninety percent of the time they're not coming to your homepage and looking at the cool hierarchy you set up, they're landing in it, on your content. How Does Your Blog Feel Overall? So, the very first thing is, like really the feel. A lot of that is about performance, page speed. Not like in like, you have your stopwatch out, but just when you go to your page, what does it feel like like? Are things loading in blocks and shifting around? If I'm starting to see your content and want to scroll down, can I? I don't know if you've been to sites that are loading really slowly you can't move the page. That can be super frustrating. That can be like an automatic… Jillian Leslie 9:13 Bounce. David 9:14 Yeah, people back out because you know, they're not even confident that the content they want is going to be there. So, go for that feel first. Jillian Leslie 9:24 Okay, wait. We did a podcast episode, David and me, about site speed. I will link to that where we talked about certain tools. But what is the URL or where do you go to detect people's site speed where they can just put their URL in? David 9:39 Google PageSpeed. So, I was just saying like, don't think to spot stopwatch. First, go for the feel. But also after that, especially if you think there's a problem, go to Google PageSpeed. I think that's an important metric to have, because a lot of the performance we're doing is in the hopes that Google will reward us or not penalize us for PageSpeed. And there's another site called GTmetrix. I like GTmetrix if you're going to sit down and try to optimize your site performance because I think that some of the feedback it gives are a little more clear than what you get from Google PageSpeed. Jillian Leslie 10:17 Let's talk about orientation, because you talk a lot about that. David 10:21 Right. So, once someone's there, like they're in your recipe post… Jillian Leslie 10:27 Kind of like in the bowels of your blog. David 10:29 Yes. They haven't come to your homepage, they haven't gone through this. It's not the museum tour, or they come at the front front desk and get the map and there's the desk going, "Okay, we're going to start here. We're going to go into the east wing first. We're going to learn about deserts, and then move into…" Actually, maybe start with appetizers, end up in deserts. But they're deep in your blog. So, I think these days on the internet, like one question every time you arrive at a new site, maybe someplace you haven't been before is like, "Is this place legit?" Jillian Leslie 11:01 Right. There's like a moment of skepticism because we all know that there are people out there wanting to scam us or somehow there's like this underbelly. And also if it's a recipe, like do I trust this person? David 11:16 Yeah, exactly. I'm sure anyone who uses Pinterest. Sometimes you'll go to a pin and like, "Okay, that's a great photo. I want to get more information." And then you'll click and then like, who knows where you'd end up. Nothing related to it. They're just kind of spamming that photo out trying to get a click to something unrelated. Jillian Leslie 11:33 They probably stolen that photo. David 11:35 Stolen that photo. Reused it. Bought an unrelated stock photo. So, one thing is like when you're pinning, like hopefully, there's a easily mental connection that the person can make between the photo you're pinning from your post and the content that's in your post. And it doesn't have to be the same photo. I know you can do like custom pin photos, kind of the tall with a label. You may not have it in your post but as long as you just want to be able to, like the gut reaction should be okay. How to Orient Your Visitor When They Come to Your Site Jillian Leslie 12:12 Oh, I'm here and this is right where I'm supposed to be. David 12:15 Right. Because that's your first hurdle The second one is like they might go like, "Okay. Before I invest, like more than two seconds here, start scrolling. Like, what is it this place?" Jillian Leslie 12:26 Who are you? David 12:27 Who are you? Jillian Leslie 12:28 Why should I trust you? David 12:29 Like one thing we recommend is having the little mini bio. If you're an individual blogger, your photo could just be like a sentence or two, your mission statement, who you are. Jillian Leslie 12:42 Right. And you can click to another page that has much more information about you. Have Your About Section on Every Page David 12:46 Yep, by all means have an About Page if you're comfortable with that, but with more of it too because you don't know where people are coming, what page they are going to view first. Assume that on every page, you want to have something about yourself to let people know, "Hey, I'm a real person. I have a real mission here with my site." Jillian Leslie 13:08 Right. I like that. So you would have a photo, preferably a few, like a liner to about you. And if you can put your mission in there of like, so it's not just I'm a mom of three and I live in Colorado. David 13:22 Right. I'm a budget baker. I could say it should be on the first page that people view but you don't know what that page is. So, you blanket it on every page. Jillian Leslie 13:31 And then also, let's talk about nav because your nav should be on every page. David 13:37 Absolutely. I think the question around nav is once someone has arrived, like you've done all this work pinning images and optimizing for Google search results and someone clicks to your page, like, asked what do you want from that person? What do you want them to do? Jillian Leslie 13:56 Yeah, this is a really interesting question because I think as bloggers, especially if we started 10 years ago, we didn't think about that. It wasn't about building a business. It was like I was creating a blog. And look, I can put ads up. What Do You Want Your Visitor to Do on Your Site? It was almost like you backed into a business. And today, I think it is all about what do you want this visitor to do. And how does that help you grow community, make money, build your brand, but very clearly, do you want this person to read this post? Do you want this person to sign up for your list? Do you want this person to download something? Do you want this person to buy something? Do you want this person to click on five different pages of your site? David 14:44 The gut reaction, I'm sure of everyone, is yes. Right? I want all those things. Read the recipe. Print it. Make it view five more pages. Pin stuff. Draw on my list. Click my affiliate links. Jillian Leslie 14:57 And follow me on Instagram. David 14:58 Exactly. Jillian Leslie 14:59 With your MiloTree pop-up. David 15:02 The truth is you want to be optimizing for one thing. Jillian Leslie 15:06 Right. And this is so hard. It's so hard. David 15:08 You got someone on your site. Is your goal to get them on your email list? Is your goal to get them to buy something? Is your goal to get them to view more pages because you've got great content? Jillian Leslie 15:21 Yes. Yeah, I want it all. You're right. But there should be a hierarchy in terms of what is most important for your business. And again, how many times do you come…

Full show notes at the publisher

#119: How to Up Your Affiliate Sales Right Now! May 06, 2020

Show notes

Want to know how to up your affiliate sales right now? This is the episode for you. But before I begin...

Join Our MiloTree 6-Week Coaching Group Starting May 26th!

Our new MiloTree Coaching Group is starting May 26th and I couldn't be more excited.

If you're a new blogger or have been at it for a few years and you're feeling like you're ready to dig in and get serious about your business, this group is for you.

It's a program taught by David and me. It is a workshop every week, a Q&A session every week, and a private Facebook group. But really, it's a community of entrepreneurs, just like you.

Right now, when we're feeling a little isolated, it's so nice to connect with other people who are building online businesses.

Topics that we teach include how to find your niche, what products to sell to your audience, how to build your audience, how to create content that gets noticed, and how to do keyword research.

We're also going to talk about social media (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook), and how those help you grow your business. We're going to be talking about email marketing, Google Analytics. All of the fundamental things that you need to know. And again, everything that's working.

Now, if this sounds interesting to you, please reach out to me, email me at jillian@milotree.com. We could talk about it. We could get on the phone. Also, you can find out more at MiloTree.com/group.

Again, it's six weeks and it's starting on May 26th. I couldn't be more excited. David and I teach it together. We roll up our sleeves. We get to know you, and we get to know your businesses. We're really there to support you and help you grow. (And we offer a no questions asked 100% money-back guarantee if you're not completely happy!)

So please join now!

Today, I'm interviewing Jeannine Crooks. Jeannine has been in the affiliate marketing world for over 20 years and she shares her expertise with us on how to be successful in this area of online business.

Jeannine currently works for Awin, which is the sister company of ShareASale. If you've been in online business for any length of time, I'm sure you've heard of ShareASale.

In my conversation with Jeannine, we talk about why affiliate marketing is so powerful right now, how to optimize your site for it, how to think about which products to sell, and how to plan content around affiliate sales.

We also discuss what's going on with Amazon's affiliate program right now, and how that isn't great news for publishers.

Jeannine shares some terrific info on how to pivot away from Amazon and what that looks like.

I think this episode couldn't be more timely.

Join me, as I chat with Jeannine on specific and creative ways to rethink your affiliate marketing strategy.

The Two Ways to Do Affiliate Marketing

One of the first things to note is that there are two ways to do affiliate marketing—go wide or go deep.

As you all know, I always encourage bloggers to niche down. You've heard me say a thousand times, "The riches are in the niches."

And Jeannine agrees. But when it comes to affiliate marketing, you may want to take your deeply niched blog and spread a little bit wider.

For example, if you're a food blogger and you have niched down to being a pasta food blogger, there are ways to widen your particular niche in order to do affiliate marketing more effectively.

Not only can you market the dozens of different types of pasta, but you can broaden your affiliates to include the best pasta sauce to go with the specific types of pasta. You can widen it even further to share the best pans to use to make lasagne.

You're widening your offerings while remaining true to your niche and to true to your followers.

How Do I Know What to See as an Affiliate Marketer?

I know that many of you have been blogging for quite some time and you're ready to dive into affiliate marketing, but you aren't sure how to get started.

Or perhaps your blog is pretty tightly niched and you've dipped your toe into affiliate marketing but you're ready to take it up a notch.

What should you sell? How do you know what your audience wants? How do you broaden your scope from selling a few products to branching out to more?

Jeannine says the answers are as easy as looking at your blog. Here's her basic piece of advice:

Any noun, especially a proper noun, can be an affiliate link.

Now obviously, you shouldn't turn every noun on your blog into a product for sale, but the point is, whatever you talk about has the opportunity to turn into something you can sell.

The thing to remember about affiliates is that you have the chance to provide something to your audience that they need, and you earn income without it costing them a single penny. It's truly a win/win situation.

How to Create Content for Affiliate Marketing

When you begin to get deeper into affiliate marketing, you realize that you can actually create content specifically for the purpose of using affiliate links.

One thing Jeannine recommends is going to Awin and looking through their advertiser directory to get a sense of the companies they work with.

You can get an idea of the different categories of merchants that are available to partner with.

It's quick and easy to become a partner with ShareASale so that you can see their directory of advertisers and their products.

You don't need any certain number of visitors to your blog to become a partner with these companies.

Jeannine recently helped a client search for products on ShareASale for her vegan blog. After combing through all the possibilities, the client was left with nearly 400 products she could sell as an affiliate on her blog.

Once you have the products or merchants you want to partner with, you can then create content to go along with those products.

Should You Be An Amazon Affiliate?

For years now, I have recommended to all bloggers, both new and seasoned, that they become an Amazon Affiliate Partner. Amazon is well known in the industry for its partnerships with online publishers, who drive millions of sales for the platform.

Amazon has always been a great way to earn your first few dollars from your blog, and then as you grow, to increase those earnings.

But recently, Amazon changed its terms of service with its affiliates and cut the commissions by more than 50%.

Bloggers who have hundreds of Amazon links in their content will now see their commissions drop dramatically.

The beauty of partnering with companies such as Awin and ShareASale is that their merchants develop relationships with their affiliate partners and they take care of the affiliates as well as the customers those affiliates send to them.

How to Start Putting Affiliate Links in Your Content

If you've been blogging for a bit and you've used zero affiliate links, it's time to start inserting some into your posts. But where do you start?

Let's say you have 200 blog posts on your site. You don't want to just stick some affiliate links in the last 5 posts you did and then work your way backward including affiliate links in each post you've written.

Instead, go to your analytics and find your top-performing posts.

Choose the top 10 that bring you the most traffic and begin to include affiliate links in those posts.

Get your most popular posts fully optimized for affiliates and then move to the next 10 most popular.

Once you have some affiliate links in your posts, continue to update the post and create fresh pins for it. Check periodically to make sure your affiliate links still work and that the post is updated to be current.

The Best Way to Get Your Affiliate Links Seen

Affiliate marketing is not an overnight sensation. It is going to take time to begin to see a return on these posts unless you are swapping Amazon links for another affiliate partner. Those may keep bringing in steady income for you if they were already doing great.

So, the first way to get your affiliate links seen is by placing them in your blog posts. But are there other ways of getting your links in front of your audience?

There certainly are! Jeannine suggests thinking of all the places your audience can consume your content and be exposed to links.

The majority of merchants in Awin and ShareASale allow you to use their links on your social media accounts. *Remember to use #ad near the top of your social media posts as a disclosure.

You can also use your affiliate links on Pinterest, but be sure not to shorten the link with a link shortner. Pinterest requires you to use the full link. And disclose through #ad.

What is a Cookie in Affiliate Marketing?

If you aren't familiar with cookies on websites, they are one of the ways that your activity online is tracked.

So, for example, if you click through an Amazon link on someone's blog, and you end up spending several hundred dollars over the next 24 hours on various items, that blogger makes a commission on everything you purchased.

All because of the power of the cookie.

Cookies are awesome for affiliate marketers because if an affiliate partner uses cookies, you can make a percentage on whatever products your audience member buys once they click through a link on your site.

Awin and ShareASale have 30-45 day cookies. Some have up to one year.

This means that your blog visitor has time to think about their purchasing decisions before buying and you still have plenty of opportunities to earn a commission on that sale.

Jeannine shared an amazing piece of information concerning something called "cross-device tracking."

Simply put, if your blog reader clicks through a link on your blog from their phone but doesn't make the purchase, and then later that same reader goes back to the website on any other device and makes the purchase, you get the affiliate sale if you're partnering with Awin or ShareASale.

Make It Easy for Your Blog Readers to Click and Buy

As bloggers, you are there to serve an audience. You write to a specific person with every post you create and you have ideas to help that person.

As you serve your audience, they begin to know, like, and trust you. And as a general rule, we take advice from people we know, like, and trust.

If you share solutions to problems with your audience but you don't give them a chance to purchase the solution with a direct link, you are hurting that person and yourself. They want what you're telling them will work, so provide the affiliate link.

When you tell your reader how great something is but you don't offer a link, you are literally leaving money on the table.

You can have 3-5 links in a normal blog post without it seeming spammy or too full of links.

We are all trained to click on links. Anybody who spends any time online clicks on links every single day. You do it. I do it.

Do your research on Awin and ShareASale and give your audience the tools and products that will make their lives better.

If you're interested in chatting with Jeannine, please email her at jeannine.crooks@awin.com.

Transcript for "How to Increase Your Affiliate Sales Right Now" Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… It can be with MiloTree!

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#118: How to Get Real and Get Your Work Done Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

I've got Paula Rollo, good friend and MiloTree Community Manager, back on the show. We are talking about how we're doing during quarantine and how we're finding ways to work in the cracks. We talk about how things feel messy and complicated, but how we're taking stock of our businesses and pushing forward, even in not the most graceful ways. This is our honest conversation about our struggles and challenges during this trying time. But it's also about how to get real and get your work done. Show Notes MiloTree MiloTree Coaching Group Catch My Party Tailwind Marie Kondo Jessica Turner's Coronavirus Time Capsule Dom Monaghan's Instagram Host 0:04 Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian Leslie 0:11 Is the MiloTree Entrepreneur Coaching Group Right for You? Hello, friends. Welcome back to The Blogger Genius. Before I get started with today's episode, I wanted to announce with a lot of excitement that our new MiloTree Coaching Group is starting May 26th. If you're a new blogger, this is perfect for you. If you are an existing blogger, business owner, and you're feeling like you're ready to take your business to the next level, this is also for you. It's a six-week program taught by David and me. It is a workshop every week, a Q&A session every week, a private Facebook group. It's a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. Right now, when we're feeling a little isolated, it's so nice to connect with other people who are building businesses just like you. Topics that we teach are things like how to really find your niche, how to figure out what products to sell to your audience, how to build your audience, how to create content that gets seen, use of keyword research, all the latest strategies. We're also going to talk about social media (Instagram, Pinterest), and how those will help you grow your business. We're going to be talking about email marketing. All of the fundamental things that you need to know. And again, everything that's working. Now, if this sounds interesting to you, please reach out to me, email me at jillian@milotree.com. We could talk about it. We could get on the phone. Also, you can find out more at MiloTree.com/group. Again, it's six weeks and it's starting on May 26th. I couldn't be more excited. David and I teach it together. We roll up our sleeves. We get to know you, and we get to know your businesses. We're really there to support you and help you grow. How to Get Real and Still Get Your Work Done Okay. For today's episode, I've got my friend and MiloTree community manager on the show, Paula Rollo. We're talking about this very unusual, uneasy time that we are living in, and how we're both dealing with it, especially with our businesses, with doing online work. We're talking about how to give ourselves a break, how hard it is, and messy it is right now, how overwhelming it is, and how to even get work done during this time, but really, how to think about your business in a new way. Maybe there's stuff that you're doing that you don't need to be doing anymore. Almost like how you go through your closet and clean out all the clothes that don't fit. It's like that. How do you do that in your business because there's never been a better time. In fact, there's never been a better time to take this time and focus on building something on your own, so that you can really chart your own future in the way that you want to provide for your family. So, without further delay, I'm excited to bring you Paula Rollo. Jillian Leslie 3:25 Paula, welcome back to the show. Paula Rollo 3:27 Thanks. I'm glad to be back. Jillian Leslie 3:29 I love that last week, we got to talk and catch up. We said let's definitely record what we were talking about as an episode. Paula Rollo 3:39 Yes, I think we accidentally had an episode on the phone that we didn't record. Jillian Leslie 3:43 I know. I know. So, let's hope we can repeat our magic. But really, what we were sharing was strategies for dealing with family, businesses, social distancing, and how it's all kind of weird right now. Dealing with Your Kids' Challenging Online Learning Paula Rollo 4:02 It's so hard. I think I keep seeing people saying like, this isn't homeschooling, this is something different because if we were homeschooling, I would have a plan. But I have to update someone else's plan in their apps and they're communicating when they want to communicate. Both of my kid's teachers, and it's just challenging. Jillian Leslie 4:22 It is. That, I think, is a terrific word for this time. It's challenging. It's challenging on the home front. It's challenging on the business front. It's challenging reading the news or not reading the news. I find for myself, I would say that I am a pretty even level, like even-keeled person. And yet, my ups and downs during this time are so pronounced that I can go through a whole host of emotions in 15 minutes. I'm here, thank goodness, with my husband and my daughter. Thank God she's 13 and can kind of manage her own life. But just dealing with people and managing their emotions and managing our household, it's a lot. And our businesses! Dealing with Dropping Website Traffic And by the way, Catch My Party, our sister site, has taken a huge traffic hit right now. Thank goodness people are signing up for our MiloTree pop-ups because they want to grow their businesses during this time. I get it. People aren't thinking about parties right now, although we're coming out with great content on how to throw virtual parties. So, if you are interested in that, head to Catch My Party. There's my plug. But it is hard to be finding that balance between showing off beautiful parties and recognizing that there's this pandemic going on at the same time. How do you balance that? How do you manage that? One way we are doing it is still sharing beautiful parties, but putting up hashtags like #StayHome, #StaySafe. That we are creating beautiful things to hopefully give people pleasure, make them happy, but trying to be sensitive to where people are today. Paula Rollo 6:13 Yeah. As you said, it's balance. It's everything. Everything is a balancing act even business-wise and emotional wise. I think I don't know anybody who's sleeping well right now. We're all lying awake thinking and there's a lot going on. Why I Recommend We Shoot for "B-" Work Jillian Leslie 6:28 There is a lot going on. All right. So, let's talk about my favorite concept, which is why this is a good time to be doing B- work. What I mean by that is one, I always say this. "B- work is above average work." It's not like you aren't putting out solid good content, but it is about recognizing that this is not the time to be striving for... Like holding yourself to the standard you might normally hold your yourself to. Personally, I think we can all give ourselves a break. Now, and to be honest with you, always. The thing that I want to say to bloggers is, the reason why you want to be putting out B- work is because you want to be co-creating with your visitors, with your readers, with your community. So, what you want to do is put out something and say, "What do you guys think about this?" And then, it will help you form those ideas, figure out what content to create. Don't put out something that you think is A+ work because to be honest with you, you don't know how your audience is going to respond to it. Therefore, it's this constant iterating and building together, understanding what your community wants and giving it to your community. That's always my argument for putting out stuff that might feel a little rough, that you might feel a little like, "Oh, that maybe this is an up to snuff." And I say, post it, because you want that feedback, and you want that engagement, and you want to seem authentic. Now Paula, you're in a unique situation in terms of B- work. So, can you share what you experience? Paula Rollo 8:20 Yeah. I think that there are certain aspects of our business that it's okay to release B- on. I think we all have those things, like this image is good enough, or this blog post is good enough. But in the type of client work I do, there's a lot of things that it can't be less than perfect. And I think that for all of us, even if you're not doing client work like I do, there are certain aspects of your business that have to be perfect. If you're selling a product that does need to go out, someone paid you for that, that needs to be 100% perfect, where a free blog post on the site could be a little less polished and that's fine. And so, I like thinking about the concept of knowing which corners to cut and strategically cutting corners when you need to so that you don't wear yourself out even before you're overly exhausted. Cutting the right corners so that you don't get to that point of exhaustion by Thursday night when you still have a whole Friday to get through. That might look like something like we were talking about before. You used to need to post, what was it, 24 times a day on Facebook for the algorithm. This was two years ago but that was something we were all doing. I know that there are a lot of people who are still consistently posting 8-10 times a day on Facebook. So, that might be a corner you can cut like let's drop our Facebook promotions by 50%. That's going to free up a couple hours a week. Jillian Leslie 9:50 And then, you can see what happens. How to Take Inventory of Our Businesses and Let Things Go Paula Rollo 9:52 See what happens. Experiment with it or look at how much traffic am I really getting from XYZ platform. Maybe you just don't post to Twitter for the next month because you don't get any traffic there anyway. Or you get one of those free plugins that automates some tweets. Is that the best way to put Twitter content out there? No, but if your business is not largely based on Twitter, it's an okay way to get by for the next month or two while you're still schooling your kids from home. Whereas, if you're a YouTuber, you can't stop putting out YouTube content because the YouTube algorithm will punish you for not consistently continuing to post. That's a corner that you can't cut. That's a way that you can't put out subpar work because you have to continue producing video content. Jillian Leslie 10:35 But you could lower the standards in terms of production quality. I like what you just said about Twitter, for example, which is this is a good time to step back and say, "Hmm. Is Twitter really important for my business? Am I putting effort there when I don't need to?" I'm going to say something that might sound controversial, but I feel like we all need to evaluate our Instagram strategies. What I mean by that is like people will go, "Oh, Pinterest is driving me traffic. Instagram is building my brand." And I say, "What do you mean by Instagram is building your brand?" Is it amorphous? Is it actually leading to sales or to eyeballs? Because if that's not happening, then I would recommend pulling back on Instagram. Still, of course, having a presence. I was talking to somebody recently who sells products. She was saying, "I get all my traffic from Pinterest." And I said, "What about Instagram?" And she said, "Not really." I said, "How much time are you spending on Pinterest and Instagram?" And she said, "About 50/50." I thought to myself, "Oh, no. I would not be spending 50/50. I'd be spending 75 to 80% of your time on Pinterest, and maybe 20 to 25% of your time on Instagram." So, this is a good time to take an inventory of your business, what really matters to it? What do you feel like you're doing because you're supposed to be doing it but you haven't yet really evaluated? What is the actual ROI, return on investment, that I'm getting from this? Can I automate it? And again, this is where Twitter is... you could do B- work, even C+ work with Twitter, because it's not doing anything for your business. This is a good time to kind of take like a red pen to all the tasks that you're doing. So that for you Paula, the stuff that really matters, you have enough bandwidth to do those. But then other stuff that you've been doing just because you've been doing it because somebody told you somewhere to do it or it worked two years ago, but you haven't really thought about, "Does this work today?" Why am I doing this? This is a time to be a little more ruthless in looking at your business with fresh eyes because otherwise there's too much. It's too much to deal with. If you're going to be in it for the long haul, this is how you stay in the game. Reevaluate One Thing Per Day in Your Online Business Paula Rollo 13:26 Yes. Yes. Maybe you're only reevaluating one thing a day. "I'm scheduling Facebook today so I'm going to evaluate Facebook today." It doesn't mean that you have to take six hours today and reevaluate your entire business because that's going to again, feel very overwhelming. But as you go through the tasks, think through. "I'm scheduling Tailwind for the next three hours. Is this worth it? Am I seeing a good return on this investment or am I not?" That's going to look different for each online entrepreneur depending on what you're doing, and how your readers are interacting with your content. I know a lot of people on Instagram, they don't get the click throughs but they get a lot of engagement and that's where their followers talk to them. That's very valuable, not in a way of page views but in a way of those are super, super fans. And so, you want to continue interacting with them. Jillian Leslie 14:17 Absolutely. And I would then say, if in fact, you're not necessarily getting the engagement on Instagram, and it's just this amorphous brand building, start working on getting engagement on Instagram, start being really intentional about what this platform is giving you as a business owner. It's a little bit like, I don't know, every so often... Oh, the perfect example is my daughter who's growing. Every so often, I have to go in her closet and go, "Oh, my God, all this stuff doesn't fit anymore. She doesn't wear any of it." But it's almost like it kind of goes by and I don't even think about it. And then one day, when nothing fits, I realize I got to go through her closet with her and start to get rid of stuff and get stuff ready for goodwill. And then you look and you go, "Oh my God, there's all this space." It's not like I'm doing... I'm not culling through her stuff, let's say every day, it's literally like twice a year. And this is a good time to think about that with your business of like, what doesn't fit anymore and what am I just keeping for some... Like, is this sparking joy, you know, in the Marie Kondo but is this something that is worth continuing? Am I really seeing a payoff for this? Or is this something that should go in the goodwill pile? Try the MiloTree Pop-Up App for 30-Days Free to Grow Followers and Email Subscribers Given this uncertain time as online entrepreneurs, what we all crave is certainty. What if I could promise you the growing your social media followers on Instagram,…

Full show notes at the publisher

#117: How to Grow a Successful Business by Teaching What You Know Apr 22, 2020

Show notes

Do you have a skill you know very well? Could you teach it? In this episode, we're talking about how to grow a successful business teaching what you know.

Then we'll explore how to grow that business using social media in creative ways, especially Instagram.

We will get to all of that in just a moment with my guest.

But first, are you looking for a community of bloggers to join? Do you need help, encouragement, to just a safe place to ask questions?

Or maybe you've been blogging for a while and you have some wisdom to share with others.

If any of these apply to you, I would absolutely love to have you join my Facebook group. I'm in there all the time, participating, and answering and asking questions that are pertinent to your online business.

I also go live in the group every week, sharing my takeaways from these podcast episodes. So, if you want more than just listening to the podcast, but you want to join the conversation, come join me and hear my takeaways and let's discuss yours!

Now, let me introduce my guest.

Kimberly Espinel is a food photographer, a prop stylist, a food stylist, a food photography teacher, an Instagram growth coach, a podcaster, and a food blogger. Yep, that's a lot!

Growing a Passion for Food Photography

Kimberly didn't plan to start an online business when she started her food blog. She had changed her own diet and merely wanted to blog about her recipes.

She was also in school to be a nutritional therapist and figured that the recipes she was creating could be used with her clients when she finished her training. That was her thinking at the time; she had no goals to make money with the blog.

It didn't take long for Kimberly to realize that her food photography wasn't up to par, and so she began to focus on practicing her photography skills.

Before long, she became more passionate about food photography than she was about nutritional therapy.

By the end of her third year of blogging, she was teaching food photography one-on-one, and working with brands on sponsored campaigns.

How to Know When It's Time to Raise Your Rates

When Kimberly began doing her one-on-one sessions, her rates for those sessions were fairly low. She wanted it to be affordable for the bloggers who wanted to work with her.

But as time went by, and she did more and more sessions, they began to sell out so quickly that she realized she was underpricing them. So, every quarter hence, she began raising her prices.

She also began working with a business coach who has helped her find new ways of meeting her financial goals. One of those was to begin doing group classes for photography.

How to Set Up Online Courses

No matter how many one-on-one or private smaller sessions Kimberly makes available, there are always people who can't make it in, as well as people who can't quite afford the private class.

But Kimberly still wanted those people to be able to learn from her.

She is gifted at teaching and she felt compelled to find a way to help everyone who wanted to get better at food photography. The solution, she discovered, was in offering group online classes.

The main difference between the private class and the group class is that the group classes are pre-recorded, while the private classes are live.

The pre-recorded classes also meet a need for those in time zones where attending a live session would be close to impossible.

Creating the Content That Your Audience Wants

If you only create content that you are interested in, you won't grow a dedicated audience. You have to meet the needs of your people, and you have to answer the questions they have.

Kimberly has taken this understanding to a whole new level by creating Instagram challenges for her audience.

So, even though she originally started her blog to share recipes, when she saw that her audience was more interested in her food photography, she made a turn in that direction.

And when her posts on Instagram strategy brought readers in droves, she started the IG challenges.

Kimberly has been able to stay with her true passion, which is food and teaching others. But her business doesn't look quite like she thought it would when she began.

Branching into Food Photography as a Business

Over the years, Kimberly built up relationships with many brands through the sponsored campaigns she did with them.

The skills she developed in food photography eventually turned into brands approaching her to do food photography for them.

This includes restaurant photography, packaged foods, and any items in the food and drink category.

The bulk of Kimberly's income is now doing that type of paid food photography.

Developing an Instagram Growth Strategy

Before Instagram changed its algorithm, Kimberly was able to grow her followers to around 30K in just under a year. She did this without running ads or paying for followers.

With that growth came a lot of people asking to pick her brain over coffee.

So she created a series on her blog where she talked about trends, developments, tips, and tricks for using Instagram. She called it, appropriately enough, The Instagram Series.

The posts in this series exploded in popularity, with the most popular being 3 Reasons You Are Losing Instagram Followers (and What to Do About It.)

From that series, Kimberly developed more free content, (and eventually paid products) around Instagram growth.

What Is Working on Instagram Today?

I asked Kimberly to give us her top 3 tips for using Instagram today, keeping in mind that things that work for one niche might not work as well in another niche.

So, fair warning: blogging and online business involves a ton of testing. You have to test, test, test to figure out what your audience responds to and what they will engage with.

Top 3 Tips for Instagram:

You have to produce consistent content. Yes, folks, you have to show up if you want to attract a loyal audience. Because of the new algorithms, posts don't stick around on IG the way they did in the glory days of the platform. Kimberly strongly suggests posting at least once a day, at the bare minimum. Most successful bloggers post multiple times per day.
Create attention-grabbing photos and captions. Good isn't good enough anymore, now that the space is so crowded. Your photo quality must be stellar, and your captions should draw your audience in and make them want to engage with you. Your captions should directly address your audience's felt needs.
Provide value to your audience. There are many ways to add value to your Instagram, whether through stories, in your feed, or in IG Lives. Share information that is helpful to your audience or solves a pain point for them.

Be sure to follow Kimberly on Instagram and check out her podcast for more tips and tricks to help you grow your online business.

Instagram is a powerful platform to allow you to build real authentic relationships with your followers.

Be sure to use all of IG's features, like stories, IGTV, and Lives. And now, IG offers you the opportunity to send voice replies to your DM's.

My followers get such a kick out of hearing my voice answer them through Direct Message on IG. They always say, "Oh my god, it's really you!"

What a great way to help your followers feel like they know you. And remember, when your followers feel like they know you, they also like you and they will trust you.

And once those 3 factors are in place, you are ready to build new income streams! Want to know more about building those income streams? Join my husband, David, and me in our blogger coaching group, where we teach you how to take your blog and create a real online business.

Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… It can be with MiloTree!

Try the MiloTree pop-up app on your blog for 30 days risk-free!

Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by turning your visitors into email subscribers and social media followers on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube.

Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes.

#116: How to Get Started Selling Successful Products Online Apr 15, 2020

Show notes

If you are interested in how to get started selling successful products online, you're going to love today's episode.

I'm chatting with Emma Lee Bates, online marketing expert, about all things sales: landing pages, selling to your email list, trends in online marketing, and sales funnels.

If you struggle with selling or you just want to learn more about how to do it well, this is the conversation for you!

But, before we dive in to my conversation with Emma, I want to ask you a question: have you listened to 5 or more episodes of this podcast but you don't have your own blog yet?

If so, you are not alone!

My husband and business partner, David, and I have noticed a trend among some of our listeners; a lot of you want to start an online business or a blog but you have no idea where or how to begin.

If the tech required for starting a blog has been holding you back, I have great news for you!

MiloTree is now offering blog start-up services! Just go to MiloTree/BlogStart to see how we can help you.

We know how overwhelming it can be to start a business if you're not tech-savvy.

That's why we decided it was time to help people get over the hump of getting their blog set up so they could move on to creating content, serving their audience, and developing products.

If you're ready to make 2020 the year you finally start that business or blog you've been dreaming of for a long time, let us help.

Head over to MiloTree/BlogStart to get started.

We can't wait to see what you build in 2020!

Why You Should Be Using Tripwires

We've begun experimenting with tripwires on our site, Catch My Party, and I'm loving it.

For those of you not familiar with tripwires —a tripwire is a product you upsell to your audience when they sign up for your email list.

When someone opts in for your lead magnet, instead of simply sending them to a thank you page, the thank you page becomes a sales page of sorts.

On this page, you can upsell a product that is an obvious next step for the lead magnet they just signed up for.

Over at Catch My Party, we give away free party printables. We literally have thousands of free printables that anyone can download and print out.

So, if someone opts in to receive free printables for a Minecraft party for their kid, the thank you page offers them a Happy Birthday banner that they can personalize for just $5.

Tripwires are an easy way to bring in extra money for a couple of reasons:

It's a no-brainer purchase for the customer. Your tripwire is an obvious next step for them.
It's passive income. You set it up once and you're done. "Hello, money in my bank account while I'm sleeping."
It requires no actual selling. You're merely providing the person who already said they wanted your other products, with the opportunity to get one more thing that will make their life easier.

Using Tripwires to Train Your Audience to Buy From You

If you give away a ton of stuff for free on your blog, as we do on Catch My Party, your audience might start to depend on you for free stuff. And that can make it harder to sell to them later.

Whereas, if when someone signs up for your list, they get sent to a landing page with a tripwire, they can see right away that you also charge for some of your products.

The great thing is that when someone clicks the button to buy your lower-priced tripwire product, you are training them to click to purchase from you.

So, if they buy your $7 tripwire today, they are more likely to purchase your $25 product next month.

How to Write Successful Sales Emails

Let's say you've been blogging for a little while now, you have a warm and active email list, and you want to sell a product to your list.

If you're anything like me, you dread writing the sales emails.

And the reason I dread it? Because all the sales emails that I get in my inbox are super long and detailed, telling me all sorts of stories and information before they even get to the part about the product.

And I don't want to do that.

My feeling is, if you've been on my list for a while, you probably already know, like, and trust me, so I should be able to just write the email, tell you about the product, and ask you to buy it.

If you are truly my avatar, I should know you well enough to know exactly what product you want and need, and I shouldn't be bashful about introducing you to it or asking you to buy it from me.

The trick in writing sales emails, says Emma, is to write the way you normally do.

If you typically send your list a nice, long, 8-paragraph email once per week, then if you send three 2-paragraph emails asking your people to buy something, that's going to feel very off to them.

So, write like you typically do.

Be warm and personable like you always are; don't be awkward about selling. Be yourself and tell your audience about the thing that's going to change their life... or at least make it a bit easier.

How to Write Successful Sales Pages

Have you noticed that the sales pages for online tools (such as email service providers or online course software), are always super short? Sometimes you don't even have to scroll to see the entire sales copy.

And yet, when I go to a sales page created by an entrepreneur, I typically have to wade through scores of paragraphs, including videos, testimonials, tons of words about the incredible value this person is offering for the price, etc.

*To my listeners: would you email me at jillian@milotree.com and tell me how you feel about those super long sales pages? I seriously want to hear from you.

Emma shared that the reason for the novel-length sales pages is for the cold audience you may be driving to your sales page through Facebook ads. And indeed, if you are driving a cold audience to your products, it is going to take some space to convince them to buy from you.

That cold audience is going to need videos, plenty of testimonials, and your backstory in order to develop that "know, like, and trust factor" with you. They haven't had the opportunity to get to know you through months of being on your email list.

For a warm audience, you don't need nearly as much information. You need the basic information, the transformation your customer will experience as a result of their purchase, and a clear call-to-action to purchase.

Lastly, you need buttons. Lots of buttons.

Don't place a buy button only at the very bottom of a page. If I have to scroll 25 times to get to a button, I am much more likely to click away before I get there. I want a button at the top, again after a bit of information, and again after more information.

Don't assume anyone will read the entire page.

I want to click "PURCHASE" as soon as you've convinced me I need it. So, add a buy button every few paragraphs if you're going to create one of the super long sales pages.

How Much Should You Charge for Your Products?

I think that setting prices is one of the most difficult parts of online business and definitely the piece that holds so many of us back.

How do you set prices? Do you set it at a price that more people can afford? Or do you price it higher so that your customers will also purchase other higher-priced products from you?

And is it true that the more people pay for your products, the more likely they are to actually use the products, and therefore, the more likely they are to personally experience the transformation you promised?

Emma firmly believes that when selling products, your customer should be at the very forefront of your mind. And if you are selling something that could transform her life but she can't afford it, you are not serving her.

Always keep in mind where your customer is right at this moment and what she can afford.

Are there products worth hundreds or thousands of dollars? Yes, definitely.

And if your avatar is at a point in her life where she can afford to pay that, and it will deliver a transformation that will surpass the money she spent on the product, go for it.

But if the price is out of reach for the majority of your readers, it's too high.

How to Think About Personal Branding

Branding is a hot-button topic in today's online world. With everybody creating personal brands, how do you brand your blog, and how do you expand the branding to cover your products, etc?

Emma suggests keeping your personality in mind when developing your brand.

If you're going to be growing an online business, you need to be present—front and center in your business. So, above all, be yourself.

Your people will be drawn to who you are. They will find you and they will stick around because they can see who you truly are. Don't try to put on some fake persona.

Speak your truth. Be yourself. Serve your people well.

*There were so many things we couldn't include in this post that Emma talked about. If you want to hear which shopping cart software that Emma (and we) recommend, listen in at 21:40. Emma discusses her own products and where she hosts her online courses at 24:00.

I know you learned a ton of amazing info from my conversation with Emma. I loved chatting with her and I hope you'll check out all the great content that she offers on her own site.

And as always, please email me with any questions or comments on the podcast, and be sure to join me over in our Facebook group, where I go live every week to discuss the podcast and my biggest takeaways!

Read the transcript for "How to Get Started Selling Successful Products Online" Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… It can be with MiloTree!

Try the MiloTree pop-up app on your blog for 30 days risk-free!

Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by turning your visitors into email subscribers and social media followers on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube.

Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes.

#115: Why You Need To Do B- Work To Grow A Successful Business Today Apr 08, 2020

Show notes

Perfection is the biggest business killer out there. In this episode, I'm sharing why you need to do B- work to grow a successful business today.

My husband, David, and I are currently enjoying coaching our first group of students, and there are some business principles and practices that I want to share with you, my podcast audience because I think they can help you as you build your online business.

I recorded this episode on March 13, 2020. Things have changed drastically since I recorded the last episode. If you're worried or afraid, please know that we are all right there with you.

These are uncertain times and we must stick together, (6 feet apart) in order to make it through.

I want to hear from you on what you're doing to grow your business during this time of uncertainty. Email me at jillian@milotree.com and share how you're handling the new normal of working at home or having your kids home with you full-time.

What Is Emergent Business Growth?

Have you ever noticed how businesses start in your city or town? There seem to be 2 main ways to build a business that I've noticed.

First is the "top-down" approach.

This starts with a piece of land being completely leveled and prepared for a building to be built from the ground up. There is a plan for everything that will take place, from the building itself to the businesses that will inhabit it.

Inventory is planned, employees are hired, everything is thought through and the plan is put into place, a step at a time, and in the perfect order that was decided beforehand.

And then there is the "emergent" approach.

Here in Austin where we live, it's not uncommon to go through a part of the city that's a bit run down, and one day, see that a new coffee shop is opening in one of the older buildings. A few months later, a record store might open a few doors down, followed by a sushi restaurant.

This is what I refer to as "emergent business growth."

It's taking things one step at a time, but in an organic way that allows you to take your next steps based on what's already working.

I think emergent growth is the perfect way to grow your online business.

It may look messy from the outside, but sometimes the best things happen in the midst of a mess.

A Look at Our Business Growth

I wanted to briefly take a look at the businesses that David and I have created as an example of emergent business growth because what we've done is exactly what I'm talking about.

*I go into a lot of detail in the episode about these businesses, so tune in for more details than I'm able to share in this post!

Our first business was Catch My Party, which is a social sharing photo site around parties.

We were looking for ways to grow our traffic to that site, and our MiloTree pop-up was born, which we then began to offer to other bloggers.

But since a plug-in isn't a very personal business, I started this podcast in order to connect with other bloggers and those who use our product.

Then, my listeners started emailing me about the struggles they faced setting up their blogs, so we developed our BlogStart service, where we will set up your WordPress blog for you.

But we wanted to do more, so we decided to work with small groups of bloggers and pour all of our knowledge and expertise into them through our group coaching program.

Our businesses may not seem to go together at first, but they are each just the next step of the organic business growth we were experiencing at the time.

Yes, You Still Need a Plan to Grow an Online Business

Now, just because I'm talking about things emerging organically, as you see what naturally comes next for your business, does not mean that you don't need to set goals or have a plan.

I have a list of things that need to happen and goals we want to reach, but each day is different and I don't always know when I sit down at my desk what I'm going to work on.

I hold my list lightly and work on what's most important at the time.

When you're building an online business, your results come through testing. You are running everything through the lens of what your audience wants and what they respond to.

So while you do have a plan, you have to remain flexible and be willing to pivot as your audience responds to what you offer.

Strive for B- Work, Not Perfection!

One of the first things I teach my students is the absolute necessity to be satisfied with B- work.

If you are constantly testing and pivoting with your audience, you simply can't do everything perfectly. If you are always shooting for an A+, you won't build your business, you'll get stuck.

I want you to post things that scare you in their imperfection.

Your job as an entrepreneur is to learn what works and do more of it. As long as you put your authentic self out there, your people will be attracted to you.

*If the thought of putting out B- work makes you uncomfortable, listen in at 12:00 as I discuss the need for discomfort when growing an online business.

The 3 words I want you to remember are:

Messy
Uncomfortable
B-

Put Yourself Front and Center

Next, if you want to build an online business, you have to put yourself at the forefront of that business.

Your audience needs to have a relationship with you.

Plenty of people are putting up sites that I call "content farms."

You know what I'm talking about: tons of content filled with affiliate links, only there for the money-making opportunities. There is nothing personal or authentic about those sites.

You have the opportunity to do something different. You can reach an audience in a way that draws them in as you share your expertise on a topic that matters to them.

This doesn't mean your blog should be about you.

No, it should be you, focused on helping other people solve their problems. You be you, providing value to others, and those people will feel a connection to you.

Business Growth Isn't Linear

I think one of the biggest misconceptions in online business is that growth is linear.

We hear about sales funnels: how your audience starts at the top by getting to know you through your content, then signing up for your email list. Once they sign up, they develop a relationship with you through your emails, and eventually they "know, like, and trust you."

Soon, they will be willing to make a small purchase from you, followed by even more and possibly larger purchases in the future.

And I'm here to tell you that it doesn't work like that.

The fact is people are distracted today; they bounce in and out of your funnels all the time. They are being pulled in a thousand different directions every day.

How do you as a business owner address this?

Tell Your Audience What to Do

That's right, tell them what you want them to do.

Let me give you an example of this from my personal life. When my daughter was tiny and I felt overwhelmed, I would often ask David for help around the house. But the poor guy didn't know what he should do.

I learned that if I asked him to wash the dishes and take out the trash, he was more than happy to do so. But he needed me to tell him specifically what would be helpful.

Your audience is like that. They need you to tell them directly and specifically what you want them to do.

Don't expect them to figure it out. They won't!

Tell them to "Click Here," "Buy Now", or "Reply to This Email."

If you don't tell them what to do, don't be surprised when they do nothing.

Every piece of content you create, whether it's a blog post, an email, or a social media post, should have a call to action.

I hope this has been helpful if you are working on building an online business. Be sure to listen to the episode in its entirety as I simply couldn't include everything I talked about in this post!

And if you need help, please go to MiloTree and sign up for our next coaching group.

We would love to help you build your blog or online business!

Transcript for "Why You Need To Do B- Work To Grow A Successful Business Today" Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy… It can be with MiloTree!

Try the MiloTree pop-up app on your blog for 30 days risk-free!

Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by turning your visitors into email subscribers and social media followers on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube.

Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes.

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