The Blogger Genius Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#094: How To Use Social Media To Grow Relationships And Engagement Nov 13, 2019

Show notes

If I say the words, "social media," what comes to mind?

Does it fill you with a sense of dread because you're overwhelmed trying to figure out what you should be doing and how much? Or do you feel confident because you love social media and it the easiest part of your business?

Whichever way you lean, I think you will get a ton of information from today's show where we're talking about how to use social media to grow relationships and engagement with your audience.

Today, my guest is Neal Shaffer, a social media strategy consultant.

Neal teaches large companies how to best use social media to grow and stay engaged with their customers. We're talking about many different social media platforms today, hearing his insights on how to have success on each.

But first, if you haven't joined my Facebook group, The MiloTree Mastermind Group, I want to encourage you to do that today! Every Monday at 3:00 ET, I go live in the group to talk about that week's podcast episode.

I go over the highlights, what I learned, and what I think it's important for you all to take away from the discussion. It's a great place for you to ask questions and to share your knowledge with others. I hope you'll join me!

Building Real Relationships Online

As bloggers, we work alone most of the time. It can be an extremely isolating lifestyle.

That's why Neal puts a huge focus on building relationships. I want to tell you how I met Neal as a great example of using online research to build those relationships.

I use an app called Bonjoro to send a personal video to everyone who signs up for MiloTree.

Recently, I had sent a video like this to Neal, as he had signed up for MiloTree. A few weeks later, I was randomly researching "social media experts" and I saw Neal's name on a list of people to follow.

I knew the name looked familiar so I went to his website and realized I had just recently sent him that video, welcoming him to MiloTree. And the rest, as they say, is history. We connected from there and here he is, on my show!

All of that to say, you have to be reaching out and building those relationships with your followers and with those you follow.

Neal points out that if you follow 1,500 people on Instagram and you send just 5 of them a direct message every day, you will have contacted every one of the people you follow in a year!

But don't just message them; ask them how you can serve them. Being able to connect one-on-one is a huge step toward helping other people in the online space to remember you.

The Importance of Consistency in Social Media

When your goal is to increase your presence online, build relationships, and increase brand awareness, you have to focus on consistency.

If you've been blogging for a while now and you feel discouraged, if you feel like things will never work out for you and you will never meet your goals, the first thing Neal wants you to remember is that success is often just on the other side of giving up.

Focus on what's working for you on social media
Keep track of your analytics
Stay the course

Don't stop creating content and putting it out there. Go back to your "why," the reason you started your blog in the first place. What are you trying to accomplish by being on social media?

If you don't know "why" you're using social media, you aren't going to be successful with it.

Are Followers the Goal?

Most bloggers are very good at gaining followers. It comes naturally to us. The trick is what to do once we have those followers and how to monetize them.

The main goals of online business are:

You have to have passion
You have to have a product to sell
You have to build a community that will want to buy your product

If you want to attract people who will be interested in what you sell, you have to push out the type of content that will draw those same people in.

Focus on the platforms that give you the best returns and work on growing those. You don't have to build every platform at the same time.

The platforms that work the best for Neal may not be the same ones that you are the most successful with. That's okay; do what works for you.

Neal's Instagram Strategy

Instagram requires a different strategy than other social media platforms. Neal posts a few times a week on IG but his goal is to be publishing daily.

While Neal has mostly used IG to keep in touch with people rather than using it for business, when he's traveling and doing conferences, he focuses more on posting photos of what he's doing.

Over the past year, he has focused on developing his own Instagram strategy, and that begins with the premise that IG should not be 100% dedicated to business.

When you have a broader reach and you post things your community will engage with, whatever that may look like, it helps your overall reach.

These days, Neal's IG posts fall pretty neatly into 3 buckets of content:

Travel - mostly international business travel
Food - because of his international travel, he eats a lot of different foods and he has followers who love to engage over food
Business - this includes blog posts, conferences, podcasts, etc.

His business posts get the worst engagement, but by mixing it up, he can at least keep people interested in that side of it.

Neal believes strongly that you need a lifestyle focus on IG and your posts should lean heavily in that direction. Why? Because those are the posts that allow your followers to feel like they really get to know you.

A potential client is following you and they see a post that makes them feel a connection to you. Maybe it's a shared passion or a place they've also been to. You posting about your passions will connect you to those people who share your passions.

Instagram Posts vs. Stories

One of the cool things about Instagram is the options available. You have a main feed filled with posts but you also have the ability to share even more with your audience by using stories.

It's important to post to stories more frequently since they do disappear after 24 hours.

Instagram now has the option of having a Creator account, which is what Neal has. This is not the same as a business account but it is public. It provides you with tools to better understand your growth and manage your IG presence.

While IG posts can be put off indefinitely, stories are more for what's happening right now. Also, the IG audience tends to engage more with creators on stories than on posts.

Growing Your Following on Instagram

Instagram is a bit different than Facebook when it comes to your followers vs who you follow.

You want to be focused on who you are following and how you are connecting with them and building relationships.

Neal is reducing his follower count because he does not want unengaged followers. He wants his content to go to the people who will engage with him.

If someone is following you and not engaging, you are wasting a follower.

Instagram DM Strategy

Go into your app, and you will be able to sort the people you followed by the date you followed them.

Go back to your first follows, and choose 5 per day to visit their feed, send a message, and ask how they are doing. Just basically reconnect with them.

If you do these in order of when you followed them, just grab a screenshot of the last DM you sent, and the next day, pick up where you left off and keep going.

You don't need to spend hours on social media to be able to build meaningful connections and grow your organic community.

Facebook Strategy

Neal does not spend the majority of his time there. It can still be a valuable asset, but it is one that takes more work.

Facebook ads are still a great place to find your people and build community.

Neal still spends some time on the platform but it's the bare minimum that keeps his account active. He typically posts once per day and does live streams occasionally. He also sometimes uses his Facebook lives to record his podcast.

Compared to Facebook, Instagram can have a bigger reach, simply because the sheer number of people on Facebook limits your reach.

Don't disappear on Facebook but keep life support connected to it. Neal uses it for recording his live streams and for the ads. Otherwise, he focuses elsewhere.

Bloggers On LinkedIn

Are you using LinkedIn as a blogger? Have you thought about using it? Isn't LinkedIn just for trying to find a job or connecting with business people?

Here are a few very interesting statistics that Neal, shared with us:

50% of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn
45% of LinkedIn users earn $75,000 a year
LinkedIn's audience has 2 times the buying power of the average web audience

Does this sound like anyone you are trying to reach or build relationships with? You want to be going after this audience.

Keeping Up With Changes in Social Media

There is one thing that never changes about social media: it never stops changing.

Algorithms change from day to day; audience engagement goes up and down based on the seasons; your content may not be applicable to every platform.

So how do you keep up with all the changes?

Look at your data and track your information on a regular basis
Continue to show up on the platforms
Learn how any changes are going to affect you
Follow social media experts who share upcoming changes

Mentioned in the Episode:

TIMESTAMP

Intro
2:00 Building Real Relationships
4:20 Neal's Journey to Social Media Expert
7:45 The Importance of Consistency
13:15 Are Followers the Goal?
21:12 Neal's Instagram Strategy
24:42 Posts vs. Stories
27:58 Following on Instagram
29:57 Instagram DM Strategy
32:00 Facebook
33:42 Bloggers on LinkedIn
39:27 Keeping Up with Changes

TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

Connect with people one-on-one as much as possible in order to build real relationships that will help you grow your business.
If you are discouraged with a lack of social media success, don't quit! Consistency is the key to success so keep posting what your audience wants to see.
On Instagram, focus on sharing more lifestyle posts and fewer business posts. Lifestyle posts help your audience get to know you better.
Find a couple of social media experts to follow so that you are always aware of any changes coming up and can prepare for them.

Read the podcast transcript for "How To Use Social Media To Grow Relationships And Engagement" 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.

#093: How to Grow Enormous Facebook and Instagram Pages in Two Years Nov 06, 2019

Show notes

Have you heard that blogging is dead? Or that regular folks can't build large social media followings anymore?

Well, today's guest on the podcast is a blogger and entrepreneur who has proved what can be done quickly -- in under two years -- with some hard work and a belief in herself.

Andrea Scalzo Yi is the owner and content creator of the blog, Raising Dragons.

Andrea creates STEAM/STEM projects for kids and makes videos of her 4 sons completing them.

And she has built her entire business very quickly, in under two years. So we are going to talk about how she did it, and where she plans to take the business in the future.

Beginnings a Blog by Making Videos for Facebook

After working in retail her whole adult life, when Andrea began staying at home with her 4 young sons, she was at a loss as to how to fill her time. She knew she enjoyed design, she had a degree in engineering, and she loved art.

So she began creating projects to work on with her sons. She considered starting a blog because she had a friend making a full-time income blogging, but she wasn't a natural writer, and so she wasn't sure she could make it work.

But one thing she did enjoy was making videos. And so, in 2017, Andrea bought the domain, Raising Dragons.

And instead of blogging, Andrea began posting 1-minute videos on Facebook of her sons doing the projects. These videos had no sound and were really meant for the busy parent who was scrolling and looking for something simple to do with her kids.

Viral Facebook Videos

As Andrea began adding more and more of her videos, Facebook began sharing them to more and more people.

Friends and family were sharing them, as well, and before long, she had a video go viral.

She kept creating videos in the same style, and as of today, she has had over 20 videos go viral. One of her viral videos has over 30 million views on Facebook.

At the same time, she was posting her videos on her blog, but she didn't even know what SEO was. So, each blog post was just the video, a short paragraph on how to do the project, and that was it.

What Andrea did was build an audience with her videos and then she began to find out how to best serve that audience.

Utilizing Social Media

Because the algorithms change on social media platforms all the time, bloggers have to be ready to make adjustments. But Andrea tries to stay true to her original form of content by creating and releasing 1-2 new videos each week.

Since Pinterest recently allowed video content, Andrea uploaded all of her content to her Pinterest account.

Andrea is also working to grow her Instagram account (using MiloTree!) because brands are more interested in IG, and want to see an active presence and audience engagement there before they work with you.

How to Monetize Your Social Media Accounts

Andrea's prime revenue source is sponsored content, but she only promotes brands that fit in with her STEAM content.

Andrea likes to work with smaller brands that are just getting started. She does have a business partner who helps her with the business side of marketing and brand contracts.

Brands can get different packages when working with Andrea, from a simple blog post to across the board social media marketing.

To monetize, she also takes advantage of Amazon's affiliate program, as well.

Running a Business from Your Phone

One of the things I was most interested in talking to Andrea about was going from "end-to-end" on her phone. She basically runs her entire business from her phone. and I'm not so great at that.

To shoot her videos, Andrea uses a sunroom in her house that gets great light. Lighting is everything when it comes to video, and this room has plenty of windows.

She tries to keep activities set up in the room so that when her son wants to work on something, she can film it for content.

Andrea cuts the volume from most of her videos, adds music, and keeps them close to one minute.

When posting her videos, Andrea puts a branded watermark in the bottom corner of her videos.

Andrea's Team

Andrea is truly a one-woman show.

She has her partner that helps her interface with brands and has used a contractor to rewrite some of her blog posts for SEO purposes.

Otherwise, she runs her business all on her own.

Thoughts on YouTube

Andrea posts her videos on YouTube but she isn't currently monetizing them on there.

Andrea believes that her videos aren't the best for YouTube because they are very short, do not have volume, and are designed for the busy parent.

Andrea caters to the busy mom scrolling through her social media and wants to see something inspiring. She does not cater to the person wants to dig into the meat of her projects on YouTube.

Take note - it's perfectly okay to figure out what works for you and then jump into that. You do not need to be doing amazingly well in every single area or do everything that everybody else is doing.

Blogger Burnout

Andrea has been experiencing burnout this year. Writing her book, figuring out the marketing plan for it, and creating more content for her blog, all on top of creating new video content has been a lot to manage.

So, she scaled her videos back to once a week and she's also batching the video work.

It is okay to recognize that your business is in a new season and to change things up to reinvigorate yourself.

Andrea's Book

At the beginning of 2018, Andrea made the goal to write a book, which became 100 Easy STEAM Activities.

Andrea submitted her idea to PageStreet Publishing and they told her they were interested, but wanted to go for 100 projects instead of the 40 she had suggested.

The publisher covered the photography since Andrea's strong suit is making video. But the photographers worked with Andrea to make sure it was in her style and fit her ideas.

Andrea's Advice

If you're a blogger still trying to figure out the landscape of blogging, and how to grow your blog into a business like Andrea, she suggests you start by focusing on providing value to your audience.

Andrea feels like what has served her well is giving people exactly what they want and how they want it, without worrying about monetizing.

You can focus on monetizing in the future, once you know what best serves your audience.

Andrea completely focused on putting out content for two years; that was her sole focus. The money and audience grew from that.

I'm so impressed with what Andrea has built with her business. She has built her audience by serving them exactly what they want and in the style they want it, which is short and sweet videos.

This is Andrea's first foray into entrepreneurship and she's having a blast. Can you say the same? If you need help with your blogging journey, come join us over on Facebook where I am doing live video every Monday!

TIMESTAMP

Intro
2:31 Beginnings of a Blog
6:36 Viral Video
8:35 Utilizing Social Media
10:27 Monetizing Social Media
17:15 Running a Business from Your Phone
24:15 Andrea's Team
26:45 YouTube
31:47 Burnout
33:55 Andrea's Book
37:01 Andrea's Advice

TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

Build an audience with what you know and continue to serve them the content they want in the style they want it.
Don't sweat social media algorithm changes; stay true to your content creation and trust your audience to follow you.
Simplify by using less to accomplish more. (Andrea runs her entire business from her phone!)
Focus on providing tremendous value to your audience and the money will come naturally from that.

Read the podcast transcript for "How to Build Enormous Instagram and Facebook Pages in Two Years" 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.

#092: How to Boost Your Blog Income During the Holidays Oct 30, 2019

Show notes

Are you ready to boost your blog income during the holidays, because it is not too late!

This post will help you put a plan in place to increase your revenue in Q4 before the year is over.

Most businesses generate the bulk of their revenue in Q4, so if you're not sure what to do first, listen to my newest podcast episode where Paula Rollo and I share our best tips for how to have a successful Q4 and grow your income!

We will also be giving tips for the beginning of the year when Q1 hits and we all have some fun new gadgets to play with.

Before we dive into today's topic, I want to encourage you to head over to my Facebook group, The MiloTree Mastermind group, where I am going live every Monday to discuss my biggest takeaways from the podcast.

I'm focusing on building our community and would love to have you join in! So, head over to Facebook and I'll see you there!

Creating Gift Guides for the Holidays

Gift guides are huge. I know you've seen your favorite bloggers sharing gift guides throughout the year and you can create one for your audience.

The thing to remember is that your gift guides need to be niched down to match your blog content.

Brands are great at the more generic types of gift guides, like, "The Top 10 Gifts for Foodies."

Don't try to compete with the brands on the generic guides. Instead, make your guides niched and unique. Really narrow down the focus of your guides.

Think about your blog content and which posts are super successful for you, and build your gift guides off of that content.

Listeners, Paula shared some truly genius ideas for content that maybe isn't a traditional gift guide but brings in tons of affiliate sales. Listen in starting at the 5:10 mark to have your mind blown in the best way!

Optimizing Existing Content for the Holidays

Okay, so you want to increase your affiliate sales during Q4 but you really and truly don't have time to put together any gift guides.

Is there any other way to beef up your affiliate income without creating a bunch of new content?

You better believe it!

One easy way to boost those affiliate sales is to have a few evergreen pieces that you can switch around seasonally.

Paula has an evergreen post titled "Best Gift Ideas For Grandparents." This post has a generic, evergreen, pinnable image.

But when Q4 comes around, Paula simply switches out that image for a more seasonal image, and changes the title to say, "Best Christmas Gift Ideas for Grandparents."

The titles of your posts can be changed to fit any holiday that the content fits with. Change out your image and update the post and you're good to go!

IMPORTANT: Check Your Blog Links

One of the worst things to happen is for a reader to click on an affiliate link on your blog and find a broken link.

You can't earn money on links that don't work. And if you have one broken link, your reader may not bother checking any others.

Take the time now to go through your top posts and make sure that all your links are not only working, but leading your audience to the sites you want them to go to.

You don't need to do this for every post on your site, but you definitely should check your most popular posts and those that already bring in some revenue.

Update Your Pins for the Holidays

On Pinterest, if you update the photo of an old pin, it will automatically be viewed as new content.

You can add the new image to your blog posts if you like, but just creating those new pins will bring fresh traffic to your evergreen posts.

And here's a nifty tip -- if you tap the price tag icon on Pinterest, you can add your affiliate link to that photo.

*Note: not all affiliates allow this so check your specific affiliate programs to see if you can use your link on pins.

Use All Social Media Channels

Once you've updated your content or created some guides, checked your most important links, and pinned new images to Pinterest, it's time to use the power of social media.

Think about how to use each of the platforms to drive traffic to the sites you have affiliate links for.

You could put together a series on Instagram showing your "Top 10 Sensory Products for Kids," and then promote this series on your other channels to get people to come over and watch.

You could do a series on Instagram stories; you could do it through a series of emails to your subscribers; you could do a series of Facebook Lives.

Create a sense of excitement around the content you're going to be sharing so that your audience will share it with their friends.

Selling Products During the Holidays

Have you ever thought about designing your own products? Does that sound crazy?

It's not as crazy as you think when you use sites like Zazzle, where you can create t-shirts, mugs, stickers, etc.

You can sell other people's creations or you can design and sell your own.

Creating your own products doesn't have to be a huge, all-consuming affair. It can be simple. Take advantage of the technology available to find new ways of creating products.

SEO Tips for Christmas and Q4

Go into your Google Search Console, look at your performance, and search "holiday," "Christmas," or any holiday-type search word.

If you enter the word "Christmas," it will show you how many times you pop up in Google when someone searches the term "Christmas."

This can show you opportunities you didn't know were there. Find out where Google is already ranking you and what your readers are looking to you for. Then create more content in that vein.

Scroll through your results and see what you could take advantage of for the holidays.

It's hard to believe that Q4 is here already, so we need to dive in. If you're not sure where to start, take one of the tips we shared today and start there. Pick the lowest hanging fruit and see what you can get done this week.

And be sure to come over to my Facebook group so we can discuss this episode together. I can't wait to chat with you!

TIMESTAMP

2:46 Gift Guides
11:45 Optimize Your Existing Content
16:39 Check Your Links
17:00 Update Your Pins
20:56 Use All Social Media Channels
22:42 Selling Products
23:55 SEO Tips

TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

If you're creating gift guides, make them niched and unique; they should mesh with your most popular content.
Optimize your evergreen content with affiliate links and updated information. (Make sure every affiliate link on your most popular posts still works.)
Create new images for your evergreen posts and make new pins from them.
Consider creating a series to share on Instagram, Facebook, or even to your email subscribers.

Read the podcast transcript for "How to Boost Your Online Income in Q4" 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!

Are you serious about growing your online business? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more?

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.

#091: How to Increase Your Passive Income with Ads on Your Blog Oct 23, 2019

Show notes

As bloggers, it can be tricky to know how to use ads on your site, what ads you should use, and what types of content will bring you the most ad revenue.

So let's explore how to increase your income with online ads.

Ad income is beneficial for bloggers because it's passive income. I am a huge believer in finding ways to grow your income without increasing your workload.

The ad company we use on our site, Catch My Party, is Ad Thrive, and it's been a great fit for us. AdThrive is a premium ad company.

My guest today is Paul Bannister, Executive Vice President at Ad Thrive.

We talk about what a company like Ad Thrive is looking for in terms of its bloggers and publishers, why ad revenue is important, what kind of content will grow your traffic, and the latest trends in the online ad business.

If you are a blogger who wants to learn more about using ads, I think this episode will be a great tool for you!

What You Need as a Blogger to Join Ad Thrive

Paul and his company look for bloggers who have original content, a clean site, and who view their blog as their business, not a hobby.

They want bloggers with a good history of content and a strong audience.

Ad Thrive has minimum monthly page views of 100K in order to consider working with a blogger.

If you are getting more than 100K page views a month, it will be evident that your blog is more than a hobby to you.

How Digital Ad Agencies Work

There are various types of ad networks. Some focus on connecting as many bloggers to brands as possible.

There are other ad agencies that want to focus on a specific niche, such as healthcare.

Using Google AdSense can be nice since they are a big name and you can easily add ads to your site even if your blog is small.

As your blog gets bigger, an ad network like Ad Thrive can bring in ad agencies from all across the industry, not just Google-related.

Ad Thrive makes their business decisions based on what is best for the bloggers they work with.

Can You Make a Living Off of Ads on Your Blog?

If you are a blogger with 100K page views, you are not going to be able to quit all your other jobs and live off your ad revenue.

Not only is it not feasible, but Ad Thrive is big on their publishers having several different revenue streams.

It is always a good idea to have several sources of income, no matter where you are in your blogger stage. Ads can be a big part of that revenue, but you need something to fall back on should your ad revenue dry up.

Your niche will also affect how well your ads do. Travel and personal finance are great niches for ad income.

How to Grow Blog Traffic

Traffic is crucial to ad income, because the more traffic you have, the more ad income you earn.

But we all know that growing traffic isn't easy these days. *(Which is why you need a tool like MiloTree!)

The best way to grow your blog traffic is to be great at something. If you understand Pinterest and do really well marketing your blog there, keep it up. If email is your jam, use your email list to the best of your ability.

Focus on what you're best at and stay in that space for a while.

Site Speed Matters

Sire speed matters, particularly for SEO. Anything you add to your blog is going to affect your site speed.

You should have the overarching view of, "What is on my page and how is it serving my audience?"

So, you need to think of the tradeoff of the new content or ad that you're publishing and how it will affect your site speed.

If your site is slow to load, the person who found you on Google search is probably going to bounce away from your page to one that loads faster.

Each ad has a slight effect on your site speed. The first ad is going to have the most impact, and after that the impact is minimal.

How to Find an Ad Network

Let's say you're a blogger. You have no ads on your site currently, but after listening to this episode, you're ready to jump into the ad game. Where do you start? What should you look for in an ad network?

One of the first things to do is to read reviews from other entrepreneurs who have used a specific ad company. If you know someone who has ads on their site, as them if they're pleased with the ad agency they're using.

Checking out other sites or businesses that are using a specific ad company is a good way to get a feel for that company's values.

There is a tool called Built With that will show you which ad networks the site is working with.

Your ad network is a big revenue stream, but it is also a big part of the user experience. You want to make sure that the ad company you use matches the experience you want your readers to have.

Where You as a Blogger Should Focus Your Business

Bloggers wear a million hats, so it can be hard to know where you should put the majority of your focus.

Paul believes in focusing on the thing you are the best at first.

Pick the content you are good at creating and create more of that.
Which audience do you completely understand? Talk to them more.
Pick the revenue source that you are good at building and focus on that.

Different people are good at different things, so knowing yourself and what motivates you is the best place to start.

The folks at AdThrive are very much focused on the future, whether that's 3 months from now or 3 years down the road. Their goal is to "future proof" what they offer their publishers.

We here at MiloTree and Catch My Party recommend that if you are interested, you reach out to Ad Thrive at info@adthrive.com.

Read the podcast transcript for "How to Best Understand the World Of Online Ads" 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!

Are you serious about growing your online business? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more?

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.

TIMESTAMP

Intro
4:25 Content Requirements for Ad Thrive
6:20 How Ad Agencies Work
11:15 Making A Living Off Ads
15:35 Growing Traffic
18:45 Site Speed Matters
25:20 How To Find An Ad Network
27:10 Where You as a Blogger Should Focus
29:10 The Future of Ads

TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

If you want to work with an ad agency, create plenty of original content, design a blog with clean lines, and concentrate on making your blog a business, not a hobby.
Don't count on ad income as being your sole source of revenue; multiple streams of income is always a smart move.
Grow your blog traffic by being great at something and doing more of it.
When looking for the perfect ad agency, ask other bloggers who they prefer and read reviews online.

#090: How To Use YouTube to Market your Business Successfully Oct 16, 2019

Show notes

YouTube has a huge presence online today, and it's not just for watching videos anymore. YouTube is actually the second largest search engine in the world, right behind Google. So don't avoid YouTube. Learn how to use YouTube to market your business successfully!

With 3 billion searches per month, if you aren't taking advantage of YouTube, you might want to consider learning how you can use it to grow your business.

Nate Woodbury, founder of Be The Hero Studios, helps business owners create YouTube channels, not merely to call themselves YouTubers, but to grow their businesses and sell products.

He shares a lot of great strategies and tactics with us today. Even if you have no YouTube experience, I promise, you will learn something that you can apply to your own business.

Can Beginners Compete With Existing YouTubers?

The big difference between starting a YouTube channel today vs. when it first came out is that now you must have a strategy.

It is no longer enough to create videos and put them out there. You will not gain a big following by simply doing that.

YouTube requires a lot of the same strategies as any type of entrepreneurship. You need a large dose of stick-to-it-iveness and tenacity. You have to focus on creating quality content.

Nate has his own personal YouTube channel dedicated to teaching others how to make a YouTube channel thrive.

Creating YouTube Content With Keywords

It's important to do keyword research before you begin filming because it's much harder to go back and find keywords to fit the content you've already created.

Go deep, find very specific questions that people are searching for the answers to, and create videos that answer those questions.

SEMrush has a tool called Keyword Magic Tool, which is what Nate recommends to find the most effective keywords and phrases to gain traffic.

For someone serious about doing a daily YouTube channel, you can pay for a subscription to SEMrush for a month or so, and then cancel it.

Here's what you do: Look up a keyword and all your results will pop up. Then hit a button that says "Questions." When you hit that button, it shows you the questions around that keyword people are asking.

Nate recommends picking questions that have between 10 and 100 searches per month.

The Power of Keywords for Gaining Traffic on YouTube

If you are doing videos this way, you will have a smaller percentage of viewers, but they will watch your video all the way through because it is specifically tailored to their needs.

The YouTube algorithm is going to see that it is a well-performing video with a high watch-through rate, and will promote your video for you.

This is the best way to get your YouTube channel started and get traction on Google, as well.

*Looking up specific keywords also works if you are a blogger looking for content to write about.

Technical Strategies for Videos

Nate says don't stress about overall production quality, but rather, focus on content quality. You don't need an expensive camera to do YouTube videos.

Lighting is the most important piece to think about when videoing your content. Simply film a selfie video facing a window, and as long as you're delivering high-quality content, people are going to love it.

Nate plans his videos to be 10-12 minutes. Keep in mind, the longer people watch your video, the more YouTube will promote it.

Let your audience know beforehand what your video is about and what you're going to cover. This tells your audience that watching through to the end is worth it.

And then, instead of summarizing your video at the end, direct your audience to another video that will be related to the topic of this video. Monetizing Your YouTube Channel

Ad revenue can become a livelihood but you need millions of views to earn big bucks from YouTube. Normally your YouTube income will just be the icing on the cake of your other incomes.

If you have a huge platform on YouTube and high-quality videos, YouTube will promote your videos because YouTube wants to make money, and therefore, you will make money.

It takes time, you have to be able to wait until you have a big enough audience to sell your products.

Once you have thousands of followers, and once you are a YouTube partner, you can get your website approved to be able to guide followers off of YouTube to your personal site for sales.

One-third of Nate's links on his videos lead to his personal website, one-third go to other YouTube videos, and the final third lead to social engagement.

How Many Videos Per Week?

You can succeed on YouTube at a gradual pace of one episode a week.

However, YouTube does like it when you post five or more videos a week. Think about it; they want people to come back to the platform every day for videos.

Nate went from 500 views per day for one video a week, to 10K views a day for five-plus videos a week, in just four short months.

There are four ingredients to ensure that you get as many views as possible for your videos:

Keyword research
10-12 minute videos
A 45% viewer retention rate
Patience for 4 months

YouTube Thumbnails

Thumbnails have become more and more important because people see so many videos in a search result, and you want your thumbnail to stand out.

To figure out the best type of thumbnails to use, you're going to have to test your ideas. TubeBuddy has an AB split test that you can use to see how your thumbnails are working comparatively.

Don't repeat the title of your video in your thumbnail. Use that text to build curiosity and pique the searcher's interest. The word "clickbait" can have both good and bad connotations, so use your text carefully and if you can deliver on your text, do it.

If you want to start a YouTube channel, let's review what Nate talked about today:

Use keywords and do keyword research
Make tons of videos
Go for a length of 10-12 minutes
Optimize your thumbnail so people will be intrigued and click
Plan a CTA

Building a YouTube channel is strategic but it is not rocket science. You need the nuts and bolts in place and once you have a solid foundation, you continue to build, build, build!

Nate has a special offer for my Blogger Genius listeners; if you go to his website at Be The Hero Studios, you can grab his step-by-step blueprint for doing keyword research before filming.

Have you built a YouTube channel? If so, share your best tips and tricks with us. Let us know what has worked for you and what hasn't.

Getting social media followers and email subscribers shouldn't be that hard… Try the MiloTree pop-up app on your blog risk-free!

Are you serious about growing your online business? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more?

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.

Read the podcast transcript for "How to Use YouTube to Successfully Market Your Business" TIMESTAMP

Intro
5:58 Can Beginners Compete With OG's?
8:47 Creating Content With Keywords
13:35 The Power of Keywords for Gaining Traffic
22:31 Technical Strategies for Videos
29:12 Monetizing YouTube
36:42How Many Videos Per Week?
42:08 Thumbnails

TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, so if you aren't taking advantage of that to grow your business, you should consider starting a channel.
You absolutely must do keyword research before filming videos. Our favorite keyword research tool is SEMRush. (Do you have an affiliate link for SEMRush?)
Expensive equipment isn't everything but lighting is, so film all your videos facing a window with daylight streaming in.
You won't get rich quick on YouTube, but if you're willing to be patient, it can become a valuable income stream.

#088: Advanced Email Marketing Strategies You Need to Know Oct 09, 2019

Show notes

As a blogger, I'm sure it isn't news to you that you need an email list. This post is all about taking your email marketing to the next level with these advanced email marketing strategies.

It's true that social media algorithm changes can hurt you and your business, but beyond that, your email list is something that you own.

You don't own Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest. Those things could go away tomorrow or they could decide to never show a single post of yours again, ever.

What would happen to your business if that happened?

Well, if you have a thriving email list full of people who trust you and are your loyal fans, you could continue to grow your business.

But how do you do it?

How do you build an email list and what do you do with it once you've built it? That's exactly what we're diving into today.

I've got Matt Molen from personalizedpaths.com back with me today.

Matt has a very hands-on approach to teaching email marketing, and so today, we are going to get specific about how to make your own email marketing doable.

In my last episode with Matt, we covered the basics, and his advice was so practical and helpful. Be sure to give that one a listen if you're just getting started with email. And now, on to Part 2!

Tips To Grow An Email List

Matt's primary tip, the one you need to put into practice before you think about anything else, is to become an email acquirer and be aggressive about it.

You need to make email acquisition an intentional part of your strategy.

We all know we need to have that email audience. We need to have a place where we are in control without the fear of algorithms. But for many people, they can't make the jump from thinking about email marketing to really doing it.

Your traffic is your number one list building tool, so put yourself in the shoes of your readers:

How does she arrive at your site?
Where does she land?
What problems can you solve for her?

To get someone to notice you when they land on your site after a Google search, to get someone to remember your name, you need to offer something of real value, something she can't walk away from.

It can be anything that offers bonus value. This could be checklists, printables, more tips, hidden content that must be unlocked, etc.

A Simple Start to Email List Building

Most people don't start building their email list because they are "too busy" doing other things.

An easy way to get started is by going into your Google Analytics.

Look at the last 30 days and then look at the last year. Take your top 10 posts and see if they have any commonalities or if they are individual posts.

Think about what you already have that you could package up and give to the reader as a bonus in exchange for an email address.

Building a Journey for Your Subscriber

You want to be an aggressive email acquirer, but you also want to be a journey builder.

If you have an audience that you know is interested in your niche, you can create a forever series.

Set up automated answers to the questions your readers are going to have next. This takes away the stress of having to figure out what to write in an email every week. You already have your journey set up.

Once you build trust and expertise and serve content that truly adds value to your reader, then you can sell your products to your audience.

Segmenting Your List

Logistics and segmenting the audience is a stumbling block to most people.

But the better our audience is segmented, the better we will be able to answer specific problems, and the better we are going to be at building our brand.

Look at your content and see what is attracting the most viewers and build up your content around that topic. Build your email list from that content.

It can seem overwhelming, but you only need to pick one segment to work on at a time. You don't have to have it all figured out in order to start. Pick a topic and write out a 10-email series on that topic.

Marketing is an art with a touch of science. Most artists get better at their craft with experimentation so dive in and try something.

Broadcast Email Content

Prolific content creators can send more than one email a week to their list.

Matt recommends that you set up your automated email sequences based on evergreen material. And do that as far out as you can; a month, six months, a year.

Your broadcast email is going to be the same except it's filled with seasonal content, not evergreen content.

If you're a lifestyle blogger, you can send a broadcast email to everyone on your list and see what the engagement is. If some people don't open it, they're telling you what they want.

Connecting Email To an RSS Feed

At one point we had something called RSS Readers that would notify us when blog posts or articles went out from our favorite bloggers.

They still exist and every WordPress account has an RSS feed that allows you to send out your latest content.

The problem with it is that many people make that RSS feed their default. At this point, you're sending them your LATEST, not your GREATEST.

If someone opted into your list, they aren't interested in every latest piece you write. They are interested in what is going to add the greatest value to their lives.

You can make it an option for people to receive your RSS feed. If someone would like an instant alert, they can opt-in to it.

Formatting Your Emails

How long do you want your own emails to be when you open them?

However long it takes you to answer a question or solve a problem.

Sometimes that's longer, sometimes that's shorter, but generally, you want your emails to be shorter.

Your email is about getting to the point, so invite people to click through to your site, where you can go more in-depth if you want to.

You want a minimal amount of links per post. Make those links big and easy to click for people reading on their phones.

Matt recommends using a larger font for those emails: Arial 17 or 18, at the very least.

And check your own emails on your phone to be sure that the format looks right and is easy to read.

How to Optimize Your Subject Lines

We do not spend enough time coming up with good subject lines.

If someone sees your subject line and decides to leave your email unopened, everything is wasted.

Matt likes to use the formula of curiosity + self-interest.

"5 Ways the Instant Pot Helped My Love Life," is a post Matt is actually writing right now.

This subject line grabs your attention because it's odd, but you will get value because you're interested in instant pot recipes.

Read your subject line, see if you can shorten it, and then use it. You need to cut every extra word out and edit, edit, edit.

Pruning Your List

It can seem hard to prune your list that you've worked to grow, but in the end, it will save you money, save you time, and helps your stats.

If you are an aggressive email acquirer, you should be an aggressive email pruner.

You want to come up with ways to get the right people on your list. If you can't serve them correctly, you don't want to spend the money to keep them.

Matt prunes every 2-3 months, (with a few exceptions that you can hear about in the episode) but you can certainly play it by ear and do what you feel is best for your list.

Parting Email Marketing Tips

Adopt an email marketing mindset.
When writing your content, think about what extra piece of value you can offer in return for an email address.
What problem can you solve, and what can you offer your readers?

Using this strategy, you will see your email list grow within weeks. For further information on Matt's email marketing strategies, check out his full course at https://www.personalizedpaths.com/autopilot/.

Matt also offered a free mini-course, so listen in to the episode to find out how to get that!

If you liked this episode, be sure to let me know. Share your email wins and any questions to jillian@milotree.com and we'll help you get answers!

What Type of Online Entrepreneur is MiloTree Right For?

Are you serious about growing your online business? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more?

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.

TIMESTAMP

Intro
2:50 Tips To Grow An Email List
7:45 A Simple Start
10:57 Building a Journey for Your Subscriber
14:47 Segmenting Your List
23:35 Broadcast Content
26:57 Connecting Email to RSS Feed
29:48 Formatting For Email
33:16 Subject Lines
39:16 Pruning Your List
43:21 Parting Tips

Read the podcast transcript for "Advanced Email Marketing Strategies You Need to Know" TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

To be successful at email marketing, you must become an aggressive email acquirer.
Set up a "forever series"; a 10-post email series around one evergreen topic.
Segment your list to build a loyal audience.
Spend time writing attention-grabbing subject lines and editing your emails to be as short as possible.
Prune your list every 3-4 months.

#089: Everything You Need to Know to Write a Book Oct 09, 2019

Show notes

Are you wondering if you can write a book, how to get it published, or whether to sell it as an ebook? Well, you're in luck because this post and podcast episode is all about everything you need to know to write a book.

Today I am interviewing Maggy Woodley, the brains behind Red Ted Art. I interviewed Maggy previously in episode 18. Maggy just released her second book on paper crafting.

We are talking about what it's like to write a book as a blogger. If you are thinking about writing a book, or you want to learn more about the topic, this is the episode for you!

The Process of Book Publishing

If you want to get your feet wet in writing a book, you can always start with Ebooks. You definitely don't have to start with a traditional print book.

E-books are good for beginners because the process is simpler.

Maggy started her career by writing individual Ebooks, as well as collaborative Ebooks.

You can create your Ebook on many different platforms, convert it to a pdf file, and then sell it on Etsy, Amazon, your blog, and Pinterest.

The most common way to publish a book is to find an agent. Maggy found her agents by talking to blogger friends who recommended agents to contact.

Maggy recommends Page Street Publishing because they specialize in publishing bloggers.

Is Writing a Book a Good Way to Make an Income?

The income you earn from books will be partly determined by the size of your blog and if you are already earning money from your blog.

Maggy has a large audience on her blog, so her income from her book is small comparatively, but it is a passive source of income.

For most people, writing books isn't done for the money. If you make money on it, that's a good thing, but it's not the main goal. The goal is building your credibility with your audience.

You have to be passionate about what you're writing about if you want to finish your book. If you don't love it, you're going to start hating it.

Repurposing Old Content for Your Book

Maggy's books contain approximately 25% recycled content. That is fairly unusual for writers.

It depends on your publisher and what they will allow. Normally they will only allow about 5% pre-published content.

Some bloggers actually quit blogging while they are writing their books.

If you're going to take three months to write a book, you need to consider whether you can fit it into your regular work schedule, or whether you can afford to take that time off to focus on writing.

Factor in the lead time of a year at the least. You will write your book, but then months will go by before it is published.

How to Use Your Built-In Audience to Sell Your Book

Maggy has a large presence through her blog, YouTube channel, and social media.

Her publisher will only have to do minimal work advertising her book because she already has such a large reach.

You don't have to have a big audience in order to get published, however.

And even if a publisher does want you to sell to your audience, they will have a distribution system of their own.

What they are actually looking for is unique content and what makes you stand out. They want to see that you are passionate about helping your reader in a niche topic.

You're not just writing a book for the sake of writing a book. You're writing a book because you really believe it will help someone.

Do You Have Autonomy in Publishing

You have more freedom when you are publishing your own Ebook. You get to decide what goes into your book, your title, etc.

Publishers are usually quite happy for you to choose your content. Maggy's publisher came up with her title and cover, but she liked both of those.

If you aren't happy with something, you can always talk it out and try to agree on something that you like better. Most publishers will be happy with your respectful and helpful feedback about your work.

Getting social media followers and email subscribers shouldn't be that hard... Try the MiloTree pop-up app on your blog risk free!

Are you serious about growing your online business? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more?

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.

TIMESTAMP

Intro
2:50 Tips To Grow An Email List
7:45 A Simple Start
10:57 Building a Journey for Your Subscriber
14:47 Segmenting Your List
23:35 Broadcast Content
26:57 Connecting Email to RSS Feed
29:48 Formatting For Email
33:16 Subject Lines
39:16 Pruning Your List
43:21 Parting Tips

Read the podcast transcript for "Everything You Need to Know to Write a Book" TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

To be successful at email marketing, you must become an aggressive email acquirer.
Set up a "forever series"; a 10-post email series around one evergreen topic.
Segment your list to build a loyal audience.
Spend time writing attention-grabbing subject lines and editing your emails to be as short as possible.
Prune your list every 3-4 months.

#087: How to Build a Business By Solving Your Community's Problems Sep 25, 2019

Show notes

Have you ever wondered if you could really make money on the Internet? I've got a solution for you. I'm going to share how to make money by solving your community's problems.

Are you confused about how to get started, or maybe not sure where your expertise lies?

Can You Reall Make Money on the Internet?

If either of those things is true for you, you're going to want to listen to today's episode because it's all about building communities and finding ways to make money from them.

My guest, Kelly McCausey, has been at this "making money on the internet" thing for quite a while.

She began as a broke single mom, looking for a way to provide for her family. Today, she runs a site called Love People + Make Money.

Kelly has learned how to build communities and serve her people by finding out what their problems are, and either creating products to solve them, or using affiliate links to provide solutions.

Pivoting in Business

As Kelly's business grew, she began to learn more and more skills in her niche until she was seen by others as an expert. So, when she decided to pivot in her business, she knew exactly which way to go.

Instead of doing things for people, which is what she had built her business on, she began a business teaching people how to do those things for themselves.

She went from creating websites and design for clients to selling information services and coaching.

Kelly figured out how to leverage her skills to encompass everything she was doing for others and turn that into a business of its own.

The Importance of Building a Community

Creating content is easy for many people when they begin an online business. Writing a blog post might be easy-peasy for you.

The question is, do you know how to promote it?

Do you know how to market your skills or content online?

How do you take the podcast you're pouring your heart and soul into and get it in front of people who could benefit from it?

Kelly didn't know how important community was when she started her podcast. She was simply curious and wanted to ask questions of smart people.

And while she knew that others would enjoy listening to the show, she had no idea how much they would enjoy interacting with each other.

Back in 2001 when Kelly was doing her podcast, there was no Facebook, or any other social media platform, where audiences could interact with each other. People used forums to have discussions.

An organic audience grew around her podcast and she and a partner began running a paid mastermind. The podcast and their content marketing led people to the mastermind membership.

Fast forward a few months and the women in the member community were planning projects together.

As the community grew around Kelly's offerings, she was ultimately able to leave her day job to focus full-time on her business.

Growing Community Through Content

"Content will attract a community and content will grow a community."

Building a community around your content takes a strategy; it's not a case of build it and they will come. Nothing is ever that simple.

Facebook has made it so easy to create a community that people think, "Oh, I'll start a Facebook group. I'll build a community there."

But if your idea of community is sharing a ton of links and articles with the people there but not fostering conversation, you aren't building a community.

Communities share experiences. To build an authentic community, create a space that's about the members, not about you.

Co-creating with your community members is the real way to build a community that people want to be a part of. Move toward your members and away from total self-promotion.

Community Strategies

Kelly's focus is on building a community she loves, getting to know their needs, and then positioning herself to solve problems for them.

She positions herself to know what female marketers need in the realm of content marketing and she teaches them those things.

But at some point, Kelly was faced with not being able to solve a problem for someone in her community. What do you do when, not if, that happens?

Simple. Find someone who can solve it for them and use affiliate programs to continue to build your own business while still solving your audience's problems.

Use Affiliates to Market to Your Community

Kelly was late to start with affiliate marketing. She's authentic when she says she didn't start using it until a full year after she should have. She just figured there wasn't much money in it.

The problem was that she missed the big picture that, like most things, affiliate marketing starts slowly but it builds momentum.

Affiliate marketing isn't a get rich quick scheme, so start now if you want to see results later.

*Just a note: MiloTree has a very generous affiliate program so if you love our MiloTree pop-up and you send new customers our way, we want to show our great appreciation to you and pay you $20 per conversion.

The fantastic thing about affiliate marketing is that it's a 3-way win:

As the affiliate, you win by making money.
The business you are linking to wins because you send them sales.
And the person who clicks on your affiliate links and makes a purchase wins because they get a great product.

As an affiliate marketer, you aren't trying to squeeze every drop of money you can from your audience. You are simply putting forward products that are relevant to your niche, products that will help your audience, and products that you use and believe in.

If you currently have content on your site that could contain affiliate links but you don't have them there, go back right now and add them in.

You are doing your audience a disservice by not telling them about products that could change their lives.

Why We Undervalue Ourselves

As women, we want to serve others; we want to care for them. But what that often means is that we undervalue our talents, time, and products.

You need to be willing to charge what you are worth, and not feel guilty about it. The more money you make through affiliates, the more you can serve your people with free content.

Sometimes moms have a skewed perception of what their time and work are worth. Making money through affiliate marketing can feel awkward or unfair. Like, why should you be making this "easy money"?

Here's the deal: if you are not charging what you are worth, people will believe that you don't know what you are talking about. So, pick a number that makes you uncomfortable and then double it.

Monetary Stages of Business

There are stages in your business when you will know that you should raise your prices, but it's okay to start small.

If you love to shop at a certain store, it's fine to tag that store in your IG story just because you really do love the store and you want to get in front of them. When you're just getting started in business, you aren't going to be doing $10K campaigns for Target.

But as you continue growing your business, you also continue to grow personally and as an entrepreneur. Offer low prices in the beginning in order to build your portfolio of testimonials and partnerships.

As your partnerships grow, raise your prices. If you do a campaign for $50 and it's successful, offer a second campaign for $100.

At some point, you will hit what Kelly calls "your sweet price," when your customer does not want to pay more, and you're happy with the number. Then you don't have to keep charging more.

I loved Kelly's story and the experiences she shared with us in this episode. Be sure to listen in to the episode in its entirety to glean all the nuggets she shared that we couldn't include in this post.

What Type of Online Entrepreneur is MiloTree Right For?

Are you serious about growing your online business (advanced beginner and above)? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more?

Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by turn 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.

TIMESTAMP

Intro
4:25 Pivoting in Business
8:24 Building Community
10:45 Growing Community Through Content
18:45 Community Strategies
24:40 Affiliate Marketing
32:30 Undervaluing Ourselves
43:35 Monetary Stages of Business

Read the podcast transcript for "How to Make Money By Solving Your Community's Problems" TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

Leverage your skillset (what you already know a lot about) to create a business you love.
To build an authentic community, create a space that's about the members, not about you.
Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick scheme so start now and let it build over time.
Charge what you are worth.

#086: How to Make Money on Etsy Sep 18, 2019

Show notes

Etsy is a great marketplace for selling handmade goods. But you need to how to make money on Etsy to win.

One of the major advantages of selling on Etsy is it is a platform with millions of dedicated shoppers and great search, so you don't have to work as hard to get eyeballs on your products.

Also, did you know that we offer an Etsy pop-up here at MiloTree? Yes, we do! Install the Etsy pop-up on your site and it links over to your Etsy store with a big "Shop Now!" button.

Go to MiloTree today to get your own customized pop-up for your site and start driving traffic to your Etsy shop today. Your first 30 days are completely free.

My guest, Nancy Badillo, has a blog and a YouTube channel, and teaches people how to run online businesses especially Etsy shops.

Nancy built her own Etsy shop from scratch, with no professional experience. Her shop, Forever Happy Prints, started earning big returns only months after starting.

What Do You Need for Success On Etsy?

If you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you've heard me say that the riches are in the niches.

Having a clearly defined niche guarantees more success and growth.

In addition to having a tightly defined niche, you need to do market research to learn who your competition is and who your audience is. Once you have that information, you will know if there is a felt need for your products on Etsy.

When doing your research, don't bother looking at shops that have been open for many years.

Your market research should focus on shops that have been open for two years or less. If you have a product similar to theirs, you will know if it is going to do well in the market right now.

How To Stand Out on Etsy

If you are in a very competitive niche, with a lot of other shops, it's going to be hard to be found organically.

You need to understand the Etsy Listing Score. So, when you upload a new product, you are assigned a neutral score.

Your product gets placed on the first page of search results, and based on how the audience interacts with it over its first month, you can rank really well.

If your listing doesn't get lots of clicks, likes, and sales, your listing will lose rank and Etsy will push it down in the search engine.

You need to have great photos, use correct keywords, and target your correct audience to get a good listing.

If your listing is pushed down or you're in a saturated market, you can "pay to play" on Etsy using Etsy promoted listings.

Creating Other Sales Outlets

Nancy has seen many creators become burned out when they try to expand to too many different platforms at once.

The best thing to do as an Etsy seller is to check your Etsy analytics. You can see where traffic to your store is coming from.

Whichever platform is driving the most traffic, focus the majority of your efforts on that one.

Nancy believes that a blog with Shopify installed is a better platform to sell your products on than Etsy.

You have more leverage because you can drive people to your own site, collect their email addresses, and grow your email list to have new people to market your products to.

Your Etsy shop can be closed down, but your blog is your own. You can build an audience there that will never be taken from you.

Optimizing Your Keywords on Etsy

Understanding SEO is going to get more eyes on your products, track your right audience, and increase your conversions.

You want your keywords to be very specific so that you are targeting the right audience.

Using longtail keywords will help people who are searching for your products find you.

Using longtail keywords means that your overall search volume and views will be lower, but the quality of your viewers will be higher.

If you do not know who your target audience is, start your Etsy shop, put up your products with your specific keywords, hook your Etsy to Google analytics and after a month, study all the data.

Etsy will only show you a certain amount of data, whereas, on Google Analytics, you can see everything.

Once you identify who your ideal audience is, you will be able to be even more specific with your keywords.

The next step is to optimize your shop for your target audience.

Your main keyword needs to be in your title, in your meta description, and you can add additional keywords into your listing description.

How Many Products Do You Need in Your Etsy Shop?

Nancy believes 50 products is a good number to have in your shop.

If you have chosen a niche where it's hard to have 50 products, you can duplicate product listings, but change the title, the tags, and the keywords.

You can change your product slightly, such as the color of a background or a different font.

It's important to spend the majority of your time actually creating products for your shop. Nancy recommends spending about 60% of your time creating and 40% on marketing.

Tools For Etsy

If you know you are in a saturated market, Etsy promoted listings is a good resource for you.

Facebook Carousel ads are a favorite because you can add up to ten products in one ad. If you don't have a large budget, you can add ten different items for the price of one ad.

Google Analytics is so important. If you don't understand the ins and outs of your business, you're not going to be able to grow it like you want to.

Advice for Etsy Sellers

There is no instant gratification in owning an Etsy shop. You have to work one day at a time and be patient.

Make a list of things to do for the current month, prioritize the most important items, and set aside time to complete these items.

Every time you mark something off the list, reward yourself and give yourself the credit you deserve for doing the work!

Treat your Etsy shop as a real business. Fill out the bio section, add a banner to your storefront, and read the Etsy seller's handbook for a great resource on best practices.

What Type of Online Entrepreneur is MiloTree Right For?

Are you serious about growing your online business (advanced beginner and above)? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more?

Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by turn 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.

TIMESTAMP

Intro
9:45 Components For Success On Etsy
12:45 Hot Niches Right Now
16:23 How To Stand Out
20:50 Creating Other Sales Outlets
25:00 Optimizing Your Keywords
30:45 Too Many Products?
33:42 Tools For Etsy
39:16 Nancy's Advice

Read the podcast transcript for "How to Be Successful on Etsy" TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS

Decide on a tightly defined niche for the products you want to sell.
Use high-quality photos, well-researched keywords, and a highly-targeted audience to rank higher in Etsy search.
Set up a shopping section on your blog; remember, you own your blog. You do not own your Etsy store.
Optimize your entire shop for your target audience.

#085: How to Best Optimize Your Blog's About Page Sep 11, 2019

Show notes

Today I have my good friend (and Community Manager at MiloTree), Paula Rollo, back on the podcast to talk about how to best optimize your blog's About Page.

If you are a blogger, you already know how important your About Page is. Your About Page tells the story of your own personal journey, including struggles and successes.

Why Do I Need an About Page?

Your About Page sets you up as the expert in your niche which helps to build the know, like, and trust factor with your audience.

It is also typically one of the most-visited pages on your site, so you want it to be full of links and other information that will keep the visitor clicking around your site.

We'll go over what About Pages are, who they are for, and how you should think about them.

Your About Page sets the tone for how you are positioning yourself on your site. This is important for 2 reasons:

It helps your readers understand what the value is of your site or blog.

It allows brands to find out about you, understand what you do, and understand who your audience is.

Your about page is one of the first pages you ever create when starting out, and it can be excruciating to get it perfect… and then often we never look at it again.

As your business grows, it's good practice to look back at your About Page and see what's missing, and what you can edit or tweak to make it a strong page on your site.

What Should Be On My About Page

There are a few things that are absolutely basic that you should always have on your About page:

Your name -- If you are doing this casually, feel free to just use your first name. If you are using this as a business, definitely use both first and last.
Your contact information -- A lot of professional bloggers have special "Contact" Pages and that's great, but you want to give the reader a way to contact you directly from the About Page. This could just be a button that takes them to the Contact Page. Have it at the top of your page so that you are providing access to a relationship with the reader.
Your content -- Share what you create and why.
Extras0 -- Share little quirks about yourself that people may not know from reading your posts.

Two types of people come to your About Page:

The raving fan who has already read a bunch on your website and wants to know more about you
The brand new reader who has only seen one post on your site and wants to decide whether to follow or not

The focus of your About Page needs to be on your audience or the brands that are visiting and what value you can give to them.

Read your own About Page and see if you are putting the value of what you are doing right in front of your readers.

Statistics for Brands

Brand managers are looking for bloggers in specific niches.

We recommend directing these brands to a different Contact Page with more of your statistics and data. You can share who you're interested in working with, whether or not you do giveaways, etc.

On your page with all your statistics, you can use logos from the brands you've worked with to give you more credibility. Logos are immediately recognizable so those are a great way to catch the eye of a brand manager.

Make Your About Page Interesting

Your About Page is like anything on your site - it needs to be skimmable.

Have your fun facts in bullet points. You want the reader to be able to quickly scroll through and see what you are about without having to read every single word you wrote.

Make your page fun. You want to make it an interesting page for your reader to visit.

You want your reader to have an, "Oh, me, too!" reaction while reading your about page. Above all, you want your reader to be able to relate to you.

If you have tougher things that you want to share, they can be linked to a blog post or even an Instagram post about that topic. You don't have to share all the intimate details on the About Page and we recommend not putting a lot of difficult topics in a bulleted list.

Add Your Most Popular Posts in your About Page

Some people link to their most popular blog posts on their About Page.

We highly recommend doing this, because it's a great way to grab the visitor who is checking out your About Page to decide whether or not they want to follow you.

Highlighting your most popular content, whether that's your favorite posts or your readers' favorites, creates a good sampler platter of what your site offers.

On your "Work with Me" page, you can share links to posts from previous sponsored content you have done.

Checking Your Page for Mistakes

Make sure that all of your links work.

Go over both your About Me and Work With Me pages and make sure that all your links go where they should. So many times I click on links and they are broken. That doesn't make me want to stick around.

When links are broken, it makes the reader feel like you don't care about them. That's frustrating for them. You want to be serving your audience well.

You don't want typos on your pages.

You also want it to be mobile-friendly. Once you finish typing it up on your laptop or desktop, go look at it on your phone and make sure it's also skimmable on your phone.

Think about your audience skimming your page in line at Target. Or the brand manager on his phone in a cubicle looking for influencers quickly. Make it a good and easy experience for them.

About Page Images

It's a great idea to have a nice, professional headshot on your About Page so that your audience can see you.

Many bloggers like to add several other images on their About Page which is fine, but always check your site speed if you decide to add more images.

Few things drive new readers away faster than a blog that loads so slowly they can't see it within a few seconds.

If you're trying to attract brands, make sure that your images are as professional as possible. If your blog is more casual, you don't have to spend a ton of money on photos.

Share Your Credentials

At the very top of your page, right after your name, you need to share what your credentials are and how you can serve your reader or a brand.

If you have credentials that are relevant to your content, you want to share that immediately because it gives the reader that extra comfort and belief in who you are and what you're sharing.

If your credentials are relevant, but you still feel weird sharing them, you can soften the blow by sharing what your passion is immediately afterward.

This shows that you aren't going to lord anything over them or make the reader feel bad about themselves.

Add a Call to Action

One of the most important elements of your About Page is a "call to action."

If you share that you live in Virginia, you can link to your Instagram where they can find more about where you live. Or if you talk about loving to cook, link to your Pinterest where you have more recipes.

The ultimate call to action is asking them to sign up for your email list.

Tell the reader what you want them to do. You always want to be clear about what you want from your audience.

Don't throw a ton of choices at the reader. Give them one call to action and they are more likely to follow it.

Conclusion

Well, wow. After this conversation with Paula, I am reinspired to go back and take another look at my own About Page and see what I need to edit.

I encourage you to take some time this week to really look at your own About Page. Pretend you're a first-time visitor to your blog and give your About Page a thorough once-over.

Or ask a friend who doesn't read your blog to visit your About Page and tell you what they notice or anything that confuses them.

What Type of Online Entrepreneur is MiloTree Right For?

Are you serious about growing your online business (advanced beginner and above)? Have you got some traffic but you know you need more?

Let your MiloTree pop-ups help you get to that next level by turn 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.

Timestamp

Intro
0:50 Why Do I Need an About Page?
2:22 What Should Be on My About Page
9:45 Statistics for Brands
17:42 Make Your Page Interesting
21:58 Most Popular Posts
24:12 Checking Your Page for Mistakes
27:00 About Page Images
29:45 Share Your Credentials
33:15 Call to Action

Read the podcast transcript for "How to Best Optimize Your Blog's About Page" TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE EPISODE

If your About Page hasn't been changed since you began blogging, revisit it. Edit, adjust, and tweak it to make it fit your business as it is now.
The focus of your About Page should be on the reader or the brand you want to work with. What problems can you solve for the reader? How can the brand's product solve your reader's problem?
Use bullet points and short paragraphs to make the About Page skimmable, especially on mobile.
Add a call to action. Ask the reader to do one specific task like sign up for your email list.

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