The Blogger Genius Podcast

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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! 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.

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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! 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.

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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! 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.

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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! 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.

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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! 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.

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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! 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.

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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! 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.

If you sell products, or you are thinking about creating products to sell, today's episode is the episode for you. Selling products involves learning about landing pages, tripwires, opt-ins, sales emails, and how to promote those products. To get a leg up on all this, you're going to want to listen in as my good friend and popular podcast guest, Monica Froese, and I talk all things product sales. In case you missed it, Monica and I chatted on a recent episode about how to make Promoted pins work for you. Creating Successful Opt-In Landing Pages When Monica creates an opt-in email landing page, she wants it to be very bold and clear. She doesn't want there to be any question about what the reader is getting for free, and where they need to enter their email address. Monica's most successful opt-in is her process on how she plans her goals for the entire year. This opt-in is a 14-page PDF that goes over how she plans for her family, herself, and her business. Monica has experimented with every different opt-in page possible. The longer form opt-in has gotten slightly better conversions for her. She does prefer the embedded opt-in for her Promoted pin campaigns. Monica uses the app, Proof, which is a paid plug-in software. Proof enables a pop-up that shows how many people have chosen to opt-in. She uses this on all her opt-in pages because it's an easy way to give social proof, without quoting testimonials. How to Create Successful Sales Pages The second type of landing page that Monica uses are sales pages. The length of the landing pages depends on the product. For more expensive products, Monica will provide more information and images. Monica sometimes provides a video of what exactly the user will be paying for. These videos are about a minute and a half, where she talks briefly about how the product will benefit them if they buy it. She also puts seasonal spins on her products. Pinterest is very seasonal, so adding any kind of seasonal keywords is always a great idea. Because Monica is driving a cold audience to these products from Pinterest, she also provides a freebie on the landing page. This allows them to walk away with something, even if they aren't ready to buy just yet. If they choose to enter their email address, they are automatically taken back to the original landing page and have the opportunity to purchase the product for a discounted price for a very limited time. This is called a tripwire. If they choose not to purchase, Monica sends them an email talking more about the product after they download their freebie. Monica's Email Progression Monica has a strategic series of emails she sends to those who decide to download her goal-planning process. Email #1 - contains the link to the download Email #2 - is another offer for the tripwire, sometimes at the discounted price and sometimes with a different discount Email #3 - is a value-add email, directing you to more free content or another freebie Email #4 - is typically sending you to an affiliate link, providing you a freebie for someone else's content Email #5 - is either another value-add or Monica's welcome sequence Large Product Landing Page The landing page for Monica's most expensive course (her $500 Promoted pin course) is a very long-form page. The main reason for that is because Monica is asking them to make a very large investment. They need to know more about what she is offering and why they should purchase. She has about 6 testimonial videos on that page. These testimonials allow the user to see what can be achieved through the course. Monica talks about the pain points that her product can solve and how her product is different from other products on the market. All throughout the sales page, she has "Buy Now" buttons. She has it on the page at least 6 or 7 times. Monica plans to use Hotjar, which is a heatmap of your sales page to see where people are clicking and where people are falling off the page, with her next launch. We use HotJar at MiloTree and it's extremely helpful. Using Pinterest To Sell Your Products Monica always says that there is not a lot of control over the ads on your site. And the things about ads is that you are sending people away from you. She wants to be keeping people in her house and promoting her own products. Pinterest makes it very easy to brainstorm product ideas. You never want to copy anyone, but you can gain great inspiration. Do keyword research and look at what problems the other bloggers are solving. You can either do something better or just gain great ideas. Sometimes people are afraid to ask for money for products that other people are offering for free. But almost all of Monica's lower-end products can be found for free on Pinterest. Pinterest's product pins have around a 40% higher click-through rate. Your product doesn't have to be super expensive. As a user, Monica gravitates toward paid pins because it will be a quicker win. Using Pinterest to do your research allows you to know what problems people are having and how you can solve them. A lot of times you are already solving the problem and you just need to repackage it into a paid product. In order to use product pins or rich pins, all you need is a business account on Pinterest. Make The Yes Easy for Your Reader I love Monica's landing pages. And yet she is admittedly not a "website guru" or an expert coder. She takes advantage of products like Leadpages to create her amazing landing pages. The thing about landing pages is that it takes away all the clutter. There aren't sidebars full of buttons. There is no navigation bar. You're asking the reader to do one thing and one thing only. When you are putting money behind something, you want it to be super clear what you want. You don't want the reader to experience any confusion at all. Most of all, you just want to make the "yes" easy for your audience. Action Tip My challenge for you is to scroll through your Pinterest feed and go to some landing pages. Sign up for opt-ins that look good to you and learn from what that blogger is doing. Monica's are some of my favorites so I want you to look for hers specifically, but you can learn from others, too. Notice how your favorite bloggers set up their landing pages. Read the email series they send you after signing up. Make a swipe file of those emails so that when you get ready to sell your products. Definitely refer to those emails as you create your own. The great thing about the internet is you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Look at what's working for others, and use the same techniques. Previous Episodes with Monica Froese #030: The Easiest Ways to Make Money as a Blogger with Monica Froese (Part 2) #029: How to Start a New Business When You're A New Mom with Monica Froese (Part 1) #072: How to Make Promoted Pins Work for You With Monica Froese 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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! TIMESTAMP Intro 1:18 The Control of Paid Advertising 4:48 Creating Successful Landing Pages 11:50 Creating Sales Pages 20:50 Monica's Email Progression 24:53 Large Product Landing Page 34:24 Creating Products and Using Pinterest To Sell 41:50 Make The Yes Easy 43:00 Action Tip TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS Be clear on your landing page about what you want the reader to do; what they're getting and where to put their information. Use video, testimonials, seasonal text, and tripwires on your sales pages. Create a strategic email funnel that keeps the reader interested and draws them back to your products. If you don't know what product to create, use Pinterest to research a problem you can solve with a paid product.

Today I am talking about new strategies for making money with affiliates with Chelsea Clarke. Chelsea, founder of the website, HerPaperRoute, helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses through affiliate sales. We talk about knowing your audience, talking to your audience, and selling them products that are useful for making their lives better. If you want to know more about affiliate sales and how to make the most of them, this is the episode for you! Profitable Niches You may have heard that "the riches are in the niches." If that's true, what niche should you choose? Chelsea says that any niche can be made profitable with affiliates. The one defining factor is you. 3 things must be true for you to make money from affiliate marketing Passion -- You have to be genuinely interested in the topic you'll be writing about Education/Experience -- What are you really good at or you have an educational background in? Product -- This product should make sense for your audience and your topic Do not get into a niche just because you've heard it makes a lot of money. You need to pick your field based on what you love, what you know about it, and what you can offer to your audience. How To Find Good Products There are literally millions of affiliate possibilities out there. How do you choose the ones that will fit best with your niche? First, you want to choose a high-commission product. Something that gives you $2 per sale is a waste of time when you think about how much time you're spending building relationships with your audience to offer them products. Promote something that is going to pay you more like $40 per sale. Chelsea doesn't promote Amazon products as much because their commissions are typically so low for her. However, there are people that make thousands of dollars a month from Amazon affiliates. Amazon affiliates are a bit different than others in that they pay a commission to you for anything your audience purchases within 24 hours of clicking through your link. If there's a brand you want to work with, you can go straight to them and pitch yourself. Many companies want to work directly with bloggers. Reaching Out To Brands There are two ways to reach out to brands successfully to build an affiliate relationship. You can go to their website, find a contact, and send an email about how you love their product and want to review it. You can ask about setting a deal up. Another way you can do it is to join the affiliate program first. Once you have the affiliate program manager's contact information, you can reach out to them. Chelsea doesn't work for a commission of 10% or less unless it's a very expensive product. If she can't negotiate for a higher commission, she knows it's not the right product for her at that time. There have been a few times when Chelsea will take a lower commission because she knows the product is interesting and will be helpful to her audience. How To Build An Audience You Can Sell To Chelsea works mainly through email. She does everything herself personally, answering all the questions that come into her inbox. In the very first email Chelsea's audience receives, she asks them to respond with where she can follow them on social media. When you connect with someone on their social media channels, you get to know them and they get to know you, because chances are they're going to follow you back. Now you have a whole new group of people rooting for you and giving you new business. This is successful because it opens up a one-on-one conversation, where the audience gets to know the face behind the company. The very first people who hear about Chelsea's sales are the people on her email list. Using Social Media to Market Pinterest is Chelsea's favorite social media marketing tool. Taking the time to target the right keywords and getting your pins to show up higher in search will result in your traffic growing on its own. For newer bloggers who aren't ranking much on Google yet, Pinterest can be the key to blog growth and getting your message out there to more people. Pinterest is a different type of SEO. You want to focus on appropriate keywords, pin to the right boards, and pin as much as possible. You want your content to get out there. Pinterest is a digital wall of billboard advertisements. The higher you can get, the better for your traffic. Where To Focus, Where To Outsource Chelsea wants to create her own content and create her own weekly emails. Those are the 2 areas she doesn't outsource. But having someone for upkeep on social media is very helpful. Your biggest expense is your time. If you feel like you need more time, outsource things that allow you to have more time to create content and focus on what's important to you. Most Valuable Blogging Tool Chelsea has four tools that she cannot live without: SmarterQueue for automated Facebook and Twitter posts ConvertKit for email marketing MiloTree for growing subscribers Tailwind for Pinterest auto-scheduling Chelsea's Advice for Bloggers Stay focused on your goals. Don't expect those around you to support you at first. If someone else isn't an entrepreneur, they won't understand what you're doing. You have to work at your goals even if you aren't seeing the fruits of your labor right away. Focus on helping others in a way only you can. If you want to know more about Chelsea and the free resources she offers, go to HerPaperRoute. 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. Sign up today! Install your MiloTree pop-ups on your site in under two minutes. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE! TIMESTAMP Intro 8:26 Profitable Niches 13:33 How To Find Good Products 16:20 Reaching Out To Brands 18:17 How To Build An Audience You Can Sell To 21:55 Using Social Media to Market 27:57 Where To Focus, Where To Outsource 29:24 Most Valuable Tool 31:18 Chelsea's Advice Read the podcast transcript for "New Strategies For Making Money with Affiliates" TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE EPISODE When choosing a niche to monetize, choose a niche that you are passionate about and will never get tired of writing about. Choose higher-paying affiliates by contacting brands and asking for an affiliate relationship. Pinterest is the place to focus if you're a newer blogger and not ranking on Google yet. Pinterest will help you grow your traffic, and traffic = affiliate sales. Stay focused on your goals, even when others don't understand what you're doing and even if you aren't seeing the fruit of your labors right away. Other Episodes to Explore on Affiliate Marketing If you aren't familiar with affiliate marketing, Episode #79 of this podcast featured my conversation with Angela Davis of Frugal Living NW. That episode takes you deep inside affiliate marketing and how to get good at it.