The Blogger Genius Podcast

For this week's podcast episode, I thought I’d dig into our archives and reshare one of our most downloaded Blogger Genius episodes ever! The reason this episode is so popular is because I'm interviewing Pinterest insider, Tori Tait, and she's sharing straight up... how to shortcut your Pinterest strategy and succeed. She's sharing what works and what doesn't! What she emphasizes is that mastering Pinterest doesn't have to be hard. It just takes a few key insights. We talk about why bloggers don't need a lot of money to succeed on Pinterest, why you need to think like a marketer but act like a blogger, why the goal is to design the most engaging pins possible, and why you always need a call to action in your pins. I promise you will learn a lot from Tori. Here’s the full transcript of this episode including show note links. Tori has been a long time MiloTree customer. She grows her Pinterest followers with her MiloTree Pinterest pop up. If you are trying to grow your Pinterest traffic, I recommend you sign up for MiloTree. Watch your followers on Pinterest grow faster! Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

Today’s guest is YouTuber, Amanda Muse. The thing I find fascinating about Amanda is that she does things her own way. We're talking about how to be authentic on YouTube and make a great living at the same time. On her channel, Amanda talks about what she wants to talk about. She puts herself out there. And she's found serious success with over 61k subscribers! Whether you are a newbie to YouTube or a seasoned veteran, you will learn something new from this interview. Plus, I know you're going to fall in love with Amanda! Making Money on YouTube There are two main ways to make money on YouTube -- ads and brand partnerships. The first way to make money is through AdSense, YouTube's built-in ad network. The more viewers you have, the more ad money you make.  Amanda makes her money through brand partnerships. There are YouTubers who don’t have to do brand sponsorships because they have millions of viewers and monetize through the ads. But unless you have millions of subscribers, brand partnerships is the way to go. Hiring a Team to Help With Your YouTube Channel Amanda works with a team called Kin Community. They pitch their clients to brands, such as Walmart and Wendy’s.  When you first get started on YouTube, you are the entire team. You are not only the content creator, but you are the makeup artist, the producer, the editor, and the salesperson.  Amanda knew that sales were not her strong point, so she found a team that can take care of that part for her.  Amanda feels that once she handed over her weaknesses to someone else to take care of, her business really took off.  Amanda has a video editor who also edits all of her podcast content. And she has an assistant who manages her Facebook page and helps with content ideas and planning. Finding the Right Agency to Represent You as a YouTuber It can be very easy to get involved with a sketchy agency and then be stuck.  Amanda recommends a few things to protect yourself when looking for an agency: Read your contracts thoroughly Make sure that you can get out of an agreement fairly quickly Retain ownership of all of your own content, especially video It took Amanda time to find the right agency. She had to try out a couple of different companies to know what she wanted.  Her advice is to reach out to other YouTubers with similar-sized audiences and ask them for advice or help. Best Practices For YouTube Content Creation When it comes to releasing content, you have to be consistent no matter which platform you’re on. Amanda recommends that you release video content to YouTube each and every week.  Amanda currently releases two videos a week, on Mondays and Thursdays.  If she cannot make a video, she does a live video to engage her audience and build relationships.  If possible, release your videos at the same time every week. YouTube will recognize that you’re posting at the same time consistently and it will favor that.  Keep in mind that YouTube prefers longer videos. Gone are the days of 2-minute videos.  And when going live, spend the time chatting with your viewers and save time at the end to get to all of your audience’s questions. Showing Vulnerability Amanda likes to be an open book on her channel, but she has definitely put privacy strategies in place.  For example, she does not video her home, she does not say where she lives, and she does not share information regarding her children.  Once your children are older, you just can’t post as much about them because they begin to value their own privacy.  Making this decision has slowed down the growth of Amanda’s channel somewhat, but it has not hampered brands using her channel, or her ability to monetize it.  Burnout  Amanda used to do a weekly vlog. It was a 17-minute video, which was a compilation of a couple of minutes each day.  But after a while, it was almost like having someone in her home every day.  Because Amanda had such a flexible channel, she shifted her style to a vlog a couple of times a week. Knowing when to say "no" is so important. You have to know your limits and what is worth your time and energy.  Amanda does not hold herself to perfection. If she can’t get a video edited because she’s been sick, she will post it the way it is.  Having people around you that can help you along, offer support and distractions, and just be there for you off the screen is so important.  Using Social Media to Grow Your YouTube Channel Besides being on Youtube twice a week, Amanda posts a photo nearly every day to her Instagam feed, and about 15 Instagram stories a day.  She puts out a podcast episode once a week also.  There is a post each day on Facebook. Her Facebook page isn't a huge focus for her; it’s mostly for sharing interesting things and one planned post a day.  Amanda does not see herself as a blogger, but rather she has a website which she uses as  a landing page for people who come over from her YouTube channel or her podcast. Advice for Future YouTubers Go deep and find your secret skill.   Amanda’s secret skill is that she can make friends and talk with anyone.  She shared a few tips with us for those of you who might want to get started with YouTube: Talk to the camera like you’re having a one-on-one conversation with someone. Find out what you enjoy and then apply a specific strategy to it. Treat your YouTube platform and audience like its own unique place and create unique content for it. Stay true to yourself and just keep working. When you do that, your audience will come, your following will grow, and you will know that you’ve found your niche. 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 4:44 Making Money on YouTube 8:20 Hiring a Team 17:36 Finding the Right Agency 22:30 Best Practices For Content 27:54 Being Vulnerable 32:02 Burnout 39:59 Using Social Media 41:11 Advice for Future YouTubers Read the podcast transcript HERE: TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS  There are several ways to make money on YouTube, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t have millions of viewers. Look for brand partnerships. Be consistent in releasing new content; plan on at least one video per week. Be authentic with your audience in order to build relationships with them so they keep showing up. Avoid perfectionism and learn when to say NO in order to avoid burnout.  

Today my guest is Spencer Lum, owner of ExtraBold.  Spencer teaches how to get people to want what you’re selling, by meeting them where they are and serving their needs.  I think you’re going to get a lot of really powerful takeaways from this episode about marketing and copywriting. How To Create A Want in Your Audience The difficult part of marketing is stepping outside of yourself and knowing it isn’t about you.  Spencer calls the normal marketing tactic, “eat your vegetables” marketing because if you look at it closely, that’s exactly what they’re doing.  They are trying to force you to want something because they think it’s great.  Marketing consists of two things: Understanding what your audience wants Drawing them in through their interests Learning What Your Audience Wants If you want to get out of your head and know your audience better, spend time with them, getting to know what they’re going to think or say next.  You can’t live in that dangerous ground of “kind of knowing them, but not really…” There are a few basic wants that every person has. One of those basic wants is to be financially well-off. Another is for life to be just easier. Think about the seven deadly sins. These are wants. Don't forget that you need to meet people where they are at, and slowly point them in the right direction and invest in them, until they are ready to buy what you’re selling. You have to speak your audience’s language. Don't try to change them. Respect what they want from you, as they are. Maintaining Balance  It takes two things to complete a sales cycle: The selling part that gets your product out there (awareness) The purpose that brings value and help to your audience (solving a problem) Good salesmanship is a way to help people. You want to make money, but it’s not the only reason you do what you do.  When your purpose aligns with someone else’s purpose, they will feel good about buying your products.  Marketing Using A Landing Page  In order to understand your audience members' basic wants, you give a hint of what you have to offer, you let it linger, and then you give another little something.  You don’t give everything away at once. Think of it like dating. Once you actually have them hooked, and they want what you offer, you can call them to take action.  If you are able to tell someone what their problems are, it creates trust, and they will believe you have the answer to their problem.  People want to feel that they are seen and understood.  By being able to show that you understand them and their problems, they will feel seen and important, and you are more likely to make the sale.  Action Step Spencer created a free course that goes over a lot of things we talked about today. You will learn how to get your audience through the three stages of marketing sales. You can find that guide at www.goextrabold.com/bloggergenuis.  Download yours today!  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 converting 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  7:30 How To Create A Want  16:50 Learning What Your Audience Wants 28:30 Maintaining Balance  34:38 Marketing On A Landing Page  49:43 Action Step Read the podcast transcript HERE: TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS You must understand what your audience’s basic wants are. Think of the seven deadly sins. Find the balance between your ultimate purpose and the need to sell your product or service. Give people a hint that you’ve got something that will change their lives, but don’t give it all away at the beginning. Think of it like dating. Mystery is good. Make your audience feel seen and understood and they will trust you and your product/service and be more willing to buy.

In today’s world, as a blogger or creative entrepreneur, you need a creative marketing strategy to get your site found. In this episode, we're talking about how digital advertising can boost your business (even if you don't sell anything).  Today I am interviewing Jessica Gleim and Amy Christie, the co-founders of Flairst Creative Collective. These women are digital marketers who know their stuff! Why Is Online Advertising So Powerful?  People today spend more time on digital devices than ever before.  Being able to take advantage of that, and market to people who are already on different platforms just makes sense.  Digital marketing is also powerful because we have never been able to micro-track people in the way that we can now. We can choose who we want to show our ads to.  Google, Pinterest, Facebook, etc… all have their own ad platforms, and those ad platforms are all tools in your toolbox to help you reach people.  Ads Without Product to Sell  Even if you don’t have a product you are selling, sponsors and brands want to work with people who have good traffic coming to their site.  Using digital ads will increase your traffic and make more people aware of your brand.  This will bring you more money from the ads on your site and, more importantly, you'll have higher metrics to share with brands. Conversion From Ad to Sales  If you sell a product, even if it is a cheaper product, you should run ads as well.  If you have an eBook that you are selling for $6.99 and can run an ad for 75 cents, all the rest is just residual income. Figure out what it would cost you to get the conversion from ad to sale.  Your cheaper products could lead to the customer ultimately buying your larger and more expensive products.  DIY-ing Your Digital Marketing There is a lot of testing involved in digital marketing but most marketers have to be budget-conscious.  You don’t have to spend a lot to learn how to use digital ads for your site.  Here are the steps Jessica and Amy laid out for us: Start with the top of your funnel - the cold traffic you are trying to bring into your website. Build a small campaign - try a few different creatives (ads) on a few different audiences.  Let your campaign run for a couple of weeks - find out which audience responded to which creative.  Using Facebook Campaigns Jessica and Amy used Facebook campaigns to send traffic to MiloTree. They started with cold audiences to try and get pixeled (which is Facebook's version of Google analytics).  The pixel allows them to learn more about the audience that is visiting our site. The number one mistake people make when running Facebook ads is not optimizing their ads correctly.  You have to know what the objective of your ad is.  The objective of the Facebook campaigns for MiloTree is both awareness and traffic. They want to draw attention to MiloTree and then send them to the site.  Because you put time, work, and money into your ads, it is not enough to just raise awareness. There have to be conversions to make it worth it! Tracking The Funnel  Another benefit of digital marketing is the ability to keep track of the people in your funnel.  Through the Facebook pixel, you will know when anyone in your funnel fills out your opt-in, completes a purchase, or if someone abandons their cart on your site.  There are a few things you need to understand when setting up digital ads: The objective of your ads The customer buying cycle What the stages of your funnel should be How to build ad campaigns within your Facebook manager Becoming Confident in Digital Marketing  Everyone is spending time on a digital device at some point during their day.  There is so much content and so much competition in almost every industry that it is sometimes hard to maintain your SEO strategy and ranking.  If you are coming into this with a new idea or a fresh take on something, it can be hard with the current algorithms to show up.  This is why paid advertising is so important.  Jessica and Amy want entrepreneurs and business owners to feel confident that they can convert customers using these ad platforms successfully, as it continues to get harder to rank organically.  They will be coming out with a course soon to help you create your own digital ad funnels, so learn more at Flairst Creative Collective. 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 converting 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  10:35  Why Is Online Advertising So Powerful?  12:20  Ads Without Products to Sell  15:33  Conversion From Ad to Sales  21:45 DIY-ing Your Digital Marketing 25:46 Using Facebook Campaigns  34:40 Tracking The Funnel  40:16 Becoming Confident in Digital Marketing  Read the podcast transcript HERE: TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS Digital marketing is powerful because it allows you to market your business on multiple platforms as well as track the audience who sees your ads. Even if you don’t have a product to sell, digital ads bring traffic to your site which increases the metrics that brands want to see in order to offer you sponsored campaigns. You don’t have to spend a ton of money when you’re starting out; most online entrepreneurs are very budget-conscious. The #1 problem with running ads is not having a clear objective when you start and therefore wasting a bunch of money.

My guest this week is Tammilee Tillison, a travel and lifestyle blogger. I think you will find it interesting to hear what she has to say about blogging in these niches. Tammilee and her husband have been blogging for over ten years on their blogs, tammileetips.com and parkrangerjohn.com. Monetizing a Travel Blog Tammilee and her husband John live in Washington state but they travel on average 160+ days a year. They have several revenue streams. They have ad revenue, sponsored posts, sponsorships on social media, and affiliates. Tammilee is currently figuring out SEO since it was not even relevant when she began blogging. Work-Life Balance as a Blogger Tammilee doesn’t have much downtime. She works even when she is on vacation, knowing that every experience is going to be put into her content. But burnout happens to everyone. Tammilee tries to avoid burnout by spending time doing something she enjoys, like reading, and pushing away the hurried thoughts about everything she could be doing. The Instagram and blog posts make it seem like travel bloggers live carefree, happy, unburdened lives. But behind that, they are constantly thinking about how they’re going to use their experiences, and so they aren’t always just enjoying the moment. Creating Curated Content Tammilee is monetizing off of her blog. She wants to have content and pictures that make people want to go to the places she’s been. To do that, she sometimes has to create a story using only one picture. Spending a lot of time making an image perfect is how Tammilee can show the quality of the entire trip or vacation. Outside of the lovely images, we are running businesses. We are trying to make money and support ourselves. Tammilee tries to show every side of the destination so that her audience is not misled by thinking that every area is as beautiful as one photo. Traveling For Free as a Food Blogger People who go into travel blogging so that they can travel for free not only give the business itself a bad rep but are misleading. No one is going to travel completely free. There will be expenses, even if you’re getting hotels free, tickets free, etc. Tammilee’s business expenses are invested in camera equipment, travel expenses, and the time itself that this job takes. Traveling for free is possible, but there are pros and cons to every situation. Make sure to ask someone who has been in the business longer than a year, so you can understand both sides of the story. The Logistics of Being a Travel Blogger Although it depends on the level that you’re at as a travel writer, Tammilee can reach out to a hotel and say that she would like to come and write about the hotel. They do get many offers but whether they accept it depends on whether it looks good, whether it fits into their calendar, etc. You may get a $150 hotel night offer, and then there are many asks in return for that. They want your photos, tours of the best rooms, etc. It’s not just about what you’re getting. It’s also what you’re bringing to the brand. Social Media Platforms Instagram is the big player right now. It’s likely that at some point, the bubble is going to burst and something else will take its place. Someone who is on multiple social media platforms will be able to reach a different type of audience on each one and be able to monetize on more readers. Tammilee does have a Youtube channel, but she doesn’t use it very often because she doesn’t enjoy making videos as much as she does taking pictures. Tammilee does a lot of Instagram stories and Facebook live videos. With Facebook live, she can pop in and then just show everyone around her environment, in a true, non-curated way. Some brands do want blog posts and some don’t care anymore. Brands that have been in the business longer know that the social platforms are constantly evolving, so it’s a good idea to have a finger in every pie. Niching Down as a Blogger Tammilee has a built-in audience that has been with her on a journey over ten years, and so she can expand from traveling blogging to lifestyle blogging. She can write about travel, food, and lifestyle depending on the audience she wants to reach and her mood. Tammilee’s audience is one big group of people and contained in one email list. She sends everything to everyone and lets them decide which links they want to click through on. Tammilee’s Most Used Tool Tammilee loves Tailwind, because even when she’s tired or too busy there is something steady going out to her audience. Tammilee also loves Coschedule and has it set up for a year in advance. Travel Tools Tammilee says to invest in a really good phone with a killer camera. She has a Samsung Galaxy 10. Even though they have expensive cameras, sometimes there is a need to take pictures quicker, and having a phone to snap a picture makes all the difference. I just did my last sponsored post with my phone alone. The camera quality is so high, the photos look better than ones taken on my camera when I first started out. Top Three Travel Destinations Tammilee encourages people to travel somewhere that would make them slightly nervous, and see how different it is from their preconceived notions. If you have a place that you’ve always wanted to go to, every time you see it you wish you were there, you need to visit that place. Visit a place where you have memories. A place you went as a kid, or a place that your family talks about, so you will have those memories again. Travel Blogging Advice Tammilee would say that finding your tribe of people who will help you push through the hard days is the most important thing. Her tribe consists of her husband and women who are doing similar things as Tammilee. In this industry, there is a lot of competition and distrust, but if we come together, work together, and build each other up, we can all benefit. Tammilee’s Blogging Why Tammilee wants to inspire people to live their best life. That can look like so many different things, but she wants to inspire people to do what makes them happy, what makes them feel fulfilled. 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 converting 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 HERE: TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE When all of your experiences make up your content, you have to take special care to avoid burnout  Don’t fall for the illusion that travel bloggers always enjoy 100% free travel Learn how to use social media to your advantage in order to secure more sponsored content Niche down now and you can expand once you have a loyal audience

In today’s episode, I am chatting with Camille Whiting from the blog, Friday We're in Love, about how to use analytics to up your SEO game to get even more traffic. Even if you don’t like analytics, this post is going to be highly beneficial for you. You’re going to learn strategies for how to make smart choices and know where you should go next. Missing The Boat For SEO and Content Creation There are two camps when it comes to SEO. Either a person is all in, learning everything they can, and rushing forward, or they are scared to start thinking about it because they don’t like the technical side of things, or it seems too daunting. There is a lot of SEO shame where people know they should be doing it, but they don’t feel confident, so they just make more content and sit in an SEO shame bubble. You need to remember that SEO is a wonderful opportunity to help share your amazing content. Best General Practices for Improving SEO Focus on your content moving forward People do not want to read big, chunky 1,000-word posts. Our readers are skimmers. You need your content to be easy to read and skim. Headers in blog posts are very important You want to use H2’s as much as possible so Google knows what your content is going to be about. Use Yoast to see if your content is easily readable Test: I always ask myself, when reading my content could someone in line at Target understand my post by skimming it distractedly? Make your content the most useful content on the web Search your topic and see what posts are ranking. Then make your content even better -- easier to read, more thorough, more up-to-date. Also, know that your content is not about you. It is about your reader. Your reader needs to be able to find the information within one or two clicks. The solutions you offer should be very easy to find. Keep blog photos to a minimum and know why you’re adding them in Are your photos serving the audience or are they just to gratify yourself? Most of your traffic will be mobile, so think about how your photos will look on a small screen while they're scrolling in line at the grocery store. Importance of keywords You should have three to five keywords per post, and optimize them throughout your posts. Look up keywords, and if you feel that you can’t rank for a certain keyword, you can use a synonym that is less used. When you are writing a post, look up three to five keywords, and focus on using them naturally throughout your post. Building Off Of Existing Content Look through your content and see which posts are doing really well. You can then create more content building off the content that's already doing well for you using keywords to grow it. Then keep branching off of those posts and create content that will go along with your highest performing content. This allows your reader to have every answer they might need on the topic. Google Analytics Once you’ve gone in there one time and looked at your analytics, you will see how cool it is, and how easy it is to understand. A good first step would be to look at your acquisitions and where they are coming from. You want to know where your traffic is coming from, if people are finding your content through searches, and if your words match searches. The behavior tab is really helpful. You can see what people are interacting with on your site and be able to understand your content’s impact on your audience better. Golden Tip For Beginners You can outsource the tasks that you feel are weaknesses for you. Camille believes she would have grown faster if she had hired professionals instead of trying to do everything on her own. Look for the weaknesses that you know you have, and invest in hiring those things out. Camille’s Most Used Tool Camille is a huge fan of automation software; things like Tailwind, Instagram app scheduling, and Google Calendar. SEM Rush is a pricey tool but so worth it. If you want to get serious about your SEO, this is the tool you want to have. Camille has more info at fridaywe’reinlove.com/analytics, if you’d like to learn more about the other tools that she uses. You will get a free trial period, to see how it works for you. 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 converting 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      6:58 Missing The Boat For SEO and Content Creation      9:42 Best General Practices    21:40 Keywords    23:33 Building Off Of Existing Content    26:10 Google Analytics    32:07 Golden Tip For Beginners    33:23 Camille’s Most Used Tool   Read the podcast transcript HERE:   TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE SEO is a major way to get your content in front of more people Your posts should be the most helpful content on your topic on the internet Choose 3-5 keywords and use them naturally throughout your post Outsource your weaknesses

Today, I have my friend, Monica Froese from Redefining Mom on the show. She will be sharing all things promoted pins and how to make promoted pins work for you. We talk about not only why it might make sense to pay for Pinterest Promoted Pins, but we break it down and share how Monica promotes her course using Pinterest and Facebook advertising. Why Advertise On Pinterest? Monica believes that advertising serves very different purposes from one social media platform to another. The first thing to keep in mind when you’re thinking about Pinterest ads, aka Promoted Pins, is whether or not your demographic is even on Pinterest.  Pinterest is mostly women, mostly in the US, and mostly millennials. If your target audience is older men, you’re probably not going to find them on Pinterest. It’s important to understand the difference between Pinterest and social media sites such as Facebook or Instagram. When you open Facebook, you do not hope to be served an ad about wedding planning. But if you are actively wedding planning, you will most likely be served an ad about that, simply because their targeting and retargeting strategies are the best out there. With Pinterest, you come with a problem, and you’re proactively searching for the solution. When you open your Pinterest app, you come in with a buyer’s mindset. You have a problem, you want a solution, and you’re ready to pay for it. Will Promoted Pins Increase Sales? It’s important to note that an ad on any platform won’t solve a broken system or a broken funnel. If your product isn’t selling organically, ads are not going to fix that problem. It’s important to make sure your product sells from the platform that you’re going to be promoting on. If you can’t get any sales from Pinterest organically, you should not dive into Pinterest ads. You need to prove your product organically and build a relationship with your audience before you just jump into Pinterest ads. If you have proven your product, then you can even sell it to a cold audience on Pinterest. How to Market to a Cold Audience A cold audience is one that has no familiarity with you or what you sell. They have not interacted with you in any way. A warm audience is someone who has seen you or your product somewhere online. They have had an interaction with you. Most marketers are going to tell you to only target a warm audience; that a warm audience is going to convert better into monetary returns. On Pinterest, people are looking for a solution to their problem, so if they see a solution to their problem, whether they know that person or not, they are more willing to buy the service. They are not looking for someone they know, they are looking for answers. Warming Up An Audience to Get Them to Buy The caveat to selling to cold audiences on Pinterest is that the higher priced your product, the less likely a cold audience will buy it. The solution to this problem is to warm up your audience. Help them get to know you. There are several ways to do this, but Monica shared her favorite strategy with us. Strategy to Sell to a Warm Audience Run an ad on Pinterest People click on your ad and go to a landing page on your site You offer a freebie on the landing page You now have their email address Send an email with one of your products at a reduced price Add that person to your automated email list Nurture that relationship and turn them into a warm audience Pinterest is e-commerce focused and mostly on lower-priced products. So, Monica focuses on funneling those types of products to her audience. And then, when she wants to nurture for a higher-priced product, she focuses on building her email list from Pinterest. How to Get Email Subscribers From Pinterest Keep in mind that Pinterest is content driven. Most bloggers drive their ads to a blog post where they ask people to sign up for their email list. Monica turned that strategy on its head by driving people to a landing page through her ads. And then she uses "tripwires" once they’ve signed up for her email list to get them to make a purchase. Tripwires are an easy way to get people to buy from you immediately by reducing the price of the product for a limited amount of time. Pinterest Ads for Pageviews - Does it Make Sense? The question isn’t whether you should want to drive page views, it’s why do you want to drive page views? You have to understand your strategy before you promote it. It’s not about increasing your page views; it’s about what you are doing with those page views? If you’re being paid by a brand to promote them, it’s worth it to spend some money promoting your pins, so you get more page views. Look at how much money you’re generating, and make sure it makes sense to be putting money behind promoting pins. If you have a funnel that you know works, page views can be very helpful if your strategy is to get those people into your funnel. Dig into your analytics, to know whether what you’re doing is working or not. Monica’s Courses Monica’s Pinterest Ads course, Pin Practical Promotions, is open for enrollment through June 10, 2019. If the course isn’t open for enrollment when you check it out, Monica offers a free course called Pin Practical Ads which is a great way to get started on your journey with Pinterest Ads. 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 converting 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 5:23 Why Advertise On Pinterest? 10:20 Will Promoted Pins Increase Sales? 10:25 Marketing to a Cold Audience 18:17 Warming Up An Audience 27:15 Email Subscribers From Pinterest 35:16 Pinterest Ads for Page Views 40:58 Monica’s Courses Read the podcast transcript HERE:   TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE  Pinterest users are ready to pay for a solution to their problem. You must prove your product is viable organically before promoting on Pinterest. If you are selling higher priced products, try getting people to sign up for your email list so you can warm them up to a purchase. Most users won’t buy a higher priced product straight from your Pinterest ad. Before paying for ads to drive page views, know why you want more page views. More Blogger Genius Episodes You'll Like? #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) #019: How to Get Started with Promoted Pins on Pinterest with Alisa Meredith  

Today I have Paula Rollo back on the show to talk about burnout. If you are an entrepreneur, burnout is part of everyday life. In this episode, we're going to talk about how to cope with entrepreneur burnout. We’re going to share personal stories and tips to help you know how to think about burnout, how to live with burnout, and how to overcome burnout. We want you to know how to use burnout as a guide. What Causes Burnout as an Online Entrepreneur? One thing that causes burnout for me is when I work very hard on something and then don’t see the results I want. I teach that we need to put ourselves out there, try new things, and that 95% of our ventures will fail, but even so, it is still demoralizing to me. It is hard to not begin thinking that everything you try is going to fail. It throws me into an irrational tailspin of imposter syndrome and thinking I am only a failure. We almost never take stock of our successes; we focus in on the failures. You have to focus on how far you’ve come because if you only focus on how far you have to go, you’ll never get there. You’ll always be falling short. Ways To Work Through Burnout There are a couple of things I do to try and get myself out of burnout: I remind myself that burnout is temporary. I will eventually come out of it. I try to get curious about something that may be causing my burnout and see if I can fix that situation I try to touch myself with kindness, even if it's hard, and I don't think I deserve it Burnout can be a good indication that you’re doing too much. Take a look at different areas of your life that may be causing burnout, (I’m looking at you, social media!) and either hire help, or decide if you want to continue doing that thing, whatever it is. Taking A Break Burnout may mean that you need to take a break. You may need to step away for a time. The world will not stop turning if you take a break to recover. You might feel like you’re letting everyone down if you take time off, but that is not the case. Doing the bare minimum can help you see what things are actually needed, and what things are unnecessary that you can stop doing altogether. Being Satisfied with B- Work I believe in doing B+ work, not A+, and when I am burned out, I allow myself to do B- work. I never say to go for A+ work because if you do that, you’re setting yourself up for failure. No one can be perfect all the time. So strive for B+ work but be okay with whatever you can do. Allow yourself to let things go, to use the content you have, and to be proud of your work. Stepping Out of the Box When Paula was struggling with depression, she could not reach into her creative space to write blog posts about her children for her parenting blog. Instead, she sat down and wrote about her burnout. She wrote a five hundred word post about how she couldn’t write words. Paula felt that she wasn’t creative because she couldn’t write about parenting. What she really needed to do was reach her creativity from a different angle. If you’re feeling that you’re not creative, go create in a way you might not normally do and see how that feels. Working With Burnout I love using the Pomodoro technique; if you go to tomato-timer.com, you will get a timer for twenty-five minutes. Tell yourself that you only have to work for twenty-five minutes and you will consider it a success. Then if you’re feeling up to it, you can do it again. Another thing I do is set a small goal. Maybe the goal is to do one email for the day. Or pin one pin on Pinterest. When I accomplish that goal, I can congratulate myself on getting it done. I don't make myself do more and I try to feel that I'm a success! Listening To Your Burnout If you are experiencing a lot of burnout, there comes a time when you might want to listen to that. Your burnout might be showing you that you’re going in the wrong direction. It might have been the right direction at one point, but maybe it’s not anymore. If you’ve tried everything else... Getting back in touch with your creativity Finding new passions Taking a break ...and it’s still not working, and you don’t want to continue doing what you’re doing, you need to do something new. If the reason you are doing your work is different than when you started, you need to find something else to do. Have you struggled with burnout? Tell me about it in the comments. I’d love to hear your ideas on how you overcome burnout, what causes you to experience burnout, and your best tips for getting through it without throwing your business out the window. 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 converting 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  3:20 What Causes Burnout?  8:05 Ways To Work Through Burnout 14:17 Taking A Break 18:55 Being Satisfied with B- Work 20:07 Stepping Out of the Box 24:14 Working With Burnout 27:07 Listening To Your Burnout   Read the podcast transcript HERE:   TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE Burnout can be caused by working really hard at something and seeing little or no results, or by needing to move in a different direction in your business without seeing it. Focus on how far you’ve come, and not just how far you have to go because you'll never get there. When you’re experiencing burnout, settle for putting out B- work instead of A+ work. The goal is to be kind to yourself. Your business is not going to die if you step away from social media for awhile. Find a hobby that you have no intentioned of monetizing but that gets your creative juices flowing again. *Btw, Netflix is not a hobby.   Want More Blogger Genius Episodes About Burnout and Focus? #058: How to Overcome Burnout as an Entrepreneur with Jason Zook #066: How to Stay Focused as an Entrepreneur with Stephanie Uchima-Carney    

If you’re an online marketer, you know the importance of your email list. As they say, the money is in your email list. Our guest this week is Matt Molen, the founder of Personalized Paths. Matt is an email marketing expert. He's here to show us all the strategy you need to crush email marketing. We talk about not only how to grow your email list, but why you need to grow your email list. Then once you have a list, what to do to monetize it, and keep your community close. What Is Email Marketing? When we first began Catch My Party, we thought we would grow our audience and then monetize our site via ads. Over time that has become less lucrative. Bloggers have to figure out other ways to make money. Ads are only a piece of the money-making pie. Sophisticated bloggers have figured out that they shouldn’t value growth merely for growth’s sake. It’s about being very intentional and selling to your audience, learning how to solve their problems. One of the best ways to do that is through email. Whether you’re running a blog, an e-commerce business, or you’re an influencer, what you’re doing is solving someone’s problem is what attracts them to you. Email is a great way to explain how you solve their problems. Brands are built by solving problems over and over again. Bloggers all know they need to grow their lists but sometimes they aren’t sure what to do once they’ve grown it. Why Grow Your Email List? Google’s latest update has hit many bloggers, as their position in Google search ranking has changed. That means that their blog traffic has also changed.   Many people were dramatically affected by the recent Facebook and Instagram outage. This is another reminder that they are going to do what they want to do, and if they go down, they go down. It will impact you. Pinterest is constantly changing and evolving their algorithm. Our traffic has changed many times when Pinterest updates. The reason you need a list is to have as much control over your audience as you can. You own your blog, you own your website, and you own your email list. That is a great reason to grow your email list, number one. The second reason that many people tend to miss out on is that email is a fairly intimate form of marketing communication. If you do it right, you can create real engagement between yourself and your readers. When you sign up to someone’s email list, you are inviting them into your inbox. You are inviting them to be your friend. The businesses that use email to build a relationship, to make friends; those are the ones that are going to have a brand. If you are able to make your audience feel known and solve their problems time and again, they are going to share you with others, and your list is going to grow. They are going to buy your products, and you’re going to have a loyal audience. Email lists are a long game but ultimately, it’s one that is worth the bill. Give To Get When you offer something generic like a free recipe in return for an email, you are not earning a loyal audience. People get what they want, and then they drift away. What you need to do is stop the viewer in their tracks. There are lots of types of lead magnets, like checklists, printables, and courses. Matt has developed his own lead magnet that helps you stand out, and keep your audience. It’s called a Quick Start Guide. We know a few things about the person who lands on our page based on what they’re searching for. We can assume a lot of things. You can then offer that person more content along those lines. Using your hook, you get them on your list and you fulfill that problem through 3-5 emails separated by a day. Every day for five days they’re receiving a new “lesson" from you. You link your lessons back to your site, to your content, in each email. Those first five emails should all stay related to the original search topic. The power behind this is that you’re answering their problems and you’re giving them meaty content that helps them get to know you as a brand. Matt has a blog devoted to Disney cruises, and his Quick Start hook is, “What to Expect On Your First Cruise.” The engagement starts to happen when we answer questions our audience hasn’t even thought to ask yet. Following Up with Your Audience In your final email, you can say that you hope they’ve enjoyed your content and you are going to continue sending relevant material to their inbox to help them with that particular problem. Think through the most common journey that people face and deliver solutions and suggestions to your people. Start with something general that will catch as many people who cross your site as possible. Most bloggers send their most recent content, not focusing on their best content. All of your old content is buried to the person who crosses your site, thanks to Google. You want to get the best of your blog in front of your reader. Pick out the best of your content, and present it to your audience as if you know them. You know the content they are going to want to see next. Over the course of emails, use your content as a journey to build trust and friendship with your reader. Why You Want to Send Weekly Newsletters Matt describes a newsletter as a story of the person’s week. No one cares about that stuff until you’re at a level where they care about you so much they want to know those things. With newsletters, what problems can you solve right now? What is your audience thinking about right now? You probably have existing or new content that caters to that. Do not send an email unless you know what problem you’re solving for your reader. Solving Problems for your Newsletter Readers After ten weeks of emails presenting his best content and solving problems, Matt does a mixture of automated emails and scheduled broadcasts. The rule is that if you’re solving problems, it is not spam. The automated side is evergreen content. He builds it out as long as he can. Matt also has "broadcasts, "that are for very specific content important at the moment. He does a "forever series" email once per week, and if he can, a broadcast once per week. If you’re solving their existing problems, they will come to you with new problems, and you will have new content to create. Is Consistency Key for Email? Consistency is important because it lets your reader know when to expect you. If you’re sending a "forever series" on Tuesdays and a broadcast on Fridays, your audience gets used to getting your emails every Tuesday and Friday. You will maintain your subscribers if you are consistent. When you go outside of that and are sporadic, then they will not be used to hearing from you. Growing Traffic Through Email Be aggressive about growing your list, but also be aggressive about pruning your list. You do not need to carry dead weight on your subscriber list. The people who, over time, stop opening your emails, stop caring... it’s time to stop sending them content. The number of subscribers is not your be-all, end-all. You want to keep the people who are opening your content. Every thirty days, Matt goes through his list and gets rid of any subscribers who haven’t opened their email in thirty to ninety days. The reasons Matt does this is because it costs money to keep those subscribers and it impacts your deliverability. Matt looks to see how often someone has engaged with his content. If someone hasn’t engaged in three to six months, they’re off the list. Matt also wants unique clicks. He wants people clicking back to his site. Matt has a formula for all the emails he writes: State the problem you are solving Explain that you have the solution and why you have the solution Give a link back to your blog that has the solution It is a short and simple email. No one wants to read a long, wordy email. It seems so typical, but when you keep delivering on it, you are building a brand. When they keep ending up back on your site, they learn your face, your brand, your business. Matt’s Favorite Email Services Matt likes to use Convert Kit for most of his clients. It has a balance of automated features and simplicity of use. I use Active Campaign for my email services. How To Start Sending Emails to Your List The first thing to do is to identify the biggest problem you can solve with your existing content. Take three to five pieces of content and lump them into a theme. With that "quick start" guide to answer that problem, you send people one email per day for five days. If you do it right, you will have a much more interested subscriber for what’s coming next. If you’re stuck, go look at your Google analytics and see which posts are doing the best. Contacting Matt Matt has three levels for working with bloggers. The first one is a free program of three videos. It’s called Email Jump Start. If you are serious about getting your Email List changed, Matt has a course of 20+ video modules on what to do and how to do it. That is called Email On Autopilot. If you’re more established and looking to get help with individual strategies, you can look on the website for consulting services at Personalized Paths. 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 converting 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  3:10 What Is Email Marketing?  5:16 Why Grow Your List?  8:02 Give To Get 15:36 Following Up with Your Audience 25:25 Weekly Newsletters 28:21 Solving Problems 32:15 Is Consistency Key? 34:14 Growing Traffic Through Email 37:36 Matt’s Favorite Email Service Providers 38:49 How To Start 40:39 Contacting Matt Read the podcast transcript HERE:   TOP 4 TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE You can’t control social media algorithms, but you can control your email list because you own it. Use your email to explain how you can solve the reader’s problems. Develop a lead magnet that creates a loyal audience and leaves them wanting more. Then direct them to your blog for more content related to their problem. Be consistent. Email your audience on the same day(s) every week so that they come to expect your emails and look forward to them.   Want More Blogger Genius Episodes About Email Marketing? #020: Why Email Marketing is Exciting and Easy with Kate Doster (Part 1) #021: How To Set Up An Easy and Effective Email Sales Funnel with Kate Doster (Part 2)  

Pinterest continues to make changes to their platform for the good of the user. The latest update is video. Yes, you can now upload video pins to Pinterest. Listen to this episode to learn how to get traffic from video on Pinterest. Today I’m talking about Pinterest and video with my guest, Kristen McDonnell. She has a very successful Youtube channel, Studio Knit, where she teaches people how to knit. Her Youtube channel has over 90K subscribers, and she has published over 300 videos. Kristin is sharing what she’s discovered on Pinterest with video and how to succeed. Knitting A Business Together Kristin’s background is in marketing and communications. One of her hobbies is knitting. In January of 2014, she started her YouTube channel to offer better quality videos to teach knitting. Kristin was working full time, and after a couple of months on YouTube, she was signed on by a company for her videos. How to Do Video on Pinterest While it seems like video on Pinterest has good reach, many people are not seeing people click through to their sites. That has not been Kristin’s experience however. Kristin has been focusing on video with Pinterest since December and she has seen amazing results. Out of her top 20 pins that are driving traffic, 18 of them are videos. Why You Should Start Experimenting With Video on Pinterest Kristin makes her videos for herself on her own time. Pinterest’s three goals this year are IPO, video, and creators. If Pinterest identifies video as a priority, it’s something you want to take seriously as a marketer. Monetizing Her Knitting Business About 50% of Kristin’s income is from her website ad revenue. She uses MediaVine as her ad network. At MediaVine, they are very interested in video. Kirstin can track her RPM, (revenue per thousand) on YouTube and her blog. The money she’s making per view is higher from people watching videos on her blog versus from YouTube. It’s another reason Kristin is pulling back from focusing solely on YouTube. She makes more money driving people to her site. YouTube ads, Facebook videos, Amazon affiliates are all sources of income for Kristin. Kristin also sells digital products, such as her knitting patterns. Getting Click Throughs Kristin is going through her video library and re-editing everything specifically for Pinterest. A lot of people are posting videos that were made for a different social media platform, but the vertical video is doing better for Kristin. Pinterest is clear that for the static videos, they want 2x3  size videos. Kristin has lots of horizontal and square videos, but she’s putting in the work to give Pinterest what it wants. Kristin will use a video with a static photo under the video, showing the final product. The most popular tool for making videos is called Filmora. It is a good way to get started editing videos for Pinterest. Preferred Video Format on Pinterest Kristin doesn’t just use a static image with a video underneath. One simple video you can make is using a static photo, and having it move around. You can add some text over it, and just have the photo moving for extra depth. Kristin’s best-performing image begins with a static photo of a piece of knitting and ends with a short video of her hands knitting. Kristin’s videos range from 15-30 seconds. They’re just long enough to entice people to repin or click through to her site. Kristin has done longer videos, about three minutes with her talking, but for the most part she has short, silent video. You need a call to action in your videos to give people something to respond to. Adding Videos To Pinterest To add a video to Pinterest, you just download the file and upload it like you would with a picture. Videos cannot be scheduled through Tailwind as of right now. Pinterest does have a scheduler. You can schedule up to 30 videos, but it seems a bit glitchy after 25. Kristin uses an Excel spreadsheet to make sure her videos are going to the right boards at the right time intervals. When Kristin is scheduling videos, she pulls up the website, and once the video is on Pinterest, she can add the click through, just like with a photo pin. Find your video on your desktop, add the title and description, your keywords, and hashtags. Kristin puts out three to four videos a day. Most are old pins that she is pinning to a new board. Sharing Videos Elsewhere Kristin will take the vertical videos she created and put them on Facebook, where they are performing very well. You could also take those videos and share them onto your Instagram stories or IGTV, because they are both vertical views. Using MiloTree For Blog Growth MiloTree is one of the very first things that Kristin did when she began to be intentional about growing her blog. She has had it since the fall of 2016. Kristin immediately started using her MiloTree Pinterest pop-up, and then after YouTube was added, and she began using that. Last week after listening to a podcast episode about Instagram, Kristin went to MiloTree and also got our pop-up for Instagram to grow her followers. The newest popup is for Etsy. It takes people from your blog to your Etsy shop. Kristin is also just starting to use that one. Kristin only just began focusing on Pinterest about two years ago. When she started using tactics from the Simple Pin Podcast, her website exploded over a short period of time. Since then she has been able to quit her job and move to full-time entrepreneur. Because of the MiloTree app, Kristin went from 0 to around 80K new followers. Paying For Ads on Pinterest Kristin promotes her blog on Pinterest, but once they’re on her site, they can see all the other avenues she has, and products she offers. Pinterest ads are interesting because even though you stop paying for them, they continue to promote your pins. Kristin has put some money into a video pin to see what happens, and she is getting good return on that investment. Before, it was a long term game, but now videos are giving returns so much faster because Pinterest is promoting them above all else. Riches Are In the Niches People want to do so much, but I want to encourage you to go deep on the one thing you are passionate about. Kristin is the perfect example of that. She found her sweet spot and has dedicated her focus to that. Pinterest has invited Kristin to Knit Con, which is an employee conference. Kristin is going to Pinterest to teach a knitting class at the conference. 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 converting 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 2:21 Knitting A Business Together 10:45 Video for Pinterest 12:00 Process For Creating Videos 12:58 Monetizing On Knitting 17:53 Getting Click-Throughs 24:04 Video Format 28:45 Adding Videos to Pinterest 33:45 Sharing Videos Elsewhere 35:03 Using Milotree For Growth 40:40 Paying For Ads on Pinterest 43:42 Riches Are In the Niches   Read the podcast transcript here:   Want to learn more about how to use Pinterest to grow your business? Here are more podcast episodes we recommend: #065: How to Keep Your Pinterest Account Growing and Out of Trouble with Alisa Meredith #059: What You Need to Know NOW to Get More Traffic From Pinterest with Kate Ahl #053: Powerful and Easy Pinterest Tips from Pinterest Insider, Tori Tait #044: How To Get More Pinterest Traffic by Crushing the Pinterest Algorithm with Jennifer Priest #019: How to Get Started with Promoted Pins on Pinterest with Alisa Meredith #012: How to Expand Your Business Using Group Boards on Pinterest with Kim Vij #009: How to Grow Pinterest NOW with Kate Ahl