Podcasts about pageviews

If you've been feeling discouraged about your blog traffic lately, you're not alone. In this episode of Creatives on Fire, I'm pulling back the curtain on what's really happening with blog traffic in 2025—and giving you five smart strategies to take back control. https://creativesonfirepodcast.com/episode197 How to Get More Blog Traffic I was originally going to cover a different topic this week, but after hearing so many creators talk about low traffic, broken platforms, and general burnout, I had to hit pause and share what I've personally been working through—and how I'm turning it around. Let's talk about what matters, what doesn't, and what you can actually do to get your blog traffic moving again. First: Don't Fall for the Comparison Game It's easy to feel lost when all the voices around you are saying different things. Google is broken, Pinterest is dead, Facebook is hiding links—it's enough to make any blogger feel like giving up. But the truth is, numbers don't lie. So that's where I went—to my Google Analytics. When I compared my year-to-date stats from 2024 to 2025, here's what I found: Sessions were down 20% Pageviews were down a shocking 50% Ouch. That was a wake-up call. But it also gave me clarity. Sessions are mostly out of my control. Pageviews? That's on me. Sessions vs. Pageviews: What's the Difference? If you're not familiar with these terms: Sessions = Visitors arriving at your site (they showed up to the dance) Pageviews = The number of pages they visited (how many people they danced with) So while platforms control a lot of traffic volume (sessions), you control what happens once people land on your site. That's where the pageviews come in—and that's where you can make a huge impact. How to Improve Your Blog's Page Speed Before diving into pageview tactics, I looked at what I could do to improve page speed, which still plays a huge role in search and user experience. Here's what I did: Audited my plugins to remove outdated or unnecessary tools Replaced and optimized my image compression plugin (I now use ShortPixel, which found 1,200 images that needed more compression) Even small improvements to your blog's speed can help platforms like Google and Pinterest want to send more traffic your way. 5 Smart Strategies to Increase Blog Pageviews Once I optimized the tech side, I moved on to what I could do to increase pageviews—the number that is in our control. These five strategies are what I'm actively working on now. 1. Restructure Your Blog for Simpler Navigation When readers land on your homepage or a post, can they immediately tell what you're about and where to go next? Clear navigation, especially with buttons that lead to categories (like “See All Crafts” or “Browse Recipes”), is key. 2. Connect Your Orphan Posts Go find the blog posts that aren't linked to anything else—SEO tools like Ahrefs can help. Either delete them if they don't align with your brand, or link them meaningfully into related content to keep readers clicking. 3. Add Prompts to Explore More Think: “See all fall posts” or “Get more lemon dessert ideas.” Use bold call-to-action buttons early in your post to send them to your category or roundup pages. The more paths they can follow, the more pageviews you'll get. 4. Include a ‘Start Here' Block Toward the top of your post, include a reusable block that says “New here? Start here.” Link it to a curated welcome page with your top categories, opt-ins, and reader favorites. Help new visitors instantly know how to explore. 5. Introduce a Weekly or Ongoing Series Give readers a reason to keep coming back. It could be: A 5-week project like “5 Weeks to a Porch Makeover” A two-part post (before & after) A weekly roundup of your own posts, styled for Pinterest or seasonal trends You could even turn your weekly content into a newsletter hook: “Get this week's top DIYs straight to your inbox!” The Bottom Line: Don't Panic—Make a Plan If traffic is down, take a deep breath. Stop listening to the noise and go check your own analytics. Is it sessions? Pageviews? Once you know, you can act. And that's powerful. Because blogging isn't dead—but it is evolving. And it's our job to evolve with it. Give your blog a tune-up. Guide your readers more clearly. And most importantly, keep showing up consistently. Until next time, stay creative. Links Mentioned in the Episode: ShortPixel Compression Tool FUEL Mastermind is HERE Free Guide: Start Your Blog Today You can GO HERE to subscribe and review (On mobile, scroll down past the episodes to "Ratings & Reviews" section, tap the stars, then scroll down to "Write a Review") 2025 Content Planner for Content Creators SUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW I am honored to share a new Blogging Creative on Fire each week on the podcast to bring you inspiration, behind-the-scenes secrets, and quality tips. I hope it is truly helpful for you. One of the best ways you can bless me in return is to subscribe to the show and leave a review. By subscribing, you allow each episode to be downloaded straight to your phone which helps the download numbers and ensures you never miss an episode. And when you leave a review, you help show others the value of what we provide! You can GO HERE to subscribe and review (On mobile, scroll down past the episodes to "Ratings & Reviews" section, tap the stars, then scroll down to "Write a Review")

Meet Robbie Strazynski who's working on improving his poker affiliate site, cardplayerlifestyle.com. He's navigating the new world of SEO and I'm here to help him with affiliate coaching.

Hey friend! In this episode of the Boss Lady Bloggers Podcast, I'm pulling back the curtain on one of the biggest lies in the blogging industry: that more blog traffic automatically means more income. Spoiler alert — it doesn't.If you've been obsessing over Pinterest, SEO, or pageviews, but your blog still isn't generating consistent revenue, this episode is going to shift your entire mindset.I'm diving deep into what it really means to build a conversion-focused blog and why traffic without strategy is just noise. I'll walk you through my 5-part blog monetization framework, share real-life client success stories, and give you a look at how you can turn your blog into a profitable online business—without the hustle or burnout.We're talking niche clarity, content that sells, strategic CTAs, email funnels, and the exact reasons why relying on traffic alone will keep you stuck.If you're ready to stop blogging just for clicks and finally start creating a blog business that pays, this episode was made for you.

Navigating business ownership with family members, establishing ownership of responsibilities, and creating genuine content with Echo and Erica Blickenstaff. ----- Welcome to episode 494 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Echo and Erica Blickenstaff from the food blog Favorite Family Recipes.  The Secret to Building a Family Business and Reaching 2 Million Pageviews In this episode, Echo and Erica dive into the ups and downs of running a family business. The key to their success? Dividing responsibilities and playing to each other's strengths. After struggling with everyone doing everything (hello, burnout!), they sat down to figure out who would take on what. Once that was sorted, it was like a weight was lifted, and they were able to dive deeper into their areas of expertise. They also talk about the challenges of growing a business while staying true to your roots. After taking a hit from Google's algorithm updates, they realized the importance of diversifying their revenue streams and not relying too much on search traffic. With 2 million monthly page views (!!!) and a focus on authentic, family-driven content, they've learned to balance growth with staying genuine. Whether you're running a family business or just trying to keep things organized, this episode is full of actionable tips and inspiring insights! Three episode takeaways: Dividing Responsibilities for Success: Working with family can make decision-making tricky, but once the three sisters divided up their responsibilities based on each person's strengths and weaknesses, everything fell into place. It helped them work more efficiently and allowed everyone to dive deeper into their areas of expertise. Navigating the Business Roles: Inspired by the E Myth framework, they identified who best fit the roles of the entrepreneur, manager, and technician in their business. Understanding these roles helped them streamline operations and keep the business running smoothly. Adapting and Staying Authentic: After being impacted by Google's Helpful Content Update, they've been focusing on diversifying their revenue streams and staying true to their roots by creating authentic, family-focused content that AI can't replicate. Resources: Favorite Family Recipes The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber Slicing Pie by Mike Moyer The EOS business framework The Minne Stuga Snackdive Clariti Semrush Asana Most Requested Copycat Dishes — their third cookbook! Follow Favorite Family Recipes on Instagram Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group Thank you to our sponsors! This episode is sponsored by Yoast and Memberful. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors. Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Chris en Jaap spreken met de hoofdredacteur van Wielerflits, een platform dat tegenwoordig vaak primeurs weet te bemachtigen die vroeger naar traditionele kranten gingen. Samen bespreken ze de evolutie van sportjournalistiek. Na de recente belangrijke Europese wedstrijden van Ajax, Feyenoord en PSV maakt Chris de zakelijke balans op: wat is de huidige marktwaarde van de spelers? SportClash is een productie van PodcastJunkies en is mede tot stand gekomen in samenwerking met het leukste padel merk van nederland, Majesty Padel

What do you do when you can't find a shirt that fits right? Well, if you're Tanya Zhang, you launch a business. Tanya and her partner Wesley identified a gap in the market: a lack of nice-fitting dress shirts for slim men. So, in 2018, they launched a very niche business called Nimble Made. In this interview, she talks about how she validated the idea and spread the word initially about the company. She shares details on finding the right supplier, identifying the company's core demographic, and using SEO to expand its footprint. Tanya's story is very inspirational. She quit her day job before she was profitable to go all-in on her dream, and with its current 6-figure revenue, it looks like it's all working out. Tanya kicks off the episode by sharing her background and her experience in creative roles, and then she shares how she decided to jump off the corporate ladder and launch a company. She noticed that her partner and the people around her were struggling to find slim dress shirts for work that fit properly. After validating the idea, she created Nimble Made, in 2018. She had no experience in the fashion industry, but she dove right in. Tanya shares the initial steps she took to launch the business, which included getting samples from a supplier and finding someone with a low minimum order and good communication. Tanya talks about developing their marketing message and working to validate their idea and create a community, and how they quit their day jobs after just six months to dedicate themselves entirely to the company, even though it wasn't yet profitable. Nimble Made is earning a 6-figure revenue and the website had 90k+ pageviews in the last month. Tanya shares how they pushed their brand story and got the word out initially about their company, with many features in leading publications. Once it took off, she speaks about how they scaled the business and were able to offer more than 40 different types of shirts to their customers, and how they used their marketing budget with paid ads on Facebook and SEO. Tanya then talks about their SEO efforts and how she used ChatGPT to accelerate growth, and also shares how the creation of customer personas and pinpointing the core demographic were really key in successfully marketing their products and determining exactly what content to write. She also discusses how she uses AI to produce content for the blog. In the last portion of the interview, she talks about diversifying the company's revenue with a YouTube channel, display ads, and affiliate marketing, and the use of email marketing. She also shares her thoughts on quitting her job to go all-in on the company, her worst-case scenario, and the way she planned to explain the experience to future employers had it not worked out. Links & Resources Nimble Made Alibaba Ready to join a niche publishing mastermind, and hear from industry experts each week?  Join the Niche Pursuits Community here: https://community.nichepursuits.com Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links?  Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

Evolving your business to fit your audience's needs, assembling a team of recipe developers, and growing an email list from 1,000 to 75,000 subscribers with Jason Norris from Recipe Teacher. ----- Welcome to episode 464 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Jason Norris from Recipe Teacher. How Email and High-Quality Content Helped Jason Norris Reach Millions of Monthly Pageviews with Recipe Teacher Jason Norris has gone on quite a journey with his site, Recipe Teacher. From trying to sell the site for $1000, to growing a site that reaches millions of monthly pageviews and is worth well over a million dollars. In this interview, Jason shares more about the growth of his site, how he has built a team of recipe developers, his approach to SEO, and more. He also explains how he grew his email list from 1,000 to over 75,000 subscribers by working with our friend Allea at Duett and, in the process, learned that many of his readers are seniors! Jason's journey to success is a really fun one to hear about, and one that we know will inspire many of you to keep plugging along. Enjoy! In this episode, you'll learn: How he went from trying to sell his site (Recipe Teacher) for $1000 (with no offers!) to building the same site to be worth over a million dollars. How he developed and sold his first website — WindyCityFishing (and his second website)! The origin story of Recipe Teacher (and how the Instant Pot changed his life). The importance of evolving your business and being adaptable. When he first felt like he had made Recipe Teacher successful, and what it felt like when he first qualified for Raptive and saw his earnings skyrocket. How he has grown his team of recipe developers. Why he has been focusing on updating old recipes. When he decided to take Recipe Teacher full-time. His approach to SEO and keyword research. Why he prioritizes outsourcing certain aspects of this business. How he grew his email list from 1,000 to 75,000 subscribers in 3 years. How focusing on email marketing helped Jason learn more about his site's demographics (spoiler alert: he has a huge audience of seniors!). Resources: Recipe Teacher WindyCityFishing Flippa Quiet Light 032: Buying & Selling Websites with Mark Daoust from Quiet Light 159: Different Ways to Create an Income Online with Mark Daoust Raptive Google AdSense Upwork Pinch of Yum Keysearch Semrush Google Search Console Google Trends Duett Allea on The Food Blogger Pro Podcast here, here, and here ConvertKit Constant Contact Email Jason Follow Jason on Facebook and Instagram Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti and Raptive. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors. Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Leaning into the science of SEO, committing to a niche, and dividing attention between three websites and businesses. ----- Welcome to episode 463 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Shaunda Necole from The Soul Food Pot. How a Love of SEO and Entrepreneurship Helped Shaunda Necole Grow Three Successful Websites and Hit 1 Million Monthly Pageviews Shaunda Necole has a true passion for being an entrepreneur — from her first business owning a cheerleading product company to today, running three websites, a food tour of Las Vegas, writing books, and more. In this interview, she shares more about her love of SEO and keyword research and how her SEO strategy has changed in light of Google's recent Helpful Content Updates. She also explains how she divides her time between her three websites (a food blog, a travel website, and her personal site), in addition to her SEO consulting, Las Vegas food tours, and upcoming travel book. In a time where SEO can feel really unpredictable, Shaunda's perspective and approach to SEO is one we all need to hear (and she clearly knows what she's doing — her food blog hits 1 million monthly pageviews during the holiday season)! We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. In this episode, you'll learn: How Shaunda first got interested in SEO via Pinterest. How she first started out as an entrepreneur in the cheerleading product space. How she went from cheerleading products to MacKenzie-Childs to the food space. More about how she started with brand partnerships (and why she brought on a manager). Why (and how) she transitioned from brand partnerships to SEO. How she has committed to her niche (Southern soul food) over the years. Why she enjoys keyword research and SEO for her site. How she divides her attention between her three websites. Why she syndicates content from her travel website to MSN (hint: backlinks!). How content syndication with MSN works (plugin, canonical links, ad profit sharing, appeasing Google, and more). Her favorite keyword research tool and how that has changed since the recent Helpful Content Updates (HCUs). How she is updating and republishing content to recover from the HCU. The importance of being “well-rounded.” Resources: The Soul Food Pot Shaunda Necole White & Sable Wix MacKenzie-Childs 406: Monetization Strategies in the Influencer Industry with Brittany Hennessy Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media Johanna Voss Las Vegas Right Now Tiny Bites: Understanding and Reacting to Google Algorithm Updates Consulting with Shaunda Superfrico Follow Shaunda on Instagram Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti and Raptive.  Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors. Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Today I delve into the world of Pinterest marketing. I'm Jillian Leslie, the host of The Blogger Genius Podcast and co-founder of MiloTreeCart, and today I'm excited to share the insights from my recent conversation with Kayla Watkins, a Pinterest marketing expert who specializes in helping bloggers amplify their organic traffic and monetize their content. The Ever-Evolving World of Pinterest In the digital age, staying ahead of the curve is crucial, and for niche bloggers, the recent Google updates have been a game-changer. As someone who's passionate about helping fellow bloggers diversify their income streams, I've seen many turn to selling digital products as a viable option. In fact, I offer a free 20-minute digital product strategy call to help develop a digital product strategy and share best practices for monetization success. During my chat with Kayla, we explore the current trends in Pinterest marketing and how to make the most of this visual platform. Kayla's expertise in crafting effective Pinterest strategies to increase pageviews is invaluable, especially for bloggers in the food, fashion, beauty, and lifestyle categories. Show Notes: MiloTreeCart Book a FREE 20-minute strategy call with me MiloTreeCart Affiliate Program Personality Quiz: What Digital Product Should I Create? Kayla Watkins MiloTree Pop-Up App Join My Blogger Genius Email List Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group All Blogger Genius Podcast Episodes Tailwind Canva Subscribe to the Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes YouTube Spotify The Art of Pinterest Optimization Pinterest is more than just a collection of beautiful images; it's a search engine marketing tool that requires a keen understanding of keyword research, content optimization, and pinning strategy. Kayla emphasizes the importance of finding the right keywords so you can create fresh pins to pin to your relevant boards, and updating existing blog content to stay relevant and maximize engagement. She also shares her approach to content scheduling and distribution, recommending tools like Tailwind to schedule pins and Canva for designing eye-catching Pinterest pins. Kayla's advice on pin design, Pinterest boards, pin titles and descriptions is clear: keep them concise, informative, and keyword-rich to resonate with Pinterest users. The Long Game: Building Sustainable Traffic from Pinterest One of the most striking points Kayla makes is the long-term nature of Pinterest traffic. Unlike the instant gratification of platforms like Instagram, Pinterest rewards patience and persistence. It's about trial and error, refining strategies over time, and understanding that significant results may take months to materialize. Kayla also touched on the future of Pinterest, predicting a continued focus on e-commerce. She encourages businesses to align their strategies with user behavior on the platform and to consider Pinterest ads to amplify viral content and evergreen posts. Leveraging Pinterest for Long-Term Stability Pinterest stands out as a social media platform that drives traffic to blogs or websites, offering a level of stability and control that's hard to find elsewhere. Kayla contrasted this with the fleeting nature of success on other social media platforms, highlighting Pinterest's role as a reliable partner in a business's long-term strategy as long as you understand the Pinterest algorithm. Repurposing Blog Content for Maximum Impact and Pageviews During our conversation, Kayla shares a personal success story about repurposing her Instagram content on Threads, the new social media platform by Instagram. By translating her most saved Instagram posts to fit the Threads format, she's seen a significant increase in engagement and email subscribers. This strategy has proven to be a game-changer, allowing her to insert her expertise into relevant conversations and grow her community. Key Takeaways and Next Steps My biggest takeaway from this enlightening discussion is the importance of a comprehensive Pinterest marketing strategy. It's essential to have a defined blog niche, solve problems for your audience, and incorporate relevant keywords into your content. Remember, Pinterest is a marathon, not a sprint, and it rewards those who are consistent and strategic in their content creation. If you're looking to diversify your income and drive traffic to your blog, consider leveraging tools like MiloTreeCart to sell digital products and create sales pages with ease. It's an excellent way to start monetizing your content and expanding your revenue streams. I hope you've found this blog post informative and inspiring. If you're enjoying the insights shared here, please consider leaving a rating on iTunes. Your feedback helps me continue to bring you valuable content and expert guests. I look forward to connecting with you again soon. Master Google Updates: Essential Survival Guide for Niche Bloggers! with Steve Wiideman Unleashing the Power of Pinterest with AI with Missy Lund Cutting-Edge Social Media Tactics for 2024 with Lauren Litt MiloTreeCart, the Easiest Way to Sell Digital Products I also want to introduce you to the MiloTreeCart, a tool designed for non-techies to sell digital products easily. It comes with features like fill-in-the-blank sales pages, check-out pages, a sales dashboard, upsells, and customer support. MiloTreeCart is currently available for a lifetime deal of $349 or three easy installments of $116.33.

Wie setzt man ein umfangreiches Reporting auf? Wie vermeidet man Fehler in Google Analytics? Wie identifiziert man die aussichtsreichsten SEO-Keywords? Die Antworten liefert Online-Marketing Experte Andre Alpar. Jeden Monat beschäftigt er sich intensiv mit den ganz persönlichen Fragen der Community und liefert tiefgreifende Tipps und Erklärungen. Diese Probleme löst er in der Episode: Rasso – Reportings Wir haben ein Reporting über Sheets aufgebaut, das manuell gepflegt wird. Nun wollen wir unsere Reportings visueller gestalten und einfacher zu handeln haben. Auswertungen à la Google Analytics (zu Followerwachstum, Interaktionsrate, Reichweite von Posts und Reels etc) wären gut, um schneller zu erkennen, was gut und was nicht gut funktioniert hat. Hast Du hierzu Tipps, wo und wie man ein solches Reporting am besten aufbaut? Gibt es hier z. B. gute Möglichkeiten mit dem Looker Studio? Und Vorlagen bzw. Tools, die schon fertige Dashboards bereitstellen? Holger – Google Analytics Daten Für Unternehmen, die ihre Mediareichweite über Werbeanzeigen vermarkten, ist die Kommunikation von Seitenaufrufen, Sitzungen etc. bekanntlich sehr wichtig. Diese werden oft über Google Analytics oder andere Dienste erfasst. Jetzt gab es den Fall, dass für ein paar Tage fast keine (0-10 statt mehrere Tausend) Seitenaufrufe in Google Analytics 4 erfasst wurden. Alle anderen Messwerte wie Sitzungen und User wurden jedoch korrekt erfasst. Wie würdest Du hier vorgehen? Man kann diese Daten ja leider nicht mehr nachträglich erfassen – auch wenn Google die Pageviews ja quasi für die Berechnung der anderen Kennzahlen nutzt. Gibts Empfehlungen, wie man solche Fehler vermeidet? Export der Rohdaten nach Big Query z. B. Oder sollte man direkt zwei Google Analytics implementieren als Back-up? Diana – SEO Keywords Ich habe ein Feinkostgeschäft in Köln mit angeschlossenem Onlineshop. SEO-technisch habe ich mich dank OMR schon ein wenig weiterbilden können und ich kann zumindest kleine positive Veränderungen sowohl in Klickzahlen als auch Conversion Rate sehen. Allerdings habe ich bisher noch große Zweifel daran, dass ich wirklich schon die richtigen Suchbegriffe identifiziert habe. Feinkost Online Shop, Delikatessen und Feinkost Geschenke werden gar nicht mal so viel gesucht. Daher die Frage: Wie finde ich überhaupt die richtigen Suchbegriffe heraus, um mein SEO auf diese aufzusetzen? Andre erklärt, gibt Kontext und liefert Empfehlungen, die sich universell anwenden lassen, sodass auch du hier einiges mitnehmen kannst. Hast du auch eine Frage an Andre? Schick uns eine Mail an report@omr.com und gewinne einen OMR Report nach Wahl, wenn deine Frage in den Podcast kommt. Abonniere den Kanal und schreibe uns eine Bewertung auf Apple Podcasts, wenn dir OMR Education gefällt.

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Niche Pursuits News Podcast! This is the place to hear the latest news in the SEO and content publishing industries and it's where Spencer and Jared break it all down. This week, as always, they also share progress on their side hustles as well as two very, very weird niche sites. The first topic up for discussion is Google's decision to rebrand Bard as Gemini. Google certainly is putting a lot of effort into building out AI tools, and this will be one of their flagship products.  What do Spencer and Jared think of the company's decision? And what new features will this tool have?  The next topic is how Google's updated its SEO Starter Guide. The guide originally dates back to 2008 And is a guide specifically for beginners. Although there's probably nothing meaty there for people that are familiar with SEO, Spencer and Jared did highlight a few interesting items, in particular, from the section on things you should not do. What kind of advice did they share? What does Google say about article length? And how about PageRank and EEAT? And what about business cards?  The last news item they discuss is how Google won't be able to proceed with third-party cookie deprecation. This means that the phasing out of third-party cookies may or may not be delayed as Google has been asked to comply with additional safety requirements in the UK. This is big news because it could potentially affect content creators' earnings, Although it's true that advertising is Google's bread and butter and it will likely do everything it can to maintain it, this is definitely a topic you'll want to keep an eye on! In the Shiny Object Shenanigans portion of the podcast, Spencer goes first with an update on his Facebook traffic side hustle. He was able to reduce the cost of his likes campaign to grow his page. He shares a lot of the data behind the campaigns, but the real question is whether those likes are driving traffic to his website. Is it working? What does his Google Analytics reveal? And what is he going to do moving forward? When it's Jared's turn, he provides an update on his Weekend Growth YouTube channel, which officially qualifies for monetization. He shares the stats behind his growth and reveals that the site is less than a year old.  He also offers an update on his public speaking side hustle with an exciting announcement. Check out the episode to hear what it is! When it comes to weird niche sites, Spencer takes the lead with a very weird site called Is It Friday Yet. According to Ahrefs, the site doesn't get any traffic, although there is a very entertaining video on YouTube that reviews the website, so tune in to hear more about that. When it was Jared's turn, he revealed a 1-page weird niche site: The Office Stare Machine, which lets you input an emotion and it will show stares from Office characters conveying that emotion. They test it out, and the results are pretty funny!  This DR30 site ranks for just 28 keywords, but it does have 49k likes from Facebook. It doesn't get a lot of organic traffic, and Spencer and Jared talk about the potential strategies the owner might be using on Facebook. Where does it have the potential to do well? And that brings us to the end of another great episode of The Niche Pursuits News Podcast. We hope this weekly dose of the latest news has brought you up to speed in the SEO and content creation space and you're feeling inspired by Spencer and Jared's side hustles. See you next Friday! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative

On episode #38, Jimmy speaks with Alina Benny from Aura. They discuss:- How Alina built a rock solid bench of freelancers- Why attention to detail and SOPs are the not-so-secret key to success- How she runs a massive blog with a tiny team

Kurt Schmidt is an extremely successful site owner who is back on the podcast to discuss all sorts of traffic and content-related topics. Kurt is the owner of a portfolio of Disney-focused sites generating HUGE amounts of traffic. He is a true expert in Google Discover and other alternative traffic sources. And with all the Google updates, there's perhaps no better time to pick his brain. One of the big changes he's made this year is shifting focus from prioritizing page views to user engagement metrics like time on page, highlighting the importance of engaging content. Ingrained in all of his sites is the importance of balancing tried and true, evergreen topics with up-to-date, trending, and conversational content. His team does a great job of creating content fast for the newsy topics in the niche as well as long-term organic traffic. There was even a period when they were publishing 90 articles a day, but at such a scale comes issues of quality control and fact-checking. So, Kurt offers up a ton of wisdom on solutions that will interest and help site owners of all sizes. For instance, creative ways to tackle the same topic in fresh and unique ways, tips on AI, as well as various new traffic sources to pursue. Overall, Kurt gives us yet another insightful look into online publishing, with awesome tips and strategies to help you get more traffic and make more money. Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter  Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhi...  Get SEO Consulting from the Niche Pursuits Podcast Host, Jared Bauman: https://www.nichepursuits.com/201crea... 

Unsubscribe season; Unwrapped & unpaid; Q-bot; META's all for the kids; stealing page views with AI; the coming change in the web; Boring; Ronaldo NFT lawsuit; pink slip season appetizers; DevTernity female cos-play; death at Amazon; Moscow's criminal wanted list adds Andy Stone; locked out of Google; as the TwiX turns; Mr. Free Speech; The Crown; Welcome to Wrexham; Doctor Who; Squid Game Challenge; Milli Vanilli; AI video goes Giffy; no-BS games; Jason beats Auphonic; IKEA's smart home devices; Google drive files goes missing; DeepMind finds the Dark Crystal; finishing up The Last Emperox; Galaxy Outlaws; Fooled; Comixology; 404 Media; sleep data; AT&T Hemisphere; public transit & privacy; gadget catalogs; shaving & supple, elastic skin.Sponsors:Mood - For 20% off your order and a FREE gram of THCa flower, go to hellomood.com and use promo code GOG.Dark Web Academy - Head over to darkwebacademy.com and use code "gogfree" for complimentary access to ANY course!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordPrivate Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.Show notes at https://gog.show/627/FOLLOW UPAmazon unveils Q, an AI-powered chatbot for businessesMeta turned a blind eye to kids on its platforms for years, unredacted lawsuit allegesInstagram reportedly served up child-sexualizing reels to followers of teen influencersGuy Brags About "Stealing" Millions of Pageviews by Rewriting Competitors' Articles Using AINeil Gaiman's Radical Vision for the Future of the InternetSeven years after Elon Musk started The Boring Company, the company only has 2.4 miles of tunnel to show for itIN THE NEWSCristiano Ronaldo faces $1 billion class-action lawsuit for endorsing worthless NFTsMass layoffs reportedly hit Marvel Snap publisher NuverseA popular female coding influencer's Instagram is apparently run by a manA 20-year-old Amazon employee died at work. Indiana issued a $7,000 fine.Moscow adds Meta spokesperson to criminal wanted list, TASS reportsHow Your Child's Online Mistake Can Ruin Your Digital LifeX May Lose Up to $75 Million in Revenue as More Advertisers Pull OutElon Musk curses out advertisers who left X over antisemitic contentX CEO Linda Yaccarino publicly backs Musk after he says 'f*ck yourself' to advertisersAfter Musk tirade, X faces prospect of more advertisers fleeing‘If Tesla gets unionized it's because we deserve it': Elon Musk says he's made his factory workers millionaires but concedes some may still turn against himTesla starts releasing to employees FSD v12 – a critical update to self-driving effortMEDIA CANDYMilli VanilliSquid Game ChallengeSlow HorsesDoctor Who: The Star BeastDoctor Who's Russell T. Davies On the Importance of Showing Trans StrugglesThe Crown Season 6Welcome to Wrexham Season 2APPS & DOODADSAI Video is Animating Classic MemesGenerative AI for Beginners - A CourseNo-Bullshit GamesIKEA's new smart home sensors focus on safety and avoiding water damageGoogle is investigating a Drive issue that causes files to go missingNew technology installed beneath Detroit street can charge electric vehicles as they driveMillions of new materials discovered with deep learningAT THE LIBRARYThe Last Emperox (The Interdependency Book 3) by John ScalziGalaxy Outlaws: The Complete Black Ocean Mobius Missions, 1-16.5 by J. S. MorinFooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas TalebImportant Changes to the Comixology app starting December 4, 2023George R.R. Martin Has No (New) PagesTHE DARK SIDE WITH DAVEThe CyberWireDave BittnerHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopCEO Reminds Everyone His Company Collects Customers' Sleep Data to Make Zeitgeisty Point About OpenAI DramaUS Senator calls for the public release of AT&T ‘Hemisphere' surveillance recordsSmarter public transit comes at the cost of rider anonymityDAK and the Golden Age of Gadget CatalogsViking Revolution Pre Shave Oil for MenCLOSING SHOUT-OUTSShout out to Ted (aka Trackpants) & Christine @ Reid's ChocolatesLinda Salzman Sagan, co-creator of the Voyager Golden Record and Pioneer Plaque, RIPShane MacGowan, Pogues Singer, Dead at 65See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Educating their audience about data privacy, prioritizing annual goal setting, and building a team with Liz and Lauren Allen from Tastes Better from Scratch. ----- Welcome to episode 423 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Lauren and Liz Allen from Tastes Better from Scratch. Building a Food Blog with 11 Million Monthly Pageviews Twin sisters Liz and Lauren Allen started Tastes Better from Scratch in 2009 and have been working together on the blog ever since. They are incredibly strategic about every aspect of their business, from hiring and content creation to data privacy and goal setting. In this interview, Bjork chats with Liz and Lauren about how they've expanded their business over the years and worked to maintain the huge growth they saw in 2020 that skyrocketed their pageviews from 5 to 11 million per month. They are also open and honest about their plans for the future of Tastes Better from Scratch in a world with AI and changing data privacy laws. If you're looking for new ways to think about growing your business while leaning into your strengths, you won't want to miss this episode! In this episode, you'll learn: About the origin story of Tastes Better from Scratch. How they went from 5 million monthly pageviews to 11 million monthly pageviews in 2020, and how they've maintained that growth since then. Their approach to updating and republishing content. What tools they use to analyze how their content is performing. How they plan their content calendars. What the Tastes Better from Scratch team looks like, and how they decide to outsource a task. How they create processes for their business. How they develop their annual plans and goals for the business. What they think the future of food blogging looks like (AI, data privacy, digital advertising, etc.). Why they're prioritizing email marketing right now. What they think the most important skills are in their current roles. Resources: Tastes Better from Scratch Semrush Google Analytics Google Search Console Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert Loom Slack Monday.com Bard Tastes Better from Scratch Meal Plans Manychat Follow Liz and Lauren on Instagram and Facebook Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Episode 173 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of August 7 -11, 2023.1. Amazon is Testing AI to Write Product Descriptions for Sellers - Amazon is reportedly testing a generative AI tool for sellers that writes copy for product listings. This marks a significant move in integrating large language models (LLMs) into ecommerce. The tool is anticipated to revolutionize how merchants create and optimize product descriptions.According to a report by TechCrunch, Amazon is testing the tool with a small group of sellers. The tool is able to generate titles and descriptions for product listings, as well as bullet points and images. The tool is still under development, but it has the potential to save sellers a significant amount of time and effort.The use of LLMs in ecommerce is still in its early stages, but it has the potential to disrupt the industry. LLMs can be used to generate product descriptions, write customer reviews, and even create marketing campaigns. As LLMs become more sophisticated, they are likely to play an increasingly important role in ecommerce.2. Meta to Replace Inactive Group Admins: What You Need to Know -  Meta has begun notifying some group admins that they need to be more active in moderating their groups, or Meta will assign another group member to the job instead. This change is likely in response to the ongoing moderator conflict at Reddit, which has seen some large and popular communities become unmoderated or even taken over by bad actors.The notification that Meta is sending to group admins says that they need to "take action to maintain activity" within their groups within one week. This includes things like posting new content, responding to comments, and enforcing the group's rules. If admins do not take action, Meta will assign another group member to the role.This change is likely to have a significant impact on many Facebook groups. Many groups rely on their admins to keep them active and moderated, and if those admins are replaced, it could lead to the decline or even collapse of those groups. It is also possible that this change could lead to an increase in spam and abuse in Facebook groups, as there will be fewer admins to monitor them.3. YouTube Cracks Down on Spammy Links in Shorts - YouTube is rolling out a new linking policy that will make it more difficult for creators to post spammy links in their Shorts videos and channel descriptions. The new policy will take effect on August 31, 2023.Under the new policy, links in Shorts videos and channel descriptions will be automatically converted to unclickable text. Creators will still be able to include links in their videos and descriptions, but they will need to be manually approved by YouTube before they can be clicked on.YouTube is making this change in an effort to curb the spread of spam on its platform. In recent months, YouTube has seen an increase in the number of spammy links being posted in Shorts videos and channel descriptions. These links often lead to malicious websites or scams.The new linking policy is expected to make it more difficult for spammers to spread their content on YouTube. It will also make it easier for users to identify and avoid spammy links.4. YouTube Expands Link Limit for Channel Profiles: Add Up to 14 Links Now! - YouTube is rolling out an update that will allow creators to add up to 14 links to their channel profiles, up from the previous limit of 5. This new feature is designed to give creators more ways to promote their content and drive traffic to their websites, social media profiles, and other online destinations.To add links to your channel profile, simply go to the "About" tab and click on the "Links" section. You can then enter up to 14 links, each with a title and a description. The links will be displayed in a grid format on your channel profile, and viewers can click on them to visit the linked destinations.This new feature is a welcome addition for YouTube creators, as it gives them more flexibility and control over how they promote their content. It can also help creators to drive traffic to their websites and social media profiles, which can help them to grow their audience and reach more viewers.5. YouTube Makes it Easier to Find Longer Content from Shorts - YouTube is testing a new feature that will allow creators to link their Shorts clips to longer video uploads. This will make it easier for viewers to find and watch longer content that is related to the Shorts they have enjoyed.The new feature is currently being tested with a small group of creators. If it is successful, it could be rolled out to all creators in the coming months.The ability to link Shorts clips to longer video uploads is a significant development for YouTube. It could help creators to grow their audiences and drive more traffic to their channels. It could also help to make YouTube a more discoverable platform for users.6. YouTube's New Report: See How Your Videos Are Performing by Format - YouTube has announced a new report that will allow creators to see how their videos are performing by format. The report, which is available in YouTube Studio, breaks down views, watch time, and other metrics by video format, including Shorts, longform videos, and live streams.This new report is a valuable tool for creators who want to understand how their viewers are engaging with their content. It can help creators to identify which formats are performing well and which ones could use improvement. This information can then be used to make strategic decisions about future content creation.For example, if a creator sees that their Shorts are getting a lot of views but their longform videos are not, they may want to focus on creating more Shorts in the future. Or, if a creator sees that their live streams are getting a lot of engagement but their Shorts are not, they may want to experiment with different ways to promote their live streams.The new report is just one of the many ways that YouTube is helping creators to succeed. By providing creators with insights into their performance, YouTube is empowering them to make informed decisions about their content creation.7. 3 Ways to Keep Your AI Chatbot Content Out of Google Search - AI chatbots are becoming increasingly common on websites across the globe, providing instant customer service and engagement. But AI-powered agents can also produce inaccurate content that website owners may not want to be a part of their human-edited and generated content. Google's Search Advocate, John Mueller, recently advised website owners to consider ways to block artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot content from indexing. This is because AI chatbot content can often be repetitive and low-quality, which can negatively impact a website's search engine ranking.There are three main ways to block Google from indexing AI chatbot content: Use a roboted iframe. This is a frame that the site owner can control independently, allowing them to apply a noindex directive to it, which prevents it from being indexed by search engine bots since Google can crawl iframes. Use a roboted JavaScript file / resource. This is a file that can be used to control how Google crawls and indexes a website. By adding a noindex directive to this file, Google will be prevented from indexing the AI chatbot content. Use the data-nosnippet attribute. This attribute can be added to HTML elements to prevent them from being included in the snippet that is displayed in search results. This can be useful for blocking AI chatbot content that is not relevant to the user's search intent. It is important to note that these methods are not foolproof. Google may still be able to index AI chatbot content if it is not properly blocked. However, by using these methods, website owners can significantly reduce the chances of their AI chatbot content being indexed.8. Google Ads Updates: Get More Customers with New Features - Google Ads is rolling out a number of new features and making major updates to its platform in the coming months. These changes are designed to help advertisers improve their campaigns and get better results. The changes to Google Ads were unveiled via an announcement on their announcement page. They wrote: “This holiday season is just around the corner, which means one thing: shoppers and retailers alike are working on their checklists. In fact, today's shoppers are being more intentional with their holiday purchases, with 74% planning their shopping ahead of time.” “AI-powered tools are transforming businesses' ability to move faster, better understand the intent of their customers, and engage them in new ways across the path to purchase.” “Today, we're excited to share new tools to generate insights and new features to help you do more with Google AI.” Here are  the things you should know about: Local inventory ads and Omnichannel Shoppers - According to Google's data, 61% of holiday shoppers use five or more channels while shopping over two days. To reach these omnichannel consumers, Google is expanding ad formats and adding new optimization tools. For example, businesses can now use “Pickup Later” annotations for local inventory ads if they don't have a feed set up. Insights On Early Holiday Shopping - Advertisers can now access more granular performance reporting on products, brands, and labels over time in the Ads interface to capitalize on this. The Performance tab in Google Merchant Center has also been upgraded with competitive benchmarks on bestselling items and pricing visibility. Targeting - Google is enhancing the promotions, shipping details, and visuals on product listings to help items stand out. Advertisers can now target deals to specific locations and categories. Same-day delivery and return information will also be more prominent. AI Tools In Product Studio - Google is launching new tools to help retailers improve product images and create 3D visual assets. Product Studio will be available within Merchant Center Next, Google's upgraded interface for managing Shopping campaigns. It will also be available on the Google & YouTube App on Shopify. Shopify merchants can access Product Studio directly through their Shopify account. Early adopters can test out Product Studio ahead of its full release. AI Strategy in Performance Max - Google urges more advertisers to adopt its AI-powered Performance Max campaigns this holiday season. The platform can now optimize for high lifetime value new customers, helping businesses focus spending on valuable first-time buyers. Early adopters who have switched from standard Shopping campaigns to Performance Max have reportedly seen a 25% increase in conversion value on average, at similar return on ad spend levels. 9. Google Updates Performance Max Best Practices: How to Get Better Results - Google has updated its Performance Max best practices guide, with new recommendations for businesses of all sizes. The guide covers everything from setting goals and budgets to creating effective creative.One of the key changes in the new guide is the emphasis on using Performance Max to achieve specific business goals. The updated best practices guide underscores how Performance Max campaigns can help retailers optimize ad spending across Google's search, display, YouTube, and other inventory. In short – Performance Max utilizes AI to present customers with the most relevant combination of ad creatives across devices and marketing channels.The guide also provides new recommendations for leveraging Google's Performance Planner for optimizing budgets and bids. Performance Planner gives retailers suggested budget and bid adjustments to help campaigns achieve better performance for the same spend. Additionally, the guide offers tips on demand forecasts to understand predicted trends relevant to your business.The guide encourages marketers to experiment to measure the uplift in conversion value from switching to Performance Max. Here is what Google wrote: “If you are running Standard Shopping campaigns, you can run an experiment in order to measure the uplift in conversion value from switching to Performance Max. … If you're satisfied with the results of your A/B experiment, you can then continue running your new Performance Max campaign to replace your Standard Shopping campaign.”The guide provides tips on strategies like lower ROAS targets to increase visibility for high-priority products leading to significant retail moments. “For example, you may want a campaign for holiday merchandise, a campaign for high-margin products, and a campaign for everything else. Setting a lower ROAS target can also help maximize visibility for these products…”To help Performance Max campaigns learn faster, Google advises consolidating campaign structures where possible. “When setting up a new Performance Max campaign, you should consolidate your campaign structure where you can. Google AI works best when it can optimize performance across channels using a unified budget.”With the latest Performance Max capabilities, retailers can optimize for acquiring high-value customers. “New Customer Acquisition with High Value optimization is also now available in beta to help you optimize for new customers with high predicted lifetime value.”The guide concludes with a thorough review of reporting and insights, focusing on using retail-centric reports.The updated Performance Max best practices guide is a valuable resource for businesses of all sizes. By following the recommendations in the guide, businesses can improve the performance of their campaigns and achieve their desired results.10. Google Downgrades HowTo and FAQ Rich Results: What You Need to Know - Google will be showing fewer rich results in its search results, specifically showing less FAQ rich results across the search result snippets and limiting How-To rich results to desktop devices.Google said the FAQs, FAQPage structured data, rich results will only be shown for “well-known, authoritative government and health websites.”For all other sites, this rich result will no longer be shown regularly, Google added. Which sites Google decides to show them for are automated and algorithmic.Google said there is no reason to remove structured data from your site. Google said “Structured data that's not being used does not cause problems for Search, but also has no visible effects in Google Search.”Google said the How-To, from HowTo structured data, rich results will only be shown for desktop users, and not for users on mobile devices.Google added that “with mobile indexing, Google indexes the mobile version of a website as the basis for indexing: to have How-To rich results shown on desktop, the mobile version of your website must include the appropriate markup.”Google wrote, “For both of these items, you may also notice this change in the Search Console reporting for your website. In particular, this will be visible in the metrics shown for FAQ and How-To search appearances in the performance report, and in the number of impressions reported in the appropriate enhancement reports. This change does not affect the number of items reported in the enhancement reports. The search appearances, and the reports, will remain in Search Console for the time being.”11. Semantic HTML: Can It Help With SEO Success in 2023? - Semantic HTML is the practice of using HTML elements to convey the meaning of the content on a web page. This is in contrast to using HTML elements only for presentational purposes.There are many benefits to using semantic HTML for SEO. First, it helps search engines understand the content of your page better. This can lead to your page ranking higher in search results. Second, it can help users find the information they are looking for on your page more easily. Third, it can make your page more accessible to people with disabilities.Google's John Mueller, in a recent SEO Office Hours session, answered a question about whether the semantic HTML element has an impact on Google. John answered the question directly but there is a fair bit of nuance that was left out of his answer that needs to be addressed.The questioner asked: “Does the use of an HTML tag have an impact on Google? Is it better to put the content of a product listing page in an tag?”John responded: “The HTML element does not have any particular effect in Google Search. This is similar to lots of other kinds of HTML tags. There's so much more to using HTML than just Google Search though! Sometimes there are accessibility or semantic reasons to use a specific kind of markup, so don't only focus on SEO.”John Mueller correctly said that there are “semantic reasons” for some HTML elements. Semantic HTML tells developers (or search engines) what the purpose of that code is. For example, the element tells developers or search engines that whatever is wrapped within that element is the footer section of the webpage. The semantic HTML element describes the purpose of that section of content. The element makes it easier for search engines to identify where the main content is, making it easier to find where to find what Google's Martin Splitt calls, the Centerpiece Annotation.Of course you need to have good content in the block and if you do then you definitely make it easier for the Google crawler.12. Google Warns: Content Pruning Can Hurt Your SEO - Gizmodo published an article “exposing” CNET for deleting thousands of pages, as they put it to “game Google Search.” This, even though content pruning is a fairly common advanced SEO practice. And CNET decided which pages to “redirect, repurpose or remove (deprecate)” by looking at metrics such as: Pageviews. Backlink profiles Amount of time passed since the last update. And from an August 2023 leaked internal memo we learned that someone at CNET thinks that old content “sends a signal to Google that says CNET is fresh, relevant and worthy of being placed higher than our competitors in search results,”It's evident that, CNET needs better advice on how SEO works. Deleting content does not signal those three things. Publishing relevant, trustworthy, helpful, quality content for your audience on a technically sound website is what makes you worthy of greater organic search visibility.Here is the bad news for CNET - Google doesn't want to reward sites that are primarily driven by SEO traffic. The helpful content system is meant to reward websites that are primarily creating content for users, not search engines. Also, there is no “penalty” for having old content on your website. Google will not send a manual action notice to CNET, or any site, because you have an article that was published in 2015, or 2007, or 2003, or whatever year.To bolster my point, Google's Danny Sullivan, via his @SearchLiaison account on X, posted: “Are you deleting content from your site because you somehow believe Google doesn't like ‘old' content? That's not a thing! Our guidance doesn't encourage this. Older content can still be helpful, too.”When someone asked Sullivan on what to do if the old content has broken links, is no longer relevant or can't be made more helpful. Sullivan's response was: “The page itself isn't likely to rank well. Removing it might mean if you have a massive site that we're better able to crawl other content on the site. But it doesn't mean we go ‘oh, now the whole site is so much better' because of what happens with an individual page.”The “deleting old content is good for SEO” belief started back to 2011 (12+ years back) after Google launched the Panda update. After the launch, a Google employee wrote :”In addition, it's important for webmasters to know that low quality content on part of a site can impact a site's ranking as a whole. For this reason, if you believe you've been impacted by this change you should evaluate all the content on your site and do your best to improve the overall quality of the pages on your domain. Removing low quality pages or moving them to a different domain could help your rankings for the higher quality content.”IMO, may be that idea made sense back in 2011 but these days one needs to be informed and careful.  Google's Danny Sullivan, clarified that there is more need for nuance in this particular discussion and tried to make it clear that Google has never advised people to delete content simply because it's old. Other prominent Googlers, including John Mueller and Gary Illyes, have also advised improving content, instead of removing it, whenever possible.Deleting old content can be good for SEO performance. To be clear: deleting old content alone – just because it's old – probably won't help you much. However, deleting, improving and consolidating content should be part of your SEO strategy because it helps improve your overall content quality – or, as Mueller once put it, “building out your reputation of knowledge on that topic.”

Subscriber-only episodeIn this episode, I'm bringing back Clubhouse-style TPT product audits (circa 2020)! Today's episode features two amazing product audits, but that's not all. I'm also giving you the chance to submit your own product for a review on an upcoming episode. You can submit your product on our Insiders members-only page at the link below, and listen out for it on an upcoming STS Insiders episode! *If you signed up for STS Insiders & are not able to hear the episode, look for an email from Buzzsprout (the podcast host) that's titled "Thanks for supporting!" Inside this email you'll find your personal feed links to add to the podcast player of your choice.Insiders: Log in to the Insiders portal for show notes, links and resources at https://kristendoyle.co/stsi-members (Password is in your email!)Learn more about STS Insiders and subscribe at https://kristendoyle.co/sts-insiders

Are you doing everything you can to maximize your page views? Learn nine powerful on-page SEO tactics you can use to improve your ranking. Whether you're just starting out or wondering why your pages are ranking low on search engines, I'll break it down for you! And the best part? You can do most of them yourself without relying on expensive online tools. The show notes: https://twofeetfirstentrepreneur.com/on-page-seo Follow on Instagram: @tffentrepreneur Check us out on YouTube for how-to videos   Need one-on-one help? Megan offers coaching sessions   Visit my shop page for easy-to-use templates + tools + courses to make your online business better.   Tools and resources mentioned in the episode:   SEO Playbook (FREEBIE!)   Have questions, comments, or ideas you want to be discussed on the Podcast? We would love to hear them! Fill out this form  Interest in being a part of the TwoFeetFirst Entrepreneur Podcast? We would love to hear what you would love to share, please fill out the podcast application form.

Welcome to another episode of the Niche Website Builders podcast! Today, your host James De Lacey talks to successful travel blogger Nina Clapperton about how she's earning $30k per month with 165k pageviews! Nina talks about her approach to content strategy, keyword research, understanding your target audience and how she uses AI writing tools to generate articles. Nina's links: https://twitter.com/NinaClapperton sheknowsseo.co This podcast is brought to you by Make Lemonade, the SEO agency serving bloggers, brands and investors looking to build profitable online businesses. If you are looking for white-hat SEO, done-for-you website builds, aged domains or more, please visit one of our links below and reach out to our team.

Ready to take a bunch of notes that could help give your site a competitive advantage in the SERPs? Tony Hill joins the Niche Pursuits podcast to share his experience recovering a website from a Google update. Tony's been building niche websites since 2005 and is very familiar with core updates. For instance, he had some health sites doing big numbers wiped out by the Medic Update. However, it was the May 2020 core update that was particularly devastating, causing his main 18-year-old site to lose almost half its traffic in just a few weeks. To recover from the update, Tony and his 10-person team formulated a bullet-proof game plan to recover the site. The strategy included a comprehensive process to improve the site's existing 1200 pages. They started by using Google's NLP API to analyze their content and improve its salience score. They found that word order is crucial to help the algorithm better understand your content. So at the sentence, paragraph, and article level, they made a deliberate effort to put the subject first. An academic tool called Sketch Engine also helped them to analyze language patterns in top-ranking articles on some of the biggest sites in the world. And found that using second-person language and specific, confident wording can improve content quality. So Tony and his team then reviewed their content to make it clearer and more confident, using specific and directive language. They didn't delete any articles but rather cut out fluffy sentences and paragraphs and added more information when needed. Other specific tactics included improving readability, adding more visuals, and updating outdated information. They also added more categories and subcategories to their website to help users navigate content. By focusing on updating content one category at a time, they continuously experimented and tested to see what worked. They also read competitor's articles word for word to see how they structured their content to make improvements to their own. They also worked with expert writers and editors to ensure quality and establish a persona for the site. They also created a contributor's page, an Ask an Expert section on the site, and paid experts to answer questions on Quora and Reddit. He also made a point to flesh out the schema of every article, going above and beyond the typical author schema and entity data. They also made great use of internal linking, aiming to include at least one internal link in every paragraph of an article, sometimes even linking to the same article twice in an article. Considering their substantial success in Google Discover, they also analyzed their most successful articles and found that related topics were being featured, so they created new articles on related topics and grew their success in Google Discover. And after a year of consistent effort and multiple Google updates, Tony's site not only recovered its lost traffic but experienced significant growth, now receiving nearly 8 million page views per month. Tony's interview is a high-level masterclass in site operations and site recovery that can help site owners at all levels. The way he thinks outside the box to improve the strength of his content will not only inspire you to do the same but also give you actionable steps you can start using today! Be sure to get more content like this in the Niche Pursuits Newsletter Right Here: https://www.nichepursuits.com/newsletter Want a Faster and Easier Way to Build Internal Links? Get $15 off Link Whisper with Discount Code "Podcast" on the Checkout Screen: https://www.nichepursuits.com/linkwhisper

(0:00) Fred discusses Nick's passive aggressive web posts from the show(15:26) Who are the most and least watchable teams in Major League Baseball?(30:59) The guys talk about the Patriots spending habits and attempt to understand the nuances of the NFL Salary Cap.CONNECT WITH TOUCHER & RICHhttps://twitter.com/toucherandrichhttps://twitter.com/fredtoucherhttps://twitter.com/KenGriffeyRuleshttps://www.instagram.com/Toucherandrichofficialhttps://www.instagram.com/fredtoucherhttps://www.twitch.tv/thesportshubhttps://www.instagram.com/985thesportshubhttps://twitter.com/985thesportshubhttps://www.facebook.com/985TheSportsHub

Want to learn how to easily use SEO to turn your website into a six-figure passive revenue stream? Sign up for my FREE webinar 3 Steps to Creating Passive Revenue From Your Blog (and how SEO is the Secret to a 6-Figure Recurring Revenue Stream!). 64: I'm doing a solo episode today and chatting about an Upper Limit I've recently hit. The Upper Limit Problem was coined by psychologist Gay Hendricks, and it's the idea that subconscious self-sabotage happens when we get a taste of something great (like a promotion, financial success, being in a great relationship, a big launch, or any other measure of success). In this episode, I'm chatting about: - How hitting 300,000 monthly pageviews on my site has triggered my Upper Limit and the negative thoughts I've been having from it - The specific steps I'm taking to push the boundaries of this particular Upper Limit - Journaling prompts that are helping me work through this - How I'm reprogramming my mind to attract more success and what I want more of Snap a screenshot of the podcast and tag me @wtfab sharing your thoughts on this episode, so I can reshare it on my Stories too! Make sure you subscribe to the podcast to stay up to date on the latest episodes and interviews. Lastly, please rate and review to support this podcast! Quick links from the episode: The Big Leap Episode #22: The Big Leap Summary—How to Move Past Your Upper Limiting Beliefs & Live a Happy, Successful Life Episode #33: Hypnosis, Dealing with Imposter Syndrome, and NLP With Renee Bowen Want to learn how I've grown my website traffic to over 300k monthly pageviews? Sign up for my FREE webinar here

A short take on the key factor that pushes African American novels above 100,000 Wikipedia pageviews. Written by Kenton Rambsy and Howard Rambsy IIRead by Kassandra Timm

Want to learn how to easily use SEO to turn your website into a six-figure passive revenue stream? Sign up for my FREE webinar 3 Steps to Creating Passive Revenue From Your Blog (and how SEO is the Secret to a 6-Figure Recurring Revenue Stream!). 58: In today's episode, I'm sharing an inside scoop into the how, technical aspects, and why of my recent website redesign. Plus, celebrating a big milestone: surpassing 200,000 monthly pageviews on my site! We're chatting about: - Why I decided to move my website over to a framework called Trellis, created by Mediavine - Results from the redesign, including passing Google's Core Web Vitals, pagespeed, and the million dollar question: did it increase my RPMs on Mediavine, making me more money like I'd hoped? - How you can use SEO to drive hundreds of thousands of targeted people to your website every single month Links mentioned in today's episode: Try one of my What The Fab Lightroom Presets for free! Check out Chloe Digital

In episode 379, Brooke Harmer teaches us how to monetize our blogs before hitting 50,000 pageviews. Explore 7 strategies ranked in order of difficulty and time required. Brooke launched her food blog in March 2020, because she knew she could work from home and still be a full time mom. However, after her son was born, she struggled to keep up with the demands of the job and constantly felt discouraged that despite her best efforts, she still hadn't hit 50,000 monthly pageviews. Instead of focusing on what she didn't have, she honed in on the time and talents she DID have and began to monetize her business in other creative ways, even while raising her 6 month old son by herself for a time. She has since self-published two cookbooks, landed 5-figure brand deals, and hired her first employee. In this episode, you'll learn about additional sources of income for your blog, from easy ways to earn money through affiliate marketing and more intense methods like brand work and online courses. - Focus on the qualitative aspects of your business instead of the quantitative. - How do you create the habits that will help you monetize? - What is the best way to go about affiliate marketing? - Email marketing gives you full control of your audience. - Sponsor work for a brand requires more time but allows you to make more money. - What is the difference between sponsor work and freelance work? - Why do unpaid speaking gigs help your business grow? - Digital products can help expand your brand and help your audience. - Are online courses and coaching worth investing time in? Connect with Brooke Harmer Website | Instagram

In today's episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Nick Musica, the former SEO and Content Director of DMV.org joins us to discuss the incredible rise (and subsequent fall) of the site. The talk is wide-ranging and goes in-depth on several important technical aspects of managing small and large sites alike.

Investing money into your business, deleting posts to encourage growth, and the importance of having accountability partners with Sarah Cook from Sustainable Cooks. ----- Welcome to episode 389 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we're rewinding back to our episode with Sarah Cook from Sustainable Cooks where she talks about what specific strategies she implemented to grow her blog's traffic and increase her revenue. Going From 17k to 600k Monthly Pageviews For today's FBP Rewind episode, we're rewinding back to our September 2021 interview with Sarah Cook from Sustainable Cooks! Sarah's story is so inspiring, and in this episode, she shares everything she did to go from 17k to 600k monthly pageviews with her blog. She explains some of the unique ways she has invested in her blog, why she decided to delete hundreds of posts, why she loves having a blogging accountability partner, and more. It's a great interview, and we hope you can apply some of these tips and skills to grow your own traffic. Let's rewind! In this episode, you'll learn: How Sarah decided to go all in with her blog How she struggled to define her identity as a full-time blogger Where she started investing money into her business How she shifted her content strategy Why she deleted hundreds of posts on her blog How she categorized her content into specific buckets Why ad earnings are typically lower in Q1 How her blog's success has helped her support causes she cares about How she fits work into the margins of her day What tasks she decided to hire out Why she loves having a blogging accountability partner Resources: Sustainable Cooks 170: What's Working and What's Not with the FBP Community Media Wyse Find Casey Markee on FBP Purr Design The Simple Pin Podcast Find Kate Ahl on FBP Mediavine Keysearch AdThrive Hey Nutrition Lady Cook It Real Good Follow Sarah on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Improving your food photography skills, getting a cookbook deal, and focusing on SEO with Emma Duckworth from Emma Duckworth Bakes. ----- Welcome to episode 388 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we're rewinding back to our episode with Emma Duckworth from Emma Duckworth Bakes where she talks about how she's grown her blog by focusing on SEO. Doubling Pageviews by Focusing on SEO It's another FBP Rewind episode today, and we're so excited to revisit our November 2021 interview with Emma Duckworth from Emma Duckworth Bakes! After growing her business for a few years, Emma decided to double down on her blog and hired a mentor to help her out with SEO. You'll hear how she used the avatar exercise to understand her audience, how she optimized her homepage and recipe categories, and what she's doing to focus on SEO moving forward. If SEO is a focus for you at the moment, you won't want to miss this episode! In this episode, you'll learn: How Emma got into food photography and food blogging How she grew her food photography skills What steps she took to strategically grow her Instagram account How she started getting her first sponsored work What she learned from the cookbook writing process Why she decided to double down on her blog How she hired a mentor to help her out with SEO How she used the avatar exercise to understand her audience How she optimized her blog's homepage and categories How she identified and optimized her top-performing posts How she has started doing keyword research Why she and her husband decided to launch a street coffee business What she's focusing her attention on moving forward Resources: Emma Duckworth Bakes Order Emma's cookbook, Simply Sweet Nostalgic Bakes Dear Coco Street Coffee Foodtography School This American Life Well Seasoned Studio Foolproof Living The Feast Plugin Google Analytics Google Search Console Keysearch Clariti Growth University Follow Emma on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Can you imagine publishing a 500-word article and receiving 5.5 million pageviews within a week? That's what happened to Kurt Schmidt in May 2022. Kurt Schmidt joins Spencer on the podcast to bring us a masterclass on creating engaging content that Google rewards.

Today's guest on Nichepursuits podcast is Bjork Ostrom. Bjork and his wife Lindsay started Pinch of Yum back in 2010 as a food blog on Tumblr and today, their site gets between 4 to 5 million page views per month. Bjork shares some of the approaches they've taken to grow their blog and multiple business ventures.

User experience is incredibly important as a food blogger. If you want the people who are coming to your website randomly from Google, to pay attention, then user experience is how you do that.  Today I am sharing how user experience helps you to attract your ideal audience and how you can increase your traffic by focusing on your website user experience.  In this episode, I'll cover:  What does user experience mean? What are three things that can be done to improve user experience? How can improving user experience increase your traffic? Connect with Christina & Corinne Website | Facebook | Instagram Connect with Madison Instagram | Website  Show Notes | Podcast Updates Web Design for Food Bloggers

Anne Moss is today's guest on the Niche Pursuits podcast. The interview starts with Anne briefly explaining how and when she started online. Then, she shares her thoughts on a wide range of topics related to website building, including how she selects a niche topic and the thought process she goes through.

In this episode we're talking with Madison Wetherill of Grace and Vine Studios about how to double your pageviews with user experience. If you're trying to gain more engagement on your website, utilizing Madison's tips to improve your user experience will help you.LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:5 Things Your Food Blog Needs For Better User Experience 5 Ways To Make Your Blog Post Stand OutThe Vine PodcastFULL SHOW NOTES: https://thesmartinfluencer.com/how-to-double-your-pageviews-with-user-experience/TSI Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/214681812013517TSI Instagram Community: https://www.instagram.com/thesmartinfluencer/

Getting accepted into Mediavine, running in-person cooking classes, and selling products as a content creator with Elena Davis from Cucina by Elena. ----- Welcome to episode 372 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Elena Davis from Cucina by Elena about how she grew her traffic and got accepted into Mediavine. From 20k to 100k+ Monthly Pageviews Today, we're really excited to share this inspiring conversation with Elena! Since launching her blog in 2020, she has grown her traffic to over 100k monthly pageviews, gotten accepted into Mediavine, and become a full-time content creator. Aside from that, Elena's also sharing how she found unique ways to earn an income while waiting to get accepted into Mediavine, such as running in-person cooking classes and selling physical products. No matter where you are in your blogging journey, we know that you'll find Elena's story and insights encouraging. We hope you enjoy this episode! In this episode, you'll learn: Why Elena decided to launch her blog Why she focused on building connections within the blogging community How she strategically optimized her site How she grew her traffic and got accepted into Mediavine Why she decided to rename her blog How she earns money as a content creator What her in-person cooking classes look like How she sells physical products on her blog Resources: Cucina by Elena MacBreak Weekly Podcast Tasty Recipes Elena's Italian Stories Salt & Lavender The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Mediavine AdThrive The Feast Plugin NerdPress Cooking with Keywords TopHatRank Harmons Grocery Culinary Creator Business School Duett The Happiness Lab Podcast Shop Elena's products Follow Elena on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

On this episode of the Niche Website Builders podcast, host James De Lacy welcomes Luke Jordan to the show. Luke is an affiliate marketer and niche website builder. On Twitter, Luke shares his case studies in real-time, announcing his process and results as he executes them. On the podcast, Luke talks to James about some of these case studies, starting with his largest niche website. This site is bringing in over 1 million unique visitors each month. Luke talks about the processes he used to grow and built that website, including how the website is diversifying, with email funnels and a YouTube channel. Later on, James and Luke discuss backlinking strategies, as backlinks are something Luke attributes a lot of his niche website portfolio's success to. James and Luke discuss outreach strategies, what Luke is looking for on other sites, and look at a case study where Luke attempted to build links on just a £50 budget. Links: Niche Website Builders: Aged Domains – https://www.nichewebsite.builders/domains Niche Website Builders: Resources – https://www.nichewebsite.builders/resources Niche Website Builders – https://www.nichewebsite.builders/ Niche Website Builders Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/niche-website-builders/id1548013326 Niche Website Builders on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDX_rVwDP_IQVx1tjn_h8dQ Niche Website Builders on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/nichewebsitebuilders/ Niche Website Builders' Email – team@nichewebsite.builders

In order to stand out these days in the food blogging world, you have to get specific with your niche. That's exactly why there has been a trend in the last year or so to start a second niched website and a lot of bloggers have seen success! In today's episode we're interviewing a food blogger who started a niched sourdough website and went from 0 to 1 million pageviews in just 4 months.  In this episode, I'll cover:  how Amy decided to start a second blog how to overcome the saturated industry getting to know your audience and solving problems the secret to Amy's site's success Connect with Madison Instagram | Website  Show Notes | Podcast Updates Web Design for Food Bloggers Connect with Amy Instagram | Website | Pinterest  

Link zur Umfrage: https://masterarbeit.team-advertico.de/149942 Durch den erzwungenen Umstieg aller auf Google Analytics 4 wird etwas immer relevanter: Der Tracking Plan! Wir sprechen nicht mehr nur von Pageviews, einfachen Events, sondern haben dank dem Event und Parameter basierten Konzept - das Google nicht erfunden hat - eben nun die Möglichkeit viel besser, aber auch kompliziertere Tracking Konzepte umzusetzen. Damit kommen wir zum Punkt: Komplizierter! Ein Tracking Plan hilft eben diese Komplexität zu überblicken In dieser Episode spricht Philipp darüber: - Was ist ein Tracking Plan? - Hilft dieser nur dem Marketing eg dem Marketing Analytics? - Wie erstellt man einen guten Tracking Plan? - Welche Fehler sollte man vermeiden? - Welche Tricks gibt es? Mehr zu Philipp erfährst du unter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipploringhoven/ Über Feedback wird sich immer gefreut! Hat dir die Folge gefallen? Hinterlasse doch eine Bewertung: Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/dataengage/id1511140878 Aboniere den Podcast bei: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75v2BTvGvg533hiS906Jpo Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/dataengage/id1511140878 Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9kYXRhZW5nYWdlLnBvZGlnZWUuaW8vZmVlZC9tcDM?sa=X&ved=0CAIQ9sEGahcKEwjgvsvh2Lj0AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ Podimo: https://studio.podimo.com/podcast/148838ad-f68d-4e9b-a034-38e2ee8ed2dc/

Batching content, investing in your business, and strategically planning out your content with Amanda Scarlati from Saporito Kitchen. ----- Welcome to episode 357 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Amanda Scarlati from Saporito Kitchen about how content batching helped grow her blog's traffic. Content Batching From testing recipes to shooting photos to writing blog posts, a lot of work goes into running a food blog. So how can we stay on top of everything that needs to get done each week? Enter: content batching! Instead of jumping from one task to another, try grouping similar tasks in one work period to stay focused and even increase your productivity. In this episode, you'll hear how Amanda started batching her content, how she plans out her blog posts for the upcoming quarter, and how content batching has dramatically increased her blog's traffic. In this episode, you'll learn: How Amanda got into food blogging How she invested in her business and hired certain tasks out How she started batching content How she plans out her blog posts for each quarter How she divides up her tasks throughout the week What her prep sheets for each photoshoot look like What task management tools she uses How content batching impacted her blog's traffic Resources: Saporito Kitchen Tastemaker Conference Eat Blog Talk Podcast NerdPress Find Casey Markee on FBP The Feast Plugin Airtable Keysearch Keyword Surfer Cooking With Keywords Google Calendar Google Search Console Asana Mediavine Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Today's guest on the Niche Pursuits podcast is former Penny Hoarder executive and successful business owner Alexis Grant. Alexis shares her thoughts on how her journalism background has helped her content writing and she talks about what she did to get it to rank better in the search engines and how she increased traffic by around 80%.

Syed Balkhi is chief blogger at WPBeginner, and he recently completed a site redesign.When he started WPBeginner in 2009, like most new creators, he changed the website theme design four times in the first three years.Realizing that website redesigns take up a lot of time and resources, he focused on fulfilling our core mission:Help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys through our tools, team, and training.The last redesign of WPBeginner was launched in 2016, and it was finally time for a site redesign that would help move WPBeginner forward.We talked about some design and speed improvements he made to his site during the interview, including some controversial design decisions.Links:WPBeginner v6 – Behind the Scenes of Our New Site Designhttps://www.wpbeginner.com/news/wpbeginner-v6-behind-the-scenes-of-our-new-site-design/How to Properly Change a WordPress Theme (Ultimate Guide)https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-properly-change-a-wordpress-theme/Plugins Mentioned:MonsterInsights Best WordPress Analytics Plugin https://www.monsterinsights.com/ AIOSEO Best WordPress SEO Plugin https://aioseo.com/ SeedProd Best Theme Builder for WordPress https://www.seedprod.com/ SearchWP Best Custom Search for WordPress https://searchwp.com/You can connect with WPBeginner on our website. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

THE SHOW THAT'S WICKED GOOD WEBSITE - http://wickedgood.xyz DONATE! - https://pastebin.com/758CHz68 PATREON - https://patreon.com/WICKEDGOOD TWITCH - https://www.twitch.tv/wickedgooduser YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMVvlky7ETbgaeLxk9bF2UQ SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/7yiPrYxlvJtuf8AsdumRS6 APPLE PODCASTS - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wicked-good/id1517769733 INSTAGRAM - https://instagram.com/wickedgoodshow/ REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/r/WICKEDGOOD/ SONG OF THE WEEK: ON MY SHIT - Sinizter, Pharmacist TIMESTAMPS / SHOW NOTES - https://pastebin.com/8ghkd36G (0:00) Space Station end of life (14:21) Starship fullstack and presentation (21:20) New SpaceX polaris dawn (34:03) EARN IT act (36:07) Old catalogue out paces new songs first the first time (42:37) Snoopdog buys death row records (46:23) ALIAS equipped Black Hawk helicopter completes first uninhabited flight (52:12) Walmart joins founding for vertical farm company (1:04:22) Nord and surfshark merge (1:09:20) 25 million for one podcast episode (1:13:50) More Rogan (1:18:13) Pageviews sues Business Insider (1:28:19) WICKED GOOD YOUTUBE CHANNEL (1:29:04) Scientists regrow frog leg (1:32:13) Assange NFT (1:35:46) Snoop NFTs (1:38:10) Crisis text line selling data to big companies (1:50:25) CDC isn't publishing large portions of data Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S5CBWBG *Show notes are not an endorsement, they are show notes. **This show is not legal advice, it is for educational and entertainment purposes. ***These videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise stated.

Improving your food photography skills, getting a cookbook deal, and focusing on SEO with Emma Duckworth from Emma Duckworth Bakes. ----- Welcome to episode 333 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Emma Duckworth from Emma Duckworth Bakes about how she's grown her blog by focusing on SEO. Serving Your Audience SEO: love it or hate it, it's undoubtedly an important area for food bloggers to focus their time and energy on. And that's why we're chatting about it with Emma Duckworth in this episode! This year, Emma decided to double down on her blog and hired a mentor to help her out with SEO. You'll hear how she used the avatar exercise to understand her audience, how she optimized her homepage and recipe categories, and what she's doing to focus on SEO moving forward. It's a fantastic interview that will encourage you to reflect on your own SEO strategy. We hope you enjoy it! In this episode, you'll learn: How Emma got into food photography and food blogging How she grew her food photography skills What steps she took to strategically grow her Instagram account How she started getting her first sponsored work What she learned from the cookbook writing process Why she decided to double down on her blog How she hired a mentor to help her out with SEO How she used the avatar exercise to understand her audience How she optimized her blog's homepage and categories How she identified and optimized her top-performing posts How she has started doing keyword research Why she and her husband decided to launch a street coffee business What she's focusing her attention on moving forward Resources: Emma Duckworth Bakes Order Emma's cookbook, Simply Sweet Nostalgic Bakes Dear Coco Street Coffee Foodtography School This American Life Well Seasoned Studio Foolproof Living The Feast Plugin Google Analytics Google Search Console Keysearch Clariti Growth University Follow Emma on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest Check out the Food Blogger Pro YouTube channel (and subscribe while you're there!) If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

Investing money into your business, deleting posts to encourage growth, and the importance of having accountability partners with Sarah Cook from Sustainable Cooks. ----- Welcome to episode 322 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Sarah Cook from Sustainable Cooks about what specific strategies she implemented to grow her blog's traffic and increase her revenue. Going All In A few years ago, Sarah Cook was feeling burnt out and ready to call it quits on her blog. But after listening to some food blogging podcasts, she decided to switch up her blogging strategy and see if she could turn it into a thriving business. And today on the podcast, she's sharing everything she's done along the way to go from 17k to 600k monthly pageviews with her blog, Sustainable Cooks! She explains some of the unique ways she has invested in her blog, why she decided to delete hundreds of posts, why she loves having a blogging accountability partner, and more. It's a really inspiring interview, and we know it'll leave you feeling motivated and excited to make progress on your blogging goals. In this episode, you'll learn: How Sarah decided to go all in with her blog How she struggled to define her identity as a full-time blogger Where she started investing money into her business How she shifted her content strategy Why she deleted hundreds of posts on her blog How she categorized her content into specific buckets Why ad earnings are typically lower in Q1 How her blog's success has helped her support causes she cares about How she fits work into the margins of her day What tasks she decided to hire out Why she loves having a blogging accountability partner Resources: Sustainable Cooks 170: What's Working and What's Not with the FBP Community MediaWyse Casey Markee Purr Design The Simple Pin Podcast Kate Ahl Mediavine Keysearch AdThrive Hey Nutrition Lady Cook It Real Good Follow Sarah on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest Check out the Food Blogger Pro YouTube channel (and subscribe while you're there!) If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

As a food blogger, there's one key ingredient to your success: taking delicious photos of your recipes. But how do you do that with the seemingly endless competition and incredibly complex Google algorithm? In this episode of Mediavine On-Air, Stephanie Keeping and Melodee Fiske of Pretty Focused break down their system of taking amazing photos that drives pageviews and expands their audience. Using real life examples and statistics on how a few principles for their photos greatly increased their popularity, this episode is great for food bloggers that are just starting out or trying to recalculate their business. Make sure to listen to the full episode and let us know what you think! Helpful Resources Stephanie and Melodee's PresentationPretty FocusedPretty Focused Courses https://youtu.be/uspLQAVGi6E Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: Hey, everybody. Welcome. Hello. Say hi. Welcome to another episode. Sorry, we were in here just totally getting down-- MELODEE FISKE: I love it. [LAUGHTER] JENNY GUY: --during the intro. And we were adding each other through the-- yeah, I mean, if you can't start with a little dance party, I think you're doing something wrong. MELODEE FISKE: Just go home. Just go home if you're not going to dance. JENNY GUY: True that. That's very true. Well, welcome to another Mediavine Summer of Live. I'm your host, Jenny Guy. And as we saw from that beautiful intro, it is summer. But regardless of how we feel about it, summer is just flying by. So my first question for you guys, and for my guests, is, how are you making the most of it? How are you enjoying summer? I have personally been on a bruschetta kick. And there's nothing like summer produce. And in my humble opinion, cooking is the most fun around the holidays and summertime. So I made some with tomato, basil, and red onion. And it was dinner. I broiled my bread with Trader Joe's garlic olive oil. And then I drizzled with my homemade balsamic syrup. And I was like-- I was feeling very-- MELODEE FISKE: Summer. JENNY GUY: I felt very-- yes. I felt summer. The pictures were very colorful. Of course I had to take pictures. STEPHANIE KEEPING: Yeah. MELODEE FISKE: Right. JENNY GUY: I mean, because if-- MELODEE FISKE: What else would you do? JENNY GUY: Why would I make food if I wasn't going to take pictures of it? Eating is-- MELODEE FISKE: Photos, or it didn't happen. [LAUGHTER] JENNY GUY: Exactly, exactly. So I mean, what's the point of life if you're not capturing-- it's dumb. MELODEE FISKE: Exactly. JENNY GUY: Why would I go to a restaurant if I wasn't-- yeah, it's silly. But for publishers, social media is a terrific way to showcase their content and grow their followings. But the question is, how do you create a compelling image that actually brings people in, makes them click? And you guys, my guests are here to help. Let us meet them. So, Stephanie Keeping and Melodee Fiske were moms who wanted to stay at home with their kids. A kitchen, a camera, and a computer helped them do it. Melodee, a former teacher, had two little kids, loved her job, and still wanted to be able to contribute financially to her family. As a hobby photographer for several years, starting her own thriving home-based photography business seemed like the answer. Stephanie was in a similar boat. She'd quit her corporate job and was building a blog, Spaceships and Laser Beams, so she could stay home with her young son. But she was burning the candle at both ends as she balanced photography, growing page views, and building brand sponsorships and social following, giving an amen to all of my content creators out there. STEPHANIE KEEPING: Yeah. JENNY GUY: Feel it. Mhm. MELODEE FISKE: Yeah. JENNY GUY: Melodee felt burned out working as a wedding and portrait photographer and wanted to work more with bloggers and influencers to establish her business on her terms,

Today's episode of the podcast is an interview with Vicki Jakes who is an online marketing and website optimisation consultant helping small businesses sell more stuff via their websites. We talk all about Google Analytics and how you can learn to love your data to help you increase conversions!   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST  Google Analytics is a free tool that Google gives everyone that you can use to track activity on your website. You can then understand how many people are coming to your website, where they have come from and what content they have clicked on. Google Analytics is built by developers, for developers. Try to check your analytics weekly or just after you have run a specific campaign. The first report you should be checking on a weekly basis is the audience overview report – this will tell you how many people have come to your site. Google Analytics can detect if people have returned to your site or if they are a new user. A visit to your website is called a session – Google Analytics can tell you how many sessions per user. Pageviews is how many of your individual URLs have been viewed such as blog posts, product pages, privacy pages etc. It is important to track your page views to see how long people are staying on your site and what pages they are viewing. If you want to increase the amount of page views per customer, this could be done by making your pages more engaging and more ‘sticky'. Another way to increase the amount of time people spend on your website is to add recommendations at the bottom of blog posts to take users to other blog posts. Keep an eye on your average session duration – how long someone is spending on your website. Have a look at your mobile report – this will show the type of device users are using to access your site. Make sure you are optimising your website for where most of your traffic is coming from (mobile). Over half of all website traffic comes from mobile! Your acquisition report will tell you where your traffic has come from – search engines, other websites, and social media. Tracking where your traffic comes from is so important so you can make sure you are spending your time in the right places to drive more traffic to your website. You can see what people are looking at on your website via your behaviour report. Your website should be organic – you should be re-writing content and trying new things all the time. The only comparison for website traffic should be your own. The metrics you apply to your site are relative to the amount of effort you are driving there. You can have small traffic numbers and make a lot of money – don't think you have to have hundreds or thousands of visitors to be successful. Landing pages are great for campaigns so you can direct your traffic to them during campaigns to convert customers. You can still track your lead page traffic by connecting any third-party providers to your Google Analytics.   THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…  Google Analytics helps us to validate all our marketing activities and track what is working and what is not so we can keep on improving and increasing conversions.  HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS  An introduction to Vicki – 09:00 What is Google Analytics? – 26:59 Using Google Analytics to find out who is visiting your website – 28:13 How to make a website page ‘sticky' – 33:20 Using Google Analytics to find out where your website traffic has come from – 37:00 Using Google Analytics to find out what people are looking at on your website – 42:50 How many visitors should I be getting to my website? 48:40 Should I use landing pages? 51:10   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE  https://heyvickijakes.com/ (Check Vicki out!) Want the full transcript-click here!

#101 - At the end of every year I do an annual review and usually publish them too (like I did in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2018).And yes, I'm finally publishing this review in March because I took time off during Christmas break and played Playstation. That's the honest truth.The year before last, 2019, ended up being one of the biggest years of change or growth I've had since I started working for myself full-time because of SwitchPod's Kickstarter launch and having our first child, but I didn't make the time to create a public annual review. I could blame it having a two month old baby with colic, but really I was just taking any extra downtime then to catch up on sleep or urgent work after starting to ship SwitchPod worldwide just two months earlier.But 2020 was a YEAR. Actually it felt two to three years long.What started off as a normal year with plans to continue traveling for my video client work turned into basically staying home for 10 months straight. My wife and I took the pandemic and our potential exposure very seriously (because of her past cancer surgeries and her parents living nearby) and thankfully we haven't lost anyone we know to COVID-19, but it has majorly disrupted the lives of many, us included.“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”I'll try not to mention any of the major world events from 2019 like the pandemic, the U.S. election, racial injustice, and more but it was definitely a harder year to stay focused on work and different events did impact my year financially, socially, mentally, and more.It makes me think back to 2008 and how in a way I took that economic downturn as a sign that I needed to choose myself to take care of myself, not rely on a company or economy to make sure I have a job or be in control of my income. I worked hard in college to get a job when I graduated with my two bachelor's degrees in May 2008 right before the recession.A few months into being a full-time employee I saw friends, coworkers, and family lose jobs, never land jobs, and be financially stunted. I also saw the company I worked for (Boeing) announce they were laying off up to 10,000 people. This made me start learning about entrepreneurship, how to make money online, and personal finance. It pushed to get my MBA right away. And overall, it made me not just trust that a large company would take care of me for 40 years and pay me a pension at the end.Because I took the risk and left my day job with solid pay and cushy benefits in 2011, I was able to build up the skills, connections, and multiple income streams that let me survive and even thrive financially in 2020 when the world was completely upended by coronavirus.If last year was rough for you and you felt out of control, try to use that as a wake up call for taking control back in your own life from whoever you've given it up to.Okay, I think that's enough preamble. Let's dive in.What I "Do" for WorkRight now I am running three different businesses day to day.A physical product business (SwitchPod)A client service business (Caleb Wojcik Films)A digital teaching business (online courses, YouTube, podcast, etc.).1. SwitchPodLet's start with SwitchPod since that has been the biggest change to my work lately. Since launching the Kickstarter campaign in January 2019, I'd estimate SwitchPod has taken up 50% or more of my time spent working. Some weeks more like 80%.2020 had some major projects for SwitchPod:Launched our 2nd & 3rd products, ball head and phone adapterCreated new stylized product photographyCompletely redesigned the Shopify website to be faster & more mobile friendly.Other than those larger projects, I spent my time reaching out to land more retailers to stock SwitchPod, fulfilling orders to Amazon and other existing retailers, marketing through social media, partnering with creators and companies on promotion, working on the less exciting admin bits (finances, taxes, legal, etc.), and handling customer support.It really isn't the type of business that I can let go more than a day or two without working on because systems will start to fall apart, customers and retailers will get upset by response time, etc.I think of it more like a garden I have to check in on every day. Some days I'm just pulling weeds or watering some things quickly. Other days I have to completely till the soil or plant a bunch of seeds which takes all day.I'm really proud of where the business is at. Could we be selling more units? Always. But the business is lean, very profitable, and has a lot of potential to grow. More numbers later.2. Client Services BusinessIn 2018 and 2019, my main client Smart Passive Income (run by Pat Flynn who is also my business partner on SwitchPod) accounted for about 50% of my service based business. The other half came from me flying around the U.S. filming courses and events for start-ups, authors, and more.In 2020, SPI and Pat made up almost all of my client revenue. I wasn't able or willing to travel due to COVID-19, work inquiries slowed down, events were cancelled, and more. However, we did do some editing on some previous client projects that had been pushed into 2020.The timing of becoming a father a few months before a worldwide pandemic meant I was able to be home more to help my wife with our daughter and not travel at all.Adjusting to the new reality of not traveling for work was actually quite nice. And financially I'm grateful that the timing of when SwitchPod could start paying me through a monthly salary and quarterly owner draws helped to more than off-set the decrease in other client work in 2020. This is the power of diversifying income streams and why I'm glad I've worked to set up so many different ways I make money.Project wise what we worked on for SPI was:we filmed and edited two courses (A to Z Webinars and Email Marketing Magic)helped with a bunch of live workshops they sellsupported Pat's YouTube channel which published 58 videos that weren't livestreamsHaving a steady client on retainer is a lifeline to a client business that is more prone to ups and downs. Even having just one can be the difference between making payroll one month or missing it. I highly suggest you try to pitch and convince clients to work with you monthly with a retainer.3. Digital BusinessI started 2020 all gung-ho with plans to make 1 video a week, 1 podcast a week, and 1 course a month. That didn't happen...Let's break down what I made and learned in 2020.My PodcastContent wise I was most consistent with my podcast in 2020 and released 25 episodes. I started the year filming the episodes, even doing in person 3 camera interviews for a month before the pandemic locked everything down. Eleven of the podcast episodes I did in 2020 have video versions.For how much I enjoy having long-form conversations with friends and guests on my podcast, the results just aren't there for the amount of effort they take to produce. Planning questions, setting up equipment, editing, publishing, and more take anywhere from 5-10 hours per episode and when they get less than a thousand audio downloads each or are viewed less than a thousand times on YouTube, I can't see myself continuing to do it with the limited amount of capacity and extra work time I have. It sucks to say that, but it's the reality.Just look at how 16 podcast interviews on my channel have performed 100x worse than 19 non-camera product reviews when it comes to views and revenue.I would maybe do an audio only podcast if someone else hosted it with me or I was getting more downloads. I've considered doing my podcast live on YouTube to see if getting guests & listeners on live would help grow it more, but I think lack of consistency and not having a more specific niche for the show other than "whatever Caleb wants to talk about or whoever he wants to have on as a guest" has hurt growth for the show. Right now having a podcast is just something I have to put on the shelf and leave there. In 2021 I may do a few episodes here and there for fun, maybe as livestreams on YouTube first.My YouTube ChannelI published 21 videos on my YouTube channel in 2020.11 were podcast episodes.2 were to announce launches for my course or the SwitchPod Ball Head.3 were made because a company sent me something early or sponsored me.2 were rants about Canon crippling cameras and buying too much gear.3 were about my new cameras (Canon C70 & R5)Another extremely sporadic, inconsistent year of publishing videos.I can't imagine what it is like to follow me online on social media or YouTube.I go weeks or months without posting anything.I don't mention or tease what I'm working on so everything is a surprise.There is no cadence or consistent release date or time.Topics are all over the place.Despite all of this, the YouTube channel made more money last year than any previous year while getting less views than any of the previous four years. Videos upload in 2020 only accounted for 8.5% of my revenue from Adsense and 4.6% of my views. So it really pays to have a backlog of videos ranking in search. My most popular video was about how to look better on a webcam from 2014. (See: pandemic + more zoom calls = views.)In the following graph you can see a list of how many videos I published on the left and then the cumulative stats during that year to the right.When I initially starting making YouTube videos in 2014 I was only making videos about things I was interested in or had recently bought. Podcasting gear, cameras, editing software, etc. There weren't as many people talking about those things on YouTube back then. Now I feel like by the time I get around to making a video about a product or topic, multiple people have already made something similar.I know my perspective and reviews on specific Canon cameras tend to perform well, but honestly I'm just kind of over talking about gear. I have "enough" gear and technology that allows me to do work for my clients or make high quality videos for myself. I rarely care when a new camera, lens, microphone, light, or piece of software gets released and I don't watch many videos about them, want to purchase them, or envy people that have them anymore.I'm planning to just create and publish YouTube videos about whatever I want since doing that would at least excite me enough to make them on a consistent basis and the other 193 videos on my channel will still live there making passive income from ads.I'll need to separate how a specific video is performing from my feelings though, as it is quite discouraging to see videos getting less views than I'm used to when they aren't served to or clicked by my audience since they will be different than what they expect from me or doesn't line up with why they subscribed to me in the first place.I'm much more interested in things other than video production and now spend my free time learning about other things. The categories of topics I plan to cover via YouTube videos include:money & wealth — beyond the basics of personal finance or getting out of debt, covering things like early retirement, investing, etc.productivity & habits — how to stay focused on what will give me the biggest results in the least amount of time working (especially now that I'm a parent) and covering tools I use like Notion & Thingsstoicism & mindfulness & essentialism — being happy and content with now instead of striving to get or have more, living a simpler lifestyle, etc.solo entrepreneurship — showing more of what it is like to run multiple "small" businesses while increasing revenue & profit without scaling up staff, expenses, or stresscreator tools & tech — basically what I've been making videos about for 7 years, covering equipment or software that helps with content creationSo if you see me start to make videos about random things unrelated to video production, it's because the few thousand dollars I make a year from YouTube are not enough to keep me from treating it more like a hobby than a necessary part of my businesses.I am going to start treating my YouTube channel more like a playground, have fun with it, share more behind the scenes than I have been, and just see where it goes. (This decision is partially influenced by the trio of books by Austin Kleon: Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going.)My Online CoursesI released one new course last year, Camera Basics for Filming Videos, and got a second one filmed and edited that launched in January 2021: Audio Basics for Filming Videos.I definitely hoped to release more than this, so I'll be working to release a couple more courses in the first half of 2021 (specifically updating my Premiere Pro course this spring and making a lighting basics course).From 2015 to today, my course sales have made up 55% of my digital revenue (with advertising making up 15% and affiliate income bringing in the remaining 30%), so it is a big portion of how I make money from my content.I've sold over $100,000 of online courses since 2015. Even saying that out loud is crazy to me and I'm very grateful to all of my students for choosing to learn from me when there are so many different ways and places to learn online nowadays.But at the same time I don't feel like I've ever really "cracked the code" for selling online courses like a lot of my clients, friends, or peers have. I don't have large launches, sophisticated funnels, or even an evergreen marketing or sales strategy.A few reasons why I think I haven't been able to sell more courses are:Not consistently releasing content for my audience to trust me and prove my expertise.The courses aren't "unique" (you can learn similar things from other places).No evergreen sales system like webinars, ads, etc.I really don't push them or try to sell them beyond the initial launch.I've always considered my courses to be things I make during "bonus" downtime and they bring in "bonus" money, but I do feel like my courses could help a lot more people and in turn, bring in more money. This is a code I'm still going to work to crack but I'm proud of the results over the past 7 years.2020 Numbers & MetricsHere's a breakdown of the hard numbers & metrics that I track.SwitchPodUnits Sold in 2020SwitchPod = 5525Ball Head = 4092Phone Adapter = 685Total # of Retailers = 16YouTube21 New Videos Published1,245,660 Views49,100 Subscribers (+5,374 in 2020)Podcast25 New Episodes Published26,727 DownloadsWebsiteEmail Subscribers = 7,621 (+103 net increase)Pageviews = 169,707 (down -10.4%)Users = 112,569 (down -13.5%)You'll see that I really don't get that much traffic to my website, grow my email list much each year after churn, and my podcast doesn't get many downloads. My digital efforts just don't get the results that they could, but when we talk finances, that part of my businesses still brings in a decent amount of income so I still continue to focus on it.Why I'm Sharing Revenue Numbers, But Not ExpensesI share the following financial numbers for the following reasons.For myself to look at year over year to chart my own progress instead of comparing myself to anyone else.To inspire the someone like me from 6 years ago that just risked leaving a job to start their own business.To inspire someone like me from 10 years ago that still worked a desk job at Boeing and didn't know what kind of business was possible to build.To show how diversify your revenue streams and running multiple styles of businesses can help you break through a potential earnings ceiling and survive major economic downturns.Now, why am I only sharing revenue, but not expenses?In year's past I've shared more detailed financial information including expenses (like in my 2015 & 2018 reviews), but I won't be doing that this year. Without diving completely into the details of what exactly I pay myself, my contractors, and in taxes it gets really convoluted. And honestly, I'm not sure I really want to be putting out THAT detailed of financially information about me publicly.I'd be happy to talk generally about how much my business spends each year on things like accounting, applications, recurring services, and other "spend money to make money" line items, but to simplify things this year I'm going to leave out expenses.Just know the numbers listed below are BEFORE expenses, taxes, gear purchases or sales, paying my editor, tax write off, and so much more. The numbers below do NOT equal how much money I "took home" last year.Another quick thing to note, the SwitchPod revenue is what was paid to me as an owner and manager of the company, not the top line revenue of the entire company. (I'll break that down in detail more later.)2020 RevenueClient Revenue = $ 173,934.30When it comes to revenue, there was actually a big dip in my client income because inquiries slowed down and I couldn't safely travel like I normally do to film. I'm still really happy with this number though as it allows me to have a full-time editor contracted and pays for overhead costs and my base salarypayroll for the year.Digital Revenue = $ 31,446.49Advertising = $ 8,734.73Affiliate Income = $ 12,147.61Course Sales = $ 10,564.15The digital business stayed pretty flat revenue wise overall compared to 2019. This "online business" has a lot of potential for growth considering how little attention it gets compared to the other two businesses, but I need to find the right balance of what to work on and how to maximize revenue from it.SwitchPod = $ 147,725.00Thankfully, this was the first full year SwitchPod shipped orders to customers and retailers, so there was profit in that business to pass through as an owner. Due to the amount of work it takes to do customer support, product development, retailer management, social media, and more I started taking monthly guaranteed payments to run SwitchPod day-to-day. The number above comes from the monthly payments + the quarterly owner draws that Pat and I take four times a year.The top line gross revenue for SwitchPod for 2020 was $685,012.39, so being able to withdraw ~21.5% of that amount directly feels great and means we have solid profit margins at scale in that business. The number above does not include cash left in the business or owner draws Pat took. We are taking substantial draws since we're treating this company as a lean cash cow at the moment and we are not reinvesting every dollar in advertising, staff, or scaling it up to try to build a billion dollar business and exit.TOTAL GROSS REVENUE = $ 353,105.79Again, this is not how much money that made it to my personal checking account in 2020. There are so many expenses, taxes, contractors, subscriptions, fees for operating businesses in California, office space, and more that eat into this top line revenue number.This also doesn't count all of SwitchPod's gross revenue like I mentioned above, just the portion I personally withdrew or was paid by that LLC. If you add up SwitchPod, Clients, and Digital income my businesses had over $890,000 of gross revenue in 2020, but I'm a co-owner in SwitchPod, so I'm only counting my portion for the above.I might share my expenses for certain things in the future, but to be respectful of not disclosing how much I pay others, what my co-owner earns, etc. I'm leaving it out of this review. Okay, hopefully that is enough caveats.What Went Well1. I grew SwitchPod into a very profitable & lean first full year. This is the catalyst for a bunch of the other things that went well below, so I'll start with it first. After reinvesting all of the money from our Kickstarter campaign (rough $365,000 after Kickstarter fees and non-payments) into manufacturing costs and stocking up on inventory in 2019, 2020 was mostly profiting off of the hard groundwork we had laid the years prior. We launched a second and third product as accessories (ball head and phone adapter) and pushed hard to sell what we'd made via email, social media, connecting with retailers, partnering with affiliates, and more. I really have tried to keep the company as lean as possible though to increase profitability. I do as much in house as possible (including packaging design, product photography, website design, marketing videos, and more). Building out all kinds of creative abilities and talents over the past decade allows me to not have to hire other people or contract out help on key projects. We are also continuing to grow only organically. We don't currently pay for advertising or influencer marketing. We'll keep SwitchPod lean for the foreseeable future while still investing in developing new products.2. I paid off all outstanding debt. Going into 2020 we still had some personal debt outstanding from past medical bills, student loans, and living above our means. Mainly due to the financial success of SwitchPod, we were able to be completely debt free for the first time since 2010. I talk about this in more detail during podcast episode 96, but it actually felt really weird to finally be debt free again. For too many years we had been carrying balances (sometimes small, sometimes large) and it became our normal. The mental weight that has been lifted since making those last payments is indescribable. I started being a better boss to myself and felt less guilty during my non-work hours. It is really odd that 2020 was the year we became debt free, considering the world was turned upside with the pandemic, but thankfully all the hard work I'd put in the previous 5 to 10 years growing business had us in a good position to persevere during COVID-19 without needing a PPP loan or anything. We're now aggressively saving money each month for a house, for the eventuality of replacing 16 year old cars, retiring early (hopefully), and more.3. I didn't travel for work during the first full year being a dad. One thing that I felt like was keeping me from having kids was how much my work required me to travel before 2020. In a normal year I would fly a dozen times or more for client projects, a few times to attend events or retreats, and more recently I'd visit factories overseas and warehouses for SwitchPod. All this time away would put additional pressure and workload on Jen. I always thought I'd HAVE to keep this kind and amount of travel to make a living, but 2020 happened and I didn't travel at all for work, which meant I got to be home every day to see my daughter grow up over her first year and beyond. I'm going to try to limit work travel as much possible for at least the next few years.4. I started "playing" again. I used to play a lot of video games. In high school and college I probably played around 15-30 hours a week. It was how I hung out with or stayed in touch with friends growing up and also was just a hobby of mine I enjoyed in the evenings. But since I started running my own business in 2014 I have mostly "retired" from it and skipped owning a full cycle of consoles. During lockdown and partially due to the guilt of not having debt anymore being lifted, I picked up a Nintendo Switch. It ended up being something I could do while my colicky 4 month old napped in my lap for two hours in the afternoon to give my wife a break. Bringing gaming back into my life was a way to distract myself from the outside world, but also to reconnect me with old friends. We started using Tabletop Simulator to play board games virtually, Jen and I played Switch online with some friends, and overall it was just a hobby to have when we couldn't really leave home. I missed playing games and plan to keep them around at a healthy level.5. I walked over 700 miles. Once our daughter was through the colicky newborn phase and the pandemic lockdown began I started going for a 2+ mile walk with her in the stroller and Pippa (my dog) every morning. And I mean... Every. Single. Morning. As for writing this I'm at ~330 straight days according to my Apple Watch. Sometimes I listen to a book or podcast, other times I just listen to the ocean waves and talk to Odette.6. We went to Cabo. Right before lockdown in February 2020, the three of us went with Jen's family and my mom to Cabo. The flight there and back timed well as I was able to bounce Odette in my arms for the duration and she slept or barely cried during the flight somehow. (This was still during peak colic). Odette was still only 4 months old, so her short cycles and relying on naps and feedings every couple hours were a different kind of "vacation" than we were used to, but it was still a blast and knowing that we'd be stuck at home for the next year or more, I'm glad we went.7. I read 19 books. I mainly consumed audiobooks purchased through Audible or borrowed them from my library via the app Libby. I kept a good habit of listening to books instead of podcasts (most of the time) on my walks. I've also been trying to branch out beyond the typical business or money genre I've mostly been reading the past decade. Some of my favorite books I read last year were Greenlights, Skin in the Game, Shoe Dog, Talking to Strangers, The End is Always Near, Sapiens, and Stillness is the Key.What Didn't Go Well1. I didn't release content consistently. I say this in every annual review. I haven't yet been able to keep a constant publishing cadence other than when I first started blogging in 2010 when I published a new post every day for 50 days. Success in this to me would (at a minimum) mean releasing one video every week on the same day and time. Ideally more and more often, with better performance than I have been getting on videos, but I'm trying to just focus on what I can do or create and let the results or performance happen out of my control.2. I struggled to get SwitchPod into physical stores or add on as many international retailers as I'd hoped. The timing of the pandemic starting just months after we got our first batch of inventory wasn't great. Part of my plans for growing the business included getting our products into physical big box stores and being stocked by retailers in countries around the world. Everything getting locked down really put a pause on orders from new partners. Thankfully people kept buying through our Shopify website, Amazon, and our other existing retailers. We did make progress with some big retailers I hope to get orders from in early 2021 and added a handful of international retailers in 2020 too though. Success in this for 2021 would mean landing at least 10 more international retailers and 2 big box stores.3. Lifting weights. Blame it on gym's closing due to COVID-19 if you want, but I didn't lift weights as much as I wanted to or should. I was in a good rhythm in January and February of going to the YMCA with Jen and doing the power lifts I enjoy (deadlift, bench press, back squat, overhead press, and barbell curl). We then got a pair of adjustable dumbbells (after scouring the internet when everyone else was) and put together a small home gym. Once we got all of that setup I lifted weights 14 times in July and 10 times in August, but fell off the routine after that.What's Next in 2021In year's past I've written out what I planned to do the next year, but since we are already 2 months into 2021 and I've already done extensively goal planning for the year privately, I'm not going to share too much here, but my main goals are to:Keep growing SwitchPod (more units sold, more retailers, more products developed)Deliver on projects for Smart Passive Income (courses, YouTube content, etc.)Have fun with my digital business (videos on different topics, launch a couple more courses)Keep a healthy work-life balance (daily walks, gaming with friends, weight lifting, only work 9-5)Save additional money (avoid lifestyle creep, stay out of debt, invest for retirement, save for a house)

We finally got our man! We said it from day 1 of starting this podcast that we always wanted to pick the brain of the man that started it all, Matt Cerrone, and he didn't disappoint. For the uninitiated, Cerrone was the OG Mets blogger. Long before the days of Twitter and websites giving a voice to the common man, Cerrone was grinding away covering the Amazin's in a way that fans could appreciate. He didn't sugar coat it, he reacted like we reacted and he was damn good at his job. We talked about the beginning days of MetsBlog, being acquired by SNY, working for the Wilpons and Mets' misery in general. An inside look from a guy who had worked both sides of the fence. Really interesting guy that wasn't afraid to let it fly! No Wilpon shills here, we got down to the behind-the-scenes dealings of the team, the wildest things he encountered on the job and what he's most excited about with the new regime. BONUS Part 2: After recording the episode ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. Uncle Stevie was somehow wrapped up in the GameStop saga on Wall Street (unjustly) and our worlds collided as Steve Cohen and Dave Portnoy go into it on Twitter. KFC KNEW that Stevie being on Twitter was a bad idea, but never in his worst of nightmares would he have thought that Cohen would be going back and forth with Mr. Pageviews himself. A perfect storm of circumstance, but thankfully he held his own and walked out of the arena with the head held high. You don't get the show 'Billions' made about you by walking into a firing squad so we gotta believe that he knew what he was doing, but BOY was it touch-and-go there for a minute.

Evan Britton (@Evan_Britton) runs a massive website focused on digital celebrities called Famous Birthdays. It gets multiple billions of pageviews a year, has dozens of employees, and he bootstrapped it to profitability without raising a dime from investors. They key to Evan's approach is his laser focus. He says no to almost everything, including the most obvious of opportunities. Instead he prefers to "stay in his lane." He'd rather make one thing great than do a mediocre job at 4 or 5 different things. The story of how Evan made Famous Birthdays great is one of fame, focus, ambition, patience, and just a little bit of luck.

Welcome to this episode which is all about how I got over a million pageviews in my first year of blogging - yes 1,000,000 pageviews! This episode is for all the bloggers out there who want to take their blogs to the next level. We discuss traffic generation strategies, SEO, and Pinterest, and exactly what I did to achieve this massive goal of mine. This Dream Big My Friend episode with your host Frances Vidakovic will give you all the best personal development and self-help strategies to get you up and chasing your goals today. Learn more at dreambigmyfriend.com > Grab access to *ALL THE PODCAST PDF SHOWNOTES* Here ( https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/b9c1f1 ) > Grab Your *FREE FABULOUS DAY CHEATSHEET* Here ( https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/q6u3k2 ) > Want A Free Copy Of Our *FUTURE LIFE WORKBOOK* ? It's Here ( https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/q0t6p8 ) > Want A Free Copy Of Our *VENT AND MOVE ON MOVEBOOK* ? It's Here ( https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/c5f4s0 ) > Check Out All Our *INSPIRING LIFE COURSES* Here ( https://inspiring-life.teachable.com/courses )

Today, I'm excited to share an interview I conducted with Jared Bauman, a long time Niche Pursuits reader. Jared and I sat down to discuss a recent site he purchased and how he grew it 5x in just 7 months.  He took the site from earning around $200 a month to now over $1,000 a month! Jared's website purchase criteria: 1. Ranking Articles 2. Consistent Revenue 3. No Backlink Profile 4. Monthly Traffic over 3,000 Pageviews 5. No Premium Ad Network How to Grow a Purchased Site 1. Site Audit and Repairs 2. Add Buy Buttons and Tables 3. Keyword Research 4. Hire a Writer 5. Publish New Content 6. Build Links 7. Add Internal Links

Benji Hyam is the co-founder of Grow and Convert, a content marketing agency that does things a little differently to other agencies. They identify pain points to drive content, conversation, and sales, which is something of a novelty in the world of marketing agencies. In this episode, I wanted to understand why lead generation was not a priority for marketing agencies, where Benji gets his ideas from, and how he creates high-quality content that converts. We covered: How most agencies are focussed on output of content not leads Why many agencies choose not to measure ROI Is content here to stay? Figuring out which channel is best to convey what you want to say How all content starts with the written word Why engagement begins with customer research The impotence of doubling down on your strengths Tips for getting articles seen by the right people Short and long term tactics Resources: Grow and Convert Pain Point SEO: How to Produce SEO Content That Drives Conversions SaaS Content Strategy: How We Scaled Leadfeeder's Signups to Over 200/month B2C Content Marketing: How We Grew a B2C Blog to 70,000 Pageviews in 14 Months Become a Top Content Marketer Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill The Lean Startup - Eric Ries Contagious - Jonah Berger Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

This Week Show's Sponsors Kinsta: https://kinsta.com/ WPFunsion: https://wpfusion.com/ #1 - WordCamp US 2020 Canceled Due to Pandemic Stress and Online Event Fatigue https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2020-canceled-due-to-pandemic-stress-and-online-event-fatigue #2 - Pageviews is a Bogus Billing Metric for WordPress Hosts & Page Speed What We Learned By Analyzing 1,500 Agency Websites https://pagely.com/blog/never-pay-for-pageviews/?mc_cid=eb5aa08a5e&mc_eid=6fe76f08cf https://convesio.com/agency-website-page-speed-analysis/ #3 - Automattic Updates Press Page to Clarify Distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com  

This Week Show's Sponsors Kinsta: https://kinsta.com/ WPFunsion: https://wpfusion.com/ #1 - WordCamp US 2020 Canceled Due to Pandemic Stress and Online Event Fatigue https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2020-canceled-due-to-pandemic-stress-and-online-event-fatigue #2 - Pageviews is a Bogus Billing Metric for WordPress Hosts & Page Speed What We Learned By Analyzing 1,500 Agency Websites https://pagely.com/blog/never-pay-for-pageviews/?mc_cid=eb5aa08a5e&mc_eid=6fe76f08cf https://convesio.com/agency-website-page-speed-analysis/ #3 - Automattic Updates Press Page to Clarify Distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com  

Ben Goldstein is the content marketing manager at Nutshell and joins us here today to discuss his approach to capturing attention in a crowded market, and [his own journey from entertainment journalist to content marketer / his advice for marketers who are trying to make their own content efforts ROI positive.

India's news houses are in crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown, the dwindling circulation of print newspapers, and the loss of advertising revenue have all created a perfect storm for an already ailing news industry in India.With press freedom rankings continuing to be abysmal and business-as-usual no longer working, what would it take to launch a truly mobile-first, online-only news enterprise that can be financially independent and do good journalism?Prem Panicker joins host Pavan Srinath on Episode 138 of The Pragati Podcast to share what it takes to do this in 2020. Starting in 1995-96, Prem had helped build Rediff.com into an online news website at a time when only a few hundreds of people in India had working computers connected to the internet.Prem is a journalist and an editor, who has worked at several print and online news houses, including Rediff, India Abroad, and as the Managing Editor for India at Yahoo! Prem also founded www.peepli.org, for deep reporting on environmental, water, climate change and refugees' issues.Prem is on twitter at @prempanicker and writes regularly at prempanicker.wordpress.com.Also listen to journalist Krishna Prasad on the state of Indian news media today over at BIC Talks: www.tinyurl.com/bictalks-kpIf you have any questions or comments, write to us at podcast@thinkpragati.com, we would love to hear from you.Follow The Pragati Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/pragatipodFollow Pragati on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thinkpragatiFollow Pragati on Facebook: https://facebook.com/thinkpragatiSubscribe & listen to The Pragati Podcast on iTunes, Saavn, Spotify, Castbox, Google Podcasts, AudioBoom, YouTube, or any other podcast app. We are there everywhere.

  Are you struggling with getting your business off of the ground? What would it mean for your brand to get over 26,000 page views in one month? Does that sound too good to be true? It’s not!  After a ton of hard work and modifications, my team and I have dialled things in just right on several brands that have led to some impressive results. I want you to get in on this and experience similar results with your brand! If you are ready - I’m ready - let’s do this!  Evergreen assets  When was the last time you got stuck fixing something at home and you turned to YouTube or Google to find the answer? Chances are high that you’ve done something like that in the last month or so. People and brands who create those resources for us to find when we are stuck have what we call “Evergreen assets.” Evergreen assets are resources that you create that someone will find helpful now or six months from now - they are evergreen.  What kind of content can you prepare for your brand that will become an evergreen asset? Maybe for your brand that’s a checklist or an ebook that addresses a particular question or issue that people have in your target market.  Answer common questions! Another great way to make your brand stand out from the competition is by answering common questions that people have in your target market. Consider creating a video that compares the top five products made in your market - you could also create a series of comparison videos where you review products side by side. When you review products or answer common questions that people have in your market - you establish yourself as a trusted and knowledgeable source of information.  Upping your Pinterest game Does your brand have an active presence on Twitter? What about Facebook? When people think of social media they usually think of the big three, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram but what about Pinterest? The advantage that Pinterest has over Facebook and the rest is that Pinterest isn’t dependent on a timeline - it centres on pins. You can create pins that people will pin to their Pinterest boards that will keep them top of mind and in front of them - that’s great for evergreen content! How can you use Pinterest to up your game and move past the competition? Tune into this episode to learn more, you don’t want to miss it!  OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF ROCK YOUR BRAND [0:03] My introduction to this episode of the podcast! [3:15] Why build evergreen assets?  [7:45] I break down how we got over 26,000 page views in one month.  [11:30] Answering common questions in your market.  [13:15] Comparing products.  [16:00] Making the most of Pinterest.  [25:00] How turning on ads can make you an income.  [27:00] Recapping helpful content strategies.  [29:30] Closing thoughts.  RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.takeactioncrew.com www.brandcreators.com www.brandcreators.com/pinterest

Ok, Frances actually makes this sound crazy simple!  And when she says what she did it genuinely does make blogging sound like a very simple game.  We chat about: How Frances managed to write 20+ blog posts every month (with a full-time job and 2 teenage kids) The one secret to getting the most out of Pinterest that you won't normally be told The power of having a "why" strong enough to you Why her childhood dream job has helped so much as a blogger   As always the last few minutes sums up the main points and leaves you with one little piece of action you can take away.    Find the show notes here   Check out Make Time Online to find out how you can make money online to free up your time and live life on your own terms.   Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram   Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts here   Keep changing for the better! 

Harsh Argawal is a well-known blogger in the WordPress and digital marketing space.   Shout Me Loud gets over a million pageviews a month, which is really high for a blog in just about any space, but especially the Wordpress and Blogging niche.  Not only has Harsh built a significant business, but he's also found a way to a have a proper work life balance. Listen in to hear how Harsh has grown his blog, how he finds content ideas, how he runs his business, and how he makes time to travel, meditate, and more.

Media, sosial media, bekerja mencari perhatian. Perhatian dari para audience yang banyak sehingga bisa menjual "space" untuk advertiser. Akhirnya para penyaji konten ini berlomba. Kualitas jadi nomor dua. Yang penting Pageviews, Like, Comment, Share. Padahal kalau kita sebagai audience mencari sesuatu yang berkualitas, mereka akan berlomba men-supply demand yang ada. DISCLAIMER: Kalau di audio ini lo nemu kata, kalimat, pendapat, pikiran, yang tanpa sengaja bikin lo emosi (positif atau negatif) please jangan lgsg kemakan, justru...pertanyakan. Gak harus setuju, gak harus percaya, gak harus ikutin. Just open mind. SUPPORT: Kalau cocok, jangan lupa share konten ini ke Instagram Stories dan tulis pendapat lo plus tag @kontrasisi. Thank you!

Laura Burton has an unusual problem: she has lots of traffic & products, but she’s not making much money! She gives so much away for free that most of her income is from ad revenue. Listen as she Gets Ruthed and learns to turn pageviews into real profit!

Podcast interview with Natasa Lekic from NY Book Editors talking about how they use content marketing to grow their customer-base.

Podcast interview with Natasa Lekic from NY Book Editors talking about how they use content marketing to grow their customer-base.

Podcast interview with Natasa Lekic from NY Book Editors talking about how they use content marketing to grow their customer-base.

  Anastasia has gone from an editor working for an online magazine to a full-time blogger making more money than she ever did from her day job.  Find out how she has used Pinterest SEO to drive crazy traffic to her website every month.   We chat about:   Why Anastasia's career set her up perfectly for Pinterest SEO How Anastasia made more than her day job within one year of using Pinterest. The way that you can monetise traffic from Pinterest (every month) The changes in Pinterest for 2020 and beyond        As always the last few minutes sums up the main points and leaves you with one little piece of action you can take away.    Find the show notes here   Check out Make Time Online to find out how you can make money online to free up your time and live life on your own terms.   Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram   Don't forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here   Keep changing for the better! 

How much can Gangster Pete bench? Doug injured himself doing the military press. What are your favorite movies? Plowsy got a lot of views on his weight lifting video. Radio business discussion. Barstool on Real Sports last night.

How much can Gangster Pete bench? Doug injured himself doing the military press. What are your favorite movies? Plowsy got a lot of views on his weight lifting video. Radio business discussion. Barstool on Real Sports last night.

In dieser Ausgabe geht es um den Google-Discover-Feed und darum, wie Ihr Eure Inhalte dort platzieren könnt. Google zeigt Traffic-Daten aus Discover jetzt in der Search Console an. Zur Kritik an gesunkenem Suche-Traffic entgegnet Google, man solle sich nicht nur auf Pageviews konzentrieren. Außerdem: Googles Deindexierungsproblem, natives Lazy Loading in Google Chrome und Infos zum Umgang mit Pfaden in URLs.

We return with a YP STL rap diddy. Doug doesn't like it. Article in the Post about a group that is displaying how hip STL is. The guys discuss. YP calls in to defend his rap. Pageviews v. Doug is the new Biggie v. Pac. Iggy explains his beef with Lana to YP. RUN TMA shirts need to be picked up. 

We return with a YP STL rap diddy. Doug doesn't like it. Article in the Post about a group that is displaying how hip STL is. The guys discuss. YP calls in to defend his rap. Pageviews v. Doug is the new Biggie v. Pac. Iggy explains his beef with Lana to YP. RUN TMA shirts need to be picked up. 

#KILLACaseStudies Episode 81 Today we share a #KILLACaseStudy on how we achieved 70,000 more page views for the City of Stirling website (https://www.stirling.wa.gov.au). We go through 4 key methods including: 1. Accessibility 2. Information Architecture 3. User Interface Design 4. Interactive Design

This episode demonstrates that it is possible to get to 6.6 million pageviews in 2 years of blogging, because Caroline Simmons of Swaddles N Bottles did it! And the best part is she loves sharing all her tips and tricks. In this episode, Caroline and I discuss how Pinterest has fueled her blog growth, and how she strategically uses group boards to find new opportunities. Learn how she hires contributors to create content for her parenting blog, and how she's started a new blog to teach other women how to build online businesses. This is all in addition to having two babies at home! If you want actionable steps to take your blog traffic to a new level, you will love this episode! Resources: Swaddles N Bottles Tailwind PinGroupie Pinning For Pageviews Canva Shutterstock Adobe Photos MiloTree Social Warfare HashtagJeff ShareASale CJ Affiliate PepperJam The Basics of Blogging The Basics of Blogging Facebook Group Mastering Affiliate Marketing The Slight Edge * May contain affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I might receive a small commission at no cost to you.   Transcript - How to Get to 6.6 Million Pageviews in 2 Years of Blogging with Caroline Simmons Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian Tohber Leslie 0:03 Hello, everybody. Welcome back to The Blogger Genius Podcast. Today, my guest is Caroline Simmons. It's Caroline right? Not Carolyn? Caroline Simmons 0:21 Yes. Jillian Tohber Leslie 0:21 Yes. okay, and Caroline is a mother of two itty bitty kids. And she's a blogger. She's owner of a blog called Swaddles n Bottles, and it's a resource for new moms. Now what's super interesting is that she started this in 2016, and she has since grown it to over 6.6 million page views. So we are going to get into how she has done that. Welcome to the show. Caroline. Caroline Simmons 0:49 Hi. Thank you for having me. Jillian Tohber Leslie 0:51 So I have to say that we met because you sent me the loveliest email out of nowhere, just saying how much you enjoyed the podcast. Caroline Simmons 1:02 Yes, I am someone who always want to be learning about whatever there is out there that I can get my hands on involving blogging and growing. And just finding new strategies and tips. And anytime I see your email pop up in my inbox, I either read it right then and there, or I flag it because I know it's always got such great content. So yeah, I really enjoy it. And, you know, I like that we were saying that the internet can be kind of a lonely place. And so I always like to just send a positive message whenever I can. And just send you a little word of encouragement that I'm reading it and I'm loving it. And it is absolutely helping me. Jillian Tohber Leslie 1:42 Thank you. And you're also using MiloTree, because if you sign up for MiloTree, you get my emails. So honestly, like when I get an email like that. It's it makes my day. Caroline Simmons 1:54 Well, good. I'm happy to hear that. Jillian Tohber Leslie 1:56 And then when I learned a little bit about your business, I was like, please come on the show, I want to interview you. Caroline Simmons 2:02 Yes, I'm happy to share whatever I can. Kind of pay it forward everything you've given me. I'd love to share some of my tidbits and hope that it can help someone else. Jillian Tohber Leslie 2:11 Okay, so let's start at the beginning. You started this blog not long ago? Caroline Simmons 2:16 Right. Jillian Tohber Leslie 2:16 So tell me a little bit about you. And how you did this. Caroline Simmons 2:20 Okay. Yeah, so I launched it in October of 2016. Starting a blog two years ago to help other mothers Jillian Tohber Leslie 2:25 Wow. So two years ago. Caroline Simmons 2:27 Just about two years ago now. And my first daughter was just three months old at the time. And when I was pregnant with her, I spent so much time online, trying to get my hands on any and all information I could about what was to come in my near future. In terms of my pregnancy and labor and delivery and bringing home a newborn and breastfeeding that newborn. And so I spent so much time online, just trying to collect every bit of information I could. Then as I kind of started going through, you know, those first couple months of motherhood and testing things out and trying to figure out. What was working what wasn't. What were the mom hacks that were saving me time and sanity and whatnot. I thought I would love to share this. And so I decided I wanted to start a blog. I had never done anything website related in the past. Jillian Tohber Leslie 3:22 And what was your previous life? Caroline Simmons 3:24 My previous life, I kind of dabbled around in a few different things. And I spent a few years working for an energy company. I did some recruiting for them. I did some customer service for them prior to leaving my job. Right before I had my first daughter, Emmy, I was working in higher education and working with college students, which was really, really fun. So, to be honest, I can say that I hadn't found what I wanted to do long term. And then when this idea, once it struck me, like creating a blog creating something from scratch that I've done all on my own, and growing it to the point of reaching me, no, never would have guessed it would have been millions of mothers and helping them. Once that idea was in my brain, and in my heart, there was no stopping it. It gave me, it's still to this day gives me goosebumps, just thinking about having the opportunity to do that. And so that's kind of what set me on my path. Jillian Tohber Leslie 4:24 Okay, so you get this idea. You have this tiny little baby, and you think I want to help other mothers, right? So what do you do? Start a blog to solve a problem you're struggling with Caroline Simmons 4:34 I bought a domain and I'm pretty sure my husband thought I had lost my marbles because he's like, do you know anything about blogging? And I didn't. And really, when I was a new mom, I was a new blogger. I researched. I took every free course I could find. I read every book I could find. I invested a little money in some paid ebooks and paid courses. I just just dug into anything I could get my hands on to figure it out. And I started creating content. I think one of the things that was the most helpful was that I was creating content for an audience that I was in the same position. I was going through the same struggles, and I was finding solutions. And I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And I think that really helped. I had to tap into what's going on in my life. What struggles and am I going through? And how can I help others? Jillian Tohber Leslie 5:37 You know, it's so funny, because people will go, I want to start a business, what should it be? And I always say, examine your own life. Because, you know, if you're having a problem, chances are millions of other people are having that exact problem. And that's it again, we didn't set out to create MiloTree, we built it for ourselves, it worked really well. We're like, Hey, we could help other bloggers. And so we didn't set out to go, we're gonna make this app. And, you know, it's just, we scratched our own itch, and we were able to find a solution. Just like you did. Caroline Simmons 6:11 Right, yeah. And that is, I think, what what brings in the people is when you're solving a problem for them, and you're not setting out trying to do something for yourself, right? Having a mindset of helping as a blogger You're saying, and this is something that a lot of people are struggling with, how can I help? And when you have a mindset of helping, I think people can sense that. Yes. And I think that they are attracted to it. Jillian Tohber Leslie 6:35 I agree. It's like, they can smell it. Caroline Simmons 6:37 Yes. Jillian Tohber Leslie 6:39 Okay. So you start writing posts. Caroline Simmons 6:42 I started creating content and building the website, which that was a struggle in itself. Learning this new platform of WordPress, and that, that took some time. That was probably the biggest learning curve. Jillian Tohber Leslie 6:57 Did you did you hire somebody? Caroline Simmons 6:59 No, it was really just tutorials, and watching a lot of YouTube tutorials, and just reaching out to other bloggers, and just kind of trying to figure it out little by little. And still to this day. I would say it was maybe three months ago I installed a new theme in my blog and made a major change. So I tried not to be too hard on myself with it being perfect in the beginning. Because that is kind of, building a website is ever evolving. That was probably the hardest kind of hurdle in the beginning was the technical stuff. Something as simple as changing the color on my menu bar would take me, you know, 45 minutes to Google it and figure it out, and then try it and it didn't work. So I had to try it again. So, that was definitely tough. But now I'm pretty proud of what I do know, and what I can accomplish. And it was fun to learn all of those new things. Jillian Tohber Leslie 7:59 So there's a lot of content on your site. Caroline Simmons 8:02 Yes. Jillian Tohber Leslie 8:03 Did you write it all? Getting contributors to your blog Caroline Simmons 8:04 No, no. So I did in the beginning, and then I believe it was June of this year, I really kind of felt like, while my experiences were great, why not start providing some other views, some other experiences. Because every path through motherhood is unique. And why not give some other people an opportunity to share what they have. So I opened up an application and put it out there on social media, my Instagram, my Facebook. I started reading content that all of these other mothers had submitted. And I was blown away by the results. I never would have thought that I would have received as many applications as I did. And then from that, I now have three writers who write for me consistently. They are wonderful. I feel incredibly blessed to have them because they too, I think, really share my passion for helping moms and providing whatever information they can. So they helped me create a lot of the content. I have done a lot of guest posts in the past where I've allowed newer bloggers to share things. But I would say probably 70% to 80% of the content I wrote myself. I'm really loving having other views and other just stories and point of view this from others. Jillian Tohber Leslie 9:28 Do you pay them? Caroline Simmons 9:30 I do? Yes. My content writers who are with me, my three, I do pay them and I have not paid for, like blog posts in the past. But I do pay my writers. Absolutely. I mean, if you read some of the content they provide me with, it's amazing. It's stellar. And I like supporting them. And the fact that they're also trying to make something of themselves as freelance writers. So, yeah, I love being able to support them on their journey as well. Jillian Tohber Leslie 9:59 And how much content. How often are you posting? Caroline Simmons 10:03 You know, that's one of the interesting things about blogging. Since I brought on these writers, I've been a lot more consistent. When I brought home my second daughter, she was born in October, she was a little bit early, so she really needed extra attention. And so I didn't post there for maybe two months. When I first found out I was pregnant with her, oh, my goodness. I have like the worst morning sickness. And so I didn't post then for two or three weeks. So I wouldn't advise that to other bloggers. Having flexibility as a blogger But I would say it is one of the nice things about blogging, is when you do have to take time for your family, and for yourself, you can. But I have seen a lot of growth since I've been really consistent. And I'd say for the month of September, I think I'm already up to we've posted 16 times. Jillian Tohber Leslie 10:57 Okay. Wow. Caroline Simmons 10:59 And that's a combination of my own, and my writers as well. So as long as there's stuff to be shared, you know, we're going to be sharing it, we're not going to hold ourselves back. As long as we keep having inspiration on things to write. We're going to keep putting it out there. Jillian Tohber Leslie 11:17 That's awesome. Okay. Now, here is the million dollar question actually be 6.6 million question is, how have you grown your page views so big? Be where your audience is as a blogger -- focus on your most successful platform Caroline Simmons 11:29 Well, this is just kind of my philosophy for any blog is you have to know your audience and where they are spending their time, where are they hanging out. And wherever that is, you have got to work the heck out of it. For me, being that I am targeting women, new mothers, for me, that was Pinterest. And Pinterest has been the number one source of traffic for my blog. Really since day one, I have just researched and read and implemented and tested and dug into my analytics with Pinterest more than any other platform because it's what's working for me. And I think that that's something it took me time to figure out to work on what's working. You know, I think as a blogger, we can get so tied up with, well, there's Facebook, and there's Instagram. And there's Twitter. And there's LinkedIn. And, you know, there's all these different things and you're trying to make each of them work. Because you maybe hear that they're working for other bloggers or you think it could work. Where really I mean, if Pinterest is working, work Pinterest, and focus on that. And once you've got some consistent traffic from it, that's it's okay to start working on other things, and looking into other things. But I think that by really focusing on that one platform and doing whatever I could to learn and master and just make it work for me, that's what really drove the traffic. Jillian Tohber Leslie 13:05 So by the way, you are so preaching to the choir, I agree with you 100%. I always say this, which is go toward what's working. And then people will say, yeah, but what, what happens when Pinterest changes their algorithm, and I go, Oh, don't worry, they will. And then you go toward whatever else is working. But if something is working, dig deep, it doesn't mean that you ignore Instagram, but focus on what's making you money. Caroline Simmons 13:33 Right. And especially if you're just starting out, you're like, wow, this is working, okay, that means you've just skim the surface. If you've just pinned a few times, and it starts doing good things for your page views. Imagine what would happen if you really just took the time to educate yourself and read as much as you could. Even if you take three days to do nothing, but just educate yourself. It will pay you back and you will start knowing how to implement these things differently and just and really launch it. Jillian Tohber Leslie 14:01 So let's talk about this. Okay, so did you take Pinterest courses? Caroline Simmons 14:07 I did not take a specific Pinterest course. I'll be honest, I was an avid pinner before. I loved recipes. And when I was young and single, I had my dream wedding board, and all of that. My fashion board and such, so I was a pinner beforehand. And I think I understood how it worked. In that sense, when it came to making it work. For myself as a blogger, I think it was really just about digging into analytics. There's so many free resources out there, you know. Just a quick Pinterest search on Pinterest tips and what you can do to make it work for you. There's so much content out there. Which I love that about the blogging world. I love that people are willing to share, what is working for them. And so I might have taken some free Master Courses, as they call them, where it's like a one time thing where you sit and they share just kind of a few golden nuggets from Pinterest. But I didn't take one course that kind of changed everything. For me, it was more of just grabbing whatever I could, wherever I could, and just implementing little things here and there. Dig into your analytics on Pinterest to see what's working And then, like I said, it's all about digging into your analytics. You know, if you don't know what's working, you're not going to know what to stop doing and what to change. Jillian Tohber Leslie 15:32 Okay, so so let's unpack that a little bit. Caroline Simmons 15:34 Okay. Jillian Tohber Leslie 15:34 What does that mean? Digging into your analytics? Caroline Simmons 15:41 So you've got your analytics on everything, if we're talking specific about Pinterest? Jillian Tohber Leslie 15:46 Yeah, let's do Pinterest. Caroline Simmons 15:48 Pinterest analytics lets you know what boards you're pinning to that are getting the most results. Jillian Tohber Leslie 15:54 Okay. Caroline Simmons 15:54 You can also look into things like what type of pins are performing. You can see what times of day that you're pinning that are working for you. I am an avid user of Tailwind. Jillian Tohber Leslie 16:11 Got it. And we do too. Caroline Simmons 16:14 Oh, my gosh. And that it's not just the Pinterest analytics alone. My Tailwind analytics are huge for me. It lets me know so much. Using group boards as a blogger to grow traffic And especially like I said, I'm a big user of the group boards. And using group boards on Pinterest is a great way to expand your reach. And it's great how they can let you know, you've pinned to this board 67 times in the past month, and it's only been been repinned once. Well, that tells you that your ideal audience is not hanging out in that group board. That's you're not getting your pin in front of the right people. So it may be time to, take a break from that group board, possibly leave that group board and really start to focus more on where are you know, my my ideal pinners? How can I get in touch with them? And how can I make sure that they're seeing my content And clicking on it. Jillian Tohber Leslie 17:11 So in Tailwind, you're looking at which are your most successful boards? Caroline Simmons 17:17 I'm looking at what are my most successful boards. I really also love to look at what people are pinning directly from my domain. Because it shows them if there is an image within a blog post that really is like standing out to them. And they're really captivated by Wow, this is this is such an interesting graphic. And so if I see that that's being pinned a lot, I like to go in and maybe create a new PIN that's maybe a little modified version of that, that graphic, it just tells you so much. But the board analyzer as they call it, and that really helps me see where is my effort is most being returned. I'm using that time slot to pin to this board? Is it worth it? And then from there on the opposite end of, leaving boards and also helps me see what are my rock star boards? Where are my people for sure, hanging out. And I like to make sure that as soon as I have a new blog post that it's going to my rock star boards, because I know that that's going to be the fastest and the best way to reach my audience. Jillian Tohber Leslie 18:24 And how many boards do you have? Caroline Simmons 18:27 Oh, my goodness, I think I'm probably in about 145 range right now. Jillian Tohber Leslie 18:32 Okay. Caroline Simmons 18:33 And that's what's really great about group boards is because I personally have maybe 15,000 followers on Pinterest right now. But my reach is 4.5 million. Jillian Tohber Leslie 18:47 Wow, wow. Caroline Simmons 18:50 Being part of those group boards, it's expanding my reach well beyond my individual followers. And I mean, that's huge, right there. That is what I say is the secret to Pinterest is the group boards. Jillian Tohber Leslie 19:04 Is the group boards. Caroline Simmons 19:05 Absolutely. Jillian Tohber Leslie 19:05 Because, again, I feel like I've heard over time that group boards are not as useful that they need to be very curated. Are you pinning in group boards that have thousands or hundreds of contributors? Caroline Simmons 19:23 You're touching on something that I've heard a lot of debate on. So I agree with you that if you are in boards that are pin whatever you want, no rules. Pin, whatever, and there's, you know, 4.5 thousand people in it. Yes, that can be a negative. But I am personally part of a board that I think have probably 700 or 800 contributors, and it's one of my top ones. That's why when I'm looking at group boards to join, I'm not usually making that decision myself. I'm going to ask to join, I'm going to give it 30 days. And I'm gonna let my Tailwind analytics Tell me from there. So I test it out, see if it's working. And if it doesn't, okay, I'll go ahead and leave. But I also think that you really do need to have a balance, I would say, you know, 70/30. 70% of your group boards you really need to be focusing for that's very specific target audience. I'm a parenting and pregnancy blogger, I'm going to be joining boards that focus around pregnancy, babies, labor and delivery, breastfeeding. That's what I want to be looking for. Testing out group boards as a blogger I'm fine with testing them out. But I'm also very quick to leave them if I feel like they're not working. But I'm not going to rule them out from the beginning. Let's give it a try. Jillian Tohber Leslie 20:44 Now, how are you finding these group boards? Caroline Simmons 20:47 PinGroupie is an awesome resource. It has really evolved too, from when I first started blogging, they've really updated it. And it's a lot more user friendly. Now, you're able to go in and filter out the category of group boards that you're looking for. And so that's awesome. Another great thing is , go to your fellow bloggers, see what some of the bigger bloggers in your in your area and see where they are pinning to and into to get added to those group boards as well. Jillian Tohber Leslie 21:25 And so will you reach out? You emailed them? Will you messaged them on Pinterest? Caroline Simmons 21:30 Yeah, I'd usually just follow the instructions on the group board. And it'll say, follow me and, send me an email or follow me and messaged me on my Facebook page and things like that. And I think one of the most valuable things that's helped me is I have two things I always follow up, I keep a running list of who I have messaged in regards to these group boards. And then if I'm added, I make a note, send them a thank you email. But a week to 10 days later, if I haven't heard back, I send a second email and I continue to follow up with them. Jillian Tohber Leslie 22:06 I love this. Okay, keep going. How to get added to group boards on Pinterest Caroline Simmons 22:08 And then more than that, a lot of times, and this is like a really big secret. But a lot of times, you'll notice that the bigger bloggers that have, you know 300,000+ followers don't have instructions on how you can grow the board. And so it takes some digging. I go to their website, I find, you know, their email address, and I send them a very personalized email to see if I can get added. And so a lot of times, I think that, you know, bloggers will look at these larger accounts. And well, there's no instructions on how to get added. So they must not be accepting contributors. And I don't take that as a stop, I keep going, I keep digging past that. And I find a way to make a connection with them. And I've got a group board that I'm part of. And you know, she didn't have any instructions. But she has half a million followers. And they're my target audience. And I reached out to her, and I kind of established a relationship with her and asked if I could be a contributor. And that was a big launch forward for my traffic. Jillian Tohber Leslie 23:08 That is terrific. Oh, my God, I'm going to go back and kind of rethink our whole group board strategy. Caroline Simmons 23:16 Yeah, it's powerful. Not only that, it's a great way to build a community with people in your network. In my ebook, I have an ebook, Pinning For Pageviews, where I talk about the strategies that work great for Pinterest. And one of my suggestions is to have your own group boards. And, you know, pay back the favor. Give other people an opportunity to market their blog post and their blogs to your audience. And I think it's a great way to say like, hey, I've got this many followers and this group board your content is great, I'd love to add you and you kind of do like a little group board swap and build a relationship there. So for all the group boards who have given you the opportunity to share your content, pay that back and invite some of our fellow bloggers to join yours as well. Jillian Tohber Leslie 24:05 So how many would you say, how many group boards are you in? How many group boards do you have? And how many regular boards? Caroline Simmons 24:17 Yeah, I want to say I am probably part of at least like 100, 120, group boards and 40 are my own. I'm so worried that those numbers are going to be completely off. I'm thinking, like when I'm in tailwind, and I'm adding all those boards, I'm thinking of like, how many days right and so I want to say that's probably about right, I'm in like maybe 120 boards? Jillian Tohber Leslie 24:49 Wow. Okay, how do you keep track then of all of these group boards? Do you have, say, your top five group boards? So if you're pinning do you pin into 100 boards? Caroline Simmons 25:08 So this is going to be really hard to explain but tailwind, has this amazing feature called board lists. And what I do is I create groups of 10. So I have mom boards A, mom boards B, mom boards C, and that's how I go through. And I of course, have a Google Docs with all of my full list of all of them, and which one is on which board list so that way, I ensure that I'm not missing one. And then when I go to pin, a new pin, I go through my list. And I pinned to the group board A, group board B, group board C. Also having it set up in that way where I have those different board list helps me so that way, I'm not pinning, you know, all of the same boards and all the things day. Does that make sense? Jillian Tohber Leslie 26:01 Yeah. Okay. So let me see if I can say that back to you. So you can group boards on tailwind? So let's say you've got 100 group boards, you can lump them, let's say 25 into a group and then another 25 into a group. So that when you are choosing what boards to pin to, all you have to do is put that group name and all those 25 boards will be included. Caroline Simmons 26:32 Yeah, that's it. What's really nice is you can go on your first pin, you go A, B, C, D, then on your second pin, you go B, C, D, A your next pin. So that way you're really mixing it up. Group boards have rules they don't want you pinning 25 times in one day really helps you mix it up so that you're pinning all across your different boards each day. And that's really awesome, too. Because, I mean, you think about like I said 4.5 million when it's mixed up like that. You're really hitting all of those boards. All of those people throughout the week. Got it? What does your team look like as a blogger? Jillian Tohber Leslie 27:09 Yes, this terrific. Okay. So do you have somebody helping you? Caroline Simmons 27:16 You mean with my Pinterest? Jillian Tohber Leslie 27:17 Yes. So are you doing all of this? Caroline Simmons 27:19 I did have a VA for some time who was really, really helpful. And she ended up finding a great full time job that was just like, so meant for her. She's so great at it. But she was helping me for a little while. And my husband helps me with some things like outside of Pinterest. He helps me with more of like the business aspects of it. But Pinterest, I'm really kind of doing it all on my own. And that's not a bad thing. I really enjoy it. I really love it. And it's such a wonderful platform. And like you said, they're always updating, they're always changing. And I think I've yet to see a change that I really dislike. I think that they're always just making it better for the users, which is great for us. Because that means people are enjoying it more. They're spending more time there. So yeah, I really don't mind doing these things on my own. Because I just I love Pinterest. Jillian Tohber Leslie 28:12 It's so terrific. Okay, how many hours a day are you spending on Pinterest? Caroline Simmons 28:19 Spending on Pinterest? Honestly, not too many, thanks to Tailwind. I do do some manual pinning here and there. I really think that Pinterest rewards people who are in there being an active user. And pinning. So I do get in there and pin on different recipes and just things that you know, are of interest to me. So I do spend some time here and there. But I don't have much time to work each week because of you know, the two little babies. So I have to be pretty wise with my time. I'd say each week right now. And probably working. I would say 25 to 30 hours a week. Jillian Tohber Leslie 29:00 Wow, that's great. Caroline Simmons 29:02 Yeah. So I try to squeeze in as much as I can during naptime. And after they go to bed. And they go to a mother's day out program two days a week for just five hours. So the night before they head off to their little school days, we call it I like to sit down and plan well, more than five hours of work. So that way, I can really just set the momentum for myself and just get as much done as I can in that amount of time. Jillian Tohber Leslie 29:31 Who is creating graphics for you? Creating Pinterest images in Canva Caroline Simmons 29:34 I create my graphics. Jillian Tohber Leslie 29:36 Cool. Okay. Using what platform? Caroline Simmons 29:41 Canva and I also really have just discovered Shutterstock, I believe is the name of it. And Adobe Photos a little bit pricier when it comes to purchasing photos. But the quality of them is so great. And as much as I love Canvas, Canva images are very heavily used, and you really start to see and a lot of the same photos being used over and over again. So for me, it's worth it to spend, you know, $3 on a photo that I know is like 100% unique and really just is so on point with the blog post topic. But I love Canva. I am an avid user of it. One of my things for next week is to create a little tutorial for the bloggers and my facebook group who I kind of help with whatever goals they have on Canva, because it's just the possibilities are endless. And, you know, you can really I mean, every graphic on my blog, pretty much 99% of them I created in Canva. Jillian Tohber Leslie 30:41 Wow. And do you have templates set up in Canva so that you can put the image in change the text, and it looks like it's consistent with your site? Caroline Simmons 30:51 I don't. Canva provides a really great Pinterest template, which is that optimal size for a pin. But besides that, I think it's really just creating my own brand in a way in terms of I have certain fonts that I always use, I really I have just a look. And that I stick with. I really like high quality images. I like for the image to be big and bold. And I like for my my texts to be very easy to read as somebody scrolling through Pinterest. I don't want it to be too small. So in terms of templates, I'm really just using that Pinterest pin template on Canva, and then adding all of my own kind of signature things. Grow our email list faster with MiloTree Jillian Tohber Leslie 31:40 I wanted to take a short break to tell you about a new feature, we've added at MiloTree to help you grow your email list faster. Now in your email pop up, you can add add an image. So let's say you've got an e-book or a course or freebie. Or you just want to make your pop up pretty. Just add your image, you will increase the number of subscribers you get. So head on over to MiloTree.com, sign up for your account. Get your first 30 days free. And now back to the show. Keyword strategy for Pinterest Jillian Tohber Leslie 30:41 Now, what about writing descriptions? How do you think about that on Pinterest? Caroline Simmons 32:24 I think you've got to use the same kind of SEO tactics that you use on your blog with Pinterest. You've got to really sit down and create a very keyword heavy description. And you've got to be thinking in the mind of your ideal reader. What are they going to be typing into a search bar and whatever that is, you've got to find a way to work it into your description on Pinterest. Jillian Tohber Leslie 32:55 Yes, yes. Now, are you using hashtags? Caroline Simmons 33:01 I mean, I think maybe once or twice. I have not jumped into that. And I know it's a newer feature. So I haven't started using them yet. But I know others are. And I haven't heard too much feedback on it. Have you heard of people really seeing a huge difference? Jillian Tohber Leslie 33:19 We are starting to put a couple hashtags into our descriptions. And I want to go back and add some hashtags at least like one to every board description. That's a big undertaking, because we have a lot of boards, but that's what I am thinking of doing. But we are starting to put a couple in our descriptions. I don't know if it's helping. I feel like it can't be hurting. And so what we're trying to do is put like our basic search words, you know, #babyshower, #girlbabshower, you know, #pinkbabyshower, that kind of thing. Caroline Simmons 34:02 And you've just touched on like, the toughest thing about blogging, things are always changing. And then you've got to decide, do I spend an entire day going back into this? It's like a few, maybe what, six months ago, Pinterest decided that they were going to change the shape of their board covers. And we all had to spend an entire day going back and fixing all these graphics. You have to really weigh things out and say, Is this a wise use of my time or is it going to even really make a difference? Jillian Tohber Leslie 34:34 And then you don't know that's the bit, you have all these analytics and all this stuff. And then at the end of the day to, there's a part of you, that just doesn't know. Caroline Simmons 34:42 Right. And I think that that's when you've got to take care of the things that you like we've talked about with Pinterest, you got to take care and nurture the things that are working for you, and take on those outside things just one week at a time. And don't try to do all of them at once. And you've really just got to space out and use your time wisely. Jillian Tohber Leslie 35:00 And what I want to say about you is you're not using hashtags and you're still getting tremendous traffic. So will you go entire day going back and doing hashtags because I don't think it's gonna change too much. Exactly. So you do a blog post. Or let's say, even somebody you have these writers. Do you create the editorial calendar for them? Did they pitch you ideas? How to work with blog contributors Caroline Simmons 35:27 No, most of the time I'm sending them the ideas based on what I know their strengths are. I have one girl that's just awesome at the How-tos she just wrote an awesome blog post for me about the maternity leave, with financial planner and how you can basically save up. She's very good at like actionable steps things to do. I've got another one who's just she's wonderful at, tapping into the emotions of motherhood and really just writing almost what I like to call like this supportive type blog posts. And then I also have someone. I have a labor and delivery nurse who writes for me, and she gets all of the things that have a lot of a lot of medical terminology. And, and she she is a great combination and knowledgeable in her field. But she also is so great at breaking it down so things aren't so scary. They're all very, very wonderful writers. And again, I'm so thankful that I have them. At the beginning of each month, I usually send each of them three to four posts, topics, and they begin writing and they have access to Swaddles and Bottles, and so they go in on the back end, and they create their blog posts, they do the formatting and things of that sort. And then it saves as a submitted post. And then I go in, and I do all the search engine optimization, I create the graphics for it. And I do all the little back and stuff, and then I publish it. Then I add it to my Tailwind, and I get it running through all of those group group boards. And then I put it on my Facebook schedule if I plan to share it there. And that's kind of just the the lifeline of a blog posts. Jillian Tohber Leslie 37:19 And how many images are you making per post? Caroline Simmons 37:23 When I first started out, two to three. Jillian Tohber Leslie 37:27 And they all have text overlays? Caroline Simmons 37:30 Yes. Always, use overlay. I like to just play around with the different titles change some words, you know, because the science of what makes a pin go viral. And what makes the pin just die off into the abyss is something that so many people have tried to specifically pinpoint. And it's not a perfect formula. I mean, you can't do ABC and within 24 hours have 20,000 readers, right. There's a lot of great guidance that we've received a lot of just general rules that people say, but again, you know, one of these, general rules that people say, is to avoid having like, faces in your pins but some faces and some pins that have done really, really well. So I think that it's a combination of a lot of things. And so I really like to try to tweak those things with each graphic that I make, just to kind of cover a few different bases. Jillian Tohber Leslie 38:30 So what would those bases be? When you kind of go, Okay, I'm gonna make three images for this blog post, what will you go to, as things you think might be successful? Caroline Simmons 38:40 I'm just really changing the title. And I don't want to say call to action. But for example, let's say I wrote a blog post on losing weight, you know, I might do the first one on, you know, the Complete Guide to losing weight, I may do another one that's like, losing weight 101, 25 ways to get past your plateau, or than I might do another one of, Number stuck on the scale, can't get past a certain point? Here's how we can help you. So it's the exact same subject, but your wording it in different ways, because you never know what's going to appeal to someone, everyone's different. So I really just kind of rewording those things I might do maybe some different fonts, things might look different, just based on whatever the image is. If the image allows for me to do text over the whole image, then I'll do that. If it allows me to do text, they would just kind of like in a bar across the bottom, I might do that. So I really do try to make them pretty different. But the overall goal is, I want that text overlay to really be compelling, and really, really show them that there's value behind clicking through. Jillian Tohber Leslie 40:02 Yes. Got it. I meant to ask this, when you have your contributors, do you say this needs to be at least 300 words? Do you have a limit? Caroline Simmons 40:14 I usually will write that whenever I'm sending them the prompts. Sometimes, yes. The wonderful nurse that I have that writes for me, she just did an awesome blog post for me on the the biggest myths of labor and delivery. :ike debunked by a nurse, which was so awesome, because I mean, moms, you know, we got that we tell our horror stories, and everyone's like, terrified, but then to hear it straight from her. So with her, I usually just kind of let her roll with it. And they've all been writing for me, like I said, for so long, to the point where I think they just know what's the ideal length for Swaddles n Bottles. And we don't have anything that's, you know, an extensive 3, 4 page blog post, and I'd say, 2,000- 2500 words is probably the absolute most that we have. Everything ranges, probably in between, I'd say 650 to 1000 words. And the reason is, because it's a resource, we are trying to get you the information, we don't really want to fluff it a lot. We want to inform you, get you what you need, so that you can feel better about whatever it is that you're looking for. You're struggling with. Jillian Tohber Leslie 41:30 Got it. And then will you add, say, the three images into the blog post? Or will you kind of add them into say Yoast, and then if somebody is going to pin your post, those other images will show up? Caroline Simmons 41:45 Yes. So usually, I just do one in the blog post, then what I will do is create new pins in Pinterest and put that link there. And you bring up a good point, a great tool that I really like, I don't want to get into too much of the debate because they have been having some technical difficulties is Social Warfare. They've done some updates, and some people are jumping ship, I haven't had any issues whatsoever, and I really, really like it. But Social Warfare allows me to select which pin, if somebody decides to click on that Pin It button, it lets me decide which pin is going to be used. And one more than that is it allows me to write that description. Like we talked about that description that's got those keywords. I don't have to worry that they're going to pin something with a blank description, whatever they're pinning, it's keyword heavy. It's got all of those things that I know are going to help it grow. Google vs. Pinterest for driving traffic Jillian Tohber Leslie 42:42 Got it. That's terrific. Okay. Now how are you doing with Google search versus Pinterest in terms of driving traffic. Caroline Simmons 42:52 Google or search engine traffic? Search engines are number two for me. I've seen a great increase. I used to get maybe about four 450 and pageviews a day from search traffic. I'm now into about the 2,000-3000s, and again that has come from all of the amazing bloggers out there who have been kind enough to share you know their tactics and their strategies. I took an amazing paid course from Hashtag Jeff. Are you familiar? Jillian Tohber Leslie 43:38 Love him, love him. Caroline Simmons 43:39 He's so good and I love how he's so real with you. He's like look videos are not my thing. I'm not a really like out there, bubbly blogger. But man, he is so good at what he does. And he breaks it down so well. I love the checklist that he gives you and everything like that. So taking his course why probably what really launched that forward for me. Jillian Tohber Leslie 44:06 I did a workshop with him at an AdThrive conference. And I loved him. Caroline Simmons 44:12 Did you go to the Adthrive Conference last year in Austin? Jillian Tohber Leslie 44:15 Yeah. Were you there? Caroline Simmons 44:15 No, me and my husband were so close to going, and I don't remember what happened. But we weren't able to go and I have like everyone in the Adthrive group has been talking about, when's the next conference? Jillian Tohber Leslie 44:28 Yes, oh I will go. Caroline Simmons 44:30 I'm so ready to go. Jillian Tohber Leslie 44:31 Yes. Yes. So he was there. And that's where he just opened my eyes. I'm going to try and get him on the show. He opened my eyes to the power of SEO. Caroline Simmons 44:41 Yeah, he's wonderful. I love how he keeps it coming for you. Like he's constantly sending emails of new things. When this whole Google big whatever happened in August, he was the first person in my inbox saying here's what you need to do to try to fix it. Jillian Tohber Leslie 44:56 Was this like GDPR? Caroline Simmons 44:58 No, Google did a big update changed. Some things a lot of people in certain areas, saw some big drops. I didn't see anything too big. And I had one day where I got down to just like 1400 but it was one of those things where I think was really scary. A little dip and things have kind of corrected themselves since then. He's just so knowledgeable. Jillian Tohber Leslie 45:22 Yep. Yep. Okay, so how do you monetize? How to monetize as a blogger with affiliates Caroline Simmons 45:26 My monetization strategy for Swaddles n Bottles. I think is really about and I think that should be the case for all blogs, diversification. You don't want to put your eggs in one basket. You don't want to have just one way that you're making money and so we just talked about you know, Adthrive. I monetize my website through ads first of all. Secondly I do affiliate marketing and I think affiliate marketing needs to be diversified. So many people just think Amazon, and Amazon is wonderful I absolutely love it. I was an Amazon mom well before I became a blogger who was promoting it. I mean I order more stuff off of Amazon than I would be willing. So I love it and I love promoting it to to my readers and the products that I use. But then I also love the smaller affiliate marketing setups. You know there's shareasale and CJ affiliates and pepper jam they all have affiliate programs. Target has an affiliate program. I mean, really, it's kind of difficult this day and age to find someone that doesn't have one, so I really think you need to diversify that and not just stick with Amazon, but reach out to all of those those other smaller affiliates as well. Jillian Tohber Leslie 46:40 Are you making your most affiliate income with products like strollers or bottles? Or is it courses about new mothers? What works for your audience? Caroline Simmons 46:57 You know, the product that I'm using, there are so many products for just having a baby in general. It can be difficult to really navigate through them. I do a lot of suggestions -- either the best products that is cost effective products, the ones that work the best things like that. I just did a blog blog posts too, on the products you do not need, because you're going to think that you do, but you actually don't need them. And so I do do a lot of that. I also do an affiliate for courses that like you said, you're a new mom. Here are some things that could help you out, or you know, you're a breastfeeding mother, here are some things that can help you out. So I think it's really just diversifying that. And in thinking outside of the Amazon box, it's a great way to get started. It really is. But then once you've got a good steady hold on it, start looking for more things. Because there are more things out there. The courses and things add so much value for my readers. And I know that they're really, really helping them. And so I love promoting and any other blogs that have courses like that. So that's another way that I monetize affiliate marketing. And then I do do occasional sponsored posts, I'm not too big on them. Well, not to say that I'm not too big on them. I don't do them very often. Because I really do try to stay super selective and which ones I do because I want them to be just really, really in line with my audience, and what they need and what products I think would actually benefit them. And so I do them. I'm not constantly aiming to do a certain amount per month or anything. And when I find a product that I think will be great, I love pitching them. And I have a lot of messages that come to my inbox as well about partnerships. But we just try to stay selective and what we do so that we we stay in line with what our audience needs. Jillian Tohber Leslie 48:54 And if you were to break it down? Are there any other monetization strategies? Caroline Simmons 48:58 No, not for Swaddles n Bottles. Jillian Tohber Leslie 49:00 Okay, if you were to break it down, how much, percentage wise, how much would you say you're making the ads via affiliates? Caroline Simmons 49:09 Affiliates is always number one. I definitely make the most with affiliate marketing. To go back to the diversification, I was just looking at my different income for the month, and Amazon's great. It's on track. It's doing well but for the first time those small little here and there other affiliate opportunities is what I call them, has surpassed my Amazon income which goes to show you can't disregard the little things. This little affiliate program may only make you $100 a month, and this program may make you $100, but then when you've got 10 of those small wins it adds up, so affiliate marketing with Amazon and other affiliates combined, those are definitely my number one source of income each month. Ads as a close second and I think the ad network that you're with is a big part of that, and and then of course sponsored posts would probably the smallest percentage. Jillian Tohber Leslie 50:14 Right and then because you've had all this success, you created another blog and you also have a Facebook group? Teaching other bloggers as a blogger Caroline Simmons 50:24 Yes. So then I created the Basics of Blogging and obviously I hope someone can tell through everything we've talked about today. I really love helping other bloggers. I am a firm believer that I could give away every blogging secret that I have, and it's not going to hurt my success. Jillian Tohber Leslie 50:46 I love that. Say that again. Caroline Simmons 50:54 I had a wonderful mentor at my past job. And his saying was, a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. Jillian Tohber Leslie 51:03 Yes. Caroline Simmons 51:06 And so I think that as bloggers, it's a natural for us to want to hold everything close. And not give away our secrets. But I think that as long as we all promise to just stay unique and always be ourselves and create our own content. There's nothing wrong with sharing what's working for you. And so I started the Basics of Blogging as a way to share just really anything and everything that was working for me. I created two ebooks Pinning for Pageviews and Mastering Affiliate Marketing, where I just kind of share everything. And then I have a Facebook group where I try to get on there and share just little tidbits here and there. We've recently also started doing something where we invite other successful bloggers to kind of take over the Facebook page. Jillian Tohber Leslie 51:56 Oooh, can I come in? Caroline Simmons 51:57 Yes, absolutely. Come in. And you just kind of share. Jillian Tohber Leslie 52:02 Can we talk about MiloTree? Caroline Simmons 52:03 I actually talked about MiloTree this morning. Jillian Tohber Leslie 52:06 You did? Caroline Simmons 52:06 Yes! Jillian Tohber Leslie 52:07 Oh, thank you. Caroline Simmons 52:08 Yeah, I told them. I was like, I'm doing an interview this morning. I'm really excited about it. And I kind of told them why I think it works so well. And how it's helped me bring back traffic and grow big following. Jillian Tohber Leslie 52:23 I love it. Wait, but tell us what is this Facebook group? Caroline Simmons 52:26 It's called just the Basics of Blogging. Jillian Tohber Leslie 52:28 Okay, got it. Caroline Simmons 52:29 And it's very different than your typical blogging Facebook group. Because in some of the other ones, you'll see a lot of like, promo days and follow for follow and comment threads and stuff like that. It's not really my goal. My goal is, like I've told everyone is just a constant waterfall of knowledge and support. And it's just really where I want people to come and grow and learn and hopefully meet their goals that they have. So it's not a place to come and share your latest blog post on the wall and stuff like that. It's a place to kind and just kind of join this community of people who have the same goals as you. We're all trying to be successful bloggers, and I really want it to be a resource for people. But I also don't want to be the only person sharing what I know. I really want it to be a community and kind of set the standard for whatever's working for you, share it, share the wealth, share the love driven knowledge. I'm excited. You know, all of this the blogging thing blogging about blogging is kind of a newer. Jillian Tohber Leslie 53:33 It's kind of meta, isn't it? Caroline Simmons 53:35 Yeah, it's, it's new. And it's very different than blogging about babies and bumps and birth and things like that. But I enjoy it. I do I really enjoy helping people. And I love hearing your feedback. And one of the bloggers who's doing, you know, takeover soon, she was one of the first people to purchase my ebook. She was a brand new blogger. She's now, bringing in well over 100,000 page views a month. I know that it's not just because of the blog, I know that she also just has a wonderful mindset in terms of continuously learning, and she's just sharp and she's just got something about her that she's been able to be very successful at this very quickly. And so I'm gonna let her take over and share some of her stuff. Jillian Tohber Leslie 54:19 Yes, I would love to come in, just to share kind of what's worked for us. Caroline Simmons 54:24 It's a smaller community. We just, I've just kind of picked up on this with them. Now that my girls are in school, and I have a little bit more time but I've got I've got big goals for it. And I really hope that it becomes something you know, five years down the road when someone else is doing an interview like that. They can say, well, the basics of blogging really helped me. Jillian Tohber Leslie 54:46 Oh, I love that. Okay. Do you have any parting advice for a mom blogger out there? Like you have two little babies, and you're doing this, like, what is your advice to somebody who listens to this and wants to be where you are? Advice: Embrace the process as a blogger, it takes time Caroline Simmons 55:07 I would say well, I would say to just really embrace the process. It takes time. Just the process of that journey of creating something and putting in these hours and staying up late after your baby good, it's bad. And, you know, hustling during those times. It's a tough journey. But man, when you get to the point where you're seeing your goals, you're knocking them off, and you're crossing them out, because you've done it, it's so rewarding. So just embrace it. and be patient with yourself. Don't try to shortcut it or, or anything like that. Really just just embrace the process. And be patient with yourself. Continue to just make those small efforts every single day they will add up. And you will start to see it happening for you. Jillian Tohber Leslie 55:54 Oh, wow, Caroline. Thank you. Just you know, I love your mindset of small goals. It's a slow build, the overnight success is not really real. But if you just keep in there and learn and grow and do your right one thing every day, you will grow your business. Caroline Simmons 56:18 Yeah, absolutely. The Slight Edge is what I'm reading right now. And it's all about that same thing, just constantly making the daily efforts that if you look back at what you did yesterday. Those little efforts that's not what's going to make you successful. But it's continuing to do those over and over and over and over again, that's going to get you to the point where you're meeting your goals. Jillian Tohber Leslie 56:47 And one less thing, which is we all compare ourselves to others. And there are always people who are bigger than us, whose businesses look so much better than our businesses. And by the way, one thing I will say is you have no idea what really going on in that person or that business' life. When you feel yourself contracting and feeling less than, to force yourself into saying and I believe in abundance, and I believe in abundance. Caroline Simmons 57:14 Absolutely. Yeah, you're right comparison, like the saying, comparison is the thief of all joy. If we would all just focus on ourselves and anytime that we're feeling down, write down a few things that we've done and we've accomplished and be able to say that you're proud of yourself. That is a bigger motivation and to me then looking at someone else and trying to you know, catch up with that so to speak. Jillian Tohber Leslie 57:37 Absolutely. Well Caroline, this was such a pleasure thank you so much for coming on the show. Caroline Simmons 57:43 Absolutely. I have enjoyed speaking with you so so much. I hope I get to meet you in person at the next Adthrive convention. I would love it and we live kinda near each other. Yeah, we have made some family trips to Austin with our girls here and there. So I will absolutely reach out to you. If we make our way there. Jillian Tohber Leslie 58:03 I realized I ended my recording without asking Caroline how people could reach out to her me to give you that information. Now, her website is called Swaddlesnbottles.com and her email address is Caroline@swaddlesnbottles.com. Her other site is thebasicsofblogging.com and that's also the name of her facebook group. So do reach out, especially if you'd like this interview. And just like how Caroline is using Milottree to grow her Pinterest followers. Because Pinterest traffic is so valuable, you might want to do it also. So head over to MiloTree and get your Pinterest pop up that tells your visitors to follow you on Pinterest installed on your site. And if you do that you get your first 30 days free. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!  

Another new episode? Damn right.  Ryan Dunfee of Portland, Maine visited our neighborhood in September to do some mountain biking and boondocking. Even if you don't know him you've likely clicked on something that was his fault during his Teton Gravity Research days. True to form we talk skiing and not skiing.  Wintry Mix is Stowe, Waterbury, MRV locals and visitors. Recorded from my office/studio in Waterbury Center.  Episode 55 and 56 dropped right before this one to re-launch the pod for 18/19. So be sure to catch those too. Want to be on the pod? Or sponsor it? Or say anything at all? Email me alex@wintrymixcast.com or leave a voicemail at 802 560 5003. Right now that voicemail is for leaving your car related questions for the upcoming Wintry Mix Car Talk episode.  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play or elsewhere. Now on Spotify too. Follow on social @wintrymixcast.  AK

Kayce Smith, Johnny Manziel, and Erik Burkhardt are joined by special guest Mike Stud this week to talk about the Comeback SZN brand, Rise Pageviews Rise, and many more topics you are going to have to check out. Topics discussed this week include Julian Edelman getting popped for PEDs and Carmelo Anthony opting into his massive player option, subscribe to Comeback SZN now.

Are you looking to take your blogging to the next level so that you can have increased pageviews and an engaged audience?  Then the membership site, Mastering Your Influence is what you are looking for.  It will help you do all of this and so much more.I want to do something very different today than I usually do here. Today, I am giving you a behind the scenes look at my membership site. If we’re honest, I think most of us would admit that summertime is our downtime. Pageviews tend to drop. Sales may go down. You may feel a sense of mild panic, or full-blown panic, if you’ve never been through a summer with your business before.We all know that Q4, or the 4th quarter of the year, is coming up and it will be amazing. Now is the perfect time to get ready for it and to put systems in place that will use the slower summer to help you grow and be ready for Q4.Links:jennymelrose.com/membership-site-mastering-your-influenceClick to view: show page on Awesound

Today we're talking about Growing Your Food Blog to Two Million Pageviews Per Month, SEO, and Building a Diversified Revenue Stream with Amanda Batcher on the Chopped Podcast. If you dream of the day when you can make your food blog your full-time career, today's episode will enlighten you on Amanda's process for doing just that!

How do you grow a blog to millions of pageviews? In this interview, Jillian Tohber Leslie shares exactly what she did to accomplish that. Show notes: http://www.becomeablogger.com/312 Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Call the hotline @ (888) 835 - 2414

Caz Makepeace of yTravelBlog joins me today to chat about how she turned her life around and created one of the biggest travel blogs on the internet. This episode is part of our Behind The Paradise Pack series, you can check out the pack by going to www.ExtraPackofPeanuts.com/paradise

Stephanie Vatalaro was recently promoted to Vice President of Communications for the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation. RBFF’s mission is to implement an informed, consensus-based national outreach strategy that will increase participation in recreational angling and boating and thereby increase public awareness and appreciation of the need to protect, conserve and restore this nation's aquatic natural resources. Stephanie has been with the RBFF for over 10 years and has helped steward the Take Me Fishing and Vamos A Pescar national campaigns, providing the tools to help people get started. RBFF’s digital assets, TakeMeFishing.org and VamosAPescar.org, are the most comprehensive fishing and boating websites nationwide and are the key destinations for individuals to learn, plan and equip for a day on the water. They have now exceeded 12 million! Pageviews under Stephanie’s watch. After boating on Lake Erie as a young child, Stephanie’s family moved at the age of 7 to Florida where her father became a fishing guide in the Florida Keys. From catching Pacific sailfish in Costa Rica to boating on the Potomac with her family, Stephanie has maintained her love of boating and shares it with her husband and daughter. In 2016, RBFF announced its 60 in 60 goal to increase yearly angler participation to 60 million in 60 months. This aspirational goal comes at a critical time for the fishing and boating industry. It was a great time to catch up with Stephanie and find out more about how they are working to achieve this lofty goal, the accomplishments to date, and learn about how her love of boating was fostered through family and is being passed down the same way. Enjoy!     On her first boating experiences…..It’s one of those all in the family things. I was born in Ohio and my grandfather was a boater, so I started going out on Lake Erie as a young child. When I was 7 my family relocated to the Florida Keys and my dad became a fishing guide. We had two boats, the boat he worked on, and then a center console that was the family boat. He would take us out to go snorkeling and swimming but we also definitely went fishing. On memorable catches….The first fish I caught was on Lake Erie, but I don’t vividly remember the first catch. I certainly have great memories of some of my big catches! I had the opportunity to go to Costa Rica and I caught a 120 lb. Pacific Sailfish and that was amazing. It was quite a fight. On learning to boat…..As a kid, my dad took it all very seriously, the safety part in particular. I learned a lot of the basics as a kid. He said if I wanted to operate the boat I had to take a course and get my license and make it official. As an adult, with my husband, I started doing it more hands on myself. On family boating now.....We now have a 24’ Pursuit center console. It’s something we can go fishing on, we can take to the beach, hose it off at the end of the day. My husband is the captain, I have anchor duty. On raising a boating daughter…..She has been boating since she was an infant. As she gets older, we’ll start getting her involved more in helping with things. We can give her jobs, pack this bag, do that. She really likes being on the water. She fishes off her grandpa’s dock and she is quite the fish slayer! On the RBFF 60 in 60 initiative…..I will give that credit to Frank Peterson, our President and CEO. There are a few numbers in his head that he has said if we can hit this this and this, our industry will be in pretty good shape. One of those numbers is 12 million visits to our website and we hit that this year. The other, and I think the more important one, is the 60 million number. If you look at fishing participation numbers they have been pretty flat over the last several years and with the changing demographics, in order to even maintain that flat rate a lot of change has to be made. What we really need to do is energize the industry to get that number even higher, to get on the front end of these changes and try to make that difference now. It’s a rallying cry for the industry. Let’s do this together. You’re not in this alone. The RBFF is here to help. We’ve developed tools for people to recruit, retain, and reactivate anglers (known as R3). On what those changes are…..People are becoming more multicultural. Families are not the traditional families that they always looked like. There are a lot of other activities competing for people’s time, and boomers are aging out of the sport. On their Disney partnership…..I didn’t even know fishing excursions were available at Disney but they are and they’re great, they have a fantastic stocked lake, almost a guaranteed catch. They are reaching the exact target audience we’re after. Years and years of research have led us to this group called Multicultural Family Outdoors. These are parents, people with kids age 6-12 , who are involved in outdoors activity but don’t fish yet. Getting through their channels has been really beneficial to us and we’ve seen an increase in our brand awareness and intent to go fishing and boating. On RBFF's digital outreach…..Takemefishing.org is a huge part of our success. People are getting their information online so it has become a largely digital campaign because that’s where our family outdoors audience is. The website is all about getting people the info they need to get started – how to, where to, and licensing. We have all the basics on what kind of gear you need, how to reel in a fish, how to prepare your catch. We have a map where people can go and look in there are for different bodies of water that also has points of interest on it. We want to make sure people are aware that people need their license and that those dollars go back to water conservation efforts on the state level. On the challenges facing millennials who want to boat…..That’s a secondary target audience of ours. We’re calling them Untethered Explorers. They’re millennials who aren’t married and don’t have kids yet but they’re into the outdoors and we reach them through digital and social media outreach. We run an influencer campaign that speaks to that millennial target. [Their challenges] are time, it’s not having the mentor or the experience and not knowing that these opportunities are very close to them. A lot of younger generations are moving back to the city and they don’t realize that there are a lot of urban fishing and boating opportunities. On what boaters need to get started…..More than a thing, I would say training is important. Do your homework first. Before you go out on the water understand the rules of the road, navigation basics, how to read a chart or GPS. If there’s a chance to do a training or do a trial take it! On where she hasn’t yet, but would like to fish…..Patagonia. It just looks amazing. I love the landscapes, I'd love to be fly fishing in a river with all that beauty surrounding me. Anywhere that has turquoise water, I’m in. On her dream boat…..It’s not practical but I absolutely adore big sportfishers. Big Vikings or Hatteras. Something about those boats is so beautiful to me. When I go home to the Keys I see them. We’ll get back into cruising some day and we’ll have some type of trawler to cruise around. On advice for would-be-boaters…..Before you dive in, you should go out with some friends, try different boats, go to boat shows, go out with anyone who has a boat, feel it out, do your homework. Figure out what you want to do on the water and match the boat to your lifestyle. We’re in a time where there are so many different styles of boats. We have the Discover Boating boat comparison tool on our website. You go through and say what activities you like to do and it serves up the different styles of boats. There really is something for everyone.   The RBFF is doing great work, check out their website, particularly their interactive map, if you have any interest in fishing!

Millions of people read Rustic Wedding Chic, which is the #1 resource for rustic and country weddings online. What you may not know is this popular wedding blog is run by a Mom of 2 with her 3rd on the way, Maggie Lord. Maggie calls herself a naptime entrepreneur and we SO resonate with that idea. Welcome to the show, Maggie! We’re so excited to have you! On the Podcast 1:10 - An Inspired Bride3:01 - Curating A Site5:50 - Solving Problems Through A Directory Site7:01 - Monetizing Your Platform9:52 - Advice For A Blogger Building A Platform12:20 - Working With A Team16:27 - Working with Freelance Photographers17:40 - Growing A Pinterest Following20:06 - Thoughts on Content Schedulers22:55 -  What Makes A Popular Pin25:26 - A Frequent Pinner27:50 - Testing Out Promoted Pins29:34 - Maggie’s Embarrassing Mompreneur Moment Listen Now   An Inspired Bride When Maggie and her husband were planning their wedding 9 years ago, she had a very clear vision for how she wanted things to look. She pictured a rustic but chic and elegant feel for her northern Wisconsin, small town wedding, but struggled to translate it to vendors. There was no Pinterest or Instagram 9 years ago (can you believe it!?) and Maggie found it difficult to plan a wedding without a quick way to save and share the magazines and images she loved. She thought if she was having trouble, surely other brides were, too. So she thought, “I bet I could start a blog.” And back then, starting a blog was super easy! There were a million different blog formats to choose from, so she picked one and set out to help other brides just like her. In the back of her mind, Maggie thought her new venture would be a great profession someday, but she wasn’t sure how the details would work out. In the meantime, she enjoyed planning her own wedding! And, of course, sharing the process on her blog. Where did she find inspiration? Where did she NOT find inspiration? Where did she struggle? She compiled these thoughts on her blog, and Rustic Wedding Chic began. Curating A Site How did Maggie go about gathering and sharing content that was the best of the best for rustic weddings? She thought if she could share ideas from other brides and photographers, then her readers could translate those ideas into their own weddings. Initially, she had the idea to reach out to photographers and ask if she could share photos of their beautiful, rustic weddings. She offered to do a write up on their work, with a link to their services. In the early days of blogging, this is how blogging was done. When Maggie started 8 years ago, there were maybe 3 wedding blogs in the niche: The Knot, Style Me Pretty, and Martha Stewart Weddings. She had access to ‘real weddings’ (not even a term yet) that she could showcase. As this virtual collection grew, brides all over the country were able to find the right florist or cake decorator for them. RWC started by asking to feature the work of vendors, and now they get hundreds of requests a month from vendors. Maggie quickly learned that ‘rustic’ was an umbrella term - and there were tons of wedding types you could call ‘rustic’, from lakeside to barn settings. Shortly after launching Rustic Wedding Chic, Maggie launched RusticWeddingGuide.com as a way to help couples connect with vendors and venues. Creating this resource came out of requests Maggie would constantly get about finding the best venues. It's fantastic to see savvy business owners become the solution to their own problems. Solving Problems Through A Directory Site Did Maggie need a bunch of expensive software to make a directory site? Did she have to become a tech whiz? She admits that putting together a directory site was a challenge. Maggie was very comfortable producing content in blog format. She had post-writing down to a science. Putting together this directory site forced her out of her comfort zone. She made the decision to start small, and build from there. RWC was getting requests from both sides: vendors wanting to get listed and brides wondering how to connect with vendors. Since the Rustic Wedding Chic team is small, they had to really focus their efforts. Maggie pulled everyone together and they made their plan. Starting small and building up worked in Maggie’s favor, as currently there are over 5,000 vendors listed on this directory site. Monetizing Your Platform Since Maggie has monetized successfully, I wondered if she could walk us through that process and break down her income streams. Early on she got help from her brother, who is the president of an internet company. He helped her brainstorm and make a plan to monetize WRC. She knew she had a strong readership and impressive social media numbers, but the path to starting a business wasn’t so cut and dry. Along with her brother, she tested ideas - and it turned out that advertising was her strong suit. Maggie intentionally wanted to make sure that she could work with smaller vendors like Etsy sellers, so they worked out a model that was more like direct sales. She also partnered with Google and used Adsense for selling ad spots. The wedding world is perfect for featuring sponsored posts or Instagram campaigns. The game has changed a bit now than when she started, but still, the model of featuring products and services on your platform works. Maggie is also an author! When she signed her first book deal, she was unsure of how the process worked. She signed with a good publishing company and invested in a book attorney to make sure she was making wise choices. We love how diverse Maggie’s income streams are. She’s got many pieces of the pie all fitting together. Advice For A Blogger Building A Platform What would Maggie say to a blogger who’s new and trying to build a platform and create a package that would be attractive to advertisers? Maggie’s advice is on-point: “People have to be really cautious of the niche they’re in. I felt comfortable being in the rustic country wedding space because it came from a very organic place, and people could tell I was passionate about it. I was going to be true to that topic.” Once you find a niche, spend a lot of time and effort learning how you can dominate that niche. You want to have the best site, be the most authoritative, and give readers a good experience. “Be brand conscious, even if you’re not a huge, well-known brand yet,  you still have to think of yourself as a brand.” Maggie says that when bloggers try to work with bigger sponsors, they have to be confident in who they are as a brand. It’s difficult for any company to part with money, even if they have deep pockets! So you have to prove that your blog is worth investing in. The company wants to make sure that if they send you X dollars, it’s going to be worth their effort. If you can put a package together to explain who you are, why they should work for you, and who your readers are in a compelling way, that makes the decision ten times easier. A simple start is, "I am the expert in this world because...(your reason)" Brands have a million options when it comes to spending their advertising dollars. They want a blogger who will be the perfect fit. Working With A Team Maggie’s site is INCREDIBLY busy! She has lots of logistics going on behind the scenes to manage regular advertising spots, sponsored posts, working with publishers, and so on. She accomplishes all of this with a small team! We had to ask how she makes it work. When RWC first started out, she was a one-woman-show. All she had to do was create the content and publish it to social media. When the social scene exploded, especially with the development of Pinterest (Rustic Wedding Chic was one of the first Pinterest users) and her site gained more readers - she was responsible for more work. Maggie knew they had to grow as a company or she’d be limiting her potential and opportunity. When Rustic Wedding Chic decided to develop the Rustic Wedding Guide, she needed a team member solely dedicated to that project. Since their list of vendors is curated, Maggie had to make sure the vendors were high-quality  - and this took a great amount of attention. She also needed a team member to handle paid subscribers advertising in Rustic Wedding Guide’s showcase listings. Maggie was able to hire someone to dedicate their time exclusively to the wedding guide and taking care of advertisers. A couple years ago, Maggie’s husband left a job he had for a long time and transitioned to managing advertising on the blog. RWC would get tons of requests asking for a media kit or ad prices for social posts, or to personall review a dress - her husband was able to completely take this responsibility off of Maggie’s plate. (We love wife-husband teams!) Maggie handles all of the content creation and does media appearances for Rustic Wedding Chic. Rustic Wedding Chic hires freelancers from all over, from California to New York. Maggie frequently hires photographers to do styled shoots, as well as freelance writers to assist here and there. Her team is a healthy mix of full-time and contract employees. Working with Freelance Photographers Sometimes Maggie will work with a company who wants her to review or showcase their product. In some instances, the company is very direct that they want Maggie’s special touch on these features. Maggie likes to be hands on with that content. Other times RWC will field a request for something like a sponsored post, and the sponsor wants Maggie’s team to only be responsible for creating images and sharing the product. She talks with the company to see what their vision is, and they find a solution that works for her and her team as well as the company. Maggie really wants Rustic Wedding Chic readers to know that they can expect only product and photos that will deliver high value to their lives. No matter your niche, this standard is great for any blogger. Growing A Pinterest Following Maggie has an impressive 161,000 followers on Pinterest, and has leveraged the platform well to grow her business. We had to hear more! At the time when Maggie joined Pinterest, it was still by invitation only during their small roll out! The friend who recommended Pinterest to Maggie wasn’t even thinking of her wedding business, just that the social media platform might be something Maggie would personally enjoy. But it wasn’t long before Maggie started looking at Pinterest that she thought it would be the perfect place to share their beautiful featured weddings, so she sign-up as a person, but with the first name "Rustic" and last name "Wedding." They grew very quickly and early because they saw the value of people being able to look at, and curate for themselves, hundreds of images at once. When RWC started on Pinterest, there weren’t a lot of Pinterest users or competition. She certainly credits that early adoption to their success. As we know, Pinterest isn’t perfect. Maggie says that now she will go onto Pinterest and it kills her to see other pinners stealing her images! Swiping an image that they have exclusive rights to, and linking to their site, which means her fabulous photographers don't get the credit they deserve. As great as Pinterest can be for business growth, there are certainly drawbacks. Nowadays if you were to search ‘rustic weddings’ on Pinterest, you would probably get thousands of images from so many people. But just a few years ago, you would have only seen Rustic Wedding Chic content. We think this is totally a lesson in being an early adopter of new technology; don’t be afraid to try something new for your business! Thoughts on Content Schedulers Maggie says she has seriously signed up or paid for practically EVERY content scheduler out there. Some she found helpful, and some were just downright frustrating. She did use Tailwind for a while, but wasn’t a fan that her items would be scheduled SO far out. She’s also worked with a company that uses a bulk uploader for Pinterest. But despite trying out these many different scheduling options, Maggie just didn’t see that her pins were performing as well as they did when she pinned organically. Maggie has gone back and forth as to whether or not a 3rd party service is useful. These days she still does take the time to daily pin organically and see what performs well. She will go back to her blog archives and see what post she could recirculate since there are always new brides needing to see past weddings. Bottom line: Maggie has paid for ALL of the scheduling tools, but still feels that the best return on her investment is organic pinning. That said, Maggie does use Pinterest Analytics. She thinks it’s very valuable to keep track of how many people you're reaching and which pins are most popular. Maggie did work with a social media expert to help her make sense of Pinterest Analytics. Her consultant asked Maggie if she’d ever notice that her pin view rate was about 4 million a month!! And then the consultant explained that a  pin view rate means a number of times your pins are interacted with in a month - in Maggie’s case, 4 milion! It was one of the highest the consultant had seen. You can imagine that brides using Pinterest to plan their weddings are highly dedicated, if not a little obsessed! And the numbers show it. Maggie finds it helpful to use analytics to know how to hone her Pinterest strategy. While content schedulers weren’t right for Maggie’s business, the value of gauging performance and observing trends certainly has been. What Makes A Popular Pin So what ARE those insanely popular pins that keep driving traffic back to Maggie’s site? Maggie continues to be FLOORED that some of her content has been pinned over 145,000 times. Surprisingly, many of her top pins are fairly simple images. She’ll even see images of simple wedding features like mason jar centerpieces doing incredibly well. (Though the success does come with difficulty. You can imagine how annoying and frustrating it is when Maggie sees her amazing pins pointing to OTHER people’s content. Let this interview be a friendly PSA: don’t steal pins!) Highly popular pins are ones in which people feel like they’re going to get a piece of information or insight that can only be found at Rustic Wedding Chic. One of her pins is a lovely image with the title: ‘This Wedding Was Planned Under $10,000, See How They Did It’. A user can pin any pretty image, but it is highly valuable to be able to go to a site with solid information. Maggie has a pin called, ‘How To Have The Best Unique Guest Book’ that did very well, and another ‘Rustic Wedding Sign On Pallets’ which has had over 400,000 repins. This kind of success makes total sense! Maggie’s not just throwing around pretty images, she’s giving practical advice that helps others. One final note: while DIY projects aren’t a huge part of the Rustic Wedding Chic brand, those select posts do pin well. Again, Maggie wisely has observed that any pin through which the reader knows they’ll get exclusive information of how to recreate a look or complete a project will be a success. A Frequent Pinner Maggie’s favorite strategy is to pin content directly from her blog. On any given day, her site produces a few brand new featured pieces of content. Her daily Real Weddings posts will have between 12-24 images, each of which Maggie turns into a pin. She also spends time going back to more popular posts or seasonal interests and searches for pinable content. (For example, at the time of recording we’re heading into summer. So Maggie is looking for posts like ‘25 Beautiful Summer Wedding Ideas’ or ‘Best Outdoor Seating Ideas’.) She estimates that she’s pinning between 50-100 images a day. She is constantly checking her Pinterest analytics to see what pins are popular and resonating, looking at stats like the pins with the most impressions, saves or click throughs in the last 30 days. A lot of bloggers or business owners are curating content from not only their site, but also other related sites. Because Maggie has Sso much brand content, she could easily fill out a Pinterest profile with only her own images. But does she? Maggie says probably 90% of her boards feature pins from her own site. And considering they have 9 years’ worth of content, it makes sense! But Rustic Wedding Chic does believe in sharing the love. They do try to pin and share content from other brands that they know Rustic Wedding Chic fans will love. Though on the whole, of their 60,000 pins most, maybe 90%, are from Rustic Wedding Chic. Testing Out Promoted Pins Just like us, Maggie was excited to see Promoted Pins roll out. She thought it would be a great way to reach new followers on Pinterest, but admits that for her brand she’s always been a bit disappointed with the outcome--they got repins but not new followers. The best way for Rustic Wedding Chic to get new followers is still to create gorgeous content and work with great companies their readers will love. In Maggie’s opinion, she thinks promoted pins are probably a great tool for businesses just starting out and trying to gain more followers because you need to be seen. Personally, she likes seeing promoted pins because she gets amazing suggestions of ideas that she truly enjoys. Maggie’s Embarrassing Mompreneur Moment Maggie calls herself ‘The Naptime Entrepreneur’ and has written a few articles on that topic. She has 2 boys - and one on the way - so her house is a bit crazy! She used to try to work all hours of the day, but realized it wasn’t working when she made one embarrassing mompreneur mistake! She was at the park with her kids and drafted a hastily written email to a very prominent magazine, full of misspellings. She thought to herself that she would save the draft and polish the email once she was home. But when Maggie went to fix and send the email, she realized it had already sent! Enough was enough. She realized she really couldn’t do it all! So now, she works when her kids are napping or sleeping. As anyone with kids and a business or creative outlet knows, it’s never easy. Maggie says it well: “When my kids are awake I’m CEO of Mommyhood, and when they’re asleep or at school I’m CEO of Rustic Wedding Chic.” Connect with Maggie Site: RusticWeddingChic.comPinterest: @RusticWedChic Now It's Your Turn To Head Out There And Be Brilliant!

Google Analytics einrichten – mehr als nur Pageviews: In Folge 1.5 von Beyond Pageviews gehen wir mit euch die wichtigsten Schritte und Überlegungen durch beim Einrichten von Google Analytics.  Unter dem Dach der termfrequenz-Familie sprechen wir hier im Podcast... Der Beitrag BP 1.5: Google Analytics einrichten – mehr als nur Pageviews erschien zuerst auf termfrequenz.

Hallo und herzlichen willkommen bei unserem neuen Podcast Beyond Pageviews. Unter dem Dach der termfrequenz-Familie sprechen wir rund um das Thema Analytics.   Wir, das sind Markus Baersch und Michael Janssen. Und diese Folge ist unsere erste... Der Beitrag Kennziffern & KPIs: Beyond Pageviews – die Nummer eins erschien zuerst auf termfrequenz.

Hallo und herzlichen Willkommen bei dem neuen Podcast Beyond Pageviews. Unter dem Dach der termfrequenz-Familie gibt es ab sofort einen Podcast zu Analytics. Diese Folge ist unsere Nullnummer, eigentlich ist eine Nullnummer nicht für die Öffentlichkeit... Der Beitrag BP0.0: Beyond Pageviews – die Nullnummer erschien zuerst auf termfrequenz.

Dear advertisers: Our audience numbers are garbage! And...The road to Hell is paved with pageviews. Plus, rants and raves about the iPhone parody gadget which earned one startup 1.5 million visitors a day, the Brangelina wax figure divorce, and more. Brand authority Tom Asacker and Media Strategist Mark Ramsey go inside what's really happening in media. Important listening if you're a media brand perplexed that greater scale only drives down the value of your reach.

*** Alle Infos und Shownotes auf http://humorisart.de/folge2 *** Mehr Humor is Art: https://www.facebook.com/humorisart/ Also Joab Nist vor einigen Jahren von München nach Berlin zog, lief er oft lange mit seiner Kamera durch die Stadt, um seine neuen Eindrücke festzuhalten. Ihm vielen gleich die kleinen Zettel und Aushänge auf, die man an Bäumen und Hauseingängen findet. Mal ernstgemeint, mal traurig, meistens richtig lustig - er fing an die kleinen Botschaften zu sammeln. Heute hat sich daraus der blog notesofberlin.de entwickelt, der mit durchschnittlich ca. 600.000 Pageviews zu den 15/20 meistgelesenen Blogs Deutschlands gehört. Für meinen Humor is Art Podcast habe ich Joab in seinem Büro in Neukölln getroffen und über die Anfänge des Blogs gesprochen und wie er es geschafft hat, so eine große Community aufzubauen, die ihn täglich mit den Zetteln versorgt. In dieser Episode sprechen wir unter anderem über: • Die Anfänge von Notesofberlin • Was für Alltagsarbeiten so ein großer Blog erfordert • Wie er sich selbst motiviert • Wie er angefangen hat seinen Blog zu vermarkten • Wie wichtig ein klares Profil für den Erfolg eines Blogs ist • Wie seine Community gewachsen ist • Dass eine Community immer auch Interaktion braucht • Tipps für angehende Blogger Viel Spaß also bei Humor is Art Podcast Folge 2 mit Joab Nist von notesofberlin.de!

Hand auf’s Herz. Fokussierst du dich nur auf deine Pageviews? Oder gehst du noch einen Schritt weiter und betrachtest nur deine Besucher als wichtige Kennzahl? Wenn du jetzt ganz ehrlich zu dir bist und zustimmend nickst, dann hast du den Tribe-Gedanken leider noch nicht komplett verinnerlicht. Aber hey, das ist okay. So was dauert manchmal. Vielleicht kennst du das Konzept schon aus dem affenblog. Ich habe es damals auch schnell akzeptiert und abgenickt. Doch gelebt, habe ich es erst viel später. Es ist ein smarter Weg, der weg von den Pagviews geht, hin zu dem, was wirklich zählt: Die Menschen, die dir und deinen Ideen folgen. In dieser Episode besprechen Vladislav Melnik und ich: Warum auch du ein erfolgreicher Leader bist Warum der Tribe-Gedanke ganz tief in uns Menschen verankert ist Wie deine Fans Teil von etwas Großem werden Warum du trotz 1.000.000 Besucher nicht automatisch einen Tribe hast Höre den affen on air jetzt zu … Weiterlesen

Die Shownotes zur Sendung findest du unter www.socialgenius.de/017 Social Media Podcast Episode 17: Gordon Schönwälder im Socialgenius.de InterviewMal eben den Schreibstil seines Blogs geändert und mirnichts, dirnichts die Besucherzahlen binnen eines Monats verdoppelt? Ja das geht und Gordon Schönwälder verrät uns wie: Storytelling! Als Gründer des Storyteller's Club und Podcaster liebt Gordon es, gute Geschichten noch spannender zu erzählen. Wir lassen uns erklären wie man einen Spannungsbogen schlägt, was gute Wortwahl ausmacht und wie man seine Überschriften besser gestalten kann um mehr Pageviews zu ergattern, ohne dabei in die Heftig- oder Bildzeitungsecke abzudriften. Gute Geschichten und Jean Claude van DammeWir hangeln uns diesmal mit Gordon durch die facettenreichen Möglichkeiten von gutem Storytelling. Angefangen bei guten Überschriften bis hin zur Dramaturgien von US-Serien wie Game of Thrones oder The Walking Dead. Dabei ziehen wir Schlüsse für die Online Marketing Welt und warum wir viel öfter Geschichten erzählen sollten anstatt mit Cold Facts um uns zu schmeißen. Hier ein kleiner Überblick über unsere Themen und Fragen: Buzzword Storytelling: Was ist das überhaupt? Wie erzählt man eine gute Geschichte? Thema Authentizität und Dramaturgie Warum die heftig.co Überschriften zwar funktionieren, aber doch nicht das Gelbe vom Ei sind. Kann man mit bloßem Schreibstiländerungen Großes bewirken? Last but not least: Wird Liam Neeson an uns Rache nehmen? Gordons 5 Tipps für besseres Storytelling Gute Überschriften sind die halbe Miete! Der Einstieg zählt: Die ersten Sätze müssen rocken! Statement raushauen un das Problem der User aufgreifen Nicht alle Informationen direkt preisgeben: Spannung aufbauen und erst am Ende auflösen Aus der Sicht eines Charakters schreiben, das ist persönlicher! Gordon's Lieblingszitat: Unperfekt ist das neue perfekt.

Pageviews have long been the marker by which newsrooms and publishers measure their performance, but the increasing complexity and diversity of the internet has introduced a range of new parameters.

Recently, Perrin and I were able to sit down with Matt Paulson of MattPaulson.com for a podcast interview to discuss his amazing business.  Matt is an unassuming guy and you would have no idea how extraordinarily well his business is doing unless you asked him. Well, we had the chance to ask about his business and the numbers he shares will blow your mind (at least it did for Perrin and I).  Matt owns a financial network of sites including AmericanBankingNews.com, AnalystRatings.net, and a few others that combined get over 2.5 MILLION pageviews per month! The earnings from those sites is even more impressive than the pageviews in my opinion.

Jason is one-half of the team behind 100 Days of Real Food, along with his wife and site founder Lisa Leake. Together, they’ve grown 100 Days of Real Food into a real food blog that had over five million page views in January of 2014 and supports both of them full-time (and 7 part time […] The post MBP #8: Jason Leake on how to grow a real food blog to 5 million pageviews (and monetize it!) appeared first on Microblogger.

Welcome to another Indeed Podcast. Tonight we drive into the foundation of the true speech of folk around the world. Weekly roundup takes us to the website that tracks the usage of the FBOMB. in real time. Creepy or Cool looks at hopeful new ways to wake up. Game Review overlooks the events at Blizzcon and the new WoW expansion as well as one of their new projects. Heroes of the Swarm. Finally we talk about the reaction to a face that seem to end up on the wrong website. not a porn one, but a well, just as bad. Sit Back, Relax and Censor your Twitter. No matter where you look, the Fbomb is there, even in Nairobi.

Blogger Kate Bryan describes how Pinterest has helped her to grow her blog to millions of page view per month and how that traffic has helped her develop and grow her business. The post Millions of Pageviews From Pinterest: OSP Episode 011 appeared first on .

For this Snippet, we discuss Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Free by Dmitry Fadeyev. (http://www.pagebreakpodcast.com/snippets/pitfalls-of-free)

#040: Today I'm bringing you another amazing success story, this time with Fraser Cain from Universe Today, a news site dedicated to the space and astronomy niche. Podcast show notes available here: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/session40

A huge thanks to all you dirty-fans; we just passed 6000 views! Please spread the word and keep listening ;-) Our stats show we're getting listeners from every continent except Africa. Lots of folks are tuning in from Japan, Australia, Europe, and Brazil. -The Lovebirds (Dirty Thursdays 001) are playing their first gig tonight (5-17-11) at the Tin Can Ale House. -Saxophonist Jason Robinson (Dirty Thursdays 003) is giving a "farewell San Diego" concert at Dizzy's on June 2nd.-The Smart Brothers (Dirty Thursdays 016) killed it at the North Park Festival of the Arts this past weekend! Keep an eye on their facebook page for upcoming shows. -Miss Erika Davies (Dirty Thursdays 013) has her new CD 'Galaxy Lakes' available for pre-order.-San Diego pianist Sir Edward Kornhauser (Dirty Thursdays 002) quit the scene for a while and took off to the far-east.  You can get updates on his blog at whiskeythunder.blogspot.com-You can catch bassist Rob Thorsen (Dirty Thursdays 020 and Dirty Thursdays 005) this Wednesday (and most Wednesdays) at the El Camino Latin Jazz Jam Session as part of the smoking house band. -Some upcoming episodes: Summer Mencher, Frame of Reference, The Heavy Guilt, Irving Flores, etc. Also, there will be an exclusive live podcast/concert with alt-jazz-surf-rock-indie-fabtastic duo THE MATTSON 2 coming up this summer. We hope you can join us for this special event - stay tuned for the time/date/venue!