The post How to Start A Blog: A Simple Guide for 2022 appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

Honestly? I do NOT care about site speed optimization.

You know what I DO care about?

• SEO traffic gains
• Happy readers
• Not having users close my site because a blog post is taking forrreeeevvvverrrr to load

In this guide, we WON’T be diving into every nitty-gritty optimization detail–but rather the three BIG (and quick) things you can implement to get your site 90% of the way there.

I honestly believe that you could implement every tool I cover in this article in less than 45 minutes.

#actionable

Why does website speed optimization matter?

There are two huge reasons why this is important:

• Google (SEO)
• Website visitors

Google has said repeatedly (here’s proof) that page speed is an important ranking factor in the mobile-first world!

If you want to drive SEO traffic, it’s vital you optimize your site for fast-loading pages.

Then there are the actual human beings that land on your website.

They’re impatient ????

Did you know that the BBC once did a study–and found that for every ONE second it takes your page to load, you lose 10% of visitors?

Think about that…

If you took a page’s load speed from five seconds to two seconds, you could be getting 30% more visitors to actually SEE your content.

Mind = blown.

Fast load times matter, therefore site speed optimization matters.

But first–let’s quickly check how fast our site is now…

How to test your site’s speed:

• Pingdom
• GTMetrix
• Google PageSpeed Insights

You can use any of those to not only see how fast your site loads, but also diagnose specific issues that are slowing your load times.

Best practices for using these tools…

1 – Don’t just test a URL once.

Run some tests over a few minutes, or even over a few days. Take an average (though the issues will likely stay the same)

2 – Don’t just test your homepage URL.

Test blog posts you want to rank for as well!

3 – Don’t stress over the “grades.”

Remember, you’re a lazy blogger!

The grades are somewhat arbitrary–you really just need an overall diagnosis and a picture of what issues to fix.

Don’t nitpick.

Now let’s move on to the three big steps that should take care of most of any issues you’d see from these speed test tools

Image Compression: An overview

Though there are several things that contribute to slowing down your website, nothing will destroy load times more than big files.

And images are often big files! (I’m talking bytes, kilobytes, and megabytes)

An image compressor will take an image, do some background magic (I don’t know how it works), and spit out an image that looks almost EXACTLY the same, but with a smaller file type!

ShortPixel is my favorite image compression tool, and I’ve tried them all.

Imagify, Smush, Compressor.io, TinyPNG–I’ve tried em all.

ShortPixel is the way to go.

Note: You get 100 free image credits a month on their free plan, which is likely enough for most bloggers! However, I HIGHLY recommend splurging $9.99 to buy 10,000 image credits that never expire.

Note 2: OR you could join us in the Online Impact community, where you have unlimited ShortPixel credits included in your membership

How to Set-Up ShortPixel

1. Head to your plugins dashboard in WordPress
2. Search for “ShortPixel”
3. Install & Activate
4. Request an API Key (it’s free)
5. Enter API key

You can also sign up via the website (needed if you’ll need some bulk image credits) and grab an API Key from your dashboard)

Congrats! You now have ShortPixel installed, and it will automatically compress images when you upload them WordPress!

You can continue adding images to your posts, etc, and ShortPixel will compress them in the background on autopilot.

Three quick notes on ShortPixel settings

The REALLY lazy blogger could probably stop now–but there are few things to note:

For every image you upload, you will be using MULTIPLE CREDITS!

This is because your theme automatically creates a few “thumbnails” for each image–but if you don’t use thumbnail sizes, you can exclude these!

That’ll save you some credits.

Next, it’s important to note where you can access individual image settings–it’s in your media library, but in “list view.”

You can also revert a compressed image back to its original, uncompressed version here.

Last, you can bulk compress all of your existing images in one click!

Again, while the 100 free credits a month is probably fine for ongoing use–you’ll probably need to buy additional credits if you’re doing bulk work.

Caching: An overview

Kinsta did an awesome job of explaining this (super boring) subject:

We can break down the idea of caching by comparing it to a simple math problem. What’s 10 times 2? Most people can immediately tell you the answer is 20. Why is that? They’ve memorized the answer. In fact, there’s probably a minimal amount of calculation going on their head.

Gross oversimplification warning…

A “cache” is pretty much like a little memory bank–it “memorizes” a bunch of website files, server requests, etc.

When a browser loads your site, it just spits back what it’s memorized, rather than calculating a bunch of stuff from the server.

You’re welcome >_<

Different cache plugins:

• WP Rocket (the best and my favorite, but paid)
• W3 Total Cache
• Autoptimize

There are others, but these are the only ones I recommend.

Let’s get it up and running.

How to set up WP Rocket

1. Purchase the plugin and download the zip file!
2. Upload the plugin in your WordPress dashboard as usual, then activate.
3. Congrats, your site is faster!

Seriously, it actually does wonders right out of the gate.

However, there are some additional settings that I’d recommend checking.

Under file optimization, I’d suggest checking the first two boxes under each category:

• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript

Checking some of those will bring up a little “confirmation” warning you’ll have to check, but I’ve personally never had any issues.

Note: If checking one of these boxes breaks something, uncheck it and then read more documentation here!

I personally check all three boxes for lazy loading images & replacing iframes and YouTube videos.

Should you lazy load images? I’d argue yes, but here’s what Google has to say on the matter.

Don’t forget to “clear” your cache!

Remember the math metaphor?

Your cache is memorizing “20” for the calculations 10 times 2.

What if you changed it to 10 times 3? (I.e. made CSS or Javascript changes or installed a new plugin or deleted an old one?)

You’ll need to “clear” your cache so it’ll run the new calculations!

Luckily, we can clear our cache with one button, found on the WordPress top bar (or in WP Rocket settings).

You shouldn’t have to do this often, and luckily WP Rocket is smart enough to prompt us to clear the cache whenever we add/delete a plugin!

Wooooooo site optimization on easy mode.

What’s a CDN?

CDN stands for Content Delivery Network.

Using a CDN basically takes your content and distributes it to different servers all over the world!

That way, if somebody in Turkmenistan visits your blog post, their browser will pull your content from a nearby server, rather than YOUR server (which could be in San Francisco or something).

Having your content on a server close to your reader = a faster-loading website.

How to set up Cloudflare CDN

Cloudflare is 100% free for one site!

First, you’ll sign up for an account.

Second, you’ll add a site.

Honestly, Cloudflare does an incredible job walking you through this process step-by-step.

Third, choose the free plan.

The next screen will be a bit funky.

The official “to-do” item for this screen is usually just to double-check the records Cloudflare found.

Cloudflare also says to “manually add missing DNS records.” (See their documentation here).

As a lazy blogger–I ALWAYS just hit continue–and troubleshoot later if things don’t work out!

My official recommendation is to know what you’re doing–my unofficial recommendation is just to blaze forward and reach out to their support if something doesn’t work.

????

The next (and really the last) step is to change your nameservers!

As mentioned above–I recommend Googling “how to change nameservers” + “your-domain-registrar” and following instructions.

Note: You change nameservers where your DOMAIN settings are–which could be a different spot than your hosting settings. For example, Godaddy is still my domain registrar, and where I update nameservers, even though my site is hosted on BigScoots.

Change your nameservers like Cloudflare tells you to, then wait a few hours!

You should receive an email once your site is “active,” then you’re good to go!

You’ll also see this in your dashboard:

wooo fast loading websites!

Bonus Step: Connect WP Rocket and Cloudflare

Did you know WP Rocket can actually control some settings in Cloudflare–right from your WordPress dashboard?

Once you enable the addon, you’ll immediately have the option to enter some API credentials from Cloudflare.

These are found in your Cloudflare dashboard, in the sidebar.

Copy and paste that stuff in, and don’t forget to hit “save changes” in your WP Rocket settings.

Congrats!

Your site speed should be way more optimized.

*

Want WP Rocket and ShortPixel for free? (and a full site optimization course?)

Join us in Online Impact

I just published a super short & actionable site optimization course–which walks through everything we’ve done here, as well as a few more advanced things.

SEO Gains woot woot.

Did I mention you’ll also get access to premium tools, included with your membership?

• WP Rocket
• Unlimited ShortPixel credits (handy for bulk-optimization)
• Elementor Pro
• StudioPress themes

Now go get your site nice and speedy!

The post The Lazy Blogger’s Guide to Website Speed Optimization ⚡ appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

Stephanie (stephanieschuttler.com) has a wildlife biologist position, but that position is ending.

She’s traveled the world, done a TON of speaking engagements (including TEDx), been featured in the media, and has interests in fashion, sustainable living, and blogging.

And now she needs to turn it into a business…

*cue dramatic music

Ok–it’s not really that dramatic, but I DID want to have Stephanie on the show to talk…

• How to choose a business model
• (i.e. how to get clarity and find a focus for monetization)
• How to leverage the blog for future career opportunities
• etc.

Enjoy this interview!

Here are some of my top takeaways from this episode…

1. Set yourself up for FUTURE success…

…no matter what.

If you’re looking to your blog/podcast to replace a full-time income, or even just make a few bucks on the side, there are few different outcomes.

1. You hit it big and make $$$$ really quick
2. You grow and make money, but it takes way longer than you expected.
3. You don’t make money and do something else.
4. You don’t make money and keep blogging

Given the uncertainty of blogging as a business, it’s crucial you make decisions that will help out “future you,” regardless of the outcome.

Re-read that 👆

Whether it’s choosing a blog topic, experimenting with a podcast, or going all-in on a new project or business model–make sure you are getting something out of the process.

Set yourself to learn something or have a resume-boosting experience.

Set yourself up for success–even if you fail.

Don’t limit yourself to the “standard” blog monetization methods.

There are TONS of different ways to make money in this world, and even different ways to monetize a blog.

Take a close look at my friend Alex, who runs a real estate blog.

How does he monetize his blog?

By leveraging it to make connections offline that yield real estate deals.

Similarly, almost all of the travel hacking podcast guests (like Lee Huff or Traveling Tanya) leverage their blog to save big bucks on travel.

Could you use your blog to…

• Get more freelance clients?
• Grow a local small business?
• Get a better full-time job?
• Get paid speaking gigs?

When it comes to your blog and making money, have a bigger picture in mind.

**

Speaking of monetizing…

Next week on the podcast, Chelsea from Smart Money Mamas will be joining us to chat about finding product ideas (and how she made $90k in 12 months from a PDF).

Don’t miss it!

The post Choosing Business Models for Tough Blog Niches – Stephanie Schuttler appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

The first time Chelsea (Smart Money Mamas) appeared on the show, it was only her 2nd podcast appearance ever, and she had JUST started to grow Pinterest traffic.

Since then?

She’s made over $250k+ from her first product, The ICE Binder.

Today she’s stopping by to chat…

• The story of the accidental six-figure PDF (The ICE Binder)
• The “CrissCross Drill:” A simple exercise for exploring product ideas
• How to set products up to stand out and succeed

This episode will go down in DYEB history as one of the BEST pieces of content for discovering, creating, and launching your own products.

Enjoy, don’t miss my takeaways below! I’ll also highlight the exercise

The CrissCross Drill

Note: Chelsea created this little exercise, not me. She’s the brains–I’m the silly idiot who likes to name things

Here are the steps:

1. What does your audience need help with?
2. What helps them DO those things?
3. What are you good at?
4. What do you enjoy doing?
5. Where’s the crossover?

First, what is the exercise for?

The “CrissCross Drill” is a simple exercise you can do for two applications:

1. Formulating unique product ideas
2. Getting clarity about pain points your audience has (and how you might help them)

That said, here are the questions:

1. What does your audience need help with?

What are their goals and what is stopping them from achieving those goals?

Where are the pain points? The obstacles they’re currently looking for help with?

Do they need more blog traffic?

Do they need to learn about investing? How to discipline their children effectively? Take better photographs?

Note: I also ended up categorizing my audience for “skill level,” I.e. B = beginner, I = intermediate, A = advanced.

2. What helps them do those things or achieve those goals?

• What systems?
• What courses?
• What support systems?

What type of content? What format?

Is a PDF enough? Digital or print-out? Emailed or snail-mailed?

Course, summit, or membership site? Coaching or mentoring or mastermind groups?

3. What are you good at?

What specifically are your best skills in this arena?

Are you good at talking? Writing? Editing video?

Are you skilled in creating courses quickly, like me? Or in thinking big, planning, and executing like Chelsea?

4. What do you enjoy doing?

We all know of things we can do really well–but we hate doing.

So what do you enjoy?

Creating content? Organizing and planning events?

Connecting people in person? Giving advice like a coach/mentor?

5. Crisscross: Identify where there are crossovers!

If you have fleshed out those questions in full, you should be able to go BACK through your notes/answers–and look for crossover ideas.

Don’t be shy in generating a LOT of luke-warm crossover ideas, either.

It’s rare to do this exercise and immediately be hit with a “home-run” idea. However, it can be useful for generating several “base hit” ideas that’ll hopefully lead to a home-run later.

So there it is. One of the first times I specifically sat down and mapped out what my membership site would look like

And now Online Impact is BACK. Click here to learn more and join the text waiting list!!!!

Did you enjoy this exercise? Drop a comment!

I’d love to hear if you found this helpful or enjoyed this podcast!

Drop us a comment below

The post How to Create Digital Products (The CrissCross Drill for Discovering Product Ideas) appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

I meant to start working on this blog post last week, but then something happened…

Actually, a lot of things happened…

• I had to fix a critical issue.
• I needed to edit podcast episodes for this week.
• I got sick.
• My grandmother died.

There are roughly 1,799 things calling for my attention these days, only two of which are DYEB and launching Online Impact.

Wait, what’s that?

You understand????

I know you do.

After 2 years, 100+ podcast interviews, and thousands of emails with bloggers…

“Struggling to find enough time” is easily the #1 issue we all feel.

In this post, I’ll show you how to “find” more time to work in your blog and business every week.

Sound too good to be true?

Possibly. We shall see.

You’ve been warned.

Last Saturday, I was sick (but it didn’t matter).

I may have woke up feeling exhausted (never a good sign), but there was no way in HECK I was missing my son’s soccer game.

(I also missed out on college football, which I’m into.)

This was my 4yr-old’s first organized sporting event, and I was determined to be there.

There was no need to pencil it in on the calendar or set reminders. I thought of little else.

It was important to me.

We set aside time for things–for a reason.

• You spend time with your friends because it makes you happy.
• You spend time at work because you need money.
• You spend time parenting because–well, you don’t have a choice.

#jokes 😉

If your podcast makes decent money, it’s probably fairly easy to spend time on that.

If working on your blog sincerely brings you INCREDIBLE joy every time you sit down to work on it–you probably don’t have issues finding time to do that.

If that statement makes you feel “UGH NO Pete–I love blogging and still wish I could have more time to work on it…” don’t worry, I’m with you!

But…

• Exactly how much do you NEED or WANT to build the thing you’re building?
• Exactly how much is your online business already contributing to your financial well-being?

Carving out 12 hours a week for your 14-month old blog that’s producing $500/mo is far easier than if it’s producing $0/mo.

Just how strong is “your why?”

For those who have been in self-improvement or blogging for more than a hot minute–you’ve probably heard phrases like “find your why!” and “you MUST know your why!“

• Corny? Yes.
• Overused? Yes.
• Misunderstood? Yes.
• Still important? YES.

My “why” for attending my kid’s soccer game was insanely strong…

• I want to be there for him.
• I want to be a good dad.

My “why” for working 40 hours a week on DYEB and Online Impact is equally strong.

• I want to change the way people work.
• I want to help people build better lives for themselves
• This is my job. I NEED this to put food on the table.

Note: It’s 9:01pm as I’m writing this and I DO NOT WANT TO WRITE. I’m tired–but this post is important to me on it’s own AND it’s part of my launch strategy for Online Impact. It’s getting done.

What’s your “why” for working on your online business? Is it strong enough to warrant commitment?

In terms of putting your blog on your calendar, your “why” has to be important enough to push other stuff off.

Just how high a priority is your side hustle work?

Luckily, there is something you can DO.

Get clarity.

For creators who feel overwhelmed, unfocused, and wish they had more time–clarity is like a magic bullet.

Clarity brings focus and excitement.

When you know exactly what you need to be working on in order to progress towards a crystal clear vision–time becomes less of an issue.

Why?

Because you now have more free time after work, or after kids going to bed?

Of course not.

It’s because you’ll start to understand which time-consuming activities are essential, and which aren’t.

It’s because shiny objective syndrome evaporates.

Get clarity.

• Where you want to go
• How you’re going to get there
• What you need to do to make that happen

Clarity makes working easier, worth looking forward to, and worth spending time on 😃

Clarity brings confidence that what you’re working on is the optimal thing to be working on.

Clarity saves time and brings motivation.

The bottom line:

Stuff that doesn’t make it to your to-do list, calendar, or whatever–is the stuff that “gets done when there’s time for it.”

And there’s never time for it.

Setting aside the time to work on your biz CONSISTENTLY only happens it’s important enough to you.

Important enough.

The post How to Magically Find Time to Work (Consistently) appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

The post The Four Stages of Blogging appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

“Everything is figure out-able. With enough time, effort, and support–you can do it. Everything is figure out-able.”

Today on the show? Raina Willick from Do You Even Blog!

Raina and I got connected in 2018, and she has been helping me out a TON in the past several months.

She’s my “focus consultant” 😃

Raina has a knack for helping people with a messy vision (that’d be me) figure out what to do.

In this podcast, we chat

• How we’ve shaped the features & services of Online Impact! (#salesy-sales-sales-alert!)
• Creating digital products based on first principles
• How to better your odds at success by surrounding yourself with the right resources

Enjoy!

Join us in Online Impact!

It’s the membership community for driven bloggers & podcasters looking to make more money on the internet to better their life.

AND IT LAUNCHES TODAY, October 7th, 2019!

But also closes this Friday, October 11th, 2019, at 11:59:59pm ET 😃

Online Impact Price: $35/mo A membership community for bloggers, podcasters, and online entrepreneurs who want to grow their income. Online Impact has tons of courses, 1-on-1 support, monthly events, and access to premium tools. Learn More

<3

The post A Chat With My “Focus Consultant,” Raina Willick! appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

Here’s a secret:

I, Pete McPherson, am a master procrastinator.

Ya know the stories you hear about college students waiting until the day before the exam to start studying? 

Nice you meet you!

I ALWAYS wait till the last minute, but I somehow still get stuff done by the due date.

However, it wasn’t until later in life that I discovered this is actually an asset.

Question for you:

• Why is it that late December is the best time of year to buy a used car?
• Why do companies tend to push themselves harder than ever in Q4 every year?
• Why do you seem to get SO much work done the day before you leave for vacation?

Answer: Deadlines.

Car dealerships and corporations set annual sales goals—and December brings a mad dash to meet their quotas.

When you know you’re leaving on vacation, you work extra hard/smart to make sure you won’t be thinking about work when you should be throwing your kids into swimming pools at Disney World ????????

People work harder during periods of procrastination—because they have to. Deadlines and short-time frames encourage harder and/or smarter work.

How you can use this for your blog:

That’s the real trick, isn’t it?

Trying to replicate the feeling of “OMG I HAVE to get this stuff work work work,” even though you don’t have an actual deadline.

It turns out, the answer is simple—but still really hard?

1. Use shorter timeframes for your goals
2. Set strategic plans on the weekly (or even daily) levels

Step 1 – Cast aside “annualized” thinking for a second…

When folks start blogs, businesses, or any project, it’s almost ALWAYS accompanied by annualized thinking.

Annualized thinking = setting a 2020 goal.

This is why 99.99% of New Year’s resolutions fail—it’s simply too long a time frame to accurately predict what’s going to happen!

You have NO idea where your blog will be 10 months from now. Planning that far out has diminishing returns

Consider a long road trip.

Annualized thinking/planning is like if I decided to drive from Georgia to California—with no maps, GPS, or asking for directions.

I know which way is west from my hometown, and I’d probably make it a few states over—but I’d soon need to course-correct before I get completely lost, eventually getting stranded with no food, eventually resorting to a life of crime on the streets in order to survive.

Here’s a quote from “The 12-Week Year,” the book that spurred this blog post and the 12-Week Blog Plan course. (my affiliate link above)

“At the heart of annualized thinking is an unspoken belief that there is plenty of time in the year to makes things happen. In January, December looks a long way off.”

This is totally true.

We get a tad behind in late January or February, and we’re not worried, because “there’s so much time left!”

Back to the book…

“We mistakenly believe that there is a lot of time left in the year, and we act accordingly. We lack a sense of urgency, not realizing that every week is important, every day is important, every moment is important. Ultimately, effective execution happens daily and weekly!”

So what to do?

Shorten the timeframe for your goals.

How to create an #actionable blog plan.

Again, we go through this in a step-by-step, interactive format within the 12-Week Blog Planner below—but I did want to leave an overview here.

Here are the 3 steps:

1. Define a vision for your blog/biz
2. Create 2-4 SMART(ER) goals
3. Map out tactics on a weekly (and daily) basis.

1 – Why vision is incredibly important

Simply put, you need to know where you’re going.

You can work 23 hours a day at PEAK efficiency, but if what you work on isn’t aligned with where you want to be in life, it will have been worthless.

A compelling vision = a crystal-clear picture of the future.

It is critical that your business/blog vision aligns with—and enables—your personal vision. This alignment ensures a powerful emotional connection that promotes a sustained commitment, and continual action.

No vision = no emotional connection to stick with the plan.

Got it?

“If you’re lacking in passion for your business or in a relationship, it’s not a crisis of passion; it’s a crisis of vision.”

Brainstorming and completing the Vision Worksheet is the first step in the 12-Week Blog Planner.

You’ll need a vision for your blog

• 12 weeks from now
• 3 years from now

You need to make dang sure your short-term vision/goals line up with your long-term vision.

Here’s an (outdated) 12-week DYEB vision:

2 – Why 2-3 goals is optimal for a 12-week year.

The next step is to create a few goals you can aim for 12 weeks from now.

These goals become planning “targets” on which you’ll base your weekly and daily actions.

If you’ve never heard of the “SMARTER” framework for goals, you can read about that here, but I’mma just hit you with what I think is crucial for bloggers:

1 – Make them specific and measurable.

This is the bare mimimum.

“Make more money”

“Get affiliate revenues”

“Grow email list”

THESE ARE NOT GOALS. They are not specific or measurable.

“Make $1,000 gross from the blog via ads and affiliate links, and grow my email list by 75%.”

That’s a bit better.

3 – They should be obtainable within the time frame!

This one’s huge.

Honestly. Realistically. Set 2-3 goals that you CAN legitimately complete in a 12-week timeline.

Why? Because you’re going to be DOING IT.

Goal setting should not JUST be some inspirational-motivational-super “it’d be great but it’ll never happen” sort of process.

You’re going to be hitting these goals, and if you do, you should have been working to your vision.

4 – But still a tad lofty

My friend Jenny from Good Life, Better once referred to them as “stretch” goals. I like that term.

Targeted goals should make you a tad uncomfortable.

There is a proper balance of “I can do this” mixed with “Wow—what I’m currently doing won’t hit that goal, so how can I hit it?”

5 – They should align with your vision.

You might even just change the way you’ve phrased your vision—to be specific and measurable goals.

Here’s my (outdated) goals for DYEB 12 weeks out:

6 – Each of these 12-week goals becomes a planning target for which you need to write tactics.

The overall 12-week goals are then broken out into weekly goals and corresponding #actionable tactics.

That’s up next

3 – Identify the actions that MATTER

Using your blogging vision and the goals—this is where we’ll set a strategic, weekly plan of action—that if completed, will move you to your goals.

Mmmmm tasty.

Here’s a step-by-step to your weekly plan.

Step 1 – For each goal, brainstorm ALL actions that are required to hit your goals

What do you need to work on to hit your goals? 

Braindump everything on a sheet of paper or spreadsheet.

Step 2 – Identify the high-priority and high-leverage tasks

Not all activities will move you towards your goals equally.

1. Checking email
2. Scheduling social media posts
3. Fixing broken backlinks
4. Writing and perfecting SEO content

Which of those are more important for hitting my SEO goals?

1. Finding new productivity apps
2. Going through a new blogging course
3. Recording and editing podcast episodes
4. Setting up my advanced email funnel

Which of those are more important for hitting my monthly recurring revenue goals via my funnel?

Which actions will have the greatest impact?

Step 3 – Map out high-priority tactics by week

This is the hard part. The time-consuming part.

Map out every week for 12 weeks using high-leverage tasks.

In the 12-Week Blog Planner, we complete a worksheet containing this weekly breakdown—and send you the results—but it’s also crucial to keep some sort of spreadsheet/document.

See below for why.

Keep score & Keep track = stay committed.

There’s one more obvious reason why people fail on their blogging and/or life goals = a lack of commitment.

“It’s one thing to define new actions that will lead to higher results, it’s another thing to consistently do them.”

Entire books and classes attempt to cover this subject.

However, for the 12-week blog plan, there are 3 slices that help make up your commitment pie:

1. An emotional connection to the outcome of your work—or non-work—i.e. a proper vision
2. Effective tracking & “reminding” at weekly intervals
3. Effective measurement—i.e. scorekeeping! Woot!

To-do 1 – Have a weekly recurring meeting—with yourself.

I’m running mine every Monday directly after my mastermind call.

In this meeting you’ll

1. Score the previous week (see below)
2. Plan out the current week in greater detail
3. Refresh yourself on your long-term vision and goals.

To-do 2 – Keep score on your progress!

This is the magic bullet for the 12-week year—literally assigning yourself a percentage-based SCORE for every single week, based on how effectively you completed your tactics.

Every single week (that’s important), you’ll calculate the percentage of tactics you fully completed. I.e. the number of tactics you did, divided by the number of total tactics.

That’s your score

Aim for 80% or greater, and aim for improvement.

Insanely important note: If you score less than 100%, you have NOT failed! You should aim to score around 80% and above. If you were to correctly plan, then execute 80% of the identified tactics, chances are high that you have realized a lot of your goals/vision!

The problem is doing the work

Want help creating your blog plan? Introducing the Interactive 12-Week Blog Planner.

Using the lessons taught in The 12-Week Year, I’ve assembled an interactive email course to walks you through creating a blog plan.

• 3 email lessons
• 3 worksheets
• BONUS Email Lesson (fires if you complete the worksheets)
• BONUS Custom Summary Email (fires if you complete the worksheets)

Sign up below to begin the planner!

Let’s get some clarity and focus!

The post How to Create a Blog Plan (That You’ll Crush) appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

Here’s what us bloggers spend time on:

• creating content
• promoting
• back-end administrative

The 1,028 items on our to-do lists can be put into those broad categories.

The question is…

How should we split up our time working–so as to MAX out our blog growth potential? As new bloggers? As experienced bloggers? Where should we focus our time and energy and resources?

Here’s Heidi’s original question:

Here’s the rest:

Note: what follows is absolutely my opinion.

Other blogging influencers might tell you something completely different. You should always judge for yourself and find what works for you!

Advanced or Experienced Bloggers: Here’s how you should be spending your time:

If you have more than 100 total pieces of content published–you automatically fall under this category.

If you have less than 100 total pieces of content but feel you’re ready–use your best judgment.

• creation = 20%
• marketing = 75%
• admin = 5%

If this time split sounds stupid or unreasonable, here’s my rationale.

If you’ve been blogging a while have a body of work built up–there is oftentimes NO reason to publish new content.

Every blog post you write has the POTENTIAL to be evergreen. Updated, revamped, and republished.

Experienced bloggers have the option to revamp and repurpose old, existing content.

In fact, not only do they have that option, but it is Pete’s personal opinion that they SHOULD make this “repurposing” cycle a larger and larger part of their content strategy.

So–if you have loads of content already–you can easily update and revamp it–and re-release! This takes a fraction of the time as opposed to starting from scratch.

Experienced Blogger Admin & Marketing

There’s another benefit to NOT being a newbie–you’ve likely already started to solidify a marketing strategy.

• you’ve found your tribe (at least a little)
• you’ve nailed down your social channels
• you’ve built some relationships

Once you have a body of content–my semi-pro opinion would be to focus more on marketing.

• continue guest posting
• (for media features & backlinks)
• double-down on preferred channels
• build more partnerships and collaborations

That, and you’ll hopefully start to get better at creating your own systems to save time in email, responding to comments, working on back-end website stuff.

This stuff takes a TON of time as a newer blogger just starting to get traction.

Beginner Bloggers: Here’s how to spend your time for max productivity and ROI:

First–there’s no magic number to go from “beginner” to “experienced” blogger. It’s different for everybody.

However…

If you don’t have a ton of “passive” traffic–your traffic tends to die off a few days after each new post, etc–or you don’t have a lot of old content to work with (less than 50 posts)–you qualify for the following recommendations.

Here’s my recommend time split for newer bloggers:

• creation = 75%
• marketing = 15%
• admin = 10%

When you first start–it takes a super long time to develop your “content muscles.”

There’s a reason I can sit down and record a decent podcast episode in one take, and publish it 10 minutes later–I’ve done it a lot (and I’m lazy).

The more time you can spend focusing on the creation process–the quicker you’ll find your voice, and the more efficient you’ll get at creating.

And the marketing time?

When you have massive organic traffic, 30,000 email subscribers, etc–you can hit publish, email your list–and watch the traffic roll in.

Not so for newbies.

You can spend all the time in the WORLD on various marketing strategies only to see small ROI.

The biggest marketing ROI for new bloggers? Really, really, really remarkable and useful content.

Let’s talk about things that matter–and stuff that doesn’t.

• a pixel-perfect website
• 300 more twitter followers
• learning advanced technical SEO
• rock-solid branding across every pixel of your blog

There are tons of bloggers who have this stuff–and as a new blogger, you’re competing with all of them! (for attention btw).

Until you have a body of work–spend your time obsessing over producing quality content consistently.

Quality content consistently.

Conclusion:

New blogger?

I believe with all my heart that you should spend a LARGE majority of your time on the creation process.

• brainstorming remarkable content ideas
• writing writing writing
• learning how to produce images and graphics that engage
• learning about headlines and intros
• making engaging and interest posts that people talk about.

This will grow your following more than tricks or tactics for more Pinterest followers or nit-picky SEO optimization. You’ll get better at that stuff in time.

However…

If you have a nice body of work built up, and have a decent flow or passive/organic traffic–it’s time to explore more advanced marketing tactics.

• Go deep on technical SEO. Use a paid tool to track your posts across the first few pages of Google–then update, revamp, and re-release.
• Go back through your Pinterest boards and clean up crappy or outdated content.
• Focus on influencer outreach and use your time finding strategic ways to grow your blog and business.

You can afford to spend less time creating original content–until you just want to again 😉

*

The post Blogging Productivity 101: Where Should Your Time Be Spent? appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

It’s been a DREAM of mine to release a long-form case study that takes place over 12 months, and I’m excited to present part 2! Please meet Tanya from Traveling Tanya! She’s a brand new blogger (at the time of this post), and we’re going to be following and picking apart her journey over the next year. This is part 1 of 4!

Here’s how we’re going to cover each part of this series:

Rather than craft an entire blog post based on the podcast episodes–which is normally what I do for podcast episodes–we’re going to keep things simple and straight forward.

We’ll structure each part of the series like this:

1. the facts
2. the questions & answers
3. Tanya’s progress
4. Tanya’s “to-do” list
5. Big Takeaways

Got it? good.

Side note for brand-spanking-new bloggers reading this: Please check-out my comprehensive guide to starting a blog in 2019 and beyond. This should be your blueprint for the first year.

1 Month in: The Facts for Traveling Tanya.

Website: https://travelingtanya.com/

Started: September 1, 2018

Experience: None before this blog, 1 month as of the time of podcast recording.

Niche: Travel, specifically for “busy people.”

Big Goal(s): To EXIST a year from now, cultivate a tribe to help, an eye for monetization in some form.

The Q&A’s from Part 1: “I don’t know what I don’t know”

“I have Google Analytics installed on my new site–but how can/should I use this information right now?”

You shouldn’t–like at ALL.

You simply don’t have the data to make this information useful, and seeing 5 visits a day is not going to bring any joy after week 1.

New Blogger Takeaway: Please DO install the Google Analytics (and FB ad) pixel on your site–then forget about it!

“I’ve heard that I need plugins, and have downloaded a few–which ones should I spend time learning? What more do I need right now?”

Keep it as simple as humanly possible!

As a new blogger, please do NOT concern yourself with learning 3+ plugins. You simply don’t need to right now. Focus on publishing good content consistently and learn plugins as the needs arise (and they will!)

Grab these in your first 3 months:

• A plugin for Mailchimp just to get a form up! https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailchimp-for-wp/
• A plugin for connecting analytics: https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-dashboard-for-wp/
• A plugin for share buttons: https://sumo.com/ maybe–else just search for a social sharing plugin and pick one.

The trick is to NOT waste time right now. Don’t think you have to learn everything overnight.

“Do I need a freebie or lead magnet to grow my email list–at this stage of my new blog?”

Absolutely not.

Not only is this going to take time to learn how to do–but you probably don’t have a great idea of WHAT your audience really wants right now anyways…

…plus, ya know–you don’t have traffic (which you’ll need for optins).

🙂

Tanya’s Progress: Month 1

After exactly one month with a brand-new site–Tanya’s blog is looking great!

Also, she already has posts up. Sweet!

I’d call this a winning month 1, and a great springboard to jump off from.

New Blogger To-do List for months 2-5 (the 3 months before our next check-in):

1 – Fight to produce “good” content–consistently.

This is priority #1. It’ll take a long time to figure out what “good” is for her writing skills–and also her audience, but it’s what she should focus on for the 1st 3 months.

2 – Ignore tech stuff for 3 months.

She already has the site set-up w/ some plugins, and should not concern herself with anything further at this time–at all.

3 – Go BROAD on her marketing channels.

As in, a new blogger should probably experiment across all the big channels, and post everywhere to begin with.

After time and analysis–Tanya will probably be able to figure out exactly where she is getting the highest ROI for her time spent marketing–and then focus almost exclusively on those channels.

4 – Build a loyal following above all else (specifically for monetizing later!)

Monetizing a blog is 100x easier with a built-in audience–specifically a loyal and trusting audience. Courses like EBA, 10K Subs, Blogger U, etc–and promote the “get to 1,000 subscribers then test products) formula–and I’m no different.

Build tribes. Monetization is a byproduct of that.

Part 2 – 4 Months in as a New Blogger:

The Q&A’s from part 2 – The honeymoon phase is over 🙂

The idea of starting a blog is often intoxicating–it seems like so much fun, and often seems sooo easy at first!

Until you realize how hard it is and how much time it takes ?

Tanya’s main questions in month 4:

1. The “newness” is wearing off; How do I persevere and thrive? (specifically balancing time and a posting schedule?)
2. The blog growth vs. time spent spectrum. How do deal with?
3. Google Analytics – What good is it? How do I use it?

Let’s dive in.

1 Key to conquering the “marriage phase” of publishing.

Publish less, but publish better.

*gasps

Oh no you DIDN’T PETE. You’re constantly yelling at new bloggers that “consistency is key key key!”

It’s true.

Publishing blog content consistently is key to growth–but not at the expense of stress, unhappiness, a feeling of “the grind” leading to burnout, etc.

And here’s the thing...

There are different ways to “publish” consistently–including revamping old blog posts, introducing different–and quicker–formats, and more. These will help struggling bloggers persist.

Here’s the thing…

Tanya’s blog isn’t new anymore. She’s been publishing several posts a week for 3-4 months now. (40ish total posts)

That’s a nice body of content to work with!

My personal recommendation to bloggers in this situation: You shouldn’t feel pressured to keep hitting publish 3x a week.

Question:

What do you think the difference would be if Tanya continued posting 3x per week–vs 2x per week–over the next 3 months?

Huge difference? No difference?

Think about it.

This little switch in attitude can help new bloggers overcome that feeling of “oh this is starting to become a grind.”

Introducing the blog growth spectrum.

At some point you have to make a decision: Where do I want to shoot for on this spectrum?

Example – Pete McPherson

I could probably grow DYEB and BU quicker if I worked more–and sometimes I do want to work more.

But I can’t.

I’m married with two kids–and frankly, I don’t like working for more than 6-8 hours a day. I’m not willing to give up the hours of 5pm to midnight, which I usually devote to kids, my wife, and to my hobbies.

Will I grow slower than if I gave up those hours to work on my blog/business?

Possibly.

Where do you want to be on the spectrum?

• Some bloggers don’t have full-time jobs and don’t need a steady income like you do.
• Some bloggers have 50-70 hours a week to blog–and do.
• Some bloggers don’t have 4 kids and 2 jobs.

You can’t always control your circumstances–but you can choose where you want to aim for on the blog growth spectrum based on reality.

Re-read that.

Choose where you want to aim for. Make a decision and be comfortable!

When it comes down to how much time you spend working on your blog–embrace your decision and embrace the resulting growth curve you can expect.

?

Part 3 – April 2019, 7 months in as a new blogger:

Part 4 – September 2019, 12 months in as a new blogger:

Woooo the final chapter in a new blogger’s journey!

Here’s a screenshot from the blog tracker Tanya mentioned in the episode:

There were a few big takeaways from Tanya’s one-year mark:

1. After a while–you should probably CHANGE how you spend your time blogging.

Actually, I wrote an entire post on this: Blogging Productivity 101: Where Should Your Time Be Spent?

The gist of that post is this: Once you have a respectable body of published content–you can probably start to spend less time creating new content, and more time marketing (and/or updating existing content).

Spending a ton of time on SEO and list-building with a new blog that has less than 20 posts is fairly low ROI.

Once you’ve been at this for a while, you’ll begin seeing a higher return on time spent marketing! (optimizing your site, finding partnerships, updating and republishing old content, etc).

2. Finite vs Infinite Games (like blogging)

There’s no “winning” your blog.

• There’s no cap on traffic
• There’s no “end” of any kind
• There’s no “Well I finally hit THIS metric and now I’m DONE.”

Blogging is not finite.

Note: Some strategies are finite, though. There is a CAP on how many people are searching for one of your keywords in Google. There’s a number there. It’s not infinite. Trying to rank for that keyword in SEO is a finite game you’re playing with your “competitors.”

But the overall blogging game you are playing is infinite: Once you hit your own defined “success,” the definition changes.

The real strategy in the blogging game is to do whatever it takes to be able to CONTINUE playing the game.

👍

Thoughts?

Watching Tanya go in and out of the “honeymoon” phase of blogging has been incredibly interesting to me.

It’s now one year in, and she seems to be having fun, growing slowly but steadily, and even getting some monetization benefits!

Did you get anything from this little case study?

Please drop us a comment below!

The post The 12-month New Blogger Case Study – Traveling Tanya appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

I kept seeing Elna Cain’s name everywhere.

In Google search results. In random articles on freelance writing, blogging, etc. On Facebook.

As it turns out, she’s just insanely prolific. She…

• Runs a freelance writing site
• Is a freelance writer
• Runs a mom blog
• Occasionally acquires new blogs
• And more.

In this episode, we chat about blogging productivity, managing freelancers & contributors, and monetization!

Big fat takeaway from this episode w/ Elna:

Give your projects individual time to grow

• One blog
• One blog & one podcast
• One blog & one podcast & one YouTube channel
• Five blogs

Doesn’t matter.

I think managing multiple blogs (or even multiple channels or marketing strategies) can easily lead to spreading yourself thin (duh).

One important aspect from Elna’s own projects is that she focus on one initiative at a time–until it had grown to a reasonable point.

Past a certain point on your blog, you can probably focus on other things without killing the first blog.

But you gotta give things time to grow.

The post How to Manage (& Monetize) 5+ Blogs – Elna Cain appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

Making money from a podcast is reserved for those with like, 1,500,000 downloads a month right? NO. NOT IN THE LEAST. In part 2 of this “how to start a killer podcast” series, I’m joined by Carrie from the Hippocratic Hustle podcast to talk all things starting and EARLY monetization. Enjoy!

In the 2 months of the Do You Even Blog podcast, here are the stats:

• Downloads = 1,200
• Expenses = $170 (hosting and mic)
• Revenue = $150

Is this John Lee Dumas or Tim Ferriss level money?

Of course not–But it’s something, and it almost paid for a YEAR’S worth of podcast hosting and a nice USB mic. (this one)

Not only is it POSSIBLE to monetize a podcast from the very beginning, I’ve personally found it much easier than monetizing a blog. This post is going to show you how.

Carrie’s story was similar:

• Downloads = 300 in month 1
• Revenue = $75 per episode

That’s crazy. Let’s dig in.

So why is it relatively easy to make money from podcasting *so early?*

A few reasons:

1 – More and more people “understand” what it entails.

When you pitch folks for blog or YouTube sponsorships–it’s not mainstream enough yet to really be understood.

But anybody that listens to podcasts (50% of Americans) know that sponsorships are how podcasts are monetized. 95% of popular podcasts have live-reads.

2 – You can start small.

We’ll talk more about this in a minute, but it’s obviously easier to land a $50 sponsorship than it is a $500 sponsorship. (or is it? More in a sec).

3 – Audio is superior to text when it comes to authority and brand-building.

When you read “I fully recommend Freshbooks” on my blog post, that could even be copy/pasted from some Freshbooks partnership manager.

But when you hear my voice whispering in your ear while you’re washing dishes in your underwear–telling you how awesome Freshbooks is–it’s a different experience.

Sincerity and authenticity shine through in audio. It’s a podcaster’s weapon.

Here’s Why You Should FORGET the Industry Standard CPM Monetization Models

Have you seen guidelines like this?

Let me share how I really feel:

Feel free to use CPM models when you reach 10M downloads a month. Until then, these models are stupid and limiting, and can EASILY be overcome with a bit of creativity and hustle.

Carrie got $75 an episode.

Per these “standards,” that would mean she’d require roughly 3,000 downloads an episode.

She had 300/month.

Here’s Exactly How to Monetize a Podcast From Day One.

Step 1 – List out all the different ways you can add value.

Remember what we said about live reads?

It’s the obvious benefit people pay for, but ask yourself this:

What do live reads really offer sponsors?

People listen to podcasts while they’re

• driving
• cleaning the house
• sexing?

Never, in the history of podcast sponsorships has anybody dropped what they’re doing to rush to a laptop and check out a sponsor. That’s why we MUST offer more than just live-reads!

#overexaggerating

If you’re looking to make money in month one, with small download stats, you’re going to need to list out more ways to add value.

The full template is available below by the way.

So step 1? List out all the ways you can add value!

Even if you don’t have tons of downloads, traffic, Twitter followers, etc–it can add up.

• Email newsletter mentions
• Social media shares
• Live-reads for one or several episodes
• An add in your blog sidebar
• Wear their t-shirt every day for a month.
• etc

Get creative and find ways to add value top every sponsorship. Blow them away.

Make it a no-brainer.

Step 2 – Find a very specific person/brand you can add value to.

So you’ve got a few ways you can help a brand–but what brand?

The next step in the process is to investigate your audience, and your authority/expertise, and then create a small list of targeted sponsor prospects.

The goal?

To be able to show a sponsor how your podcast topic and target listeners can benefit THEIR brand.

The people you target MUST have that trait.

So where should you start? Who should you target first?

Freshbooks? No.

Small businesses, fresh startups, or bloggers.

Find other bloggers who…

• want to grow (hey, that’s everybody!)
• can benefit from YOUR audience
• are willing to experiment and drop cash

When Carrie started her podcast (geared towards women physicians), she booked a “friend of a friend” who was directly interested in her niche.

When I started the DYEB podcast, most of my audience was personal finance bloggers (carried over from my previous blog), so who did I target?

Non-newbie PF bloggers on the Rockstar Finance Forums (sorry J$).

Speaking of month 1 sponsorships…

FORGET CPM models. Add more value than live reads.

Charge what your worth, then add $25 😉

Step 3 – Customize & Craft the Pitch.

First, you need to realize something:

You will get rejected. Plan on it. Embrace it. WELCOME IT.

I pitched about 10 people in my first 2 months, converted 2 of them to sponsors, and the 8 others to friends 🙂

Huge Important Bold Text: Your primary goal when pitching people for anything is to build a relationship. The actual sponsor/deal is of secondary importance. Friendships are 10x more valuable in the long-term.

That said, here are a few DOs and DON’Ts of landing sponsors via a cold/warm pitch:

1 – DO keep it short and sweet and to the point.

Nobody likes their time wasted. If the email takes longer than 8 seconds to read, it’s too long.

2 – DO ask permission to pitch them first.

This is adapted from Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing, but asking permission to pitch brings several advantages, such as

• it’s polite and unexpected.
• it all but guarantees they’ll open the actual pitch email
• it gives them an easy “out” if they know they don’t want it
• it’s respectful

An example would be:

“Hey Freshbooks marketing person!

Straight to the point–I run the Do You Even Blog podcast, and I have a pitch I’d love to run by you.

Cool to send it along? It’ll only take 37 seconds and would make Freshbooks money for sure 🙂

Pete”

3 – DO be completely honest about your podcast stats

Valuable relationships are built on trust.

4 – DON’T send 6 follow-ups

Send 1 follow-up. Maybe 2, if spread out over enough time (a month or so).

5 – DON’T be clever.

There’s a fine line here somewhere, but if you want people to take you seriously, don’t do this:

Have a personality, but be a professional.

The post How Carrie Monetized Her Podcast in Month ONE appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

The best time to start a podcast was 12 years ago–the second-best time is right now.

If you’ve followed DYEB for any length of time now, you’ve probably heard me shout about the awesome benefits of reaching people via audio…

• Builds trust in your brand
• Builds authority
• Reaches new audience
• Takes less time than blogging (for some)
• Generally influences people better than text.
• Is fun.

In today’s chat, I am THRILLED to bring on James Cridland from Podnews!

I saw James give a talk at Podcast Movement (on Google Podcasts and what their recent changes mean for podcasters)–and immediately made a note on my phone to reach out to him to come on the show.

Now it’s here!

• Why podcasting (and audio content in general) is so effective
• Where the medium is going
• Some recent Google changes (listen for this alone)
• Practical advice and tips for podcasters!

It’s a good one. Enjoy!

Psst current podcasters! See how I only linked to Apple Podcasts and Google podcasts above?

Hat tip to James for that one as well! You can read more in his Medium article on that here.

Twas a fantastic show today folks. Thanks for listening!

The post Podcasting, Google, and Why Audio Reigns Supreme – James Cridland appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

“I could never be a podcast host.” – loads of bloggers everywhere.

Or maybe…

• “I don’t have a good voice.”
• “I don’t know what to say.”
• “I don’t even know where to start.”

Fam, I got you.

Actually NO. Joe Saul-Sehy has you! You’ll know him from the Stacking Benjamins (and Money With Friends!) podcast(s), and I’d argue he’s a bonafide expert when it comes to running a microphone.

So if you’re curious about starting a podcast (or already have one), Joe is here to help us…

• Run engaging interviews
• Create interesting content that keeps listeners coming back for more
• Generally be capable of producing quality audio content.

It’s good. I’m excited for you to listen & learn.

Fun quotes from Joe:

I would tell anybody that wants to go into podcasting–Don’t worry about getting it right, get started! We started roughly eight years ago, and we should have started nine years ago. Had I started a year earlier, we would have made the mistakes earlier that everybody makes and we’d be further ahead.

and one more…

Make the show you’d want to listen to.

💪

How can I get more comfortable & confident in front of a microphone?

From Joe…

You’re going to mess it up. You’re going to hate your voice.

It’s going to really sound like nails on a chalkboard and you’re not going to be good because it is a 10,000 hours kind of thing.

So, Realize you’re going to make mistakes, and the only way NOT to–is to start talking, because you will figure things out as you go along!

You get on the microphone, and you evaluate yourself. I think the important question is: “Can I constantly sharpen your saw and think about how can I get better?”

How can I “get better” as a podcast host?

Joe brings up two points:

1. Think in terms of stories:

Think in terms of Stories.

Podcasts are phenomenal story vehicles, and instead of trying to get facts–try to get stories!

Facts are fantastic if you’re in listicle world and blog world–but facts suck on a podcast. Our eyes are designed for factual stuff. Our ears are designed for storytelling.

2. Put away the overused questions and focus on the conversation:

For a new podcaster, those pre-arranged questions can actually be a crutch.

As a host, you WILL probably have a few huge points, lessons, and topics that you want your guest to get to–but those are just lead-off topics.

You’ll want to simply kickstart that conversation, story, example, etc, and have your guest do most of the storytelling and explaining!

While YOU listen attentively with the goal of understanding and staying involved in the conversation for proper follow-ups, etc.

Do you INSTANTLY feel more confident about producing podcast content?

Or still “meh?”

Drop me a comment below!

I’d love to hear if podcasting is even on your radar, and if you found this chat with Joe Saul-Sehy helpful 👍

The post How to Be a Confident Podcast Host – Joe Saul-Sehy appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

If you hate SEO traffic and generating quality backlinks in a short time frame–this chat with Kyle from Growth Badger isn’t for you.

Kyle started his site about a year ago and has since SKYROCKETED a few posts using a very specific strategy.

(utilizing surveys & research & other unique approaches to content).

We’re talking thousands of shares, 100+ referring domain, and an 843% increase in traffic–from one blog post.

In this post & podcast, we’re chatting about…

• Using data-driven content to grow your SEO
• How to run effective surveys
• Other ways to produce unique content for SEO that DOESN’T require a huge audience already.

Enjoy 😉

Survey resources & more:

• Kyle’s analysis of his double survey technique
• Survey Monkey’s sample size calculator

Other highly relevant content:

• 60-Minute SEO – My free SEO course
• Why SEO Link Building Is Not Rocket Science – Tim Soulo
• Glen Allsopp on Reviewing 500+ Websites and the Future of Link Building

The “Double Survey” Technique (the quick version)

In short, here’s the formula

1. Choose a topic you feel would be interesting to do research on.
2. Poll or survey your audience (or conduct research another way)
3. Share THOSE findings with other influencers in your space.

The first step is actually tougher than it seems…

Let’s say you run a personal finance blog, don’t have a huge audience, and want to start ranking for budgeting related keywords in Google.

So you’re into budgeting worksheets, templates, planners, etc. Great!

But how to turn that into original content backed by data or research?

• Poll your audience on what makes worksheets good/bad to them?
• Download and personally analyze as many budgeting worksheets as you can get your hands on?
• Something different?

If we’re shooting for some quick shares, backlinks for SEO, etc, I might choose the 2nd one–ESPECIALLY if we don’t have a huge audience to survey.

The goal:

1. Do original research around budgeting worksheets, and come up with SOME finding, interesting tidbit, anything.
2. Present your findings to other personal finance bloggers, podcasters, and YouTubers, asking for their opinions.
3. Present the findings AND the influencer opinions in one blog post.

Yes, even this small-scale data-driven blog post would take a bit of time–but doesn’t that sound like a MUCH more interesting piece of content than a super-standard budgeting worksheet blog post?

THAT’S the kind of content that Kyle has used to generate backlinks and SEO wins.

Some other approaches to “unique” content for backlinks:

Like I mentioned above, you don’t necessarily need a mega-huge audience to use research, polls, etc.

How about the “Myth Busters” approach?

The idea is simple.

Since you don’t have access to a huge audience in which to poll or survey–you can test other people’s data, findings, research, etc, and report on it.

Bust that myth and present your findings (and make sure to tell the original researchers about your detailed work!)

Or do your own original research.

Run an experiment about a topic in your niche.

Use yourself as a guinea pig.

Run your own experiements.

The bottom line: this content is great for backlinks & SEO

Let’s not forget WHY we’d be doing this: It’s to bump our SEO traffic.

Unique, original content gets shares and backlinks–even if it doesn’t rank for anything!

Boom.

The post How to Use Research to Quickly Grow Backlinks and SEO Traffic – Kyle Byers appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

If you’ve been in blogging for a while, you’ve seen ’em.

A detailed blog income report detailing how “Bloggy McBlogga” made over $79,940.12 in her 1st month blogging!

Inspirational, motivating, and interesting! (Impressive Mr. McBlogga!)

However…

If you been a blogger for more than 48 hours, you’ve also seen the dark side of these reports…

The “look how much money I made this month neener neener” income report.

Ok, so they don’t have the “neener neener” part, but still.

For better or worse, blog income reports are an A+ marketing tool.

Why?

Because we all want to make crazy revenues from our blog, and when we see other bloggers making serious cash from their RV somewhere…

We want to know how.

So we click through. And subscribe to their email lists, and leave comments like this…

But here’s the kicker…

I’m tired of monthly income reports. Even my own.

(hey gimme a break. It’s only my 4th month).

• Do you really receive value from these posts?
• Do they legit help your blogging efforts?
• Which bloggers produce the most valuable income reports?

Well, the DYEB team (there are technically 2 of us now yippee!) set out on a mission to answer these questions.

First, the results of the survey. Monthly Income Reports: How useful are they?

Here’s the choices:

I got 87 responses from a few tweets, emails, and post to 2 different Facebook groups.

(Nice engagement Pete! Thanks Tribe member!)

Here are the broad level results:

The takeaway:

For the most part, bloggers approve of monthly reports, and find them useful.

Very few people found them not useful at all, but a HUGE majority agreed on one premise: blog income reports should be detailed, and provide MORE than just the numbers.

Specifically,

• lessons learned
• wins, losses
• strategies
• a detailed breakdown of affiliate income,
• etc.

Though I definitely include goals, wins, fails in my own reports, even from the get-go (here’s my first month for $51, woot!), I’m not planning on doing even more of this.

It’s clearly the value proposition with these reports. The more we can provide actual, concrete insights, the better.

In addition, I also asked the Do You Even Tribe what they thought…open-ended style.

Several folks responded with some reallllly great points.

If you publish income/blog reports of any kind, these will definitely help you make em even more appealing and valuable 🙂

Eric at High Five Dad

I LOVE them with one caveat. As a newbie knowing there is a pot at the end of rainbow is super exciting. I’m super analytical (my wife hates it), so I look at their income report and then scrub their website/ emails sent through their list to figure out HOW they did it.

The one caveat that I wish more bloggers would include is expenses.

It does me no good seeing someone saying they made $3500 on Bluehost when in reality they spent $2400 on Facebook ads or used an affiliate service so their profits really was 1100. Way more transparent.

One of the reasons bloggers quit before the first year is they never peek behind the curtain or never connect the dots. They see huge income reports and think I’m a failure because I’m not there. What they fail to realize is that those bloggers are networking, paying for ads, building connections and creating affiliate partners that help pitch their product.

Okay rant over. Income reports good just be transparent. Mic drop

Mandi from Big Tiny Steps

A lot of income reports spread “noise” about what blogging is really like and can be discouraging to new bloggers.

Also, larger sites that make a ton don’t say their cost of running the blog itself so that can be misleading. And I have also seen people who list their side jobs and stuff that is totally unrelated.

(Pete’s note: note a trend from these already? Seeing huge $$$$$ can be super discouraging for new bloggers)

CJ at CJ The Money Guru

They mostly make me feel like s**t.

We’ve been blogging for almost 3 months now and we haven’t made a dime yet. When I see bloggers pulling in thousands of dollars every month, it makes me feel bad about myself.

I will read the reports and see if I can do what these other people are doing so I can start making money. But so far I just can’t replicate even a fraction of their results.

I really don’t want to be a statistic and quit after 9 months ( I learned that from your podcast), but hopefully reading these income reports will encourage me to keep going instead of giving up.

That’s my rant.

Lee from Bald Thoughts (also an upcoming guest on my podcast)

I don’t always read them, but blog income reports add value to other bloggers.

Like one of your recent guests said, by inspecting the income reports of blogs in your space and that you admire, you can see where their revenue is coming from and seek to duplicate that success.

And if you follow a blog and want to support them, you can see how you can best do that by supporting companies that provide revenue to the blog.

Kiwi and Keweenaw (great name)

I definitely don’t think everyone should write monthly blog income reports!

They need to add something to the conversation, provide valuable information for other bloggers, and not replace better content. I think they are definitely appropriate for a blog like yours! But there are lots of blogger that publish monthly income posts in the personal finance field, so I wouldn’t choose to do that on my site.

Cato at The Dollar Build

As a blogger I’ll occasionally read other people’s income reports to learn a few tips and tricks about how to make it in the blogging world. I find it encouraging to read about other bloggers having success.

However, I’ve decided not to publish income and traffic reports for my blog for a couple reasons.

It’s not what my readers want. (I’m assuming this, of course. My blog has only been live for a month, who knows what they really want. Or if they even exist.) I assume those who visit my site are there to learn about personal finance – not about page views.

If my blog were about blogging (like yours), then sharing site traffic and income makes sense. It’s proof of authority.

What bugs me most is when it crosses the line into a heavy-handed or semi-misleading sales technique. Too often, I see bloggers who say straight up “It’s easy to start your own blog.” That’s true, but they leave out “…but it takes a ton of hard work to make money from blogging.”

I know this sounds a bit rant-ish. I hate to sound like an old curmudgeon. You know, the ole’ “get off my lawn” type thing. Overall, I don’t mind income reports when done tastefully.

Really. I swear.

Shivika at Dirt Cheap Wealth

My main gripe with monthly blog income report is – meh! they mean nothing and add absolutely zero value. Here is why:

• you undermine your true blog audience (remember, not everyone who comes to your blog wants to become a blogger, since you may have some really kick-ass content)
• you get into unnecessary competition with self, and assume things for other bloggers based on superficial information you see
• the reports never ever calculate the value of time, which when calculated correctly, will always negate your reports

Lisa at Mad Money Monster

I like income reports. They’re motivating and informative. I like to gauge how other bloggers are making their money. In my opinion, they have their place in the blogging community, but I’m sure they’re not enjoyable for most readers.

Kathy at Baby Boomer Super Saver (A+ blog name!)

As someone who is new to blogging, I have found the monthly blog reports to be very inspiring. I don’t read them all anymore, but it was great to see the financial growth so many different bloggers were able to achieve. It opened my eyes to possibility and opportunity, always a cool view!

(Pete’s notes: me thinks this: Income Reports are more useful the EARLIER you are in your blogging journey, yes?)

Jenny from Good Life Better

I haven’t read a ton of these but the ones I have read I don’t really find that helpful for a number of reasons:

For people in my niche, they are often not specific enough to guide what I might want to pursue (e.g., “$XXX from affiliate income” vs. “$XXX from my affiliate contract with Bluehost that is a mix of 500 ongong clients and 8 new ones.”). I would especially find helpful the new and reoccurring client info because that lets me know how much readers value that product now.

I think I would actually prefer quarterly statements or year over year statements. Blogging is seasonal so let me compare an April to an April vs. an April to a September. And with a quarterly summary, it can even out a product lunch that inflated income and visitors.

Maybe I am being naïve but I am enjoying blogging for me. I want people to read my blog and I want to make money from it but I think I would do it anyway if those things never happened. Income statements make me question the satisfaction I get from just hitting “publish.”

Linda from She Climbs the Ladder

I think they were interesting and actually sparked my interest into blogging as a real side hustle.

It might be nice to see a mix of them though so it’s not just those people that are like ‘hey I make $$$$ blogging every month.’

Jeff Proctor from Dollar Sprout

I have a love/hate relationship with them.

If more than 20% of it is copy and pasted from the previous month, I hate them. If you are sharing original content and REAL business insights and it’s simply delivered as an income report, I absolutely love them.

Pee Hermanos (I have NO idea who this guy is, but he’s in the DYEB Facebook group >_< )

nooooo income reports are great! it’s something to relate to and take inspiration from, also a great way to spark a convo. The only time I don’t enjoy them is when the income is super huge as its no longer personal or relatable.

(Pete’s note: Rosemarie Groner’s income is also totally unrelatable, but she decided to publish OTHER blogger’s reports that ARE relatable for her audience. Brilliant.)

Physician on Fire

I think bloggers like looking at income reports. I’m not sure how the non-bloggers feel about them.

Some might be curious, but I would guess the interest level drops off for those who don’t have sites of their own.

Araminta from Financially Mint

I think they’re really helpful because not only do they give you an idea of how much blogger earn, but I also find them very motivating, it’s easier for me to see myself in the future earning that kind of money.

Chris from Keep Thrifty (also a former guest on my podcast)

I LOVE income reports (even though I don’t publish my own). Please keep em going!

Veneta from Becoming Life Smart

I actually like looking at them because it gives me an idea of how bloggers earn money. Before I stumbled on them, I didn’t realize how much money can be made from blogging and how it’s done.

Barnabas from The Dad Wallet

But for me, they can be useful if done correctly, but I do not think monthly reports are useful once you hit like 10k/month as it becomes either so far out there that people get this idea they can do the same easily. Or for people who have been around awhile, it becomes oh well I bet they spent 5k as well on costs. Just my two sense.

***

Our all-time favorite monthly blog reports

Note: Some of these have very little to do with blog income, but rather traffic, marketing, etc!

Those insights are actually more relevant to more bloggers, as some bloggers seriously couldn’t care less about replacing full-time incomes.

Rosemarie Groner from The Busy Budgeter (Here’s the latest report).

Why it’s awesome: Rosemarie is a rockstar for sure, but she actually doesn’t publish her own reports. She publishes other beginner bloggers, and produces amazing feedback for them! It’s. so. good.

Loads of value here. (She’s also gave a killer podcast interview here)

Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income (Here’s the latest report).

Why it’s awesome: Pat is skill a king of blogging for good reason: He really does have valuable content. Plain and simple.

His income reports are the best of the best. Inspiring and motivating, but also really well designed, personal….and he shares a detailed breakdown of expenses as well.

Mrs. FAF from Frugal Asian Finance (Here’s the latest report)

Why it’s awesome: She isn’t concerned about blog revenues per se, but her traffic stats and strategies are compelling, engaging, smart, and useful.

Highly recommended.

Lily from The Frugal Gene (Here’s the latest report).

Why it’s awesome: The exact same reason Ms FAF’s is. She goes deep into her traffic stats and sources, and generally just produces incredible fun and engaging content.

These two were on the podcast as well, found here. Might seem like I’m just plugging podcast guests, but that’s because I am. They give extremely valuable income reports. So they deserve to be plugged.’

JLD from Entrepreneur on Fire (Here’s the latest report).

Why it’s awesome: Well laid out, transparent, includes accounting and legal tips, and very personal and engaging. A+.

Youuuuuu guessed it. Also had him on the podcast.

(Internal link madness!!!)

***

What are your thoughts? Anything surprising here?

If you publish regular blog reports, did this give you any insights as to how to make them better?

The post We asked 100 bloggers about blog income reports: Here’s what they said. appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

Rob and Melissa, from the Flea Market Flipper, almost didn’t have a blog.

After a few months of documenting their flipping lifestyle (they made over $80,000 flipping items last year) and trying to sell an online course, they quit.

For months.

They didn’t see immediate results, lost focus, and decided it wasn’t worth it.

Luckily–for them and us–they did return to their blog and have managed to build a budding flipping empire!

Really quick, lemme hit you with my 2 huge takeaways from this chat with Flea Market Flipper:

1 – How much free content do you give away–before charging?

There are two types of thinking about this:

1. Give away as much as humanly possible for FREE. It’s great marketing for you.
2. Give away a lot for free, but some/most of your content deserves to be behind a paywall.

What do you think?

Where’s the line?

Note: I don’t have an answer for YOU here. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself!

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Drop me a comment below?

Is there a great way to KNOW when you’ve given away too much for free?

2 – What’s the “right order” to build your monetized blog?

Should you monetize your blog in month one?

Should you build an audience first and foremost before even THINKING about selling courses, etc?

Sadly, there’s no “right” answer for all of us…

but…

95% of bloggers should seek to grow an audience that knows and trusts them–before monetizing *heavily,* especially with their own products.

Note the word “heavily.”

Ads and affiliate marketing can and should be utilized as soon as you can reasonably expect to get some views and click-throughs.

*opinion alert.

But in order to really get a high-ROI from your time, I’d personally recommend waiting to launch your flagship courses, books, products, etc, until you have an audience!

It simply won’t be worth your time until then.

?

One more secret to the success of Flea Market Flipper, specifically…

They are DOERS.

They LIVE the life that they teach others how to do.

Honestly–Rob was a master flipper before they started this brand. This is actually a big takeaway for building “authority.”

• Do things
• Show how you did them

That’s an incredible recipe for a successful blog. Kudos to the Flea Market Flippers for, ya know–actually flipping stuff.

That’s obvious, but powerful.

What do you think? Drop us a comment below!

Is there a good way to tell when you’re ready to start monetizing? Launching courses? Switch to meta-blogging?

The post How the Flea Market Flippers Built a Crazy Profitable Blog appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

If there’s one area of podcasting that I haven’t done much with, it’s this:

Book podcast sponsorships 💰

That’s why I ended up attending my buddy Andy’s presentation at FinCon–where he laid out a nice little system & strategy.

Andy runs the Marriage, Kids and Money podcast, and has had some incredible success booking podcast sponsorships–starting when he had 500 downloads a show!

His show is not so tiny anymore 😎

For context, 500 downloads/episode is technically right around podcast “averages,” but I know a ton of people with more downloads–who haven’t been able to do what Andy has. The DYEB podcast averages around 2k downloads/episode in the first few weeks and I definitely haven’t done what Andy has lol.

In this show we chat about 👇

• How to FIND podcast sponsors (specifically where to look and figure out who is paying)
• Putting together the proposal
• Media Kits!
• Turning getting sponsorships into a repeatable system.

Enjoy. I have just a weeeeeeee few takeaways in text format just below.

Show Notes:

• Seth Godin’s podcast on podcasting (and podcast sponsorships!)
• Jason Zook’s episode on sponsorships in general (Side Hustle Nation)
• How to get blog sponsorships at any level (my interview w/ Rachel from Joyful Derivatives)

Here are some tips for booking podcast sponsorships:

These are my personal takeaways & reminders from this episode:

1 – Build long-term relationships with these brands.

Psst. This tip applies to WAY more than just podcast sponsorships. Blog sponsors, partnerships, guest post outreach, etc.

You WILL hear “no” a lot.

It’s vital to remember to keep the relationship open at all costs. You may have plenty of different opportunities to partner up in the future–even if they turn down your sponsorship!

True story: I just booked about $2,200 in freelance work from a long-term brand relationship that initially started with a “no” outreach!

2 – Be persistent

This also applies to any other blog/podcast strategy that involves outreach.

Just because they don’t reply, doesn’t mean it’s a no.

1. Follow up with unread emails
2. Try different channels (Instagram or Twitter direct message)
3. Do it again.
4. But be professional!

You don’t have to be nagging or annoying or spammy. You do have to be persistent.

The difference is how professional and respectful you are.

3 – Start your search with brands how have advertised on podcasts before.

Go check out other podcasts in your niche (the large and medium-sized ones) and see who is sponsoring their shows.

It will be a LOT easier to pitch sponsorships to companies who know what podcast advertising actually looks like.

It’s a different beast than other types of PPC advertising to these companies.

Podcast sponsorship track records. Go find those brands.

4 – Create a snazzy media kit

This doesn’t have to take you days and days and a professional design team.

Brands care less about that, and more about “will this show give us sales?”

Here’s a handy article on creating media kits, and I’ll also throw out this media kit from Podcast Junkies as an example.

It’s spot on!

5 – Deliver value beyond “live reads.”

In Podcast Junkie’s sponsorships packages (shown above), you’ll notice they add additional benefits other than “live reads.”

Live reads = you reading your sponsor’s ads on your show in audio format.

• Banner ad on your site?
• Social media promotions on show day? Every week?
• Email mentions?
• You’ll run an ad campaign with your money? (I know people who do this as part of their package).

No need to get super creative either, just try to get your sponsors a great deal!

Sending referral traffic and/or direct leads is a great additional benefit.

6 – Grow your podcast (and don’t give up)

If you’re just starting a podcast and have little “existing audience,” you might only get 50 downloads the first month.

You might actually be too small to start booking sponsorships. Don’t you worry!

With more downloads comes more opportunities.

Yes, I’m aware this is a cop-out, but it’s also a vital thing to remember.

Grow your show. The sponsors will follow.

Questions? Tips? Drop a comment!

I’d love to hear from you! Did you enjoy this episode w/ Andy?

The post How to Get Podcast Sponsorships (Even With a Tiny Show) – Andy Hill appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

Yes, taxes are uber boring (even blogging taxes).

But you know what’s NOT boring?

Saving money. 💰

• Bad news = any income your blog produces is taxable
• Good news = you can TOTALLY offset that income with your blog-related expenses!

But the best news of all?

All the money-saving & blogging tax tips in this post do NOT just apply to those making $100k/month from their blogs! I’d argue these strategies are actually more important for those of us not earning ANYTHING yet.

Today we’re going to dive into:

• What blogging expenses can/should you deduct?
• How non-accountants can organize your businessy-stuff year-round without wanting to scream.
• LLC? Sole-proprietor? S-corp? What should you do and why?
• and more.

Let’s blog like a business.

Disclaimer: All tips, tactics, strategies, advice, etc that appear in this blog post and podcast–are MY OPINION, not professional legal or accounting advice. Consult your lawyer and CPA, please. I can’t be held responsible 😉

What blogging expenses can I deduct come tax time?

A lot.

Anything that you have to spend in order to make money.

Here’s a more specific list of stuff I know that you probably spend money on.

Deduct the basics for starting up a blog:

• Domain name
• Hosting (lol)
• Premium WordPress themes
• Paid plugins
• Logos you had designed

If your blog makes any money, or you plan on it making money in the near future–you can deduct these expenses!

Deduct educational expenses:

• Buying an SEO course or blog funnels course on Online Impact?
• Grabbing a course deal on Appsumo?

If your learning expenses are related to your business, deduct.

Deduct blog marketing expenses:

• Your paid SEO software
• Facebook ads
• Social Media software (Buffer, SmarterQueue, Tailwind, etc)
• Your ESP (Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Drip)
• Anything other product you pay for to run the blog

As long as these things are “directly related to your business” and you plan on making money from your blog–deduct ’em.

Sell stuff? Deduct processing fees and CC interest:

• PayPal fees
• Stripe fees
• Interest incurred on your business credit card

Misc. deductions for bloggers, contractors, freelancers, solo entrepreneurs:

Note: Calculating the following can be a bit tricky. Again, we suggest speaking to your accountant officially and reading up on the “work-at-home” specifics here from Turbotax.

• Home office expense (proceed carefully here. Further tips)
• Daycare or storage expenses (see above link for more)
• business cards
• conference expenses (coming to FinCon? Deduct the tickets, as well as travel and meal expenses
• Podcasting mic. DSLR & Laptop (if NEEDED for your business, etc)

Neato.

So I can deduct stuff. How do I organize these expenses and receipts?

You could pay for fancy-pancy receipt software like ShoeBoxed, but I personally don’t think it’s needed for most bloggers.

Here’s what I’d recommend:

• A separate Google Drive folder
• A separate Dropbox folder
• A separate label/inbox in Gmail

Notice how I used “separate” 3 times? Hint hint. That’s key to this process!

Choose your “one stop” to house all your receipts–digitally–and make it a routine to automatically send your receipts there throughout the year. Come tax time–double-back and add them up!

Here’s my process over here at DYEB:

I house everything in a separate label within my personal Gmail.

1. Physical receipt? Snap a photo with my phone and email to pete+receipts@doyouevenblog.com
2. Digital receipt? Email to the same address, or drag-n-drop to that RECEIPTS label if already in the inbox.
3. Wait until tax season
4. Create a Google Sheets and list every expense out, 1 by 1 (doesn’t take that long surprisingly)
5. Categorize expenses (marketing, advertising, processing fees, software expenses, education)
6. Calculate home office and travel expenses
7. File taxes

Handy!

You can also add to Dropbox and Google Drive folders from just about anywhere as well (including from inside Gmail for emailed receipts).

Should you incorporate your blog? What business entity should you choose?

The short answer?

Consult a lawyer! This is mainly a legal decision, not a tax and money-saving decision (for the most part. See below).

Here’s a brief rundown of the legal entities 97% of bloggers will likely consider:

Disclaimer: I, Pete McPherson, am not a lawyer. These are just my opinions based on limited knowledge!

Sole Proprietorship

I like to consider myself a Soul Proprietor. #dadjokes.

Unless you’re hiring employees are your lawyer thinks there is a risk to your personal assets (house, cash, cars, anything)–this is the choice for most solo bloggers.

Also, there is NO DIFFERENCE between a single-member LLC, as far as taxes are concerned. You’ll simply deduct expenses on your personal tax return (specifically on the Schedule C for self-employment income!)

Plus, you don’t have to register anything with the state.

Want your blog to be a business? Say the words and it’s done. Boom.

FYI, the only downside is that if you DID get into legal trouble, your personal assets would be put at risk.

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

This is the most blogger-friendly “separate entity” option, meaning your personal assets would have limited liability!

From a tax perspective, it’s essentially the same thing as a sole proprietorship though.

(You can actually choose to be taxed like a partnership or a single-member entity. Pretty neat.)

While an LLC does require registration with your state, it’s generally fairly simple and cheap (compared to the options below)

C-Corporation

This means your blog/business would be a completely separate entity from you.

This means your personal assets would be separate–but you’d also be subject to double-taxation (meaning your sweet blog revenues would get taxes TWO TIMES, one for your business return, and again when your business pays you. Ew)

This isn’t necessary for most bloggers.

S-Corporation.

This has the same limited liability as the C-corp, but your income would NOT be subject to double-taxation. Woot!

Why shouldn’t bloggers do this? Because they’re expensive to create, and you also have to file paperwork, comply with corporate formalities like creating bylaws and holding board and shareholder meetings.

Um, no.

DYEB Recommends:

First, consult your lawyer, not me.

Second, if you’re not doing anything risky (legal-wise) or otherwise require a separate entity for other reasons, stick with a Sole Proprietorship and deduct blogging expenses on your personal return (Schedule C)

That’s it.

Over to you. Do you deduct blogging expenses? Did I miss any opportunities to save?

Drop me a comment below!

The post Blogging Taxes: What to deduct to save money! appeared first on Do You Even Blog.

Gifts for outdoorsy folks? Grab them a fleece.

Knitting enthusiasts? Grab some crazy yarn.

But what about gifts for bloggers? Podcasters? WordPress nuts? SEO slaves? Side hustlers?

(It’s ok if you don’t know what these words mean. We’re here to help!).

Here are some solid gifts for bloggers:

Blogging gifts under $25-$50

1 – Books ($)

There are plenty of amazing reads for bloggers to help them grow their audience and learn!

• CREATE Blog and Editorial Planner: Create Exceptional Content, Get More Done and Smash Through Your Blogging Goals – Honestly? This book is GOLD. Highly, highly recommended for any blogger–regardless of where they’re at on their journey. Meera Kothand has written a lot about blogging!
• The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss – THE go-to book for any online entrepreneur and blogger. This is a life-changing book.
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin – One of the best marketing books of all time.
• How to Blog for Profit by Ruth Soukup – The top-selling blogging book of all time. It’s practical and actionable!
• Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Problogger – A story and guide by one of the most successful bloggers ever, Darren Rowse.

Can’t go wrong with those 👍

2 – A GOOD set of Earbuds or headphones ($)

Anyone who works at a computer should invest in a decent pair of earbuds or headphones. Good news is….you CAN get a decent pair for less than $9.

The Panasonic Ergofit Earbuds ($9) are absolutely incredible, but if you feel like splurging a bit more, go with the Audio Technica M20x.

I use the big brother M50x myself 🙂 🙂

3 – Laptop stand ($$)

For laptop users, the computers overheat on your lap and can get uncomfortable. Laptop desk and lap stands are affordable and effective.

The Amazon Laptop Stand ($19) is super easy, but the Rain Laptop Stands are bar-none. (It’s also rated 5/5 stars on Amazon, which is rare).

4 – A sturdy laptop bag ($$-$$$)

Laptop bloggers often carry around a LOT of stuff. Journals, USB drives, External SSDs, Miss, Webcams, Chargers, and more. Their gear is expensive, so a solid bag is essential.

For podcasters, or anybody with lots of gadgets (mics, webcams, etc), the Case Logic DSLR bag ($63) should do the trick.

If you’re looking for something more snazzy, I love all the CoolBELL bags I’ve tried over the years. (try this messenger bag)

5 – A WordPress theme ($)

First, ask your blogger if they’re on WordPress. If so, write “5 Pro WordPress Themes” on a piece of paper and wrap it. Sit down together with your blogger and pick out the themes!

Let him or her choose why they want. It’ll be fun for you too 🙂

I HIGHLY recommend a StudioPress Genesis Theme. There are loads to choose from.

They make beautiful themes at a great price.

6 – A productivity app designed for digital creators (bloggers and podcasters) ($$)

Distractions stink when you’re trying to get stuff done! Our personal favorites are Freedom.to ($30/year) and Hey Focus ($20) (Mac only).

Both of these can block social media sites, etc to force your blogger into, ya know…blogging.

Then there’s TextExpander–one of the most useful and time-saving tools ever. 😃😃

TextExpander Price: $30-40 Easily insert text snippets in any application from a library of content created by you! A HUGE time-saver for anybody who does stuff on the computer! Buy Now

You could grab a year’s worth for LESS than $40–and it’s an amazing gift for any blogger.

7 – Coffee! ($)

No explanation needed, right? May we suggest Death Wish, The World’s Strongest Coffee ($19)? Or for mere mortals, how about a tea variety box ($11)?

8 – USB Flash Drive ($-$$)

These are pretty handy for everyone, but especially those of us constantly creating images, graphics, videos, and content for our blogs. These are incredibly cheap these days. Grab a metal Samsung 32gb for $14. This is an excellent gift idea.

9 – A Writing and Organization App ($-$$)

Bloggers = writers, and getting an app specifically designed to enhance the writing process can make a world of difference.

We use Bear Pro ($15/year and FREE!) for all-things brainstorming and writing, but Evernote ($40/year and FREE!) is still the gold standard for organizing notes, to-do lists, writing, and pretty much everything you can think of.

10 – A Journal ($-$$)

This might seem like an odd gift for a digital-enthusiast, but a physical journal provides a much-needed break from computer screens.

You can start basic with an Amazon Basic Journal ($9), nerd out with the Traveler’s Notebook ($25), or grab a more guided journaling experience with The Freedom Journal.

Medium-sized Blogging gifts $50-$100

11 – Gift Cards ($$-$$$) Let’s be honest, this is the easy AND effective route.

You can never go wrong with an Amazon gift card.

Is it kinda lame? Only from your point of view as a gift-giver? I personally love getting gift cards lol.

12 – Personalized Mouse Pad

This is more fun and quirky, but we’d sure love a Do You Even Blog Podcast mousepad. Shutterfly is easily the fan-favorite for customized…well, anything really.

13 – A Pro upgrade to their favorite Social Media Management Tool ($$)

Managing social media can be a pain, but luckily there are fantastic (and affordable) tools to help with this.

Buffer ($120/year) is widely-used, but SmarterQueue ($20/month) is actually our platform of choice. It has just as many features as MeetEdgar ($50/month, it’s arch rival), but at half the cost. Click here to get a double-length free trial!

If your blogger uses Pinterest, grab them Tailwind. It’s the gold standard.

14 – ConvertKit Subscription ($$-$$$)

This is the single most valuable SOFTWARE blogger gift idea in this entire guide.

Email marketing is crucial to the success of any blogger, and while there are dozens of platforms on which to host your newsletter, ConvertKit ($29/month) is the only one specifically made with bloggers in mind.

If you really to support your blogger loved-one, grab her a ConvertKit subscription, a book, and one of the online courses below.

You’ll be her favorite relative by FAR.

Ok, now for some audio and video focused gifts!

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Gifts for Podcasters and YouTubers!

Podcast & YouTube gifts under $100

Podcasting books! ($)

There is only ONE book on podcasting I really recommend, and it’s So You Want to Start a Podcast by Kristen Mienzer.

I listened to this one on audiobook a few months back, and it’s solid 👍

USB Microphone ($$-$$$)

If your blogger creates any kind of webinar, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc, a decent microphone goes a long way.

The Blue Snowball ($49) and Blue Yeti ($129) are great choices for bloggers, along with the Audio-Technica ATR2100 ($65, definitely better for podcasters).

Oh, and here’s the desktop mic stand ($30) we use for the ATR2100.

It’s amazing.

Podcast & YouTube gifts over $100+

A decent Webcam (and/or a light!) ($$-$$$)

If there’s ANY video involved, a decent webcam is mandatory. The Logitech C920 ($49 on sale at the time of this writing!) is the only choice.

It’s the gold standard, and it’s affordable.

If you’re doing any YouTube work, you’ll also benefit from some light! It helps more than you’d think.

The tiny Neewer LED ($33) is fantastic, as are the LimoStudio Umbrella 2-kit ($52).

Recommended cameras for YouTubers. ($$$)

I personally recommend Canon! I’ve been using them for years, and have had ZERO disappointments.

There are 2 cameras I’d recommend for aspiring YouTubers, and these are both in the YouTuber gift price range as well 🙂

1. Canon SX740 (above)
2. Canon Rebel T7i (below)

Both of these have HD video quality (up to 4k), dual-pixel autofocus (a MUST for YouTubers), and are generally awesome.

A new Laptop ($$$$$)

Mac-fanatics love their upgrades, and this very blog post is being written from a high-powered MacBook Pro w/ Touch Bar ($2,300). Expensive but worth every penny.

But you don’t NEED to spend $2k+ on a computer!!

The big thing every blogger should care about is the processor, and thankfully you can grab a Window’s based Lenovo Thinkpad for around $600, and an Ideapad for under $250.

That is more than enough!

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Online courses your blogger is sure to love (and find immensely valuable)

Blogging is hard, and courses (both free and paid) are the QUICKEST way to help you blogger grow their audience!

FREE – My mega-guide to starting a blog.

If you’re loved one doesn’t actually have a blog yet, there’s no need to spend any money–I’ve put over 100+ hours into that guide above, and it covers EVERYTHING they’d ever need to know for their first year!

$197 – Michelle Schroeder’s Affiliate Marketing Course ($$$)

Michelle makes over $100,000 a month from her blog. Yes, you read that correctly. Her course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing ($197), is a crash course on using affiliate marketing, in connection with a blog, in order to generate side-income (or full-time income!)

It’s highly regarded as one of the best online courses for monetizing a blog.

Membership to Online Impact (a private community of experienced bloggers and podcasters) $50/month

This program is game-changing for bloggers.

There are over 15 full-sized courses.

• SEO
• Affiliate Marketing
• Blog Traffic
• Website Design.

Everything’s in there!

Sadly, this membership community is only twice a year, but if you email me, I can let you pre-purchase access as a gift for when the membership community opens up again.

So that’s that. What gifts are you getting your internet-obsessed love one?

The post 22 Perfect Gifts for Bloggers & Podcasters (Updated for Christmas 2019) appeared first on Do You Even Blog.