Confession: I Don’t REALLY Care About Blogging

Yes, you read that correctly. I don't really care about Blogging.

I know what you're thinking. This blog is called Become a Blogger. I HAVE TO care about blogging.

If that's what you're thinking, don't worry – I understand. But I'm going to encourage you to listen to today's episode.

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In the episode, I get kinda personal and share the journey I've been on for the last few weeks.

There are certain things changing in my life, and I'm happy to share a little bit of my story with you.

This is not one of my typical episodes, but I hope you get a different kind of value from it.

Enjoy!

– Leslie

Here's the video I referred to in the episode:

 

The post Confession: I Don’t REALLY Care About Blogging appeared first on Become A Blogger by Noemi M.

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What We Took Away from Success Incubator and FinCon – with Serena Appiah

Don’t you wish you were at FinCon with me?

In this episode, I’m coming to you live from Dallas, TX, where I’m attending FinCon 2017! With me is Serena Appiah of ThriftDiving.com, who is joining me for a fourth time on the podcast.

We’re here to share the action steps that we have gained from this conference and we’re planning to implement in our own businesses with you! It’s almost like actually being here…almost.

Intro

 

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This year is Serena’s second time at FinCon, and she says it’s just as amazing as last year. I always say that the best learning is what happens outside of the sessions, and Serena is finding that to be true. You get so many tips and tricks to take back to your business just from people you’re having conversations with in the hallways, during the coffee breaks, or at lunch.

By the way, we went to The Clutch for lunch. It was my first time ever eating bacon. That wrap was SO good!

Serena’s #1 Tip

Serena’s top tip comes from the keynote by Darren Rowse of problogger.com. He spoke about knowing who your audience is.

Sure, we hear this all the time, but Darren said something really new and really profound.

He said that once you know your audience and you know what their struggle is, you then have to figure out where you want to take them. It’s not enough to think about where they are right now. You have to imagine where they’re going to be.

The first step is to figure out who the person is. Draft an avatar and ask: what is their pain? What is their problem?

Once you, as a blogger, transform that person, how does the avatar change? What do you want them to look like after?

Actually draft your “before” and “after” avatars. Who will your audience become as they engage with you?

What’s extra cool is once you do that work, you will have a clear vision about what you should and should not take on. So if someone approaches you to promote a product, think about your avatars and remain true to them. If something isn’t the right fit, even if it’s a lucrative opportunity, turn it down. Stay true to your audience.

Leslie’s #1 Tip

My number one tip actually comes from Success Incubator, which took place before FinCon. The tip is about your homepage:

Instead of having your homepage focused on who you are, have it focused on who your audience is and what value you’re going to provide to them.

When I come to your blog, quite frankly, I don’t really care about you. Your audience isn’t worried about who you are — they’re looking for what this blog can do for them.

Take a look at your homepage and think about whether you’re really demonstrating what the value of your blog is to someone who is visiting for the first time.

Darren Rowse actually lists the problems he’s trying to solve on the homepage. He identifies the problems and gives people one-click solutions. If you scroll down on his homepage, you’ll see a section titled “I Need Help To…” followed by a series of problem areas: grow content, build a community, make money, and so on.

Darren Rowse identifies the problems and gives people one-click solutions on his Homepage.

His site is like a roadmap. It says, “Click here to see how you can solve your problem.” And that makes it really easy for visitors to find what they need.

More Tips

Call your audience on the phone

Another tip Serena is going to take home is the idea of calling readers on the phone. Pat Flynn calls about ten of his readers every month. A real phone call makes people feel so special and helps you really build a relationship with them.

Plus, the amount of information you get from a phone call is really different from a survey. For example, in Serena’s niche, people often say that they don’t do DIY because they don’t have enough time. But when she talks to people, she finds that a lot of people are actually lacking in confidence rather than time, and that’s a separate problem.

I loved this tip from Steve Chou’s session. So, he has a lead magnet, and people opt in when they come to his page.

The great part is that Steve tries at that point to get them to evangelize. His thank you page tells the visitor that if they click and share the content on Facebook, they’ll get an additional free resource. You get something extra when you share the content. How smart is that?

Steve Chou allows his audience to access more content if they click and share his other content and infos.

But how do you know that someone has shared? Steve coded his himself, but Thrive Themes has an option for this. There are also a number of plugins that will allow you to unlock content automatically if your audience shares content in a particular way.

This is a great way to leverage your thank you page and grow your list even more.

Serena is also planning to go home and ask herself, “What are your money blocks?” She picked this one up at the Internet Marketing Party, an independent get together here in Dallas.

She was talking to Denise Duffield-Thomas, author of Lucky B*tch. Denise always asks, “why are you not earning the money that you deserve? Why are you not getting more passive income?” Those are your money blocks.

One of Serena’s blocks is that she’s afraid people aren’t going to take her seriously or think she’s worthy of paying for her skills. We tell ourselves that earning good money means we should be working hard, and if we’re not working hard we feel like we don’t deserve it.

Have a tough conversation with yourself. What is holding you back? What are your money blocks?

Drip Email Marketing

Kim Sorgius hooked me up with a much more advanced trick. Depending on which email marketing service you’re using, you may not be able to do this, but I really recommend trying it if you can!

Say you have an email list of 1000 people, and you send an email to all of them. If 200 people open that email, you have a 20% open rate. So Kim uses Drip lead scoring to be able to determine who is always opening her emails. She can actually tell which email addresses belong to her most engaged list members.

But wait! It gets better! Once Kim determines who really engages with the content, she will automatically set Drip to email those people first. That first email gets a 90% open rate, or even higher.

Then, half an hour or 40 minutes later, she sends the same exact email to everyone else.

Why? By sending to your hot leads first and getting that high open rate, the email servers see your email as a high-quality message. They’ll then prioritize that email when you send the second set, which makes it more likely to land in priority inboxes.

Kim currently has 100,000 subscribers. When she started doing this, she was getting about 30,000 opens per message. But her open rate has increased significantly over the time that she has been using this trick. This then puts more and more people on the hot engagement list, which makes the tip work even better!

Even More Tips

One more thing that I am re-learning at this year’s FinCon is the importance of keeping your thumb on the pulse, riding the waves, and getting in on the trends.

For example, a couple years ago when Snapchat was first on the scene, I made a comprehensive Snapchat tutorial to help people get started on that platform. It was super popular and really successful because people were already searching for help with Snapchat.

The Ultimate Snapchat Tutorial

Keeping on top of trending topics gives you an extra boost.

How do you find these trending topics? Know your industry, and follow news sites that are important for your industry. Another great tactic is to go to conferences! There are often new products being previewed or launched that aren’t yet available to the general public.

Serena recommends going to any conferences in your niche. You don’t have to restrict yourself to blogging conferences!

Another great tip, even though I can’t remember who this one is from: look in Google Analytics and determine your top five posts.

Optimize your top posts.

Then — and this is the important part — spend one day on each of those posts and optimize the bejeezus out of it.

• Optimize the images.
• Make the SEO perfect.
• Update it to add more resources.
• Add a lead magnet.
• Put in some affiliate links.
• Create a pdf version, or a checklist or infographic version that they can download and take away.

Final Tip

If you’re listening to this podcast right now, Serena and I want you to pick one of these tips and make it a goal.

Over the next days, or weeks, or months, do this one thing to help move the needle on your business just a little bit. Make this happen!

If you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you’re going to be successful.

You can learn more about what Serena is up to over at ThriftDiving.com and on all the social media platforms @ThriftDiving!

Resources Mentioned

• Success Incubator
• Darren Rowse's Blog – Problogger.com
• Serena Appiah's blog – Thrift Diving
• Pat Flynn's blog – Smart Passive Income
• Steve Chou's blog – My Wife Quite Her Job
• Kim Sorgius's blog – Not Consumed
• Internet Marketing Meetup
• Drip Email Marketing
• Become a Blogger Resource – The Ultimate Snapchat Resource

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How to Grow a Large YouTube Channel – Adam Ali

Could your YouTube channel use a jump start?

Ready to take your YouTube content to the next level?

In this week’s episode, I’m on the line with Adam Ali, a brand marketer living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His passion lies in motivating others to reach their personal best. He’s the founder of iWontLose.com, a brand with the sole purpose of inspiring and motivating the masses.

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Adam built his brand through motivational videos posted on YouTube and, as a result, he has been featured on major outlets like NBA TV, CBC Television, CP24 and many other media platforms. Now, runs a digital marketing agency called IWLagency where he helps online influencers and brands raise their social presence online by using social media strategically. One of his main platforms of focus is YouTube.

Adam and I connected in St. Maarten earlier this year, and I knew right away that I wanted to bring him on the show to talk about growing a YouTube channel.

Adam’s Story

Adam Ali

Adam describes himself pre-iWon’tLose.com as just an average personal trainer working in a gym. But got tired of that and felt that he wanted more out of life.

He used to go to YouTube for workout and motivational videos, and eventually he started thinking that he could make videos, too.

But Adam didn’t want just any old YouTube fitness video. He wanted to tell stories. So working with a producer, he put together a really cool four-part story as his very first video. It was high quality, even cinematic, and it featured Adam working out without being a typical “let’s focus on our chest muscles today” video.

The storyline showed him waking up around 4:00 or 5:00am to go for a morning run. It showed his dedication to starting the day with a workout. It also had what Adam describes as “crazy music” that was full of energy. The music really pushed the story and got people pumped up and inspired.

Motivation Fitness Training Part 1

That first video went really well, so Adam kept making content.

His third video went viral. Adam narrated and poured his heart out, which resonated with a lot of people. It’s still biggest video he’s ever produced.

It was called “Dear Hard Work,” and it was basically a letter to the concept of Hard Work. In the video, Adam says that he’s been afraid of hard work, but it really is a good thing because it leads to progress, gains, and results.

Dear Hard Work

This video resonated so powerfully with his audience that he started getting sponsorships from other fitness brands.

Adam wanted to top that third video to close out the four-part series. So he decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. He had never climbed anything before, and he says he didn’t even really train. He describes the experience as the hardest thing he has ever done.

For me, the take-home message here is about creativity: Adam didn’t just do what everyone else was doing. He saw what was going on, what was popular, and put his own spin on it. How can you apply that to what you are doing?

There’s nothing wrong with “how to get abs” videos, but the key is to pay attention to what people are looking for. You can be as creative as you want, but it won’t matter if people aren’t looking for what you’re making.

You’ve got to create content that people are seeking. Don’t do it just because it feels good to you. You have to fill a void. We’ll come back to this point later.

In 2012-13, Adam met his wife Latoya. She had a comedy channel on YouTube – LatoyaForever – and Adam saw opportunities to scale it.

Latoya Forever

He wanted to fuse her comedy and his fitness, so he reached out to Latoya with a crazy idea: do a video of Adam training Latoya, with her doing “all this wonky stuff.”

People still love that video! It really helped build her channel. Adam says that he learned a lot from growing her account.

Adam’s initial goal was to make Latoya’s channel sustainable so that she could quit her retail job. It’s always hard to leave a stable job and take that risk. But Adam pushed her and she pushed herself, and by the end of 2013, she made the leap.

At the time, she had about 300,000 subscribers. Now, she has over a million.

Around the same time, Latoya wanted to move to L.A., so Adam left his job at a not-for-profit and they drove from Toronto to L.A.

They had been there for 3 or 4 months when they found out they were expecting a baby. That changed everything (but in a good way!). They moved back to Toronto.

The moment she knew she was pregnant, Latoya started documenting her journey as a mother. She and Adam started another channel for this content: Latoya’s Life.

Latoya's Life

For a while, they were focusing on that family channel because they were seeing a lot more engagement there. People were sharing stories and giving advice. Vlogging was fairly new at the time, so it felt like a whole new world.

They parked Latoya’s first channel for about a year. She just didn’t feel like being goofy and funny anymore. However, after a year, Adam pushed her to revisit it.

Once they started focusing on that channel, they gained 700,000 subscribers in a year. Latoya was able to find the content that really resonated with her, that she was comfortable making in her new role as a mom.

Starting Out On YouTube

I wanted to get Adam’s advice for those just starting out on YouTube.

He says that the most important thing is to be a YouTube viewer FIRST. See what other people are doing. Live on the trending page and see what’s going on.

Be courageous and press publish

It’s okay to look at other people and see how they are doing what they do. Stay plugged in to what’s happening in the community. It sparks ideas, for content, ways of editing, and delivery.

Bottom line: you’ve got to be a passionate viewer first if you really want to be a great YouTuber.

Once you are ready to publish content, it’s important to take that leap. You just have to be courageous and press publish.

Then, tweak as you go. There’s no such thing as perfect, so just keep going. Part of the process is creating content from where you are, and trusting that you’ll get better as time goes on.

Okay, great! You’ve arrived. You are watching and learning, and you took that leap to press publish on your first video. Now what?

Adam has a few tips:

1. Consistent Content

Consistent content

Decide to give yourself a year of consistent content upload before you give up. At the start, it can feel like you’re not getting any traction, but these things take time.

Come up with a schedule that is right for you. It needs to be something you can actually keep to with your other responsibilities.

Then, once you’re comfortable with that, you can think about adding an extra day.

Be consistent with the day: teach people when to expect your content and get them into a routine.

It really takes time, especially now that the platform is so saturated. But if you’re consistent, YouTube will favor you in the algorithm.

You need to focus on longevity. It’s so easy to get burnt out.

Back in 2012-13, Adam was publishing on Latoya’s main channel about twice a week. Lots of experts say it should be three times a week, because that’s what the YouTube algorithms favor.

But we’re humans, not robots. There’s no point posting that often if it’ll just burn you out.

2. Foster a community.

Foster a community

Make people feel something or your time on YouTube will be short. If you really connect with people, they will champion your content.

Once you have that community, throw it back at them. Ask for advice and comments.

Latoya has been really successful in creating a community of passionate, opinionated people who want to dissect everything every chance they have. And that’s great!

Here are some ways that Adam and Latoya build and connect with their community:

1. Feature a male and female viewer every week. They call this “Viewer of the Week”. People submit their photos via an app, and then Latoya and Adam acknowledge them in the video. This is a big thrill for people, since they’re getting seen by 100,000+ viewers per video.
2. Respond to at least 40 to 50 comments on every video. At this point, they get 500-1500 comments per video on average. It take a lot of time, but it’s important to acknowledge your audience. Lots of YouTubers don’t do this – they publish the content and then they’re gone. But the audience wants interaction!
3. Screenshot favorite comments and show them in the video. This is the “Comment of the Week,” and it’s another great way to acknowledge your audience and make them feel special. .
4. Giveaways and contests. Throw it back into the comments and ask for input from your viewers. Adam and Latoya will do things like, “Tell us the funniest joke pertaining to the vlog or this topic,” and then do a giveaway for the best ones. It’s all about involving the audience.
5. Engage them in a non-spammy way. You will have to find that balance. It’s a fine line between engaging and annoying. Also, people can tell if it isn’t coming from an authentic place. They’ll see right through anything you’re doing just because you want more subscribers.

Driving Traffic

So how did Adam and Latoya get their channel to a million subscribers?

Create content that people care about

They started by creating content that people care about. You do that by looking for what people are searching. See what videos are trending.

Then, take those topics and incorporate them into the video. When you do that successfully, it brings a whole new stream of traffic from places you never even expected.

Talk about things that matter to people. Use what YouTube gives you: write the perfect title that sparks interest. Write good descriptions. The YouTube system is designed to get your content discovered via search.

Throw the word YOU in the title – “What do YOU think of X?” It makes people want to click because they want to answer the question.

Understand the YouTube algorithm. Use the right keywords, and look at what’s trending. If “Trump” is trending, and you incorporate Trump into your content and your description, then people are much more likely to find you.

Create content around tags and challenges. Spin what’s trending in a way that’s authentic to you.

Remember that the reason it’s trending is because people care about it right now. And that’s how you’ll get discovered.

YouTube used to be all about subscribers. If you had lots of subscribers, you’d get lots of view. Now, they don’t care as much about subscribers, but they do care about content.

Just because you have a million subscribers doesn’t mean you’re going to get lots of views. YouTube wants to be able to push your content to certain places, so it’s all about content now.

It’s important to understand that there are three layers of subscribers:

First, they hit the subscribe button.

Then, they hit the bell to say, “Please notify me.”

But then, they have to actually turn on notifications to be pinged when you upload a video. They have to click “always” in notification settings, and lots of people don’t do that.

Subscriber counts are metrics for brands, and that’s about the only reason they matter now.

If you’re just starting out, this should be very encouraging! You used to be a disadvantage if you didn’t have many subscribers. Now, you’re getting equal treatment from the algorithm. It’s a more efficient system for all users.

Social Media Strategy

Social Media Strategy

Adam has had a lot of success with social media, so I wanted him to talk a little bit about his strategies for using other platforms to drive traffic to YouTube.

He says it’s important for him to have a social media strategy that funnels everything back to YouTube. Why? Because that’s ultimately where they generate income, not just through AdSense but also through brands that they work with.

So every time they create a video on YouTube, they also create supporting content for all of the social platforms:

On Snapchat, they’ll let everyone know that there’s something coming out, and give a specific time. This is a teaser.

Then, they come back when it’s uploaded and let people know that they just dropped the video.

On Instagram, they do the same thing with their story.

Sometimes, they’ll also do a teaser video on the feed. They take their favorite parts and create a shorter video. The trick is to make it irresistible. Make people want to click and go there.

On Facebook, they’ll post the video snippet natively. Just a YouTube link won’t do it, since YouTube and Facebook are direct competitors. Facebook really favors native uploads.

Adam Ali Facebook Page

More recently, they have started posting the entire video on Facebook. They started doing this about six weeks ago.

At first, that sounds counter-intuitive, because the strategy is usually to drive people back to YouTube. Why go to YouTube if the whole video is on Facebook?

But Adam looked at the analytics, and only about 1% of their views come from Facebook clicks. At that level, it doesn’t really matter if it funnels to YouTube.

He’s also trying a new strategy, although he’s not 100% sure that this works. To avoid punishment by the Facebook algorithm for linking to YouTube, Adam uses a bitly link in the captions of the videos. Sometimes they also paste a bitly link in the comments.

There’s some research suggesting that bitly links and link shorteners get suppressed on Facebook, too, but it’s always worth trying out a new tactic!

They also use Keek.com, which allows you to upload 36-second videos. This platform is not as cool anymore, but they have a big following there, so they keep it going.

On Twitter, definitely upload a teaser instead of just a link. We all know that video converts better than text.

Final Tips

Reach out and Collaborate

Adam recommends that you reach out and start collaborating in meaningful ways. That will help you grow.
YouTube is such a community of creators. Build friendships and connect with those creators in order to keep growing.

If you want to know more about what Adam is up to, you can find him on the I Won’t Lose website.

He’s also on the I Won’t Lose YouTube channel.

And you can follow I Won’t Lose on social media, too:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Finally, you can check out Latoya’s channel.

Resources Mentioned

• I Won't Lose Pages:
  • I Won’t Lose website
  • I Won’t Lose YouTube channel
  • Facebook page
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
• Latoya’s Life
• LatoyaForever
• Videos mentioned:
  • First video – Motivation Fitness Training Part 1
  • Dear Hard Work

Infographic

How to Grow a Large YouTube Channel – Adam Ali

The post How to Grow a Large YouTube Channel – Adam Ali appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

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How to Grow a Blog to Millions of Pageviews – Jillian Tohber Leslie

Wouldn’t you love to have millions of pageviews?

In this week’s episode, I’m on the line with Jillian Tohber Leslie. Jillian founded Catch My Party with her husband in 2009, and it’s now the largest party ideas site on the web. This site gets over four million pageviews every month. Yes, I said MILLION!

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In 2015, Jillian and David built a custom popup app for themselves to grow their Catch My Party social media followers. It worked so well, they launched it as their second company 2016 called MiloTree.

When I heard all of this, I knew I had to get Jillian on the podcast to talk about how she was able to build her massive audience. Her secrets? Using smart SEO, embracing the long tail, and being early adopters of social media (especially Pinterest).

Jillian’s Story

Back before she was a blogging sensation, Jillian was writing teen movies for Hollywood, and her husband was Head of Product at Myspace (remember Myspace?).

Jillian Tohber Leslie

They knew that they wanted to find a project to work on together, so they started their website as a side hustle. The idea was to create a social photo sharing site for teen girls to post about their sweet sixteens, quinceañeras, bar/bat mitzvahs, and other parties.

So they hired a team of developers in Indonesia and started designing the site. It was hot pink and purple, designed to be appealing to teenage girls.

But there was a problem: how do you get teen girls to add their photos? The site doesn’t work if no one wants to put their pictures there. They tried a bunch of tactics, but they didn’t get a lot of traction.

Then, all of a sudden, they noticed that moms with Etsy shop had started putting party photos on the “teen” site. This is not the plan.

After talking things over, they decided to pivot, and they learned an important lesson: “you co-create with your audience.” There was no point trying to make a teen site happen if the interest was coming from moms.

But how did the Etsy moms find the site in the first place?

Jillian and her husband thought about SEO from the very beginning. This was before Facebook took over social networking, so there were some burgeoning, tiny social networks that were interest-based. These were places where people interested in certain topics got together, so Jillian put her site out there on those networks, too.

Catch My Party Website

Today, the people who add content to Catch My Party are all moms. “Moms are unsung heroes,” Jillian says. If a mom throws a beautiful party and posts it to the site, Jillian will try to find a way to feature it so that the mom feels appreciated and celebrated. She shows off the best ones on homepage slider and on her social media feed. It’s all about celebrating people.

Blogging for Catch My Party

Search for what's trending as idea sources for your blog

Jillian is not a party planner, even though her site is all about parties. Instead, she thinks of herself as an influencer and curator, “flying above” and looking at what’s trending. She started blogging for the site right away and always recommends blogging as a way to put your point of view out there.

But she wasn’t convinced at first: her husband said, “you need a blog.” She said, “Why? And what do I write about?” He replied, “You’ll write about what we’re doing.”

She is currently posting on the blog three times per week. She loves to do roundups, to show people a selection of what’s trending. The blog is also helpful for SEO.

Catch My Party Blog

Amazing Growth

When Jillian and her husband started out, they thought about SEO first. Jillian wants to emphasize that they get traffic via “the long tail.”

SEO Management

What does that mean? They’re not trying to rank for things like “party ideas” or even things like “princess parties” or “pirate parties.” They can’t directly compete with Party City and big retailers like that.

But if you type in “rainbow unicorn sparkly party,” that’s a lot more specific and niche. And it will lead you straight to Catch My Party.

So their traffic really comes from what Jillian calls “tiny little search results.” That is the long tail.

Jillian manages SEO by manually adding tags whenever someone adds a party. She has to be very intentional about keywords because Google doesn’t understand photos. You have to tell Google what’s in the photos or else they won’t come up in the search results.

Using Social Media

Jillian and her husband got in on social media relatively early. Back in the day, Facebook was awesome. People would respond to everything!

And then, as we all know, the algorithm changed. Facebook “tightened the spigot,” in Jillian’s words.

Look at your analytics for traffic sources

When that happened, Jillian and her husband looked at the analytics and saw that a lot of their traffic was coming from Pinterest. Jillian says you’ve got to look out for the “serendipities that happen in your business,” and this was one of them.

She had had the idea for a picture-saving app years before, but her husband never got around to making one. When Pinterest came around, Jillian started pinning just for herself. Her personal board was what initially drove traffic to Catch My Party from Pinterest.

So she started to create content specifically for Pinterest. She currently has 750,000 followers there. Pinterest is great for visual content, but Jillian recommends playing by their rules. It’s best to be making content that is just for Pinterest.

Catch My Party Pinterest Page

Also, pay attention to what’s trending on Pinterest to get inspiration for your next post. Jillian creates collages based on what’s trending and then thinks about how she can do her own version of that popular content.

MiloTree

Around this time, Jillian and her husband started focusing on growing followers. They built a popup tool to promote Pinterest for Catch My Party in 2014-15. This popup helped them to grow their following organically.

Why not just use the widget? Jillian says the widget wasn’t converting, and they needed to be actively growing.

They had so much success with their first popup that they decided to build a similar one for Instagram. They currently have about 130,000 Instagram followers, largely from the popup.

Instagram popup on their Milo Tree website

Then they thought that if their popup tool had been so successful for them, it might benefit other bloggers, too. So they started building that out as part of the business, and MiloTree was born.

Their initial popup just asked people to follow them on Pinterest. They would populate the popup with recent posts in order to show social proof.

They had the same strategy with Instagram. This means that when somebody clicks, they already have a sense of what your account looks like.
MiloTree is also “smart” because it can connect various different accounts, including Facebook, Insttreagram, Pinterest, and email. The plugin shows a different account from the slider every time somebody visits the site, so if you have your Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook connected, each visitor will get a random selection from that list. They also have a new feature coming that will let you set an order, so that every first-time visitor sees Instagram, for example.

MiloTree has been so successful because it is so simple. Bloggers have to wear so many hats and make so many decisions, so Jillian wanted to create a very simple product. She wanted to make lots of decisions on their end so that customers don’t have to.

For example, Google announced that it would penalize sites that used a big popup on mobile. So Jillian and her husband adjusted the MiloTree to be Google-compliant for mobile. The plugin can detect on its own whether your visitors are using mobile or desktop.

Getting Traffic

Jillian says one of the most important things you can do is “ride the waves.” Keep an eye on what’s trending and think about how you can make more of that content.

Catch My Party Posts Based on Trending Topics

For example, Catch My Party rode the Frozen and Minecraft phases. Jillian noticed that that content was “going gangbusters” and made more of it. Once you see a trend, start doubling down on that content.

How do you tell what’s working? Jillian has a few suggestions:

1. Always looking in Google Analytics. This will give you so much information that can steer you towards more popular content.
2. Use Pinterest analytics to see what pins are most popular. You should be pinning your own content, but pin other people’s content, too. You can see what things you’ve pinned are performing well and think: “How can I make similar content?”
3. Think seasonally. Halloween is huge for Catch My Party, so they think ahead and try to launch that content a month or two before the holiday.
4. Combine trends. Right now, unicorns are huge and Halloween is huge. So they created a cute party printable of a green witch unicorn that they give away for free. It combines two trends and puts a different spin on content that’s already popular.

Create content or resources based on combined trending topics

5. Learn over time who your audience is. Jillian knows hers very well: they live in the sweet spot of moms with little kids. Jillian totally gets the struggle of wanting to throw a great party for your kids, so she is able to relate to her audience.

The best part is that all of these tools are free! You can do this on any budget.

Jillian says you’ve got to go toward what’s working. If something isn’t working now, it probably won’t ever work. You can tweak it and see, and you might get a tiny bit of lift. But the ones that hit are the ones that hit.

If you are just starting out and you don’t have much of an audience yet, it can be hard to get that instant feedback. Jillian wants you to think about your WHY. Why are you a blogger?

If you don’t have a WHY, don’t be a blogger. It’s too hard. It’s a long slog. You’d better be in there, and you’d better have something to say that’s meaningful to you.

Once you have your WHY, the next step is to look around at people who are doing what you want to be doing. Think about why you like certain content, and then think about how you can put your own spin on that.

Ask, “What about it is resonating with me?”

Start from yourself and what you need to say to the world.

Also, remember that blogs evolve over time. Don’t think your blog is going to stay the same forever. Allow that evolution and be open to change.

Most importantly, think about co-creating with your audience. Even if one person reaches out to you through Instagram and loves what you’re doing, pay attention. This is something you can do at any level.

Be caught up in listening to your audience and co-creating with them.

If I have ten people following me, there’s a difference between eight responses and just one response. Don’t be so caught up in the millions (even though that’s the title of the episode!). Be caught up in listening to your audience and co-creating with them.

You also have to be double-checking stuff. There can be a fallacy of small numbers. If you don’t have a lot of followers, take interaction as a direction for the next post, but see how it goes. Don’t bet your whole business on 10 likes.

What does that look like in practice? For Jillian, if people email her, she’ll ask to get on a phone call with them. She tries to be available to her audiences. She is always wanting to learn from them.

When the numbers are smaller it’s easier to connect. When you’re starting off, you will do a lot of things that won’t “scale.” You can’t talk individually to a million people. But that’s a good problem to have!

Social Followers vs. Email List

Catch My Party is monetized primarily through ads and sponsored content, not through an email list. But for MiloTree, the email list is more important because they’re selling a product.

Think about why you’re growing your email list. If you monetize via traffic or by working with brands, your email list won’t be as important to you; a list is more helpful if you are selling a product.

If you are growing your list, you have to be very intentional about it. Lists get stale really quickly, so if you’re not selling short term, your list may not be very valuable by the time you actually have a product.

Think about what best works for your business.

Jillian makes sure to remind me that “These are best practices for US.” You have to “think about your business, your special sauce, and how you monetize.”

If you monetize via ads, you need the most amount of eyeballs on your site in the most cost effective way possible. If you do anything visual, right now that’s Pinterest. Jillian says it is better at driving traffic than Instagram.

But Instagram is important if you’re working with brands, because they care about how many followers you have.

It’s all about being intentional based on YOUR business. Do what’s best for you, not just what everyone else is doing.

Final Tips:

Remember that there is no magic bullet. “If there were a magic bullet, I would be using it,” Jillian says. It’s a long slog, but Jillian has two tips to get you through:

1. Enjoy the journey. Because it’s a lot of work.
2. You have to be nimble. Jillian says her biggest mistakes were when she thought something would work and it didn’t, but then she doubled down on it. What’s working today might not work tomorrow. Listen and be nimble.

If you want to get in on MiloTree, Jillian wants you to know that you can try it for free, risk-free for 30 days by visiting www.milotree.com.

MiloTree works by converting visitors into followers and subscribers. It’s best for people who have some traffic already. It’s like lighter fluid on top of your existing traffic. If you have traffic on your blog, it will work.

Success in blogging is about taking advantage of what you have. You’ve got to constantly let people know what you’re offering. MiloTree is one ask for your visitors. It’s quick and easy and doesn’t paralyze them with choices, which is why it’s so effective.

80% of your traffic will leave and never come back to your site. MiloTree is about bringing those people into your ecosystem.

Tell your audience what you want them to do. Be very clear. Don’t be subtle. If you want them to click on something, say “click here.” People want to live their lives on auto-pilot. The easier you can make those steps the better.

Jillian also says that you can email her any time. She actually answers every single email she gets, and she’s always happy to answer your questions!

Resources Mentioned

• Catch My Party website
• Catch  My Party Pinterest page
• Catch My Party Instagram page
• MiloTree –  offers a popup tool service also owned by Jillian Tohber Leslie and her husband, David.

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What Camera Do You Use for YouTube Videos

So you wanna create videos on YouTube, but which camera is right for you?

In this video, I’m gonna answer that question, and the answer might not be what you expect.

I also break down 4 different camera types and share which is best for you.

Background

I love technology. And when it comes to video, some might say I have a problem

I have a bunch of cameras. And that’s the problem for many people.

There are so many options that it’s often difficult to know which one is right for you.

Here’s the truth – the best camera to use is the one you have right now.

You see – Content is king!

While quality does influence our perception to a certain extent, I’ve seen MANY examples of people creating awesome content using just a simple smartphone.

There are many viral videos that were shot on a poor-quality smartphone with terrible audio.

So – the key is to create videos, over and over. Learn to tell a story using this visual medium.

If you take care of that first, the rest will come.

That answer may not be enough for you, so I want to give you some specifics so that if you have some money to spend, you know where to look.

Here are four great options:

Option 1: Your Smartphone

Smartphones are the most convenient to use.

This is the best option for most people. Here’s why.

Smartphones are convenient, always with you, and shoot great quality videos.

In addition to that, there are a few accessories you can add to take your smartphone video quality to the next level.

Things like lighting, tripods or other devices to keep it stable and an external mic to increase your audio quality.

Option 2: Point and Shoot

Sony RX100

These smaller cameras very convenient for vloggers who are on the go because they are relatively compact and light.

You can even add an external shotgun mic.

Many of the newer versions even have a flip out LCD screen.

This allows you to see yourself while filming. The one I have (and love) is the Sony RX100.

Option 3: A DSLR

Canon 80D

This is the camera of choice of many professional video creators. They offer high-quality videos with a choice of many lenses.
You add lenses for very specific types of shots and you can get some of the best footage ever.

Depending on the camera you have, the autofocus is awesome. Also, the color profile you get with certain DSLR is so rich and vibrant.

The best thing is that you see when you look into the viewfinder is what you get as the picture.

There is one major downside – they are big and bulky. If you plan on shooting in a studio/office with a tripod, this can be a great option.

A popular example of a DSLR for video is the Canon 80D.

Option 4: Mirrorless Cameras

Panasonic Lumix GH5

These are relatively new on the scene. They can give you a very professional look and have many lens choices.

With a quality Mirrorless camera, you can get video quality that’s similar to DSLR, BUT they are much smaller in size.

One great feature is that many of them offer 4k video, giving you a much crisper image.

If you compare an inexpensive DSLR to an inexpensive Mirrorless, the DSLR will almost always win in terms of quality.

But as you go to the higher price ranges, especially when you’re talking about cameras over $1K, you will find that the differences become less and less.

At that point, it’s more a question of convenience. If you don’t mind the size of a DSLR, go with it, but if you want something smaller, then Mirrorless will be the way to go.

I use the Panasonic Lumix GH5 as my main camera for all my videos now.

Let’s wrap this up

Those are my general four recommendations for cameras to use for YouTube.

However, make sure to watch the video above. In it, I also share some tips that anyone can use to help them record better video.

Resources Mentioned

• Camera options mentioned:
  • Sony RX100
  • Canon 80D
  • Panasonic Lumix GH5

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How to Salvage 2017 and Plan for 2018

Are you satisfied with what you’ve accomplished so far in 2017?

Did you create goals for this year only to fall short?

In this episode, we talk about how to salvage 2017 and plan for 2018.

Intro

Listen to Episode

The post How to Salvage 2017 and Plan for 2018 appeared first on Become A Blogger by Noemi M.

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How to Create a Blog Sales Funnel

Are you blogging as a business?

Are you making sure that you are creating processes that actually build your business over time?

In this episode, I share a step by step process for creating your blog sales funnel.

Intro

Listen to Episode

Building a sales funnel is a crucial part of building an online business.

A sales funnel is the visual representation of the customer journey, depicting the sales process from awareness to action.

Those are two essential elements of a sales funnel:

• Awareness: If you are growing a blog, you are creating content to make people aware of your brand and what you have to offer.
• Action: In the case of building a sales funnel, the action you are trying to get is the sale.

But here’s the problem…

When it comes to blogging, most content creators don’t create their content with the end in mind.

What ends up happening is we create content as it pops into our minds. By doing so, sales funnels never make it to the forefront of our minds.

Today, we will fix that.

Here are six steps you can take to create your blog sales funnel.

Step 1: Start with the action

Determine what your audience wants

Answer the following question – What do you want your audience to buy?

This can be a product/service that you offer or one that you promote as an affiliate. By understanding where you want people to end up, you’re going to be better able to get them there.

In understanding what you want them to buy, here are some questions you should answer:

Who is it for? What is his/her goals? What struggles will he or she encounter?

What problem does it solve?

Getting clear on these questions will help you in step 2.

Step 2: Create the right kind of content (awareness)

Now that you know who you’re trying to attract, it’s time to create the kind of content that will attract him/her.

Ask yourself what kind of content he/she is looking for. Keep the goals and struggles in mind as you answer this question.

Create the right kind of content

Then, go out and create that kind of content. You can create articles, videos or podcast episodes.

EVERY piece of content is an opportunity to expose your audience to what you have to offer.

Here’s the key: EACH piece of content should offer significant value independent of that product/service.

Do the best you can to optimize each piece of content for the platform you’re posting it on and you will increase your chances of getting your content to more people.

Step 3: Create a free resource

Determine what products / services you can create / offer for your audience.

What can you create that can help him/her accomplish his/her goals or overcome a specific struggle.

Create that as a free resource so that you can entice your audience to get on your email list.

Some examples of what I’ve created are my Content Calendar and YouTube Growth Tracking spreadsheets.

Step 4: Include a call-to-action in all of your content

That next logical step is opting in to get your free resource.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Yes, you are creating the right kind of content to attract your audience.

However, there needs to be a next logical step from that content to getting to a deeper part of your funnel.

That next logical step is opting in to get your free resource.

Your job is to make it very clear that you have a free resource available. In other words, include a call-to-action.

In order to get access to that free resource, they need to get on your email list.

Give them the opportunity to do just that.

Step 5: Create a goal-directed autoresponder sequence

Create a Goal-directed autoresponder sequence

The goal of this sequence is to get some of the people who subscribe to purchase your product/service.

So the content of the autoresponder sequence will be very important.

It’s important for you to provide value and share resources that will be helpful to your subscribers.

But it’s also important for you to make the pitch. Let them know about the product/service you are promoting and how it can help them on the journey.

One tool I’m going to be experimenting with is called Thrive Ultimatum from Thrive Themes.

It gives you the ability to run time-sensitive offers depending on when someone opts into your email list.

Step 6: Wash, Rinse and Repeat

Wash, Rinse and Repeat

Now that you’ve built out one funnel, it’s time to do the same thing again.

This can be for another product that’s at a similar price point, or (ideally) it would be something more expensive.

The principles are exactly the same.

Let’s bring this home

If you’re building a business, you have to build a system for generating sales. A sales funnel is a great way to do this.

Now that you’re equipped to build a funnel, get to work.

Resources Mentioned:

• Examples of free resources I created:
  • Content Calendar
  • YouTube Growth Tracking
• Thrive Themes – where I get the Thrive Ultimatum auto-responder tool 

Infographic

How to Create a Blog Sales Funnel

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How to get Noticed on YouTube – YouTube Algorithm Explained

Do you want to get noticed on YouTube?

Wondering how you can use the YouTube algorithm to your advantage?

In this video, I share details about how the algorithm works and how you can set yourself up for success.

Background Info

YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world

YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world (I feel like all my YouTube content starts with that phrase).

It's true, and like every search engine, an algorithm defines its functionality.

The algorithm determines what you rank for and how high you rank.

If you can understand exactly how the algorithm works, you have the secret of success.

But to understand how it works, you need to understand YouTube's goals.

Follow the Money

YouTube is a video-sharing site. One of their main goals is to have you watch a lot of videos.

The more time you spend watching videos, the more ads you see.

The more ads you see, the more MONEY they make. It's that simple.

YouTube the Search Engine

YouTube Search Engine

Any quality search engine will want to give the searcher exactly what they want.

If they get exactly what they want, they will use the platform more.

In YouTube's case, that means they will watch for longer period of time.

And as already covered, that means more ads and more money. That makes YouTube happy.

Here's the key, you want to do whatever you can to make their job easier.

As a search engine, they have two goals:

• Show people exactly what they want
• Have them watch more content

How to Give YouTube what YouTube Wants

Tip 1 – Optimize your Titles, descriptions and tags

Optimize your Titles, descriptions and tags

These are the meta data of your videos and they are VERY important.

Your meta data does more to tell YouTube exactly what your video is about than any other factors.

Make sure to include all relevant keyword phrases in your meta data.

If your video is about “How blood flows through the heart”, don't call the video “First heart video”.

That's too vague. Get specific with your titles. Get detailed in your description.

And then include all relevant tags you can think of.

A great tool to help with this is TubeBuddy.

Tip 2 – Use Custom Thumbnails

90% of the best-performing videos on YouTube use custom thumbnails.

Why? Think about it.

When you do a YouTube search, you get a bunch of results. As you scroll through those results, some of the thumbnails stand out.

Create custom thumbnails

You want to be one of those thumbnails that stand out (in a good way).

That increases the chances that people will actually click on your video.

Tip 3 – Deliver value

Deliver value.

Do I have to say that? Maybe not, but I will.

If someone clicks to watch your video and it sucks, they will click away.

If it takes too long for you to get to the point, they're gone.

By creating an engaging, value-filled video, you will get more people watching till the end.

In other words, you will increase the watch time.

Tip 4 – Give them EASY access to the next video

Doing this results in an increased session time. That's the amount of time they spend watching videos in one sitting.

Here's how you do this:

• Create series of videos or related videos. This will make it easier for them to move from one video to the next.
• use YouTube cards to get people from one video to other related videos.

Combine cards with verbal cues and you'll get more people watching more videos.

Let's Wrap This Up

Give YouTube what they want and you'll increase your chances of success.

As you create more content, YouTube will test you out and start showing you in the search results.

Once they see that people stick around when they watch your videos, they will rank you higher.

Over time, your channel will grow in authority, and that's exactly what you want.

So go ahead, start making videos and use those four tips. Then come back and let me know how it goes.

Resources Mentioned

• TubeBuddy – a great tool to help with optimizing titles, descriptions, and tags.

Infographic

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