ProBlogger Podcast: Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging

UPDATE: Because our free March Content Sprint was so popular we are now running a series of paid 7-Day Content Sprints running Live: 13-19 July 2020 17-23 August 2020 14-20 September More information and sign-up here: https://problogger.com/contentsprint/ A Free 7-Day Course to Create New Content Does your blog need a momentum boost? We've decided to run a LIVE 7-day Content Sprint to help support you create a plan and 6 new pieces of content for your blog in just 7 days. Starting next week (Monday 23rd March at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT / Tuesday 24th March at 11AM AEDT) Darren will be teaching live daily on FB in our ProBlogger Community Facebook Group (join here). Each day for 7 days we'll roll out supporting resources here in the course and add the video in case you can't make it live. Join us here: https://problogger.com/freecontentsprint/ Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hi there, friends. It’s Darren here from ProBlogger. Welcome to episode 281 of the ProBlogger Podcast. I've also got a live audience watching us today. They've been chiming in and saying good day. We've got people watching from Singapore, California, Adelaide, and all around Australia. It seems to be quite a few Aussies on due to the time of day that we're going at the moment. I will explain to you I have my son playing trumpet in the background today and this is not to give you ambient music but because he's got an online trumpet lesson today as part of his schooling. Today, I want to give you a fun little opportunity. We have been hearing from a lot of ProBlogger readers, podcast listeners about their current situation and how they're feeling about the Coronavirus, what's been going on in their world, and how that's impacting their blogging. We talked a little bit about that in the last episode, episode 280. I gave some suggestions on moving through it and blogging through this crisis. We also wanted to do something for you, and this is something that we want to offer to you for free, which will hopefully keep some momentum going in on your blog, and I hope this will help you. As I just said on the live video, we have created this on-the-fly, so it's not polished by any means, but we think there's some value in it. I'm going to share my screen for the live video viewers and I'll pop this same graphic up in the show notes for those of you who will be listening to this on the ProBlogger Podcast. This all comes out of us observing one of the big problems that a lot of our listeners have at the moment. That problem is that many people are really struggling right now with motivation for their blog, particularly with content at the moment. They have this big problem, that they're feeling a lack of motivation, they're feeling distracted by all the information that's coming out at the moment about Coronavirus, and many are feeling fear and uncertainty about their businesses. Someone just in the live stream said that they've lost their job out of this and that has brought fear and uncertainty for many of our readers. We're certainly hearing that increasingly, or at least people feeling like their work, their employment might be coming to an end. They're looking to their blog for some income but not really knowing how to do that and feeling paralyzed by it. One of the results of this is a lack of content on many of our reader’s blogs or at least some blockages when it comes to creating content. If that's you, then you're not alone. If you're watching the live video, let us know if that's something that you do feel. If you've got a reason for that, if it's fear, uncertainty, or it's just distraction, let us know about that. I have felt that myself even over the last week. A week ago, I remember sitting for almost a full day, just consuming the news about coronavirus,

Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hey there friends, it’s Darren Rowse from ProBlogger here. Welcome to episode 280 of the ProBlogger podcast. It’s been a while since we chatted and I do apologize for that, I needed a little time to get my headspace right and work on a couple of other projects, but I’m glad to be back. I’m particularly glad to be back at this time that we find ourselves in. We currently find ourselves in a bit of a crazy time with COVID-19, CoronaVirus, and all that it is meaning for us in the world we’re living in. We’re seeing so many people impacted, the economy impacted, and we’re seeing lots of new things, or at least they’re new to some people. We’re seeing a lot of people now having to work at home, something that many of us, as bloggers, have been doing for a while. Today, what I want to talk a little bit about is how we navigate this time as bloggers. How do we, as bloggers, not only keep our businesses going, but how do we actually do something to serve our world where there’s so much need at the moment. I jumped on to Facebook Live earlier today and shared my thoughts on that. What I want to share with you today is a recording of that Facebook Live. I did a bit of teaching in the middle of that. I talked a little bit about what the world doesn’t need right now, what the world does need right now, and why we, as bloggers, are actually ideally positioned to make a difference. I want to give you some practical thoughts on how to go about that. Some things to keep in mind, some things to avoid, also just tackling that tricky question of how do we actually make it a win-win for our audience and for us without seeming selfish in the midst of that as well, and actually about how not to be selfish in the midst of that as well. There are some of the things I cover in the recording I’m about to play for you. I just want to say though right up front, I hope you’re doing well. I’m doing well, I’ve had a bit of a scare and I’ll talk about that in the recording today, over the last week or so, but I hope you’re doing well. I really do want to emphasize the point that I make numerous times in this recording that I hope you look after yourself in this time. We need you to look after yourself. If you are going to make a difference, if you’re going to use your blogging, your online profile to make the world a better place, right now we need you to look after yourself as well. I hope you’re doing well and I hope you do take seriously the question I pose of you in this recording: what can we do at ProBlogger to serve you better through this time? Is there something that you are facing right now in your blogging that you’d like some content to be produced to help you to navigate that challenge. If you would like to drop me a line, my team a line, you can send an email to help@problogger.com and that will go to our support team. We’ll put it in front of the person who is best able to help if we can, and hopefully that will inform some content going forward. If you do want to stay in touch with this, head over to our Facebook Page, facebook.com/problogger, and you will get any future Facebook Lives and updates from there. We’ve got our email newsletter which is still going out every week over in ProBlogger that you can sign up for. If you want the show notes today, head over to problogger.com/podcast/280. I’ll come back at the end of this recording and wrap things up. Thanks for listening! Hi there everyone, it’s Darren from ProBlogger here. Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast, also welcome to those of you who are watching this live. I am going live onto Facebook today while I’m recording. Because I think it is an important topic and it’s one that I do want to get our communities input in as well. Our love viewers may have some thoughts to share that I will include in the podcast as well as if I think...

How Blogging Led to a Million Dollar Business for Jeff Goins Jeff Goins shares how his blogging business has evolved over the years. What he’s doing now is very different than when he started. Blog 1: Jeff started blogging as an outlet to catalogue his journey across North America while on tour with a band. “That was my first blog and my first experience with sharing my life and my ideas with the world. Just the thrill of pressing, Publish.” Wake-up Call: While living the dream of playing music for thousands of screaming fans, Jeff’s favorite part was writing blog posts. Blog 2: Jeff moved to Nashville and trained missionaries to blog for a nonprofit. Eventually, Jeff became the Marketing Director and learned about online marketing. Wake-up Call: Jeff wanted to get back to his own blogging. “I had been helping other people share their stories. I had something to say and wanted to share it with the world.” Blogs 3 to Present: Jeff wanted to make a living as a writer, but didn’t know how. Wake-up Call: Jeff’s failed blogs had one thing in common: He quit them. Time to get serious and stick to it: Write every day Get more subscribers Build email lists Learn from other bloggers Offer to write and accept guest posts Now, Jeff is a full-time blogger, author, speaker, and online entrepreneur. Top Tips to Achieve Blogging Success Give before you ask; always give more than you take. Listen to other bloggers’ advice. Connect with influential people. Next Steps in Blogging Evolution Masterminds: Creates relationships, connections, and community Events/Conferences: Tribe Conference Programs: Write a Bestseller Based on his experiences as a writer and blogger, Jeff will be the keynote speaker at ProBlogger’s upcoming Evolve 2019 in Melbourne. A few tickets are still available! For more information: Problogger.com/events. Links and Resources for How Jeff Goins Evolved His Blogging Into a Million Dollar Business: Jeff Goins The Jeff Goins Blog Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One) by Jeff Goins Tribe Writers Tribe Conference Write a Bestseller Jeff Goins’ Email ProBlogger Evolve Event Evolve: Training Day Evolve: Mastermind Copyblogger Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk Brian Clarke Seth Godin Platform by Michael Hyatt Xanga MailChimp Zoom Podcast Motor Courses Start a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there friends and welcome to Episode 279 of the ProBlogger Podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the blogger behind problogger.com; a blog designed to help you to start and to grow a profitable blog. Today on the podcast, we have a special guest, Jeff Goins. I’ve been wanting to bring Jeff Goins to the podcast for a while now. Many of you know of Jeff, he has a fantastic blog that I do encourage you to check out. We’ll link to it in the show notes today. He writes great advice for people who write. If you want to become a better writer, particularly if you want to write a book, he has some great advice. I wanted to get Jeff on the show today to talk a little bit about how his business or his blogging business has evolved over the years, because he started a number of years ago now. What he’s doing today is very different to the way he started. He really started in a personal record keeping kind of way with his blogging and he’s grown his brand, and his business around that. As he says in this interview, he’s actually had nine blogs over the years and his last one has really built the business. He’s got a lot of great advice today as we talk about this idea of evolving your blog.

Evolve Your Blog Does it feel like you’re going around in circles with your blog? It's easy to revolve in your blogging. Let’s look back at my keynote presentation titled, Evolve Don't Revolve, from ProBlogger’s Evolve event in 2017. It highlights my journey as a blogger and areas where you can evolve your own blog and online business. Plus, the 2017 keynote features a Q & A with Pat Flynn, who shares how he achieved success by evolving his blog, Smart Passive Income. https://www.slideshare.net/problogger/evolve-dont-revolve ProBlogger’s Evolve 2019 event in Melbourne is happening soon! August 10: Training Day (Beginner/Intermediate) Four key areas of building a successful blog August 10-11: Mastermind (Intermediate/Advanced) Spend time with other bloggers, online creators, and entrepreneurs to workshop your blog and business Jeff Goins will present this year’s keynote titled, Finding Your Voice as a Blogger. He’s the author of Real Artists Don't Starve. Fellow expert bloggers, Nicole Avery, James Schramko, Kelly Exeter, and Shayne Tilley, will talk about their knowledge and experience. For more information about Evolve 2019, go to Problogger.com/events. Don’t forget to sign-up by June 30, 2019, to get the Early Bird price. Links and Resources for Evolve Don't Revolve Your Blogging: ProBlogger Evolve Event Evolve: Training Day Evolve: Mastermind Jeff Goins Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins Nicole Avery of Planning with Kids James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness Kelly Exeter (writer and editor) Shayne Tilley of 99Designs Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income Podcast Motor Courses Start a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there, friends. It's Darren Rowse from ProBlogger. Welcome to Episode 278 of the ProBlogger Podcast. The podcast is designed to help you start a blog, to build that blog, and to monetize it. Today, I've got a special treat for you. It is a keynote that I gave a couple of years ago at our ProBlogger event in Melbourne. It's titled Evolve Don't Revolve. It's all about how as bloggers and online entrepreneurs, it's really easy to revolve in our blogging, to just go around in circles. I don't know if you can relate to that of feeling going around in circles. I certainly can. There's been so many times over my 15 years of blogging where I've realized I'm just treading water, I stopped growing, I stopped evolving. The call of this keynote is to look at seven different areas where you can evolve your blog and online business. Also, a taster of what we do at our Evolve event, at our ProBlogger event, which we've been running it for quite a few years. We've got our new event coming up in August of this year on the 10th and 11th of August, again, in Melbourne. I want to tell you a little bit about that event before we get into the keynote. There's two options for those of you who want to come to our event in Melbourne. On the 10th of August, we've got a training day. This is a one day event for beginners, intermediate level bloggers. It's also probably relevant for other content creators as well. If you head to problogger.com/events you can actually see a rundown of what we're doing at that particular event. Largely though, it's me. You'll get a full day of me teaching on the four key areas of building a successful blog. I'm going to talk for about an hour about content and crafting great content for your blog. I'll talk about evolving your engagement with your readers, how to build community on your blog, how to find new readers for your blog, and then, how to monetize your blog. This is perfect if you are a beginner or intermediate level. If you're just starting out,

31 Days to Build a Better Blog Today’s the day to sign up for our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog course. Why? Well, it’s 50% off for a limited time. And if you register by the end of February you’ll get to be a part of our 31-day guided sprint in March. While the course has evolved, it remains the #1 reason most blogs become successful. But you need to consistently take action to implement what you learn. The four pillars of blogging are actions and habits you should develop to grow and profit from your blog. Create great content Promote your content Enhance your relationships with your readers Monetize your blog Each day of the course you’ll be taught practical things to do for your blog, including: Setting objectives and goals Creating an editorial calendar Developing social media and email strategies Creating pillar content Optimizing for SEO Identifying and understanding your audience Strengthening reader engagement You don’t have to take the course to become an action-oriented blogger. But if you need help and want to give your blog a burst of love to get it back on track, feel free to join us. Links and Resources for The Secret to Building a Better Blog: Podcast Motor Courses Start a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hey there and welcome to episode 277 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the founder of ProBlogger, which is a site for bloggers and prebloggers designed to help them to start and grow profitable blogs. You can learn more about ProBlogger and all we do over at problogger.com. In today’s episode number 277, we’re going to talk a little bit of our secret of growing your blog. In fact, I think it’s the number one way to grow a blog and this ties into a promotion that we’ve got on at the moment on our 31 Days To Build A Better Blog course. I know many of you have gone through our Start A Blog course over the last couple of months and to continue the good work that you’ve done, we’ve decided to make 31 Days To Build A Better Blog 50% off for the next week or so until the end of February. Also in the month of March, we’re going to sprint through it. We are doing it as a group where we can support you and get bloggers interacting together. I’ll tell you a little bit more about that later in the episode. But if you do want to check out 31 Days To Build A Better Blog and grab it at 50% off, head over at problogger.com/31days. You can also find it through our courses tab over at problogger.com and in today’s show notes. Let’s get into today’s show where I do want to talk about the number one thing that is going to help you to grow your blog. In preparation for our 31 day sprint, I want to talk about why we had so much success with the 31 day program. I want to talk about the reason that they’ve been built into that course that I’ve seen help many bloggers over the years and I’ve seen help me as well. Over the years, I think it was back in 2007, I started 31 Days To Build A Better Blog and it’s been in many forms since then. In fact, I’ve counted seven different ways we’ve presented this program. Originally, it started off as a series of blog posts in I think it was in 2006–2007, and then I did that same series that evolved that every time, three times on the blog. It was completely for free. It was just a series of blog posts. At the end of the third series, I turned it into an ebook and then I updated the ebook into a second version. I think second version came out in 2012. Later on, I did it again on the podcast for free and then more recently, we’ve turned it into a course in the last year or so. There’ve been these seven different versions of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog and every time...

Learn How to Start a Successful Podcast Do you already have a blog, and want to expand into another medium? Then why not start a podcast? A lot of our Facegroup members have asked questions about starting a podcast, especially about gear, content, engagement, hosting, launching and monetization. And to help me answer all those questions I called on an expert. Craig Hewitt is the founder of Podcast Motor and Castos. When Craig started his own podcast, he quickly discovered that audio editing and producing a podcast was a pain. So he started Podcast Motor to help others. The technicalities of podcasting almost stopped me from starting the ProBlogger podcast. That’s why I turned to Craig and his team to handle them. Craig shares the nuts and bolts of podcasting: Reach existing audience in a different way, or reach an entirely new audience. Establish a dedicated hosting platform to store and distribute your media files. Differentiate yourself to develop a brand and identity (i.e. your accent). Start a podcast with everything you need for less than $100. Be comfortable with speaking, and assemble enough content to talk about. Identify and prepare guests to be on your podcast. Create an intro by recording it yourself or outsourcing it to a voiceover artist. Find a room without flat walls and hard spaces to eliminates echoes. (Try a closet). Edit audio to match your style (buttoned-up, conversational, etc.) Put your podcast on Android and Apple platforms, including Apple Podcast (formerly iTunes), Google Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, and YouTube. Get and grow your audience by getting your podcast listed in search engines. Ask listeners to subscribe, submit a rating/review, and share with others. Record five episodes before launching. Then launch with two episodes, plus or minus an Episode 0 that offers a description of what listeners can expect from your podcast. Engage your listeners by using a call to action through a link in the podcast audio, or continue a podcast discussion and connect with audience via a Facebook group. Metrics don't really matter. Instead, review popularity, downloads and listening duration. We covered a lot in this episode, but to get all the details you need to successfully start a podcast sign up for Craig’s free course, Launch In A Week: Podcasting Microphone and Gear Audio Recording and Editing Your Ideal Listener and Podcast Personas The Perfect Podcast Recipe Media Host and Website Setup Getting Your Show Ready to Launch Launch Planning and Growing Your Audience Links and Resources for How to Start a Successful Podcast: Podcast Motor Launch In A Week Castos Seriously Simple Podcasting Audio-Technica ATR2100 Shure SM7B Focusrite Scarlett Preamp Zoom Skype Call Recorder (Mac only) Fiverr Audacity International Start a Blog Day Class of 2019 Pat Flynn’s Podcast SiteGround CoSchedule Tim Ferriss's Podcast GarageBand Simplecast Libsyn Gary Vaynerchuk's Podcast RogueStartups Podcast with co-host Dave Rodenbaugh Blue - Yeti Calendly Apple Podcast Google Podcast Google Play Stitcher Spotify Amy Porterfield's Podcast Examples of How to Start a Successful Podcast: CoSchedule’s Blog CoSchedule’s Podcast Courses Start a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey hey there, ProBlogger listeners. It’s Darren Rowse here from ProBlogger. Welcome to episode 276 of the show. For those of you who are new to the show, ProBlogger is a site for bloggers and prebloggers designed to help them to start blogs, to grow those blogs, and to monetize those blogs. You can check out more of what we do over at ProBlogger...

How One Blogger Took Action, Left Her Job, and Began a Lifestyle Blog Today marks the end of our series featuring stories from new bloggers. We really hope you've enjoyed them. Jackie Baker recently started a lifestyle blog that celebrates the beauty in everyday life. She considered blogging as a business because she needed a career change that would both challenge her and leave time for a vacation once in a while. But what would she write about? Jackie narrowed her blog's focus to a few topics that bring joy, peace, and happiness to both her readers and herself. Hence the title of her blog: Pretty Things, Yummy Food. What Jackie has learned from blogging: Take action and keep pushing forward when you feel stuck or scared Create a plan to prioritize tasks you need to get done Sign up for courses that show you how to start/launch a blog Connect with other bloggers who understand your excitement and frustration Embrace social media to find readers and build a community Use Canva to design graphics Don’t stress about what others think about you or your blog Want to start a blog? Do it and don’t doubt yourself. Follow your gut, get into a blogging mindset, and find your message to discover you have plenty to offer the world. Sign up for ProBlogger’s free Start a Blog course and participate in its International Start a Blog Day on February 7. Links and Resources for How One Blogger Quit Her Job and Started a Lifestyle Blog: Pretty Things, Yummy Food Blog Canva International Start a Blog Day Podcast Motor Courses Start a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there and welcome to episode 275 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the blogger behind problogger.com, which is a site for you as a blogger or someone about to start a blog, that will help you grow that blog, create great content, and monetize it as well. You can learn more about what we do at ProBlogger and check out our two courses at problogger.com. Speaking of our courses, today we’re finishing up our series of podcasts from stories who did our free Start A Blog course. We’re going to hear today from Jackie Baker from Pretty Things, Yummy Food, which sounds like the kind of blog I need to check out, particularly the yummy food part of it. This series really is all about hearing from new bloggers, bloggers who haven’t been going for too long yet, to find out what they’ve learnt in their first year of blogging. I have loved the feedback we’ve had on this series. It seems that a lot of you have enjoyed hearing from new voices, people that they’ve never heard of before, rather than just hearing from experts or gurus or people who have been blogging for 10 years. The new bloggers have been sharing some of their journey as well. We’re doing this really to highlight that people are continuing to start blogs these days and that there is a simple way to do it. That’s through our Start A Blog course, which you can find over at problogger.com/startablog. It’s completely free and it’s set out in seven simple steps that will walk you through the process. Today, we’ve got Jackie Baker from Pretty Things, Yummy Food. It’s a lifestyle blog and it’s only been going for six months. Jackie started her blog as a result of going through our course and you’re going to hear her talk a little bit about that in today’s story. She recommends a great tool for those of you who are starting out and want to create some cool social graphics and gives you a few good tips as well. I’ll come back at the end of Jackie’s story to wrap things up and to pull out a few of the things that I love about her story. Jackie: Hi everyone. I’m Jackie, the creator of Pretty Things, Yummy Food.

How a Blogger Found the Right Plan and Business Idea Today our series of stories from new bloggers continues with Stefano Caioni, a web developer and photographer. Stefano's blog offers guidance on various aspects of photography including focus modes, settings and equipment reviews. Using his tech experience, Stefano wrote all the code for his blog himself. But he soon discovered how fun it was to build and write content for it, even though it had no traffic. Then Stefano decided to migrate his existing content to WordPress to benefit from its SEO and security functionalities. But he was inconsistent with posting content, didn’t have a specific strategy or business idea in mind, and ran out of topics. He almost gave up on it. Then he came across ProBlogger.com. He started writing more consistently, this time with a plan and business idea in place. His blog lets him share his passion for photography by writing useful posts that inspire others and offer them value. He’s met many photographers who’ve inspired him as well. He never dreamed of making money from his blog or building a business around it. But traffic continues to grow, and he monetizes his blog through Amazon affiliate links. Blogging isn’t dead. The number of internet users increases every day. Fresh and updated content is needed to fulfill the growing demand for information. So start a blog. Sign up for our free Start a Blog course and join us for the International Start a Blog Day on February 7. Links and Resources for How Stefano Changed Blogging Platforms and Started Blogging with a Plan: Stefano Caioni’s Photography Stefano Caioni’s Blog Interview: Lauren Bath Olympus Visionary International Start a Blog Day Podcast Motor Courses Start a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there and welcome to episode 274 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the founder of problogger.com, a site for bloggers and prebloggers, designed to help you to start a great blog, and to monetize that blog. Today, we are continuing our series of podcast with stories from new bloggers, people in their first year of blogging. All these are short stories from participants from our Start A Blog course and we’re sharing them in the hope that they will inspire you or someone you know to start a blog, as part of our International Start A Blog Day on the seventh of February, which is fast approaching. There’s still time to participate if you would like to start a blog, either for that date or afterwards. We have a course that will walk you through exactly how to start a blog using a WordPress platform. That course is completely free to participate in and you can find it at problogger.com/startablog. Today’s story comes from Stefano Caioni from stefanocaioni.com and I’ve got a link to that in the show notes today. He is a photographer. He is a web developer, actually, who is a photographer as well and his blog is about photography, which grabbed my attention. But I also wanted to share this story today because it is a little bit different than some of the others. Stefano actually came to blogging with a bit of a tech background, which is different to many people. We’ve had others in this series who came with no technology kind of background whatsoever. Stefano has created a beautiful-looking blog with that background but he has some interesting reflections upon that journey which I will come back to at the end of his story, too, just pulled apart just a little bit. Here’s Stefano. Enjoy his story. Stefano: Hi. This is Stefano Caioni, a landscape and outdoor photographer, living in Sydney, Australia. My website is called Stefano Caioni Photography and you can find it at www.

How One Blogger Found Encouragement in Difficult Times Our new bloggers series continues with Melissa, who started Living in the Wait. Her blog serves as a resource for those waiting for something in their lives, whether it’s a job, spouse, home or something else. Melissa discovered you can still live life during that time of waiting for something your heart desperately desires. In Melissa’s case, she and her husband were waiting for a family due to infertility. It’s a painful topic to talk about, but Melissa felt like it was her calling to share her story. Blogging about her journey and wait has brought joy to her life. She wants to continue encouraging people going through difficult times. First-year blogging highlights: Started The Wait List featuring guest posts to connect with others who were also waiting Selected as recipient of ProBlogger scholarship to further the blog's reach Generated cycle of encouragement: live life to the fullest, and give back to others Melissa’s blogging tips: Progress over perfection Celebrate your wins Don’t forget to sign up for our free Start a Blog course and join us for the International Start a Blog Day on February 7. Links and Resources for How One Blog Turned a Painful Situation into a Life-Changing Blog: Living in the Wait Podcast Motor Further Listening 263: How Mim Blogged Vulnerably to Grow a Six-Figure Blog 255: My Mid-Life Crisis and The Power of Being Vulnerable on a Blog Courses Start a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Welcome to episode 273 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name’s Darren Rowse and I’m the blogger behind problogger.com, a site and a podcast to help you to start an ,amazing blog that’s going to change the lives of your readers in some way, and hopefully will change your life, too both in what it gives you personally but also hopefully some income as well. You can learn more about what we do at ProBlogger and find our courses at problogger.com. Speaking of courses, today we do continue our Start A Blog story series where we’re featuring stories from bloggers in their first year of blogging. There are all these bloggers who've been throughout Start A Blog course and many of them participated in our International Start A Blog Day last February. We’ve got the second iteration of that event coming up on the 7th of February this year. We’re running these stories to try and inspire as many people as possible to start a blog and be a part of that process. You can join in the fun of International Start A Blog Day and get a free course to help you set up a blog in that time over at problogger.com/startablog. Today’s story is from Melissa. She has a blog called Living In The Wait. I love the topic of this blog and that’s one of the reasons that I wanted to share her story today. I’m going to link to her blog which is livinginthewait.com on our show notes today. There’s also a full transcript of the show today and some further listening if you do want to be into one of the big themes that she talks about. You can find the show notes today at problogger.com/podcast/273. I’m going to let Melissa talk now and I’ll come back at the end to just pull out a few of the themes that I love in what she shares. Melissa: My name is Melissa. I started the blog called Living In the Wait and the URL is livinginthewait.com. What my blog is about is it’s a resource for those who are basically trying to live in the wait. Whether you’re waiting for a family, job, spouse, we all wait for something in our lives. For my husband and I, that wait happened to be infertility. Why I started my blog was based upon our own personal experience. For over three years,

How One Blogger is Making the Most from Networking and Interviewing Our series of stories from new bloggers continues with Penny Wilson, who started Lingo Mama to blog about language learning and travel. Penny’s reasons for starting a blog: Return to her passion for language learning Establish accountability and discipline with language learning Share love for language learning with others Inspire others to learn a second language Starting a blog involved a huge learning curve for Penny, especially when it came to the technical aspects of managing it. Fortunately, Penny hasn’t struggled for content ideas. The challenge is getting those ideas across in a way that’s interesting, entertaining and informative, and that adds value. One of the highlights of blogging came when Penny connected with bloggers she respects in her niche. She also created an interview series that lets her connect with other language learners. Making money from her blog has been slow, but Penny has been happy with affiliate ads she installed early on to generate traffic and referrals. Penny’s Top Tips: Don’t stress too much about being perfect Promote content that's most useful to readers Listen to feedback from readers Did Penny’s story inspire you to start a blog? Then, sign up for the free Start a Blog course as a way to celebrate our International Start a Blog Day on Feb. 7. Links and Resources for How Networking and Interviewing Helped One Blogger Built Her Blog: Lingo Mama Podcast Motor Further Listening 172: How to Build a Blogging Business Through Interviewing Others [An Interview with Michael Stelzner] 198: 6 First Income Streams Recommended for Bloggers Courses Start a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there and welcome to Episode 272 of the ProBlogger Podcast. My name's Darren Rowse, and I'm the blogger behind ProBlogger, a site, podcast, event, job board, series of ebooks, and courses all designed to help you start an amazing blog, to grow that blog, and to make some money from the process. You can find more about ProBlogger over at problogger.com. Today, we're continuing this short series of podcasts with stories from bloggers in their first year of blogging. Although stories have been gathered from participants of our Start a Blog course, which we are promoting at the moment, even though it's a free course, we're promoting it because, in the next few weeks, we have our International Start a Blog Day, which is being held on the 7th of February. Today, we're celebrating new blogs and we're launching a whole lot of blogs from students from our course, and we hope to send you a little bit of traffic as well to help that blog get off and running. We'll be highlighting some of those new blogs that have started our social media as well as on our blog as well. Each of the bloggers that are sharing in this series are sharing their story, just a really short story but also some tips that they've learned along the way. If you've been thinking about starting a blog, or you know someone who's thinking about it, or you know someone who should start a blog, please head to problogger.com/start-a-blog. You will find this free course that we've put together. It's a seven-step course that walks you through everything you need to know to get involved in our International Start a Blog Day but also to get that blog up and running. Now, today's story comes from Penny Wilson, an Aussie from lingomama.com. I'll link to that in the show notes as well today. You can find those show notes at problogger.com/podcast/272. I'm just going to hand it over to Penny because she's got a great story to tell, and I will come back at the end of her story just to wrap things ...

How One Blogger Worked With Others to Start a Blog We continue our series featuring stories from new bloggers who have recently completed our free Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog course. We hope they’ll inspire others as part of our International Start a Blog Day on February 7. Today’s story comes from Jacob West, who started the blog Live Life Liberated. His blog questions social norms and traditional ways of thinking. Jacob's blog doesn’t tell you what to think or do. Instead, it provides a friendly and open-minded environment to discuss such topics and build a like-minded community. Jacob’s tips on how to prepare, if you want to start a blog: Ask friends for help. Share skills, learning curve, and success Care about blog’s focus Stay passionate. Always have goals to pursue Be willing to work hard and plan for various tasks Links and Resources for How One Blogger Simplified Starting a Blog by Sharing the Load: Live Life Liberated Podcast Motor Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there and welcome to Episode 271 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name's Darren Rowse and I'm the founder of ProBogger, a blog podcast, ebooks, courses, and events that are all designed to help you to start a blog, and to grow that blog, and to build profit around that blog. Now, today, with are continuing our series of podcasts with stories from bloggers in their first year of blogging. These are all short stories and tips from participants in our free starter blog course, which we launched last year. We're sharing these in the hope that they will inspire others to start blogs as part of our International Start a Blog Day on the 7th of February. Each of the bloggers in these series will be sharing their story and some tips that they learned along the way, which will help those of you who are starting a blog. If you've been thinking about starting a blog, and we know a lot of listeners this podcast are thinking about starting a blog, or you know someone who's thinking about starting a blog who should start a blog, head over to problogger.com/start-a-blog. You'll find our free seven-step course to help you through that process of getting a blog started and also some information on how to get involved on the International Start a Blog Day on the 7th of February. If you are listening to this after the 7th of February, that's totally fine. You can still start a blog using our course. It'll be there all year, so problogger.com/start-a-blog. Now, today's story comes from Jacob West, and he shares a short story that he submitted via video this week. He has a blog called Live Life Liberated, which you can find at livelifeliberated.com. He sent us in a video story. I'll strip the audio out to use on the podcast today. You can find the full transcript of his story as well as a link back to his site on our show notes over at problogger.com/podcast/271. I'll be back after he shares his story to pull out a few of the things that I noticed about what he shares. Here's Jacob. Jacob: Hey, everyone. My name's Jake West. I just wanted to spend five minutes of your time to talk about my experience as a 2018 blogger. My site is Live Life Liberated at central URL, livelifeliberated.com. It's a blog designed to question social norms, traditional ways of thinking, and a friendly, open-minded environment. It's not really telling you what we think but more or less discussing, and so it's very centered around the idea of having open debates, and commenting, and emailing between one another, and really just having a fair wondering of what's really going on. I started that in June 2018 so we're on five months now. Essentially, the reason that I decided to start it because I had ...

How Starting a Blog Helped Transform the Life of a Blogger Happy New Year! This first episode of 2019 launches a series of stories from new bloggers who started their blogs after completing our free Start a Blog course. The course features seven steps, which makes it a perfect way to celebrate International Start a Blog Day on February 7. The first story comes from Denise Bumby, who took our course last year and launched her Does Size Matter? blog about six months ago. Denise was searching for a way to cope with changes in her life. And she found her way through blogging, which brings her joy and hope. She may not have many subscribers yet, but that number is growing daily. And so is Denise. Denise’s tips on how to boost your blog: Consistently produce content Use social media Post content in various formats (videos, etc.) Get mentioned on other blogs Learn and implement affiliate marketing and sponsorship Keep working. Don’t give up or get discouraged Despite what you may think, anyone can start a blog – young or old, tech savvy or not. Blogging is for everyone. So, are you ready to start a blog? Links and Resources for How One Blogger Changed Her Life by Starting a Blog: Does Size Matter? Darren Rowse on Facebook Podcast Motor Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there and welcome to the first episode of the ProBlogger podcast for 2019. This is episode 270. You can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/270. ProBlogger is a site for bloggers and prebloggers, who today’s episode is particularly for. It’s all designed to help you to build and grow a blog that not only makes your reader’s life better in some way but also helps you to achieve your goals and bring you a little joy to your life as well. We’re going to hear a story today where that happens. Today, we are launching another round of our bloggers’ stories. It’s a series that’s going to go for the next couple of weeks. They’re shorts stories from brand new bloggers. This series is all about starting a blog and hearing the stories of bloggers who started their blog over the last 12 months. They all started their blogs as a result of doing our Start A Blog course, which we are currently really pushing hard because on the 7th of February, we’re running our International Start A Blog Day for the second year in a row. Last year, we ran International Start A Blog Day and hundreds of bloggers started a blog on that particular day. As you’ll hear today, hundreds more started their blogs in the months afterwards. Some people needed a little bit more time. We want you to be a part of this year’s Start A Blog Day. Whether you are a blogger who’s about to start and you’ve been thinking about starting a blog or whether you know someone who should start a blog, we want you to encourage them to get involved. If you want to be a part of it or if you know someone who really does need to start a blog, our course is 100% free and it will help you to start that blog. You can find it at problogger.com/startablog. Before I introduce you to today’s story, I want to pause for a moment and say Happy New Year. I know it’s three weeks into the new year and I should apologize for the delay in getting this episode out but I do want to start off by saying Happy New Year. The reason for the delay this year is that it’s been a bit of a tough year so far. In fact, last year was a little bit tough as well. Many of you I know have been following my Facebook profile and my personal profile where I shared recently a couple of posts about my own battles with depression over the last year and also the recent loss of a friend.

How a Blogger Uses Pinterest to Boost His Following Welcome to the final episode of our Blogger Breakthroughs series. Today we share a story from Rowan Sims, Digital Photography School writer and ProBlogger podcast listener. Rowan's also a landscape and travel photographer who uses his blog to teach readers how to improve their photography, as well as share his photo adventures and location guides. The biggest challenges he faced with blogging were being inconsistent and not attracting the right audience. So he switched his blog's focus from just sharing photography to teaching it as well. He's also written some guest posts. Don’t underestimate the power of guest blogging. It’s about more than just link building. Another breakthrough for Rowan was discovering the power of Pinterest. It’s become Rowan’s largest source of referral traffic. Rowan has used various tools and social media sites to promote his photography, but Pinterest needed a different approach and was a steep learning curve. No matter what your niche is, Rowan has suggestions on how to optimize Pinterest for best results: Set up a Pinterest business account and review your Pinterest insights/analytics to know what’s working and help identify your target audience Create attractive pins Use Tailwind to drip feed pins and create tribes Pinterest is one option, but experiment with different platforms to figure out what works best for you. Rowan’s blogging breakthroughs have not only helped increase his traffic, but has brought him the right traffic. People are genuinely interested in what he has to say and share. Links and Resources for How Rowan Grew His Pinterest Following to More Than 300,000 in Two Months: Rowan Sims Pinterest for Photographers - The Ultimate Guide 2018 Canva Tailwind Pinterest Digital Photography School Podcast Motor Further Listening PB 037: Grow Traffic to Your Blog Through Guest Posting and Creating Content for other Blogs, Forums, Media and Events The Rowse Report Podcast Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there and welcome to episode 269 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name is Darren Rowse. I’m the founder of ProBlogger which started out as a blog with lots of blog tips and has become a blog, a podcast, ebooks, courses, and a job board as well to help bloggers to find jobs. There’s a lot on ProBlogger. You can check it all out at problogger.com where we really are about trying to help bloggers to monetize their blogs. Today is the final episode in our blogger breakthrough series. We may do this again in the future because I’ve had a lot of really great feedback on the stories that we’ve been featuring. I’m going to get back to a noble flow of things next week. But today, I want to share with you a story from Rowan Sims. Rowan actually is a writer over on Digital Photography School. I didn’t realize he was also a listener of this podcast. You hear at the end, he worked his way back through all of the archives of the podcast—all 269 episodes. He may be up there as one of the most avid listeners of the podcast. He submitted his story of how he grew his blog. He took his blog from fairly inconsistent blogging, he switched his focus, and he shares two strategies that he used to help grow his traffic particularly Pinterest. He gives some good tips on driving traffic with Pinterest as well. He actually submitted a short 4 ½-minute story and then I asked him to submit a few more tips so you will a bit of a change in the audio—that’s kind of part two coming in halfway along where he gets to be a bit more practical about Pinterest. Before I introduce you or put Rowan onto you,

How a Blogger Expanded Her Income Streams and Engaged Readers in a New Way As a blogger, do you feel like you’re on a hamster wheel? Do you need to continually feed the machine to keep your blog generating traffic and income? We continue our Blogger Breakthroughs series with Anita Joyce, who experienced the same problem with her Cedar Hill Farmhouse blog. Anita was working non-stop on her blog. She didn’t even have time to go to the grocery store or relax with her family. But the income from her blog was tied to page views, so she needed a breakthrough. Anita shares what she did to diversify her income streams and engage her readers in a new way. She started a podcast that turns listeners into friends, and a store that provides relevant products and valuable content for her audience. Anita has some tips to share with you: Survey your audience to find out what they want from you and what you want to give them Partner with others to gain expertise in areas you need covered Don’t give up if you fail. Focus on your failures and learn from your mistakes When something isn't working with your blog, try something new to diversify traffic sources and income streams. That way, if something does go wrong it increases your income and puts you in a better position to survive. Links and Resources for How Anita Diversified Her Blogging Income and Depended Less On Page Views: Anita Joyce French Accents Decorating Tips and Tricks Podcast Bespoke Decor Podcast Motor Further Reading The Day I Almost Lost My Blogging Business By Having Too Many Eggs in the One Basket 11 Ways I Diversified Traffic Sources for My Blogs to Become Less Reliant Upon Google [With a Surprising Twist] How I Diversified My Blogging Income Beyond Having All My Eggs in the AdSense Basket Further Listening How I Diversified My Blogging Income and Became a Full Time Blogger How to Grow Your Blogging Income Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hello there friends. Welcome to episode 268 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I'm the blogger behind ProBlogger. A blog that’s dedicated to really helping you to start an amazing blog, to grow the traffic of that blog, to grow an income from that blog, and to help your readers in some way as well. You can find more about ProBlogger and what we do at problogger.com. You might also, while you're there, check out our two free course. I have one free course, How to Start a Blog, and our other paid course, 31 Days to Build A Better Blog. Particularly check out that Start a Blog course if you are looking to get going with blogging. Now today, we're continuing our series all of blogger breakthrough stories and we've got Anita Joyce from cedarhillfarmhouse.com. She's got a great story that I think is going to really connect with many of you because she shares a problem that many bloggers have–that feeling of being on the hamster wheel with your blog. Have you ever felt like you've built a blog and you may have built some traffic, you may have built some income, but to keep generating that income, you need to keep feeding the machine? This is something that Anita talks about to her realized that her blog was very dependent upon page views and shares a story of what she did about that to diversify her income streams and to engage with her readers in a new way. So really some really practical things. I want to come back at the end of what Anita talks about to really share some of my own story with these as well and to give you a little bit of further reading because Anita's story is going to relate really well to some of you, but there are some ways that you can apply what she's talking a...

How One Blogger Pushed Through Her Fear We continue our Blogging Breakthroughs series with Krista O'Reilly-Davi-Digui, who has a blog called A Life in Progress. Krista knew nothing about setting up a social platform. But she overcame procrastination and fear to show up regularly. Krista shares how her first viral post "What If I All I Want is a Mediocre Life?" made a major impact, resonating with people across the world She's been invited by others to share her story. Through collaboration and connections, her number of followers grew from 1,000 to 35,000. Her work brings her joy and has given her a voice. She is just like everyone else - not perfect. She affects others by giving them a chance to be seen and heard as well. Take imperfect action, and remember to enjoy each step of your journey. The world is incredibly noisy. We don’t need more people being the same. We need honesty. Don’t be afraid to be you - raw and real. Krista’s always found a way to love herself through the freedom that telling the truth offers. Bearing your soul and becoming an entrepreneur makes you grow. Links and Resources for How Krista Overcame Fear and Procrastination in Her Blogging: What If All I Want is a Mediocre Life? A Life in Progress Krista on Facebook Finally Deciding You’re Good Enough Can Quietly Change the World (on Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper) Podcast Motor Further Listening 263: How Mim Blogged Vulnerably to Grow a Six-Figure Blog 255: My Mid-Life Crisis and The Power of Being Vulnerable on a Blog Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey, there, friends. Welcome to episode 267 of the ProBlogger Podcast. My name is Darren Rowse. If this is your first time with us, welcome to you especially. ProBlogger is a space dedicated to helping you set up a blog that will be a profitable blog and also make a difference in the world that you live in and the topics that you're writing about. You can learn more about ProBlogger, particularly, our courses, our free Start A Blog course, and our 31 days to Build a Better Blog course over at problogger.com. Just look for the courses tab in the menu. Today, we're continuing our blogger breakthrough series with a story from Krista who comes to us from Canada. She has a blog called A Life in Progress, it's alifeinprogress.ca. She's going to tell us a story—a beautiful story, really, of her first experience of a viral post. It's actually a post that went viral a number of times and the impact that it had upon her blog. A bit of a theme because last week was about viral content as well but this is a very different story. I love this story because it talks about how Krista went from procrastination fear to showing up regularly and pushing through that. It is a beautiful story and I encourage you to listen to the end. I'm going to come back at the end of the story and just pull out some of the nuggets of gold that Krista mentions in this story because it is a beautiful one. I'm going to head over to Krista. Again, her blog is at alifeinprogress.ca and you can find the full transcript of today's show notes, as well as links to her blog over at problogger.com/podcast/267. Krista: Hello, I am Krista from Central Alberta, Canada. I write at alifeinprogress.ca. I help other messy humans like me show up through comparison, perfectionism, and fear so they can show up fully in their imperfect and beautiful lives. Again, you can find me at alifeinprogress.ca. I started vlogging three years ago. I had been showing up weekly to my blog for about 4 ½ months, when a post of mine went viral for the first time. I say for the first time because initially I was contacted by the BBC London about my post,

How a Blogger Used Viral Content to Grow Her Income Enough to Cover Her Mortgage Payments Rachel Miller is back on ProBlogger for our Blogging Breakthroughs series, which features bloggers’ stories about traffic, income, and other parts of blogging. Blogging has transformed Rachel's life, and made a difference in the lives of others. Rachel shares various breakthroughs that helped her generate a blogging income that went from paying for her groceries and mortgage to building a six-figure business. How’d she do it? By harnessing the power of her audience and going viral. Virals aren’t just about people seeing your content. They can also help you grow your bank account. Every time you love on your audience by creating content that engages and resonates with them, it takes your brand to the next level. Rachel went from affiliates to dropshipping and fulfillment through Amazon. She went from making pennies on each product to a decent percentage. She always puts a product on a viral. Don’t create a viral just for the sake of traffic. Add a monetization stream to it. Rachel also drives traffic to her eProducts to make sales. Blogging has given Rachel a debt-free lifestyle. Her audience benefits from it, too. Build your audience for the purpose of getting ad revenue and making a difference in their lives by selling them a product. What product can you create to celebrate an audience and what they love? Links and Resources for How Viral Content Grew Rachel's Income from 'Pay for Groceries' to 'Buy a House': Rachel Miller Moolah.life Rachel’s Free Facebook Group Audience Growth Pack: Top Traffic-Sending Resources Rachel’s Course: Transform Your Audience into Engaged & Raving Fans Make Money Blogging AdSense Podcast Motor Further Listening 5 Actionable Tips You Can Use to Get Better Results on Your Facebook Page Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey there, friends. It's Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to episode 266 of the ProBlogger Show. So today, I want to introduce you or re-introduce you to Rachel Miller. Many of you will know her from her previous episode where I interviewed her about Facebook strategies. It was titled "Five Actionable Tips For Better Results On Your Facebook Page." It was back in episode 208 and it's been one of our most popular episode and so I decided to invite Rachel to be a part of our blogger breakthrough series that we're currently running where we hand the podcast over to bloggers and other online entrepreneurs to talk to us about some of the breakthroughs that they've had in their blogging and online entrepreneurial journey. Rachel has been doing this for years now. I think it's about 11 years that she's been blogging and working particularly on Facebook where she's renowned that's why I interviewed her on that topic last time. Today she's going to share her story with a series of breakthroughs that have helped her to move from blogging income that paid for her groceries and paid for a modest mortgage through advertising revenue to building a business that’s in high six figures per year some years. And has literally transformed her life and the life all of others as well. I'll let her tell you a little bit more about that result later. It's one that is really impressive and I find quite inspirational because it's not just about buying things for her, it's actually about making a difference in the lives of others as well. I will mention that last time Rachel was on in that previous episode, she had some free downloadable cheat sheets to help you with your Facebook marketing and they're particularly going to help you with a story that she shares today around getting viral content.

One Blogger's Experience of Growing Traffic Without Producing New Content If you've been blogging for a while you'll relate to Todd Tresidder’s story in this episode of our Blogger Breakthroughs series. A blog that’s been around for a year or more ends up looking messy, and gives readers an inconsistent user experience. Content is old and repeated. Links are broken. Content comes in different styles and voices. Graphics look dated. A blog can become a house with many extensions that hasn't been architecturally designed with any clear thought or plan. So what should you do? Scrap the blog completely? Or is it worth giving it a major overhaul? That can take time – sometimes years – but the rewards come quickly. What Todd did: New code base New theme New redesign New internal linking New navigation structure Deleted junk, irrelevant and out-of-date content Redirected deleted content to other posts Rewrote, combined and updated remaining content Branded image and social media policy Todd stopped creating new content and started updating old content instead. And Google started rewarding his efforts. It’s not about more content. It's about better content. Quality is the new SEO. Links and Resources for How One Blogger Grew His Traffic Tenfold Without Producing New Content: FinancialMentor WordPress Pinterest Further Listening How to Get More Traffic by Updating Your Archives Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey, there. Welcome to episode 265 of the ProBlogger Podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the blogger behind ProBlogger, a blog that is designed to help you start and grow a successful, profitable blog. Now, today you’re going to hear from Todd Tresidder who has a remarkable story to share with you. I first came across Todd a number of years ago now at a conference. In fact, I heard about him before I met him. I kept bumping into bloggers who said, “You’ve got to talk to Todd. You’ve got to hear his story about how he completely updated his whole blog, which had been around for years, and gave it a real overhaul that just drove so much traffic and good things.” Today, Todd is going to share his story of how he did that. He grew his traffic tenfold without producing hardly any new content on his blog. In fact, he deleted content on his blog and he’s going to talk to you about how he did that. I think you’re going to love today’s episode, particularly if you’ve been blogging for a couple of years. This is one that is particularly relevant for anyone who’s got an archive of content already. This is something that you can do. It’s not going to be something that you can do quickly. It’s a big job but it can have amazing benefits for your blog. So, hold on. This story doesn’t go too long but it is one that I’m sure you’ll get some real value out and you’ll probably have some questions. We may have to get Todd back on the podcast to answer them. So, hold on. Here’s Todd Tresidder. Todd: Hi. This is Todd Tresidder from Reno, Nevada, United States. My site is called Financial Mentor and you can find it at https://financialmentor.com. I teach advanced investment strategy and advanced retirement planning to build wealth. It’s an educational site that offers books, courses, the Financial Mentor Podcast, and one of the largest collections of free financial calculators anywhere on the internet. I started Financial Mentor back in 1998, basically prehistoric times for the internet. Back then, all I had was a brochure where static website, built-in frames that modelled every mistake you shouldn’t do building a website. It was a showcase for worst web practices.

How One Blogger is Using Online Events to Build Engagement and Make a Difference We continue our Blogger Breakthroughs series with a story from Trixi Symonds, whose Coloured Buttons blog teaches kids how to sew. She also created Sew a Softie Day. Trixi started her blog in 2009 to post kids craft projects. After a few years, she started posting more hand-sewn, well-designed and simple projects that kids could do. She soon discovered that kids love to sew. They feel empowered when they can make their own bag, cushion or soft toy. So Trixi decided to teach kids all over the world to sew. The goal behind Sew a Softie Day was to have a day where people all over the world would teach a friend, neighbor, or anyone how to sew a simple softie (a soft toy). July 16, 2016 became Sew a Softie Day. And Trixi knew she had to promote it. She contacted anyone and everyone for help – bloggers, friends, influencers and magazines. People were happy to help. Sew a Softie Day was so successful that it turned into Sew a Softie Month in July 2018. Each day, bloggers post a simple-to-sew softie tutorial. And kid ambassadors from around the world have taught a friend how to sew or held a Sew a Softie party. Anything you can do to get your readers to participate, gather together, and work on something collectively can be very powerful. A day or event gives your readers focus and purpose. It creates anticipation and excitement. It’s something you could do for any number of topics. If you need help promoting a day or event, ask for help. You’ll be amazed and overwhelmed with the positive response. Asking for help is such a valuable but hard lesson for many of us to learn. It might take you out of your comfort zone. But put yourself out there and network. You never know what will happen. You could make a real difference in the lives of your readers. Links and Resources for PB 264: How One Blogger Builds Engagement and Makes a Difference with Online Community Events: Sew a Softie Coloured Buttons How to Get Your Readership Involved and Grow Your Audience with Community Challenges How to Snap Readers Out of Passive Lurking to Become Engaged (refer to Content Events section) International Start a Blog Day Class of 2018 Uppercase Magazine Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hey, there! Welcome to episode 264 of the ProBlogger Podcast. My name is Darren Rowse. I’m the blogger behind problogger.com which is all about helping you start a great blog that’s going to change the world in some way, that’s going to make the lives of your readers better, but also be profitable for you. You can learn more about ProBlogger and all we do particularly our courses and ebooks over at problogger.com. Today, we’re continuing our series of blogger breakthrough stories with a story of Trixi Symonds, a fellow Aussie who I think has been to some of our events, at least she’s networked with a number of people who have because she comes highly recommended. She has a great little blog called Coloured Buttons. You can find it at colouredbuttons.com. She’s also got another really interesting project which she’s going to tell us about in today’s story called Sew a Softie. Now, Trixi teaches kids how to sew. That’s what her Coloured Buttons blog is about. It’s got a lot of amazing tutorials that help people to do that, but she started this day, Sew a Softie Day. Now, I had to actually look up what a softie was. A softie is a soft toy and she teaches kids how to make their own softie. She started this day to have kids around the world join in on this project. She’s going to tell us the story about why she started that and how it’s gone for her.

How One Blogger's Vulnerability Resulted in Growing Her Blog In this episode of our Blogging Breakthroughs series we feature Mim Jenkinson and her blog Love From Mim. Mim started blogging for one reason, but ended up blogging for a different reason altogether. On her blog Mim shares tips on how she stays organized as a busy mom and juggles time for work, home, and herself. But when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she used her blog to share her story. It became a kind of therapeutic outlet for her, and made her feel better. And by showing her vulnerability she also grew her audience. Remember: readers are interested in your content because of you and the topic you're writing about. Mim now earns a six-figure income through multiple streams from her blog. She shares a few tips to help take your blog to the next level and monetize it: If you want it to be a job, treat it like one Set goals Create a structure Plan each week Work hard and be professional Mim stays true to herself and remains ethical when it comes to her blog. She is also brand ambassador and generous with other bloggers by sharing and working together. She finds blogging joyful, and has found her identity through it. She enjoys sharing things to help others. “I love my job,” she says. “There aren't enough hours in the day for all the ideas I have.” Links and Resources for How Mim Blogged Vulnerably to Grow a Six Figure Blog: Mim Jenkinson Further Listening 7 Strategies for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome 5 Areas to Focus on to Grow Your Blogging Income Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hello there and welcome to Episode 263 of the ProBlogger Podcast. My name's Darren Rowse and I'm the blogger behind problogger.com, a blog, podcast, events, job board, series of e-books and courses all designed to help you have a profitable blog. Now, today, we're continuing our series on blogger breakthroughs, where we've got listeners of the podcast pitching their stories to us to share with you. We've chosen a few of them from many that were submitted in to share with you. We tried to choose a variety of bloggers from different parts of the world with different accents, with different niches and different experiences of blogging. Today, we've got Mim Jenkinson who has a blog called Love from Mim at lovefrommim.com. Now, Mim started out blogging for one reason and ended up blogging for another. I'll let her share that transition of her blog. She's got a story that I'm sure many of you will relate to but also find quite inspiring as well. It's got some real little nuggets in there, golden nuggets of advice that I want to pull out at the end so stay tuned until the end of her story. Again, you could check out her blog at lovefrommim.com and you can check out today's show notes where I will have links to her blog and also a full transcription of her story at problogger.com/podcast/263. Now, here's Mim. Creating great content, finding an audience, building engagement, monetizing your blog. This is ProBlogger. Mim: I'm Mim Jenkinson and my blog is Love from Mim. You can find ir at lovefrommim.com. I started blogging in 2013 in June and my blog is about how I stay organized as a busy mom of two small kids and how I work from home. I'd like to share my tips on how I try to stay organized and how I juggle my family time, work time and time for myself as well. Before my breakthrough, my blog was just a hobby blog so I would share everything about my life as a mom, a little bit about the kids and the things that we use to love the products and services, the things we got up to, and I made a small income occasionally from selling a few sponsored posts,

How One Blogger Created a Directory that Attracts Readers We continue our Blogging Breakthroughs series with Carolyn Edlund, whose Artsy Shark blog focuses on the business of art. Carolyn shares the story of how she created a directory to attract readers to her blog instead of having to chase after them. It revolutionized her blog, and helped her build a successful business around it. Carolyn understands the importance of building strong business relationships and creating win-win situations through collaboration. Her directory identifies places artists can sell their art online. It also provides solid business information and helps artists gain exposure. To attract readers for your blog, ask yourself: What do your readers want? What problem can you solve for your readers? What issue can you help your readers overcome? Based on tips from Carolyn, what kind of magnet do you plan on creating to draw readers to your blog? Links and Resources for PB 262 - How Carolyn Started a Directory to Attract Readers to Her Blog: Artsy Shark Carolyn Edlund’s Directory Inbound Marketing book Success Incubator ProBlogger Job Board Courses Starting a Blog ProBlogger Pro – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Join our Facebook group Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Darren: Hi there, friends! Welcome to episode 262 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name’s Darren Rowse, and I’m the blogger behind problogger.com, a blog podcast, events, series of ebooks, and courses, all to help you start an amazing blog that’s going to change the world in some way, make people’s lives better, but also hopefully be profitable for you. You can learn more about ProBlogger and all that we do at problogger.com. Now this week, I’m actually in Orlando. As this episode goes live, I will be at our Success Incubator Event, and I know some of you will be at that event, I’m looking forward to seeing some of you. And while I’m away, we’re continuing our blogger breakthrough series of content, where we’re featuring stories from listeners of this podcast, and we’re talking about their breakthrough moments. Now, today’s listener is Carolyn Edlund, who has a great blog called Artsy Shark. You can find it at arstyshark.com. Her blog is about the business of art, and she’s going to tell us a story today that I think will be interesting to many of you. It’s a way of drawing readers into your blog that’s going to stop you from having to chase your readers, but hopefully attract them to your blog, and this has revolutionized her blog and has helped her to build a really successful business around the blog that she has. You can find show notes today at problogger.com/podcast/262, where you’ll find links to Carolyn’s blog, and also the directory that she’s about to talk about as well, and a book that she mentions, too. At the end of her story, I’ll come back and pull out a few of the golden nuggets that I heard her share, okay? Now, over to Carolyn. Carolyn: My name is Carolyn Edlund, and I’m the founder of Artsy Shark, which is the blog about the business of art. Before I ever became a blogger, I was a self-employed artist for more than twenty years, with a successful production studio, and subsequently, I was a sales representative for an art publishing company. I had a lot of experience marketing and selling art, and I also led a business networking group where I learned a lot about the importance of building strong business relationships and creating win-win situations where both parties can benefit by collaborating with each other. I got into blogging sheerly by accident back in 2009, after I took a free course held at a local community college. At that time, I had no idea what I was doing, and I wasn’t quite sure what would happen. I got started by writing some business articles for ...