Wit + Wisdom: Serious Business. Seriously Funny.

SHOW NOTES Facebook groups are a great way to start finding your community. There were 620 million Facebook groups in 2015! Search based on interest and test out a few at a time. Read the group description before requesting access to be sure it sounds like something you want to be part of. Introduce yourself properly when joining a group. Tell people who you are, but don't pitch stuff. Tell people something interesting about yourself, then give one link to your website or Facebook page so people can connect with you. BONUS: Ask a question that is relevant to what you talked about to foster engagement. You are not tied to any Facebook group, so leave when it's no longer for you. PLEASE don't announce your departure. Just leave. Be wary of super large groups. It's hard to engage in groups with thousands of people. Masterminds, or accountability groups, are small groups of like-minded individuals with a similar purpose. Key word: SMALL. Build & nurture a community of your readers, too. These will become you

Your inbox is likely flooded with promotional emails from course creators wanting you to BUY NOW and telling you that YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO MISS THIS!! While they're screaming at you to invest in a course, you're trying to figure out if it's actually right for you and worth the investment. Erin & I seek to help you get over the fear of missing out, and make smarter investment decisions when it comes to your blog's education and your money. In this week's episode, we help you answer the question, "Should I Take That Course?" SHOW NOTES There's more that goes into the decision-making process than the financial aspect of the course. First, ask yourself if the VALUE of the course is equivalent to the COST. If someone claims to be an "expert" in something, research their background and determine for yourself if they are an expert in your eyes. Beware of courses that promise to make you an expert in ALL THE THINGS. What is the ultimate end result of the course supposed to be, and is that what you're willing to p

It's blog conference season!! If you've never experienced a blog conference, they are amazing opportunities to learn more about blogging, and connect with people you've only ever "met" online. Erin & I discuss what to know before you go! SHOW NOTES Know your capacity for groups of people. If you can't handle large groups of people for several days, look for smaller conferences or retreats. You need to establish a budget, and take into consideration the cost of the conference ticket + travel expenses + hotel + food, and any other expenses like new business cards, clothing, etc. Add to your conference budget at least one dinner out with your friends. Know why you're going: Networking time with friends, networking time with brands, or education. It's impossible to do all of these things without exhausting yourself, or short-changing your experience. Pay attention to the structure of the conference. Some conferences have multiple sessions in the same time slot. Let's talk business cards: blogger's business c

We see new trends pop up all the time, even in the blog world, but are those trends worth following? This week, Erin & I are calling out some of the more recent trends in blogging and giving you the honest truth behind them. SHOW NOTES Not all trends are worth following, so do your own research before following the herd. TREND #1: Replacing the headshot on your blog with only your logo. Put a headshot on your blog, and make it professional. a logo alone isn't good enough. Update your header image & profile any time you have something to promote, and add a description with links & calls-to-action TREND #2: You can only make money blogging if you talk about blogging. Don't start a blog to make money. And don't blog about something you're not passionate about just because you think you'll be successful. TREND #3: You have to create a product to make money. There are plenty of bloggers who make money without ever selling a thing. Stay true to you, and honor your audience. TREND #4: You're br

Let's be real: You are not Beyonce. You may have seen the meme going around social media that says, "You have the same 24 hours as Beyonce." While we may have the same 24 hours, we don't have a team of assistants to take things off of our plates. So today, Erin and I are talking about time & project management. We're sharing things that we personally use and provide tips to help you manage ALL THE THINGS with your blog & business. SHOW NOTES: The truth is, no one can do ALL THE THINGS, and do them effectively. We have to have structure & discipline. Your visual space is important. Take visual clutter away to avoid distractions and streamline your work process. Stations are great - create stations for each recurring task like photography, video recording, etc. Don't just schedule the deadline for a due date. Schedule each piece of the creation process. Make sure you love what you're blogging about or you'll procrastinate to no end. Come up with a workflow for everything that you do. Do the same st

Welcome to Season 2 of the Blog Fuel podcast! I've got a season-long cohost, Erin Shebish! She is so encouraging and real, and she'll bring a unique voice and perspective to the podcast. Season 1 left off with Episode 18, so Season 2 picks up with Episode 19, in which Erin & I discuss the nitty gritty of starting a blog, but not the tech-y stuff. We get honest and raw and talk about the things nobody really talks about, like the time it takes to run a successful blog, and how to keep a hobby blog a hobby! SHOW NOTES Blogging is hard work, and can very quickly become all-consuming. It's important to find balance. Set goals for your blog. If you want to blog for fun, keep it light & fun. Don't try to jump into monetization, or do what all the "big bloggers" are doing. Set boundaries for the content you'll share on your blog and social channels and honor those boundaries. How much of your real life will be made public? Don't start a blog just to start a blog. If you have to ask strangers in a public gro

Julie is the blogger behind White Lights on Wednesday, Bread Booze Bacon, and, most recently, DIY Blog Designs. She is a self-taught Wordpress designer who has customized numerous blogs for clients, and today she's sharing her knowledge of Wordpress with you! From themes to plugins to hosting and everything in between, Julie knows her stuff! SHOW NOTES Julie's passion project has turned into her most successful blog, Bread Booze Bacon. Julie loved her designer, but hated having to go through someone else to change things, so she started teaching herself how to design Wordpress sites. Wordpress.com is a free blogging platform similar to Blogger or Wix. Your content is hosted on their servers. Wordpress.org is a self-hosted blogging platform, so you pay for hosting. You have more control, and less risk - you own the site & the content. Budget, traffic, and word-of-mouth are the three biggest factors to choosing a host. If your website is like your house, Genesis Framework (affiliate link) is the

Kayla Hollatz is the queen of Twitter chats and the expert community-builder. In fact, her business is designed to help you create an epic community around your brand! Kayla shares the impact her highly successful Twitter chat, #CreateLounge, has had on her business, and how she has used this Twitter chat to create an amazingly supportive community of like-minded business owners. SHOW NOTES Kayla started her career in PR & social media, and loved blogging, but discovered that her heart was more for the creative bloggers and entrepreneurs. The leap of faith to start #CreateLounge changed her business and, subsequently, her life. She called it a "gathering", and it truly feels like a community. She joined a ton of Twitter chats before starting her own. Twitter is a great place to connect with anyone from a solopreneur or blogger with a side hustle to a corporate executive. Twitter chat conversations can turn into email or Skype conversations, and allow you to make genuine connections during live conversati

Brianne is by far one of the perkiest, happiest people I've ever come across online. She's a former musician, an amazing photographer, and a branding expert. She firmly believes that branding is more than graphics and colors, and in this week's episode, she helps bloggers and online entrepreneurs develop their brand through their own personal story. SHOW NOTES Branding is a story. Your story includes your background and your history, and your visuals and the intangibles - the way you write or talk - tell your brand story. Your voice is part of your branding, and it's important to develop your voice. Write every single day - write something often to hone in on your own unique voice. Brianne likes doing voice memos, then listen to yourself talk and write it out. If people meet you and you're nothing like you are online, that's bad branding. Authenticity is incredibly important. Brianne asks clients a series of intentionally vague questions to get to know them, then helps them hash out their responses and

While security isn't usually the first thought on a blogger's mind, it should absolutely be something at the top of your list. Alison from Tiny Blue Orange is an expert on Wordpress security, and she breaks down simple things we can all do to alleviate security risks and keep our sites up and running. SHOW NOTES The security aspect of her business started when one of her early clients lost everything due to a security risk. Yes, there are bots and hackers, but technology fails sometimes, too. You have to safeguard your site from all these risks. Alison uses and teaches WP but the concepts apply to all websites. Brute force attacks: they try combinations of usernames and passwords over and over. Your site can be hacked by these attacks, or your site can go down simply due to the number of attempts. #anythingbutadmin - don't use the admin username. If you work somewhere with a shared wifi, use a password vault. WP updates: Letting WP and plugins get out of date puts you at risk so keep them updated. You don't

Do you ever feel like you're just another quiet voice in a sea of same-ness? You're not alone. We all deal with a case of the "why bother's" from time to time. But just because other people are doing something similar to what you're doing does not mean you should quit. It just means you should let your unique light shine through! Rachel Moffett from The Haute Notes and I discuss ways for you to stand out in your niche, offering insights into our own businesses and tips that you can apply immediately to your online presence. SHOW NOTES Rachel took a completely different path to create her business, and that part of her story is part of what makes her stand out in her niche. If you feel like everyone is doing what you're doing, the advice Rachel has to offer is this: No one else can do what you do with your unique voice, so pursue what lights you up. Establishing a community helps you become a valuable resource for your readers. A brand helps you stand out, but it's more than fonts & colors. The look of yo

Two of my favorites words: Productivity & Efficiency - both of which are key components for a successful business. Mariah from Bloom Hustle Grow works with clients to help them set up strategies to be more productive and work more efficiently, and in this week's episode, she shares some of that goodness with you! SHOW NOTES The reality of doing all the things is being organized Have a main central focus, and build up to certain aspects of your business. Overloading results in burnout. One of Mariah's favorite tools is Trello because it is so customizable. When using social media, it's important to be consistent with it. Mariah uses Buffer for social media, Tailwind for Pinterest, and Later for Instagram. Batching social media saves time. The Pomodoro technique helps Mariah stay task-oriented and get more done in less time. Get your handles on all social media channels but start with just 2-3 so you can get comfortable with them before focusing on more. Approach systems and structure like a science experi

I'm completely nerding out with Darrell Vesterfelt this week, y'all. He's the Director of Growth with Convertkit, so if you are a Convertkit user, you've more than likely seen his name pop up in your inbox a time or two. Before he worked for Convertkit, he was a user of the platform. We dive into the many features of Convertkit, but we also talk a lot about the value of email marketing for bloggers. SHOW NOTES Convertkit came around at the right time to fill a need. The market was ready and Convertkit was ready so, as Darrell says, it was the "perfect storm". You shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket, so while social media is good, it's fleeting. Email sits in your reader's inbox and allows you to communicate 1-on-1. Think about writing your emails as connecting to another human. Drip campaigns, or sequences in Convertkit, allow you to time your communication based on the relationship you have with your subscribers. For example, you might communicate differently with a new readers as opposed to someon

The internet has opened so many doors for those of us with an entrepreneurial spirit to have businesses online, allowing us to work from virtually anywhere with an internet connection. Bloggers now have the ability to create an income stream from something that used to be just a hobby, and it's amazing to see the growth of some bloggers. But with all the good also comes some not-so-good. Bloggers in particular are bombarded daily by pitches for courses that promise them pageviews, email subscribers, and "get rich quick" goodness, and it's easy to fall into the trap of trying to be someone else's version of successful. Erin Shebish and I get very honest and real in this episode in an effort to help you stifle the negativity and pursue your own version of success, because it really does look different for everyone. SHOW NOTES: Break the rules - it's OK! Success is not the same for everyone. People seem to be preying on the "get rich quick from blogging" idea but it's unrealistic. You don't have to spend a ton

Pinterest is the 2nd most popular non-Google search engine, but how do you convert Pinterest followers into blog readers or business clients? Summer Tannhauser of Lady Boss League realized that Pinterest is more than just beautiful photos when she was running her online travel consultancy business. She learned how to make Pinterest work harder for her business with great results, bringing 75% of her clients directly to her website. She now works with bloggers and online business professionals to help them find their target audience and pin more strategically to help grow their business through the power of Pinterest, and she is sharing her tips with you in this week's episode. SHOW NOTES: Started online travel consultancy business & decided how to use Pinterest to get clients to her business since she already loved the platform Over 75% of clients came from Pinterest Pinterest is 2x more likely to convert into a sale over Facebook traffic, so people are going to Pinterest with the mindset of purchasin

Hey y'all! Welcome to the Blog Fuel Podcast. I'm your host, Kirsten Thompson from Sweet Tea, LLC. This is Episode #9, Creating Epic Brand/Blogger Relationships. Carly Anderson is the blogger and very stylish momma behind Lipgloss and Crayons, and while she works quite often with brands, not a single post on her blog feels sponsored. She's perfected the art of reaching out to brands, and creating sponsored content that feels completely authentic, because it IS authentic. She's passionate about helping other bloggers make more money by rocking sponsored posts, and shares so much in this episode. Get ready to take notes. This is a good one. SHOW NOTES: Her blog began as a hobby, but after her daughter was born, she started writing about different brands and things she used for her daughter, and connected to her readers in a different way. The way brands work with bloggers has changed a lot in the 4 years since she started her blog. How to start? Write posts about products or services WITHOUT getting paid for th

Whether building a blog or a business, or if your blog is your business, you can easily allow yourself to give into overwhelm. This week's episode is a note from my heart, directly to yours, about honoring your priorities. I fail every single day, but I do my best to keep my priorities in check, and I'm sharing how I do this with you. SHOW NOTES: It's one thing to say you have priorities, and another to live them out in your day-to-day life, even when you're busy.  Make a point to write down your priorities and keep them in front of you. Start your day with intention, whatever that looks like for you. For me, it's Bible study and a shower. Particularly when you work from home, set the tone of your day by getting dressed for work. Knowing your priorities allows you to make educated decisions when opportunities arise, helping you say yes and no to the right things. If you work from home, set office hours and make them known to your clients and your family, then stick to them. Above all else, remember y

Bloggers are more interested than ever in producing ebooks and books, but knowing where to start, and how to navigate all the aspects of the process, can prove to be difficult. Jodi Brandon, of Jodi Brandon Editorial, breaks down the process in this week's episode of the Blog Fuel podcast. Jodi has been interested in books and the publishing industry since she was a little girl, and moved to New York immediately after graduating from college to pursue her career. After many years in the corporate publishing industry, Jodi realized her passions were more towards helping creative independent authors get published. Jodi specializes in various forms of editing for non-fiction writers, serving as the extra set of eyes to help you produce a polished and cohesive product. We dive into the world of self-publishing in this episode, helping you go from blog to book. SHOW NOTES: There are 3 reasons to write a book: credibility, visibility, and money. Jodi breaks down how these are all tied together and help scale your

Epic. Seriously, if I had to pick one word to describe this chat, and all the valuable information I got from it, with Lauren Caselli of Lauren Caselli Events, it would be "EPIC".  Lauren has been in the event business for more than ten years, helping to create everything from non-profit events attended by government officials, to upscale boutique weddings. She now helps creatives kickstart their own series of events. Well, I'm a creative and I'm hosting my first event in September with my partner Heather. I was so excited to pick Lauren's brain! If you've ever had the inkling of an idea to organize your own events to take online relationships offline, this will light that fire under you to get you started. SHOW NOTES: There are 2 styles of events: lead generation & money-making. Lead generation events tend to have a lower ticket price but the event is a marketing tool. Money making events have higher tickets, and are typically smaller events like retreats. Lead generating events are not just a

Creative ruts. Writer's block. Stuck in a rut. Whatever you call it, "blogger's block" is a real thing. In this week's episode, I'm chatting with Lynn White of Lynn White Designs about the reality of blogger's block and how to avoid it and overcome it.  Lynn and I both share actionable tips and insight into our own struggles with blogger's block, in hopes that you will learn from our experiences. This really does happen to everyone, even if nobody is talking about it. So listen in and be encouraged. SHOW NOTES: People deal with a rut but don't like to acknowledge it. Lynn deals with her own creative blocks by walking away, doing something else, and reminds us not to beat ourselves up. Blocks can make you feel like a failure, so close down and do something unrelated. Lynn likes to cook, call a girlfriend to chat, or take a walk. The key is to step outside of the work environment. Working at home makes it difficult to separate work from home. Having designated office hours helps. Also, when choosing your