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How I Use Fiverr to Run My Blogging Business

January 1, 2021 by Katie Clark 1 Comment

Running a successful blogging business has a lot of moving parts.

For the vast majority of my blogging career, I thought I had to do it all myself – the content creation, updating, social media promotion, the tech support, the SEO…everything.

However, over the past few years, I’ve discovered that there is value in hiring people to help – especially people who are much smarter than I am at certain topics!

I’ve used college interns successfully for a couple semesters now, which has been a great way to get more content out (especially for my side dish website). However, there are certain things that I just couldn’t have them do (mainly because they were things I’m not sure I could successfully train them in!)

Enter Fiverr. Eralier this year, I invested in Fiverr, and I thought to myself, “Why am I not using Fiverr more?”

Which began my Fiverr obsession. While there have been some misses, I have been extremely impressed thus far with those that I’ve hired – and even more, the price that I’ve paid.

What I use Fivver for as a Blogger

Mobile App

I am in the process of launching a mobile app for my website, The Breastfeeding Mama. I talked with a few people on Fiverr, and I settled on someone who has done a fantastic job. I have been thrilled with his work, and the price was unbeatable.

Here is the seller I am using.

SEO Technical and Content Audit

SEO audits are expensive. I paid $100 for one of these and Fiverr, and I was actually really impressed with the depth of it. The content audit left something to be desired, but I still gleaned some good information. I would definitely say it was in line with some that I’ve seen for A LOT more.

Technical Fixes for Website

The person who did my SEO audit is doing a bunch of technical fixes for me as well. It was affordable, and he’s doing a great job.

Here is who I have used for the audit and technical fixes.

Content Creation

This is a big one. I have launched several new sites – and I have zero desire to write the content. While I use my interns for a lot of content creation, as well as a few others that I have hired, when they aren’t available, I turn to Fiverr.

I have found some excellent writers. You do have to be careful (I’ll talk more about this below), but the prices are, once again, unbeatable. I have found the most success with using someone for Simply Side Dishes, because I have a pretty strict template that is easy to follow.

Logo Design

I got five designs for $20. There was a little bit of back and forth with them, but I was really pleased. These were for some new sites.

Calculator Creation

I got some quotes for creating some calculators for The Breastfeeding Mama from my normal tech guy, but it was way out of my price range. I went on Fiverr, and I was able to get these calculators for way less, and they turned out amazing!

You can see them here:

Free Breastfeeding and Alcohol Calculator

Expressed Breast Milk Bottle Calculator

I also have a few more in the works!

Here is who I used for my calculators.

Facebook and Instagram Ad Management

This is something I am just starting to look into. I have struggled with getting Facebook ads running, and I am talking to a few people that I think will do a great job.

Tips for Successful Fiverr Use

Read Reviews

I never work with someone who doesn’t have reviews. Sometimes they just have a few, but I only use them if I really have had a good conversation.

There are a lot of people with no reviews, and I’m not interested in being a guinea pig. Read the reviews and pick someone who has good ones.

Be Very Clear with Expectations

There can be some communication barriers due to language, though most everyone I’ve worked with speaks English quite well. However, sometimes I have found some miscommunication in what I want and what was delivered – so make sure you are very clear with exactly what you want.

I also find that they are always willing to make changes, so if you aren’t satisfied, don’t be afraid to ask them to fix something!

Negotiation is Always an Option

I don’t always just go and buy a gig straight from the sellers page. I will often ask about bulk discounts, ask if they are willing to take less, etc. Never hurts to negotiate!

Expect Upsells

I am always having the people I work with try and sell me on something else. Sometimes I bite, sometimes I just say, no thank you. It’s just part of how it works. It doesn’t always happen (especially with my content creation people), but I wouldn’t be too put off by it. They are just trying to make some more money!

Double-check

If you are buying content, it is ESSENTIAL to make sure nothing is plagiarized. This is a problem you can run into on Fiverr if you aren’t careful.

I hired someone to write something for a new site, and I ran it through my Grammarly plagiarism checker (I highly recommend using this – as well as for checking their content – and your own – for grammatical errors). I found that there were certain chunks that were phrased the exact same as another article on the web (it was about a different kind of dog, but a similar post).

I asked her about it, and it turns out it was another article she had written – which is what I suspected. She was super nice and said she could rewrite it, but I just made some changes myself. It wasn’t anything major, but you definitely don’t want to get copied content!

You also want to make sure everything makes sense. All of my articles are written well, but sometimes the phrasing of things isn’t really correct. So go through and make edits to make it flow better with your audience.

The Request Feature

I only recently discovered this. You can put out a request for what you are looking for, put the amount that you are wanting to pay, and people will send you offers.

You tend to get a lot of offers – and a lot of them are way more than you have put initially. But you do tend to get some good offers. Just make sure you still read reviews and have a long conversation!

Be Kind

Many of the sellers want to make you happy, and they will go above and beyond to be very polite and do what you want. I would try and be patient and kind too!

So what have you used Fiverr for? Do you have any questions? Comment below!

Tips for Using an Interns for Your Blogging Business

September 12, 2020 by Katie Clark Leave a Comment

My interest in blogging professionally started when I took on an internship during my senior year at BYU. At the time, it just seemed like a sweet opportunity to work from home – because I had a baby, and the last thing I wanted to do was leave him!

I am forever grateful for my mentor! I wrote about EHRs and America’s Got Talent – so nothing to do with what I write now. But it helped me realize the opportunities that existed to work from home.

I had never really thought about interns until earlier this year. I was wishing I could all the money in the world to pay people to do all the menial tasks that distract me from doing the things I actually enjoy with blogging. And then I thought, “Hey, why not get an intern?”

I asked about it in a Facebook group and got mixed feelings on it. Someone suggested a course from another blogger that I respected about working with interns on your blog called “The Intern Strategy Course“. It cost me $200, but I am so grateful I took that course. She gave me step by step information on how to get interns, how to set up training, how to making things run smoothly, etc.

I got my first set of interns this summer. It started out promising but soon flopped – and it’s because I didn’t follow her advice to only take on interns that are getting academic credit.

Things didn’t really work out with any of these interns for various reasons. Originally, they had all said they were doing it for academic credit, but shortly before they started, they informed me they weren’t going to do it for credit anymore, but they still wanted to be interns.

Long story short, that didn’t really happen. Some worked longer than others – and I did get some get work during that time, and I am grateful for that. . But eventually they kind of fizzled out. I was frustrated but not willing to give up, because I really felt like having interns could be a game changer. But I made it an absolute rule that they had to be getting academic credit in order to be an intern for me.

So I tried again for the fall semester. There are still a few months left, but it has gone SO much better. All of my interns are committed, very professional, and are doing this it for academic credit. I am in contact with their professors, and it’s gone really smoothly.

It’s been especially really awesome for my Simply Side Dishes website! I have a few paid writers there as well, but they’ve been great for getting out more content, rather than just the twice a week posting we were doing before.

I have a lot of training videos that I had them watch in the beginning, and now I just assign them tasks in Asana every week. They work quickly and I’ve been so impressed.

I have them do all sorts of things for me, including:

Writing Posts (especially for my side dish blog and my breastfeeding website)
Make and schedule pins
Upload printables to my site and optimize for SEO
Check for broken links
Update Alt text (I had all my images that didn’t have alt text run through a program from The Blog Fixer, but I have to approve or change them all. Big task!)
Make videos on JumpRope
SEO research
Schedule out content via MissingLettr
Writing email sequences
Making printables
Orphan Posts
Making eBooks for me
Updating old posts
Updating/Creating Category Posts
Putting descriptions on Pinterest boards
Hashtag Research
Affiliate outreach and research for my courseFacebook group management

I know Christina has used interns for video and I think photography, so those are some options as well if they have that specific skill set (if I ever get someone for those, I would plan to reimburse them for ingredients/materials).

I have plenty of work, and they do great. I try to make sure they are doing things that are actually valuable to them, but they’ve been great.

There are certain conditions you have to meet in order to have an unpaid/credit only intern. The course I took actually didn’t have that up to date, and the old rules were a lot more annoying. You can read them here.

So if you are interested in getting interns, here are a few things I recommend:

Consider taking Christina’s Course. It is so, so helpful.
Make sure they are doing it for credit or pay them. If they are doing it for credit and you still want to pay, you may attract a bigger crowd. I haven’t done paid, though. Christina hasn’t either.
Come up with a list of EVERYTHING you do and see if it would be worth it to you to have someone an intern do those tasks – and worth your time to prepare them!
Contact local colleges or a college you have a relationship with. I have gotten all mine through my alma mater.
Make sure you have a very detailed listing – here is mine.
Conduct an actual interview. I had people that looked great on paper and were much less impressive in an interview and vice versa.
Expect it to take some time to get up and running. It took me quite some time to get training modules done, and in the beginning,they seem to have more questions.
Have an internship welcome letter that explains the internship,what they’ll be doing, etc. (here is mine)
Have a timesheet for them to track their time
Be patient and understanding of their time. Make sure they are actually learning something!
I have my interns work on a task-based system. I give them tasks at the beginning of the week, and I have them tell me if they need to meet with me. I try to be available via text or email throughout the day to answer questions. Some of my interns have specific hours they work, so I especially try to be available during those times. It is up to them to let me know if they need more tasks or hours, but this hasn’t been a problem so far.
Be aware of how many hours they need for their internship before committing
Assign tasks that you don’t mind having to train someone new in every semester.
Use a task management program like Asana or Trello
Use Lastpass for passwords
Have primary and secondary tasks (primary tasks are things typically assigned weekly, secondary they do either every week on a regular basis OR when they need more work)
Put in the time to make training modules. I make them really fast using a screen recording software or with my phone’s screen recording.
I find the easiest content to have them do are things that follow a certain template (like my recipes) or are easy to research. I don’t have them do DIY posts or things that require more hands-on knowledge. I also don’t have them do affiliate heavy posts.
I found people through the Communications department. Depending on what you need, you could find people through graphic design, video, photography, and business departments as well.
Write a great listing! Be thorough.

This is not for everyone. It does take some micromanaging. As demonstrated earlier this summer, it doesn’t always go as planned (but there are ways to mitigate this). There is turnover – after the semester is over, they are gone! Factor in the time it takes to interview and train new people.

You could also just have some do writing for you. I have lots of tasks that I need others to do. But you can make it a lot less complicated than me!

I have people I pay to do other work for me – things I don’t want to have to train over and over again for, or that I just trust the way they do them and don’t care to change. I wouldn’t base your entire business on interns.

Obviously, I haven’t done this for a long time yet. It’s been a learning process, and I’m finding what things I like them to do, and what things I prefer to do or like to have one of my paid contractors do. But I’m finding it to work well – especially for my newer sites!

The Basics of Creating a Killer Blog Newsletter

December 29, 2018 by Katie Clark 2 Comments

Are you wanting to learn how to create a blog newsletter…but you aren’t sure where to start? In this post, we’ll discuss everything you need to have a solid framework for your newsletter!

If there is one thing I would tell myself when I first started blogging, it would be this:

Start a newsletter.

Newsletters can feel overwhelming, but it is one of the few platforms you have true control over.

You have all those emails at your disposal. Sure, you have to battle with spam folders and unengaged followers – but it’s a lot easier than battling with the ever-changing algorithms with social media.

Plus, I think emails are a great way to connect with your readers on a more personal basis and create raving fans.

My email list has helped me launched several successful courses, sell thousands of dollars in products, and generate traffic to my website for new AND old content.

At this point, my email list is segmented out into lots of different categories, and it’s a little bit complicated. However, in this post, I will be going over just the basics to getting started – I’m really big on doing things one step at a time. It really helps avoid getting overwhelmed!

Pick a Provider

First of all, you need to figure out where you will store your emails and send out your newsletter from.

Unfortunately, you really can’t just collect emails from your website and send them out from your gmail address.

There are many companies that provide these services – some that start out free or very cheap all the way up to ones that cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

For beginners, I usually recommend MailerLite or Mad Mimi.

MailerLite is free for the first 1,000 subscribers, and it has affordable tiers moving up from there.

Mad Mimi starts at $10 a month.

I find both of these companies to be pretty user-friendly, easy to setup, and they are typically pretty compatible with a lot of optin companies.

The cost you will pay – regardless of what company you use – will go up when you get more subscribers.

Personally, I use ConvertKit. It is pricier than some, but it has all the features I need for what I do with my email list. I think it’s a great company, and at some point or another, I do recommend switching to it.

If you are one of those people who doesn’t want to change after a few months or a year, you can definitely start out with it.

For most people, though? I don’t recommend switching to ConvertKit until you are able to make money through your list – my goal is to at least make back what I pay for the service each month (some months I make more, some months I make less, but overall, I make a lot more in a year than I pay to ConvertKit through my email, so it’s 100% worth it).

There are tons of email providers out there, so feel free to read reviews – be aware that many of those reviews are fueled by affiliate links 🙂 I am using mine above, but these are companies I have used myself and can endorse. I use MailerLite for quite some time until I switched to ConvertKit. They have added a lot of new features as of late, as well.

Once you’ve selected your provider, go through their signup process so you can get ready to roll!

Find an Optin

Now that you have your email provider all set up, you need a way to collect emails.

If you are using WordPress and a Genesis-powered theme, at the most simple level, you can use something called Genesis eNews Extended.

It’s a simple box that you can just connect to your email provider and place at different places on your website.

When you are just getting started, I think it’s important just to have SOMETHING setup so you don’t miss out on subscribers.

With that said, I do recommend getting a more robust optin service on your website. There are tons out there, which can be a little overwhelming.

Believe me, I’ve tried many of them 🙂

Personally, I have used Thrive Le a ds from Thrive Themes- it’s very inexpensive for a lifetime subscription, which is something I always like. I’ve also used Thrive Themes Quiz Builder, which has been really awesome for building my email list as well.

I will say it can be a bit glitchy at times, and I can’t always get it to work the way I want. But it’s been good to me over the years, and it has tons of optins you can use.

One of my my websites, I use Bloom from Elegant Themes. It’s a pretty simple to setup, and I like the optins it has available. It connects with most major email providers.

I have also used HelloBar in the past. I really like the bar at the top of the page, and I find that it converts pretty well. They have a free plan, but they recently updated some of their paid plans to be way out of my budget (over $100 a month for me!), so I’ve stopped using it. It’s great for people with less impressions on their site, though.

One of the fastest ways I’ve grown my email list is through my Facebook groups, but that’s a post for another day.

Setup an RSS

Having a newsletter is more than just sending out an RSS of every post – but I think it’s a good place to start.

It can easily be the basis of a great newsletter – and in my opinion, if it helps you get your newsletter out, then great!

For some of my segments, I have ConvertKit autocreate an RSS. I don’t have it autosend it, but it’s nice to have the bones for the email be there.

I do this with my food newsletter. Every time I have a new recipe go up, I can just jump into ConvertKit, find that the email has been created, and then I can easily change parts of it.

I’ll add a little more personality, maybe some tips, and occasionally I’ll throw in an affiliate link or promotion that is relevant.

I have also set up an RSS for all my blog posts. Although I only send one email a month to my entire list, I have a “General List” that I send an email to about once a week with posts from the previous week. ConvertKit pulls in my posts from the previous week, creates an email, and then I go in and add some more content in.

This just helps make the process a little bit easier for me.

Decide your Purpose

What is your purpose for sending out an email? Who do you want to signup for it?

Create your “ideal” reader and create your email around them. Chances are, if your blog is like mine with a variety of content, you may have more than one ideal reader.

But when you first start out, just start simple and have one “raving fan” in mind as you create it.

Not all newsletters are going to be the same – some just want to get more traffic to their sites. Others might want to sell their course. Some may want to increase their affiliate links.

And if you are like me…you’ll do a little bit of all those things.

But start by deciding what your main purpose is and build your strategy around that.

Create Your Hook

It’s easy to just throw up a subscription box that says, “Signup for our weekly newsletter.”

But honestly…it’s not very enticing.

You need to come up with a good reason for people to signup for your newsletter.

The biggest “hooks” that I see people using are:

Free Printables
Free eBooks
Mini Courses

Personally, I have used printables, eBooks, mini courses, roundups of resources (for instance, 70+ Instant Pot recipes – which includes links to different recipes – or 100+ Cricut Project ideas for beginners) – all with varying success.

I have found that my mini courses have brought me the most success, because it puts me in my new subscribers email box consistently for a week, and it’s usually very targeted.

Courses can be easily created from exisiting content on your website. For instance, for my Cricut subscribers, I just created a five day “intro to Cricut” course. I took five of my popular Cricut blog posts, wrote a brief synopsis of it in an email, and it goes out to everyone who signs up.

People LOVE it.

With printables, it has really just depended. I offer a free editable Birthday Calendar for subscribers, but the people who subscribe are terrible. They don’t open anything beyond the initial email.

However, I have also offered printables for people who are members of my church, and it’s become one of my engaged lists. I believe that printables are helpful when you are going to be able to create consistent content for that group of people related to what they signed up for.

So take a good, long look at the type of people who are visiting your site and decide what you think they’d love the most.

I have tons of different “hooks” across my website, so you can definitely add more as you go. I do recommend just starting with one that will appeal to your most popular content first and go from there.

Make Them Love You

Easier said than done, I know.

But a huge part of having a successful email list is gaining the trust of your readers.

You don’t want them to groan every time they see an email come through – or, even worse, have them get in the habit of just deleting the email every time it comes through.

You want your readers to look forward to seeing what you have to share.

And this can take time.

I don’t recommend just sending salesy emails all the time. This is the quickest way to make your subscribers really dislike you.

Always add value to the emails you send – you want them to feel like they are getting something from your emails.

It doesn’t have to be something crazy insightful or amazing.

Short and to the point is usually the best way to go!

Launch it

As with most things with your blog, the best thing is just to get started now!

While you are sitting around twiddling your thumbs trying to make things perfect, someone else is winning over their subscribers that could be learning to love YOU.

It doesn’t have to be perfect – it just has to be functional.

So stop reading this post and GO start your newsletter.

My Newsletter Strategy

I always find it helpful to see what others do, so I thought I’d send out what my strategy is (roughly). It’s not perfect – and please, don’t let it overwhelm you, because mine is far more complicated than most need to be.

But it might give you some ideas.

Currently, these are my main optins (this will show up on different pages)

Cricut for Beginners eCourse
Prenatal Crash eCourse (I get the most signups for this through my “Online Pregnancy Test” quiz I built).
Breastfeeding eCourse
Dollar Tree eBook
Meal Planning Printables
Various printables for different pages (My printables for my church are most popular. I have other printables for lots of seasonal topics).
Free mini eCookbook
70+ Instant Pot Ideas
Printable instructions for popular DIY projects

As far as what I email out, this is the general schedule:

At the beginning of the month, I send one BIG email to my entire list – regardless of their segment. It just has an overview of the past month’s posts, any special deals I want to promote, etc.
Each week, I send an email with the previous week’s posts to my general list. I usually try to include an affiliate product.
Any time

Additional Resources:

This post just touches on the basics, but I think it will give you a good place to start.

I really struggled with my newsletter for a long time – and honestly, sometimes I still do. However, I took two classes that I feel helped push me in the right direction.

Building an Effective Email List – I took this one over a year ago. There were parts I didn’t love, and it made me start feeling like I had to do ALL.THE.PRINTABLES., which, for my site, wasn’t the best idea. But overall, it’s a decent price, and she gives you a good framework for long-term growth and success.

I really like that she is a blogger who doesn’t just blog about blogging…which seems to be the trend with a lot of courses.

Heather runs a very successful family-oriented blog, and she’s been successful with her newsletter that is marketed toward moms/families, which is what initially attracted me to her course. It’s very detailed, and I think it’s a good one to take.

Email on Autopilot – This is a course I was able to take for free. The price is going up, and honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the new price.

But then again, I think most courses cost way too much 🙂

With that said, this course really changed my perspective on my newsletters, and it gave me a kick in the pants I needed to finish a couple of welcome sequences that have been extremely successful for me.

I’ve launched a few courses since I created those, and I credit this email course for giving me the foundation for a successful launch. It really just broke down growing your newsletter with a captivating welcome series in a way that really resonated with me.

And there you have it! Feel free to ask any questions below, and make sure you join our blogging Facebook group.

What To Discuss Before Starting a Sponsored Post

October 4, 2017 by Katie Clark 2 Comments

What To Discuss Before Starting a Sponsored Post

Over the years, I have done a lot of sponsored posts.

Some of the experiences have been amazing, and I look forward to working with those companies again.

Others? Well, let’s just say there are a handful of companies I would rather eat dirt than work with again.

For the most part, I’ve been able to figure out the best way to weed out potential disasters before they start, and thankfully, most of my working relationships nowadays go pretty smoothly.

Today, I wanted to share a few things to consider when you are going forward with sponsored content. These are things you should always discuss before you agree to anything.

Pay

You should come to an agreement on how much you will be paid for your services rendered. I generally don’t recommend listing your prices on your website or right off the bat, as I feel it removes all room for negotiations. Also, this may vary considerably depending on what you are doing (for instance, one of my 5,000 word articles is going to cost more than a 500 word recipe).

Things to keep in mind when it comes to pay:

How many posts (I occasionally will give a discount for multiple posts booked)
How many social amplifications do they want?
Do they provide a budget for boosting a post?
Who retains the rights to the pictures and content?
Does the brand want to repurpose the content?
How fast of a turn around do they want for the post?
How many pictures are required?
Are videos required?

It can be helpful to break out your pricing for everything they want (so show them that a sponsored post is $800, a Facebook share is $200, an Instagram Story series is $300, etc.). This can be helpful in case they want to cut down on costs, so they can know which things they won’t required.

You should also discuss grounds for additional payment. For instance, I was recently working with a brand who hadn’t contacted me for over a month, and all of the sudden they were requesting a full post AND social media posts written in just two days. This situation was very frustrating for me, because I typically require at least a week’s notice for a post, but because we hadn’t discussed this, I hadn’t put a rush clause into our contract. Rest assured, this is something I will always include in the future.

Payment Terms

I am getting to the point where I ask for half payment up front. Unfortunately, not all companies are honest, and they can take their sweet time to send you your check. I’ve had companies in the past that stopped responding to my emails and never paid me, or brands that paid me, but only after I reminded them months later.

Make sure you talk with the brand about when you will receive final payment, how the payment will be sent, and, if there are any fees involved (which can happen when you use PayPal), make sure they are going to cover those fees.

Rights

Make sure you retain the rights to your work. There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo when it comes to who has what rights – but make sure you read your contracts careful and consult with an attorney on anything you are unsure about.

If a company wants the rights to repurpose your content, use in their advertisement, etc., make sure you are being paid fairly! I know people use Getty Images to determine how much to charge per image.

Be aware that many sponsored post companies often have a lot of rights given to them, and the brands they work with. I don’t feel that many of these appropriate (you basically sign all rights over to them to allow them to do whatever they want).

Timeline

Know up front what the timeline for your posts and social media amplifications will be. I find it extremely helpful when a brand sends me a content calendar.

For example, I recently worked with Staples on multiple posts and social media shares. They were awesome! They were very clear in what was expected, when drafts were due, and when posts and social media was supposed to go up. I really appreciated them knowing exactly what they wanted, and I think it made it a lot easier for all of us.

Make sure you know when drafts are due before you sign the contract. It’s not very fun to get a contract, sign it, and then have them tell you your post is due in two days.

Grounds for additional payment

Build into your contract what grounds for additional payment are. Here are a few things that I would ask for more payment:

Extra social shares that were not initially agreed on
Rush fees for post drafts required with less than a week’s notice
Any kind of training that is required (this is mainly relevant with in person events, but I have known bloggers who randomly had to take some kind of training before writing a sponsored post)
Writing additional blog posts or creating videos
Phone calls (beyond initial on boarding)

Post Expectations

Discuss the length of a post, what angle the company would like you to for, how many images/videos should be included, etc. You should discuss any specific links or content they want included, if you are allowed to take your own photos (or if you are allowed to use stock photography that you have the rights to), and if/when a draft is required.

If a draft is required (which is typically due to legal reasons), make sure you know what types of legal parameters are in place.

Editing Expectations

I’ve had a few unfortunate expectations where I have gotten a draft of a post back where there was more red on the post than black.

The last time that happened, I realized I needed to let the company know right away what types of edits were allowed. For me, I tell companies that I have the last edit. They are welcome to make factual or legal changes, as well as correct grammar or spelling, but they cannot change how I wrote things, the focus of the post, or make it sound like an ad.

Legal and Contract

Always, always have a contract. This will protect you and the company, and it really keeps things professional.

If the company provides you with a contract, always make sure you read through it carefully. You don’t want to sign your rights away or agree to never work with a competing company ever again.

If they don’t have a contract, you can provide your own. I highly recommend getting a template from Blogger Legal for contracts!

Social Media Shares

Always check and see how many social shares are required – this needs to be in writing. I worked with a company in the past that expected far above the number of shares I normally include (which is four), and they weren’t willing to pay extra. Because I had already written the post, I didn’t feel like I could negotiate any longer, so I had to do a lot more shares than I initially planned on.

Make sure they know what kind of shares they want as well and what the purpose is. Different social shares call for different pricing structure. For instance, you will likely charge a lot more for a Facebook Live than you would for just a normal Facebook post.

I would also ask them if they are interested in providing an additional budget for boosting a post on social networks. This can be a really great way to expand the reach of your post, and many brands are willing to put a little bit of money to boost it.

What is their end goal?

Be sure to discuss why the company wants to work with you and what they want the results to be.

I’ve found that knowing what the company wants in the end from the start almost always pays off in the end. I’m better able to format my post and social shares to promote that goal.

For instance, if a company is all about the clicks, I will participate in Twitter retweet groups, perhaps add it to my HelloBar at the top of my site, and I will make sure to put a direct link to their site in my weekly newsletter.

It can be frustrating for companies and bloggers alike if a campaign doesn’t go in the direction the brand was anticipating – especially if they didn’t give you that expectation up front.

Competitors

Know who they consider competitors and how long they expect you to be exclusive.

Typically, I will give a company 30 days of exclusivity following the campaign. For anything longer than that, I do require additional payment (especially if it’s a very wide exclusivity…for instance, a major food brand versus a subgroup of that food brand).

FTC, NoFollow, and Beyond

There are a lot of technical and legal items to keep in mind when you are working with a company.

If they are asking for a Do Follow link, run the other way. This is not appropriate per Google’s terms. If you are unsure what these are, basically, if a link is tagged “nofollow”, it is telling Google not to give extra weight to that backlink for a site. Google specifically has said that paid links have to be nofollow (this is to prevent any one company from paying a ton of sites from help aritifically boost their search ranking positions).

Be on the same page as far as the FTC regulations go. I’ve found companies that try and be a little sneaky about it – and I’ve found companies that go way overboard. I highly recommend reading the FTC guidelines so you can know for sure what is required, what is not, and how to keep both you and the company safe (without totally ruining the SEO for a post!) This is an awesome article from the FTC answering common questions for influencers.

Finally, keep up with social media rules. For instance, on Facebook, if you are doing a paid post, you have to use the Branded Content tool. A lot of companies aren’t really sure what this is, and they may be confused when you bring it up. Some of these companies may require you to be added to a list of pre-approved bloggers in order to tag them, so make sure this is taken care of right away.

Make No Promises

It’s important to do your best when promoting a sponsored post. I don’t recommend just writing a post and burying it in your archives without any promotion (why would you want something like this on your site anyways?!)

However, it’s important to not make promises to the companies you work with. Don’t guarantee them x amount of comments, thousands of dollars in sales, or hundreds of thousands of clicks to their site – because at the end of the day, you don’t have a ton of control over that.

Be upfront about how you plan to promote the product/service, do your best, but don’t guarantee things.

Why DIY Home Bloggers Should Work with Hometalk

September 30, 2017 by Thane West 2 Comments

If you want to know how to use Hometalk in order to make money as a blogger and/or DIYer, then you will want to read this post!

I recently posted about what Hometalk is and how you can use it to earn thousands of page views for your blog, as well as earn subscribers and make money from the traffic you receive (go ahead and read that post first if you are unfamiliar with Hometalk).

However, did you know that Hometalk, the world’s largest DIY community which boasts 66 million page views a month and over 6.6 million Facebook fans, partners directly with Home and Garden DIY bloggers, paying them for sharing content on Hometalk’s Facebook page and for sharing Hometalk content on their Pinterest account? Because they totally do!

Hometalk regularly pays content creators (bloggers and DIYers) $75-$150 to share amazing content directly with them and/or their Facebook pages and pays an $8 CPM to Pinterest users who drive traffic to their site!

If you post about the following topics on your website, then look into making money with Hometalk!

cleaning
crafts
gardening
home decor
home maintenance and repair
makeovers (not the beauty kind)
organizing
outdoor living
painted furniture
painting techniques
party decor and ideas
remodeling
repurposing
seasonal decor
woodwork

There are three main ways you can make money with Hometalk directly:

The Hometalk Pinterest Influencer Program
The Hometalk Live Streaming on Facebook Program
The Hometalk Video Footage Program

How to Make Money with Hometalk’s Pinterest Influence Program

This is a fairly new program and one that I am in love with!

Launched in June 2017 directly to Hometalk Bloggers (and not published on their site or in their support forum that I can find), it’s a program that Hometalk Bloggers can apply to be apart of. However, priority for joining will be given to Hometalk Bloggers who post actively and partake in their direct traffic program. But, any Hometalk blogger, regardless of the size of your Pinterest following size, is eligible for the program!

The Hometalk Pinterest Influence Program is set up to reward Pinterest Influencers (Pinterest users) for driving traffic to Hometalk by pinning specific Hometalk-created pins. They pay you for driving clicks from your pins to their site. They offer a $8 CPM, meaning for every 1000 clicks you earn $8! Get the right pins on the right boards and you can make at least a few dollars every single day.

This program is in compliance with the Pinterest pinning policies (they flew out and made sure). In fact, Pinterest recently named Hometalk as a prime example of a great affiliate program to use on Pinterest.

Hometalk also recommends being transparent on your pins and follow FTC guidelines for sharing paid content, but how you do so is up to you.

If you want your Hometalk posts to be featured in the Pinterest library, fill out this form.

How does the Pinterest Influencer Program Work?

If and when you are accepted into the Hometalk Pinterest Influence Program you will be given access to the Hometalk Pinterest library and a dashboard where you can see your clicks, earnings, and which pins are getting the most clicks.

In order to make money for the traffic you drive to Hometalk, you much pin directly from the Hometalk Pinterest Library with the red “Pin It” button listed below the various images. You cannot pin directly from the Hometalk posts as there will not be a tracking code associated with those pins.

Everyday Hometalk uploads three (or more) new pins to the Pinterest library (and send you an email about the pins being added as well as any updates about the program). They also offer a search bar so you can search for content that does well for you on Pinterest.

Note that most of the pins they create are not what many bloggers consider “pretty pins” or pins stylized with bright, clear pictures and text. Some aren’t even vertical and most don’t even have text! But, know this is intentional. Hometalk ran several experiments with “designed” pins versus their “in-process” images and the latter leads to more clicks. Clicks are what they are after (and what they are paying you for) not repins or engagement!

If your personal Pinterest branding doesn’t jive with these “ugly” pins then this may not be the right program for you, but if you are open to non-standard “pin-images” as part of your pinning strategy and want to monetize your Pinterest account, then this likely a great program for you!

Browse or search through the pins they’ve provided to find pins that you know will do well on your personal and groups boards to which you belong. And start pinning!

When you pin from the Hometalk Pinterest Library, they provide a pin description already, but most are pretty click-bait like… things like “WOW this looks amazing!” or “This is the coolest thing you’ll see all day!” I tend to leave those there, but then also add in related keywords so people searching on Pinterest will find these pins.

To make sure I’m adding the right keywords, I always click through to the project page on Hometalk and see what materials are used, what the end product is, and so on, and then put those in my pin description.

Once I pin something from the Hometalk Pinterest Library, I go directly to that pin in my account and schedule interval reshares of the pin via [eafl id=”9073″ name=”Tailwind” text=”Tailwind”] to any all applicable group boards and personal boards, spaced about a day apart.

To help you evaluate what pins are doing well, and which aren’t, simply use the Hometalk dashboard reporting. Repin content that has already done well after it’s been a little while since they went through your circuit of boards by simply clicking the “Pin It” button in your dashboard.

How do you get paid from the Hometalk Pinterest Program?

At the beginning of every month, Hometalk will send you an email with a statement about how much you earned through the program. You need to send them a Paypal invoice for that amount by the 15th. You will then be paid around the 20th of the month for the previous month’s earnings.

Since I began pinning with them on June 18, 2017, I have earned $296.61 or an average of $2.88 per day!

You will earn more money from the program the more pins you share. There are no limits as to how much you can pin from the library each day nor limits on how much you can earn. They are always adding fresh new content too so you don’t have to keep resharing the same pins to your audience.

And that’s it! If you are already pinning content from others regularly, it’s very easy, and quick to schedule some pins from Hometalk and get paid for them right away! I love being able to monetize my Pinterest account in such a direct way! No having to make affiliate sales!

Hometalk Live Video Streaming on Facebook

If you like Hometalk on Facebook, you are probably aware that they regularly have people do Facebook Lives!

Their vidoes garner lots of engagement, views, new followers, and share great new tutorials in real time with their audience. And YOU can be the presenter in this videos!

Launched in September 2016, Hometalk has welcomed all bloggers to reach out and pitch your Hometalk posts for a Live by emailing live@hometalk.com. Be sure to include a link to the Hometalk post you’d like to demo live. Note that everything you want to demo Live must be on Hometalk.

Hometalk also regularly identifies posts on Hometalk that would be good for a potential Hometalk Live and reaches out to the author directly.

Compensation for your first Live is $75 and full training, and compensation for every Live thereafter is $150. Know that Hometalk Live featuring products for sale by small businesses, brands, and stockists are not compensated.

The benefit of doing Hometalk Lives are that they drive exposure, reach, and new subscribers for you, the host. Your Facebook page is tagged prominently in your Facebook live description and you’ll have the opportunity to invite readers to follow you directly on your blog during your live broadcast!

Plus, your videos are shared to Hometalk’s Youtube channel and added to your Hometalk posts, with light editing, and when applicable turned into a one-minute shortened version for the Hometalk FB page.

I have done six Facebook Lives over the last year. Assuming your first Live goes well, they will likely contact you about doing another right after you are done with your first, and from every future Live you do.

Here are some important things to know about doing Lives for Hometalk:

You have to have an iPhone or an iPad in order to do a Live.
You will receive a show outline document before your Live with details about the giveaway question, what to say at the beginning and end, how to increase engagement, and so on.
You must have a camera person. (I pay mine)
You must have a good Wi-Fi connection in your home or wherever you are filming.
Your Lives should be between 25-45 minutes long or longer.
You should prep as much as possible before your Live starts and have some easier and/or boring steps done ahead of time (mixing materials, cutting stuff, etc).
You must invoice them via Paypal within 48 hours of your Live.
You will be paid up to 2 weeks after your Live.
It’s nerve-racking. You’re LIVE in front of thousands of people and people are leaving comments in real-time about you and your project!
It’s fun.

Once you get started doing Lives for Hometalk, and they decide they like you (and their audience likes you), you have the opportunity to do regular demonstrations for them! For a while I was doing one a month, and once even did two Lives in two weeks! They have multiple time slots available every single day.

Plus, if you are available to go Live last minute, they offer additional compensation for being “on-call.”

The additional benefits of earning the $150 for going Live on their Facebook pages is the number of new Facebook page likes you receive! I’ve seen anywhere from 25-50 new likes on my page from a Hometalk Live! Considering I am lucky to get 50-100 new likes on my Facebook page in a single month, it’s a huge boon to my follower count!

Learn more here.

The Hometalk Video Footage Program

Hometalk offers a compensated video opportunity for Hometalk bloggers to create awesome videos together with Hometalk’s brilliant video team!

If you love teaching people to DIY through video, this might be your chance. Participating bloggers send Hometalk original footage, so they can edit it, and get paid! They feature these videos on your corresponding Hometalk posts and on Hometalk’s social channels.

Here is an example of a video you could make together (and has 113 million views and over 1.8 million shares!).

Compensation for approved footage is $75 plus training for your first video and every video after that is $150. Your blog will be credited in the video and you will be able to use the video on your blog and social channels as well.

How to apply: Hometalk welcomes all bloggers with experience in video to reach out and pitch your ideas. To be considered, please email kara@hometalk.com include an example of a past video you’ve done and a link to your Hometalk profile.

I have not personally participated in this program (creating short videos are not my strong suit) but do know that Hometalk has had several videos receive millions and millions of views on their Facebook page. I can only imagine that with the credit to your site, you’d also see additional Facebook followers! Plus, they’re essentially editing video for you to use yourself on your channels, which I think is pretty amazing!

I hope that as you look for ways to monetize your blog you’ll think about how to monetize with Hometalk! They offer some really great compensation opportunities for bloggers, videographers, personalities, and DIY crafters to make money from Hometalk!

Everything You Need to Know about Being a Hometalk Blogger

September 29, 2017 by Thane West 2 Comments

Want to know more about being a Hometalk Blogger and how you can use Hometalk to drive more pageviews, gain subscribers, and earn money? Then read on.

I first heard about Hometalk back in 2015 from a blogging friend – Amanda of It’s a Fabulous Life.

She was raving about how she was gaining massive pageviews from the Hometalk for a recent post she shared there about how to dye Easter eggs with silk ties (totally cool by the way!).

However, others in our common local blogging group said they didn’t like sharing posts on Hometalk because they didn’t see pageviews back to their site and were then essentially giving free content to Hometalk, which they didn’t like.

So Amanda filled me in on her secrets of capturing some of the thousands and thousands of views her post on Hometalk was gathering so that I could do the same thing.

I am forever thankful for her!

Over my 2.5 year relationship with Hometalk, they’ve driven nearly 100,000 pageviews to my site, earned me over 700 email subscribers (at least), helped me sell multiple copies of my ebook, and earned me over $1000 from promoting their content on Pinterest and doing live demonstrations on their Facebook pages.

But, let’s backtrack a little bit, shall we?

What is Hometalk?

Hometalk is the “world’s largest DIY community.” It’s a user-generated sharing site for all things Home and Garden DIY. Hometalk receives 66 million page views a month and boasts over 12 million DIYers who share content, ask questions, and answer questions about all things Home and Garden regularly.

hometalk-bloggers-4348888 — From Holly at Hometalk

Content found on their site includes ideas, photos, and answers to things about:

cleaning
crafts
gardening
home decor
home maintenance and repair
makeovers (not the beauty kind)
organizing
outdoor living
painted furniture
painting techniques
remodeling
repurposing
seasonal decor
woodwork

They also have a huge social following: their Facebook page is massive with over 6.5 million fans. Their Instagram account has over 63,000 followers, and their Pinterest account has over 915,000 followers. Their email list is in the millions as well.

This is not some small site. It’s a site that is full of real, engaged followers and it’s growing.

Who Can Join Hometalk and How Do You Join Hometalk?

Anyone can join Hometalk and start sharing their latest DIY projects and asking questions about Home and Garden DIY, not just bloggers. It’s a true community of commenters and engaged users. Joining is super easy.

When you head to Hometalk.com, go to the top right-hand corner of their homepage and click the “Join Now” button.

You can either signup with a Facebook account, or sign up manually by simply putting in your email address, name, password, and zipcode. They also ask you to upload a profile picture (or you can import your profile picture from Facebook).

However, underneath the profile photo, they ask an important question: “Using Hometalk for your blog or business? Click here.” Click it.

You will now see “Get more visibility and reach for your blog or business today! Find out more.”

When you hover over “Find out more” it says:

Promote Your Blog on Hometalk
1,000,000+ people per month view the projects that bloggers just like you post on Hometalk. Get ready for referral traffic!
Promote Your Business on Hometalk
Get your business discovered on the largest home & garden social platform on the Web. Share photos of your work and answer questions to generate business.

There are also two new boxes available to you to click on “My blog” and “My Business.” When you click the circle for “My Blog” it will provide another new drop-down option where you will enter your blog’s url.

Hit the blue “Save” button and you are officially the newest member of Hometalk!

How Do I Use Hometalk as a Blogger?

First, set up your profile. You can do this under your profile picture in the top right corner. Fill in all the information about yourself, create a custom profile page name (likely your blog handle), fill out the About Me section, and even your favorite area of home improvement.

If for some reason you didn’t tell Hometalk you were a blogger when you first joined the site, simply click the button that says “I am a blogger” and enter your blog url.

Next, go to your Account Status tab. It should say “You are currently a Blogger.” You can change the status of your account here to a regular member account, a professional account, or totally deactivate your account too if you wish.

Next, fill out and connect all your social media channels by visiting that tab in your profile settings. You want people to follow you!

And now it’s time to post a project!

How Do You Post a Project to Hometalk?

Every user is welcome to post a project to Hometalk. It’s how the community works!

As a blogger, you will post projects to Hometalk just like every other user – by clicking the “Post a Project” button at the top right of your screen.

When you come to this screen, you’ll be promoted to title your project and start sharing your project.

It gives you options to add text, add pictures, add video links, add hashtags, materials used for the project, estimated costs, difficulty level, and even add hyperlinks (you’re limited to three per post). Photos are added between text blocks in the editor and can be moved around (drop and drag style) as needed.

Fill out all the extra details as it makes your post more searchable and more user-friendly.

Every Hometalk Project Post has to meet the following requirements in order for it to get posted:

100 words
3 Pictures
No more than 3 hyperlinks

Hometalk also automatically saves your drafts now too, so worries if you want to come back to it before hitting “Post,” or your computer freezes while you’re working on it.

You can schedule the project to go out at a certain time or day (I’ve never used this feature) or simply hit “POST” when you are done creating the content. You can also preview it before you hit “Post” to make sure it looks okay.

Posting projects is really super simple and doesn’t take much time at all, especially if you’re mostly copying and pasting from your own blog posts.

After you post your projects to Hometalk, others can find your posts in search and on the homepage, your Hometalk profile, and other places. You will likely receive at least a few comments and some traffic to the post without having to do much of anything to promote it.

Be sure to reply to any comments and questions you receive on your post!

You can keep track of the number of views your post has received at the top of the post underneath the title of the post after the first day of it being live on Hometalk; the first day it will simply say “New” there instead.

If you are lucky, Hometalk may even pick up your projects and feature them on their Facebook page or emails! They regularly select new high-quality content to share on their social channels (namely Facebook) which can bring you Hometalk followers and referral traffic back to your site (more about how to get more click-throughs in a bit).

To increase your chances of people naturally finding your Hometalk posts, use relevant hashtags (Hometalk regularly emails their Hometalk bloggers with a hashtag calendar so be sure you’re on their email list), post seasonal and trending projects, use beautiful photos, clear well-written instructions, and in-process photos.

Hometalk Traffic Program for Bloggers

Because Hometalk values its best content contributors (bloggers), it’s created several various blogger programs. Their main one and easiest one to participate in is called “The Hometalk Traffic Program.”

Basically, the Hometalk Traffic Program rewards Hometalk bloggers who share regular high-quality content to their site with direct links to your website from their emails.*

This is huge. HUGE. Their daily email list is massive and the traffic goes straight to your site, not to your project on Hometalk first.

Being featured in their emails has brought me over 6,000 and over 7,000 pageviews in a single day and additional perks like hundreds of email subscribers (I’ll talk more about that in a minute too).

*One note about the program: your direct feature will be one of a “rotation of direct links” in their email. This means Hometalk will feature four different blogger links within the same email, with the links rotating so that email subscribers will receive any one of the four links. This means if you receive their daily emails, you might not see your link there, though other subscribers will.

To take advantage of this amazing opportunity as a Hometalk blogger, you do not need to do anything special. You do not need to “sign up” for it.

If you are a registered blogger user, you automatically qualify for this program if you meet the following criteria:

Share 3 high-quality posts (projects) within a 90-day period. The 90-day period applies retroactively.
Your blog must be in the English language.
You must have three blog links saved under your account settings for the Hometalk editors to choose from.

In order for a Hometalk post to be considered “High Quality” it must meet the following criteria:

At least 200 words
Contains 4 pictures
Includes a before picture and a completed after picture
Includes a maximum of 3 blog links, all of which must be hyperlinked to your blog
Include a full description of what you accomplished in your post
Include enough instruction so that the reader can understand what you did and generally replicate your project

They give this Hometalk post as an example.

To maximize the amount of click-throughs your direct feature will receive, choose to submit links to blog posts that have in-process, or step-by-step, photos! Hometalk is all about the process photos and has trained its readers to like them. These have done better for me than other content I’ve submitted to them to feature.

How to Drive Traffic from Your Hometalk Post to Your Website

Remember how at the beginning of this blog post I said that there were some bloggers who did not like sharing their content to Hometalk because they didn’t see much traffic come from sharing their content on Hometalk? Well, it’s because you have to write your posts in such a way to encourage people to click through. If you don’t, you will not see the traffic you’d like to see!

If you give away all the details on how to complete your project, the incentive to click through to your blog post on your site is little to none.

Which is why you should consider the following tactics when posting a project to Hometalk in order to drive more traffic to your blog:

Don’t give away measurements in the post. Say things like “Mix the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, liquid dishwashing soap, and lavender essential oil altogether in the spray bottle. See my post for full directions [hyperlink].”
Don’t share every step. Instead, write something like “Find out the final steps on our blog! You won’t believe how easy it is! [hyperlink]”
Only share a small portion of larger multi-step projects, like room reveals and makeovers and encourage people to click through to see how the small project looks in the larger completed project that is on your site.
Don’t share where you bought certain non-common supplies. Instead, say something like “Find out where I found this great [piece] on my blog!” in your post.
Don’t share all the fine little details and processes involved in your project (meaning don’t copy and paste your entire blog post). Encourage them to get the full instructions on your site in the middle of the post, not just at the end.
Tell them you have more great content on [topic] on your site and link to the landing page of projects on that topic on your website.
Create an email opt-in incentive that relates to your project and link to a blog post about it. It can be a handy printable instruction sheet of the project, additional tips and tricks about [topic], or pretty printables that go along with the project somehow.
Include a link to a relevant product you sell. For example, at the bottom of my cleaning Hometalk posts, I say “If you love these type of practical cleaning tips for everyday things, be sure to check out Speed Clean the Deep Clean: A Collection of Time-Saving Cleaning Tutorials and Tips for Busy Moms! It has 50+ cleaning tutorials and tips to help you get every area of your home looking great, including this one!”

Even with using the above tactics, never expect to see a click-through rate higher than about 10%. People are busy and looking for inspiration often rather than full details right now. Many also don’t want to leave the Hometalk site, and simply want the full tutorial on Hometalk and are too lazy/busy or stubborn to click through for all the details in your post.

But, if Hometalk shares your post on their social channels or in their emails, and it does well, 2-10% referral traffic can add up, especially if it starts to amass tens of thousands of views, if not more!

My best Hometalk project has garnered an astounding 1,629,000 views. But, despite using many of the above tactics to encourage people to click through, I’ve only seen about a 3.5-5% click-through rate to my blog. But, that still equals out to about 34,500 pageviews!

In total for the various projects I’ve written for Hometalk over the last 2.5 years (which is only 27 at the moment), I’ve seen 56,456 referral pageviews from their site. But, I’ve seen another 40,307 pageviews from their email direct features, for a total of 97,063 pageviews! And that’s just for the traffic I’ve been able to see show up in my Google Analytics.

Those pageviews equal huge spikes in ad revenue. Those pageviews equal huge spikes in email subscribers. Those pageviews equal spikes in affiliate income. Those pageviews equal more sales of my cleaning ebook.

Optimize Your Blog Posts for Earnings and Subscribers

Whenever you share content to Hometalk, make sure your corresponding blog post is optimized for the traffic coming your way. It’s a fresh new audience checking out your site so be sure to wow them and capture them the best you can.

For me, this means I have email subscriber incentives related to the blog post content and multiple sign-up forms and pop-ups encouraging them to signup for my email list. And it’s worked. The day I received a direct feature in a Hometalk email, I received about 300 new email subscribers (and it could have been more but my ESP thought there was something spammy going on and temporarily suspended my account)!

If you have related products that you sell, be sure to highlight them prominently in your posts to help drive new sales.

Make sure you have ads set up on your site and have optimized with your ad provider so that you can make the most money possible.

Lastly, add in relevant affiliate links wherever possible in the post to increase your affiliate commissions! Any easy place to add affiliate links is your materials list!

To help your traffic continue, be sure to install easy to use and find social share buttons! You can turn direct traffic into on-going Pinterest traffic if enough people start pinning your content (it’s happened to me!). You can also have it take off on Facebook or other networks so have share buttons installed on your site!

Gaining traffic, subscribers, followers, and money from Hometalk is a fun and rewarding endeavor that involves very little time and effort! I highly encourage you to become a Hometalker and start sharing your amazing blog content with a fresh new audience!

Be sure to check out my second post about working with Hometalk to make money directly from them!

How to Update Old Blog Posts and Increase Traffic

September 23, 2017 by Katie Clark 2 Comments

How to Update a Blog Post for Better Traffic, Money, and Email Subscribers

Do you have hundreds of posts on your site that don't get any traffic? Don't delete old blog posts – update them for even better traffic!

On Clarks Condensed, we have nearly 2000 published posts.

However, the majority of our traffic definitely is driven to probably about 20 posts.

I mean, I get traffic to a lot of my other posts, but sometimes I think, "It would be nice if I got this same traffic to even 20 more posts!"

Over the past few months, I've spent a of time updating my older posts.

Some of them are posts that are already doing well, while others are ones that I think have potential to do well.

I've come up with a strategy that I feel really does help these old posts perform better, so I thought I'd share how to update old blog posts to (hopefully) increase traffic).

Affiliate links are used in this post, and I receive a small commission for purchases made from them. They are provided for your convenience.

Editing Old Blog Posts: What to Do

Deciding Which Post

How I decided to update a post depends on a few different factors:

Season
Post topics that have historically done well on my site

Search Engine Potential

Lately, I've been going back and finding posts that have the potential to do well in the next few months based on the seasons/holidays coming up.

I also go back to my more popular topics (such as pregnancy) and update those posts. I have a lot of luck with this topic on my blog, so it's one that I find worthwhile to update.

Lately I have been going back a year in my archives and look for posts that didn't get the traffic I expected.

It's also important to find posts that you could potentially rank better for. I learned a great strategy for doing this through the #Jeff SEO course I mention below (but you'll have to sign up for the class to find that out!).

SEO Updates

Updating a post to be better received by search engines is one of the most impactful things you can do for updating a blog post…in my opinion.

I've focused a lot on SEO over the past year. I've seen a huge increase in the traffic I get from search engines, and I tend to prefer it over social media traffic (it's a little more reliable than social media…Pinterest, I'm looking at you).

I've done a lot of reading and watching. One of my favorite websites is Neil Patel's website. He is a genius Internet marketer, and he shares really informative and helpful articles and videos. Whenever I read one post, it's like going down a rabbit hole – I can't stop.

Beyond that, I've lately purchased two resources that have been very enlightening as well:

Sprinting the Blogger Marathon – This book was written by a fellow blogger – Sabrina, from Dinner, then Dessert. Sabrina is the perfect example of someone who threw her whole heart and soul into growing her blog, and she has been extremely successful. Although her book isn't just about SEO, I found her tips for SEO and Pinterest to be particularly helpful. She is a food blogger, and much of the book is focused on that, but I've applied her principals to different niches.

#Jeff SEO Course – I finally signed up for this course after several blogger friends recommended it. I'm so glad I did! I'll admit that a lot of the information has been a refresher for me, but there have been some very helpful tips and tricks – especially for when it comes to finding which content I should update for search engines. You also get access to the private Facebook group, and Jeff is always willing to answer questions. It is available for a monthly subscription, as new content is always being added.

I have found that updating old blog posts for SEO seem to help them rank higher more quickly than when I'm trying to rank with a new post. Not gonna lie – it's nice to be able to just update an old post rather than create a whole new one (though I do that plenty, too!).

Anyways, for SEO updates. I've been using these methods for about a year now, though I've tweaked it a bit overtime:

First, I do keyword research using Serpstat, which is my preferred keyword research tool. They have a free version, but I took advantage of this deal, which makes it around $30 for a lifetime membership (this is still available through mid-October 2017). It isn't their top tier, but I haven't found anything I don't like about it. I will do a more indepth tutorial on how I use this tool at a later date.

I start keyword research by putting a pretty generic term in. For instance, when I was updating my caramel buttercream frosting post, I typed in "caramel frosting", and I went from there.

I typically find a main keyword with a competition level under 20-25, and then 2-4 supporting keywords as well. I also like to see what other websites are currently ranking for that term – if they are mainly other bloggers, I usually feel I have a good chance of making my way to the front page.

After I add these to my post, I track the keywords in Serpstat (go to Projects, Rank tracker, Positions to add keywords you want to monitor) so I can see the improvements. It's a bit addicting! I LOVE seeing my rankings go up.

I typically will update the title of my post, add some H2 and H3 tags, and try and naturally incorporate the keywords throughout the entire post. You only want one H1 tag in your post (and that, by default, is typically your post title). If you are unsure how to use Header Tags, I highly recommend reading this post. I also update the alt tag of my images to be my main keyword or variations if I have a lot of pictures.

I also try to use numbered lists and bullet points where possible. If you go to Google, you will often see that the first thing that shows up for a search term is a highlighted website excerpt with bullets or numbers.

You may also consider increasing the word count of the post. An average post I write is over 1000 words – typically more, especially my posts that rank well on Google.

I updated my meta information (what shows up in Google search). I use the Yoast SEO plugin, which puts an SEO box below my post composer. Here, I make sure I included my main keyword in the title and in the description. I keep these concise by interesting so they stand out to other people.

After doing this, I republish the post (more on that in a second), and I submit the post through Google Webmaster tools.

I do not typically update my permalinks for a post. If you do this, make sure you set up a 301 redirect. There are many WordPress plugins that do this.

Link Updates

When I go through old posts to update them, I try and update links.

First off all, I make sure all of the links I currently have are still working. With Amazon links, I check to make sure that product is still available. I also update the Amazon links to be to a product search page, as opposed to a specific product.

I then see if there are any new opportunities for affiliate links – especially if it is something that is something not available on Amazon. I love Amazon affiliates, but sometimes, other programs can be more lucrative.

I will update old sponsored content (if my contract permits it) with new links (often affiliate), and perhaps more relevant information.

I also check to see if there are any external links that I can change to new posts I've written on my blog. I have been trying to limit the number of external links I have in a post, simply because I want Google to see my site as the authority. If I link a lot to other sites, it may seem that I'm less of an authority. With that said, I do try and incorporate high quality backlinks to other sites when appropriate.

Finally, I incorporate backlinks to my own content. I don't try and spam the post with it – but if there's a relevant place, I put them in with the keywords for that post. I also add related posts at the end of the post (or sometimes, after a section if the content is set up like that).

Social Media Updates

I try and do a few things to update my social media for the posts.

Mainly, I update my Pinterest image if I don't feel it's clear – the image, the text, etc. I've been trying to redo any Pinterest images that have the text going over the picture, because I just don't feel that this looks very good, and I used to do it a lot. I make sure my Pinterest image has lots of good keywords and even a few hashtags (since those are now relevant on Pinterest again!).

I use the paid plugin called Social Warfare. This is my preferred social media plugin for various reasons, but I like that it makes it easy to put images and descriptions for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I just make sure these are showing what I want them to.

Photos

I don't update the photos for every post, but if it's a really old recipe post, I try and update the pictures to something more appealing. I also typically make a new Pinterest image that goes more with my "theme" that I usually go with for Pinterest images. I've found that 750×1800 works best (I know that's not what the "experts" say, but it works for me!)

I try to have 3-5 images in recipe posts. My more informational posts tend to have less, but sometimes I do try and add some stock photography in to break up the text. I have been using Stencil lately for this, because they have a great library of stock photography that you can use with no attribution. My brother and sister-in-law put together this great post on free stock photography websites, if you like to use stock photography.

Just for your reference, I currently use a Nikon D750 with an 50mm portrait lens. They work well for me!

Newsletter

I've been working a lot on my growing my email list this past year, so I will often look at the post I'm updating and see if there's anything I can do to make people sign up for my list.

For instance, with this Birthday Poster, I used to offer it for free. However, when I was updating it a few months ago, I made it so people had to signup for my newsletter in order to get the freebie. I've gotten many new subscribers from doing this. I've done this with a lot of posts, and the result is always similar. I cringe to think about all the email subscribers I missed out on!

I use MailerLite as my newsletter/email delivery system. I really like them, and I feel they have great features for a very affordable price. It's free for the first 1000 subscribers.

I also use Thrive Themes lead generation plugin to get new subscribers. It has it's quirks, but it's a one time fee and works great – especially for creating so many different optin forms.

Republishing Old Blog Posts

After the entire post has been updated, I republish it. Please note that you SHOULD NOT do this if you have dates in your permalink structure. If you don't, go right ahead and republish your post.

This signals to Google that the post is still relevant. If the last time a post was updated was five years ago, Google may not find that as helpful as one that was updated today.

Promoting

Finally, I promote the post! I do my typical promotion strategy – Pinterest, Twitter, sometimes Instagram or an Instagram story, Flipboard, and Facebook.

If it's a recipe, it will automatically be sent out to my recipe newsletter the next day; for other posts, I just make note to promote it in an upcoming newsletter.

Flipboard for Bloggers: A Mindless Way to Increase Traffic

September 21, 2017 by Katie Clark Leave a Comment

I started blogging right around the tail end of when it was a huge driver of traffic for people without much effort having to be put in.

There were no algorithms. Having tons and tons of followers was the ultimate goal. And if you pinned something, it would almost certainly do well.

Well, that’s not the case anymore, and while Pinterest still is a huge driver of traffic, you do have to work a little harder for it.

I have also realized this year just how dependent my traffic is on Pinterest, and my goal has been to diversify my traffic even more.

You shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket – especially when it comes to social networks.

One social network I’ve been using more lately is Flipboard. It’s basically a magazine app, and you can flip your content on it.

Unlike many social networks, Flipboard seems to really encourage you to add your content frequently….for now, at least.

I’m not sure what the real “secrets” of Flipboard are, but I have gotten steady traffic from it in recent months, so I thought I’d share a few tips. It’s definitely one of those social networks that I think a lot of people ignore, but hopefully this will be helpful! I do think it’s worth the two seconds it takes to flip something!

What is Flipboard?

First off – what is Flipboard? As I mentioned earlier, it’s basically an online magazine. Forrest has been using it for awhile – it’s just an easy way to get news, fun articles, etc.

You can create magazines to flip content to, or you can just browse through the home feed.

The point is to get people to flip your content – though how exactly you do that is a bit of a mystery. In my experience, it doesn’t really matter how many followers you have.

I personally think that consistency pays off on Flipboard. I flipped things for months there without getting as much as a pageview. However, I just looked at my stats from the last week, and it’s my #3 social referral. Pretty cool!

Getting Started with Flipboard

First off, you have to start an account! Just go to Flipboard.com or download the app on your phone. You can create an account, put your site’s information into it, and you are ready to go.

You will likely be asked what your interests are, and it will start to suggest that type of content into your feed. I recommend selecting topics that are related to your blog.

As soon as you are signed up, I would suggest creating a bunch of specific boards for your niche. I think the more niche-specific you can be, the better. This isn’t really a place to create a magazine called, “My Blog,” and just throw a bunch of content into it.

I have 43 magazines. Here are a few titles:

The Best Breastfeeding Advice
Surviving Pregnancy
Family Friendly Recipes
Home Decor and Renovations
Smart Money Saving Tips

And so on. Make your titles interesting, have some keywords in it, and just make sure you have them be pretty specific!

Okay, I’m set up. Now what?

Well, I’ve read a lot about Flipboard – strategy, if you should share your own posts, if joint magazines are effective, etc.

From what I understand, Flipboard wants you to put your content on. I don’t know that I would suggest “flipping” all of your content at once, but don’t feel like you have to 30% your content, 70% others.

As the title of this post suggests, it’s a pretty mindless social media. I feel like I’ve gotten better results when I’ve just flipped my new content, jumped on the app every now and then to look around, etc. as I have when I’ve tried to be a part of post flipping groups.

You can join collaborative magazines, which may or may not be super effective. I don’t think it hurts to join them.

More than anything, I think it’s consistency. Consistently flip posts – and make sure they are high quality. Make sure you flip everything.

I also believe a lot of it is luck of the draw. You never know when a post might take off!

How I “Flip”

As soon as I have a post go live, I immediately press my browser extension – which you can download here.

When I press the button, it pulls up my post and the image it thinks is associated with my blog. If it pulls the wrong one, you can select any image from your page.

At this point, I add it to any relevant relevant magazine, and I call it good!

Easy as pie! You can also download the app to your phone, copy a link from anywhere, and when you go to open the app, it will ask if you want to flip that post.

Group Magazines

You can also join group magazines – these are basically the equivalent of group boards on Pinterest. Basically, it’s just a way to expand your reach. Consider creating a few with your blogger friends!

Follow Others

While I don’t have a ton of followers, and I have gotten some good traffic from Flipboard, I do think it’s a good idea to try and gain a following. One of the easiest techniques is to just go follow other people who are following interests or magazines related to your blog!