December 18, 2024 • 52 mins
Download my free guide here to discover the 6 powerful triggers that turn your product into a must-have and make people want to buy it. 🚀
In this week's episode of The Blogger Genius Podcast, I sat down with seasoned bloggers and hosts of the The Smart Influencer Podcast, Christina Hitchcock and Corinne Schmidt, to discuss effective monetization strategies for bloggers and creators who have been impacted by Google algorithm changes.
Understanding the Impact of Google Algorithm Changes
Christina Hitchcock's Experience
Christina Hitchcock shared her observations on the recent shifts in Google's algorithms. While she hasn't been directly targeted, she has noticed a decline in traffic as her previously high-ranking content has slipped down the search results. Christina views these changes as an opportunity to pivot and explore new avenues in blogging, emphasizing the importance of adaptability.
Corinne Schmidt's Perspective
Corinne Schmidt echoed Christina's sentiments, noting a 25% drop in traffic year-over-year despite her strong keywords remaining intact. As a single mom relying on blogging for income, Corinne expressed the stress of these changes but also highlighted the excitement of exploring new creative avenues. She believes the current environment has leveled the playing field, encouraging bloggers to return to creativity and experimentation.
Show Notes:
- MiloTree
- 6 Purchasing Triggers Guide
- The Smart Influencer Podcast
- It's a Keeper
- Wondermom Wannabe
- The 3 AI Prompts You Need to Create a Freebie Cheatsheet
- Join The Blogger Genius Newsletter
- Personality Quiz: What Digital Product Should I Create?
- Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hello there and welcome back tothe Blogger Genius podcast.
I'm Jillian Leslie, your hostand co-founder of Milo Tree,
the all in one platform that helpsbloggers, creators, coaches and
entrepreneurs grow their email lists,boost their social media followers,
and sell digital products with ease.At Milo Tree,
(00:24):
we make it simple to monetize yourexpertise without the tech headache.
Whether it's digital downloads,workshops, memberships,
subscriptions, coaching,Milo Tree is your partner for turning
ideas into income. And the best part?You can try Milo Tree for free
for 30 days.Just head to Military.com and
(00:47):
see how easy and inexpensive itis to get started.
For today's episode, I am diving intoactionable monetization strategies
with two of my favorite guests,Christina and Corinne.
From the Smart Influencer Podcast,these two seasoned bloggers,
(01:08):
with their own separate blogs,share practical tips and
strategies that you can implementright now to make money,
even without much help from Google.So they're talking about growing
their email list.Combined,
these two have over 100,000 emailsubscribers to offering tripwires
(01:30):
and selling digital products.If you're ready to grow your
business with new ideas,you're in the right place.
So without further ado,here's my interview with Corinne
Schmidt and Christina Hitchcock.Corinne and Christina,
welcome back to the Blogger Geniuspodcast. It's great to be here.
(01:53):
Thanks for having us.It's really fun seeing your faces
when you guys popped up on zoom.I'm like, oh my God,
I get to hang out with friends.So I so appreciate you coming back.
This is your second time on theshow and what I love,
just even when we were talkingbefore I pressed record, it's like
there's something to talking to oldschool bloggers about the journey.
(02:17):
And I think this is a time of fluxand change, and you're both of your
attitudes are kind of like, beenthere, done that, seen this before,
not necessarily that the issuesare exactly the same, but you ride
the ups and you ride the downs.So do you mind both of you
(02:37):
sharing where your blogs are andhow you're thinking about that?
So I will jump in first.This is Christina.
My site is it is a keeper.Com and I feel like with these
recent Google changes I have,you know, I have felt some of
the effects of them.While I don't feel like I was
specifically targeted by the updates.I'm going to knock on wood there.
(03:01):
Um, I do feel like I had a dropin traffic because of it, because
content that was ranking in positionone, two and three has moved down,
and it's just not getting the trafficthat it was prior to these updates.
So, you know, I felt it and I'mcontinuing to feel it.
Um, my attitude though is, you know,we've been in this game a long time.
(03:26):
We've seen lots of changes, lots ofthings going on in the industry.
And I feel like this is just anopportunity to pivot and find
what's working.And it's kind of like a new frontier
for us and going out and trying newthings that maybe weren't an option
before. And Corinne, what about you?So, yeah, this is Corinne.
(03:48):
Uh, my sites. Wunderman wannabe.Com. Um. Same thing.
I don't think that, like,I like when I go into Search console.
It's not like, all of a sudden mypositions evaporated overnight.
Um, in fact, most of my strongkeywords are still there.
But when I go Google them,like when I go search for them,
I might be in position one,but position one is on page two.
Like I've got all the I,I've got the Reddit results,
(04:11):
I've got a bunch of questions likeso like my ranking didn't change,
but my position did,if that makes sense.
So yeah, I'm down about 25% acrossthe board, uh, as a result.
And so definitely a year ago.So yeah, when I compare year over
year, I'm down 25% roughly like itdepending on what day I'm checking.
(04:31):
And you know what I'm saying thatparameters at but pretty much down
25%. Um, and like that's sucky.Of course that's terrible.
But um, again, like I, we weretalking about this beforehand.
It's stressful because like, I paylike I'm a single mom, I pay the
(04:52):
bills with with what I bring home.So it is stressful and I hate that.
I hate that part of it.Um, and anybody that got hot hit
even harder. Like.Like my heart bleeds, right?
Like, I, I do feel bad.But on the other hand,
there are some things about thisI really love. Uh, I do like.
And we talked about this, like,I feel like it leveled the
playing field again. Right?Like we were all doing the exact
(05:14):
same thing.There were formulas for what we
did the set and forget.Part of me really loved that.
But it also is very boring, right?Like, it was a very specific way
that we all did everything.You were saying it, Julien.
We all had the same theme orlike like we're all following
the same post template.Like it kind of got boring and
now like, that doesn't work.And so we all had to go back to
(05:36):
the drawing board and that's fun.Like, I'm not naturally a creative
person, but I'm in this space becauseI do like to create an experiment.
And I get to do that now.And now I don't feel like I'm
doing it from behind. Like before.It was hard to buck the system
because you knew what worked.Well, now we don't know what works,
so it's kind of fun to try again.Um, it's stressful because then you
(05:58):
got to try a bunch of stuff and youdon't know where to put your time.
And we still only have 24 hours inthe day, so that's that's been hard.
But I do feel like it's also aperiod of like new discovery.
And that that is exciting.And, you know, some of the things
got that got put on the backburner.Like I've been wanting to build
up my products for a long timeand focus more on printables.
(06:19):
But I was making money on food,so I wasn't putting time there.
Well, now I can, now I can,and now it's paying off.
And like, I don't know, I, I thinka lot of us tend to have a little
ad like a lot of us in this field.And I, you know, it's fun.
It's fun to do something different.So, um,
(06:39):
it's a it's a terrible time for sure,but it's also not a terrible time.
Like there there's a silver liningthere if you're looking for it.
I also say I kind of approach itwith the same approach that I give
my parenting advice to my son.I'm like, there's situations in
life that you just can't change,right? You're not in control of that.
We can't control Google.So could I get mad at it? Yes.
(07:01):
Could I be frustrated and rant andrave to get out my frustration?
Absolutely.I do it and it does feel good
afterwards, but I can't stay inthat place because that frustration
and anger isn't doing anything.It's not going to change things.
So the only thing that's going tochange is the way I react to it.
So if I decide I want to stay inthis game, I'm going to need to
(07:23):
find a way to react and pivotand move my business forward.
Getting mad just isn't isn't anoption that works.
I think that is so smart.And where I am seeing green
shoots because I'm I'm like you,I'm interviewing people looking
at our own businesses, like,where do I find the green shoots
(07:44):
and where I see it,it's getting smaller and deeper.
Mhm. I agree. Um, it's less about.I'm going to get a million page
views,and it's more I'm going to serve
a thousand people who are people,not visitors. Um, page views know.
Like, and trust you.These are the people that know,
(08:06):
like and trust.And I'm just going to say this I
see your face is show up, show upon zoom. And it makes me happy.
I'm not in the same room withyou guys.
You know, we've done zoom calls inthe past, but you show up and like,
I was looking forward to thisinterview today because you're real
people and we're like minded andit's like, okay, I get to hang out
(08:29):
with some friends for a littlewhile and I don't discount that.
That is really valuable. Mhm. Right.Well, Christina and I have said that
for a long time on our own podcast isone of our favorite things we do.
Um because you get to like it'skind of a lonely business.
What we do sometimes and doingthe podcast just reminds us that
we're all facing the same stuff.And, and it always impresses me.
(08:52):
Like I'm always amazed at howgenerous people are with what they
know. Like people want to connect.Uh, so I'm with you, like getting on
zoom, like seeing people's faces.It's a wonderful thing because
we are in ultimately in thebusiness of people. Exactly.
And I think we forgot that whenI talk to people who start
(09:13):
selling digital products, right,with our tool Milo Tray and they
say to me, you know, same thing.Like, I didn't really want to do this
because, like, I was making moneywith my with my food content and
I'm just like cranking out postsand updating them and using lots
of tools and keyword research.It became almost like, again,
(09:36):
a formula.And now when they start selling
solutions to people,they feel re-energized. Right.
Yeah,I think you're absolutely right.
I think that building that connectionis definitely where it's at.
Um, I've seen it a lot throughthrough YouTube.
I do a lot of did a lot of YouTubevideos, and then I took a pause.
(10:00):
For almost a year,I stopped creating content,
and when I finally posted a new videoback there, um, a few weeks ago,
I was getting so many comments.I'm so glad you're back.
I love seeing your face.And that kind of feedback was
really re-energizing, because Ifeel like people were able to to
(10:22):
connect in a way that they couldn'twith just reading a recipe. Right?
They like to watch they you,you you build that connection,
you make those, um, you know,you start building that
relationship with them where theyknow that they can they they
feel like they like you. Right?Because you're you're making
that eye, that eye to eye,even though you're not, you know,
(10:42):
looking at the person, you'relooking into the camera, you're
making that eye to eye contact.And it's not it's not as bad as I
thought it was at first, like I wasafraid to be on the camera, right?
Like, oh, my hair is not right.Or, you know, I don't I don't want
to do my makeup today or my house,like, my kitchen isn't perfect or
whatever it is. People don't care.They really don't care.
(11:04):
And they will give you a lot moregrace than you're giving yourself.
And they might even just like it.Yes, because you're real.
And the best engagement I get iswhen I turn the camera around and
show the mess behind the scenesand people are like, oh, now that
looks like my kitchen, right?Because it's not always
perfectly sterile and clean.With the right appointed
(11:24):
accessories here and there,it's a disaster behind the
kitchen or behind the camera.And I think people feel like they
can relate to that when they feellike they can relate to you.
Like you're not trying to hidesomething or be something you
are not.Um, they feel more connected to you.
So I found a great, um,connection in video.
(11:45):
Um, I also do TV segments with ourlocal TV station and just this
past weekend, a woman approachedme like she heard my voice.
And she goes, I know that voice.And she goes, oh my God,
you're Christina, dude.Like she starts going.
She's like, I feel like I shouldget a picture with you.
I wanted to melt into the rack in thestore. I did not want to be seen.
And my friends are standing therewith me going, yes, she is.
(12:07):
You want me to take the picture?And I'm like, shut up,
I just got to melt into the rack.But what I learned from that is
she connected with me in that way.It was just my voice that she
heard and she knew it was me.And she's like, I love your recipes.
I make this one, this.And she rattled off at least a half
a dozen that she's made and like,it really got me thinking, like,
(12:30):
I need to do more of thatbecause that is where it's at.
Because she'll come to me whenshe needs a recipe.
Now she knows she'll come rightto my website rather than just
googling where to find that recipe.She'll come to me first.
And I think building thatconnection with people is,
is one of the greatest things wecan do now in video is where
it's at all across the board.So will you share some? What kind?
(12:53):
So you were making recipe video likeare you like set up and do you have
like a bunch of cameras when you'redoing YouTube videos of you cooking
or what are you like, how does that?I do like cooking show style
videos with my face on camera.So I actually have two cameras,
my regular DSLR, and then I justhave my son's GoPro hanging off my
(13:16):
pendant light over my kitchen island,so nothing fancy.
Um, prior to that, I had myiPhone just hanging over somehow,
in some precarious way, mounted tomy my, uh, my lighting fixture.
But it didn't take a ton ofequipment or anything to do.
And I think people see these bigproduced type videos and they
(13:39):
feel like there's no way I canrecreate that. That is not me.
Um, I just do it with what I have.I use iMovie to edit or I use.
I have some college interns thathelp me with editing,
so it's nothing fancy,but it works. Wow, I like that.
That reinvigorated you?Yeah, it really did.
(14:00):
And it was just this weekend and I'mlike, I need to do more of that.
Like that.I again, I don't know if you believe
in the universe or something,but I feel like that was a sign.
Well, you know,it's funny you say that because I
was thinking the exact same thing.So that was Saturday when that
happened. What? Today's.Okay, so Tuesday,
I get a text from the TV station.Are you available on this day to
(14:23):
do a couple of segments?And I'm like, yes, I am.
It was right.It was put out into the universe.
So I'm not a very woowoo kind ofperson. But I do believe.
I do believe.That if you if you put good out,
I always say have good parkingkarma because I put good karma out.
I'll get the good karma back.But I think if it's one of those
(14:45):
things, like if you focus on itand think about it.
And you, you can kind of make thatstuff happen. I love that story.
All right, Corinne,tell me about how your woo woo is
is driving your business. Yeah.No, I don't do well like to like,
I don't do videos.So just so for those of you listening
that like, took away from that, we'vegot to go to the video. I agree.
(15:07):
Like I know video is a powerfultool and I think it is where
everything is headed.I'm just not like I won't say never
because, you know, never say never.But that's not my thing.
I'm not comfortable there.It's going to take a big,
big push to ever get me to be there.So I'm I'm pushing like I love email.
That's where I connect with mine.And um, so let's try that. Yeah.
(15:30):
Yeah.So that's where I share like my,
my email subscribers know more aboutmy personal life than maybe some
people that know me in person. Right.Like I share I share everything like,
yeah,I shared about my ex-husband's death.
They share like I share everything inmy email. That's where I'm a writer.
It's where I feel comfortableexpressing myself.
I like the ability that I canedit first.
(15:51):
Like, this is why I can't do video.The I'm too self-critical,
like I can't have somethingpreserved out there in the,
you know, in the internet wherepeople could keep coming back and,
you know, talking about my bigforehead or whatever, like, I just,
I can't sleep at night. It's not. Me.But let's talk about then email and
how do you get people on your listand then how do you nurture them?
(16:14):
And then are you yet selling to them?So I've got I do a lot of printables,
so I use a lot of printable opt ins,but I've got opt ins anywhere.
Like you come to anything on my site,you probably get a pop up asking
you to sign up to get something.Um, so pop ups everywhere.
I will say the last last year Ileaned in really heavy on
(16:34):
collaborations.Um, really started collabing with
other bloggers to share eachother's content so that we could
get in front of each other's list,um, participating.
And then I pause you for a second.Is this like somebody saying, hey,
I'm going to reach out to my list andshare about you and your freebie,
and they reach out to their listand oh, no.
(16:55):
I'm glad you asked because we'veI've been approached for the
smart influencer.We've been approached for things
like that.But no, that's not actually the type
of collaboration I do with my person,with my Wonder Mom content that
it's more like there will be abunch of printable creators and
we'll we'll have a spreadsheet,we have an organized spreadsheet.
Um, a couple of them have organizesand they're like, that's a great
(17:16):
thing with some of these homeschoolbloggers, they're very organized,
but they'll have themes.So like let's say like talk Like
a Pirate Day.That week's theme was Pirate
activities.So we all share a link to a
pirate activity.And then we all agree that week
to send an email that shares thelinks to everyone's, um,
and so they go to the blog posts andthen if they want that activity, they
(17:38):
opt in to your list to, to get it.So more things like that, um, where
we're sharing each other's contentand then sending each other traffic
to so and like I love that it's ait's low risk because you're giving
your audience something for free.Um, and they're choosing what they
want to go sign up for or not.So, so just to break that down,
(18:00):
you have a group.How many people in this group,
this share group, let's say.So I've been in ones with as few as
four. The four was the smallest.And with as many as ten there
were ten of us total.And what you do is do you do a
blog post with links to everythingand you send the newsletter.
It's just a newsletter and you say,hey, I've got these great other blogs
(18:23):
and here's different activities.Click here, click here,
click here, click here if youwant these activities.
Yeah like hey Shark Week is next.You know is coming.
So here are a bunch of sharkactivities to, you know,
to keep the kids occupied or tomake them, you know,
an educational experience out of it.So, you know,
like mine would be linked first.And then I link to my friends.
(18:44):
Um, some of the sharing groups,they like the mystery links.
And that's a requirement toparticipate that you can't name
the activity.It's activity one two, three,
four. Um, to get more clicks.So everybody kind of had if you
organize, you can tell me,you know, what you want to do.
And if I don't like it,I won't participate.
So, um, so they make the rule.That's the nice thing about
organizing it.You get to be in charge.
(19:05):
Uh, I don't, I don't I'm happyto do what someone tells me.
So I have an organized one.But, um, I do really like those
collaborations.And then also participating in
bundles.I've participated in several
bundles where you submit a freebie,and then you promote it to your list,
and then everyone's promoting itto their list.
So if anyone wants your freebie,they come sign up for yours.
(19:28):
Um, and then speaking at summits,I've been speaking at a lot of
summits, uh, on topics relatedto what I blog about, uh,
to get in front of new, new people.That's the closest thing to
doing video that I do becausethey are typically lessons,
but it's contained. In a private.Group. Yeah. I'm going to push you.
(19:49):
I'm going to push you into that.That's going to be my goal for 2025.
Right.Maybe she's also still trying to get
me to buy a mac so I can hold out.Okay.
So talk to me then you get you'reusing all these great techniques
to get people on your list.And has your list been growing like,
(20:11):
is this. Yes, I've doubled it.And since last year it's doubled.
Okay.And and it's in the thousands I take
it. I'm at 75,000 now. Just under.Wait. I'm sorry. Say that again.
I'm just under 75,000 as of today.Yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
Wow. That is yeah I.Aggressively grow my list.
(20:33):
That is incredible okay.So then you get people on your list.
How often are you emailing them.Every day I email every day.
You and what are you emailing?So I have I do it so I don't
email all 75,000 every day.My list is split between recipe
(20:54):
because if you come to me forrecipes, you don't necessarily
have a child that wants printablesand then the printables.
People don't necessarily careabout food.
So in the welcome sequence,I give you the opportunity to click
something so I can tag you with both.Um, but my list does split almost
very nicely right down the middle.Like I've maybe got 40,000 on each,
(21:14):
uh, you know, between the two lists.So I do send an email every day,
but depending on your segment,you only get it every other day.
So recipes go out Monday, Wednesday,Friday, and then printables are
Tuesday, Thursdays, um,and then Sunday when I'm on my game,
I'm sending out a weekly newsletter.Yeah, I email by 5 to 6 days a week.
(21:34):
Oh my gosh. And now.And Christina,
can I ask how big your list is.Yeah, my list is not quite as
big as Karen's.It's about half that. Oh my gosh.
Okay, both of you guys here where I'msitting and what I see if you're not
actively selling to your people,like there's a bag of money
(21:58):
sitting right there. Yeah.The best way to sell anything is
through your email. Yeah I agree.And that is where most of my
affiliate income comes from.And um, I'd say actually most of
my sales probably come from thetripwire offer.
So when you opt into my list andyou go to the tripwire,
most of my sales come from that.But I think after that, like the
(22:23):
sale sales within email probablyoutdo anything else that I'm doing.
Like it's outperforming what Iget from Pinterest or, um,
you know, Google or Etsy.So, so and so again,
for everybody who's who's listening,who doesn't know the triple A
tripwire is, hey, opt in, I'm goingto give you something for free.
Give me your name and your emailaddress.
And then when you press submiton that next page, the thank you
(22:46):
page that shows up that says, hey,it's on its way to your inbox and
wait while I have your attention.What about this?
How about purchasing this for adiscounted price for, say, a limited
amount of time and that can now youcan't sell a usually $1,000 item?
No, but I don't have $1,000 items.But you can sell something for how
(23:09):
much is your trip wire typically.So most of.
My trip wire products are tripwire at 499.
Like we're not I'm not makingmillions off of this, but that's
amazing. And then. Mine are 299.Oh my gosh, you guys. That's amazing.
I would say usually up to night,like I would say the most, like
the sweet spot could be like $19.So you might want to put them
(23:32):
together in a bundle and sell.My best converting one is
actually for those listening,please do this because someone told
me to do it and like was a moneymaker overnight. I used to give.
If you signed up, you just got accessto my entire printable library.
So all of my free printables,like because I thought I'm already
giving them away for free, right?Like why I have to go visit 100
(23:54):
different, you know,blog posts to go get them?
Well, someone was like,you have how many free printables?
And I think at that time I had 200something like I had over 200.
They're like, you should be chargingfor that because no one's going
to want to jump around to 200blog posts to go get them all.
So I put it on trip.I only sell it on trip wire.
In fact, like I don't think Ipromoted any other way.
(24:16):
So for $10.99 I tried a bunch ofdifferent prices.
1099 is the money maker and Isell those every day.
I sell at least one every day,and I was giving it away for
free for at least two years.Yeah, well,
I think as bloggers we got intothe habit of giving stuff away In
(24:38):
order to get page views right.And then and I also think there is
something to us not necessarilyreally understanding our own value.
Mhm.Oh I should give this away for free.
Um I'm a nice person.Instead of saying wait a second.
(24:58):
What,what I'm doing is really valuable.
And there are people out therewho would pay me for this rather
than everybody knows this.It's not a big deal.
Uh, it's just some stupid recipes orwho knows what instead of saying,
no, no, this is valuable.And now I can charge for it.
And what's great, Corinne,is both of you guys.
(25:22):
You're training people topurchase from you.
Well, that's what I was going tosay that I love about the tripwire.
Because just as soon as you hookthat person, because you gave them
something for free, whether or notthey purchase that tripwire, you are
letting them know right away I sell.Did you know with Milo Tree you can
(25:42):
offer unlimited options and unlimitedtripwires? It's super simple.
Just upload your freebie to MiloTree, create your opt in page
with help of our AI.Pick a product you want to sell
as your tripwire,and then share the link to your opt
in on social media, your website,anywhere your audience hangs out.
(26:06):
Offering freebies is one of thebest ways to test new ideas and
build your list, and tripwires area simple way to make easy money.
Try it out, head to Military.com.And now, back to the show.
When we were building Milo Tree,we're like,
we're going to create a product wherewe enable you to offer freebies.
(26:31):
And then it was like the immediaterequest was, wait a second.
I want to have the ability to setup a tripwire so that you get to
grow your email list with yourfreebie will deliver your, say,
PDF directly to your new subscriber.And then, oh my God, now I can sell.
(26:53):
And while typically, like you weresaying, it's not like you're going to
get crazy rich on your tripwire,but that's the beginning of the
relationship. Yeah, right.And I'll tell you,
I expand upon that even further.So in addition to the tripwire,
once you if you decide you want that,then I'm going to hit you up
(27:13):
with a bump and say, oh, wait,do you want to add this product
for a low, low price?And then once you have that,
then I'm going to upsell you and say,but wait, why don't you just get
the whole bundle of stuff for this?And I will tell you,
I would say 85% of the time Isell the bump and the bundle that
the bump and the upsell. Yeah.And because they're so tightly
(27:37):
aligned and I know when they'rewhen the person is coming in, what
they're interested in, just basedon what opt in they're requesting,
I know what that trigger point is,and it's a no brainer deal for them,
because once they have thatcredit card out,
it's easier to add on to it.Then let them put that credit
card away and ask them againlater on to I.
(27:58):
Will say, this is one ofChristina's superpowers.
Like we, we brainstormed products forour niche sites together, and when we
would sit down and talk about like,if you're buying this e-book, which
ones do you want? Like she does?Like she sees those connections
and like,we'll just do these three pop up and
then we'll bundle those together.And they do. They perform very well.
Like if you know what they're lookingfor when they come in. Um, yeah.
(28:22):
And it is Christina's superpowerfor sure.
She's really good at it,seeing those connections.
But I understand the food niche,I don't think I,
I think with the principle niche,it's a little bit different.
And I think that that's whereKaren really excels,
and she really understands howto capitalize on that.
So I'm going to toot your hornright back. Oh, that's so sweet.
And what I would wear I'm seeingpeople succeed is taking what
(28:47):
you guys are doing.And really seeing that as the
first step and thinking,what is the bigger problem I'm
solving for somebody, right.And then how can I continue to sell
more and more expensive things orthings like membered like the money
is really in a membership, let's say,and because of recurring revenue.
But like, how do I build on thesolution like I've tapped because
(29:10):
what you guys have both found iswhat I like to call gold.
You've, like, figured out if Ioffered this like that,
maybe say this freebie,I can attach it to this product.
And because it makes sense in termsof what the problem is I'm solving,
I can chances are, predict that acertain number of people who opt
(29:33):
into my freebie are now going towant to purchase this additional
solution that maybe takes it a stepdeeper or for you, Corinne, now
you're offering your entire library,and it's like, oh, and I challenge
everybody like you've found gold.And the thing that, um, I,
I see is when somebody finds gold,even if it's a little bit and
(29:56):
some people will be like, well,but I'm just selling like a $4
product or something.I'm like,
but you found the connection.Well, you know, who's really,
really good at that is Matt Mullen.I don't have you had Matt on?
He's a wizard. He has this great.First of all, his mind is like
unbelievable to watch him workin real time. It's phenomenal.
But his he does that when he'sworking with people on email is he's
(30:19):
like picture what your person wasdoing when they landed on your site.
Like, you know, for a foodblogger this is very easy, right?
Like mom came home like theyjust got home from school or
from soccer practice,and now she's got to make dinner.
She has no idea what she's goingto make.
She lands like this is the mindset,but like to really picture what the
person's doing and then what's theproblem that they're going to solve?
Because like the option that youpresent, she's not looking to
(30:42):
cook 12 meals right now. Really.She's got this very immediate problem
of getting dinner on the table.So what can you offer her that
she's going to take the time toput her email in because she
doesn't need 12 other chickendinner recipes right now, right.
Like and like he has such a great wayof putting you in that frame of mind.
Like I'm not doing it justiceright now.
(31:02):
Like, and I'm trying to use anexample he gave and I still
can't even recall it perfectly.So Matt doesn't much much better.
But what you're saying,Jillian like really understanding
who your audience is, what theirproblem is, and not just that,
but what their problem is in themoment that they found you. Mhm.
And therefore not just in.And then what is the bigger problem.
(31:23):
Right.So for example if, if the mom comes
home after soccer practice and needsa quick chicken recipe, What else?
Like, chances are that's not thefirst time that that's happened.
So are there other things youcan sell?
The busy mom who like, for example,a meal plan where every Wednesday a
meal plan shows up with because,you know, she's got, let's say,
(31:48):
you know, soccer practice everyWednesday, that boom in her inbox.
There's the recipe, and maybe youcould have a variety so that you've
got the ones for the vegans andyou've got the ones for the picky
eaters and you've got the like,because these are the problems
that these moms have. Yeah.Why did they have that problem today?
(32:08):
Like what's happening in theirlife that this is their issue?
I was just going to say, I think thatthere's a lot of missed opportunity
here in the blogging world.Um, first of all,
I think there's a lot of people thataren't using email at all because
either they're intimidated by itor they feel like it's just not
worth my time or I don't have thetime to to figure that all expense.
(32:31):
It's another thing to learn. Yep.But and I think that that is a huge
missed opportunity right there.So I think that that is something
that if you're not doing it,you really should make that your 2025
goal and and get on that, especiallywith the state of Google and SEO.
Um, number two is I think a lotof times we look through our own
(32:54):
glasses when we're trying to figureout what these problems are, and we
think we're our target audience.And so many times we're not.
And I hear this all the time inthe groups of people saying,
I would never email somebody morethan once a week because I don't
like getting all these emails inmy inbox. Well, you know what?
I'm not my target customer.My target customer likes getting
(33:16):
the emails.And if they want to unsubscribe,
they can, but they're not.You know, I love that.
Yes, you have to remove yourselffrom it and really come through
the eyes of your target audience.And to do that, what I like to
do to figure out, like whattheir problems are or you know,
what pain points are out there.I like to survey,
(33:39):
but not only just my list of people.I go out on Facebook to my
personal friends and familybecause so many of them are in
my target audience and I knowthey're going to be honest. Right.
So when I put a question out there,I'm not going to get the
response less ads.Well, that's not going to happen,
right?They're going to give me the honest
feedback that I want, and they'regoing to tell me things that I never
(34:00):
realized they needed or wanted.And for me,
that kind of feedback is priceless.And so many times it's so much
more than what I'm thinking.And I'm going to take it a step
further.Are there ways that then you can
create quick down and dirtysolutions and test them?
Yeah, that's what we do with militaryis we say, go test your products,
(34:25):
test your freebies, go make a bunchinstead of being so up in our heads
worried that it's got to be perfect.Oh my God, I've gotta go create a
book and it's got to be perfect.And I'm now going to spend six
months.Stressing over the cover design.
Nobody cares.And so it's like kind of like if
(34:45):
you if you do what you're saying,which is Christina,
which is I'm getting feedback.Okay. I've got like five ideas.
So I'm going to pick the one thatI think might be the easiest to
test and might be the most popular.That resonates with me.
Okay, but I don't know.The only way you know is by putting
it out in front of people and saying,do you want this?
(35:08):
And sometimes it's as simple aschanging.
So if I'm selling ebooks,it's as simple, as tight as changing
the title. Like that's simple.The content, the guts of that
e-book are exactly the same.Nothing has changed other than the
title, and I've done that a coupleof times, and every time I do it,
it amazes me that something sosimple, like a fix that is so simple,
(35:31):
instead of just giving up on it.Well, this product didn't work.
I might judge the title a coupleof times and see which one
resonates more, because it doesn'treally cost me anything extra to
make that change in Canva,but I can get anything with that.
Specifically talking aboutdigital products like that,
it always amazes me, and I'm almostactually I won't say almost always,
(35:53):
I'd say about 5050. I'm wrong.Um, I thought we we almost always
do like two covers, right?Like or two pin images to see.
And the one I like better is notthe one that performs better
about half the time.Like half the time, I guess.
Right? Half the time I'm wrong.Like, people are fickle.
Um, and like the number of timesthat I see this all the time
with my friends,they'll be redoing a logo and they'll
(36:14):
put it out to all their friends.Like, which one do you like?
And you watch everybody vote,and you got five logos and like,
three of them have equal votes,right.
Like people are different so youdon't know what's going to fly.
So I agree with you.Testing works,
but I like then actually test it.Like don't throw out one thing
and be like well,it flopped because maybe it didn't
give up on it because the thing is a.Terrible idea,
(36:35):
because you then be like, well,ebooks don't work or email doesn't
work. And we take it personally.Like, I can't tell you how many calls
I get on people where they say,I tried it. It didn't work.
Like like somehow my audiencedoes not want to buy from me.
And I'm like, well, maybe you'renot necessarily figuring out
exactly what your audience wants,or it's like a puzzle.
And the more curious and the morewilling you are to put stuff out.
(36:59):
That's rougher than you think to say,but but that solves a real hokey
problem.Yeah, I think it's much more people
focus on the colors and the fontsand forget about the fact that I
will pay to get out of pain, right?I agree 110%,
and sometimes that pain point issomething you never even considered.
(37:22):
And that's why I say you have toremove yourself from the formula
completely.You have to just sit back as an
objective observer and just,you know, gather the data and watch.
Because so many times we are notthat audience.
We're we're more tech savvy,we're more, you know, we're in that
industry. We know what to expect.So we're bothered by things that
(37:45):
are different than our consumers.So you really have to remove
yourself from that equation.Well, and to that point and to
something you said earlier to Gillianabout like in terms of like selling
to people, I think a lot of timeswe like we get in our heads about
like what is worthy of selling.And the one like aha moment for me
(38:09):
was because I'm stingy with my time.Christina hears me say this all the
time. I'm so stingy with my time.Um, the older I get,
the more true that is.I'm like, oh,
I'm down to last minutes. Like, I.I gotta cherish these babies.
You got to pry them away from me.People pay for convenience like
some of my top selling products.Again, like the freebie printable,
some of my best selling products,or things that I literally give away
(38:31):
for free in some shape or form.But I bundle it together so that
you can download it,and they don't care how pretty it is.
They don't care how big it is.Like, I tend to price things low
because I have a hard time assigningvalue to what it is I sell that.
That is my mindset issue,so just price it lower.
But because then if you do that andyou start to see those dollars,
(38:54):
you're like someone will paysomething for it.
That kind of gets you over that hump.But like if you think about this is
where we can be like like our ourreader, like we all want convenience.
Like you said, Jillian, to pay, youknow, I'll pay to get out of pain.
I will pay to not have to bouncearound to ten recipe posts to
get the recipes.I can download it in one click
(39:17):
for a couple bucks. Dun dun. Dun.Absolutely. I think that is so true.
And and just briefly I sharedthis a lot, but I there are
these six purchasing triggers.And when you think about your
own product, see if it can fitinto at least one of these.
And this helps you in terms ofmarketing and selling, can you create
(39:37):
a product that makes somebody money?So military I make you money too.
Can you create a product thatsaves somebody money?
And then here is what you'retalking about.
Can you create a product thatsaves somebody time?
Can you create a product thatmoves somebody toward happiness?
(39:58):
Can you make a product thatmoves somebody away from pain?
And can you create a product thatraises someone's social status?
Those and so thinking, you know,kind of backward going, okay, like
here's a product that I can create.How how well does it fit into
(40:18):
one of these buckets.And can I put it into two and bill
and and use ChatGPT and say, hey,ChatGPT come up with some ideas.
In fact, like we've got I've gotChatGPT prompts to help people
write an e-book.But it starts with, I think the
first prompt is something like,okay, give me some ideas of products
(40:41):
I can sell in my niche that fitsinto at least one of these
purchasing buckets, and I just haveall of the purchasing buckets.
It will save somebody time,save the money, you know, goes
through the list and it's amazingwhat ChatGPT can come up with.
And so like use that as your asyour sounding board as your guide.
(41:04):
Yeah okay. So I agree with that.So as we close I want you to
tell me then where you predictor see green shoots.
I see it In reaching my readersin different ways.
(41:25):
So I was telling you about videoand going in that direction.
I've seen a lot of I've gotten alot of traffic over the past year
now from push notifications.That was something that was a
long time ago and I wasn't doingit properly the last time.
Now I started doing it again, and Iit's usually one of my top traffic
drivers every month saying, you.Explain,
(41:47):
explain what that means. Sure.So it's those little things you see
on your web browser that says, um,you know, do you want to subscribe
to get notifications when thissite is updated and you enter
your email and or not your email,you, you, you click sign up.
And then every time a new post comesout or I want to trigger a new
(42:10):
post to go out, I can send you anotification through your browser
that will say, you know, so youwhen you log on in the morning,
it'll be like it is a keeper justposted XYZ and you can click on that
and see that notification. Wow.So yeah, I've seen a lot of um,
growth with that recently.There's just a lot of different
(42:31):
things.What what service what tool are
you using for that? I use push li.Okay for that. Nice. Yeah. So yeah.
So that's that's really helpedme in in the last year.
Um, so I just think exploringdifferent things as a user,
I hate them, I unsubscribe from them,I do not subscribe to them,
(42:52):
but they drive traffic to my site,so why wouldn't I use that again?
I have to remove myself from theequation.
And the more you force yourselfto do that, I think the more it's
easier to pivot to different thingsand to open your the horizons to
new stuff. I that is terrific.I'm going to go look that up as
(43:15):
soon as we get off.All right Corin any green shoots.
So yeah,it's funny because Christina and I
would joke about this all the time,that we often start in the same place
and we end in the same place, but wetake different paths to get there.
And this is one of those examplesbecause like when we're talking about
throwing spaghetti at the wall,all of I think similarly,
our efforts have been at trying tofind new ways to get in front of
(43:37):
people, you know, get people toour site like so push is working
for I use the same service.I've not had the same success.
I think it it works really well.If you've got a niche site.
I think this is where my lifestylesite hurts me a little bit there,
like I've segmented them, but becauseit doesn't work as well for me.
Um, so what does work for me?Like I've been like trying to do
(43:59):
more with MSN, like I was originallyworking with them as like syndicating
my content to MSN, and that is it'shelping like you like also is a
revenue diversification becauseyou earn ad revenue on MSN.
So that's mostly what I wasdoing it for.
And then like a weird little greenshoot that popped up is all of a
sudden now I'm picking up a lot oftraffic from news sites because of
(44:23):
the way that that feed goes outand the type of posts that it is.
So like the I'm getting a ton oftraffic from these sources,
I didn't I wasn't even considering.Explain the MSM thing. Explain that.
So Amazon has a partner program MSNstart um, that you can apply to.
You have to in order to get approved,you have to publish at least
(44:43):
five times a week.So this isn't for the person that's
updating their site once a week.Um, but it is to be like.
You're republishing the same post,but it's updated.
Yes, you can be updating post andpushing up, but you have to have new.
You have to have post going livefive times a week,
but they can be updated posts.Okay, so um, anyways,
but then you apply.I think the process is faster now.
(45:05):
Like at the time that I applied I hadto wait like it was several months.
Um, but I know people that haveapplied in the past like six
months that got in within a month.I got out very quickly. Yeah.
So I think that that process hasimproved.
But, um, I'm going to do a shoutout for Grayson, if that's okay.
Grayson developed a plug in becauseyou can publish your articles there,
and that's how I started.But, um, they do slideshow galleries.
(45:29):
And again, as a user,I hate these things.
Like, if I land on a post like this,I am aggravated,
but these are the moneymakers on MSN.So it's the you know, it'll be a
topic and then you hit the button,you go to the next picture and
it gives you the recipe or thedescription of what it is,
and you got to go through thewhole slideshow to see these are
the moneymakers on MSN.So those are how the poster
(45:51):
formatted.And Grayson Belle from Imarc
interactive developed a service to tocreate a feed so that you can create
these types of posts, because itis almost impossible to do without
some sort of tech on the back end.Um, so he developed that, thank God,
um, so that we could do this, becausethat has been it's been a moneymaker.
(46:13):
Like I'm making some ad revenue overthere, but, uh, not enough that
I probably would have continuedit just, you know, a for the.
What I'm making is probably not worththe amount that I'm publishing,
because you have to publishalmost daily does seem to reward
consistency. Now are these the same?So these are the same posts though
that are going live on your blog.They are live on my site.
(46:33):
Okay, now most of the people I knoware no indexing them, but I didn't
do that, which I think is why Istarted getting this other traffic.
So um, so you do get you will gettraffic from MSN if you link to your
own content in those slideshows.But um, Newsbreak app in
particular is the one that'ssending me a ton of traffic.
(46:54):
It seems to like these posts.Yeah. Wow.
Well, I love that that you justyou kind of put it out there and
then it has the now again,my being in this business for a
long time, I'm going to say thatis like making hay when it's when,
when they're sunshine.Because who knows how long this
will last. Exactly.Well, and the funny thing was,
(47:17):
I tried it back in April.I'm like, okay, well, we've got
the plug in, like, let's try it.So I published every day for in
April and it wasn't at the time.I'm like, okay, I didn't make
enough money off of this.This isn't worth publishing daily.
I've got other things I can putmy time to.
So I stopped and then in May,those posts I published in April
(47:37):
still were going like I didn'tthink because a lot of them are
seasonal posts, so I did notthink there would be dwell time.
So may I actually made the mostthat I'd ever like.
I made a lot more than I did inMarch and April, and I just
started with Amazon in March.Um, so then I was like, so.
And then I kept making moneywith them all summer.
So that was why back in September,I decided to to run it again.
(48:02):
Um, so they do they dwell.You can republish and it just puts it
right back at the top. So I did.A whole deep dive on this on the
Smart Influencer podcast a few weeksago. Great. I'll link to that.
Awesome. Wow. All right. So.So it's funny because when we first
got on this call and it was like,wow, things are changing,
(48:23):
but all of us.But you Caryn saying yeah,
but this is like kind ofexciting because there are all
these new opportunities.And I feel like we've talked about a
whole host of these opportunities,and it's a little bit like you
got to try a bunch of things tofind that success.
And when you when it when you doit and it doesn't work okay.
(48:45):
Good learning. Move on.I feel the same way.
The people who have the most successselling products and services are
the ones who are willing to test awhole host of ideas without taking
it personally and recognizing.So, for example, Karen, at first
you're like, this is a time suck,it's not worth my time.
And then all of a sudden it's like,well, wait,
maybe there are these additionalbenefits that I need to give it a
(49:09):
little more time to see the reward.Well, and this is where I feel
like it's super helpful to havefriends in the industry like so,
because Christina and I are in acouple masterminds together.
Um, and like people,you can only test so much as an
individual, but each person canbe testing something different.
(49:30):
So then somebody comes back,they're like, you know what?
I'm running Facebook ads andit's working really well for me.
And it's a low cost per click.Well, they already ran the tests,
so now I feel a little morecomfortable trying it.
It doesn't always work right.Like that is actually an example
of something that someone in ourmastermind group said they were
doing. It didn't work for me.Um, but like if you've got friends
(49:50):
in the industry, you can kind ofspread that test time around.
So all you introverts like,you don't have to be friends with
a thousand people, but go make afew changes or yeah, find your four
because you'll save some time.I think that is terrific advice.
All right.So you guys, if people want to
reach out to you, uh, learn more,listen to your podcast.
(50:12):
Where should they go?They can listen to our show anywhere.
They download podcasts.So it's the Smart Influencer podcast.
They can head over to our website,the Smart influencer.com,
and find all of our channels there.But we drop new episodes every
Tuesday.And a lot of times, like you,
Jillian, we have very informativeand helpful guests sharing some
(50:35):
great insight and expertise.And sometimes you just get Corinne
and I sharing what we've learnedour lessons from the trenches.
Well, you're kind of part of theneverybody's mastermind. Yeah.
Every Tuesday tune in for yourmastermind. Well, I just.
Have to say,it is fun reconnecting with you guys.
And let's do this again and sayanother six months so we can see how
(50:57):
these green shoots where they are.Yeah. That sounds great. Yeah.
Awesome.Well, I just want to say Christina
and Corinne, thank you so muchfor coming back on the show.
Thank you for having us.It's our pleasure.
I hope you guys like this episode.My biggest takeaway is that
monetizing your expertisedoesn't have to be overwhelming.
(51:19):
Christina and Corinne shared suchactionable strategies, from using
freebies to grow your audienceto leveraging tripwires to start
making money as you build your list.It's all about starting small
and testing your ideas.And speaking of freebies,
if you want a copy of the sixbuying triggers I talked about in
(51:39):
the episode, just head to Milotree.com/triggers to grab it.
And even if you don't think you'reready to grow your audience and
start selling digital products,trust me, you are ready.
Sign up for military and getyour first 30 days free!
If you think a friend would enjoythis episode, please share it.
(52:01):
Make sure you're subscribed tothe podcast.
New episodes drop every Wednesdaynight at midnight central time.
Thanks for listening and I willsee you here again next week.
Hello there and welcome back tothe Blogger Genius podcast.
I'm Jillian Leslie, your hostand co-founder of Milo Tree,
the all in one platform that helpsbloggers, creators, coaches and
entrepreneurs grow their email lists,boost their social media followers,
and sell digital products with ease.At Milo Tree,
(00:24):
we make it simple to monetize yourexpertise without the tech headache.
Whether it's digital downloads,workshops, memberships,
subscriptions, coaching,Milo Tree is your partner for turning
ideas into income. And the best part?You can try Milo Tree for free
for 30 days.Just head to Military.com and
(00:47):
see how easy and inexpensive itis to get started.
For today's episode, I am diving intoactionable monetization strategies
with two of my favorite guests,Christina and Corinne.
From the Smart Influencer Podcast,these two seasoned bloggers,
(01:08):
with their own separate blogs,share practical tips and
strategies that you can implementright now to make money,
even without much help from Google.So they're talking about growing
their email list.Combined,
these two have over 100,000 emailsubscribers to offering tripwires
(01:30):
and selling digital products.If you're ready to grow your
business with new ideas,you're in the right place.
So without further ado,here's my interview with Corinne
Schmidt and Christina Hitchcock.Corinne and Christina,
welcome back to the Blogger Geniuspodcast. It's great to be here.
(01:53):
Thanks for having us.It's really fun seeing your faces
when you guys popped up on zoom.I'm like, oh my God,
I get to hang out with friends.So I so appreciate you coming back.
This is your second time on theshow and what I love,
just even when we were talkingbefore I pressed record, it's like
there's something to talking to oldschool bloggers about the journey.
(02:17):
And I think this is a time of fluxand change, and you're both of your
attitudes are kind of like, beenthere, done that, seen this before,
not necessarily that the issuesare exactly the same, but you ride
the ups and you ride the downs.So do you mind both of you
(02:37):
sharing where your blogs are andhow you're thinking about that?
So I will jump in first.This is Christina.
My site is it is a keeper.Com and I feel like with these
recent Google changes I have,you know, I have felt some of
the effects of them.While I don't feel like I was
specifically targeted by the updates.I'm going to knock on wood there.
(03:01):
Um, I do feel like I had a dropin traffic because of it, because
content that was ranking in positionone, two and three has moved down,
and it's just not getting the trafficthat it was prior to these updates.
So, you know, I felt it and I'mcontinuing to feel it.
Um, my attitude though is, you know,we've been in this game a long time.
(03:26):
We've seen lots of changes, lots ofthings going on in the industry.
And I feel like this is just anopportunity to pivot and find
what's working.And it's kind of like a new frontier
for us and going out and trying newthings that maybe weren't an option
before. And Corinne, what about you?So, yeah, this is Corinne.
(03:48):
Uh, my sites. Wunderman wannabe.Com. Um. Same thing.
I don't think that, like,I like when I go into Search console.
It's not like, all of a sudden mypositions evaporated overnight.
Um, in fact, most of my strongkeywords are still there.
But when I go Google them,like when I go search for them,
I might be in position one,but position one is on page two.
Like I've got all the I,I've got the Reddit results,
(04:11):
I've got a bunch of questions likeso like my ranking didn't change,
but my position did,if that makes sense.
So yeah, I'm down about 25% acrossthe board, uh, as a result.
And so definitely a year ago.So yeah, when I compare year over
year, I'm down 25% roughly like itdepending on what day I'm checking.
(04:31):
And you know what I'm saying thatparameters at but pretty much down
25%. Um, and like that's sucky.Of course that's terrible.
But um, again, like I, we weretalking about this beforehand.
It's stressful because like, I paylike I'm a single mom, I pay the
(04:52):
bills with with what I bring home.So it is stressful and I hate that.
I hate that part of it.Um, and anybody that got hot hit
even harder. Like.Like my heart bleeds, right?
Like, I, I do feel bad.But on the other hand,
there are some things about thisI really love. Uh, I do like.
And we talked about this, like,I feel like it leveled the
playing field again. Right?Like we were all doing the exact
(05:14):
same thing.There were formulas for what we
did the set and forget.Part of me really loved that.
But it also is very boring, right?Like, it was a very specific way
that we all did everything.You were saying it, Julien.
We all had the same theme orlike like we're all following
the same post template.Like it kind of got boring and
now like, that doesn't work.And so we all had to go back to
(05:36):
the drawing board and that's fun.Like, I'm not naturally a creative
person, but I'm in this space becauseI do like to create an experiment.
And I get to do that now.And now I don't feel like I'm
doing it from behind. Like before.It was hard to buck the system
because you knew what worked.Well, now we don't know what works,
so it's kind of fun to try again.Um, it's stressful because then you
(05:58):
got to try a bunch of stuff and youdon't know where to put your time.
And we still only have 24 hours inthe day, so that's that's been hard.
But I do feel like it's also aperiod of like new discovery.
And that that is exciting.And, you know, some of the things
got that got put on the backburner.Like I've been wanting to build
up my products for a long timeand focus more on printables.
(06:19):
But I was making money on food,so I wasn't putting time there.
Well, now I can, now I can,and now it's paying off.
And like, I don't know, I, I thinka lot of us tend to have a little
ad like a lot of us in this field.And I, you know, it's fun.
It's fun to do something different.So, um,
(06:39):
it's a it's a terrible time for sure,but it's also not a terrible time.
Like there there's a silver liningthere if you're looking for it.
I also say I kind of approach itwith the same approach that I give
my parenting advice to my son.I'm like, there's situations in
life that you just can't change,right? You're not in control of that.
We can't control Google.So could I get mad at it? Yes.
(07:01):
Could I be frustrated and rant andrave to get out my frustration?
Absolutely.I do it and it does feel good
afterwards, but I can't stay inthat place because that frustration
and anger isn't doing anything.It's not going to change things.
So the only thing that's going tochange is the way I react to it.
So if I decide I want to stay inthis game, I'm going to need to
(07:23):
find a way to react and pivotand move my business forward.
Getting mad just isn't isn't anoption that works.
I think that is so smart.And where I am seeing green
shoots because I'm I'm like you,I'm interviewing people looking
at our own businesses, like,where do I find the green shoots
(07:44):
and where I see it,it's getting smaller and deeper.
Mhm. I agree. Um, it's less about.I'm going to get a million page
views,and it's more I'm going to serve
a thousand people who are people,not visitors. Um, page views know.
Like, and trust you.These are the people that know,
(08:06):
like and trust.And I'm just going to say this I
see your face is show up, show upon zoom. And it makes me happy.
I'm not in the same room withyou guys.
You know, we've done zoom calls inthe past, but you show up and like,
I was looking forward to thisinterview today because you're real
people and we're like minded andit's like, okay, I get to hang out
(08:29):
with some friends for a littlewhile and I don't discount that.
That is really valuable. Mhm. Right.Well, Christina and I have said that
for a long time on our own podcast isone of our favorite things we do.
Um because you get to like it'skind of a lonely business.
What we do sometimes and doingthe podcast just reminds us that
we're all facing the same stuff.And, and it always impresses me.
(08:52):
Like I'm always amazed at howgenerous people are with what they
know. Like people want to connect.Uh, so I'm with you, like getting on
zoom, like seeing people's faces.It's a wonderful thing because
we are in ultimately in thebusiness of people. Exactly.
And I think we forgot that whenI talk to people who start
(09:13):
selling digital products, right,with our tool Milo Tray and they
say to me, you know, same thing.Like, I didn't really want to do this
because, like, I was making moneywith my with my food content and
I'm just like cranking out postsand updating them and using lots
of tools and keyword research.It became almost like, again,
(09:36):
a formula.And now when they start selling
solutions to people,they feel re-energized. Right.
Yeah,I think you're absolutely right.
I think that building that connectionis definitely where it's at.
Um, I've seen it a lot throughthrough YouTube.
I do a lot of did a lot of YouTubevideos, and then I took a pause.
(10:00):
For almost a year,I stopped creating content,
and when I finally posted a new videoback there, um, a few weeks ago,
I was getting so many comments.I'm so glad you're back.
I love seeing your face.And that kind of feedback was
really re-energizing, because Ifeel like people were able to to
(10:22):
connect in a way that they couldn'twith just reading a recipe. Right?
They like to watch they you,you you build that connection,
you make those, um, you know,you start building that
relationship with them where theyknow that they can they they
feel like they like you. Right?Because you're you're making
that eye, that eye to eye,even though you're not, you know,
(10:42):
looking at the person, you'relooking into the camera, you're
making that eye to eye contact.And it's not it's not as bad as I
thought it was at first, like I wasafraid to be on the camera, right?
Like, oh, my hair is not right.Or, you know, I don't I don't want
to do my makeup today or my house,like, my kitchen isn't perfect or
whatever it is. People don't care.They really don't care.
(11:04):
And they will give you a lot moregrace than you're giving yourself.
And they might even just like it.Yes, because you're real.
And the best engagement I get iswhen I turn the camera around and
show the mess behind the scenesand people are like, oh, now that
looks like my kitchen, right?Because it's not always
perfectly sterile and clean.With the right appointed
(11:24):
accessories here and there,it's a disaster behind the
kitchen or behind the camera.And I think people feel like they
can relate to that when they feellike they can relate to you.
Like you're not trying to hidesomething or be something you
are not.Um, they feel more connected to you.
So I found a great, um,connection in video.
(11:45):
Um, I also do TV segments with ourlocal TV station and just this
past weekend, a woman approachedme like she heard my voice.
And she goes, I know that voice.And she goes, oh my God,
you're Christina, dude.Like she starts going.
She's like, I feel like I shouldget a picture with you.
I wanted to melt into the rack in thestore. I did not want to be seen.
And my friends are standing therewith me going, yes, she is.
(12:07):
You want me to take the picture?And I'm like, shut up,
I just got to melt into the rack.But what I learned from that is
she connected with me in that way.It was just my voice that she
heard and she knew it was me.And she's like, I love your recipes.
I make this one, this.And she rattled off at least a half
a dozen that she's made and like,it really got me thinking, like,
(12:30):
I need to do more of thatbecause that is where it's at.
Because she'll come to me whenshe needs a recipe.
Now she knows she'll come rightto my website rather than just
googling where to find that recipe.She'll come to me first.
And I think building thatconnection with people is,
is one of the greatest things wecan do now in video is where
it's at all across the board.So will you share some? What kind?
(12:53):
So you were making recipe video likeare you like set up and do you have
like a bunch of cameras when you'redoing YouTube videos of you cooking
or what are you like, how does that?I do like cooking show style
videos with my face on camera.So I actually have two cameras,
my regular DSLR, and then I justhave my son's GoPro hanging off my
(13:16):
pendant light over my kitchen island,so nothing fancy.
Um, prior to that, I had myiPhone just hanging over somehow,
in some precarious way, mounted tomy my, uh, my lighting fixture.
But it didn't take a ton ofequipment or anything to do.
And I think people see these bigproduced type videos and they
(13:39):
feel like there's no way I canrecreate that. That is not me.
Um, I just do it with what I have.I use iMovie to edit or I use.
I have some college interns thathelp me with editing,
so it's nothing fancy,but it works. Wow, I like that.
That reinvigorated you?Yeah, it really did.
(14:00):
And it was just this weekend and I'mlike, I need to do more of that.
Like that.I again, I don't know if you believe
in the universe or something,but I feel like that was a sign.
Well, you know,it's funny you say that because I
was thinking the exact same thing.So that was Saturday when that
happened. What? Today's.Okay, so Tuesday,
I get a text from the TV station.Are you available on this day to
(14:23):
do a couple of segments?And I'm like, yes, I am.
It was right.It was put out into the universe.
So I'm not a very woowoo kind ofperson. But I do believe.
I do believe.That if you if you put good out,
I always say have good parkingkarma because I put good karma out.
I'll get the good karma back.But I think if it's one of those
(14:45):
things, like if you focus on itand think about it.
And you, you can kind of make thatstuff happen. I love that story.
All right, Corinne,tell me about how your woo woo is
is driving your business. Yeah.No, I don't do well like to like,
I don't do videos.So just so for those of you listening
that like, took away from that, we'vegot to go to the video. I agree.
(15:07):
Like I know video is a powerfultool and I think it is where
everything is headed.I'm just not like I won't say never
because, you know, never say never.But that's not my thing.
I'm not comfortable there.It's going to take a big,
big push to ever get me to be there.So I'm I'm pushing like I love email.
That's where I connect with mine.And um, so let's try that. Yeah.
(15:30):
Yeah.So that's where I share like my,
my email subscribers know more aboutmy personal life than maybe some
people that know me in person. Right.Like I share I share everything like,
yeah,I shared about my ex-husband's death.
They share like I share everything inmy email. That's where I'm a writer.
It's where I feel comfortableexpressing myself.
I like the ability that I canedit first.
(15:51):
Like, this is why I can't do video.The I'm too self-critical,
like I can't have somethingpreserved out there in the,
you know, in the internet wherepeople could keep coming back and,
you know, talking about my bigforehead or whatever, like, I just,
I can't sleep at night. It's not. Me.But let's talk about then email and
how do you get people on your listand then how do you nurture them?
(16:14):
And then are you yet selling to them?So I've got I do a lot of printables,
so I use a lot of printable opt ins,but I've got opt ins anywhere.
Like you come to anything on my site,you probably get a pop up asking
you to sign up to get something.Um, so pop ups everywhere.
I will say the last last year Ileaned in really heavy on
(16:34):
collaborations.Um, really started collabing with
other bloggers to share eachother's content so that we could
get in front of each other's list,um, participating.
And then I pause you for a second.Is this like somebody saying, hey,
I'm going to reach out to my list andshare about you and your freebie,
and they reach out to their listand oh, no.
(16:55):
I'm glad you asked because we'veI've been approached for the
smart influencer.We've been approached for things
like that.But no, that's not actually the type
of collaboration I do with my person,with my Wonder Mom content that
it's more like there will be abunch of printable creators and
we'll we'll have a spreadsheet,we have an organized spreadsheet.
Um, a couple of them have organizesand they're like, that's a great
(17:16):
thing with some of these homeschoolbloggers, they're very organized,
but they'll have themes.So like let's say like talk Like
a Pirate Day.That week's theme was Pirate
activities.So we all share a link to a
pirate activity.And then we all agree that week
to send an email that shares thelinks to everyone's, um,
and so they go to the blog posts andthen if they want that activity, they
(17:38):
opt in to your list to, to get it.So more things like that, um, where
we're sharing each other's contentand then sending each other traffic
to so and like I love that it's ait's low risk because you're giving
your audience something for free.Um, and they're choosing what they
want to go sign up for or not.So, so just to break that down,
(18:00):
you have a group.How many people in this group,
this share group, let's say.So I've been in ones with as few as
four. The four was the smallest.And with as many as ten there
were ten of us total.And what you do is do you do a
blog post with links to everythingand you send the newsletter.
It's just a newsletter and you say,hey, I've got these great other blogs
(18:23):
and here's different activities.Click here, click here,
click here, click here if youwant these activities.
Yeah like hey Shark Week is next.You know is coming.
So here are a bunch of sharkactivities to, you know,
to keep the kids occupied or tomake them, you know,
an educational experience out of it.So, you know,
like mine would be linked first.And then I link to my friends.
(18:44):
Um, some of the sharing groups,they like the mystery links.
And that's a requirement toparticipate that you can't name
the activity.It's activity one two, three,
four. Um, to get more clicks.So everybody kind of had if you
organize, you can tell me,you know, what you want to do.
And if I don't like it,I won't participate.
So, um, so they make the rule.That's the nice thing about
organizing it.You get to be in charge.
(19:05):
Uh, I don't, I don't I'm happyto do what someone tells me.
So I have an organized one.But, um, I do really like those
collaborations.And then also participating in
bundles.I've participated in several
bundles where you submit a freebie,and then you promote it to your list,
and then everyone's promoting itto their list.
So if anyone wants your freebie,they come sign up for yours.
(19:28):
Um, and then speaking at summits,I've been speaking at a lot of
summits, uh, on topics relatedto what I blog about, uh,
to get in front of new, new people.That's the closest thing to
doing video that I do becausethey are typically lessons,
but it's contained. In a private.Group. Yeah. I'm going to push you.
(19:49):
I'm going to push you into that.That's going to be my goal for 2025.
Right.Maybe she's also still trying to get
me to buy a mac so I can hold out.Okay.
So talk to me then you get you'reusing all these great techniques
to get people on your list.And has your list been growing like,
(20:11):
is this. Yes, I've doubled it.And since last year it's doubled.
Okay.And and it's in the thousands I take
it. I'm at 75,000 now. Just under.Wait. I'm sorry. Say that again.
I'm just under 75,000 as of today.Yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
Wow. That is yeah I.Aggressively grow my list.
(20:33):
That is incredible okay.So then you get people on your list.
How often are you emailing them.Every day I email every day.
You and what are you emailing?So I have I do it so I don't
email all 75,000 every day.My list is split between recipe
(20:54):
because if you come to me forrecipes, you don't necessarily
have a child that wants printablesand then the printables.
People don't necessarily careabout food.
So in the welcome sequence,I give you the opportunity to click
something so I can tag you with both.Um, but my list does split almost
very nicely right down the middle.Like I've maybe got 40,000 on each,
(21:14):
uh, you know, between the two lists.So I do send an email every day,
but depending on your segment,you only get it every other day.
So recipes go out Monday, Wednesday,Friday, and then printables are
Tuesday, Thursdays, um,and then Sunday when I'm on my game,
I'm sending out a weekly newsletter.Yeah, I email by 5 to 6 days a week.
(21:34):
Oh my gosh. And now.And Christina,
can I ask how big your list is.Yeah, my list is not quite as
big as Karen's.It's about half that. Oh my gosh.
Okay, both of you guys here where I'msitting and what I see if you're not
actively selling to your people,like there's a bag of money
(21:58):
sitting right there. Yeah.The best way to sell anything is
through your email. Yeah I agree.And that is where most of my
affiliate income comes from.And um, I'd say actually most of
my sales probably come from thetripwire offer.
So when you opt into my list andyou go to the tripwire,
most of my sales come from that.But I think after that, like the
(22:23):
sale sales within email probablyoutdo anything else that I'm doing.
Like it's outperforming what Iget from Pinterest or, um,
you know, Google or Etsy.So, so and so again,
for everybody who's who's listening,who doesn't know the triple A
tripwire is, hey, opt in, I'm goingto give you something for free.
Give me your name and your emailaddress.
And then when you press submiton that next page, the thank you
(22:46):
page that shows up that says, hey,it's on its way to your inbox and
wait while I have your attention.What about this?
How about purchasing this for adiscounted price for, say, a limited
amount of time and that can now youcan't sell a usually $1,000 item?
No, but I don't have $1,000 items.But you can sell something for how
(23:09):
much is your trip wire typically.So most of.
My trip wire products are tripwire at 499.
Like we're not I'm not makingmillions off of this, but that's
amazing. And then. Mine are 299.Oh my gosh, you guys. That's amazing.
I would say usually up to night,like I would say the most, like
the sweet spot could be like $19.So you might want to put them
(23:32):
together in a bundle and sell.My best converting one is
actually for those listening,please do this because someone told
me to do it and like was a moneymaker overnight. I used to give.
If you signed up, you just got accessto my entire printable library.
So all of my free printables,like because I thought I'm already
giving them away for free, right?Like why I have to go visit 100
(23:54):
different, you know,blog posts to go get them?
Well, someone was like,you have how many free printables?
And I think at that time I had 200something like I had over 200.
They're like, you should be chargingfor that because no one's going
to want to jump around to 200blog posts to go get them all.
So I put it on trip.I only sell it on trip wire.
In fact, like I don't think Ipromoted any other way.
(24:16):
So for $10.99 I tried a bunch ofdifferent prices.
1099 is the money maker and Isell those every day.
I sell at least one every day,and I was giving it away for
free for at least two years.Yeah, well,
I think as bloggers we got intothe habit of giving stuff away In
(24:38):
order to get page views right.And then and I also think there is
something to us not necessarilyreally understanding our own value.
Mhm.Oh I should give this away for free.
Um I'm a nice person.Instead of saying wait a second.
(24:58):
What,what I'm doing is really valuable.
And there are people out therewho would pay me for this rather
than everybody knows this.It's not a big deal.
Uh, it's just some stupid recipes orwho knows what instead of saying,
no, no, this is valuable.And now I can charge for it.
And what's great, Corinne,is both of you guys.
(25:22):
You're training people topurchase from you.
Well, that's what I was going tosay that I love about the tripwire.
Because just as soon as you hookthat person, because you gave them
something for free, whether or notthey purchase that tripwire, you are
letting them know right away I sell.Did you know with Milo Tree you can
(25:42):
offer unlimited options and unlimitedtripwires? It's super simple.
Just upload your freebie to MiloTree, create your opt in page
with help of our AI.Pick a product you want to sell
as your tripwire,and then share the link to your opt
in on social media, your website,anywhere your audience hangs out.
(26:06):
Offering freebies is one of thebest ways to test new ideas and
build your list, and tripwires area simple way to make easy money.
Try it out, head to Military.com.And now, back to the show.
When we were building Milo Tree,we're like,
we're going to create a product wherewe enable you to offer freebies.
(26:31):
And then it was like the immediaterequest was, wait a second.
I want to have the ability to setup a tripwire so that you get to
grow your email list with yourfreebie will deliver your, say,
PDF directly to your new subscriber.And then, oh my God, now I can sell.
(26:53):
And while typically, like you weresaying, it's not like you're going to
get crazy rich on your tripwire,but that's the beginning of the
relationship. Yeah, right.And I'll tell you,
I expand upon that even further.So in addition to the tripwire,
once you if you decide you want that,then I'm going to hit you up
(27:13):
with a bump and say, oh, wait,do you want to add this product
for a low, low price?And then once you have that,
then I'm going to upsell you and say,but wait, why don't you just get
the whole bundle of stuff for this?And I will tell you,
I would say 85% of the time Isell the bump and the bundle that
the bump and the upsell. Yeah.And because they're so tightly
(27:37):
aligned and I know when they'rewhen the person is coming in, what
they're interested in, just basedon what opt in they're requesting,
I know what that trigger point is,and it's a no brainer deal for them,
because once they have thatcredit card out,
it's easier to add on to it.Then let them put that credit
card away and ask them againlater on to I.
(27:58):
Will say, this is one ofChristina's superpowers.
Like we, we brainstormed products forour niche sites together, and when we
would sit down and talk about like,if you're buying this e-book, which
ones do you want? Like she does?Like she sees those connections
and like,we'll just do these three pop up and
then we'll bundle those together.And they do. They perform very well.
Like if you know what they're lookingfor when they come in. Um, yeah.
(28:22):
And it is Christina's superpowerfor sure.
She's really good at it,seeing those connections.
But I understand the food niche,I don't think I,
I think with the principle niche,it's a little bit different.
And I think that that's whereKaren really excels,
and she really understands howto capitalize on that.
So I'm going to toot your hornright back. Oh, that's so sweet.
And what I would wear I'm seeingpeople succeed is taking what
(28:47):
you guys are doing.And really seeing that as the
first step and thinking,what is the bigger problem I'm
solving for somebody, right.And then how can I continue to sell
more and more expensive things orthings like membered like the money
is really in a membership, let's say,and because of recurring revenue.
But like, how do I build on thesolution like I've tapped because
(29:10):
what you guys have both found iswhat I like to call gold.
You've, like, figured out if Ioffered this like that,
maybe say this freebie,I can attach it to this product.
And because it makes sense in termsof what the problem is I'm solving,
I can chances are, predict that acertain number of people who opt
(29:33):
into my freebie are now going towant to purchase this additional
solution that maybe takes it a stepdeeper or for you, Corinne, now
you're offering your entire library,and it's like, oh, and I challenge
everybody like you've found gold.And the thing that, um, I,
I see is when somebody finds gold,even if it's a little bit and
(29:56):
some people will be like, well,but I'm just selling like a $4
product or something.I'm like,
but you found the connection.Well, you know, who's really,
really good at that is Matt Mullen.I don't have you had Matt on?
He's a wizard. He has this great.First of all, his mind is like
unbelievable to watch him workin real time. It's phenomenal.
But his he does that when he'sworking with people on email is he's
(30:19):
like picture what your person wasdoing when they landed on your site.
Like, you know, for a foodblogger this is very easy, right?
Like mom came home like theyjust got home from school or
from soccer practice,and now she's got to make dinner.
She has no idea what she's goingto make.
She lands like this is the mindset,but like to really picture what the
person's doing and then what's theproblem that they're going to solve?
Because like the option that youpresent, she's not looking to
(30:42):
cook 12 meals right now. Really.She's got this very immediate problem
of getting dinner on the table.So what can you offer her that
she's going to take the time toput her email in because she
doesn't need 12 other chickendinner recipes right now, right.
Like and like he has such a great wayof putting you in that frame of mind.
Like I'm not doing it justiceright now.
(31:02):
Like, and I'm trying to use anexample he gave and I still
can't even recall it perfectly.So Matt doesn't much much better.
But what you're saying,Jillian like really understanding
who your audience is, what theirproblem is, and not just that,
but what their problem is in themoment that they found you. Mhm.
And therefore not just in.And then what is the bigger problem.
(31:23):
Right.So for example if, if the mom comes
home after soccer practice and needsa quick chicken recipe, What else?
Like, chances are that's not thefirst time that that's happened.
So are there other things youcan sell?
The busy mom who like, for example,a meal plan where every Wednesday a
meal plan shows up with because,you know, she's got, let's say,
(31:48):
you know, soccer practice everyWednesday, that boom in her inbox.
There's the recipe, and maybe youcould have a variety so that you've
got the ones for the vegans andyou've got the ones for the picky
eaters and you've got the like,because these are the problems
that these moms have. Yeah.Why did they have that problem today?
(32:08):
Like what's happening in theirlife that this is their issue?
I was just going to say, I think thatthere's a lot of missed opportunity
here in the blogging world.Um, first of all,
I think there's a lot of people thataren't using email at all because
either they're intimidated by itor they feel like it's just not
worth my time or I don't have thetime to to figure that all expense.
(32:31):
It's another thing to learn. Yep.But and I think that that is a huge
missed opportunity right there.So I think that that is something
that if you're not doing it,you really should make that your 2025
goal and and get on that, especiallywith the state of Google and SEO.
Um, number two is I think a lotof times we look through our own
(32:54):
glasses when we're trying to figureout what these problems are, and we
think we're our target audience.And so many times we're not.
And I hear this all the time inthe groups of people saying,
I would never email somebody morethan once a week because I don't
like getting all these emails inmy inbox. Well, you know what?
I'm not my target customer.My target customer likes getting
(33:16):
the emails.And if they want to unsubscribe,
they can, but they're not.You know, I love that.
Yes, you have to remove yourselffrom it and really come through
the eyes of your target audience.And to do that, what I like to
do to figure out, like whattheir problems are or you know,
what pain points are out there.I like to survey,
(33:39):
but not only just my list of people.I go out on Facebook to my
personal friends and familybecause so many of them are in
my target audience and I knowthey're going to be honest. Right.
So when I put a question out there,I'm not going to get the
response less ads.Well, that's not going to happen,
right?They're going to give me the honest
feedback that I want, and they'regoing to tell me things that I never
(34:00):
realized they needed or wanted.And for me,
that kind of feedback is priceless.And so many times it's so much
more than what I'm thinking.And I'm going to take it a step
further.Are there ways that then you can
create quick down and dirtysolutions and test them?
Yeah, that's what we do with militaryis we say, go test your products,
(34:25):
test your freebies, go make a bunchinstead of being so up in our heads
worried that it's got to be perfect.Oh my God, I've gotta go create a
book and it's got to be perfect.And I'm now going to spend six
months.Stressing over the cover design.
Nobody cares.And so it's like kind of like if
(34:45):
you if you do what you're saying,which is Christina,
which is I'm getting feedback.Okay. I've got like five ideas.
So I'm going to pick the one thatI think might be the easiest to
test and might be the most popular.That resonates with me.
Okay, but I don't know.The only way you know is by putting
it out in front of people and saying,do you want this?
(35:08):
And sometimes it's as simple aschanging.
So if I'm selling ebooks,it's as simple, as tight as changing
the title. Like that's simple.The content, the guts of that
e-book are exactly the same.Nothing has changed other than the
title, and I've done that a coupleof times, and every time I do it,
it amazes me that something sosimple, like a fix that is so simple,
(35:31):
instead of just giving up on it.Well, this product didn't work.
I might judge the title a coupleof times and see which one
resonates more, because it doesn'treally cost me anything extra to
make that change in Canva,but I can get anything with that.
Specifically talking aboutdigital products like that,
it always amazes me, and I'm almostactually I won't say almost always,
(35:53):
I'd say about 5050. I'm wrong.Um, I thought we we almost always
do like two covers, right?Like or two pin images to see.
And the one I like better is notthe one that performs better
about half the time.Like half the time, I guess.
Right? Half the time I'm wrong.Like, people are fickle.
Um, and like the number of timesthat I see this all the time
with my friends,they'll be redoing a logo and they'll
(36:14):
put it out to all their friends.Like, which one do you like?
And you watch everybody vote,and you got five logos and like,
three of them have equal votes,right.
Like people are different so youdon't know what's going to fly.
So I agree with you.Testing works,
but I like then actually test it.Like don't throw out one thing
and be like well,it flopped because maybe it didn't
give up on it because the thing is a.Terrible idea,
(36:35):
because you then be like, well,ebooks don't work or email doesn't
work. And we take it personally.Like, I can't tell you how many calls
I get on people where they say,I tried it. It didn't work.
Like like somehow my audiencedoes not want to buy from me.
And I'm like, well, maybe you'renot necessarily figuring out
exactly what your audience wants,or it's like a puzzle.
And the more curious and the morewilling you are to put stuff out.
(36:59):
That's rougher than you think to say,but but that solves a real hokey
problem.Yeah, I think it's much more people
focus on the colors and the fontsand forget about the fact that I
will pay to get out of pain, right?I agree 110%,
and sometimes that pain point issomething you never even considered.
(37:22):
And that's why I say you have toremove yourself from the formula
completely.You have to just sit back as an
objective observer and just,you know, gather the data and watch.
Because so many times we are notthat audience.
We're we're more tech savvy,we're more, you know, we're in that
industry. We know what to expect.So we're bothered by things that
(37:45):
are different than our consumers.So you really have to remove
yourself from that equation.Well, and to that point and to
something you said earlier to Gillianabout like in terms of like selling
to people, I think a lot of timeswe like we get in our heads about
like what is worthy of selling.And the one like aha moment for me
(38:09):
was because I'm stingy with my time.Christina hears me say this all the
time. I'm so stingy with my time.Um, the older I get,
the more true that is.I'm like, oh,
I'm down to last minutes. Like, I.I gotta cherish these babies.
You got to pry them away from me.People pay for convenience like
some of my top selling products.Again, like the freebie printable,
some of my best selling products,or things that I literally give away
(38:31):
for free in some shape or form.But I bundle it together so that
you can download it,and they don't care how pretty it is.
They don't care how big it is.Like, I tend to price things low
because I have a hard time assigningvalue to what it is I sell that.
That is my mindset issue,so just price it lower.
But because then if you do that andyou start to see those dollars,
(38:54):
you're like someone will paysomething for it.
That kind of gets you over that hump.But like if you think about this is
where we can be like like our ourreader, like we all want convenience.
Like you said, Jillian, to pay, youknow, I'll pay to get out of pain.
I will pay to not have to bouncearound to ten recipe posts to
get the recipes.I can download it in one click
(39:17):
for a couple bucks. Dun dun. Dun.Absolutely. I think that is so true.
And and just briefly I sharedthis a lot, but I there are
these six purchasing triggers.And when you think about your
own product, see if it can fitinto at least one of these.
And this helps you in terms ofmarketing and selling, can you create
(39:37):
a product that makes somebody money?So military I make you money too.
Can you create a product thatsaves somebody money?
And then here is what you'retalking about.
Can you create a product thatsaves somebody time?
Can you create a product thatmoves somebody toward happiness?
(39:58):
Can you make a product thatmoves somebody away from pain?
And can you create a product thatraises someone's social status?
Those and so thinking, you know,kind of backward going, okay, like
here's a product that I can create.How how well does it fit into
(40:18):
one of these buckets.And can I put it into two and bill
and and use ChatGPT and say, hey,ChatGPT come up with some ideas.
In fact, like we've got I've gotChatGPT prompts to help people
write an e-book.But it starts with, I think the
first prompt is something like,okay, give me some ideas of products
(40:41):
I can sell in my niche that fitsinto at least one of these
purchasing buckets, and I just haveall of the purchasing buckets.
It will save somebody time,save the money, you know, goes
through the list and it's amazingwhat ChatGPT can come up with.
And so like use that as your asyour sounding board as your guide.
(41:04):
Yeah okay. So I agree with that.So as we close I want you to
tell me then where you predictor see green shoots.
I see it In reaching my readersin different ways.
(41:25):
So I was telling you about videoand going in that direction.
I've seen a lot of I've gotten alot of traffic over the past year
now from push notifications.That was something that was a
long time ago and I wasn't doingit properly the last time.
Now I started doing it again, and Iit's usually one of my top traffic
drivers every month saying, you.Explain,
(41:47):
explain what that means. Sure.So it's those little things you see
on your web browser that says, um,you know, do you want to subscribe
to get notifications when thissite is updated and you enter
your email and or not your email,you, you, you click sign up.
And then every time a new post comesout or I want to trigger a new
(42:10):
post to go out, I can send you anotification through your browser
that will say, you know, so youwhen you log on in the morning,
it'll be like it is a keeper justposted XYZ and you can click on that
and see that notification. Wow.So yeah, I've seen a lot of um,
growth with that recently.There's just a lot of different
(42:31):
things.What what service what tool are
you using for that? I use push li.Okay for that. Nice. Yeah. So yeah.
So that's that's really helpedme in in the last year.
Um, so I just think exploringdifferent things as a user,
I hate them, I unsubscribe from them,I do not subscribe to them,
(42:52):
but they drive traffic to my site,so why wouldn't I use that again?
I have to remove myself from theequation.
And the more you force yourselfto do that, I think the more it's
easier to pivot to different thingsand to open your the horizons to
new stuff. I that is terrific.I'm going to go look that up as
(43:15):
soon as we get off.All right Corin any green shoots.
So yeah,it's funny because Christina and I
would joke about this all the time,that we often start in the same place
and we end in the same place, but wetake different paths to get there.
And this is one of those examplesbecause like when we're talking about
throwing spaghetti at the wall,all of I think similarly,
our efforts have been at trying tofind new ways to get in front of
(43:37):
people, you know, get people toour site like so push is working
for I use the same service.I've not had the same success.
I think it it works really well.If you've got a niche site.
I think this is where my lifestylesite hurts me a little bit there,
like I've segmented them, but becauseit doesn't work as well for me.
Um, so what does work for me?Like I've been like trying to do
(43:59):
more with MSN, like I was originallyworking with them as like syndicating
my content to MSN, and that is it'shelping like you like also is a
revenue diversification becauseyou earn ad revenue on MSN.
So that's mostly what I wasdoing it for.
And then like a weird little greenshoot that popped up is all of a
sudden now I'm picking up a lot oftraffic from news sites because of
(44:23):
the way that that feed goes outand the type of posts that it is.
So like the I'm getting a ton oftraffic from these sources,
I didn't I wasn't even considering.Explain the MSM thing. Explain that.
So Amazon has a partner program MSNstart um, that you can apply to.
You have to in order to get approved,you have to publish at least
(44:43):
five times a week.So this isn't for the person that's
updating their site once a week.Um, but it is to be like.
You're republishing the same post,but it's updated.
Yes, you can be updating post andpushing up, but you have to have new.
You have to have post going livefive times a week,
but they can be updated posts.Okay, so um, anyways,
but then you apply.I think the process is faster now.
(45:05):
Like at the time that I applied I hadto wait like it was several months.
Um, but I know people that haveapplied in the past like six
months that got in within a month.I got out very quickly. Yeah.
So I think that that process hasimproved.
But, um, I'm going to do a shoutout for Grayson, if that's okay.
Grayson developed a plug in becauseyou can publish your articles there,
and that's how I started.But, um, they do slideshow galleries.
(45:29):
And again, as a user,I hate these things.
Like, if I land on a post like this,I am aggravated,
but these are the moneymakers on MSN.So it's the you know, it'll be a
topic and then you hit the button,you go to the next picture and
it gives you the recipe or thedescription of what it is,
and you got to go through thewhole slideshow to see these are
the moneymakers on MSN.So those are how the poster
(45:51):
formatted.And Grayson Belle from Imarc
interactive developed a service to tocreate a feed so that you can create
these types of posts, because itis almost impossible to do without
some sort of tech on the back end.Um, so he developed that, thank God,
um, so that we could do this, becausethat has been it's been a moneymaker.
(46:13):
Like I'm making some ad revenue overthere, but, uh, not enough that
I probably would have continuedit just, you know, a for the.
What I'm making is probably not worththe amount that I'm publishing,
because you have to publishalmost daily does seem to reward
consistency. Now are these the same?So these are the same posts though
that are going live on your blog.They are live on my site.
(46:33):
Okay, now most of the people I knoware no indexing them, but I didn't
do that, which I think is why Istarted getting this other traffic.
So um, so you do get you will gettraffic from MSN if you link to your
own content in those slideshows.But um, Newsbreak app in
particular is the one that'ssending me a ton of traffic.
(46:54):
It seems to like these posts.Yeah. Wow.
Well, I love that that you justyou kind of put it out there and
then it has the now again,my being in this business for a
long time, I'm going to say thatis like making hay when it's when,
when they're sunshine.Because who knows how long this
will last. Exactly.Well, and the funny thing was,
(47:17):
I tried it back in April.I'm like, okay, well, we've got
the plug in, like, let's try it.So I published every day for in
April and it wasn't at the time.I'm like, okay, I didn't make
enough money off of this.This isn't worth publishing daily.
I've got other things I can putmy time to.
So I stopped and then in May,those posts I published in April
(47:37):
still were going like I didn'tthink because a lot of them are
seasonal posts, so I did notthink there would be dwell time.
So may I actually made the mostthat I'd ever like.
I made a lot more than I did inMarch and April, and I just
started with Amazon in March.Um, so then I was like, so.
And then I kept making moneywith them all summer.
So that was why back in September,I decided to to run it again.
(48:02):
Um, so they do they dwell.You can republish and it just puts it
right back at the top. So I did.A whole deep dive on this on the
Smart Influencer podcast a few weeksago. Great. I'll link to that.
Awesome. Wow. All right. So.So it's funny because when we first
got on this call and it was like,wow, things are changing,
(48:23):
but all of us.But you Caryn saying yeah,
but this is like kind ofexciting because there are all
these new opportunities.And I feel like we've talked about a
whole host of these opportunities,and it's a little bit like you
got to try a bunch of things tofind that success.
And when you when it when you doit and it doesn't work okay.
(48:45):
Good learning. Move on.I feel the same way.
The people who have the most successselling products and services are
the ones who are willing to test awhole host of ideas without taking
it personally and recognizing.So, for example, Karen, at first
you're like, this is a time suck,it's not worth my time.
And then all of a sudden it's like,well, wait,
maybe there are these additionalbenefits that I need to give it a
(49:09):
little more time to see the reward.Well, and this is where I feel
like it's super helpful to havefriends in the industry like so,
because Christina and I are in acouple masterminds together.
Um, and like people,you can only test so much as an
individual, but each person canbe testing something different.
(49:30):
So then somebody comes back,they're like, you know what?
I'm running Facebook ads andit's working really well for me.
And it's a low cost per click.Well, they already ran the tests,
so now I feel a little morecomfortable trying it.
It doesn't always work right.Like that is actually an example
of something that someone in ourmastermind group said they were
doing. It didn't work for me.Um, but like if you've got friends
(49:50):
in the industry, you can kind ofspread that test time around.
So all you introverts like,you don't have to be friends with
a thousand people, but go make afew changes or yeah, find your four
because you'll save some time.I think that is terrific advice.
All right.So you guys, if people want to
reach out to you, uh, learn more,listen to your podcast.
(50:12):
Where should they go?They can listen to our show anywhere.
They download podcasts.So it's the Smart Influencer podcast.
They can head over to our website,the Smart influencer.com,
and find all of our channels there.But we drop new episodes every
Tuesday.And a lot of times, like you,
Jillian, we have very informativeand helpful guests sharing some
(50:35):
great insight and expertise.And sometimes you just get Corinne
and I sharing what we've learnedour lessons from the trenches.
Well, you're kind of part of theneverybody's mastermind. Yeah.
Every Tuesday tune in for yourmastermind. Well, I just.
Have to say,it is fun reconnecting with you guys.
And let's do this again and sayanother six months so we can see how
(50:57):
these green shoots where they are.Yeah. That sounds great. Yeah.
Awesome.Well, I just want to say Christina
and Corinne, thank you so muchfor coming back on the show.
Thank you for having us.It's our pleasure.
I hope you guys like this episode.My biggest takeaway is that
monetizing your expertisedoesn't have to be overwhelming.
(51:19):
Christina and Corinne shared suchactionable strategies, from using
freebies to grow your audienceto leveraging tripwires to start
making money as you build your list.It's all about starting small
and testing your ideas.And speaking of freebies,
if you want a copy of the sixbuying triggers I talked about in
(51:39):
the episode, just head to Milotree.com/triggers to grab it.
And even if you don't think you'reready to grow your audience and
start selling digital products,trust me, you are ready.
Sign up for military and getyour first 30 days free!
If you think a friend would enjoythis episode, please share it.
(52:01):
Make sure you're subscribed tothe podcast.
New episodes drop every Wednesdaynight at midnight central time.
Thanks for listening and I willsee you here again next week.
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